Rar'gul pauses on entering the apartment, surprised by the inhabitant's belongings.
He slowly paces an orderly path as he examines the holophotos and archaic texts. "It seems we have a seccrret admirrerrr," the trox rumbles. "Some of those bookkks strikke too cclose to the trruth," he adds, joining T'sorkel in his perusal. "Whatever the truth is..."
"Huhn," he grunts, approaching the shelves housing the trivids. 'What's that?'
Reaching up on top of the shelving, Rar'gul retrieves an upgrade module. He turns to face his companions, the device resting on his outstretched palm for them to see.
"I suspect that this person suspects that we are not who we are," Cidribvoot says while looking at the holovids."He believes we are reptilians posing as us."
Cidribvoot looks the device Rar'gul discovered. "That's useful. I wonder why it was left behind."
He thinks to himself for a few moments. "Should we leave a message about what we know? I doubt he'd believe us, but if we give him a path to pursue, he might."
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"Conspiracy theory garbage most of it," JOhn says, but his voice doesn't carry the conviction it would have a short time ago. Afterall we're all living a conspiracy theory right now.
"We should slag all his electronics to limit his surveillance and take the books. Maybe we can hold them for a ransom of information."
John looks for a comm unit or computer, or any kind of surveillance equipment.
T'sorkel flips through the pages, trying not to look offended at John's assessment. You never know where knowledge might be hiding. Besides, even conspiracies tell you a lot about the people who wrote them. And any of our recent reports would be labeled conspiracies too.
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Lilly traces along the books with her finger, occasionally tapping a spine or flipping through an interesting title.
“You’re right about that, T’sorkel. Conspiracy theories have been our reality for a while.”
She frowns when she gets to the camera’s content.
“This doesn’t make sense. What does this person want from us? What’s this about? Could they know something — hell, anything — about what actually happened to us?”
Cidribvoot examines the room for hidden cameras.
"Well, I don't think we should take or destroy his research or books. I think he thinks we're part of the conspiracy, Lilly.Now why he thinks that makes me wonder how he found out about us. And why contact us? Send us a warning...maybe he wanted us to track him down? To lure us here? This is going to give me a headache," he places his hands on the side of his head.
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"Doc, they could be a crazy person who picked us at random, but I rather think they were tipped off somehow, probably through conspiracy theories dot infosphere. I'd rather not think that they know anything substantial. That would mean they're a grey or a reptoid, or an accomplice."
"Cid, why shouldn't we take his books? They're probably his most important possessions, and would give us leverage."
”My instincts are to leave well enough alone,” Cidribvoot says. “Sometimes my instincts are amazingly wrong. I don’t know. I think this person is interested in uncovering the same thing we are, just he is falling for the disinformation about us. I will defer to what the group wants. We only recently met after all. Trust is still being earned. I’m the pilot.”
He smiles looking around the room, at his companions and the images on the walls. ”I guess I try to navigate life trying to make friends and not enemies — oh! Not implying you’re trying to make enemies either.”
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John chuckles. "We do seem to have trouble making friends lately. But I'm not sure that's our fault. Greys, reptoids, and nut jobs are making life -- difficult. But, I'm glad you're here with us. At least you can't take off with the ship." John emits another small chuckle.
"Nut job or not, this guy may have real information. We need to talk to him. The books could be a lever to get him to want to talk to us."
"Ah, now I understand your intention," Cidribvoot says, going over to the books and reading the titles. He starts putting many into a small pile. "If we leave him some, maybe he'll be more inclined to speak with us to get the rest back. I wonder how much time we have."
The dirindi looks at the others, "Should we talk to the neighbors to understand him better? Or maybe hack the apartment owners to learn who is on the contract?"
Rar'gul nods in agreement with John. "He knows enough to know who we arre," the trox rumbles. "And forrr some rreason he wanted to let us know that he knew. He didn't have to do that, he could have just kept up his surrrveillance."
"Maybe he thinkkks he's smarrter than us and is trrying to toy with us? Or maybe he wants to talkkk?" Rar'gul shrugs his broad shoulders. "Eitherrr way, it'll be good to find out morre."
"Ccould we rreply to theirr cccomms message? Or trry ccalling them?"