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"I've not had many dealings with Frozen Trove, but that matches what I've heard."
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After dropping off his share of the cargo, Gulkyn tries chatting with the unseen ryphorian. Making small talk to encourage them to talk more - and maybe give us a tour. "It's a fair job, if a pretty dull one. This place seems tiny - how long are you stuck here?"
As Oddman looks around, he notices a camera set into the a recess in the center of the ceiling. The cargo bay has ceilings about 12 feet high.
"It's not really much of a gig... stuck here is more like it. I've been here... well, years, actually, and nobody ever bothers to come out to see what kind of work I'm doing, so there's not a lot of company. Just a comms update every month or so to make sure the station's still functioning is all. Say, if you have time, would you like to come in and have me show you around? I've got a few projects I've been working on--not that anybody else at work cares--but I think they're kinda interesting."
The voice gradually shifts from somewhat sarcastic to more cheerful.
"Oh, just go to the south there and into the airlock if you want to come in. It's company protocol everybody goes through a decontamination scan before coming in, but once you all go through there I can meet you on the other side and give you a tour."
The airlock at the south of the cargo bay awaits! Please say if you're not going to be submitting to the pre-entry scan.
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Enabling his environmental protections, Chk'tarlsh exits the shuttle to ferry the delivery goods to the storeroom.
"Ssolo posstinhksh can get kind of rough," the shirren sympathises with the ryphorian. Shaking his head, he adds, "That'sh a lonhk time to be at it."
"You're well overdue for ssome company!" he says with a chittering laugh.
It takes a few sequences for everyone to cycle through, due to the group's (and morlamaw's) size, but everyone successfully passes the decontamination protocol.
"Okay, come right on through everyone! My name is Karezen, by the way, and I'm looking forward to meeting you all in just a minute!" the ryphorian says over the outpost's speakers.
"When you get through the airlock, go to your first left to the east. There's a series of doors that you'll go through, then keep continuing straight ahead through the kitchen until you get to another door on the east side that says "Recreation". I'll be waiting for you on the other side; I've got something really exciting to show you. Oh, and cookies!"
The first door on the left through the airlock is as Karezen describes. Through the doors is a kitchen area that appears to be alive with grime accumulated over years of misuse. A door to the south bears the word "Medical" in Common. Two doors on the east read "Karezen" and "Recreation" respectively.
Oddman and Chk'tarlsh both notice cameras in the top-center of the ceiling of the kitchen as they move through the room. Second-1 doesn't have any luck spotting it, though.
Nothing seems off to Gulkyn, and the party enters the recreation area!
This large room has a wall of enormous windows overlooking a vista of rock and ash. Several tables are covered with discarded datapads. A gravball court is the room’s most prominent feature with the gravity
plates turned off below the spongy green surface. To the south, a computer terminal glows softly; doors to the room are to the north, south, and west (where you came in).
Inside the room, a summerborn ryphorian, presumably Karezen, is wearing a technician's work outfit with a "Frozen Trove" logo emblazened on the left side and holding a plate of baked goods. Sitting next to Karezen is a Medium animal that looks something like a cross between a cat and a dragon! It has leathery wings, mountain goat-like horns, and sharp teeth.
This creature is a Triaxian Drakecat! What would you like to know?
"Hello! Welcome, and don't worry, he won't bite. This is Caleb! Help yourself to a cookie or brown," he says, walking over, plate extended. "I can get water or soda for anybody that wants it to. Oh, right, the drakecat! Now, you might be thinking, isn't that unsafe? What if he gets hungry and decides to take a bite out of me? Well, he won't, because I've developed a program I call K-BLD that allows me to control implanted creatures, like Caleb here, from any computer running the softwear! Pretty cool, huh? Want to see what kind of stuff he can do?"
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Chk'tarlsh takes the offered cookie and begins crunching into it with his mandibles. "Mmmm, it'sh good," he murmurs appreciatively around a mouthful.
Antennae twitching and head cocked to the side, the shirren considers the drakecat. "A magnificent creature," he says to Karezen, continuing to regard the strange beast with open curiosity. "I've never sseen anythinhk of hish like."
Abruptly, his antennae halt their trembling as he seems to reach a decision. "Do you think... Would he mind if I touched him?"
At first, Karezen seems a little confused by Oddman's line of questioning.
"Um, sure, just me and Caleb here. There's some alcohol in the kitchen but... Huh?"
He quickly turns his attention to the rest of the party asking about the program.
"Oh, well, since you asked, come over here and let me show you," he says, walking over to the computer in the room. "And sure, he's perfectly safe to touch, but let me tell you about the program first!"
As he walks, and begins to log in, he continues talking. "Like I was saying, K-BLD is a program designed to operate with a cybernetic implant that goes into living creatures with animal intelligence. We'll be working with Caleb here today using version 6 of the program, which I just finished updating last month."
The computer screens brighten as he logs in and continues typing and talking. "Unlike robotics or other artificial intelligence, K-BLD uses the latest nanotechnology to augment a creature's natural inclination to perform tasks that you'd normally have to spend years, in some cases, training an animal for, and while I haven't had any access to additional animals, its success in Caleb suggests promising results for other non-traditional animals. So it's not really 'mind control' exactly so much as I can communicate with Caleb with perfect clarity, at least for an animal, and he understands me as a trusted individual, a member of his family, so to speak. It's as close as technology has gotten to talking with animals! Here, watch this."
The gravball court shifts to display a ledge on top of a tall mountain as a hologram covers the court. Caleb moves to the center of the ledge.
"Okay, so here's Caleb. Let's give him something to play with..."
Over the next several minutes, Karezen displays his ability to command Caleb, both verbally and through the computer (he's working on a telepathic version), to attack a holographic ruffian while protecting a holographic child, distinguish between objects' color, size, and shape, navigate a small holographic maze by following arrows, and other similar feats. He narrates the entire time.
As the scene shifts back to the gravball court, he begins to wrap up. "So, there you have it. Feel free to go touch him and say hi! He's really a magnificant creature. As for the primary market for the technology, I'm not really a corporate marketing expert. I think there's applicability for training guard creatures, maybe even pets, but I figured I'd sort all that out once I got the programing perfected. And it's not like this will ever see any market, either. I've been trying to get a session, even a video conference, with somebody at Frozen Trove for months, and I'm just ignored. 'You're there to collect data, not dabble in nanotech for pets' they keep telling me. It took months of convincing to get Caleb here as a 'pet', and even that I only think they allow it because to take him away they'd have to get on a shuttle and visit. It's really frustrating.
"Ah, but there I go rambling on again. What did you think?"
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With Karezen's permission, Chk'tarlsh cautiously approaches the drakecat, a hand extended toward the beast. Gently clicking his mandibles, the shirren makes his best approximation of a reassuring tut as he creeps closer.
"That wash quite an impressive performance," the soldier says as much to Caleb as Karenzen. "It sseemsh sstrange your employer'sh not more excited by your work. Even I can imagine many applicationsh for technology ssuch ash thish."
Continuing to admire the impressive creature, he asks, "Have you thought of looking elssewhere to gauge interesst?"
"Oh... yeah, this isn't my primary job. I'm out here monitoring data collection feeds and making sure any on-site issues get taken care of, watch out for hackers or spies, stuff like that. But..."
He pauses, thinking.
"I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think they'd have any claim on any of the project. I haven't done any marketing because I'm stuck out here, with incredibly limited communications to people... I'm sure they made you sign all the standard disclaimers 'disavowing all knowledge' of this site when you signed on to do the quarterly delivery run, right?
"Plus, corporate gets pretty involved pretty quickly if they find out you're looking for other work. Things aren't the best out here, but at least everything's paid for and I'm left alone to work on things like this. It could be a lot worse, so I haven't tried to seriously reach out to anybody outside of Frozen Trove. You read about other scientists thinking they could do better on their own, but with how big FT is, suddenly they find that no university or lab will give them funding, can't get a job anywhere. It's too risky... unless you know something? If there was something better, I mean, I'd rather not do this," he gestures around the room, "for my entire life."
You sense a mix of cautious and hope in his voice.
After the party's very convincing arguments, Karezen looks like he's finally understood something for the first time.
"You all are right! Why should I waste months out here on this rock managing data collection when I could be doing so much more? But how? Caleb and I are stuck here... What if you took me with you? Oh, no, I couldn't leave Caleb, and he's the entire proof-of-concept of the entire program. But I have to figure something out! I know you're all just the quarterly delivery people, but if you know anybody, or any way that I could get out of here, I would be in your debt. I just don't know how to leave!"
"There is?" Karezen looks overjoyed. "What do you say, buddy? You ready to get out of here?"
"Is there anything I can do to repay you all?"
Following your successes on your first two assignments, you receive another message from Venture-Captain Naiaj upon returning to Absalom Station.
"Greetings Starfinders,
A company called Resurgent Technologies has requested our services at one of their R&D departments on Aballon. They’ve been vague about what the job entails; the most I’ve been able to tell is that there’s been some, as they’ve put it, ‘unexpected results’ from one of their experiments that needs to be discreetly cleaned up. As I’m sure you know, reputation is vital for any organization. Be sure to keep ours in mind during your mission. Best of luck, Starfinders. And be careful.”
-Venture-Captain Naiaj
The message also provides instructions on boarding a shuttle to Aballon, once you've had time to review it. There you receive further instructions to the megaplex settlement of Endeavor, and in it, one of Resurgent Technologies' research campuses.
Upon your arrival, a guide escorts you into a spacious office. A woman with ash-colored skin and hair that resembles a plume of blue fire sits behind a desk while a drone hovers around her left side taking measurements for a prosthetic arm. She looks up and offers a strained smile. “Being such an eclectic group, I suspect you must be the Starfinders. I’m Eshazi Seza, a researcher for Resurgent Technologies, and I’m ashamed to say you’re here to clean up my mess. As I’m sure you know, we pride ourselves on creating the best hybrid technologies in the Pact Worlds, but a little over a week ago, a test went horribly wrong and briefly opened a rift in the planar fabric, which pulled in everything nearby before closing.” She gestures wryly to her missing limb.
“However, at the time, we didn’t realize the rift also allowed something else to cross to the Material Plane. Only days after the accident, bodies started turning up in one of the company housing districts nearby, and we suspect the incidents are related. We contacted the Society in the hopes that this can be taken care of discretely, as the higher-ups naturally worry about our image should news of something like this come to light. I have a few suggestions as to where you can start investigating, but if you have questions before we get into that, feel free to ask.”
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This sounds more like it. Maybe I can be more useful than I was on that last trip. Felt like I did nothing of consequence but eat a damn cookie...
"Is there anything in particular, besides timing, that indicates the killings are connected? Common wounds? Circumstances?"
Ms. Seza answers each of you in turn.
"The nature of the tests, including the planes involved, are classified, unfortunately. I’m contractually obligated not to discuss my research, though I don’t believe the specifics will have any bearing on dealing with this problem. What I will say is that it’s possible something was unleashed from... somewhere far away.
"Regarding the killings, it's been ten days since the lab accident. Since then, six bodies have turned up with similar injuries. Reports state the cause of death appears to be energy damage, perhaps from a weapon. The body of the most recent victim--a male android named Version 12--is still in the morgue, if you wish to inspect it yourselves.
"I suggest you check out the body in the morgue. Since you're the experts, maybe you can learn a little bit more about what you'll be dealing with. There was also a potential witness who might have seen something in the last attack. Their name is Ex-Maintenance-22, and they're an anacite who runs a food stall in the Mystic Hearth neighborhood, where the attacks have been occurring. It's hard to tell who's actually seen something and who's just making a scene, though. You could also try the Mystic Hearth neighborhood online message boards and see if anyone’s discussing these events. I’m not a member, so you’d have to procure an invitation from someone or see if you can find a back door to the infosphere site. But, like anything else, I wouldn't believe everything I read online.”