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Buddy goes over to Mijina-chan and pulls out her microlab.
"Let's see...a little of this, some of that....and a Hello Pathra bandaid for that nasty cut across your nose....yeah, you should be better Mujina."
Joe walks over to Buddy looking at the nicks and cuts on him. "Hmm..not as bad as Mujina....and I am out of Hello Pathra bandaids...need to stock back up when we get back to the station. So....let me see if I can use what I have left to help you."
Bemoaning the fact that there is no first aid kits to be found, and the vesk were not kind enough to be carrying any serums, you prepare to push on.
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Buddy yells when he is stabbed with the serum of healing
"I told you that I don't like needles. Why with all of the technologies, drift engines no one was abale to figure out a better way to administer serums than stabbing."
He rubs his arm when his two other hands get another serum from his bag
"Holds this Joe!"
The hallway leads to a large, open room with two halls on either side. Storage bins stacked along the walls contain caches of deep blue crystals. A large tank filled with pale blue liquid stands to the north. A lifeless dromada floats, preserved, inside the fluid.
Joe heads off to start looking around.
Szama finds no magical traces.
Mujina picks up some of the blue crystals and identifies them as shimmerstone, a mineral mined on Vesk-8 that has a calming effect on
emotions.
Joe checks ahead.
Twin hallways curve around the foyer and lead deeper into the complex.
The various small rooms along these hallways are dormitories and lavatories specifically designed for varying species. One is clearly for a vesk as it has a fully shed skin in the trash can and the smell in one of the others is horrific. Your armour warns you that the smell is bordering on toxic and likely to outlast humanity.
Whilst perusing the side rooms you discover an eclectic collection of vidgames, including the cult classic action adventure game Interstellar Trials, which is worth a great deal of credits to the right collector.T
Joe determines that the cause of death was brain haemorrhaging, and that the corpse displays evidence of repeated injections.
The bluish fluid the corpse is in appears to be a similar colour to the shimmerstone.
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"Why do you all seem like you know what this stuff is? Mujina, what's shimmerstone?"
Aside from asking a few questions, Szama has very little she can contribute here, so she keeps watch. She does snag that classic vidgame, though, since it seems like it would be valuable and her boss always encourages his followers to seek fame and glory!
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Buddy looks at Szama.
"Before we came here, Mujina, Joe, Squizzer and myself were ordered a mission. It involved us going to a mine that was ... well mining the shimmerstone. In the mine, there was a portal that we were supposed to investigate. We learned that the shimmerstone is somehow feeding on the emotions of the beings nearby. Nufriends, did I miss something?"
Several long tables fill this room, and a counter with a stove and buffet style table sit along the southern wall. The delicious smells wafting through the air suggest recent cooking.
Two Ijitkris are waiting in the area eating noodles with their noodly appendages. One immediately starts firing questions at the arrival of Starfinders - "Who are you? What are you doing here? This is a restricted space and you can't just walk through at your own leisure!" it points it's chopsticks at you all accusingly with each question. They both look well armoured and armed to the... beaks?
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"Hey! Nufriends! We came here to help you! And I hear all your questions, but what I think you really want to say is: 'Come and join us at this meal!'. I must say I am famished, those Vesk were only playing the game and showed no good manners whatsoever!" throws quickly armed to the furry head Buddy
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Joe waves their right top hand. "Hello there nufriends. We are here on a medical inspection of the faculty. Do not be alarmed with all the obvious weapons we possess...the animals of this planet find things like small balls of fur and such a delicacy."
She walks up, showing her obvious medical lab coat and waving around her microlab...trying to be the obvious medical technician....
While trying to keep the creatures talking, she is trying to remember what she might know about them....without using her microlab....
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Garcon eyes the feast in progress and completely forgets about the mission at hand. "Drinks! A meal like that isn't complete without drinks! What can I make for you? Corpse Reviver #42? Dwarven Firewater? Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster? Gnomish inspirational ale?"
He pulls out his culinary synthesizer, a packet of UPBs, and awaits their orders expectantly. While he waits he also eyes the spread, considering what may be missing from the feast.
The two squidlike creatures are taken aback slightly at the super friendly skittermander parade.
Garcon notes that the squidlike creatures are eating noodles, which although slightly odd and marginally comic, are a meal best accompanied by a range of drinks on the Skittermander menu...
"Ahh gnomish ale perhaps?" one suggests, and they both calm a little "The vesk are still playing that game? They never do any real work. We weren't expecting any visits, but as things are in a bit of a state of flux I'm not surprised. Nrall runs a pretty loose affair to be honest" - they both take a moment to agree with each other and go back to eating noodles.
The two look at Szama for a moment and blink - one starts talking "No Garkluk doesn't run this - Nra..." the other one cuts in "You head office type people are all the same, just wander round doing pretend work and making pointless policies and 'inspections' to justify your jobs - you didn't even bother to check who is running this facility, just wander around tsking at this and that. Nrall is in the lab, doing some experiements with that shimmerstone stuff, no idea, but she hates being disturbed, so if I were you I'd smarten myself up a bit and LEARN TO DO YOUR JOB and READ whatever notes you got and not just blunder in there"
Satisfied with itself, the Itjikri stops browbeating Szama.
Joe finds all the food is pretty low-grade junk food found in shared kitchenettes in security facilities the pact worlds over, quick ready to heat garbage filled with way too many preservatives and artificial flavours, none of which can be good for your health in the long term. The only poisonous thing is a couple of tubs of yoghurt that are significantly past their expiry date and the containers look significantly puffy and ready to explode.
The other Itjkiri pipes up "Hey, you can't just help yourself there buddy - no eating food that isn't yours - didn't you get food for the trip?"
They both go back to their noodles and seem to be sharing some sort of joke about the 'stiffs from corporate' and generally ignore you if you don't wander too close or try to make off with their heat and eat instant noodles.
There is a door on the far side of the room.
"Yep"
The squids go back to their noodles.
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Joe looks up at the comment from the squids.
"Oh no...I am not interested in eating. I am just verifying that the food is all up to standards. I might suggest however, not to eat the yoghurt...I think they are getting close to spoiled. It is something that I probably should mention in any report I write. The rest of the food...while high in fatty oils and empty carbohydrates is passable. Better than what is served on Vesk military ships I might say. Enjoy your artificial soba noodles...."
With that Joe will meet back with the rest of the group...and nod towards the exit they have yet to explore....
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Szama pulls out her comm unit and looks down at it as the ijtikri gives her a talking to. She pretends to flip through pages of notes, then gives herself a good triple forehead slap. "Oh of course! I'm so sorry for the mistake. Garkluk runs the facility on Tabrid Minor! What a goof..." Shaking her head in feigned self-abasement, she follows the others toward the lab door.
Before she catches up to the others though, she stops and turns to ask one more question, "Oh, sorry, this may be another all-hands-no-brains moment, but remind me what you've got that dromada in that tube out in the hall for? I could've sworn we were working mostly with live subjects."
"Not sure what that is about, looks like the worlds worst cocktail - who knows how these scientists work, it was a test subject though" the creature shrugs.
"I think the yoghurt was left by the last team. I can accept I have to bring my own optional snacks, but I'm not cleaning out a communal fridge, that should be a cleaners job. People should leave notes on their food so we know whos it is and can throw it out once we know they are gone. You people at your head office should make some rules about that or something - actually I haven't seen a cleaner since I got here, that's pretty bad, I think we're going to put in a complaint"
***
Automatic glass doors open to a second set of computer banks used for long-range communications. One of the computer workstations is equipped with a systemwide comm unit.
There are a fair few personal items scattered through the room.
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This time it's Szama who gets to browbeat the other as she scolds the ijtikri on their sloth, "Come on now, you're all adults here; you should be able to work out a system to share the cleaning responsibilities yourselves. The head office isn't there to clean up your messes! And you should also be able to work out a system for labeling food in public spaces on your own. Not all of our facilities are the same, so there's no one rule we can pass down that will apply to all our facilities. Honestly!" Satisfied that she's lied through her teeth quite enough for now, Szama leaves in a huff, following her companions into the next room.
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Garcon sidles up to Szama and mutters in Skittermander, "Sometimes it's easier to throw out the fridge and make a new one..."
He finishes cranking out a couple of ales (1 UPB apiece) from his culinary synthesizer and places them on the table.
"An excellent choice monsieurs! As you clearly know, gnomes are a protected class, and protection of their cultural beverage of course supersedes any statues against alcohol on company time."
He looks back at Squizzer nervously. "So uh... can we finish inspectin' the rest of the herd and let y'all get back to it?"
The creatures take the drinks and decide maybe you aren't so bad after all.
The first of you are in the new computer room...
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Buddy looks at the computer and asks
"I wonder if those cool servers have that game installed. Let me see..." he starts to hit space, enter and escape with his three hands.
Then he begins to look around the desk
"I read an article saying that a lot of people still note the password on sticky notes. It feels like this is their main purpose, it is why they still make the sticky notes to write your password on them. They should be called password notes...." says Buddy looking around the room
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"Don't worry about that, I will take note of the yoghurt being past expiration in my report, and recommend that people police themselves when putting items into the fridge. It is a horrible thing, letting your food rot in a fridge, all the bad bacteria....and such a mess. Thank you for your time."
With that Joe heads out with the furry parade, smiling a little as they leave the ijtikri. Maybe they are not so bad at all.
Wandering into a computer room, Joe's eyes light up. "Let's see what these might have that might not be computer games....though I would like to find that retro game Mind-Sweeper...."
Buddy has no luck finding a pasword but does find a mk 1 computer idol shaped like a caricature of a gray alien sitting atop a computer monitor. Tucked beneath the desk is a datapad stocked with an impressive assortment of romance novels, including the newly released The Gray Abducted My Heart, by acclaimed romance author Dallia Silver. The cover illustration features a gray with an unusually muscular chest.
Joe gets into the computer system though:
Video Folder
A backlit humanoid figure appears on screen, its face blurred to conceal its identity. A clipped monotone voice speaks: “Greetings, Nraall. I am glad that you accepted my offer. I sent you a few samples of a new mineral substance I acquired. You don’t need to know where it came from or what it is. All I need is for you to use it in your experiments with the shimmerstone. I would hate for our relationship to end on a sour note, so please see that none of these materials leave your lab. I realize that science takes time, but the sooner I get results, the better. A swift turnaround could result in a substantial credit bonus. I look forward to hearing your first report.”
The second communiqué is dated months later, just a week prior to your arrival on Zrulik-3.
The blurred silhouette appears again. Their frustration is apparent beneath the digital vocal alterations. “Nraall, I grow weary of your lack of viable results. I cannot keep committing resources to a useless project. Pack up your lab, purge all data related to the experiments, and destroy any unused materials immediately. Be aware that failing to follow these instructions will result in our relationship further… deteriorating.”
***
Files Folder
7 Rova
The lab’s finally set up and I’m eager to begin my work. The shimmerstone I’m using for the experiments is quite beautiful. I’m told that kothamas utilize it in their contemplations of the universe. I have no idea what the other substance is, and my client refuses to tell me anything about it. How can I run experiments without knowing what I’m working with? At least my equipment is state of the art, and this job should be easy money. A remote wilderness and a scientific problem to solve is my ideal vacation, after all. Off to prepare the lab!
19 Abadius
All my experiments end one of two ways: the subjects die or become more aggressive until the drug wears off. Meanwhile, my client is frustrated with these results and I haven’t had a chance to catch up on my leisure reading in days. They threatened to stop my shipments, but I’m not ready to give up yet. One of my guards discovered a local dromada herd. I don’t know what they’re doing out here, but they won’t put up much of a fight if a few of their people disappear. New test subjects may yield better results.
10 Pharast
They shut us down! That skitter-brained client shut us down! The materials I have left will only last for another week or so of trials. I intend to solve this problem even if I can’t leave the lab for days. I will figure this out, with or without the client’s funding.