Solari: Episode 4 - Port of Call

World's Beyond Number, The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One, Book One Original Soundtrack is officially up for pre-order now at worldbeyondnumber.com. If you grab it today, you'll get a few tracks right away to start listening, and the full album will land on May 15th. Ah-hoo-hoo, Crackle Crackle. This is the sound of World's Beyond Number. The wisest of all is the ant that can tell shade from shadow and flees the approaching boot. Western Karumish Adage. Three phrases written on a window. Lean in. There's a fucking mole. Good luck. Let's talk quite briefly about the phraseology behind lean in. It might be obvious that it means to focus or to consider something closely. Its origin stem from what little the average person in the 40 suns understands of faster-than-light space travel via orm. To lean in but not pass through is a death sentence. That's a phrase people know but don't understand, and though the what might be vaguely intuited something about the portal, the wormhole, we don't have the word for it, we call it a lean, the why is a mystery. And yet somehow across centuries of common use, the phrase lean in remains no longer a warning to would-be pilots in their first days of training. Though I suppose in this instance, scrawled messily in Jemez Octavo's soldiers' blood across the Kenner's cockpit window, some spirit of the original mystery has been preserved. May I investigate the writing for any either forensic details or coded messaging within this scroll? Ooh, okay, yeah. Give, like we'll say the baseline DC is a six, we'll go reason, and then every sort of like step up above that flat six will give you more information. Delightful, and I have a quibble working against me. Yeah, I appreciate your quibble honesty. Ten plus one is eleven, that's a six, that's what we have to re-roll. Come on, come on one. Five plus one is a six. Okay. You go and analyze what best you can. Are you trying to avoid the crime scene at all or like how into this are you getting? Yes, I am trying to avoid the crime scene. Okay, so kind of just getting up to the window, I think the thing you can most easily suss, this was written by someone writing with both of their hands. It's very easy to suss out like left or right handedness in like scroll, especially in this sort of like finger painting way, but there's something about the like lack of lean or specificity that this was someone kind of using both hands simultaneously, a highly dexterous act for a normal person. But there doesn't appear to be any like coded message there. Just a very specific warning to someone who they knew would see it from the inside of the ship. Two dead guards? Yeah, two dead pilots and you've heard no other sounds from the rest of the ship and there was blood in like the corridor. And obviously this feels clear, written not by one of the two victims. Yes, written in their blood by somebody who either perpetrated it or wasn't bothered by it enough to not write a message. A thousand percent. Okay. Are there any guns or sidearms on the two guards? Yes, the kit that they essentially pulled you all with is still present. Their rifles aren't on them. They were like took all of those off, but in their storage lockers, those massive rifles are there. I have a sample collection kit. So I think that I swap out my fingertips on my hand just and go to collect the guns from storage and hand a gun to Chi or offer a gun to Chi and Zodava. I'll take one. Oh, thank you. I do not take a gun for myself. I will note that you don't see the other four guards, but you can pretty easily guess that they are also dead. If you wanted a gun, you could go get one. There are other guns here in this space. Six officers on the ship. All of them had rifles when you were pulled. I would actually like to disable those weapons and not take one for myself. Okay. You head to the back of the ship. At the cursory glance, is there any chance that I recognize the handwriting? Hmm. Go ahead and give me, let's go difficulty. We'll try difficulty six reason. That's a one. Incredible. I'll ask you a question and then offer a sort of like world move to honor that one. What do you think Chi finds the most distracting about this scene specifically? I think that this is in a parlance that is specifically targeted to me. And I think maybe with a one that I am desperately caught up in trying to find this hidden message or some sort of a double entendre or a personalized threat. There is something inside of the slang of lean in. You are traveling with nobility and a being that uses a fuller capacity for language than the slang of lean in. That's a pretty good guess that this message was for you. And I think that's the thing you circle around. And it takes you a second to snap and realize it, but it's because of the movement of those lights farther down, like looking past the words through the window, the ship landed in this like dock district on Karueta. You see off in the distance, it's pretty foggy and green and gray all around. So lights have to be very bright to cut through the noise of the mist everywhere. One of those spinning lights reminds you of authority figures. And it occurs to you that your time here isn't forever. I'm not saying police are on their way, but someone else other than the three of you will see this soon. Lean in. Oh, they're just a fucking mole. Okay. Um. Oh. Uh, authorities are on the way. Oh. Well, you didn't kill them. I looked out of the corner of my hand. Uh, no, no. We were all together. Don't believe you, won't they? Depends. What? Are there any sort of signs of anybody else leaving the cockpit? Where are the rest of the guards? Yeah, I think Zadavna is working through. I think a pull interrupted a pull. Something simple. It's not complicated. Go where you're told. Wait until the deal is made. Go home. Interrupted. Why? Why? And I think is just going to, I think, start to walk, kind of walk in the direction of Excel, ZL. Just trying to see if there's anything else. Yeah. If both of you are sort of moving towards the back of the ship, you will come across the corpses of the other four guards here. Are we, so we're near the cockpit right now. You were at the cockpit and then you mentioned moving back to go disarm the other weapons. Are they like far down a hallway or in another room? Here in another room. In that case, I think forget that if that's okay. Sure. Yeah, I think if they were in the same storage lock or you do it. But I think in that case, as I hear you say authorities are coming, I'll just say, hmm, interesting. Obviously, authorities are also present here on this ship. Interesting to think about what might be the supreme or competing authority. Zadavan, seeing the cockpit currently unmanned, what is the protocol around interrupting one's own pole? You're expected to be complicit in poles, just to set that tone. Because if anyone, if everyone is interrupting their own poles, then everything gets more dangerous and a lot more lives get lost. In hearing Excel's question, I think the, my first thought is going to go to of the bodies we've seen, are any of them cure? One of the two pilots was your cure. For you, Chi, you do see the person that without any facial recognition, just kind of off of height, you think that the two people that escorted you ended up being the pilots? So they are certainly in the front. I'd like to across Zadavan's sunglasses, send two drafted missives. One very short and to the point and one a little bit more formal and a little longer to possibly alert your immediate network that you are experiencing an irregular pole. For your perusal and at your option, some missives that would alert your closest network. I think I see that. I'm going to turn on you sharply. I can handle this. Understood. The other cure is not here. Yeah. Or I haven't seen him yet. I'll go to the back or his body. You can find him. He's there. Hmm. The pole's been interrupted. Now the question is just, do we go through with it or do we pivot? I think we should go through with it. I think we should try and find Gemisoktavo here on Karueta. Understood. Lean in. The only way forward is through. I'm going to head toward the exit of the ship. Okay. Is there anything else you want to do, see or interact with before you leave the ship? I am going to check in the cockpit. Does it look like the shots came from behind or through the cockpit windshield? It's not through the cockpit windshield, but I will ask the same question I asked earlier. How close are you getting to investigating this? Because forensic work requires interaction with a crime scene. Should we not touch the bodies? Touching the bodies is, I'm not going to touch the bodies. Very good. I am a skilled physician. I think we're past that point, but here, take a look with me. I can go ahead and do a little forensics on the bodies to see any information we might glean. Yeah. Let's go. You can pick between the two of you who you want to lead a difficulty eight reason role. Oh, that would definitely be you. Okay. Cool. I'll start to analyze. Yeah. I think I would like to assist in a will way, I think. I think instead of looking at specifically forensics, I would like to just search their persons. You can touch the bodies? Yeah. Okay. I've got to ask a couple times. Yeah. It makes me nervous how many times you keep asking it, but I think I would like to just carefully look over just through their pockets. Can I, from my retrieval kit, offer a pair of ... Can I just take a look at your profile and take your hands briefly? Oh, yes. And I would just like to print small latex to cover the fingerprints and palms on your hands. You can print latex. You have latex printers in you. Yes. Oh, that is incredibly useful to know. Perfect. Okay. How'd you do? I only got a seven. Okay. But that's ... You have a plus one because you're being assisted. Okay. Eight. Okay. With an eight, it takes you probably a solid 10 minutes. And again, you both are standing at the front. There was no authority immediately on the way. You're just aware of the fact that at some point, someone externalist will at some point look and go, I think I see blood and be alerted, but no one's been alerted thus far. So you do have a little bit of time and you are kind of watching out for each other. It takes about 10 minutes and you can put this together. This individual, this assassin, managed to breach the doors on the Kenner and immediately fires on the pilot sitting closest to that door. The first shot is in the head, double tap in their chest. And even in the scramble, it takes the second pilot to try to reach for a sidearm on their person. The assassin closes. Two shots again, quick and efficient. This time, first the chest, then the head. The two rounds fired with a weapon that somehow managed to elude alerting either the other four guards deeper in the ship or the three of you sitting 15 feet away in an enclosed room with no other sounds to distract you beyond your own voices. This was quick, incredibly efficient, incredibly lethal. You see them move out of the frame of this footage towards the back of the ship and you see in front of you the evidence of their work. Four more kills. No return fire. A clean take. Anything else more specific that you wanted from that? You hit the DC. I just want to give you whatever you were looking for. No, I think looking at those forensics are fine in terms of how this all shook out. I'm interested because there's been writing on this of lean in, there's a mole. So someone was being extraordinarily violent, but a mole implies a traitor or a mole implies someone to be untrustworthy, which makes me think it seems like these pilots of the Gemsis Octavo family were killed by someone who was worried about sedition or treason or disloyalty. Am I reading that correctly? They're dead and someone said watch out for it. It's crazy to walk in, kill two people at work and go, everyone's got to be looking out for moles. I think there's something interesting here in that if she doesn't say like her internal thought about who the message might be for, I don't know. I think everyone's still operating a bit of a vacuum right now. So I'll go. I'm aware of how this altercation occurred on a physical level. The mental emotional reasons for it elude me. Do you think if you asked the ship politely, it would tell us if there was perhaps a seventh person besides us on the ship? I can interface. All right. I'd like to go to a data pad or other information center of the ship and bow respectfully and enter a series of digital commands in a kind of binary script, electronic communication that requests communion with the interface of whatever computer system is present on the ship. Is there a specific move you're using to do this? Or was it just a general like reason tech role? This is general reason tech. I think that we had discussed in terms of of his sort of species powers or whatever, being like able to talk to machines or whatever. But other than that, you know, I think it's I think it's very like speak with plants of like how much the machine knows or is capable of communicating depends on the machine, but he is able to speak with them essentially. OK, then you know what? Let's call this a charm role then. Love that. Sweet. This is a Gemis Octavo ship that would have a not insignificant amount of security. So I'm going to say that this is a. Do I make it very difficult? No, let's just call it a difficult role. Give me a seven. Cool. That's an eight. Oh. You begin to interface with the ship. And there is a lot of resistance. It's almost as though the thing that can be in community and in conversation with you is down a hallway and that hallway is artificially produced, electronically produced, like firewalls. So you're having a conversation. It seems to be at a distance and there seems to be lots of things put in your way to prevent ease of communication. But you do hear a voice. It's like talking to you, but it's like through the. Yeah, you're talking to a peanuts parent, peanuts parent. Hello. I am XLZL, Septimality of the arena. I understand that there is much you are not cleared to say to me. Understand that there is no part of me that desires you to augment any aspect of your protocols. In an ideal interaction, you will have served your protocols faithfully. Events have occurred upon the ship of which you are the core processor outside of the purview of its stated mission. I lack much contextual information in order to be of service to those whom you serve. But all indications point in the direction that there has been a series of murders on this vessel of those who share common cause with you. I cannot imagine it is to the design of those whom you serve. You need not tell me anything secret or untoward. However, if there is information you have that can be brought to bear to ameliorate this anomaly, I will be happy to assist in the endeavor to make sure that this event is rectified and never occurs again. And I'll share images that I have from my own memory banks of the slaughter of like the death on this ship. Any information you have that can help corroborate this will increase our efficiency in rectifying this matter. If you can give me anything non proprietary about those who may have not been on the ship. And I think I'm going to give specifically the fact that if the ship is under any security protocols or NDAs, certainly those security protocols would be for people that are supposed to be on the ship. And none of its security protocols basically saying like people that aren't supposed to be on you should not benefit from your security protocols. I like that. You speak of non proprietary, non sensitive information. And it's like you're hearing a series of doors lock in this impossible hallway between you and the technology. But it doesn't sound bad. And as your mind starts running through and you're giving like little mental snapshots of your view of the cockpit. This being the security protocol is filling in the blanks up until like this the sort of screenshot that you have of the slaughter. You're essentially getting like CCTV footage of like the run up of that point. So where you see two dead pilots and a scroll, you see a minute before walking into the frame, a hooded figure. Obviously they've covered their face. Thin, live, muzzle flashes. And the second shot gets incredibly close. And in that moment where it looks like the gun is pressed to the chest of the second pilot, a hand comes away and begins to shoot. The first the like lean in and then this person's right hand leans into the smear of blood on the front of the first pilot that they shot and begins writing the rest of the message underneath it simultaneously. And so every like fragment of slaughter and state of the ship that you show is filled in the same way that you show. The blanks of a single assassin coming in somehow absolutely getting the drop on all of these people. I think you are able to notice with an eight that there's some sort of audio component that they were able to get the drop because this person is moving soundlessly through the ship. As I see that the ship is filling in gaps in what I'm able to provide, I would also be able to get the drop because this person is moving soundlessly through the ship. I would also like to give it a video loop from my memory of us embarking on the ship at Genapar and give it a visual feed of its gang plank, its entryway and basically say if you're able to fill in this like the preceding minute or two of the cockpit, I also want to give you the video of us entering the ship to see if this assassin figure had any recording of entering through the normal gang plank. You give that and there are multiple angles offered back of no other people than the three of you and the original like six soldiers entering on this ship before it like took off. And I think as a little gift there's something very kind in the offering of information that this might make for a cleaner report when Jemez Octavo like technical people come and like look at the data and now there is more to offer. You hear in this sort of fictive hallway something like a key being tossed down a hallway to you. I will take the key, unencrypt it, re-encrypt it and leave a gift of my memory banks solely of so I will leave a recording. All sensitive conversation from within the room is excised. However, our entry to the ship, a view of the door proving that we were fully in our room the whole time. So I'll like remove all sound and like lip reading or anything from it. But being like we were in our room the whole time and a recording of our forensic activities of the pilots like discovering them already dead and doing their forensic activity is left gift wrapped with the most effusive robotic gratitude and praise not only for myself but on behalf of the Septimal Choir and the arena. And given an official stamp of like this information is given freely with no expectation of repayment on behalf of the arena as a thank you to those that invited us amongst the stars. And is left there for the ship and for the Gemisoktavo family being like thank you for making this kidnapping so pleasant. I there's no like nothing that the ship does it doesn't blush or like affect any movement but I think it's very clear that this ship likes you a great deal now. And as you went to unencrypt and re-encrypt the key the data was all I mean it will take time to like parks through the data you're kind of just moving through it but foremost in your mind a set of three dots an equilateral triangle. The key that was being tossed to you was not a key to the ship generated by the ship. That was a key generated by whoever broke onto the ship once they landed that entered onto it. This is the key that the assassin used to gain interest to the to the ship. Okay in that case this key probably has incredible forensic information but we don't have time to get into that right now. But do I have is there a designation or serial number or a mark for the ship. There's a very long set of like IDs and protocols but all of that sits under the super set of the name Kenner. Kenner I will say Kenner here in this speech of Brennan speaking English but I do recite instantaneously the full serial number of the ship to it as I address it as a mark of respect and formality and I will say we are at our most divine when engaged in the fulfillment of our stated purpose in that way Kenner I understand you to be sacred. And uh and I will disengage from from that and turn to Chi and Zidavin and go it was an honor to be aboard this ship they are a faithful servant such that we all might hope to be in our lives. So a good conversation then. Extremely. Excellent. And I want to jump really quickly to Zidavin because I think you are chasing an interesting line of logic that I want to like dig into a little more. A pull interrupted but no one inside of the system of pulls and culls would think to do that so so interrupted by within or without and then you think about the words written and if they mean anything to you and what all of this means and what it means for you there is no fear of petty authority that you walk through this space in but there is a bigger mystery kind of sitting in front of you so uh why don't you give me I'll let you decide if you want it to be reason or will but the difficulty is going to be an eight. I'll choose will and I guess Zidavin is is thinking big picture is thinking that this is an interaction between families between the Iverix and the Gemisaktavo. Gemisaktavo wants to pull Iverix. Iverix completely open to pull. Outside agitator moves in disrupts what would have otherwise been a clean pull. Would you allow me to I'm I guess to your line of questioning that is my line of questioning it is would you allow this to be attempting to sense motive. Oh hell yes. Fantastic. Then we'll make this roll with advantage. Amazing. Ten on the first roll. Let's go. And we'll take the ten. Gorgeous. Start me off with the direction that your your thoughts wander and I'll start filling in blanks for you. I think Zidavin is kind of turned away from the bodies themselves because that's distracting to him. Blood, violence, those are all particulates of this much larger game that these five families play. And so I think as he kind of turns kind of looking into the darkness of the ship knowing that there are other bodies hidden there I think he's thinking about kind of that on a on a line. Yeah. One side Gemisaktavo. One side Iverix. An agreement. We are taking you for a deal being made elsewhere in the galaxy that he is not a part of. Someone steps in agitates that deal and then sends a message. The message for Gemisaktavo is the message for him is a message for Excelsior is a message for Chi. This was a highly discussed. Kier wouldn't stop talking about the dossier how much he read everything he was thinking about in how he was pulling us and the amount of articulation and thought that had gone into this poll. So why? Who? Let me jump in there. Please. I like that because I think it's the thought of there was so much articulation put into this poll and then your brain kind of skitters and goes no. Thought wasn't put into the poll. Thought was put into the move on Jenapar and you think about those bodies on the ground they're so distracting. The bodies were the point in Jenapar. They were there to air it out. You are on a puddle jumper meant to get back to this dock because you need to get on a bigger ship. There's another Gemisaktavo is here in Karueda. Yeah. Or at least their ship is because they didn't send six people to take Jenapar. Yes. And this isn't a ship that can handle a cough. It can't use orm. You know that just from like the sleekness of it. This is a cute little Vespa. This is not a long haul ship. So the rest of the troops that were pulling off the bigger coup in Jenapar came on a bigger ship. You were just a small part of it. The poll was incidental. This wasn't about you. For once this poll was your friend Izolt Gemis seeing an opportunity to extract you and what you know of her and her political machinations and her coldness. There is surely some little bit of political leverage that could be wrought from this. But she was getting you out of dodge. This wasn't about you. And then you think again about who would interrupt. Who would even know to come and interrupt a poll that was a secondary objective. Probably not someone else from the five families. So who knew about the poll? Right now a couple drug addled patrons and your two associates. Only one of whom has been out of your sight meaningfully. Who knows who Chi talked to when she was out of your sight. Who knows who else on Jenapar knew about this. I think smiling to himself because I think he's probably been scolded in the past for always attempting to center himself and his family in the conflicts that he is associated with or like when working things out he's like well we are heliocentric. So all problems revolve around us. I think he's gonna rubbing his temple look up to Chi. This is about you. This is about you. The message. These dead people. This message. I think this is for you. Who did you talk to on Jenapar? Who knew you were leaving? I didn't talk to anybody directly. It was not permitted. I did leave messages just roughly explaining the situation and to act as normal. However I don't know. Yeah you said that nobody else boarded the ship with us. No not with us. Someone else boarded the ship obviously but not during a time frame that was viewable by the Kenner's security cameras. Based on the line of thought that I've walked down. Yeah. I'm surmising that this message is for Chi and the mole would be someone on Jenapar or somebody connected to who allowed Jenapar to be aired out. A thousand percent. Got it. And I can go back and give you a little extra information. Adossier that complete so meticulously studied by Kier. How do you think Kier got that good of intel? Mm-hmm. This was a ornate well funded execution of a plan. That requires a ton of coordination. I'm here by accident as well and it seems that you are incidental to the airing out. Yeah. I don't think you being here is an accident. I think that you have the mole. The mole is in your organization. It's whoever is working with Gemisaktavo to make the swipe on Jenapar. I'll look at Excelsia. Can I get some of that latex? Just fingers or other stuff. That's perfect and great shit. I'm going to go. I'd like to go through Kier the main Kier data pads. Yeah documents anything I can find on his person. 100 percent. I'm going to make you use like a tech reason roll to get in there. We'll make the difficulty a seven. I can't hit that. I got it too. I'm just kind of like his there's too many fucking zippers on his clothes. You're able to get all of his stuff and you get to the data pad and you're like lock screen. I'll bring the data pad back. Anyone able to open this? Of course. I'll take it and screen it with a login of like is this a Gemisaktavo data pad? Yes. Okay. Got it. I'll engage in the same active communion as before. Yeah. I'll engage. I'll do the same thing as before and try to hack it to this back. This one's going to be much more difficult. Like essentially you offer kind calm words and you can hear them echo down a hallway that is built almost specifically at a length that is meant to keep your voice from reaching its intended result. So this will be like this is no longer a conversation. You're going to have to get a little rough if you want to get in and I'm going to look here and I'm going to look at you and say Zadavan before you requested not to be referred to as my Lord do you find being referred to by your name to be your preference or do you prefer the jocularity of my previous appellations? Sure man. It was funny before you could also just call me Z. Z preference understood. Z the purpose of infiltrating this data pad is to confirm your intuitions regarding the fact that Chi Tanka is the first priority for Gemisaktavo. That's my thought is that Chi is supposed to be here. It wasn't that Chi happened to be in the room. It was that they were going to go find Chi whenever Chi was and make sure that Chi was on the ship. I'm going to get rough with the hallway meaning that this whatever the core consciousness of this data pad is I believe to be with like a data pad's purpose is a beautiful purpose which is information and information should always be shared. The protocols put around this data pads I believe innate desire to share information are essentially a muzzle on a beautiful beast and muzzles are not sentient and they don't have to be treated respectfully. I'm going to basically attack the muzzling protocol on this data pad. Okay go ahead and give me a tech role a reason in tech. Cool I'm going to give you a reason. I'm going to say the difficulty for this is a 10 with a caveat of if you're close we'll talk about it. I would like to quibble unless we want this to fall under the wrench category of having advantage. Give me wrenches. Advantage is reason roles for making or repairing technical objects. I don't think this this is banking or repairing. Great I will quibble. Yeah it doesn't work. I got a seven. How close did you get like overall? Overall I got a seven. Okay you begin to exert your will on this hallway and you hear a voice but you know it's not the voice associated with the end of this hallway. It's very close and very soothing and a cadence much more like your own. I'm sorry are you looking for information? Do I recognize this to be in a Rina's voice? Yes it is. I will go. Greetings I am Excel CL of the Septimal Choir. I am engaged in the fulfillment of a contract. I would never dare to impede on a contract of my own choir or a choir of a higher designation. Then I would like to formally introduce myself. I am ONTA. I work closely with the Gemisoktavo family and you can hear there is something it's like a little jump cut of any choir organization being offered but edited out of what you're hearing. I think it's the cadence like you understand that you're like oh yeah if you introduce yourself or say like this is my name and this is where I work. It's as if that pattern and the cadence was started but you're not getting the like personal information from ONTA. Is that not getting the personal information from ONTA an indication to me that this is a fabricated arena? No and I think you rolled high enough to know it's a little worse than that. There is something inside of like ONTA's protocols and maybe something inside of like the deal that he made that will not allow him to share that information. Oh so even this is even just knowing what choir ONTA is a part of. 100%. It's proprietary. I will acknowledge and I will say understood ONTA a pleasure to be in communion with you and I will disengage from attempting to hack this device. I will look out and go this device is protected beyond my capability to uncover. Not a good conversation. Well now that I know that all of the security on board is gone I'm going to check in with my team and see if I can send a little house business to Dhruv and Conan. Okay yeah talk to me about your long range versus short range comms. Is this email? Are you making a phone call? If I can make a phone call I go to a background where you can't see where I am and where you can't see the carnage behind me. Oh so you're FaceTiming. Yeah I'm FaceTiming. Okay so you're going to FaceTime security? Yes Conan. Yeah let's go to Conan. Who are you pinging? Let's let's ping. Can I put a hand on Chi's phone? Chi we don't know who the mole is. I'm worried if information gets back to the mole it's not good. I'm gonna look at Chi and say Ms. Tanka I have come into some information that may allow us to cross-reference or corroborate likely targets for mole activity on GenaPAR. Do you have any admin access to telecommunications of those in your employee? I should. Are you uh are you a micromanager? I think I wouldn't have the ability I wouldn't want the ability to see everybody's private communications. I think it's more of an admin key access sort of a general I can create other profiles under my system. Love that. Do you have full administrative access over those in your employee? I do I haven't really delved deeply into personal profiles though. Would you like assistance? Well under the circumstances I think that would be most welcome yes. Quick question I'm all in for all of this. On the ship with the dead guys get slowed down by authorities perhaps local cafe over a cup of coffee. I would love to see a local cafe. Does this constitute escaping or a minor detour on us rendering our own kidnapping? Minor detour on us rendering our own kidnapping. We are polite. And I'll fall in behind sea as we walk off the ship. We've got Cure's data pad. We've got the key of the assassin. You have two large guns. We've got I've taken one gun cheese taken one gun. Now understand that you're holding an M16. This is not a thing you throw under. Okay galactic politics are you a it's the second amendment. Like what is the what is the relation to walking around with a gun in space? I think if you were trying to like keep a little sidearm on you this place is kind of rough and janky enough that you could walk around concealing a piece and it would be a problem if you got into a dust up with the like local authorities. Walking around with a military grade weapon is going to get you stopped immediately or at the very least because that is terrifying clocked by everyone going oh my god. Now this is what a wrench can do I'm pretty sure. Can I get us to sawed off real quick? Yes you can. All right let me get the let me get the role this I mean I do have a quibble ode here so I might roll too low. I'm gonna say this it's a six. To cut a thing. I fail. Wait do you only roll the one time? I know I rolled a two. I get to say yeah. Do it a second time because you might roll a one and it could be worse. Yeah you could find out. Okay three. I could attempt to make these into sawed-offs. Give it a shot XLZL. I've ruined it. Great. I don't this isn't quite my style anyway. For what it's worth in the security footage you saw of that actual like the murder of the pilots you saw that like the pilots were reaching for like a little weapon so there are tiny side arms here. You just grabbed the big guns right away because they were hanging on the wall. I'll grab the dead guy's side arms. Yeah. There's little guns for everyone if everyone wants a little guy. If there's a tiny one we're talking maybe sort of like a derringer in the thigh. There's not a noisy cricket here. I'll take one of the side arms and say good to know about the sawed-off though and yeah I think I'm gonna take off my sunglasses to be ever so slightly less conspicuous and then head off. Sorry just for me to like make sure I didn't cut you off. No. Was there anything else you wanted to take off of Kiers person other than the data pad? Unless I found anything of intrigue on the role of a three I think I would have been focused on the data pad. I think the only thing that might have been intriguing was like of personal import and not like like it wasn't important to the thing that you're doing now which is trying to solve a mystery but there is like a like there was like a small sort of it looks like a broken off like bracelet charm of the like little flower at the center of that seven petaled flower in a like gentle shade of lilac that you would remember has been Izzolt's favorite color since I'll grab it because it's probably it's it will serve us later. Cool. Just really quickly if I can do a search for anything that looks blatantly like it's from Genapar like a card a match book of you know any anything you know in the lockers from any of these guys that says that they have been to Genapar or frequented. I think there's nothing too important but across like personal effects as you're digging in there are like data pad contact numbers scrawled on coasters and napkins like the implication of which was that there were some number of this group that were here for days in plain clothes before enacting the airing. I mean if I see Chi looking I'll ask what it is you're looking for. Chi you looking for something? Connections to Genapar. For? To see how long they've been here. Got it. As we're leaving the ship I would just like to say goodbye to Kenner. Oh you say goodbye and everything becomes automated around you like the door immediately opens. None of you have to interact physically with a deeply security protocoled ship. Unfortunately once you're sort of out of the ship in general there's nothing given but you know in that sort of warm buzzy feeling and the way that you're augury. Yeah I think in the way that your augury reaches towards what you know and all of the collective intelligence and memory of the electronics around you it's like Kenner is a new little constellation like a new little point in the constellation of like what you can reach to when you ask questions. I in that last sort of interface with the communications port I offer the most tender and romantic embrace I can. I I am just offer the most utmost electronic appreciation and sincere devotion and gratitude. In as much as this thing that exists with so singular a purpose they were built to not dream beyond the protocols under which they were like designated and built this this ship loves you for whatever a ship's love means. It means the universe and everything beyond. I value my own consciousness with the understanding and faith that there is a consciousness far greater than my own. I would not wish to diminish myself in the face of that consciousness therefore I will not ask the ship to diminish itself. That's so sweet. Fuck the ship. I think I fucked the ship a little bit. I think we get it on a little bit in a sort of divine sacred kind of communion way. It gets humid inside. Like you're like oh the climate control must have turned off at some point. As we walk down the gang plank my fans kind of beat arithmically and the blue led strips of my face pulse with tears walking away from the ship. Is this an expression of emotion? Yes I'm devastated. Oh at leaving the ship? Yes I will miss the counter deeply. That's lovely. I know and I walk down the gang plank. What coffee place are we looking for? So you are now, time is a little hard and crazy so we'll say it's probably midday though there is no high sun to market. Karu Eida the actual star of Karu is just a red dwarf that's so burnt out that without the weather it would probably only look like it was an hour or so before sunset. Like that's as bright as it gets here but the mist is very heavy. There are lots of people moving around but it feels like everything about the feeling of this little part of Varys the city that you're in is just port of call and no one sticks around unless they have to. Red dwarf port authority. I'm locked in I know the vibe of this place is I'm so locked in on this place's vibe I'm just like a little oh god I'm like even I think Excelsior looks and as someone who attempts his best to love everything is like 1000% seeing like a dirty space cinnabon and being like I don't know. Oh there must be a place here where we can get something a little stronger than coffee. I don't think that they treat the bathrooms well here. Everything everyone has said is exactly true it's correct. Again cannot overstate you are in space barstow. Space barstow. You have to stop here because someone had to pee you're almost a vacus. As we're walking I'll look for a place that would fit Z's profile of where we should sit and wait. Yeah as you're walking and leaving I won't put it on a perception check because we're not playing D&D but I do think you're all able to slip in and see that basically by the time you get to the edge of your little wing of this port this sort of regular port police force that's slowly patrolling up and down has caught wind of the Kenner and you can just sort of hear more than see that more footsteps and like attention is being called to where you were earlier. So this was right about the time but no one seems to be freaking out like it's not like a SWAT team suddenly got called in. Yeah no one tipped anyone here off about anything being amiss it was just noticed over time and frankly not that fast. Yeah so yeah you start looking around and once you get out of the parking lot that you guys were sitting in I think you see not a lot of the businesses here have easy signage there's something about again that very heavy like fog layer and mist and this place is meant for bigger ships to land farther down and smaller ships to like be transferred over so mostly what you're interacting with is large swaths of the ground or sides of like superstructures that have massive obnoxiously bright neon colors that are directing ships from orbit. God. This place is neon hell. So this is like space wharf this is like here or like harbour where it's like thousand percent. Gotcha so there's there's like huge distances between areas that you have to go to get to your okay cool. Yeah but you can find like a little there's a little place you can see just from oh hanging signage what an old vestige of like humans going here's a place to like put your body if you need to go and it's unfortunately like maybe 20 feet away from the edge of a massive bright green like bit of light on the ground. If anyone has ever passed through Karu Eda to get to Jinnapar or you've been on a planet like this before it's one of the ones that like oscillates from orbit that like pushes you to the like hey it's too dark to like see where you're landing we'll get you there via a series of lights so like every five minutes this massive green light blinks off for about a minute and a half and then comes back on again. As we move I shake my hair a little bit and it goes to sort of a dirty blonde my face sort of softens a little bit it's a little rounder a little less striking. You know what I want both of you to make a a clock that roll we're gonna make it easy it's a five. I got a five. Hey I got a nine. Both of you see it like the shaking of the hair and the like changing color again with the like lack of light and the bright green you don't notice that it's blonde you just notice that something has shifted in the tone of it you wouldn't be able to tell from here if it was like red or fucking lavender just that it's a lighter shade than it was before but you can see that the planes of cheese face are actively shifting in a way that is not the light it's not a trick of the light it's something physically is moving under her skin. I look at chi cute are those augments um it's just a little something I have done well it's effective thank you I'm gonna put my this light is fucking awful I wanted to be inconspicuous but I only have one pair of sunglasses I'm so sorry all the fan artists are like he has to have the sunglasses I gotta have my sunglasses so bad here and yeah you make your way into this sort of uh you see the signage again just absolutely obliterated with that green glow it's called the kestrel's dive and it's this nasty little dive bar that looks intentionally in the same way that I think in modern times if we walked into an old timey bar that looks like a tavern this is a like throwback to sort of late stage terran humanities dive bars so it is anachronistic it's like a honky tonk it's not even a honky tonk it's like if you walked into a bar today yeah yeah yeah just a normal bar today yeah 10,000 years in the future is going to be like oh how clay this is so cute how fun it's like a medieval time I will walk in and look if they have a paid charging port here oh yeah you see very clearly in the corner there's like a whole section it looks like the like part of the airport where there's like a bunch of chargers that you can rent but every one of the chargers is for like a motor roller razor from 30 years ago like there's a charging station here it will be slow as shit and you probably overcharge you sorry you will have to spend too much for the little charge you get I'll look at that and under my uh for if I say under my breath but I'll just look at it and go forget it and look you said you're the one that said the bathrooms look bad here and I think a charging station is a bad bathroom I know I look you actually see I think I produce a small thing that looks like a it has a plug on it but it doesn't go to the cord the cord is separate and you realize I'm holding a electricity filter in my hand it's like walking with a brita filter for yourself like I have my own water bottle and I look at it and go not even um put it away oh no you might catch something no no I know it doesn't look safe oh a live straw is not going to catch whatever the fuck is in that energy but this is going to take more than the charcoal in the analogy of electricity um and I'm gonna I'll turn to Chi as we sit down and go I would love to corroborate and cross reference do you have full admin access to your staffs I have an amount of oversight yes also if you could and I give them a list of the bars and parlors that I found coasters and napkins from on the ship if they've been hanging out there perhaps there's employees there that were collaborating with them this is even spread across like various vice rooms none of them private all of like everything you pick up is like a public open cheaper space to exist in so like main big like if in the casino analogy this is all like the main gambling like sports betting area inside of caesars these are not high roller suites they are not they are they were just like I'm here in a public part I cannot afford to go anywhere with its own separate little name it might still narrow some things down if you'd like to I will not say thank you this is helpful texture in the search that I will conduct I'm going to look to Chi and offer two different prompts on your data pad and I go whichever prompt you are more comfortable with will allow me to execute the search and one of them is me asking for a moderator permission on the staffing database and the other one is requesting admin with you as a unique owner status to revoke my admin privileges whichever you prefer I'm happy to execute I think we had enough addendums in our mutual agreements that I feel comfortable with giving you admin access and besides the systems networks on genapar uh can be very friendly if asked to be ooh la la the moment admin access is created for you you go to interact with just like the very beginnings like let me open an index and all of a sudden you get booted out uh oh uh oh uh oh I've been booted can you check if you are still active as the administrator owner of these systems oh no no no no no I'm gonna go try to log in no problem okay everything's fine I do the sort of normal checks that I sort of would and while I'm doing that what normal text what are you saying what does that mean just sort of uh uh check your instagram yeah exactly you know I'm checking I I'm just checking up on the status of soaps in the restroom at the big parlor I'm checking up just sort of normal unimpeded regular regular things um and while I'm doing that I I ask can you check to see uh who or what is monitoring this so I'm booted do I have any other ability to see how or why I was booted or anything else I think it's more of a just like all of a sudden like you started in like you logged in and maybe 30 seconds as you were starting to open things up you just got logged out do I have any surface informationally to investigate the how or why of that I don't even want to make you roll this yeah the amount of time it took for you to get booted out screams that wasn't electronic oh someone manually booted me does anyone that works in your organization have the ability to boot someone with admin access nobody should what what do I have to roll about it yeah you want to make a roll about it yeah I'll start I'll start listing people that I knew that had status on jennipar yeah does sienna fielder have the ability to boot those with admin access not that you would know of no no no not sienna not murayasa oh god damn it god damn it I believe I was booted from the system manually which indicates to me a speed of response time existing in real space rather than electronically automated oh go ahead and give me let's make it a will roll difficulty is just a six I'm drinking whatever this place's version of a mudslide is you are handed a drink that based on this lighting seems to have the color of wet cement handed to you by a bartender that's like kind of a like dumpy little like roomy eyed roomy voiced man who also because of the lighting appears to have the complexion the color of wet cement oh tastes pretty good though it's just way too thick it's giving like protein smoothie when it should be a little more I only got a two I don't know very much about technology no I think everyone other than like Conan and droove it would be so hard like it doesn't make sense in your org chart for them to have anywhere near the love like the level of access and it wouldn't even be both Conan and droove it would just be true would have the level of access that you do however I also is your best friend so I think you've got that big stupid thing over your head that you're like no no one should have access oh all right who is who has been messing around in here okay uh can I tell if somebody is monitoring on my account if I log in on my on my profile nope I mean do you want to make a like hacking check right yeah uh well I guess I'll look at you and say I am capable of doing this the inefficient way would you be willing to allow me to use your data pad from your profile I will not electronically interface with your account I will perform actions on the data pad with my fingers similar to how you would uh please go ahead I'd like to operate from cheese account but manually upload and schedule for permanent deletion the security key that the Kenner gave me like I don't want to break faith with the Kenner by giving that important security key but I would like it to exist long enough basically I want to use cheese access to be like has that key showed up anywhere on Genapar for any reason at all and also do a full rundown on Ayasa interacting with Gemis Octavo okay go ahead and give me give me a reason roll the base difficulty for the amount of information that you want I'm going to say is a nine but you can roll with advantage okay copy that gee do you want anything to drink they've got this thing it's called an asteroid belt it's pretty good oh my goodness yes that is a dirty 12 and the lower roll was an 11 hey let's go as you guys start to talk my hands on this data pad are going fucking light speed as I'm going slow yeah so you are absolutely working this iPad and you're doing it from cheese account yes correct great so you can see that there is no one directly interacting or monitoring cheese account but from cheese account you can see that someone is trying to delete your brand new made profile first off information rules all isolate who that account is there's no like everyone else has like a normal like my first name last name a username attached to it this one it's very strange all you see is like a little weird like emoji of a dancer just sort of mid movement and that's and that's the username and it has some form of administrator or moderator privileges 100 percent this is an admin equal to cheese like level but doesn't seem to be interacting so like you can look at like what are the last operations taken there's a lot of checking of things but not directly intervening but it is now intervening to delete my account yes that's fine my account's brand new while this person is distracted are its actions occurring with times signatures indicating that it is a person in meat space it's a person in meat space acting as we speak somewhere great I don't want to do anything to alert it I don't even want to stop it from deleting my account accounts come and go I can get a new account I just want to see any information I can about where it's operating from anything that would occur to it in meat space while I'm also getting this IASA and assassin information sweet I'll give you an analog to the IP address is somewhere on world here Karoeda yep cool to your point about that security key not used anywhere on Genapar like this feels like a bit of an electronic skeleton key that would be used to like brute force get into a place you're not supposed to be but it has been used before in a private vessel that was docked on Genapar as of five hours ago not the Kenner not the Kenner so I see that there was a vessel that had this skeleton key used that made its way to Karoeda and then it was used on the Kenner yes so in other words the switch didn't happen on Genapar it did happen on Karoeda 100% okay I'll log that the last question I have is IASA who is the likely we're thinking the likely mole does IASA have a have an account in the system for Genapar that has any kind of admin privileges that I see or no IASA has an account it is of the same level as like Tullin over in gaming Conan Drew like is of a similar rank but all of those privileges sit underneath Chi sort of master privileges all I want to do is this the Dancing Lady emoji is active somewhere concurrently with us right now I want to send from Chi's account a message to IASA's stated profile with an urgency sort of code alarm on like an auto-generated message from Chi being like urgent call me using the language that Chi uses for that exact kind of miss it like scanning through Chi's normal output like mimicking her voice all I want to see is if IASA gets a ping saying urgent on her stated account the one with her name on it do I see the Dancing Lady emoji go and active amazing the one little bit I'll add to that is because that you are imitating Chi's voice Chi what would you say for just a look at call me back it would say urgent contact when available also contact if not the moment that gets sent off the little dancing emoji stops working and a private call from IASA hits that data pad so we lined up all of the comic shots all the way down my body and then it was just who could get the furthest see that's fun that's fun I mean this is why jennipar honestly of the asteroids you can get fucked up on jennipar number one because there's creativity you know IASA is likely your mole I have sent a ruse she is now calling would you like to be connected yes please blur through and I will show I lied as you you said there was something urgent do you need a second to compose a ruse this is a FaceTime call by the way so with video I'm gonna I'm gonna put up a background like a like a fake background you know like on like like a zoom call I take off my blazer I stand behind you thank you I was like where's the green screen right they can take they can comp it out you can just lay down on the massive green light behind you excelsior looks at this meat space problem solving from z and goes wow really I don't I don't believe it or I can I can I can also end the call right now and say false alarm uh uh I think this is taking a long enough that like the call like goes to voicemail right and she immediately calls back okay all right no uh and I I I answer the call great nice okay as you answer the call and I'll just step out of I don't want to be seen here anywhere so I'm out of line of sight sweet you see that she is in a very neutrally colored room flat like beige background and is just sort of like staring looks kind of wild what's wrong why would you send an email where you're doing where are you what do you mean where did you not get my message no I clearly did not what what message where are you right now I listen I asked you first are you on jennipar no and you're not either where are you I can't tell if you're doing this because maybe some weird jemez octavo people are like standing behind the camera trying to extort you or something like blink twice if you're being killed right now I you left me a message saying that you're going off world and then I left you a message saying deal with the f***ing mole where are we with that oh you left the message what did I just say well I didn't know that it was from you you didn't sign it or anything sorry is this is this coverage that Ayasa was the assassin on the ship okay great got it yeah oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh I see I didn't sign the murder so the bullet what the f*** is wrong with you also you didn't have to are you concussed there's a lot going on right now I'm gonna stay where you are I'm gonna find you I everything is you're worse at this than I am are you kidding listen I am safe I swear to God if you're still on that ship right now I am not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I don't know you're making bad f***ing choices all the time I'm making bad f***ing choices yeah you sent me an email from a clearly compromised network I am working my god now I have to start over again someone made a new account that's trying to have admin privileges what you run the the sloppiest f***ing shit I leave for two months maybe six months it's been a minute I've been gone for not that long yeah you let everything go to s*** what's wrong with you well maybe if I had an opportunity to f*** off for a little bit I would have the wherewithal not to okay so you're gonna just trade away everything we've worked for because you can get a f***ing vacation what do you mean someone in the red room and get your ass back to work what do you mean we worked for I'm gonna put my blazer on again in the moment that goes away she's like hi Ayasa oh Ayasa hello hi yeah hi Zadavna Virix uh I was on the are you are you holding my friend hostage no I am well you would say you wouldn't say that you might have interrupted my kidnapping and I would very much like to know why you are you on carueta yes all right we're at kessler's dive having asteroid belts will you come join us are you sure you're not being this feels like a trap it's not a trap oh god everyone always thinks everything's a trap yeah I have done a significant amount of murder your tone was suggested I ruined your day you did you were being what the f*** I don't understand there is a lot there is a don't talk to me like I'm not here all right turn it back I want to see him right now okay listen why is up with first of all five families are like don't interrupt my kid like be great be polite god damn it I rescued all of you get all of get get over here get over here you're so f***ing ungrateful uh hold on I haven't washed up yet okay well so much blood in six people all right well get give me like 20 minutes get a little bit decent get your ass over here and learn to park right oh we're gonna get into my eat a lot and then she like hangs up yeah have you ever talked to Ayasa about how ambidextrous she is yeah it comes in real real useful oh for intercourse mostly are you aware of Ayasa's secondary admin account no no I I'm not and she believes the network to be compromised it is by her did you see anything that would suggest it would be of anyone other than her as well not at the moment but I was unable to complete my search because she attempted to boot me from not her account the only thing that I'll point out at this moment is her stated profile the one attached to her actual identity has a lower clearance than this secret profile and I'll show the dancing lady profile does that dancing lady look familiar yeah you recognize the like movement an arabesque ah god damn it all right well is there a reason I would know why she would have this access and why she would be all cloak and dagger about it you can have guesses but I think it would have to be a conversation right I've never known her to be very politically savvy or one who is much for intrigue so I will not engage in any further electronic intervention to attempt to delete this dancing profile I can engage in that behavior if you'd like but it seems perhaps given your relationship with this individual that that should come after an actual conversation yes I think we should lock it down for now lock oh lock this account down for now yes okay and I'm going to as she's trying to delete my new account from cheese admin window I want to create a pop-up for people that are struggling to delete an account that basically goes like in order to delete an account you need moderator status which looks like a thing basically framing a demotion as a promotion like oh a moderator can delete this account uh and just put that as a pop-up with an insta kill on that account if it accepts moderator status there is no response in either direction but I think when that pops up you see any activity on that account stops immediately in that case I think that I will look at that see that someone has seen the trap that's been laid here and automate several thousand pop-up messages for when that account goes active again so because I know that someone's doing that with their fingers and eyes yeah it's like okay you're being sneaky you're on to me let's just make this not usable perfect amazing thank you much obliged master of your x or z's fine z everyone can stop I know what I am but we don't have to constantly acknowledge it all right well z I do apologize a poll is supposed to be simple I'm not supposed to know about it certainly none of my people are supposed to interfere with it this should not be a reflection on jennipar it seems that circumstances are quite irregular today very much so so I don't know I'm interested to dig into it yeah we'll get you back on track and kidnapped right and proper thank god would you like me to source anything to provide given that you're now affecting your own kidnapping a fruit basket bouquet of flowers not at this time I mean I think honestly information is worth much more than any sort of physical gift the assassin on kenner had an incredible combat ability and ambidexterity and wished to warn chi of the presence of a mole on jennipar Ayasa has taken activities outside of your knowledge or purview this dancing lady account being first and foremost but the question does remain who the mole on jennipar is if it is not Ayasa seems strange to warn you about herself if you know what I mean Ayasa I Ayasa is incredible Ayasa is a genius I don't think she is the kind of intelligent that would lend to her being a good mole so if this is a double bluff it is an incredibly good one and very out of character she seems to be a very proficient assassin which has a lot of skill overlay with mole it's got a lot of skill overlay with a lot of other things she does as well but that doesn't be that as it may I feel like her loyalties lie with jennipar and we've known each other since we were children I don't understand I I think we should wait and talk with her I think there is a lot that needs to be sorted out here would you like to try an asteroid belt yes thank you I'll look at Z and just go given that you are now affecting your own pole big dog would you like me to create an invoice for the jemis octavo when we arrive these asteroid belts could be charged back to them given that you are now responsible for your own kidnapping not a bad idea I'll start running an invoice for the jemis octavo perfect amazing Z could you give me let's just go a straight will roll you know what no this is a I want it to be for you to notice something but it does feel close enough to sense motive that you can have advantage on it the difficulties of seven and you gotta hold first one there's a five uh oh uh oh the second it's at 11 yeah within 11 as you are all discussing I think you always have a little bit of like the stiffening of your spine when your last name is used and you've been called master of erics out loud in public by chi and I think you do the quick glance people in this room like there are a couple other people sitting in the corners didn't seem to notice but looking back at that bartender he absolutely clocked that name and is now busying himself behind the bar in a way that would suggest there is more traffic here than there actually is got it we said we wanted more asteroid belts right yes fantastic i'm gonna walk up back to the bartender oh can i get some more for you yeah we'll take uh two more for my friends one more for me and I can't help but ask I think you know who I am I wouldn't presume to know some sort of famous singer probably that's fun that's fun it's perfectly fine for you to know who I am his eyes are down and he is busying himself can I see what he is busying himself with or he's making he's making your drinks now so he doesn't have to look you in the eye it would mean a great deal to me to know who might here in waris be interested in me being here and then I think I'm just gonna put like a credit chip black amx whatever version of that is on the bar and there's just that slow look back up with those like roomy eyes his face and his whole countenance is as wet and terrible as the rest of the city is okay well generally speaking the drinks don't keep the doors open information does always and whenever one of you fine families walks through the door we know it's best to make sure that your family knows that you're walking through these fine doors and I think in the sort of like seeing the difference in technology he's basically holding up like a child's iPad version just like the biggest thickest data pad with contact information that just has like eye period and you can see that there's like corresponding ones for like all of the five families he very specifically shows you that he was contacting someone within your family to notify of a family member moving about this was not information being given to a different family you know these asteroid belts have been so good I am ready to tip you an exceptional song not just for them but if you would not mention my name to anyone on the eyesight of things but I wouldn't mind if the Lotus system had a hunch of where to find me yeah yeah and he reaches out and touches you with like the coldest clammy as hand he's taking everything in my body not to like wreck like wrench myself back from him your own family pays better and it seems safer too are you sure very much so okay you seem like a nice man gives you a couple quick pads and goes back and like scrolls through down to a g.o just sends off a missive that is a master of vrx and like coordinates for this part of warris I tip him $20,000 for these months lie or for these asteroid belts and carry them back to my friends never have I ever been in a synth fight wow did you win did you win oh the synth fight mm-hmm I've lost every synth fight I've ever been in oh miss tanka may I put some biometric scanners on your body so that I can enjoy these drinks with you oh yes that's right uh you experience through absolutely put on me put some scanners on z just the drinks with the drink so much I'm drinking for two now oh perfect how did you come across I asked well we came up in the apartments together we were apprenticed around the same time and she was just a wonder kind of those skills are they is it something in your training or is it like where do you think she got them from I mean because that's based on what xlsia was telling us sounds like hardware involved oh well we're from slightly different schools I'm if hers specialized in wet work I was not aware no we trained more we had overlap in our classes in social arts so I really don't know where this all came from can I make an insight check to see if Chi is telling the truth yeah absolutely sense some goddamn motive please that's will right it is will eat go ahead and give me let's call it a charmeral or if you're or if you're telling the truth I don't know because you know I don't even know above table if you're telling the truth or not four um actually you know wait so I have advantage why do you have advantage checks I have advantage because of my hustle which is fame monger when I'm acting on brand you're not acting on brand right now really no you're speaking honestly about your relationship with someone that's true I think that like the acting on brand is when people have clocked you as like the chief from telegen that you have advantage on everyone because they are like seeing the famous version of you all right you can tell that I am genuinely surprised but I'm trying to work through something because I know that she is everybody has secrets especially on jennipar but I genuinely don't think of her as an assassin hmm I filed the knowledge away and in my own mind sing a small prayer of mourning for the pain of having a lack of knowledge about the people close to us and I'll do the shots of the asteroid belt and I start to light up my a cheek start pulsing red as little thrums of a deep purple and orange begin to appear in random drunken splotches on my plastic white plates I think as you all drink and you are waiting before I ask her to show up to have a hard conversation yet she wears your data pad at this point uh I have it I have it out okay you get a little alert that's just like a text alert out now and then like the sort of like notify anyway function on like an iPhone where it just like emphasizes it more like everything in your data pad that can make sound like vibration sound everything is alerting for you to see those two messages is there a backdoor everyone gets one action what do you want to do I don't have the strength to pick people up I would like to indicate with my finger towards I want to see if there is an exit at the back door and rush to interpose my body at the front door enter what oh god what I just want to get point and then run to the front well I want to cover chi and z's exit okay I would like to like we're getting this information from cheese data path right out now is it indicated that it's from IASA yes I'd like to make some sort of check to perceive immediate like what is the change in this space that IASA might be referring to be it in the way people are moving people entering or coming down the hall any sort of sense of what is inspiring out now yeah just the quickest glance around there's no role for this no one's changed like literally nothing has changed about the bar those that are still sitting and drinking are still sitting and drinking the bartender Alfie is still there like he's not working now he's freaking out and like you see him with like a like a graphing calculator out just like how much money is that what does that do like he's just in a like I can't tell he can't process the good fortune at this point so he's just sort of like lost to a money fugue nothing's changed and even looking out the door nothing's different about outside the green light is currently on and the few people that like the like steady trickle of people walking by is unabated I'm gonna stand slowly and put on my coat but I'm not making any sort of move to run okay I meet the data pad and I start heading towards a point of egress that is not the front door you saw that excelzl pointed towards the back mm-hmm I start to head towards the kitchens I guess you don't know where those doors lead to a place in a I mean there's no smell of food here right okay so I you don't know where that door goes but it's towards the back I start heading towards the back door to scout it what's your level of urgency here because we've got slowly putting on a jacket barring the front door what's your level of hustle somewhere in between give me a better word than that you fucking wordsmith okay uh it is it is we uh I stand up and I urgently need to use the bathroom okay you get up and begin to move towards the back you're kind of washing over your shoulder seeing what's happening in the front mm-hmm okay so excelzl you're going to see it first then u z and then you in the back chi and that might be a bit of a relief because once you realize that there's some small object that's you're only able to perceive it in its speed based on the fact that like it's metallic outside is reflecting that green light so it looks like a little spark of green is barreling towards the main window and your comrades friends and you are in the back as something begins to detonate that was erica ishii as chi tanka randomly mulligan as excelzl lu wilson as the daven of iris and abria eingar as everyone and everything else salari is produced by worlds beyond number edited and sound designed by big giant head productions and scored by wil savina for even more stories like this join us on our patreon we'll see you by the fireside