Traveller: Incident Zero

Evade

"Sounds like a Tuesday in the Barracks" she says to Lena.


"Well I'm off too. Going to meet a friend." Kei heads off to wherever it is you withdraw credits and to a terminal to look up some information.

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

20.6 km, there's a tram within the complex on which they stand that can take him there.

Nathan heads for the tram stop.

Nebelwerfer

Mufasta'r looks for indications of the Telaran district, which was mentioned by the captain earlier.

"Golpspirot, where you heading...?"

"I think some food... And exotic goods, are in my more immediate future..."

He shouts at the remainder of his fellow travellers "You'll find me... In the Telaran district, if you are looking for Fteirle..."

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

"Sounds like a Tuesday in the Barracks" she says to Lena.


"Well I'm off too. Going to meet a friend." Kei heads off to wherever it is you withdraw credits and to a terminal to look up some information.

Kei wanders to the colony's main data terminal hub. Quite enough place, only one other there.

The hub has records on all the colonies past and present inhabitants. It even has their addresses.

Evade

Kei searches for a nearby speeder race track.

Fourier

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

He shouts at the remainder of his fellow travellers "You'll find me... In the Telaran district, if you are looking for Fteirle..."

Mufasta'r arrives in the Telaran district. A grimy looking place, though well lit at least.

The place is mostly inhabited by cybernetically augmented humans, many live in bare hovels with nothing more than a socket, sitting lotus position charging themselves.

Golpspirot has decided to tag along.

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

Kei searches for a nearby speeder race track.

The speeder races take place in the canyons, about 80km to the south. A train to the track only costs 20Cr. The next race is scheduled for four hours from now.

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

Nathan heads for the tram stop.

The tram pulls in with other scientific types boarding it.

As he steps on, a bearded man, definitely of Terran stock, reaches forward.

"Dr. Cole, I'm Dr. Spachens. Nice to have somebody such as yourself here on a brief visit."

Evade

OOC: How does money work is it a physical currency or do I have some kind of debit card?

Banjo

Lena follows the directions, finds a stool and orders the closest thing they have to methylated spirits and a beer.

Nimroth

Nathan looks up from his datapad and presents his warmest smile while shaking Dr. Spachens hand.

"Dr. Spachens. The pleasure is all mine. I'm grateful you can accomodate me on such short notice."

Conscious of the classified nature of the received report, he keeps the conversational topic easy. The progress of terraforming, the rare study conditons and general life of a scientist in a mining colony.

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

OOC: How does money work is it a physical currency or do I have some kind of debit card?

OOC: A debit card essentially, though of finite use and then discarded is the most common type. So you'll have a card that contains 10,000 Cr for example.

Evade

OOC: Do I have any on hand?

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

OOC: Do I have any on hand?

OOC: Yes, in essence your pension is available to you as a collection of cards like this. Cards come in powers of 10 typically. You just have as many as you decided to bring.

Cash can't really be stolen or counterfitted as it is encrypted with your personal information.

Essentially it's a form of cryptocurrency, though carried on physical cards, rather than held in some account. For reasons I won't go into here, humanity is a bit wary of having things be completely virtual in Traveller.

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

Conscious of the classified nature of the received report, he keeps the conversational topic easy. The progress of terraforming, the rare study conditons and general life of a scientist in a mining colony.

As they exit the tram Dr. Spachens seems to be coming to pretty high option of Nathan, made obvious by many compliments regarding his widespread knowledge.

"Follow me to the geophysical labs Dr. Cole, we have something to show you."

Evade

Kei hops on the train to the canyons.

Fourier

OOC: Holding thread there.

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

As they exit the tram Dr. Spachens seems to be coming to pretty high option of Nathan, made obvious by many compliments regarding his widespread knowledge.

"Follow me to the geophysical labs Dr. Cole, we have something to show you."

"Lead the way Doctor." he says with a slight flourish of his hand into the expected direction.

Nebelwerfer

Fourier wrote: »

Mufasta'r arrives in the Telaran district. A grimy looking place, though well lit at least.

The place is mostly inhabited by cybernetically augmented humans, many live in bare hovels with nothing more than a socket, sitting lotus position charging themselves.

Golpspirot has decided to tag along.

Mufasta'r looks for an establishment which may provide sustenance, refreshments or otherwise. In the hopes to quench his thirst and hunger, but also to gain some insight into other establishments which may offer more exotic gear.

"Glad you joined... Golpspirot..." he says, as they travel through the district.

"Lets find some food... something to drink... and directions..."

"Golpspirot... Curious name... Whats its origin?"

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

"Lead the way Doctor." he says with a slight flourish of his hand into the expected direction.

Dr. Spachens guides Nathan through a sequence of less important labs and analysis chambers.

"No doubt you read the reports of those brought in for a sort of debilitating headache. Initially it was just the usual two aspirins job for most of them. However, after two weeks, the symptoms hadn't passed, so we brought them here and well..."

He swipes a keycard on a final door.

"...the tank over there contains the most advanced patient. We haven't opened it for a while. We had to place him in a very advanced stasis field, cryogenics wasn't slowing the infection, well it's not an infection really, look here."

He gestures to desk with a medical report open.

Fourier

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

Mufasta'r looks for an establishment which may provide sustenance, refreshments or otherwise. In the hopes to quench his thirst and hunger, but also to gain some insight into other establishments which may offer more exotic gear.

"Glad you joined... Golpspirot..." he says, as they travel through the district.

"Lets find some food... something to drink... and directions..."

"Golpspirot... Curious name... Whats its origin?"

"I'm from a rare subbranch of humanity, we developed on a very toxic jungle world. Not many of us purebloods left, ever since contact with the rest of the human race...

Say there's a bar, 'Down and Out'...charming" she says with a smirk on her face.

Fourier

Evade wrote: »

Kei hops on the train to the canyons.

He arrives out in the valleys far to the south. A smallish crowd of a hundred or so is busy waiting for the next race. A bit of a delay as one of the drivers was taken in with a severe migraine.

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

Dr. Spachens guides Nathan through a sequence of less important labs and analysis chambers.

"No doubt you read the reports of those brought in for a sort of debilitating headache. Initially it was just the usual two aspirins job for most of them. However, after two weeks, the symptoms hadn't passed, so we brought them here and well..."

He swipes a keycard on a final door.

"...the tank over there contains the most advanced patient. We haven't opened it for a while. We had to place him in a very advanced stasis field, cryogenics wasn't slowing the infection, well it's not an infection really, look here."

He gestures to desk with a medical report open.

Nathan's neck hair stands up as he looks at the tank. In all his years as a doctor he had never heard of a patient requiring such extensive precautions.

When he looks back at Dr. Spachens his face is a mix of concern and curiosity.
He steps to the desk and starts to read.

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

Nathan's neck hair stands up as he looks at the tank. In all his years as a doctor he had never heard of a patient requiring such extensive precautions.

When he looks back at Dr. Spachens his face is a mix of concern and curiosity.
He steps to the desk and starts to read.

The file is as harrowing as the layout of the room suggests.

The patient, Juxol Starys, an immigrant from another ancient Terran colony, initially displayed the same symptoms as the other patients, severe migraine. As the symptoms got worse, he developed a craving for toothpaste, eventually caught squeezing packets of the stuff into his mouth at a store.

He was brought here for analysis, the expectation being an addiction to some drug he could no longer access. Instead, early blood tests found an anomaly in his genetic structure, a genome sequence had been inserted on two of his chromosomes. In tandem the new sequences altered his neurochemistry so that his body began to build a new organ at the base of his skull. The organ seemed to require significant quantities of fluoride, hence the cravings. In general it was only somewhat compatible with the rest of human biology.

Projections estimated the organ would fatally damage his brain within two hours. Unfortunately its growth was uninhibited by the cryochamber, hence the immediate need for the stasis field.

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Lena follows the directions, finds a stool and orders the closest thing they have to methylated spirits and a beer.

The bar serves very poor quality beer and obviously weak stuff, not a single person in here is even tipsy.

"You here to work on the mines" the bartender inquires.

Banjo

Fourier wrote: »

The bar serves very poor quality beer and obviously weak stuff, not a single person in here is even tipsy.

"You here to work on the mines" the bartender inquires.

"I'm here to work on a hangover."
(Sip)
"Jesus, it's going to be more work than I thought. I didn't see any horses on approach, have you gone the extra mile and synthesised horsepiss?"

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"I'm here to work on a hangover."
(Sip)
"Jesus, it's going to be more work than I thought. I didn't see any horses on approach, have you gone the extra mile and synthesised horsepiss?"

"Ha! Well I can tell you're from a world with real alcohol. We can't afford to make the real stuff. Most of the people here are from old colonial stock, the ancient Terran sleeper ships, their cultures didn't really have alcohol, so it ain't much of a market here."

He takes out a bottle of Solomani whiskey and pours himself and Lena a glass, before dropping two aspirins in his own.

"Enjoy, glad to share it with somebody who might appreciate it"

Nimroth

Fourier wrote: »

The file is as harrowing as the layout of the room suggests.

The patient, Juxol Starys, an immigrant from another ancient Terran colony, initially displayed the same symptoms as the other patients, severe migraine. As the symptoms got worse, he developed a craving for toothpaste, eventually caught squeezing packets of the stuff into his mouth at a store.

He was brought here for analysis, the expectation being an addiction to some drug he could no longer access. Instead, early blood tests found an anomaly in his genetic structure, a genome sequence had been inserted on two of his chromosomes. In tandem the new sequences altered his neurochemistry so that his body began to build a new organ at the base of his skull. The organ seemed to require significant quantities of fluoride, hence the cravings. In general it was only somewhat compatible with the rest of human biology.

Projections estimated the organ would fatally damage his brain within two hours. Unfortunately its growth was uninhibited by the cryochamber, hence the immediate need for the stasis field.

"This is really interesting." he mutters, swept away by his fascination. "What do you think is the purpose of this new organ? I've never seen something grow in a cryochamber."

He re-reads the report. Fluoride..."There was a mention of fluoride layers in the rock formations outside the colony. Could this be related?"

Banjo

Fourier wrote: »

He takes out a bottle of Solomani whiskey and pours himself and Lena a glass, before dropping two aspirins in his own.

"Enjoy, glad to share it with somebody who might appreciate it"

"You sir are a gentleman."
She toasts
"May you be happy evermore, and may your johnson touch the floor, may freedoms spring forever pour, and God bless the ****ing Corp!"
She knocks it back, tapping the glass on the bartop a few times, grinning.
"Now *that* is a shot. Thank you kindly. So, I have 13 hrs and change to kill. What is there to do round here?"

Fourier

Nimroth wrote: »

"This is really interesting." he mutters, swept away by his fascination. "What do you think is the purpose of this new organ? I've never seen something grow in a cryochamber."

He re-reads the report. Fluoride..."There was a mention of fluoride layers in the rock formations outside the colony. Could this be related?"

"The flouride reactions aren't inhibited by cold temperatures, that's how it continues to grow, though even then the speed is worrying.

As for the purpose, I don't know. Initially we suspected psionic capability, but scans with equipment imported from Zhodani space reveal no heightened ability. In fact in one patient, the new organ has affected psychic functioning.

I think there is a definite connection to the flouride tunnels..."

He swipes the screen bringing up a flouride polymer molecule on screen.

"...92% of the flouride compounds found in the tunnels have also been found in the subject's neural tissue."