The Ghosts of Eden
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Session 33The crew continue to be inducted into the Psionic Division. The division has no uniform. They are briefed not to reveal the existence of the division to anyone outside it except possibly senior board. Enquires from superiors can be bounced to more senior management flunkeys. This applies to anyone of lower status than Komiko and Ships' Captains. Komiko warns again against revealing their identity especially to other security folk who tend to become paranoid and are also armed. There are three managerial posts in the division occupied by Andi and two others. The next day there is a rumour of a boardroom coup, or rather pre-emptive assassination. A senior boardroom figure is supposed to have been found floating outside space station in his pyjamas. Senior board can have a private air lock. It is agreed it is nothing to do with us, though Miho thinks Komiko fried his brains. Miho practices using her powers to locate certain locations such as engine rooms. She discovers she can also identify most ships' internal gravitron sink (close or at centre of mass) and the central processor, which tends to be close to the bridge. Robert looks at the legitimate bits of the Trilon data store and hangs out with the geeks in the xenobiology lab. They have read his papers and so he is something of a minor celebrity. Andi checks up on the dead board member. Seymour Greenberg was one of three potential seconds in command to the CEO. Various Trilon based blogs assume there is a power struggle in process. The other two contenders are the Security Division head Marika Cosmos (least likely) and Peter Delavalle, who is something to do with manufacturing. It is unclear which faction Komiko supports. The Trixie space station is new and has space for expansion. It is only 10 years old and still under construction. It has about 5,000 crew. When complete it could hold 10,000. Since it is about 75 - 85% complete it is currently luxurious in terms of space. Robert tries to access academic information on psionics. As a project Robert wants to correlate known psionic abilities with the existing psionic literature. He notes that the Eber are almost certainly psionic and hypothesises that the monkey and his gift could have had something to do with psionics. The crew discuss whether the Pentapods just use colours to communicate or augment them with psionics. The progress of the fight with Pentapods that they got engaged in was certainly suggestive. Robert starts building a library of "not bogus" psionic literature. Miho sets up notifications for new publications on ancients or known sentient races. About midday the team's bleepers call them to Komiko. Apparently several people in the psionic division find Komiko a bit intimidating. They meet her in the admin suite at the heart of the division. They are ushered into her presence by Sangeev who doesn't look quite as thug like as he did. Komiko appears faintly harassed. She invites them to sit in comfy chairs. Komiko explains that Trilon are not convinced the death of Greenberg was an assassination and Komiko assures them she had nothing to do with it. She claims she doesn't use assassination as a form of promotion. Robert approves: "Violence never achieves anything." A discussion about the use of psionics follows during which Andi is accused of gaucheness and Robert states that reading minds to find people's allegiance would be unethical. Returning to the problem at hand Mr Greenberg was from a respectable family and his mother was a founder of Trixie and Trilon 50 years ago. The family remain important share holders. Komiko shows the team a video from a security camera inside the emergency airlock showing him inside it in pyjamas and dressing gown. The team note that he didn't use the emergency space suit kept in the air lock. He rushes through inner airlock, and opens the outer one. He backs in and nearly trips over something on the floor. He gropes around over space suits and then pulls the "do not pull" lever (which involves a reasonably complex sequence). The autopsy shows traces of alcohol and other mild substances in his blood but nothing that could have caused severe hallucinations. Komiko explains that Marika Cosmos (Martial Cosmos to her face) has a reputation for being a bit unsubtle. She is an ex-soldier but more an ex-policeman. She doesn't want any implications that she was involved in assassination. Marika claims she has nothing to do with it and Komiko believes her. Marika has certain caveats over efficacy of the psionic division so when she gave Komiko the investigative job Komiko thought of her former crew. The crew ask if a regular investigation is underway as well. Komiko explains that they have the first crack. They start by going through the security footage, data logs and autopsy report. Three friends, Oliver Xu, Dallas Collinwood and Guilaume Antares, all of Seymour's generation visited earlier in the evening. They left about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, before his death. They all look happy on leaving though Greenberg looks tired. Oliver looks drunk. The crew realise that Seymour Greenberg is a relative of Elmer Goldberg who they met on Asterion and who warned them against Komiko. They also recall that Antonio observed a Goldberg in Italy, apparently making contact with Kurita. Guilaume Antares is a director in charge of Trilon information, Dallas Collinwood is Trilon's chief medical officer. Komiko drives the team by spaceship to his air lock. They get out of the spaceship and enter air lock. They seal up the outer air lock, flood with air, crack the seals on their suits and try Patina Reading. Miho gets impression of fear from the air lock lever and buckles at knees. As her hand comes away the flashback passes. Andi tries aura reading and picks up Seymour's decision to space himself as preferable to the alternative that he was facing. He hears something at the inner air lock; thinks he can see someone (a dark shadow) at the air lock. The air lock camera shows nothing but he thinks "she mustn't get me". The team decide to enter his quarters but to be careful to disturb as little as possible in order not to spoil any subsequent "conventional" investigation. These are spacious rooms. There are no footprints visible in carpet. They survey the rooms with an imager on various spectra. It looks pretty tidy with no sign of anything suspicious. Someone has moved through and knocked things over. Since everything happened close to midnight Trilon time bedclothes are thrown back but doesn't look like Greenberg had got into bed. He appears to have cleaned up after his friends. Four crystal glasses are in the dishwasher. Miho aura reads the main space. The dominant emotion is a sudden fear, backing away knocking things over, watching the door to the bedroom. Andi tries the bedroom and picks up nothing much. The most recent strong emotion is people shagging. Andi plugs in officially to the computer system - it won't recognise her. She tries psionically and triggers black ice and gets out. Since you would have to pass through the main area to get to bathroom the crew check the bathroom - nothing obviously out of place. Miho attempts aura reading, she smells something unpleasant, musty, dry and rotten and then hears a voice, "Seymour", a deep seductive woman's voice, "don't you want me?" coming from bedroom. At that moment twin thoughts cross his mind. Firstly he is sure there is no woman in the rooms and secondly the voice reminds him of someone. He looks into the bedroom. The lights in the bedroom are off, the lights in the bathroom are on, and those in the main area are dimmed. He sees someone in the bedroom; a naked woman sitting in bed then she chuckles and at that moment he becomes terrified: it's her and he doesn't believe it. She has long dark hair, a round face, quite/very attractive with a certain je ne sais quoi. The crew wonder if the smell could be a gas? a check of life support suggests not. The crew discuss their findings with Komiko. They write a report suggesting checks for traces of psycho-active substances in the ventilation and glasses. A hallucinogen could have been used with specific suggestion, e.g., a tape of the woman's laugh, however in general they are agreed that another psionic was probably involved. Komiko is surprised about all this, she had been hoping it would be depression or blackmail. The most obvious suspects are Seymour's three friends. Marika Cosmos would like one of the crew to interview each of them. |