Act I: Mercurian Underground

[Halbarad]

There's a crackling noise as the button is pressed, and the monitor over the console erupts in a shower of sparks! But as it does so, a recording begins to play.

"This is Dr. Alex... *static* olcomb. If this recording has been activated, I can only... *static* ...rescue teams have arrived. As of the time of this recording, supplies are... *long stretch of static* ...out. Against that possibility, I've placed... *static* ...experimental tank. You'll need to cycle the tank to release her; there are... *static* ...datapad in my office on the third... *static* care of her... I can't any longer."

With a final burst of static, the recording ceases, although the blue-lit button remains on.

[Ebiris]

"Dr Alex something on the third floor?" Rowan repeats the pertinent details. "Want me to go up and check it out while you keep looking around here?"

[Carthrat]

"Yes," replies Arkian, turning back to Rowan. "I'll make a thorough search."

[Ebiris]

"Back soon," Rowan calls, shooting one last look at the tank before exiting the room. Arriving back at the stairs, she bids Golem to follow her back up to the third floor, before having it open the locked door for her.

[Halbarad]

The third floor is easily reached and entered, with Golem's help. The space beyond the stairwell door reveals a long, branching hallway filled with doors - about a dozen that you can see down this hall. There are nameplates next to each door, but you're still a bit too far away to read them yet.

[Ebiris]

Having Golem continue to follow her, Rowan makes her way down the hallway, looking for a nameplate featuring either Alex or -olcomb.

[Halbarad]

The first segment of the hallway reveals nothing of interest, but the first branch to the right has a few more interesting details. This hall leads towards the elevators - you can see them at the end of the corridor - and a few of the nameplates are rather interesting. Two nameplates jump out at you: a Tatjana Schroedinger, labeled as Director of Research, and an Albert Merkava, labeled as Director of <something> - the Lunarian word isn't one you're familiar with, as most Lunarian education focuses more on the arcane than the technical. The latter's door is located directly across from one for an Alexander Holcomb, Lead Researcher, <something> Division - the same 'something' that was on Merkava's door.

[Ebiris]

Rowan blinks. Several times.

"Schroedinger?" she repeats. What are the odds of an ancient Mercurian research director having the same family name as a famous 20th century physicist? Pretty high, now...

Resolving to investigate later, she attempts to open Alexander Holcomb's door.

[Halbarad]

The door isn't locked, at least. Golem seems to realize that he's not going to fit into the room behind you, and simply remains in the hallway for now.

The office is... pretty typical, actually, at first glance anyway. A simple desk with a computer, a couple of cabinets on the wall, a few holos adorning the walls and the top of the desk. A clay pot over in the corner might have been a potted plant, once, but it's simply full of soil now, the plant having long ago decayed.

Coming around the desk reveals a slightly less pleasant office decoration, however - a skeleton, sprawled out on the floor behind the desk. A large rectangular object lies just beyond its outstretched fingers - a piece of smooth black plastic encased in a blue plastic frame, with a number of buttons mounted below the 'screen'.

[Ebiris]

"Dr Holcomb, I presume?" Rowan asks with a bit of gallows humour. She's seen more than enough corpses in the past few days to get over any shock such a sight may once have engendered.

Presuming the black and blue plastic object to be the datapad referenced in the message downstairs, the summoner picks it up and puts it on the desk, before making a quick search through the cabinets and desk drawers.

[Halbarad]

Most of the drawers contain fairly typical items, things you'd find in an office even today - pens, paperclips - although of a slightly different design than modern-day ones - a few thumbtacks. Crammed in the back of the main desk drawer, though, is a silver bracelet with a number of charms suspended from it.

The cabinets contain more datapads, these considerably thicker than the one in your hand and most labeled on the side - like books in a bookcase. While most of the titles are hard to read, they seem to be about stasis tanks - the one title that you can make out clearly is "Full-Size Tank Notes".

[Ebiris]

Activating her magical field generator, Rowan attempts to read the first datapad she found, hoping it has the pertinent information rather than having to search through all the others...

[Halbarad]

The pad powers on easily enough, a small light coming on as it's enveloped by the magical field. The pad takes a few seconds to come on, revealing a list of files. One jumps out at you immediately, however - the filename showing in bright red letters and reading "Tank Release Procedure."

[Ebiris]

Rather than reading the release procedure, Rowan skims through all the files in sequence, hoping to find out exactly who (or what) is inside that experimental tank...

[Halbarad]

Most of the rest of the plain files seem to be in some kind of computer language - you're not sure exactly what they're meant to do. A bit of fiddling with the datapad switches it over into a scheduler mode, with a calendar showing daily events and a place for notes. Skimming through these is a bit more productive; about five days before the final entry.

"Today... we placed them in the tanks - we can't wait any longer; if we do, we'll probably be too weak to operate the equipment properly. My Juliana is in the full-size tank, and Dr. Schroedinger put her son Arlin in one of the smaller tanks outside my lab. I've prepared the baths using my last formulation; it hasn't been tested yet, but it should last a good deal longer than most of the other formulas we've tried. We've directed most of the building's power feed into sustaining the two tanks, and all the standard batteries I've managed to scrape together should hopefully keep them both running during the night cycle. I have no idea how long it will take a rescue team to get here, or even if one will be coming - there are rumors of some kind of massive disaster on Luna as well, so there's no way of knowing. I can only hope that someone will come for the children before too long."

There are a few more entries, but not many.