Act I: Mercurian Underground

[Ebiris]

"Just get ready in case we have to leave in a hurry. I've no idea what could cause an quake on Mercury, but it can't be good," Rowan responds in the radio. "We'll be back shortly."

[Carthrat]

Arkian hits the button, glancing back to Rowan. "Better watch out," he cautions. "Things should start happening any second now."

[Halbarad]

"Gotcha," Chris replies, the link terminating a few moments afterward.

A humming fills the air as Arkian presses the button, the light in the tank shifting from its previous pale blue to a rather intense green. After a few seconds of this, you see the girl's chest begin to move, and her eyelids flicker, although they don't open.

[Carthrat]

Arkian returns to inputting code- making a few more mistakes this time, as his eyes keep drawing back to the girls body..

[Halbarad]

The first attempt ends rather poorly. A red warning light goes on atop the console, and an electronic voice speaks in Lunarian. "Warning. Syntax error. Please re-enter drain lock sequence."

[Carthrat]

Arkian rubs the back of his head. "Maybe you should do this," he comments.

[Ebiris]

Rowan sighs a bit, coming over to the console. "Where were you?" she asks, gesturing at the datapad.

[Carthrat]

"The second stage," replies Arkian, indicating it.

[Ebiris]

Nodding, Rowan begins to type from the indicated stage. Not really understanding, since she never bothered to learn even one programming language at school, but at least her typing skills are adequate to the task of rote copying what she sees.

[Halbarad]

This time things go much more smoothly. The second button on the panel lights up this time, displaying the words "Drain Tank."

[Ebiris]

Taking her prompt, Rowan drains the tank!

[Halbarad]

As the tank begins to drain, a warning buzzer sounds again: "Warning: Tank overflow integrity compromised. 25% of nutrient recapture failed."

Nevertheless, the fluid level in the tank drops steadily, the girl inside crumpling to the floor of the tube, where she coughs to expel the last of the fluid from her lungs.

[Ebiris]

Rowan isn't too bothered about the warning - the chances of the tank ever being used again are pretty much non-existent.

Glancing over as she hears the girl cough, she turns back to the keypad and enters the third sequence...

[Halbarad]

Again the procedure goes without incident, and the final button is illuminated: "Retract Tube".

[Ebiris]

"Arkian, put the field generator on her as soon as the tube is up - this is the final step," Rowan says to her colleague, before pressing the button.