Hammer gets confused and isn't sure what to do.

Then Hammer sees Bartja run off, realizes there is a chase to be done,
so he follows Bartja!

"Hey you, stop!  Killer on-board!  Killer on-board!"
Hammer shouts as he chases Bartja, who's following the black blob assassin.

"Alert security, now!  We're going after them<" Desiraye says as she begins to run after Hammer & Bartja.

Bartja, Desi and Hammer sprint after the fleeing black massed figure...


Kri'lik begins examining Kyrian, though it is an alien physiognomy.

S'Krllk moves into Kyrtok's room.  The room is completely dark.  Luckily, this is just due to the lights being out and not to any unnatural blackness.

As they round the corner, Desi, Bartja and Hammer see an extraordinary sight.  Along the far bend in the corridor is a black streak, as though the figure ran directly through the wall and left a black shadow behind.

The outline of the figure is about 5 feet, 8 inches high, has a roughly humanoid shape -- two arms, two legs, and a head and torso -- but it is so amorphous and blob-like that you can't tell if it was human, dralasite, yazirian or something else entirely.  It almost looks like an artist has made broad strokes with black pain and a paintbrush.

On the floor below the black streaks is a small red item that looks like a flat pen of some sort.

Kri'lik sees that the hole in Kyrian's head appears to be like a burn, but without burn marks.  However, there are black, familiar looking streaks of a small size within the wound.  It is as if Kyrian was hit with a flying one of those streaks you saw on the floor.

But Kyrian himself is very much dead.

When Kri'lik looks up again Kyrillian is gone, having fled the way you came.


S'Krllk goes into Kyrtok's and turns on the lights.  The place is a mess, as if someone had been looking for something.  There is a bed to the left, a computer straight ahead, and a closed chest at the foot of the bed with a broken lock.  Clothes are scattered everywhere.

To the right there is a table set up like a private laboratory.  But it is a strange sight:

An object like a flashlight or laser focuser is on the left on a stand pointed to the right.  It has a button to turn it on or off.  There is a second button below the first and a slot under the device.  Next to that button is the word "reset."

On the far right is a receiving unit to receive the light.  Between the laser pointing device and the receiving unit are five slots in which crystals can be placed.

Next to the laser is a jar of octagon shaped crystal lenses -- like eyeglass lenses.  Each crystalline lens has a slightly different tint, making many different colors, including white and black.

Right now, five lenses are put into the slots, with the following colors (left to right):  Red, Purple, Black, Black, Black.

OOC: The room has not been thorough searched or items looked at.  This is just what you see upon walking into the room.

S'Krllk instructs his bodycomp to access his scanner and scan first, the lenses (to get data on the material) and then the sending device (perhaps deciphering the circuits will indicate what the output it).
Then he will begin to search the room, sort of. Basically S'Krllk is trying to repeat the search made by the previous person to figure out if he was interrupted before he found what he was looking for, or if he found it and the group happened to arrive at a bad time.

Kri'lik reports over the commlinks, "Kyrtok is dead. Thats two dead Kyrns of the four we have seen so far. I would say someone is targetting them. Kyrillian just ran off by him/her self. Not sure where the other one is."

Tearing off a bit of Kyrtoks clothing he presses it to the black streak in Kyrillian's dead head. Once his field experiment is completed he searches the dead alien for any other clues, being careful not to touch the black streak no matter what.

When Kri'lik presses the bit of clothing to the black spot in Kyrian's head, part of the clothing appears to disintegrate, and the other part that did not touch the black spot gets a black spot on it, as if the black spot is spreading.

S'krllk finds that the lens material comes up as alien and unknown, but its composition indicates that the lens material can change colors like a chameleon when interacting with certain levels of light.

The sending device appears to be in working order and has not been harmed.  S'krllk cannot risk taking it apart without breaking it.

Around the room are mostly just personal sundries, but the computer is turned on.  You apparently caught...something...getting into Kyrtok's computer.

Desiraye calls back over the comlink, "Secure the room and stay there with S'Krllk until security gets there and fill them in on what's going on!"

You hear Kent in your comlinks, "I'm afraid security won't be coming.  With this news, we've ordered a temporary quarantine.  I will be sending out hypernet IMs to those in the area to remain in their quarters until the area is secured.  Please let me know of any updates so we can decide when to lift the quarantine."

Right after he says this, flashing lights go on above you, and an intercom announcement says, "Please check hypernet messages.  This hub has been subject to quarantine for release of an unknown chemical substance, possibly dangerous.  Remain in quarters.  Repeat:  Remain in quarters."

It's been silent here.  Some potential options to consider:

Checking Kyrtok's computer.
Figuring out how the device works.
Finding where Kyrillian went.
Examining the black area left by the departing intruder.

Speaking into the comlinks Kri'lik says, "Kent is there a way to track individuals onboard the station?" While waiting for a reply the Vrusk moves to the black spot left by the escaping intruder. Once there he begins using his enviromental kit to scan for anything useful.

Kent says in return, "Unfortunately, those kinds of devices have the potential to disrupt important scientific projects, so we minimize any transmissions that could potentially interfere with our research.  To answer your question, no, sorry."

After thoroughly scanning the weird devices, S'Krllk begins to wonder if the black lens isn't some other color covered by the same material that was in the hall. If there is something like a washcloth or a pencil in the vicinity he will dangle the object to just touch the lens.
Once he has tested this hypothesis, he'll start examining the computer to try to figure out what was being sought.

The material on the disks is not hiding anything, and nothing rubs off.  They all appear the same.

On the computer, someone has already gotten through the security.  You can probably guess it was the killer.  The killer had pulled up two folders.  One is a sent e-mail record; the other is marked "File From Kyrillian."

Bartja stops short of the black smudgy on the wall and steps around the pen-like device on the floor, looking it over carefully before venturing to touch it.  If there is any smudge of blackness on it that cannot be avoided, he leaves it alone (otherwise he picks it up).

"My guess is the pen is a weapon and uses the Darkness, for lack of a better term.  Unless one of us wants to step through the smudge into oblivion, I think the assassin just escaped.  If we can discern the motive, then we can find who is behind these attacks.

I think we'd better get back to the others and try to save the last Kyrn's before they're found by someone else."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:44, Thu 21 July 2011.

The pen-like device is cylindrical, brown, and has an infra-red light on one end that is blinking.  It has none of the blackness on it and, in fact, seems to slightly repel it when it is close.  It does not appear to be a weapon and has no buttons or other discernible parts to interact with.  It may be worthy of a more thorough examination by something.

There is an alien script on the device that you can't read but that somehow looks a bit familiar.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:49, Thu 21 July 2011.

Hammer says, from the doorway into the bedroom/office/lab,
"This 'darkness' reminds me of antimatter.  Just for theories' sake, I'll offer that this anti-energy seems to be usable as a weapon, as a shield, and also apparently as a method of transportation.  Perhaps this laser set can distinguish between the darkness modes, or maybe even switch the mode?"

Hammer takes a look at the computer to examine the opened files.
Hammer has no particular computer skill, although Mechanons do interface efficiently with data terminals.

Thinking his new bodycomp is becoming handier than he expected, S'Krllk will try to make copies of the open items so that he can peruse them at will. Then he'll actually read them at the desk computer. If nothing else goes on, he'll use his materials scanner to examine the walls, floor, and ceiling to see if there is some hiding place in the area (in case the killer comes back, S'Krllk wants to be able to hide).

Returning to the room with the device, Bartja finishes his precursor examination and hands it over to the truly tech-savy of the party.

"Recognize this script?  It's alien, but is it Kyrn or Sathar?  I can't be sure.

Think your gizmo can duplicate this and maybe tell us what's inside?" he asks doc Kri'lik.

He fills the rest of the party in on what happened when they gave chase and listens (and watches) the investigation of the room and computer.

Desiraye just stands there, "Thsi crap is way out of my league!"

"I can read Sathar." Says the professor as his multiple legs carry him over to examine the devices script.

The party reconvenes in Kyrtok's room, where Kri'lik looks at the pen-like device.  He gulps.  It is, in fact, written in Sathar.  It essentially states that it is a tracking device of some sort.  It has a code or some sort of sequence on it that does not translate to English, but Kri'lik believes it lists coordinates.  The coordinates are shown digitally and change ever so slightly when the pen is moved more than a few feet in any direction.

S'krllk successfully copies the open items on the computer.  They are:

An e-mail written in a language that must be the language of this new race, the Kyriadorians.

You can see lines that probably mean "To" "From" and "Re" and then a short message.

You will need a Kyriadorian to translate.

There is also another file open which is a string of pictures.  Each picture is of a different type of star.

From left to right, they are:  A blue star, a white dwarf, a white star, a red dwarf, and a yellow star, like this:





There's not really any place for S'Krllk to hide in the cramped cabins.

Bartja stares at the Sathar coordinates and moves the device several times to watch them update in real-time.

"Looks like some sort of positioning device, don't you think?  Communications?  Teleportation?  Targeting?  Maybe it's one end of a gateway and that is how the assassin escaped - open the gate and jump on through?  That doesn't explain the blackness, unless the blackness is just a portion of an open portal or something.  I wonder what it's range is and if we can calibrate it to relate to our own coordinate system."

He looks it over for any buttons that might activate a device or the infra-red light blinking at one end (he assumes no one else can see this with normal vision).  He then asks Kri'lik to translate the coordinates as he moves around using their own Universal Positioning Systems as a calibration measure.  If the coordinates seem consistent with positions, then he knows that they are on the right track...

There are no buttons or other observable ways to interact with the device.

The sequences are difficult to translate because they do not translate exactly, but by all observations, it is changing with your position like a GPS device.

S'Krllk shows everyone what he found at the computer, while lamenting the fact that his trans-comp isn't programmed for the Kyriadorian's language and isn't advanced enough to do non-verbal communications anyway.
"I don't mean to be alarmist, or anything, but I suspect some connection between the positioning of the lenses in that device and the sequence of stars on this image."

Desiraye stand and listens to the different descriptions of what's going on between the group techs or 'thinkers' (in her mind) and then chimes in on with very her limited knowledge, "Let me get this straight.  The Sathar are involved in this with this new race the Kyriadonians?  Great start here.  I told you I thought it had something to do with that message we found and Kyrllian fella.  DId he jump through a black hole too like the assassin did?

Have we been away that long that they've got technology like that now?  We need to know how far they teleported or jumped to the location they came out to.  What is the range and are they still on the ship?"

Desiraye takes out her chronocom and calls Kent while the others think about what she says and maybe have some kind of explanation or reason.  "Kent, it's Desiraye.  Have any ships taken off since this incident has taken place?  If not, we beleive the assassin is still on the ship and that Kyrllian may be involved in this.  We could also use someone here to translate some things my team has found that may answer a couple of questions."