Edwin simply nodded to Osram’s suggestion. When the lady made her feelings know and headed to the airlock Edwin followed several steps behind. He did catch Skips comment which started him thinking about their new guests.

When he reached the airlock he paused a couple steps short. Excuse me ma’am let me get the door and we will get you up to the mess hall and get you something warm to eat.

"Thank you."

Lilly kept her head down and followed Ed's lead towards the mess hall.

If you still wish to harvest the acid, roll an Alchemy check. You can choose to assist and give someone else advantage or roll separately. Assisted attempts come with a multiplier of gains if successful (x2 gains if 1 assistant, x3 gains if 3 assistants, etc.) but still might fail.

That's up to Edwin....  Skip will assist.  He is wearing an enviro suit.

Osram pulled out some cargo strapping and readied to lash the contaminated cubes together.

He planned on attaching a long lead on them so they could be pushed out of the ship but stay tethered to the hull.

That would solve the issue of acid potentially damaging the bay while allowing them to have a send off ceremony for their passenger's sakes if the contents had in fact been something worthy of such a sentiment.

However if someone wanted to try to get a sample he'd be willing to try and lend a hand,  though untrained in such things.

Jhenko (on comms): "Val's cooking dinner in the mess hall. I say we get something to eat and then have a group meeting after dinner. We need to discuss how to accommodate our guests and what our next course of action is. Don't know about the rest of you but I could sure eat."

(On Comm) "Be up in a bit Cap.  Need to get a few things back in order down here."

With Ed gone up to the mess hall, and Skip not looking like he was up to playing chemist, Osram finished strapping the cubes together, careful that there was plenty of redundancy should any of the material fail due to leaks of the contents.

He then gingerly muscled the cubes into the cargo airlock, and cycled the doors.

Once on the other side he secured the tether to the hull so they'd trail behind the ship safe and secure, then gave them a push and pull to get them outside.

Hey, if our science guy isn't going to collect the samples, I can't help him, Skip says to Osram.  But, I can give you hand with spacing them for storage.
He had known still having his enviro suit on would be useful when he came down to the cargo bay.  He helps the big with lashing the crates together and tethering them out of the ship.  Hppefully, they won't get hit by any micro-meteors or anything else.  Let's go get some of that food.

When Osram arrived at the cargo bay, he checked through the window in the door before entering just to verify nothing odd had occurred while they were all away at dinner.

Edwin followed along behind Val and the kids, listening as they talked. There was definitely something odd about the children he just wished he could place what exactly it was. When they arrived at the cargo bay nodded to Osram, "Everything still look okay. Not sure how many more surprises I can handle."

The children began playing with Varghest. Though "playing" might be stretching it. They began giving the dog-like creature commands and seemed to be measuring him with a measuring tool they found. The Varghest seemed compliant and obedient to the children like a well-trained creature.

Val stood by Ed shaking her head but whispering so the kids couldn't hear.

"Something is very strange about that woman and these kids. I don't sense danger but...It's like..."

She sighs, reluctant to say what she was thinking. Ed, Skip, and Val could all sense the trio were abnormal but not in unique ways like mutants. They were all abnormal in the same way. Which is why it was so hard to figure out what that feeling was that was bugging them.

"They almost give me similar vibes as the gremlin. Like they're otherworldly spirits instead of people. Is that terrible of me to say?"

"You say that like at this point it's not outside the truth that they might be from somewhere else."  Osram rumbled softly.

"That thing, didn't evolve on any of the plants that humans have set foot on that I'm aware of."  He continued with a nod towards Varghest.

"So that means either there's some top secret spot somewhere growing folks and monsters completely isolated from the rest of humanity for whatever reason, or they're definitely not from anywhere around here.  The fact that we're on a ship that's now inhabited from some being from another dimension or whatever Dre's been rambling about, kind of makes that a whole lot less far fetched than it would have been when I first signed onto this ship."

Edwin nodded to Val and then again as Osram spoke. "I agree, unfortunately I don't think they trust us enough to tell us the whole story. Can't say I blame them though after being locked up in those cyounits."

He watched the children and varghest as they played. "Maybe Skip and Gill can get something useful out of Lilly."

"Maybe it's just best if we find out where they'd like to go and get there there as expediently as possible.  The less time they're on the ship, the less time there is for us to get even more caught up in whatever trouble they're undoubtedly connected to."  Osram proposed.

The kids continued "playing" with Varghest. Measuring and weighing its body parts and having it perform basic tricks like "sit", "stay", "open mouth", "close eyes", etc. One could swear they were examining the beast the way a doctor would a patient and it was very well trained. What's also strange is the kids are giving it commands in Roswellian rather than English. At one point they told it to do something and its eyes seemed to glow for a second. All four of them closing at once made it look almost like they were all one big eye.

"Well yeah. The barghest is a mythical canine. Clearly not of Earth origin. Probably from the same dimension as the gremlin--"

She stops.

"Wait a minute. Where is the gremlin? I have a few questions for the little bastard..."

"Uh, technically everywhere I think."  Osram informed Val.  "The way Dre explained it, somehow that thing got combined with NOD, so I assume wherever NOD was or could be communicated with, whatever we're calling the combination of the two of also."

That wasn't something that filled Osram with calm and content feelings, but since neither Andre nor the Captain were treating it like a big problem, Osram was content to just get by with the new normal.  NOD might have just been a machine, but it'd never appeared to logically harbor them any ill will.  The gremlin was another matter.

The children suddenly get a ping on their comms. When did they get comms? They seem worried.

Adamus: "Lilly! Repeat that. Did you say there's a gremlin aboard?"

"Yeah, what Osram said. The little guy is basically part of the ship for now."

Then Adamus started talking to Lilly over his comms, which Edwin was almost certain he hadn't had moments earlier. "Well now things possibly get worse. Or we get some answers. Hope it's the latter."

The kids look at the adults.

Adamus: "Part the ship? It's already integrating? Gremlins are dangerous! They like to destroy mechanical equipment by getting into its inner workings! We have to purge it immediately! Where is your ship's core?"

"Woah, now."  Osram cautioned.

"No one's purging nothing.  If you guys know something, give us the whole story, then we'll talk with our engineer.  If anybody is going to purge anything from our systems, it'll be his call."

The kids began pushing past Val to head back further into the ship with their "dog" following them.

Adamus: "We have to find your core and purge it of the gremlin!"

Evelyn: "Why isn't Lilly responding?"

While Val was playing the part of roadblock, Osram took a few steps and reached out to hit the emergency lock down on the door between the cargo bay and the rest of the ship.

"Like I said, nobody is purging anything until this gets sorted out."  He declared.

Osram then tried to get ahold of what was once NOD.  "Uh, not NOD.  Can you patch us through to wherever Gil and Lilly are?"

The emergency lockdown blocked the kids' path and they turned and looked at Osram.

Adamus: "You're keeping us prisoner too? I thought you were friendly!"

Evelyn: "They're just like the pirates!"

Varghest growled. The kids looked like they were ready for a fight...despite barely being 4 feet tall and unarmed.

Gryfter/NOD: "Just call me Gryftrr. You can use your comms. They're not locked. Lilly just isn't responding because she's busy. Skip didn't want her hands touching anything so he got the draw on her if you know what I mean. Hehehe."

It was surreal to hear the AI chuckle maliciously. It was almost as if it didn't like Lilly.

Val kept trying to calm down the children as they got increasingly close to throwing a tantrum.

"Friendly goes both ways kids,"  Osram stated, crossing his arms as he stood in front of the door.

"And friends don't just go touching their friends stuff, when they've been asked not to do it."

Trying to be reasonable he continued, "Now, if you want to talk to Lilly, just start talking and, uh, Gryfter here, will transmit it to where she is.  You can also just do what was asked a few moments ago and start explaining why you think things need to be reset.  If you have a good reason, then we'll talk to Andre and you can help him do that if he agrees."

The kids look at each other and ponder Osram's words. Then Evelyn begins petting Varghest to calm it down.

Adamus resorts to diplomacy: "Lilly is not responding. I am worried. Your AI sounds familiar. If it is infected with a gremlin, then you're in as much danger as we are. I do not want to 'touch your things', I merely want to protect our friend Lilly and ourselves."

The kids spoke in a rather adult manner. And refer to Lilly as their friend, not their guardian or mother or aunt or whatever.