The Institute for Systems Studies

Lorain's computer was locked, but Talia knew the password. "She had me get some files about a dig on Qarant a week ago. That and status reports on the new digs on Mirayn. It was all in her working files on the computer and in hard-copy file folders."

Indeed, the ship had transported personnel and supplies back and forth to a landing zone hacked out of the jungle on top of the Hill of the Ancient Guardians. The Mirayns stayed clear due to sonic fences, and there had been no clashes between native and archaeologists or their local staff.

"She was very disappointed. wanted to head the Mirayn digs herself. That was hers, she earned it! But as you know, the Institute promoted her to Assistant Director of the Archaeology Dept. and so she made the best of it. She didn't think Qarant was all that important and was a waste of time in researching the Sky Raiders.

"Huh. She liked to keep paper notes. There's her note pad. I guess she must have written the address to the restaurant down and taken the note with her."

On the desk by her keyboard was a blank pad of paper and a mechanical pencil. The area on her desk where Talia said Lorain kept her "working" files was mainly empty, only a few folders remained.

GM Note: You know much of this already, as you were contracted to help set up the 2 dig sites on Mirayn. One at the Hill of the Silent Guardians and the other at the city site (Tlaynsilak). You were not contracted to supply the Institute on Qarant for various political reasons.

Ken nodded and looked over Talia's shoulder as she accessed the computer.  "Neva, can you look through the file folders and see if anything jumps out at you.  Talia, what was going on with Qarant?  We hauled cargo and people to Mirayn but not to Qarant."  He took the pad and with the pencil tried to shade in with the pencil to see what might have impressed through to the current page.  "We'll also want to go through the working files on the computer and see what she was looking at most recently."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 2):

Neva chuckled at Ken doing the old shading trick on the pad.  "You beat me to it Ken.  You have good instincts.  Don't forget the second page too.  Depends on how hard she presses down when she rights.  The rest of the page might have more clues.  Yeah, I'll go look through her files."

Neva then looked over at Talia.  "Do you think the Institute promoted her to keep her away from the dig Talia?"

Neva started to search through the files, concentrating on Qarant first, and checks to see if there is anything to copy the files so they can look at them later.

Ken nodded as Neva spoke.  He glanced outside the window looking for activity even as he moved to stay out of sight and keep any lights from shining through to betray their presence. "Sounds like they were trying to keep her away if you ask me Neva."

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg # 3):

"Maybe the Institute did want to keep her from Mirayn, but why? Nothing else was found aside from the artefacts. That we know of, I guess?"

"One thing is for sure. She was really mad about her time being diverted to non-Sky Raider sites because she earned that right. Sites like Qarant were a big waste of time, for her.

Even the crew was allowed to return to Mirayn, as long as they stayed in the Outback and didn't cross paths with the Antiquity Police. While Kalamanaru had pull on Mirayn, clearly, so did the Institute.

"Okay, I'm in her computer. I'll bring up the files on Mirayn and the Sky Raiders."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:49, Wed 16 Apr 2014.

The pad yielded a few curious notes. They were cryptic, none seemed to make sense.

"query Laskan?" "Dumaer? - Quarant" and "fake???"


Talia brought up the computer files on Mirayn. The notes for the Hill of the Silent Guardians was not particularly enlightening and further analysis merely confirmed Lorain's early hypothesis:

The vault had been laser-tunnelled sometime around -4100 Imperial. Originally, it had housed some kind of electronics, probably communications due to a long-gone array on the nearby mountains. Then re-purposed as a burial chamber. The skeletons were human but DNA analysis confirmed they were non-Vilani. They used Vialni script but not the language, as had many minor and Imperial client races of that time period.

In the Sky Raider files there is an additional note from Lorain about the DNA sequencing and genotyping of the Sky Raiders' origins: "A specialist is needed. Can we get Laskan?"

Overall, the Sky Raider files are extensive and well cross-referenced. Most of the entries are by Lorain. In fact, there are thousands of pages of data included, far more than can be easily read at this time.

Ken tears the pad with the impressions away, careful to keep from leaving fingerprints.  He holds it up for the others to see.  "A couple of names and a planet, Quarant, also the word fake.  Laskan must be the man she wanted to have check on the DNA analysis.  We should track him down.  I'm not sure who Dumaer might be though.  And fake?  Could that refer to questions about the object we found?  It is very crude."

He shook his head at the notes.  "If those are Sky Raider corpses in the tomb then that means that they were some kind of minor human race that had contact with the Vilani when they were expanding.  Maybe they were colonizing using tech they got from the Vilani themselves."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 7):

Neva listened and then looked at the others.  "How about copying the information since it is so much here.  We could take it back to the ship and read it in more detail.  If not, then I suggest you use the words Laskan and Quarant as a search to see what comes up under those names.  She must have a word process program in there.  If nothing else copy and paste and send it to our PDA or something."

Ken glanced about the room.  "I don't want to have any emails from Loraine's machine that are traceable to us.  The police are sure to check things here." He goes over to the computer and stars searching on Laskan, Quarant and Dumaer.  "Let's do the search and see what else comes up.  See if there is a way into Lorain's assistant's office from here.  He might know of something."

The interior door to Lokhav's adjoining office was locked. It was pretty clear the corridor door was probably also locked.

At that moment, the office door was opened by two uniformed Campus police, who then entered, hands on the butts of their revolvers. Having seen Institute security before, these officers seemed authentic. They were wearing Cloth patrol vests, along with equipment belts and radios.

"May we see some ID and ask why you are here?"

In reply to GM (msg # 10):

"Dr. McKenzie. I'm part of the Institute's academic staff, and I am on the allowed access list for this office. We're checking Dr. Messandi's files to see if there's any evidence the police might have missed. So far, nothing."

She handed over her ID to the officer, who began checking it in his hand-comp. She motioned for Ken and Neva to do the same.

Ken froze for a moment and then stayed quiet as Talia spoke to the police.  Keeping his hands in sight he reached for his ID and handed it to the cops. "I'm Ken Jenkins a close friend of Lorain's."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 12):

Neva nodded to the officers and slowly took out her ID and handed them over for the police to look at.  She didn't want sudden movements to spook the officials.  She also didn't say who she was since her name was on her IDs.  If asked she would say but sometimes the minimal approach was best.

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg # 13):

The campus police checked their IDs against the list of people allowed to be on campus. Talia was authorised to have access to Lorain's office, and of course both Ken and Neva were associated to the Institute through the ship.

They thanked then and left. This was apparently a random patrol; security had been stepped up in the wake of Lorain's kidnapping.

In the mean time, the computer chugged through the search queries and backed up the files onto a holodiskette.

---

"Laskan": No results other than the brief note that a specialist in genetic anthropology would be helpful. There are no citations or references to his work.

"Dumaer": no references.

"Qarant": Qarant/Jungleblut, Far Frontiers-1833, E558260-7

http://www.joffrehorlor.com/Ro...m.php?SystemID=30597

Additional Notes: a recent Institute investigation mission to Qarant has determined that this World once hosted an indigenous culture, now extinct, of TL2. The Qarants were humanoid of unknown origin or antecedents and gradually died out 3000 years ago (@ -2000). Research on Qarant is greatly hampered by the fact the world is split between League and Hegemony zones under a treaty of co-dominion. Recent political events like the war hasn't helped matters any, although there is not yet any open conflict. The Institute researchers believe the most promising sites are all under Hegemony control, and strict security has kept them away. They believe that the Hegemony is starting to exploit the largest city belonging to Qarant's lost civilisation, and perhaps the oldest.

Library information on Qarant to be posted in Library Data thread.

After security had left, Neva read what had come up on her search.

"Ok.  I got this on a holodiskette but had mixed results.  Any other ideas on what to do for a search query?"

Neva motioned for the other two to come over and read what came up on their intitial search.

Ken frowned.  "I really think we need information on Laskan if we can.  That was her next step.  Then this Dumaer has me puzzled."

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg # 15):

Talia looked over their shoulders.

"This search was just for Lorain's files. We can do searches for "Laskan" using other databases and directories, unless he's not on-planet. For all we know, he's some kind of Scout researcher or a fellow in the Spinward Marches, and we're all but cut off due to the war. But someone's got to have heard of him! Maybe Dr. Lokhav will have heard of him and/or Dumaer, this has to do with Qarant, which he was handling."

"We should definitely do more searching in other venues.  It sounds like this Laskan might have something to do with genetics and anthropology.  That might narrow our search a bit.  Dumaer seems to be associated with Qarant.  We might have our Scouts sniff around to see if anyone in the Scouts has heard of any of this."  He shook his head.  "What is Dr. Lokhav like?  Can we trust him?"

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 18):

Neva started to do a search on the computer with alternate spellings for the name.  She knew that it had to be in there somewhere otherwise it would have been mentioned in the first place.  She also brought up the online calendar to see if it had any more clues.

"He was a relatively new assistant. Lorain didn't say much either way about him. Yes, I think he was an expert on the Qarant digs. He was hired just after her dad published Hoard of the Sky Raiders and next in line for the Assistant Director's post. It was given to Lorain instead, and he was made her assistant."

In reply to Neva Alexovna Morozova (msg # 19):

There was no record of Dr. Laskan in Lorain's files.

The Institute's data banks and Library Data for "Laskan" contain information on Dr. Chanis Laskan, a professor of genetic paleontology at the University of Regina. The doctor is a specialist in Vilani migration patterns though the Spinward Marches. Last information on him is dated 3 months prior, indicating he had left the University of Regina shortly before the war began (6 months ago) to take a position at the Institute for Systems Studies in the Far Frontiers Sector.

Dr. Delos Lokhav is a well-respected professor at the Institute, an expert in linguistic archaeology and pre-colonial history. Personal information is vague. There is contact information for him on-campus, and personal comm and email in the city directory.

In reply to GM (msg # 21):

Neva finally smiled up at the other two.  "Is this him Talia?"

Neva pointed out to the institutes record for Dr. Chanis Laskan.

"I have contact information for Dr. Lokhav Mark if you want to go and see him."

Ken nodded to Neva; "I definitely want to talk to Dr. Lokhav.  He may have some information that can tell us what Lorain was working on and what may have particularly drawn the kidnapping.  Of course it could be an attack of opportunity but I have to think that it's related to the artifact we found.  Why else would they have struck at us to steal it at the same time they kidnapped Lorain?"  Ken frowned; "Let's stay a bit vague about what we know with Lokhav until we have a better feel for him."

He takes a look at the contact information.  "Neva, is the door into his office locked?"

OOC: Is there an adjoining door or do we need to go back out into the hallway to look at Lokhav's office?

"Talia, these records show that Dr. Chanis Laskan is assigned to the Institute here.  Can you look into the records and see if there is contact information for him?  I'd be curious as to what Lorain was looking for from him."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 23):

The connecting door was locked.