What do we have here?

 

Present:

• MARMALADING Buzz "Cut". Solomani Soldier from Seven – Shane
• Dr Paczki Knodel. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Seven – Darryl
• Stella Cauthon. Solomani Rogue from Seven - Richard
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
• MARMALADING Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• MARMALADING Heidi Vasovagal. Solomani Scientist from Seven - Steven
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• Jon "Crash" Straker. Solomani Pilot from Seven – Jamie

by Richard

We are sitting supping coffee and debriefing with Dr Strangelove at the Cauthon Institute. Itzy has reminded us that for those who met with the Zhodani Ambassador, Anya Lukashenko, that we should check ourselves for bugs. None.

"Ve need to see how many of zee portals are inside someone – both those who were infected on Rose planet and those who weren’t infected. That is the vay ve vill understand this more," mused Paczki Knodel.

"We need a way of detecting them" Strangelove responded.

"Ya. My brother Powidła, Head of Genetic Medicines at the Vilnius Medical Institute, is vorking on zat. It vill involve fluid passing through a person with zee fluid containing zee necessary radioscopic components to detect zee miniscule radiation emitted from zee tiny portals"

"I vill take him another veek or so"

"If these portals are airborne then surely Anton, Itzy and Sang may be emitting them with their breathing" a worried Strangelove announced.

"Well, that horse has bolted hasn’t it?" Stella responded. "We've been travelling with them for weeks.

"Nevertheless, we should all wear N99 masks" and with that Strangelove rummaged through some nearby draws and produced a number.

Paczki's mobile phone rings, interrupting our thoughts and it is his brother Dr Faworki Knodel, from the hospital.

"Two of ze Zhodani girls are missing" exclaims Faworki. "Their guardian Ben is in an uproar. Can you please come?"

"Ya – zee team vill come now"

We quickly head to the monorail and catch the next one to the hospital where we go to Faworki's lab.

The investigation begins with the hospitals CCTV footage. The quality is very poor but it quickly reveals the two Zhodani girls walking though the hospital in the early hours and being met by what appeared to be two other Zhodani woman who then led them outside.

Switching to the hospitals outside, but equally poor quality CCTV, we see the girls being led to a white van and it driving away.

The quality of the CCTV is so poor that we are unable to recognize the Zhodani woman or see their features and nor are we able to identify the van's number plate.

We do notice however that there are a number of CCTV cameras on buildings and atop poles, clearly put here by the authorities.

"We should ask the police for the footage" says Stella

"They won't give it to us" responds Sang "better I hack in to their system"

"If we do that first and fail then we are at a dead end and perhaps in jail. Why don’t we see if the police will allow us to view their tapes and if that fails then we try and hack in" 

"I suppose" accepted Sang who was dying to continue to use her very impressive computer skills.

We obtain documentation on Z1 and Z3 (the Zhodani girls) stating they are patients under the care of Dr Faworki Knodel and head off to the police.

Stella with her blouse slightly undone and offering generous donations to the Police Benevolent Fund convinces Sergeant Sherbet to allow us to view the tapes. These show our two Zhodani, Z1 and Z3, being led to a white van, licence plate ZOD12579X.

CCTV footage

Using the police network of cameras, we then follow that vans route directly to the Zhodani Embassy!

"We should have another meeting with Ania, I think" says Stella

We head back to the Cauthon Institute and Stella texts Ania seeking a further meeting. Ania quickly responds and agrees to meet the next day for a drink at the Shining Rose pub at 1pm.

The next day Crash, Anton and Stella head to the Shining Rose where they meet Ania and several of her entourage and guards.

An amicable but pointed conversation occurs with Anya denying everything but struggling to explain why the van entered embassy grounds. Enough information is shared about portals and nano technology to clearly worry the Zhodani ambassador.

Returning to the Cauthon Institute, Crash immediately contacts Sergeant Bates of the Imperium soldiers and updates him with recent developments and seeks an armed presence at the hospital on the strong suspicion that the Zhodani will try and take the other 4 girls Z2, Z4, Z5 & Z6.

And our suspicions were well founded. The next morning Faworki calls Paczki advising him that Zhodani entered the hospital again last night and this time were captured by the Imperium guard. They were arrested but sought and were granted diplomatic immunity as they were Zhodani embassy staff.

We obtain a photo of the two Zhodani arrested from Bates and quickly verify that they were two of Anya's staff at the Shining Rose.

Now we commenced the experimentation part of the evening.

"I haf been contemplating" advised Paczki.

"Ve need to conduct a number of experiments to determine how many portals are within someone and where those portals go. My hypothesis is that there is 100's within those infected from the Rose planet and that they all lead back to the Rose planet at the point of infection"

"Why are we doing this?" questions Stella

"Because it is science and the Cauthon Institute is a science led organization" ( Little did Powidła know that the scientific component of the Cauthon Institute was just an entry point or trojan horse to enable the Cauthon Institute and its Imperium backers to infiltrate various societies to enhance its capitalistic and militaristic objectives. Stella of course knew of this and used it to further her own personal objectives. )

Stella raised her eyebrows "Very well, let's get on with whatever you have planned."

"Very good! We vill need to continue to analyse the genetic material, use nano bot technology to explore those infected and perhaps those not infected and also use my tubular technology to identify where the portals go."

"We vill start with one of the Zhodani girls"

We made our way to the hospital and advised Faworki that we wanted to use the nano bot technology to explore one of the Zhodani girls' systems to identify how many portals were inside. Faworki would only do this with Ben's consent which he provided on the basis that Powidła would not "cure them" for fear of his life.

"I vill not cure zem" he promised.

In respect to the genetic material, we learnt quickly by referencing prior experiments and analysis that the genetic mutations were extremely varied. No two genetic mutations were the same. We did though learn through that process that Zhodani were human 100,000 years ago.

"We could cure them from being Zhodani?" questioned Crash

"Yes, technically so" responded Faworki " but highly unethical and ironically we could turn Humans into Zhodani too"

All the group except Stella were keen to use the nano bots to enter a Zhodani girl, via the tear duct, given it was their brain that was impacted and mutated.

Stella was very reluctant given the harm caused to her last time but the group soon realized they needed her navigation skills and so convinced her into coming.

The voyage begins. Psych rolls are made and Anton fails and whines tirelessly in the corner. Space craft and navigation rolls are successful.

Crash's blade gets wedged in the portal

After 10 minutes or so we come across a portal. Sang and Crash go out to cut it out using nano bot blades. Crash misses and his blade becomes wedged in the portal and unable to be retrieved. 

Sang is successful and we begin the trip back portal in tow.

Suddenly our radiation sensors go into overdrive with significant radiation detected. 

"It is coming from ze portal" 

"Its unidirectional" said Crash "point it away"

We did and the radiation diminished and we continued our journey back. But shortly after the radiation levels rose again sharply.

"We have to leave it" said Sang urgently

"And get out of here" said a panicking Itzy.

We leave the portal and quickly make our way back to the needle and out the tear duct. Dr Faworki recognizes our return and completes the necessary procedures to bring us around.

As we all slowly wake, the more astute of us notice the Zhodani head throbbing red until moments later it explodes. Those who were perceptive dived for cover in time but Stella, Anton ad Itzy all look damage dropping hit points to 4,3,4 respectively.

" Zere was no radiation until ve cut it out – I sink ze portals are morphing and intelligent"

"Didn’t you say you got a nano blade stuck in it?" his brother question

"Yah"

"Vell that would be sufficient energy to cause this effect I zink. A normal blade wouldn't but a nano blade has its own energy and I would calculate half a giga electron."

"Zat explains it zen"

By now we have turned the air pumps off and using the filter system to see how many minute portals are in the air. We all have masks on to avoid inadvertent swallowing.

After 12 hours being "imprisoned" in the lab, wearing masks and covered in Zhodani blood and matter, we discover 6 micro portals in the filters.

"Tat is very useful information" Faworki exclaims – we should just blow up more Zhodani!

We take a few days rest. Paczki puts the portals on slides.

"ve could make bombs out of these " he mutters. 

Anton, Itzy and Stella rest to regain all their hit points and Anton is psychoanalyzed to stop him being a whimpering mess.

After a few days rest we decide to take a similar voyage into Anton to see if he still has portals in him despite being cured. This time the voyage is relatively uneventful and we discover a portal but don’t cut it out, to everyone's relief. I say relatively as Paczki failed his psych roll and became a little crazier.

Upon our exit we tried to psychoanalyze him but fumbled and made things worse. Nothing a few days in a psych ward won't fix.

After Paczki returns to relative normality, we decide to undertake our last experiment – to use the tubular technology and a small bot to take photos through the portal. 

This in fact goes well – the tubes work and the nano robot is able to successfully take photos and return. We of course are not prepared to put one of us through it or open both ends of the tube at once.

All mcro portals to Rose, it seems

The photos are all of the Rose planet, in the wilderness where we suspect the infections occurred.

"I vould be interesting to see if someone who was on the Rose planet but not infected, had ze micro portals"

We all look at the marmalading Hoff – the only non-infected Rose survivor.

So, will Hoff stop marmalading enough to allow a further voyage into the unknown, or maybe he can be entered while actually marmalading? 

What further secrets can we unlock?

Nano Bots, Zhodani and Portals

 Present:

• MARMALADING Buzz "Cut". Solomani Soldier from Seven – Shane
• Dr Paczki Knodel. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Seven – Darryl
• Stella Cauthon. Solomani Rogue from Seven - Richard
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
• MARMALADING Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• Heidi Vasovagal. Solomani Scientist from Seven - Steven
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• Jon "Crash" Straker. Solomani Pilot from Seven – Jamie

by Ian

Nano Bots, Zhodani and Portals

Our group of space travellers are eagerly sitting in the lab as the expensive equipment charges up. Finely tuned motors steer the electron gun toward the nano-portal, suspended in the receiving cradle. The voltage climbs and as soon as a critical energy level is met, the electron stream starts to scan the portal.

Instantly, the tiny portal defends itself and reverse blasts an explosion. The team later determine was the equivalent of about 1kg of TNT detonated in the lab!

A super-heated blast expands out from the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) and destroys the lab wall, sending glass and shrapnel all around the observation room. Luckily, everyone dives for cover in time and avoids any significant damage. The same cannot be said for the $1 billion-credit microscope. It stood significantly damaged in the centre of the room, while fire devoured the flammable materials.

The Imperium guards burst into the area and were reassured to see this was not another Zhodani attack. The university technicians and staff scrambled the fire extinguishers with the sprinkler system doing the rest.

An extremely pale looking Dr Faworki Knodel mentions the devastating loss to the University and how could they possibly recover? Their insurance excess alone could fund a small country.

"Vhere is the portal?" Dr Faworki asks? The party that were there all shrug "Dunno - sounds like a you problem?" (Spanner and Paczki were not present - the party members present were not smart enough to think through such problems). 

An astute lab assistant who looked remarkably like Jamie, suggested an air extraction through a filter. The nano portal was 3 microns in diameter so the filter just had to be small than that.

The room was sealed as best they could and the air pumps started. It was going to take a few hours. Meanwhile everyone agreed that keeping four Imperium guards (and Sergeant Bates) around would be wise.

A short while later, Stella gets a comms from Dr Strangelove. Apparently the Zhodani ambassador (embassy is based in Vilnius) wants to meet with the Cauthon crew that visited Rose.

Zhodani Ambassador
Anya Lukashenko

"The Ambassador is Anya Lukashenko. She is a big deal and you should meet" Strangelove insists. An appointment is quickly arranged and a small delegation of Stella, Crash and Anton head to the address of the Zhodani Embassy.

The three are ushered in with no issue or unnecessary formality. They are shown to a comfortable meeting room and Anya enters. Introductions are made.

"Well, sank you for agreeing to meet wit me" Anya starts. "Ve are very keen to work wit you folk that visit Rose planet and are now riddled with small portals. Ve can help research and get zem removed".

Stella immediately employs her talented negotiation and diplomacy skills. "Oh, that sounds interesting? How precisely would you do that?".

"It would be nothing. We would just haf to open zem up and dig round a little...".

The conversation went to and fro. Nothing was agreed with certainty, but also nothing was left off the table. The Zhodani agreed to assist with the replacement of the scanning transmission electron microscope if they could have access to a nano portal or two to study. While the Zhodani research facilities were not that good on Vilis, they were high quality (equivalent to the hospital here) back in Zhodani systems.

Anya denied knowing anything about the recent Zhodani train assault. Stella provided the images obtained from the police and security footage.

Anya asked Stella why Dr Strangelove was the head at the major Cauthon institute on Vilis? He was not well liked and known for being creepy and lecherous. Stella defended Dr Strangelove with a simple "He gets things done."

Anya was intrigued to find that Anton was one of the party that had actually visited Rose. She was keen to know as much as possible. Luckily Anton was not exactly a wealth of valuable information.

The three shake hands and depart via taxi. They watch for followers but see none. Eventually everyone meets up back at the University.

Dr Paczki Knodel then tries to determine the scale of the nano-portal and the explosion. Various math and beard stroking occurred. In the end, they knew that the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) would have used 400 Giga Electron Volts of energy (barely anything). 

A 3.6 metre full-size portal scaled to a 3.6 µm micro portal is a million times smaller. The portal-multiplier is about 100 (on planet Augustus in Zeta 2 system a 10MT device was put through and a 1GT explosion resulted). Assuming the explosion goes by the cube of the portal scale, this means we multiply the stream from the STEM by 1 million cubed and by another 100 for the portal-multiplier.

So, the 400GeV pulse yields 400x10^9 x 10^18 x 100 = 4E31 eV which is equal to 1.5 kg of TNT.

At some point the air pump signalled it had finished. The scientists examined the filter extremely carefully. Terrific news in that the nano-portal was indeed there! High fives all around, in particular that tech that looked like Jamie.

Dr Paczki Knodel was also brought an experiment he was working on that was making a nano-sized carapace shell out of his synthetic materials. A small egg shaped canister with screw cap was provided.

The group discussed the next actions:

1. Descend to the underground testing facility with the nano-portal to try and scan the portal for radiation. The underground facility was shielded from the natural radiation closer to the surface that would have swamped any detection attempts.
2. Descend to the underground testing facility with the nano-portal to try sending through the Dr Knodel carapace with a tiny custom bot inside
3. Go to the main Hospital and help Spanner with understanding her genetic issues

The party and the scientists decide to scan for radiation as this is an easy test. Everyone heads down the long elevator decent to 100m below ground, then to a chamber that is shielded by heavy water. A scanner is placed near the small portal and at about 1mm, they detect a very weak radiation signal. The radiation that matches planet Rose. Hypothesis confirmed, but difficult to use the information as the scanner has to be literally beside the portal. The original idea was to try and use a scan to detect the portals. That is not going to work with the current technology.

Portal Pod Experiments

A day waiting is spent as the Hospital research technicians build a simple nano-bot that does a series of actions:

- Wait for 1 minute

- Unscrew a carapace cap from the inside

- Move to outside the capsule

- Take a series of photos

- Return to the capsule

- Internally roll the capsule 'back'

- Screw the lid closed

- Stop

With this all ready, the party move the portal and equipment to the nano-remote control lab. Anton, Knodel and Spanner put on the bot control caps and get ready to go. The bots are put into a syringe and delivered to the portal slide. They carefully make their way to the portal with Knodel leading a wheelbarrow that has his capsule on it. At this scale its an egg shape of roughly 1m x2m dimension.

They open one end and carefully place the programmed bot inside. They start the bot and a time and quickly screw shut the lid. The trio manoeuvre the pod to the portal and send the capsule through. There was a strong Gamma ray burst at the moment the portal was breached.

They wait the designed 5 minutes and the capsule comes back! Unscrew the end and the bot was there! The program had a green success status light blinking.

The explorers return to the syringe and are safely extracted. The tiny bot uploads its data and a series of low quality photos displays. The party members that were on Rose instantly recognize the photo location as the main Spire portal control room on Rose, within Spire City. It looks like the tiny portal exited around where the 128 bit mushroom control panel was.

Spanner Nano Mission

Everyone regroups and celebrates the success of proving that the carapace will work.

"What are we going to do now?"

Dr F. Knodel checks Spanner and Itzy by drawing another blood sample. He confirms that they are both still experiencing ongoing genetic mutation. Spanner decides that enough is enough and it is time to be cured.

Dr F. Knodel confirms he can direct the mission to a location where a fix can applied. Volunteers are called for and all but the group's Dr P. Knodel connect up to the nano-bot controls.

We zoom to the nano-submarine with Crash at the helm and the party are injected into Spanners arm.

Almost immediately the crew spot a nano-portal in the wall of the vein. The sub is parked and Spanner volunteers to cut out her own portal.

The bots are guided to a nearby 'body cell'. All but Itzy and Stella make it through the transition gate. Unfortunately they are stuck on the outside. As the inside team cut a hole to let them in, they notice three P53 proteins rapidly approaching to defend Spanner's systems.

"Fire missiles!" Anton directs as he cuts the wall. "Hmmmm, our only 2 missile fighters outside at the moment?". After a series of eye-rolls and forehead slapping, Crash, Anton and Spanner prepare to take on the 3 proteins, with Heidi as a backup. They have a short wait as the defence proteins close the distance.

As the Proteins rapidly approach, Stella squeezes through the fresh opening and has time to fire one missile! 20! She breaks her missile launcher permanently (for this trip).

Next Itzy comes though, has time to fire a missile and it goes wide.

The defence proteins arrive for the first combat wave. The party engage and suffer only minor hits. They cause significant damage and Stella supports Spanner to immediately destroy one of the 3.

They collectively clear the defence Proteins without further fuss and move off to the Nucleus. They approach the entry cilia channel and enter. Most make it but Stella and Crash take significant damage (6 and 4 respectively). A quick round of first aid to help and the group continue to the DNA strand where they follow the Professor F. Knodel instructions and replace a mutated section with a corrected section of DNA string.

As the cell starts to split and apply the correct programming, the crew speed back to the vein, submarine and portal. They carefully navigate with a successful pilot roll for Crash and easily make it to the extraction site and zap back to the syringe. Everyone leaves the nano-bot control systems without issue.

Dr P. Knodel's Tube

After a couple of days of healing, the parties Dr Paczki Knodel gathers the group with a new experiment.

This time he has a nano sized tube. This one has a screw cap at either end, but is much longer than the egg shaped prototype shell. The objective is to see if the carapace tube can stay in the portal and still protect the occupants through.

**Note that it was stressed that at NO time was the tube to be fully opened at both ends at the same time, therefore allowing a 're-pressurization' event. Basically the tube is to be used just like an air lock.**

P. Knodel, Anton, Heidi and Spanner connect up and get ready to go. They target the SAME portal as the first test (Anton's portal). Off they go with the tube cylinder and bot at the ready.

They load the bot into the tube and push the tube half way through and unscrew their end. The bot is sitting there in the tube perfectly fine, test program count down proceeding perfectly. They carefully close their screw end again.

They wait.....

The bot is again programmed to open the other end, take a photo - this time they are keen to get a photo of the tube as it extends from the portal.

They test and when they assume the bot end is open, they cannot pull the tube back at all. It is locked solid.

When they know the bot is finished and can safely assume that the end is screwed closed - they CAN pull the tube back to the party side.

SUCCESS!

They return to the lab and download the images and see all the same things. The destination had not changed.

One more experiment. This time Sang's Portal. The same team performing the same actions. All went well. This time on return the photos showed a wilderness area that seemed to be near the mountains, close to Ben's cave area it seems. The photo looking back just shows the tube suspended in mid air. There is no visible sign of any portal exit.

It is clear the party have discovered a different kind of portal that is similar to the static portals that transport users to Rose, but this time:

1. Nano sizing

2. Mobile. Able to move around. The portal is ALWAYS perfectly vertical, but can be spun around 360 degrees, move vertically and horizontally.

Once everyone is back together, rested and fed they start discussing the next options. Looking to answer some of the following questions:

1. Do Ben Gunn's brain-dead Zhodani girls that were on Rose have nano-portals in them?

2. Does each human have only one portal or are they carrying many?

3. How can we 'detect' Portals without being 1 micron away from it?

4. Does Itzy want to be cured of his genetic mutations? Or keep them and take the chance that his groin does not become mushrooms like Anton's did?

Complications

Present:

• Buzz "Cut". Solomani Soldier from Seven – Shane
• MARMALADING Dr Paczki Knodel. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Seven – Darryl
• Stella Cauthon. Solomani Rogue from Seven - Richard
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
• MARMALADING Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• Heidi Vasovagal. Solomani Scientist from Seven - Steven
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• Jon "Crash" Straker. Solomani Pilot from Seven – Jamie

by Richard

The mission to Vilis has been meant to cure the mutations of Anton, Sang and Itzy.

Anton's fungoid member and secretion of formic acid appeared to have been cured or at least on its way to being cured, through our nano-bot medical examination and internal adventure, however entirely new questions about the Ancients' technology and the nature of the infection itself had been revealed.

We now had, in a containment unit, a microscopic portal glowing with faint rose-coloured light, a tiny doorway to a nightmare world that operated at every conceivable scale.

Powidła Knodel - Head of Genetic Medicines at the Vilnius Medical Institute, and Paczki's brother, was rubbing his hands with glee. Never had such an amazing opportunity for scientific research at the cutting edge of technology been at his fingertips.

"Ve vill need ze assistance with ze research on zis portal" Powidła proclaimed.

"I have such a man – ze Head of ze Physics Department at Vilis Institute of Technology and Management. His name is Dr Faworki Knodel" [ pronounce "fah-VOR-key" ]

"Don’t say another brother?" asked Anton.

"Ya, of course – I have six brothers – seven of us in all – all in ze sciences except Gołąbki who is a market gardener."

"I need you to take zee portal to Dr Faworki. He vill be very helpful".

"Best you take the monorail – there is a station at zee Institute. You three (pointing at Anton, Itzy and Sang) vill need to vear masks to reduce the impact of the prions."

"Can't we get a driver and car?" asked Stella, having woken up from her marmalading state.

"Nein. Zis is a big city with 25m people – car is too inefficient"

Stella thought about arguing. She hated public transport but thought better of it and with a sigh acquiesced.

Buzz gets the briefcase

We were provided with a briefcase, lined with iron, that fitted the containment unit holding the microscope slide (and cover slip) containing the microscopic portal. Buzz took it and we headed to the monorail stop.

The trip would be a little over an hour with several station stops. 

About 30 minutes into the journey, and between stations, the train came to a abrupt stop. Shortly after, the door to our carriage was forced open by four Zhodani.

[ DM note: Zhodani make up about 10% of the normal Imperium population (along with pointy-eared Daryens and Viking Sword-Worlders), so despite the diplomatic incident at Winston, there is little anti-Zhodani sentiment in normal society, apart from the normal latent racism. ]  

They had side-arms and were yelling for everyone to get down. Everyone did.

Buzz tried to slide the brief case under a seat and attracted a bullet that intentionally missed him by a few millimetres.

"Hey – no need for that!" Buzz yelled, and immediately attracted two more bullets this time to the chest and abdomen. Buzz fell back, a pool of blood forming around his unconscious body.

"Can we tend to him?" Stella asks in her most appeasing tone.

"Get on with it" grunted one of the Zhodani. "And give us that briefcase."

Heidi attended to Buzz, stopping his bleeding. In the commotion caused, Anton [with a superbly successful Stealth roll] opened the briefcase and discretely removed the microscope slide containing the portal and secreted it on himself.

On the Zhodani command he slid the briefcase across to them.

"What's the combination?" they grunted.

"1,2,3,4,5,6" responded Anton

The Zhodani open the now empty briefcase.

Angrily looking back at us they demand "where is the slide?!"

At this point Stella speaks up (being the one with the highest appearance and Persuasion).

"We do not know of any slide," she quizzically responds. "We are on instruction from the Vilnius Medical Institute to travel to the Vilis Institute of Technology and Management to pick up a package and deliver it back – we know of no slide."

Stella said this in the most eloquent and non-confrontational manner using a limited amount of Zhodani.

"We were told you were delivering a slide to the Institute," grunted the Zhodani.

"Well, I can't possibly know what you were told, Miss, but unfortunately that information is not correct. We are to pick up a package, and we don’t even know what that is," continued Stella.

The sounds of sirens can be heard getting closer above the Zhodani tirade and the even louder feminine-like squealing of Buzz in agony.

The Zhodani glance at each other, leave quickly, climb down the monorail pylons and disappear from site. 

The monorail resumes its journey and at the next station the police swarm on board and quickly gather us in one carriage to question us. An ambulance is also called for Buzz.

We are fully cooperative with the cops, and remain consistent with the story we told the Zhodani (that we are travelling to the Vilis Institute of Technology and Management to pick up a package). 

Sang with her photographic memory was able to describe the Zhodani perfectly and the carriage had CTV which confirmed what happened. It did not however pick up the fact Anton had surreptitiously opened the briefcase. It also did not pick up Stella's claim that her Rolex had been stolen.

After the police left the party quietly discussed next steps.

"Clearly someone is a leak – we can't completely trust anyone"

"Let's get the slide and its contents to the Cauthon Institute for safe keeping"

"That’s a good idea – how?"

"We can call Dr Strangelove and ask that a lower functionary meet us at the Cauthon stop and we can discretely deliver them the slide – Anton could do that – no one expects a fat man to be discrete."

"Also ask for a radio frequency monitor"

"And then we carry onto the Institute and look to pick up the package"

"Good idea – we need to stick with our story"

And so, the plan was laid, and Stella rings Dr Strangelove and agrees that we will discretely give the package to Cauthon operative Jane Wally at the Cauthon Institute monorail stop. A picture of her is sent to us, and we send back a photo of Anton (taken on wide lens).

"I don’t like the look of her," comments Stella

"Why?" asks Itzy "She's gorgeous."

"Exactly!!" [Stella has an appearance of 17 and Jane was 18 – creating a not-so-easy-to-like jealous Stella].

Jane Wally at the Cauthon
Institute monorail stop

Our monorail stops at Cauthon Institute Station, and Anton uses his stealth to deliver our package to Jane, and pick up the cigarette-packet sized radio frequency monitor. Where Jane hid it was anyone's guess.

We carry on to the Institute of Technology and Management and head to the Physics department and find our way to Dr Faworki Knodel's office. His Zhodani(!) assistant meets us and asks us to wait. We all look at each having the same question running through our minds – is this the leak? (all except Anton whose mind is 6 and has very little running through it)

Knodel, like all the Knodels we have met, is eccentric and loud, with a strong accent. But eventually we get him to listen to us away from is assistant's keen ears. For extra precaution we use Anton's Hall Pass. (This is an Ancients' technology bracelet that he picked up months ago - pre Rose - that stops all devices that use the Hall effect - i.e. transistors, ICs, MOSFETs - within a 3m radius. Note that vacuum tube valves don't use the Hall effect. )

Deciding that we have little choice but to trust Faworki we tell him our stories – both the truth and the fabricated one we told the Zhodani. We ask him to play along with the fabricated story, which he agrees to.

Faworki's main concern is cooperating with the Cauthon Institute, which he lambasts (he doesn't think much of Strangelove) until Stella is fully introduced to him. She then, as she is apt to do, works to convince him the Cauthon Institute would willingly form an alliance with the Physics department and fund valuable research. Stella loves contracts.

Playing along with our façade, Faworki gets a slide from the biology department and has it delivered to us. This is in front of his assistant and we will soon see where her loyalties lie.

We then start our monorail journey back to the Vilnius Medical Institute, a journey which is uninterrupted (maybe we can trust Faworki's assistant after all).

Getting back, we rejoin with Buzz, who had luckily been brought by the ambulance to this very hospital facility, and quickly regroup with Powidła Knodel.

We use the radio frequency monitor to detect for bugs and find several through Powidła's office and on the office phone. Itzy writes a warning down for Powidła to read and asks him to go along with us.

"Yes, we will take the slide in two days" we say, over-emphasizing the point.  "We will be back then".

We now head to the Cauthon Institute and are welcomed by Dr Strangelove. The slide had been placed in a secure safe in Stella's apartment and with a guard on the door at all times.

"We need to work with the physics department and Dr Faworki" says Strangelove after lengthy discussions. "They have the technology and the scanning transmission electron microscopes that we don’t, and which will be needed to property investigate and observe the micro portal."

"I think we should tell Admiral Ramsbottom" suggests Crash and Itzy.

"Yes, we probably should"

We send a message to Ramsbottom, leader of the Villis Imperial Forces, explaining the circumstances, and quickly get a reply advising that a Sergeant Bates will be at the Cauthon Institute shortly.

"That was prompt" muttered Anton and indeed within two hours Sergeant Bates and four heavily-armed Imperium soldiers arrive. Bates, who we smirkingly in a teenager-type of matter, refer to as Master, is fully up to date with who we are and our backgrounds.

We inform him fully of what has occurred emphasizing the Zhodani plot to steel the micro portal and feeding on the Imperium's paranoia of the Zhodani ambition to take Imperium space using Ancient technology.

We explain that we need to take the micro portal to the Institute of Technology and Management to be fully assessed utilizing their technology. 

"We need to ensure the Zhodani don’t intercept us"

"There are 800 million on Vilis Prime" explains Bates, "they aren’t all bad."

"Nevertheless, we need to be careful"

"Would you like an armed escort of Imperium soldiers? – maybe a squad"

"How about a platoon" suggests Stella fluttering her eyes.

"That would seem appropriate" responds Bates staring at Stella's ample cleavage.

The Imperium help out

Three hours later a platoon of 32 Imperium soldiers, with two mechs, arrives and safely escort us to the Institute.

We quickly connect with Dr Faworki and search the facilities for bugs. We find several and destroy them. Clearly the Zhodani have been watching these facilities for some time suspecting they were investigating Ancient technology.

Now the investigations begin on the micro portals.

And do Sang and Itzy also carry then? given they are suffering the Rose Planets DNA modification.

And will Stella's attempt at a contract between the Cauthon Institute and the Institute of Technology and Management, Physics department reap reward?

And will we meet another Knodel brother?

These questions and more will be answered next week.