Old Friends in New Places

The crew docks with Pitcairn Station and finds that there is something wrong with it's inhabitants

Detailed Summary
Previously on Swan Song, the crew handed over Loren Desoto to Rajani Van Dorne after learning that the Purity Initiative exemplar had previously been addicted to morphine. Now, the party is currently on a mission that they received from a space-net job posting:

EMPLOYMENT CODE: X2-II7G

Richardson Scientific deep-space research station SR-389 has been out of contact for over two months now, and we just don’t have the resources to send someone to check on it. There are 46 men and women aboard that station and we need to make sure they’re okay. Fuel costs plus a 50,000 credit fee for reports on the state and condition of the station. NO SALVAGING.

Premise
The scene fades in onto a small asteroid rotating in space. After a couple of seconds, the asteroid makes contact with a metal wall releasing a 'clang' sound as it bounces off in a different direction. The camera zooms out and multiple asteroids can be seen clanging off of what turns out to be the battleship, Harridan's Heart. The Harridan's Heart slowly makes its way through the asteroid field until only the tail of its engines can be seen.

A new scene fades in, this time on a very large asteroid. The asteroid has a built-in research station on it, but all of the lights are off. The Swan Song can be seen landing on the station as the title reads: 'Two Months Later - Sector 006 - Richardson Scientific Research Station SR-389 a.k.a. Pitcairn Station'.

Piani's Cybernetic Eye
The date is unknown.

Prior to going to Pitcairn Station, Piani Pic is in her room with Erik Fretheim and Pi as she takes off her eye-patch for the first time since having her new cybernetic eye installed. Immediately, her eye boots up with a display of Chinese characters. After a couple of seconds, the characters disappear and Piani winces as pain shoots up to her eye. The pain quickly passes and when Piani opens her eyes again, she is able to see a translucent blue aura around Erik. She glances at Pi's robot body and sees no aura, but when she glances at herself, she sees a faint blue aura similar, but different, to the one around Erik. She quickly leaves her room and barges in on Wilbur Higgins III who is happily dancing around in his tighty-whities to Garth Brooks, 'To Make You Feel My Love'. Piani notices that Higgins' aura is kind of similar to her's and Erik's, but it is red in color instead of blue. She quickly rushes to Alpharius' room.

As she is making her way to Alpharius' room, Piani catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror which makes her stop. In the mirror is Piani, but she is dressed differently. The reflection is wearing a normal t-shirt and has on face-paint to match. She is also holding a red plastic cup and has her hair tied-up in a ponytail. Behind her is a group of people that are dressed similarly ―she seems to be in the middle of a party. Piani notices that her reflection does not have a cybernetic eye, and as she is taking all of this information in, the 'reflection' becomes startled and walks out of the frame of the mirror. Piani blinks and the mirror turns back to 'normal'.

Confused about what had happened in the mirror, and what is happening with the auras around people's bodies, Piani walks into Alpharius' room and sees him watching a movie off of the hologram projector for his beard. Alpharius has an aura that is very different from the other crew members. His is made up of sharp angles and is predominately pale-blue with spikes of indigo throughout. Piani then goes back to her room and Erik pulls of some metal side-paneling of the ship and asks if Piani is able to see any of his psychic power. Piani does in-fact see tendrils of light pass through Erik's fingertips to the paneling. She mentions the information regarding auras to Erik but withholds the information about her reflection in the mirror.

The Consonance
A pinging sound resonates from within the Swan Song and Pi says over speakers that they are two hours out from where the station is. Alpharius then begins to guide the Swan Song through an asteroid field when suddenly the ship's scanners detect a nearby explosion. Looking out the viewport, the cargo-ship Consonance can be seen floating through space with its atmosphere vented and its fuel leaking. Piani does a scan of the ship and finds that it has no life-signs. After reading that the Consonance is a freighter meant to carry ice, the crew immediately begins harvesting the ice and adding it to their cargo-bay. While Higgins manages the transfer of the ice, Erik and Alpharius suit up and go into the piloting section of the Consonance.

Meanwhile, in the control-room of the Swan Song, Piani hears a clattering behind her. She looks back and sees Wu's necklace hanging from the ceiling where a metal grate had just fallen to the ground. Piani walks over to the necklace, says into the air that she hadn't known Wu for very long but that he seemed like a good man, and then puts the necklace into her suit pocket.

Currently looking at a Swan Song video feed of Piani, Higgins sees her turn around in her chair to look at something behind her. However, instead of going to investigate, she simply stays put in her chair and doesn't move. After a few seconds, Higgins sees Piani reach out to something and then the video feed turns to static.

Before going back to her seat, Piani notices that on the video feed on her computer terminal, there is a blurred outline of a person sitting in her seat. At this, Piani cocks her head and then all of a sudden her eye is filled with pain. She closes her eyes for a couple of seconds and then when she opens them back up, she is sitting in her chair at the terminal. She quickly checks her pocket where she had put Wu's necklace and it isn't there. She then looks behind her and Wu's necklace is hanging on the same metal pipe that it once was.

Finding nothing of importance, Erik and Alpharius climb back onto the Swan Song, and with a minimum of 10,000 credits worth of ice in the cargo-hold, the crew begin to head towards Pitcairn Station with the intent on selling the location of the ice-freighter they had just left behind.

Pitcairn Station
The scene fades in on the Swan Song approaching the same large asteroid that was seen in the premise of the show, Pitcairn Station. When Piani attempts to scan the station, she finds that there is a high-energy transmitter somewhere in the vicinity that is purposefully scrambling all of their sensor data. The Swan Song then gets a hail in the form of a text-message that reads "Sorry, having problems with the comm system. Come on in." Not having anything else to do, Alpharius lowers the Swan Song into a landing hanger. A metal roof closes over top of them and the crew disembark from their ship and head into the station.

The first thing that the crew notices after leaving the ship are the numerous amounts of Richardson Scientific logos everywhere. They walk up to a holographic terminal and a VI pops up, flickers for a couple of seconds, and then disappears. At this time, Alpharius mentions that it is odd that no one had came to welcome them to the station. Piani hacks into a nearby terminal and finds the station to be the size of a small city. She also finds that the station's main processor is pulling way more power than it should. She then is able to bring back up the VI on the holographic projector. After the VI gives its automated welcome sequence, Piani asks it how many people are currently on the station. The VI responds that there are currently 46 people on the station not including themselves which matches the information that they were previously given. Piani then asks what is wrong with the communication and the VI responds that all communications equipment on the station is functioning as intended. Alpharius says to the crew that they were obviously lied to. Piani suggests going to the security block first as they may need access to the rest of the station if things are to continue the way they are.

Habitation Block
The crew find themselves in the habitation block as they need to pass through here in order to get to the security block. Everywhere seems very well lit and there are no obvious signs of deterioration or violence. While walking through a hallway with two-tiered apartments on either side of them, the crew come across a golf-cart-like vehicle that has crashed into the door of a nearby apartment. Interested, the crew remove the golf-cart and then Alpharius and Erik pry open the nearby hotel door. From inside, a plasma beam discharges through the entryway, splashing onto the opposite side apartment wall. Alpharius then hears footsteps from inside of the room but by the time he goes and checks where they are coming from, the only movement he finds is from a grate in the ceiling swaying back and forth. Alpharius immediately climbs into the air-duct and pursues after the person who had shot at them.

Alpharius drops down into another apartment and immediately feels the barrel of a gun pressed against his back. A man's voice comes from behind him telling Alpharius not to move. Disobeying the man's orders, Alpharius quickly spins around and knocks the guys arm away which causes the pistol he is holding to discharge into the wall. Alpharius then fires his own pistol into the man's chest and the man slumps to the ground. Still conscious, Alpharius asks the man where the others are. He responds, "They are everywhere" before taking his last breath and dying.

Alpharius crawls back through the air-duct to the apartment where the man had originally shot at the crew and searches around. He finds a lab coat belonging to a woman and takes her ID card in hopes that it will give the crew access that they normally wouldn't have. At this time, Pi sends a message to Piani saying that someone is trying to access the Swan Song's computer system and that they are very persistent. Piani explains the situation to the rest of the crew and says that she needs to go back to the Swan Song to try and protect Pi. In the end, Higgins and Piani decide to use the golf-cart to go back to the Swan Song while Erik and Alpharius continue on to the security block.

In Trouble
Higgins and Piani peer through the doors of the docking bay and see six people in total standing around the Swan Song. One of them has connected a computer terminal to the Swan Song in an attempt to gain access, two people are using welder torches on the cargo-bay door, and three people are dressed up like guards standing-watch. Higgins uses his data pad to connect to the Swan Song's external speakers and asks what the six people are doing outside of his ship. The people seem completely oblivious to the question, almost as if they didn't even hear it. Not wanting to wait for an answer, Higgins uses the ship's sand-thrower and sprays the entire group of people with sharp silicon. This is when the hologram that the crew had previously talked to appears at a nearby terminal, glitches for a second, looks directly at Piani, and then says, "If you kill them, you are only killing innocent people Miss Pic." Piani asks why they are trying to get into the ship and the hologram responds that they need something that is inside. Piani then hears the loud clinking of assault-rifle ammo rapidly hitting the door that she and Higgins are hiding behind. Piani turns back to the hologram and asks who they are.

The scene cuts to Alpharius and Erik who eventually arrive at the security block. They walk up to the main building to find that all of its lights are out and its entrances won't open. Erik uses his power 'Telekinetic Ram' to take one of the doors off its hinges. The two go inside and begin to search around. After only a few moments, an arm breaks through the glass of the opposite entryway to the room and hooks itself around Erik's neck.

Looking through the glass, Alpharius notices that the man has glowing-green eyes. Alpharius then puts his pistol into the hole where the arm is coming through and fires a few rounds. The man who is grabbing Erik stumbles but continues to have a firm grip. Erik then teleports to the other side of the room which finally frees him. The man then breaks down the door, but before he is able to lunge at Erik, Alpharius shoots the man through the eye and he falls to the floor. This creates a pool of blood in which grey fluid can be seen actively separating out from the blood and then filling back into the man's head. The two run out of the room.

The guards that had previously been hit by the sand-thrower and thus should have been instantly killed, are currently attempting to pry open the door that Higgins and Piani are currently behind. Higgins notices that one of the men has glowing green eyes as well as glowing green veins in his arms. Higgins shoots at the men with his pistol but they don't react to the bullets and continue to pry open the door. The hologram says from behind them that the crew doesn't recognize them because they have changed their form, but once they were one and now they are many.

Crew Status

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Ship Status

 * Hull Integrity:

Criminal Activities

 * New Crime:

Business

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 * Debt Paid Off On Swan Song:
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