Introduction

Most weeks I have a clear idea of how I want to start a session log and what I want to say. This week isn't one of them. I've even forgotten the title I thought up last night.

I had thought you'd work out what was going on much quicker and without me prompting. I'm still unsure as to whether you've worked certain things out or not despite the heavy hints right at the end.

Also as strange as it may seem this is not a "Five saves the day scenario" although she has a part to play as does Two. You'll have to wait for the "big reveal" to find out more.

I will say one more thing about the "Neural Imprints" stored in the Medical Computer, noting that Sarah's imprint is stored in the Cryo Computer data store. You as characters know from the previous time your neural imprints were activated that the imprints were taken against the possibility of something going drastically wrong on a mission you were about to undertake, and were taken shortly before the "mind wipe". Technically they are therefore redundant, especially as Two and Three have opted not to restore their 'old memories'. Given that the circumstances that led to the creation of the imprints in the fisrt place are no longer extant there is no need to create 'new' backups, and you already know what can happen when a backup is made active, although that is not what is happening this time.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

We pick up with Three on the med scanner in Med Bay. The scanner almost immediately it had begun its scan had indicated that Three was in REM sleep yet he appeared awake, which nobody really thought to make anything of, and had detect a "foreign body" [GM Note: In medical parlance this is something in the body that shouldn't be there]. As the scan progresses and the scanner gains more data, the screens suddenely all turn red, and Lisa activates the Emergency restraints pinning Three to the bed. He immediately begins both to struggle and to emit a shrieking ear piercing scream [GM Note: The scream was actually inspired by the "Possession" scream from the 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". I thought somebody might have suggested something like this but nobody did.]. The readouts of the med scanner appears to indicate that it has detected something that could be akin to DNA but of completely alien origin. It has no idea what it has actually detected as there is nothing in the medical database for it to reference against. [GM Note: I thought you'd have all exhibited a far greater degree of paranoia than you did and just shot Three, even if just with a stunner, hence why I had to resort to Lisa doing so in the end.]

With Three out cold the discussion moves to what to do with him. I'm pretty sure Hannah initially suggested putting him in stasis before other people chipped in and drowned her out. Eventually the discussion circles back to putting him in stasis, although people forgot about the 2 mobile units, the one in engineering and the 'broken' one in the vault, although I thought Five had intimated she was going to try and fix it, and yes she now does have the skill to do so. As the one in Engineering [GM Note: which was the one Lisa was in when you first came out of stasis] is the closest, Seven? and Six? go and fetch it.

Three is placed in the stasis pod. As Lisa activates the device the readings indicate that despite the fact that Three should be unconscious he actually isn't, even if he can't volountarily move. As the stasis cycle commences, Three begins to shake violently, then commences screaming again, and then something starts to ooze/pour from him eyes, nose, and mouth [GM Note: Why does Hollywood, even if the series is Canadian, still go with this trope? Its really a bit crap!]. Again there was a significant retisance do do anything, like eject the whole thing from the ship, and Three along with it.

At this point I resorted to prodding with what they did in the series, modified by actual real world physics and effects. If you're going to use "Explosive Decompression" to eject something then those involed need to be prevented from also being ejected. "Explosive Decompression" is also far more effective in the absence of gravity, thus you need to turn the gravity plating off in the corridor section adjacent to the airlock. In the series they do use one of the side airlocks on the Upper Cargo Deck, although they don't put the ship into reverse such that it is flying away from the direction of ejection as opposed to through it.

Whilst technically Lisa does not need to breath, another mistake they have made more than once in the series, she does need a means of staying put when she overrides the Airlock controls. She also needs to be present because she has to time things exactly with what Two, who is the other person who can survive in a vacuum for long enough, to take action. Both need space suits to be able to use mag boots and tethers, more importantly for Two since she is going to need to push against the stasis pod to pull Three out by his feet [GM Note: another mistake they made in the series, as the "entity" is at Three's head end of the pod.] propelling herself backwards and the pod outwards, although the decompression will propell the pod outward anyway.
With eveything set, the interior airlock doors open, the stasis pod half in the air lock, the security and safety override of the outer airlock door in place, Lisa and Two tethered to anchors in the corridor (although Lisa has the advantage that her mag boots are locked to the corridor floor, the grav plating in the corridor and airlock off, Lisa uses the emergency eject for the pod lid, enabling Two to reach in and grab Three's feet. As she does so, Lisa opens the outer airlock door triggering the "Explosive Decompression". Two pushes herself backwards against the mass of the pod and Lisa remote activates Two's tether pulling her into the corridor. The entity and pod are expelled into space, and once clear of the ship Lisa closes the inner doors [GM Note: technically the method Lisa used to open the outer airlock doors temporarily broke them, meaning that it is an hour or so before the auto-repair system can fix them and enable them to be closed, allowing FTL transit.]

I'm not 100%  sure everyone got the fact that this was a completely "alien" entity, nothing that had ever before been recorded in the databases, nor the fact that Rook/Dwarfstar, firstly were in possession of such an entity, 2) obviously knew enough about it to be able to contain it in the first place, and 3) knew enough about it to be able to "use" it. Because of the way you brought Three back on board and strong armed him down to medical there is a bit of the storyline you missed by doing so. There is a little more to this than you may think!

Three is taken to Med Bay where Lisa gives him a "clean" bill of health, at least no lurking remanents of Alien entity, DNA, or foreign bodies.

The question is where/what next. People initially return to "doing their own thing". Lisa is apparently in need of some "downtime" to recharge herself and heads for her cradle in Engineering.

Early, circa 4am [GM Note: remember its a 20 hour day, so 05:00 is mid-morning, and 10:00 is mid-day] Lisa makes a private visit to Two's room. Her reason for calling is that she has had what can only be described as a "dream".  Two wants to know if was a "pleasant dream". Lisa says it was. Two asks what was it about. Lisa says it involed her friend "Victor" but won't say more. Lisa also says that "Androids cannot dream". She then says there is something else that she ought to really disclose, and probably to everyone, so would it be possible for Two to gather everyone in the conference room later. Two arranges a meeting for 08:00.

With everyone one present in the conference room, although Devon has to listen in from medbay, Lisa first reveals that she had a dream, and we go through the whole thing again, although Five thinks that Lisa's ability to dream may have something to do with her recent Blackmarket software upgrade, despite the fact I re-iterated several times that "Androids Cannot Dream". Lisa then reveals her other secret, although technically Five already knew what it was. She had created an Avatar based on her default factory settings, primarily to analyse her behaviour, as she was aware there may be a flaw in her programming. This was prior to her getting the Blackmarket upgrade. The Avatar is very insistant that Lisa does indeed have a major flaw, which has contributed on a couple of occasions to her making mistakes, such as when they were forced to land Kroinnoth-3 (Corso's Planet). Lisa says this on was an oversight on her part, as she neglected to initiate the electrostatic buffering sequence, as a result one of the secondary capacitors failed. There was no serious damage. The Avatar chides in with this time, and insists that Lisa's programming is flawed and that she should undergo a factory reset.
After a significant degree of discussion, Two tells the Avatar that there is no way she is going to factory reset Lisa. She is perfectly happy with the way she currently is [GM Note. This is significantly different to the way things play out in the series.]. Lisa does decide, based on the discussions, that she wishes to determine whether the dream was a one off or not, and decides to retire to her craddle.[GM Note: yes she can auto-initiate a recharge cycle even if she has just completed one.]

People disperse to do stuff, Three to his room to clean his weapons, Two to the Bridge, Five, Six, Seven, and Nyx, to their rooms, and Four to his dojo. Fifteen or so minutes pass.....

Four is honing his swords in the Dojo, checking that the edges are finely ground to the proper degree. Suddenly the lights flicker on and off several times.He stands up and looks around, more than slightly perturbed. The lights flicker again. As he turns, a shape runs past the door, it's Misaki [GM Note: as I had to remind everone, Misaki is the head of the Royal Guard in the Asheida Court and was the person sent to Hyperion-8 to bring Ryo home.] Four is more than a little surprised, how did she get on the ship? He gives chase.

As he chases her the lights continue to flicker on and off at intevals, before finallly going off. Suddenly there is a voice behind him, "Oh Ryo". He turns Misaki is standing there. She draws her swords "Time to pay for your sins." She launches her attack "Did you think you could hide for ever?"
Four parries her attacks and responds with "I'm not hiding."
Misaki parries all his attacks, breaches his guard then spin kicks him down the corridor "This is your day of reckoning Ryo. No more running."
Four responds with "I'm not running I intend to return to Zairon when I'm good and ready."
He launches and attack on Misaki who parries his blows then ducks his next attack, causing him to cut into a coolant pipe in the corridor.
Misaki runs off.
Four "Now look who's running. Get back here"

On the bridge, Two's reverie is interupted by a warning alarm. When she checks the system diagnostics there appears to be a coolant leak on the upper cargo deck. Needing to go check she calls Five to the bridge [GM Note: I can't remember how Seven got involved but he goes with her..]

Four enters the lower cargo deck in search of Misaki. As he looks around she suddenly drops on him from above [GM note: There are several places in the cargo bay where this is possible.] She blocks his attacks then kicks him across the room, winding him.
Misaki: "Pathetic.Where's the man I knew?".
Four struggles to his feet
Misaki: "The man who was going to be our Emperor"
Four: ""I am the same man"
Misaki "Skulking around the Galaxy in a little ship, afraid to show your face when all the while your people are suffering."
Four "What are you talking about?"
Misaki "Zairon is losing the war with Pyr. Its in all the reports, and yet you do nothing.......Your brother is weak, and his mother surrounds herself with sycophants, we need a real ruler."
[GM Note: using the dialog from the series to finish this.... for reasons.....]
Ryo "I will return to claim my throne. There are those in the Court who are still loyal to me. But"
Misaki (continuing to cirle) "What?"
Ryo "Without my memories I don't know who to trust."
Misaki "You're not the man I knew. You're just a coward who makes excuses"
She attacks and runs him through with her swords.
Ryo looks down, he's covered in blood and bleeding profusely.
He looks at Misaki, then looks down again. The wounds and the blood have gone. (he's still a physical wreck, exhausted, and breathing heavily)
When he looks again Misaki is gone and he's in the lower cargo hold. He picks up his sword from the deck. He has no idea how he got where he is.

Two and Seven enter the corridor section in the Upper Cargo Bay where the leaking coolant pipe is. Suddenly the lights start to flicker on and off, at least as far as Two is concearned. When she asks Seven about it, he says no, they appear to be working normally.
She comms Five on the Bridge "Five are you registering any power fluctions down here?"
Five: "No power systems functioning normally"
Two: "Five, please respond the lights were just flickering down here."
Five: "I said power systems functioning normally. Two, can you hear me"
Two: "Five if you can hear me I think the comms are malfunctioning."
Five: "I can hear you just fine can you hear me?"
[GM Note: I'm not sure this was 100% clear in the session...]

As far as Two is concearned the lights go out completely for about 5 seconds. When they come back on there are 8 men is white death masks ahead of Two in the corridor. She is initially rooted to the spot. Seven hears her says something about "masked men" but as far as he is concearned the corridor is empty. Two doesn't hear his response.
Another figure appears behind the group of 8, "Mr Rook is very disappointed with you."

On the bridge Five is worried about Two's lack of response (she also can't raise Seven).
She tries contacting Six, who responds. She explains to Six, but then decides she's over-reacting, and tell's Six not to bother.
With a slightly more than minor hint from the GM Six decides to go investigate anyway, gathering up Nyx, whom everyone keeps forgetting about, with him. [GM note: this is playing out slightly differently to the series...]

Back in the corridor the figures part to reveal a restraining chair and a figure holding a mechanical cranial saw [GM Note: I forgot this detail in the session.] As Two goes to back away she stumble against Seven. Seven grabs her to stop them both falling over but in Two's mind she has been grabbed from behind by one of the masked figures. She turns and grabs the figure by the throat hoisting them off the floor.

Six and Nyx enter the corridor to see Two lift Seven off his feet, her hands around his throat crushing his wind pipe. Seven croaks a very weak "Help".
Now I thought you'd have reated with a lot more urgency to this. Yes Six did try and pull Two off Seven, and yes they are pretty evenly matched in strength, but when Six failed his roll, I had thought you'd immediately tell Nyx to shoot Two, except initially you didn't, at least not without prompting.

[GM Note: I'm putting this in the correct timeline order, which is not necessarily how I'm forced to do things in a session.]

When Two comes round from the stun, she wants to know "Where all the masked figures went."
Nobody knows what she's talking about. She starts to explain.

Three is in his room cleaning his weapons when the lights begin to flicker on and off. He decides to tool up.  He then decides to head out [GM Note: I allowed this even if Matt was already meta-gaming by this point] but the door won't open. The lights flicker on and off once more. Suddenly there is a voice behind him. As he turns Sarah is standing there.

Back in the corridor Two is still asking about the "Intruders, Rook's men, and where they went". Six and Nyx manage to get through to her that there was nobody here and that she just tried to strangle Seven [GM Note: in the series it's Six she tries to strangle when he goes to investigate why she's not responding to comms, and Nyx has to drop kick Two to get her to release Six.] At this point Four appears, saying that he saw somebody as well, Misaki, we fought, as she disappeared right in front of me.
[GM Note: When I transcribed this, I had thought the characters can't really be this stupid to not recognise what was going on, and that "you lot" would get this instantly. Unfortunately you proved me wrong..]
With a lot of none to subtle GM hinting about "Hallucinations" and it appeared to be only Two and Four that had been affected [GM Note: and nobody thought about Three at this point] they eventually twigged that this might just have something to do with the Neural Imprints of Two, Three, and Four in the Medical database. This did lead to a down the rabbit hole episode about if they deleted the backups could they create new ones to replace them, forgetting that the only reason, and "In-Character" they already knew this from when the imprints were forcefully imposed, the only reason they took the imprints in the first place was to guard against something going drastically wrong on the mission they were about to undertake, and this was just prior to the "mind-wipe" in stasis. [GM Note: Deleting the Neural Imprints is the correct course of action, it is what is done in the series. However, Four has to do it for Narrative reasons. I'll want to dicuss this further after the next scenario, as this is one of those story breaking points...]

Back in Three's cabin, Three is arguing with Sarah and getting annoyed as she can't open the door. Given that she was just a hallucination of course she couldn't. Not thinking straight he decides to shoot out the door controls, and then realises his mistake as now he has no way of possibly running a by-pass. Eventually Sarah sort of manages to calm him down, even acknowledging that "yes I'm dead", and that "I came back for you because without you I'm nothing, and I've watch you day in and day out in pain and despair", and that "Death isn't the end, it's just mis-understood, come with me and I'll show you."

Two, Six, Four, Seven, and Nyx having realised they are getting no response from Three have arrived at Three's door. It's apparently locked. I can't remember who asked Five to run a security by-pass, which technically she can do at this point, but she overrides the controls to Three's door, to reveal Three with gun in hand rasing it to point at his head. Again it required a none to subtel prompt to get somebody to shoot Three with a stunner - if he's hallucinating he's not going to see/hear anyone else!

Once Three recovers consciousness, which takes far longer than it took Two, they all adjourn to the conference room to discuss the situation. With a little prompting Two invokes the Avatar and explains what may be going on and asks her to run an analysis. She 'disappears' for several minutes before re-appearing once more.

Avatar: "I've completed my analysis. It's no coincidence that you, Three, and Four, were the ones who experienced the hallucinations. It's the neural link"
I can't remember who said what but it wasn't what happened in the series so certain information didn't get divulged by the Avatar..however..
Avatar "Whilst your ship's Android should be off line at this point, evidence suggests that some of her higher functions are still active. This should not be possible."
Again I can't remember the exact discussion that followed or how we got to
Avatar "I believe she used this connection to upload a virus. It's an aggressive AI that's spreading through multiple systems, creating a new command structure independant of any input from the crew."

When Five checks she finds that she's been locked out of systems that she should have control over. 

[GM Note: One more thing which I did re-iterate several times "If the Avatar is correct, and `It's an aggressive AI that's spreading through multiple systems, creating a new command structure` is the Avatar telling the truth or has the Avatar already been compromised as well?"]

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