Session 45 - The Cat's In The Cannon And The Red Crystal

Previously, across the Horizon...
The Viesen-Croyle Factory continues to be terrible.
Having found Jacaranda Vale, the party proceeded to then battle Jacaranda Vale, or at least what remained of Jacaranda Vale. Her body had merged with that of a couerl, and whatever experiment gave rise to her twist into an abomination also granted her tremendous power, as she brought Isa and Linnet both to the brink of death. The attack on Linnet did some level of damage to Linnet's very winds.
As the battle raged, Orrey's guidance helped direct the party to stagger their attacks on Vale, seeking to break the experiment clear of the airship technician herself. While this kept them at the mercy of the malison for longer, eventually the gambit proved successful, and before the battle could spiral out of their control, Yves tapped into an inner strength and unleashed a second self. Twin Thundagas later, and the battle was won... though many, many questions remain.
We join our heroes as the last of the sparks flicker out on the ruins of the factory floor...
**
Jacaranda Vale's breathing is shallow and raspy, and she is nowhere near consciousness. The woman is very injured, but alive.
The floor around the party remains littered with experimental wreckage, fragments of reinforced glass, and fresh and dried blood alike.
The broken elevator leading to the basement level remains broken, but broken in such a way that it forms a very uneven ramp.
Linnet immediately flings a cloud of cinnamon sugar sparkles over the party and J. Vale. The poor airship technician doesn't wake, but she doesn't look any more dead, at least.
Yves begins carefully picking his way down toward the place where Vale is lying. All his fur's puffed up, as if he's just been blow-dried. "That was a--there was a--you know, I really don't know /what/ that was, but I am /not for it/."
Isa nods her thanks to Linnet, and then looks at Yves. "It worked," she says simply. Back to Linnet, "Can we get her out of the facility safely?"
"I think she's stable, but she's not walking out of here under her own power. You might have to carry her."
Orrey, after seeing that Vale was stabilized and in good hands with Linnet, walks over to the elevator and peers downwards to see where the makeshift ramp goes.
"Sure. Let's do that before we do anything else, then." Isa stows her spear, and makes to pick Vale up in a fireman's carry.
"I mean--no, I'm fine with what /I/ did," Yves says, rubbing the backs of his hands against each other. "I mean, whatever happened to her, that's.... I don't know what was supposed to happen, but. That."
The ramp leads down into the darkness, with even worse lighting than up here. It doesn't look much better, from what Orrey can see here -- more carnage of the property-destruction variety. There might also be a cannon, or at least there's a long cylindrical shape down at the bottom.
Bast, leaning over the railing of the catwalk above, breathes deeply as the cinnamon scent blows through the room and mutters "...who needs cannons..." under his breath again as he tries to blink away the afterimages of the lightning Yves unleashed.
"I also think we should, uh, we should..." Yves shakes his head rapidly, ears snapping back and forth, and then tries again. "Why are /cannons/ being built in a place where /this happens/? What would we even be shooting people with? What would anyone else who buys this sort of tech be shooting people with?"
"Pretty sure we do? And there's a cannon down there. If it survived the demolition." Orrey shrugs and looks around. "Are we done, here?"
"Should we maybe put Jacaranda in that clean and closed-off patient room that was near where we first came in? Just in case we get into any more shenanigans?" Linnet asks.
Isa straightens with the woman across her shoulders. "We're not taking her with us down there, that's for sure."
"Just in case. Who am I bloody kidding. So we don't have an unconscious tech on our hands when we get into more shenanigans?"
"Still got the lab below to cover, and some decisions to make. Linnet, do we need to evacuate her right now?" Bast asks.
"From this room, ideally. From the facility, no. She's not actively bleeding and not getting any more unconscious. We'll need to borrow Isa to carry her, as I'm not sure I can even get myself out of this room without falling in a heap, but after that we're clear to go stick our heads in a giant cannon."
"Alright. Help Isa set her up while I squeeze a few more sketches out of Orrey?"
Orrey nods agreement.
Isa nods to Bast. "If anything comes out of that hole, run for the exit. Otherwise, we'll be back as soon as we've got her safe."
Bast turns to Orrey. "Think you remember enough to draw...hm. First contact, transformed, and whatever that thing that came out of her was? Her current state, we can get later."
"Yeah, I think I can get all of that done...it'll take a little bit, but sure." Orrey gets out his sketchbook and starts drawing as best he can.
The hallways remain deathly silent. As soon as Isa and Linnet are out of the catwalk area around the wrecked center room, they can't even hear Bast giving instructions. The only sound are two sets of footsteps, Isa's boots as she carries the injured technician, and Linnet's shoes on the ground as she makes it to the doorway, instead of her signature drifting.
Bast unabashedly looks over Orrey's shoulder as he draws. "Yeah. That'll work for a newspaper." He sounds more grim than usual.
"How's the scale of the thing look against the room? Think people will understand it?" Orrey asks.
(There are actually three sets of sounds, but everyone is politely ignoring Linnet's constant muttered swearing against the concepts of shoes, broken ground, ankles, and gravity in general.)
The medical checkup room is just as they last saw it, green bed with white sheet over it, just waiting for the patient. There is no way to lock the door to seal her in for safety.
"Is the scale clear enough in the one you did of the room earlier? Maybe we could add one of us in there, if not..." Bast looks at the sketches this way and that, trying to gauge how the Average Newspaper Reader might see them.
Orrey adds another drawing of Isa facing the creature with spear held at the ready.
Isa eventually reappears on the catwalk, and calls down to Bast. She still has Vale slung over her shoulder. "Problem," she says flatly.
"What is it?"
"No safe place for her. So it's leave her alone, take her with us, or leave to get her to help and come back. No great choice."
"Leave someone behind to guard her?" Orrey asks.
"Isa, we've cleared out two floors of this building, and anything following us to get to her is going to get between us and our way out. We can probably afford to leave her for a bit while we go poke any basement monsters in the eyeball."
"I'm more concerned about her not lasting much longer. Think they'll try poking their noses in here if we leave and come back?"
Isa shrugs with her neck, as her shoulders are occupied. "Tell them we found a survivor, but the job's not done. It's true enough, and they'll stay out."
"Far as I'm concerned, they've written us off for dead until we come out," Linnet calls over her shoulder, still laser-focused on the stupid floor. "That likely includes Jacaranda."
"Officer vote, then. Go get her out and come back, or leave her until we're done here?"
"Lot of effort spent to save her. I vote we get her out," Isa says.
We can at least take her to the lobby," Yves says, "before heading down further. I don't know that the door will open for an out twice."
"I am not leaving this tornado-blasted hellhole until we are done enough to burn it and salt it behind us. Leave Vale in the patient rooms or somewhere more secure if you can find it, then go downstairs and finish what we came for. You have your medical officer's mostly-certain word that she is not going to die of neglect if we don't get her out immediately. And I do promise to make sure she's out of the building before we destroy it behind us," Linnet declares.
"I'd rather get this done if Vale is going to be ok," Orrey says.
"Alright, that's three to stay. Let's set her up in that room in the lobby and get this done."
"Understood," Isa says, and disappears from the central chamber again.
Bast walks over to the pit in the floor where the elevator apparently used to be, and looks down. "Yves? Any idea if the setup we saw in the side room might get us more light in this place?"
"You don't have a light grenade somewhere on your belt?" Linnet asks.
"We want sustained light, not a punch to the eyeballs" Bast replies in a perfectly deadpan tone. "I'm thinking we haven't made the acquaintance of the...experimental matter our friendly doorkeeper was going on about, yet."
Yves ponders for a long moment, absently trying to smooth his fur back down.
Linnet gapes at Bast. "You think there's MORE than the thing that just ripped my essence in half and sucker-punched Isa nearly to ribbons?"
Orrey looks sharply at Linnet. "It stole your essence?"
"If we get another cylinder," Yves says, at last, "maybe ten minutes of light? But I wouldn't count on it. Lots of damage right around now, and that override system... I mean, it's not how I would've put it together." For better or worse.
"Orrey, let's focus on one thing at a time. By which I mean anything but that. Yves, let's just throw a lightning bolt down there and see if anything bites."
"Sure," Yves says, "but I'm not, uh, I'm not sure I can throw a /small/ lightning bolt right now? So let's wait until everyone's back before... doing that."
Orrey gets a really concerned look on his face, but eventually looks away from Linnet, back to the elevator ramp.
Isa emerges on the lower level, sans technician. "She's in a bed, at least. What's the plan?"
"We're trying to make light. Anybody got a torch?" Orrey asks, helpfully.
"Right now, the plan is to talk a lot and not accomplish much." Linnet leans toward the hole in the floor - from the room's entrance, not getting any closer - and sings a sequence of four wordless notes, listening for an echo or any response.
"Plug one of the cylinders in over in that side room, throw the switch, see if that will at least let us open the door?" Bast raises the key card he requisitioned from Orrey earlier.
"Just not sure I should lightning at things we... want to have stay up, quite this moment," Yves says quietly.
There is a slight echo, and no response, from the song.
"One of these times, that'll work. Yves, I am totally on board with you not blowing up the basement trying to light a candle. I know snowballs aren't exactly going to do much, though, which is why I'm kinda reaching."
"Well, then, let's plug in a cylinder," Yves says. "Worst it's likely to do is overload the /wrong/ way and fizzle out with a small explosion."
"Everyone patched up? Yves, you're on mad science duty, Orrey and Linnet stand by to rescue him, Isa and I will be on the door."
Yves takes a cylinder, and heads over to do the slightly angry science.
The crystal containment cylinder slots into the port perfectly, with the switch showing OFF, just waiting to be pulled down to OVERRIDE.
Yves flicks down the nice shiny switch.
The entire facility goes phrwrrmmmmmmmmnnnnnnn and lights flicker on, machines attempt to whir to life and immediately collapse into crunching clatters from all of the damage they've sustained, and the elevator in the central chamber throws out a shower of sparks and then thuds down about two inches, moving no more.
But there are lights in the basement level now.
Bast swipes the wrong edge of the card through the read slot on the door, curses quietly, and tries again with the card turned the right way.
"Oh, that wasn't too bad," Yves says, with a profound relief.
Orrey brings over a mangled piece of metal from one of the machines to jam the door open.
The door unlocks with a satisfying beep, and the stairs to the basement level are open.
"Too much research?" Bast's crossbow is at the ready as he surveys the scene, then navigates the rubble towards F2.
"Research directed to the wrong ends," Yves suggests, eyeing the cannon warily.
"Not enough definition for Vale to have done all this," Linnet says.
Orrey searches around for any incriminating evidence.
There was definitely fighting down here, Isa notes as she explores, but the fighting was Person vs Nature instead of Person vs Person. This room looks like it was destroyed in a very long fit of rage, with nothing spared the fury -- except the undamaged cannon.
"Temper, temper," Isa mutters to herself as she walks through, head scanning side to side.
Orrey's investigation finds signs of that same rage, with blasts of very heavy force mixed in, mostly at the door, fusing the passageway into the west shut.
After twisting her ankles one too many times in the first ten steps, Linnet has mostly given up on investigating and is huddled near the stairwell, ready to heal, throw snowballs, or scream as the situation warrants.
Yves digs through rubble and debris before finding a pair of discoveries, one better than the other.
The first is a capsule, a white ceramic capsule that is very cold to the touch, that is labeled BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE ESVI - KEEP REFRIGERATED, and was buried beneath a pile of mangled wires and concrete.
The second is a red crystal in a containment cylinder, much like what you saw above, though the crystal inside looks very different, fractured and twisted and malformed.
Written on the outside in black marker is FAILED COPY
Stamped on the bottom is a bit of pressed ink reading "Mode 4"
At the cannon itself, Bast makes a discovery; the cannon was damaged. Was, not is. There are signs of repairs made along it, almost as if it was repainted, refitted, renewed, restored, something.
Regenerated. That's the word.
Yves stares at the two items. Picks up the capsule carefully, and holds it over his head, saying, "I think this is what we're looking for," while continuing to stare at the containment cylinder.
The operation end of the cannon has a lever by the firing mechanism, one that can lock into one of four positions. It is currently in Mode 1.
"...does anyone know what Mode 4 is?" Yves asks.
"Or for that matter, one through three?"
Bast runs his fingers along the traces of past damage, eyes narrowing as he considers the...changes in the cannon. He looks up at Yves' question. "Absolutely none. What do you think you have there? Power source, or cannonball?"
"No, but I'm guessing the basement wasn't where they were supposed to be figuring that out," Linnet says.
"What IS all this?" Orrey asks, bewildered.
Yves clears his throat. "Because there's a 'failed copy' of a mode 4 /something/ over here that looks like a crystal that's had... a really bad day. Or maybe it's a really bad crystal that's done something to someone else's day."
"What are they trying to copy?" Orrey asks.
"Are we going to answer those questions by standing in a dark basement staring pensively at things, or should we poke around a little more and maybe consider them by daylight?" Linnet says.
"I don't know, but I'm betting it's a lot more... /biological/ than we expected a cannon to be," Yves says, making the term sound like a dirty word.
"We're not getting the cannon out of here today anyway," Isa notes.
"Even you aren't hauling that thing upstairs yourself, Isa," Linnet agrees.
Bast doesn't answer Linnet but goes over to the double doors and gets out one of his grenades, looking for a good spot for some...leverage.
(Linnet backs further toward the stairs.)
"Best get back in the stairwell. This might get messy." Bast examines the grenade he wedged under a twisted corner of one of the double doors, and gives it - it's not a kick, really, just a solid nudge with his foot - to wedge it deeper.
Isa raises a single dubious eyebrow, but gestures everyone back into cover with her.
Yves backs up, taking both the cold capsule and the ominous cylinder with him.
Bast almost bowls Yves over as he ducks in behind the rest, and the rubble behind him bounces around in the blast.
The explosion is huge, and perfectly placed.
"...was that supposed to do that," Yves asks cautiously, "because if so, good?"
Bast shrugs, dusts himself off and goes off to check out the results of his work.
"Should we worry about how well he explodes things?" Orrey surveys the results.
This opens up into the lab adjacent to the factory, where the work creating this is done. The lab has also been abandoned, though you can tell that someone has at least been coming in here to keep up some level of work.
"Do you worry about how well I stab things?" Isa ripostes.
"Absolutely not. Someone's gotta do it well, and someone's gotta do it huge. Between Bast and Yves, we have both covered."
Someone has to feed the couerls, after all.
"Sometimes, Isa. Sometimes." Orrey does not make eye contact.
"...I... wonder if they're tame," Yves says.
There are cages on the walls, where couerls are being kept. The adults pace back and forth in their limited living space, their long whiskers twitching forward, the four-foot-long tendrils pointing at the party as they enter. Kittens, in separate cages, are huddled up among each other for protection, wide black eyes following the party's every move.
There are sealed doors leading upstairs, plus a large loading dock on the south wall, with open crates for animal transport waiting.
Isa gestures to the loading dock. "There's our way out for the cannon, at least. Anyone spot any files that might tell us what the hell happened?"
"I mean, it's better for them in the long term if they're not tame, it's much harder to deal with tamed wild animals than to return properly wild ones to their natural habitat, but it's going to be hard to get them rehabbed properly if we can't transport them out of here easily," Yves says, keeping well away from the cages while he tries to look for useful files.
Two of the kittens meow as people come closer, one trying to reach through the bars to reach Yves. They have been tagged, little clips in their left ears.
The clips have little red crystals set in them.
"...oh this is /bad/," Yves says, "I think this is /really bad/, whatever is going on with those crystals is probably something to do with that Mode 4 damaged crystal, which was copying something, and... I don't know that we want these cannons on our ship, but we definitely need to get these out of here to safety."
Linnet seems to have dropped into a trance since the doors opened - she hasn't tripped over the floor once, looked around for files, sworn, or anything. Instead, she heads straight for the door of one of the kitten cages, kneels down gently in front of one, and makes soft cooing noises and gentle gestures at the baby lab kitties.
Bast, after a glance at Linnet to make sure she's not diving headfirst into the cage, starts leafing through the folder.
"Okay, unleashing a pack of half-feral couerls on the management of AZYS sounds mighty tempting, but until we get to that point, what are we doing with these guys? ...and can we adopt at least one of the tiny ones? They could be mascots! And friends for Cinnabun!"
Yves picks up a sheet of paper by coffee cup that is probably a biological hazard in its own right by now, and glances over it. Then reads more slowly. He then says something truly obscene about kudzu and their fornication habits with zebra mussels. "...and we probably need some time to get everyone who needs to get savaged by a couerl lined up properly, anyway... ...wait, what? Thunderbun?"
Yves does not explain. He holds up the piece of paper, and seems to be explaining the vile ways of invasive species who are all having a terribly creative time with each other.
That is, /he's/ speaking about such things. The paper does not appear to describe such, except in the most metaphorical sense.
"Yves, there are no zebra mussels in this basement. The hell are you talking about?"
Crystal Resonance Transfer Monitoring is the name of a project designed for monitoring the transference of crystals from an origination point to another crystal. Is it possible to duplicate a standard crystal? Early studies show yes, a fire crystal can be synthetically reproduced. If this is held to be true, then a Job Crystal should also...
"Zebra mussels," Yves says viciously, "would be an /improvement/."
There is a note that reads: Vale has a Source Crystal inside her own. The Source Crystal is dormant. If the YMD results hold true, we can activate the Source Crystal to override the Host Crystal, unlocking the previous owner of the Source Crystal. Will this leave Vale in command of her own body, or, as I expect, bring the Source to life?
And underneath that, a note scribbled in a hastier hand:
"what do Beastmasters do? check library"
"Sounds like their expectation was right," Isa says.
"On the surface, this sounds less outright evil and more like a spectacular failure of research on someone's part. An idiocy cascade that more or less wiped out the facility," Linnet says. "...but that still doesn't explain why the animals are chipped. Note to self: if that individual is still alive, get them banned from all libraries forever, then feed them to a couerl."
Bast sets the folder he was looking at down next to the note. "Yves - got a guess as to about how many local laws they're breaking here?"
In the factory basement level, the lights flicker and threaten to go out, before recovering. The power surge Yves sent through to run everything is running low.   "Sandstorms. Right. We can't get the cats and the cannon and us out of here before that goes. What's our priority?"
"I don't know that the law matters," Yves says, spitting out his words. "They have /expensive/ lawyers. By the time any inspectors come in, it'll be all about some deceased employee having done things against company policy. They're /good/ at blaming the dead. The dead don't have lawyers like these people do." He takes a deep breath, and thinks about the question, though.  "...I mean, they /are/ breaking laws. Lots of laws. Important ones. I just don't have a lot of confidence in it mattering, no matter who we report to. An operation like this..." Yves gestures to not just the room, but the whole facility. "You don't get to make something like this and have to worry much about legality. It's just... another thing you throw money at, like pension funds and lighting and nice carpet in some of the offices, or putting in fire suppression systems."
Bast turns to Linnet. "You think someone doing that to Vale intentionally is mainly a failure of research?"
"Cost of doing business. We haven't found anything here that can't be explained away," Isa says.
"No, Cap'n, I think the "what does a Beastmaster do" bit was possibly more Chaotic Stupid than intentionally evil. I'm trying not to think about the wider implications of that until I know what exactly a Beastmaster does."
"Yeah. They might not have either," Bast says.
"Yeah. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, legal or illegal. The kind of money this place has? Being illegal is just a trade-off on the risk assessment sheet," Yves says.
"More importantly, people, I would very much like to not still be in this basement when it goes dark. Someone please make a plan." Linnet's voice is starting to shade into panic.
Yves is taking a lot of deep breaths, and is also shivering with rage. "We saved... one person. We need to save all these too. How do we get them to the airship? We can find a way to get them properly taken care of once we get them /out/."
Orrey looks at the loading doors. "Think they'll open?"
"Where did we tell the crew to wait for us? What's our fastest way to get them a message right now?" Linnet asks.
"We've met the terms of our agreement; we have neutralized the threat, recovered the sample, even have a survivor if she's still alive up there," Isa says.
"So. Some of us head out the front with Vale and the cold sample in tow, the rest head out the back with the cats and whatever else Yves is holding once we manage to get the ship around to the loading dock?" Linnet asks.
Isa looks at Bast. "You're in charge and I need to carry Vale. We're out the front?"
"I think so." Yves stares at all the cats. "Just say the others are still wrapping things up, checking for more survivors, whatever. We can file out the front if we have to once we contact our crew to pick up the cats."
"...or we load the ship first, then head out the front so nobody asks why we're missing half our crew?" Linnet asks. "Or what Yves just said. Excellent. It's a plan."
"Let's get this door open and these cats moved."
The loading dock door suddenly wobbles.
Yves whirls toward the door, sparks starting to light up along his fingertips.
"Hold your thunder, Yves." Linnet's grinning.
Bast steps behind a sufficiently sturdy counter, raising the crossbow slightly.
As the group watches, the hooks keeping it latched into the bottom slowly spin outward, unlocking the door from the outside, and then, with a creak and a grind, it raises up just enough to allow a silver rapier to come into view, followed by a very wary Apoc peering under the raising door, Rahel and Shula behind him, Jasper levering the door up.
"See? I told you this would get us in there," Rahel says, hands on her hips, grinning widely at Shula. "And I told you they would be fine!"
"You told me that they'd been killed in that giant explosion we heard and who was going to tell Linnet's brother the terrible news," Shula says with a light-hearted roll of the eyes.
Bast blinks twice and puts the crossbow down.
"Nothing is fine!" Yves says plaintively, though the flickers disappear from his fingertips. "...also, does anyone know a good wildcat rehabber at least one city away from here--oh, I'll ask later, we should get these moved first."
"You'd have squabbled among yourselves the whole way and made Apoc do it. Welcome, gentles all. Now get ready for a bit of a mess. Jasper, we're gonna need as much space as you can make in the hold and as many pounds of raw meat as we can get our hands on, quickly and without too many questions."
"You certainly didn't tell us there would be cats, though had you predicted that I don't imagine we'd have believed you," Apoc says, frowning at the entire everything in front of him. He sheathes his rapier and does a quick headcount. "You all seem alive. Breaching charge?"
Orrey helps Yves lift one of the cages and carries it out the door.
"I'm not sure if the big guys are safe to let out of the cages once they're onboard, but please don't keep the kittens locked up. Any longer and I think my heart will break. And, yes, thanks to our captain's precision explosives, we're complicating our mission with an animal rescue side gig. All in a day's work, really."
"We came to check on things," Jasper says, already scanning for leashes and muzzles for safety's sake, "since this entire thing seemed dangerous as hell. And then an explosion, and well... ask forgiveness, not permission."
Shula shoves Apoc back out the loading dock door, ignoring his baffled protests. "Get to the ship and have Marina fly it around to the south. We'll need to get these on without anyone noticing. Where do we meet up, Captain?" she asks Bast.
Yves appears to be attempting to fold some less horrific papers into an origami bag to breathe into.
"Isa and Bast, get out front with Vale and be prepared to bite that Serj idiot's head off, please. Yves, please be sure that cold sample gets to the galley and bury it as deeply in cold storage as possible; I'll reinforce it when I get there. Orrey, we can sort out the paperwork later, just take anything that might be incriminating."
"Will do," Yves says."I...I don't know what we're doing with this cannon. Bast, that should probably be your decision."
"...actually, I should probably go with the crew out front to make sure nobody does get their head bitten off. Isa, wait up, I'm slow as hell right now. Rahel, don't tease the little ones, they still bite. When we're done here I am scheduling a truly massive panic attack in my cabin, but there's too much to do first."
Linnet doesn't exactly race off, but she stumbles and trips with purpose towards the factory entrance. "Stupid floor..."
"I've been wondering that myself. Not sure we can get it out of here. Not sure I want it on my ship, if what it does is tied up in this shit, but not keen on leaving it in their hands either. No bright ideas for sabotage yet."
"We can always take up that purchase option later if we /really/ want it," Yves mutters, following the crew towards eventual cold storage.
Linnet pauses on the stairs to yell back, "Jasper! Space on the ship for it and equipment to lift it! Your call! Yes-no, right now! That's all we need! Bast! On the double!"
"We can haul it! You've got room for like two hundred of whatever it is, easy!" he calls back.
"We should dump it into a deep section of the ocean." Orrey says without emotion.
"I don't think the purchase option is going to stay on the table after they visit the lab. Shards, we might want to grab that sample and turn it in before anyone checks down here."
"I'd just like to get paid before we expose all this." Bast sounds almost morose.
"Might be an either/or question," Isa says.
"Fine. Quick change of plan." Linnet pokes her head back down the stairs. "Yves, gimme the cold sample. We can at least take that and Vale as preliminaries. Then we can see what we can squeeze out of AZYS before we feed them all to the couerls."
Yves hands over the cold sample. "That's probably horrific too, as is whatever they're going to do with it, but they might pause a while longer if we give it to them. ...and /don't/ feed people to the couerls, it's going to be bad for their digestion and give them even more bad habits than they've already picked up from being raised in this place."
"By the time Isa, I, and Bast if he's going get back to the ship, you people need to have decided if you're stealing a giant cannon or not. Got it?" Linnet disappears up the stairs again.
Serj is not the only person waiting outside when those in the party accompanying Isa, carrying the unconscious Jacaranda Vale, emerge, Serj holding the chains that once locked the door nervously.
Jiandie Zheng looks very pleased in her pencil skirt and frameless glasses. "It would appear the situation is well in hand now," she says with a very satisfied smile.
"In that working conditions are no longer actively dangerous to all within, correct. In that they are ready for work to resume, incorrect," Linnet says.
Zheng raises manicured eyebrows.
"There are likely weeks, possibly months, of cleanup and rebuilding needed before...whatever was taking place in that facility can resume, assuming you wouldn't be better served by just moving to another site altogether."
"Oh for..." Isa steps forward. "Lab is trashed. Monster is dead. Sample's recovered. We're done here."
"And we will need a ride for Ms. Vale, Lady Osler, and myself to the nearest and best hospital, please."
"Just the one survivor, barely holding on from the looks of it. Looks like your colleagues didn't make it." That last is addressed to Serj. "Anyone here know what needs to be done with the cold sample?"
"Shame about the facility," Zheng says in a very businesslike fashion, Serj and the others looking far more distraught than her. "We'll send a cleanup crew in tomorrow. Lock the doors again, Tarkan." She looks around. "Mjrwin left before you? I can return the sample to the researchers," she adds.
"Our colleague was attempting to rewire a circuit that was briefly overloaded. He said he'd follow us out shortly. ...in which case we'd really appreciate if you'd wait, oh, an hour before relocking the doors. We'd hate to have to break him out."
"Hm," she says. "The paperwork for the cannon," she says, handing a folder to Bast. "If you would like to secure it for your ship, we will aid you tomorrow in doing so. Tarkan, call them a transport to the hospital. I have another meeting to attend." With no Yves in attendance, Zheng has little to say to the rest of the group, distracted by something else on the corporate horizon.
"We'll be in touch." Bast tucks the paperwork away, and walks over to check on Vale and talk to Serj about that reward he mentioned for letting the workers take the credit.
And with that...
End session.