The Randin Exploration

Re-cap of sessions 67 to 68 (played on 13 and 20 June 2025)

Location: Larssen-Randin system (Halcyon 1917)

Dates: 031–5601 to 033–5601

You arrive in the Larssen-Randin system on day 031 and navigate directly to the mainworld with a view to getting Nazia to a medical facility as soon as possible. Given the circumstances, the Dejah is cleared for landing at the downport. Paramedics whisk your grateful passenger away. Almost immediately, Captain Josua Kerevi of the Randin People's Security Patrol arrives. He's polite but firm: given that you've just come from Kylen and have been witnesses to the Randin government's invasion of that system, you will have to remain in-system until further notice. When the government is ready to release the news, you'll be free to go. The good news is, you'll be treated as guests of the state. Accommodation and food will be provided, your docking fees will be paid, and your ship will be refuelled. He hands you vouchers to cultural institutions and various parks and exhibitions. It's not a bad deal, but the whiff of censorship rubs you the wrong way. 

While you enjoy some of the sights, Nogudnyk gets in touch with a local sports promoter to see about arranging a laser tag match. 

A job ad catches your eye: Dr Nadia Sato of the Randin Center for Astrophysics needs someone to investigate a large rogue asteroid recently detected. A limited window is available in which to access and study the object, which Dr Sato hypothesizes is a planetoid from a system destroyed aeons ago. When you respond to the ad, she explains that your main task is to survey the object, take samples, and look for evidence of ancient alien civilization on it.

Part of the Larssen-Randin system

Dr Sato provides you with a fast (6-G acceleration) ship's boat to get you to the asteroid quickly. It's mostly a barren rock pitted with craters, but you detect an unusual structure on the surface: a dome approximately 30m in height. There appears to be an entrance of some kind on one side.

Unidentified structure

You land the boat, don your spacesuits, and venture forth. As you approach, you notice a metallic object sticking out of the wall of a crater; it appears to be something that was buried but then disturbed by the impact of a small object. You can't tell exactly what it is without digging, but the portion that you can see resembles nothing so much as a space coffin — or maybe a high-tech cryopod? Leaving it be for the moment, you approach the door at the base of the dome. Jacobe examines what appears to be a biometric reader to one side: it shows the outline of a four-digit "hand." Definitely not human! He pops off the casing and supplies some juice to the electronics beneath, enough to power the door: it slides open. The lights on your suit helmets illuminate the dark interior as you begin exploring.

This place, designed for roughly human-sized beings, seems to have been deliberately abandoned: shelves are empty, equipment has been removed from brackets, and the power has been shut off. There are no signs of violence in the rooms you search. In what was no doubt a control room of some kind, you see symbols that resemble the writing system of the Sath, the lizard-like sophonts who inhabit several systems 30 parsecs to trailing. You also find a small figurine carved from some kind of organic material. It represents a humanoid creature of lizardlike appearance. 

During your exploration, Griff experiences recurrent sightings of a spectral shape that dissolves, mist-like, on contact, but which invariably leaves him feeling profoundly chilled as it passes through him. Nogudnyk's untrained telempathy detects no feelings from a living sophont, but rather a general sense of sadness and longing, like a pervasive smell. When Griff sees the spectral shape attempt (ineffectually) to grasp the statuette, an idea occurs: perhaps there is some connection between this phantom and the object. A quick search of Library Data files reveals that the ancient Sath routinely interred their dead with such objects. Perhaps this "ghost" wants the statuette buried with its body?

Your thoughts turn to the object buried outside, but there's a new problem to deal with: sensors detect an approaching starship, picking its way through the asteroid belt towards your position. It's not using a transponder and it's not attempting to hail you: a bad sign. Pirates?  You decide not to wait around to find out. Leaving some parts of the dome unexplored, you exit the structure. With your fast ship's boat, you're certain that you'll be able to outpace any pursuit once you're in flight, but there's no time to waste. Yet, in a heartwarming demonstration of interspecies sympathy, you decide that you must put the spectral Sath at peace. Quickly disinterring the space coffin, you pry its lid open to reveal the body inside. (It's very Sath-like, wrapped in a black shroud.) You set the statuette inside, replace the lid, and high-tail it out of there. Thanks to some impressive piloting, you manage to slip away amid the asteroids of the belt.

Back on Randin, Dr Sato is delighted by your discoveries and more than happy to pay you the promised Cr200,000. But perhaps the real reward is the knowledge that you've brought solace to a haunted soul.

Nah, it's really all about the credits.

You're barely settled back in your lodgings when sports promoter London Yueh rings you up: good news!  He's set up an exhibition laser tag match in two days. You decide to name your team the Treemysts. Mira is pleased.