The Sopolian Infestation

Re-cap of sessions 86, 87, and 88 played on 23 January, 30 January, and 6 February 2026.

Location: Nasvadak-Sopol System (Halcyon 2811)

Dates: 106-5601 to 164-5601

You depart Denirad after some brief space trials to verify that your newly installed Advanced Electronics suite is working properly. You use this interval to consult with lawyer Whit Mak Sung Pie, an expert in interstellar property law, regarding the legal posturing of the Jarumi family with respect to ownership of the Dejah Thoris. For Cr30,000, Pie will investigate the matter with his Firstworlds contacts and, if necessary, present a formal reply that should keep the family and any over-zealous repo agencies at bay for the time being. Still, you don't plan on taking any chances, and plot a course toward the derelict mining ship Alexis that steers well clear of Firstworlds systems.  

After four uneventful jumps to trailing along the Scybrian Run trade route, you arrive in the outer reaches of the Nasvadak-Sopol System (Halcyon 2811), where you plan on refueling from a gas giant before proceeding to the mainworld, Sopol. Shortly thereafter, you receive a transmission from the mainworld starport authorities: they'd like you to investigate a 400-ton vessel, the Silver State, that jumped into the system a day before you, but proceeded immediately and without explanation to go into an apparently stable orbit around one of the gas giant's moons: all the more unusual since it is a state-sponsored deep space research vessel that should have made directly for home after months exploring several remote coreward systems. Sopol is sending out its own boats to investigate, but you're the closest. The Silver State appears intact and undamaged, but has not responded to any communications.

The Silver State

Sensing the sweet, sweet smell of salvage, you agree and set course for the moon. Sure enough, there's the Silver State, a scarab-class ship with an unusual feature: a domed arboretum that provides fresh food and air for the crew of eight, four of whom are generally in cryosleep at any one time. You extend and attach an umbilical between your airlock and theirs, which you have to force open. While Jacoba and Sasha maintain watch on the bridge of the Dejah, Torka, Griff, and Nogudnyk, clad in your armoured vacc suits, cautiously begin exploring the vessel. Several things quickly become apparent: the captain has locked down all the ship's controls using an emergency command, usually only used in extremis; radiation levels are rapidly rising from the ship's reactor; and, according to a private journal left behind by someone named Gajjala, some kind of creatures have unexpectedly emerged from alien cocoons gathered by the survey team on a distant world. It sounds like these creatures have been eating members of the crew, who have been afflicted with debilitating hallucinations that rendered them defenceless. 

As you begin exploring the ship's four levels and gathering more information, you are beset with hallucinations of your own: each of you sees someone from your past, a cherished love one or a hated nemesis, appear unexpectedly and attempt to persuade you to abandon your course of action. You quickly ascertain that, although your brains are fully convinced of the reality of these apparitions, your crewmates can't see them. Armed with this knowledge, you manage to shake off the worst effects (many lucky INT rolls here!) and continue with your task. 

Nogudnyk's telempathy succeeds in locating the creatures: four of them are gathered in the top-deck arboretum, as confirmed visually via a probe sent out from the Dejah. He senses no human-level intelligence from the creatures, only animal instinct; they have some ability to induce hallucinations but do not themselves determine the form or content. They nonetheless can cause others to act irrationally and to provide them with sustenance. This no doubt explains why the ship's captain, Lenda, has barricaded herself in engineering, stripping the radiation shielding from the reactor. It seems the creatures enjoy the radiation. Your vacc suits provide some measure of protection, but it's only a matter of minutes before you start accumulating a dangerous level of rads.

There are still three crew in cryopods (a fourth has been eaten by the creatures), plus the crazed Lenda and a terrified Gajjala. You decide that the only way to save them is to destroy the creatures, since you despair of successfully communicating with them or otherwise containing them safely. Jacobe maneuvers your ship carefully and Griff aims a pulse laser shot through the glassteel dome of the arborteum, causing explosive decompression of that section of the ship. The mothaliens are crushed as tons of earth, rock, and vegetation are swept into space through the resulting aperture. Lenda is released from her delusions, although her radiation burns will take a much longer time to heal.

One of the creatures aboard the Silver State

The Sopolian government is grateful to you for saving the surviving crew from a grim death and (perhaps even moreso) for bringing home their expensive survey ship, mostly intact. In addition to a generous reward, your berthing fees are waived. But the experience of seeing loved ones again — even when it was only a vivid hallucination — leaves many of you deeply missing those you left behind when you became a Traveller.

Image credits: Scarab-class ship illustration from Free League's Coriolis RPG, artist unknown; mothalien by Ivan Mikhalenko.