The Path to Eden, episode 12: A Mystery Solved

Venno's audience were once again excited.  The murder of Puzzle Paul had intrigued them, and Venno had no doubt that they would find the next installment just as thrilling.

"Things had settled down somewhat in the Ark.  Puzzle Paul's place among the Chroniclers had been taken by Jigsaw Jeff, and he insisted that the museum should be completed, and that it should be named in Puzzle Paul's honour.  Silas - or Staircase Silas, as he was now known - was not happy.

With most of the recent Ark projects complete, it was time to discuss starting some more, and the Chronicler Charlie Cube felt that a school would be a valuable way to learn about the artefacts in the museum.  Jigsaw Jeff agreed, and suggested that Staircase Silas would make an excellent schoolmaster.

A few more ideas appeared.  A militia would be a valuable addition to the Ark's defences.  Scraggy Maggie wanted a bank, to keep bullets in safely, and after the incident with Puzzle Paul there was also a demand for a tribunal, so that the Ark could have proper justice instead of mob violence.

It was time to get to work.  Katin went hunting around the Ark to find a good spot for the school's foundations, and soon had a suitable site picked out.  Lenny hefted his shovel, and finished off the Ark's barricades.  Quin, enamoured by the idea of the tribunal, went to fight for justice, but found justice quite a difficult thing to fight for.  Silas spent some time collecting suitable materials for the school.  Zippo gave the Ark's projects a rest for the day to get Lenny's new armour finished.

Lenny's new armour was rather better than the artefact helmet he'd been wearing.  Katin suggested he pass that on to Silas, as his face was clearly in need of protection.  Lenny took the time to write 'Staircase here' along the front.

The next morning, there was some commotion outside Quin's tent.  Two mutants named Estelle and Alfred lived nearby, and Jigsaw Jeff was pulling a confused looking Estelle out of their shack.  Quin went for a peek into the shack, and saw the bloody remains of Alfred.  Closer up she could hear Estelle saying that the voices had told her to do it.

Panic gripped the Ark.  It wasn't just Archie hearing voices.  And Estelle had loved Alfred.  If that could happen, then anyone could be affected.  Who would be next to hear the voices?  The group gathered to discuss what had happened.  Where were the voices coming from?  It couldn't be a big pipe, because Estelle didn't sleep in the same place as Archie.  Katin and Lenny were both familiar with voices in their heads telling them to kill, but that was perfectly normal revenge fantasies.  Not like what had happened with Archie and Estelle.

A large crowd had gathered at the Dawn Vault, with Scraggy Maggie calling for Estelle to be hanged, but Lenny pointed out that the tribunal wasn't ready yet, and along with some intervention from Briktoria, Estelle was taken to the Seven Sisters and Zippo was appointed chief investigator.

Alfred's body needed to be disposed of.  There was a briefly proposed theory that the voice was just someone very hungry, creeping round at night whispering in people's ears to tell them to kill people to create more bait for the hunting party.  But in terms of actually finding out what was happening, they weren't making much progress, and if they didn't go foraging soon they were going to run out of grub and water pretty fast.

A few hours scouting around the marshes to the west of the Ark turned up a reasonable quantity of supplies, and Katin's nose was able to sniff out some additional food.  Back home she sat down to cook the rot out of it, with a bit of help from Lenny and some encouragement from Silas who read to her from the sacred Ministry of Food book.  Soon she had enough boiled snails to feed all five of them for the next two days.

But as Katin was handing out food and water supplies, she heard a strange voice in her head.  It was telling her than Lenny must die.  She must kill him immediately.  Armed with nothing but snails, Katin could only attempt a barehanded attack, which completely failed to do anything thanks to his new armour.  Silas attempted to tackle her to the ground, but she wriggled out of his grasp.  Lenny got up and with minimal effort, picked up Katin to restrain her.  The voice stopped, but Katin was quite happy for Lenny to continue to restrain her.

One of the group hearing the voices meant they finally had something of a solid lead, however.  Katin didn't recognise the voice, but she was sure it was the voice of an old man.  And she had some idea of where it was coming from.  She gave Lenny directions, pointing with her nose, and the others followed behind them.

Just outside the cult headquarters, they found a shack, where an old, very sick mutant named Stan was lying sleeping.  Katin was sure she was in the right place, so Lenny woke him up.  He said he'd been having a nightmare about Katin trying to kill Lenny.  And it wasn't his first nightmare.

Stan had previously had psionic powers, but more recently hadn't been able to use them, after he went out in the zone.  He hadn't intended to kill anyone.  What were they going to do?  He couldn't be allowed to sleep again, or he might end up causing someone else to commit murder.

Lenny put Katin down, and Stan told her that he'd been with her in the dream about the garden.  He'd been wearing the skin of the elf.  Katin was thoroughly creeped out.  She didn't like the idea of someone poking around inside her mind.  Stan also mentioned that one of them would betray her before they found Eden, giving Silas a pointed look.

"Yeah, we figured."  Everyone shrugged.

He also claimed Silas would try to kill Ork, and asked Zippo what it was like being a gearhead who wasn't any good at making stuff.  It was gradually becoming apparent that he was trying to deliberately wind them up, especially when he brought up a dream Katin had had about Lenny.  They'd been at the temple, and Katin had been wearing a pretty dress.  But his attempts to provoke Lenny into killing him ultimately resulted in convincing them that they needed to get Briktoria to deal with things.  After all, Zippo had been appointed chief investigator, and since they'd solved the mystery it was about time he went and reported what they'd found.

Once Briktoria had heard the whole story, she agreed that Stan was a danger to the Ark.  She asked everyone to turn away, and then came a sickening crunch of a head being crushed.  Stan's body was wrapped up and removed to the corpse pile.

The string of murders was over, but Katin still wasn't happy.  Nobody was sure her dream about Eden could be trusted now.  But the elf did know about the Old Ben tower, so that part at least was true.

They all retired to the tavern for some food, which with the new options coming from the croplands now included bits of potato with salt, dry roasted peas with salt, and flakes of bran with peas.  There they talked to the elf again, and asked her about Old Ben.  Once it had told the time, and gone bong at certain points.  That seemed like a good feature to add to the sundial, to give Sundial Sam a break from shouting the time.  But more importantly, they might find some answers at Old Ben.  They would have to keep on searching.

It was time for some sleep.  Lenny accompanied Katin back to her shack, and noted how weird the things Stan had said were.  Katin agreed.  She never wore dresses.  They were totally impractical.  Lenny though it might be nice if she did though.

Katin was also very uncomfortable about what Stan might have seen in her head.  He might have seen things about Jena.  Katin really missed having a best friend.  Lenny suggested that he could be her friend.  She'd hoped Zippo would be her friend, but then he blew her up.  Lenny had never exploded her.  Katin gave Lenny a slightly awkward hug, then dived into her shack, leaving a surprised Lenny outside."

Emissary Lost, episode 5: Wheeling and Dealing

 The group continued their journey downwards, soon hearing voices again.  This time they managed to listen in without immediately being spotted.  Four hunters and their human prey.  Razaq was not going to allow that to continue.  One brief firefight later, they were collecting the hunters' carbines, pistols and tabulas - with the exception of one carbine, now in the hands of their would-be target.  He provided them with directions before running away.

Down a ladder, and into the Third Sphere, which they rapidly learned was in the hands of Queen Elmeda.  Her guards, dressed all in red, asked if they had any goods to trade, as that was a requirement for entering her domain.  Conveniently they had a bunch of pistols and carbines going spare.  Tahir, Khalil and Sayah, as the members of the group least likely to say something inappropriate in front of an authority figure, went in.

Not everyone down here was human.  Rat-like Skavara children asked Khalil for treats.  He offered some slightly squashed baklava, which was accepted enthusiastically.  The Queen herself was accompanied by both wolfish Nekatra guards, and a huge snake - almost certainly a construct.  Tahir did the talking, offering the weapons as a gift.  He explained why they were there.  The search, for both Noor and the Emissary.

The Queen mentioned that they were not the only newcomers to the Third Sphere.  Others had been there, transporting people, and taking them beyond the Labyrinth.  They would need a guide, if they intended to pass that way themselves.  She could provide one, for a price.  The price was removing a Skavara merchant by the name of Awl, who had started a rival market that was costing the Queen's own market a lot of profit.

They decided they would have to talk this over with the others.  Doing so alone was going to be difficult though, as they had been joined by Frax, one of the Queen's Nekatra guards.  Of course this was also an opportunity to find out more about the Queen.  They learned that she had powerful family back on Kua.  The Queen's subjects were not allowed to harm each other.  The Skavara was not a subject though, and was increasingly gathering support.

Arriving at the Skavara's market, it was clearly very different to the Queen's.  Much better stocked, and with significantly more food.  No wonder it was growing in popularity.  Nobody much liked the idea of taking Queen Elmeda's offer at this point - but of course they still needed to get through the Labyrinth somehow.

Awl was soon located, and agreed to talk in exchange for a gift of technology.  Conveniently they had a bunch of tabulas going spare.  Awl knew the way through the Labyrinth.  Since the alternative was that we would have to kill him for the Queen, he wasn't too hard to persuade.  A deal was made though, to take him up to Ozone Plaza afterwards.  Awl's people caused a distraction to get Frax out of the way, and the group set out for the Labyrinth.

This was not a well maintained path.  Rickety bridges caused a nervous moment for Razaq, who almost fell, prompting Sayah to get out her hyper rope to get herself, Arin and Khalil across in relative safety.  Then there was a choice to be made.  Three paths lay ahead.  The safe path, slow but secure.  The cemetary path, faster, but not without its dangers.  Or the fastest route, that would take them close to the Beast.

For Tahir, there was only one choice.  The fast path, and never mind the danger.  And for once, Sayah backed him up.  Noor was in danger, and if that meant risking the fast path, then so be it.

At Awl's suggestion, they crept along in silence.  If they could avoid attracting the Beast's attention, they had a better chance of getting past it safely.  But after a while they heard a voice, singing a song about doors.  What did it mean?  They soon found the singer, who approached them and asked them if they were beings of darkness or light.  Beings of light, of course.  The group explained once more about their search for Noor and the Emissary.

The strange man knew the Emissary.  He had spoken to him.  He was a friend, but not as good at poetry.  He had passed through this way, accompanied by eight guards, who were holding his mouth, whatever that meant.  The strange man remembered one of the Emissary's poems.

When the unworthy speak without tongues
When sister betrays sister
When the light of peace nourishes the servants of darkness
When brother kills brother

Sayah immediately remembered the words from Ramas's data chip.  When he had asked Noor to explain herself, she had spoken words that seemed to echo the Emissary's poem.

"There will come a time when the darkness in invited in, when people speak without mouths, when sister betrays sister. Only they who live in the darkness will see the light."

Emissary Lost, episode 4: Going Down

Nobody had any intention of waiting until the requested meeting time to visit the Garden of Seekers.  Razaq and Sayah went for a scout around, with Razaq identifing a good spot for a sniper hide and making sure he was the one occupying it.  Khalil went to visit the artists' tent and chat to the jugglers there, where he discovered a complete lack of juggling ability, albeit with a will to improve.

When the time for the meeting arrived, only Sayah and Tahir waited at the meeting point, while the others looked on from their various vantage points.  Brother Ramas arrived a little late, and at the same time a number of suspicious characters appeared.  One of them pushed roughly past him on the bridge, and Tahir caught sight of a bright flash of light.  A few moments later, Ramas staggered and collapsed to the ground, reaching out to hand Tahir a data tag as he fell.

Tahir had his stun gun in hand in a moment, firing at the attacker while Sayah checked on the condition of Brother Ramas.  More new arrivals from the path above the artists' tent fired down at them, almost taking out Arin, who jumped into the lake to take cover under the bridge.  Khalil sheltered behind a tree.  Razaq fired from his hide, taking out another of the strangers.  Sayah joined Arin under the bridge, and once she'd confirmed he wasn't in need of urgent medical attention, borrowed his gun to fire back at his attackers.

It wasn't long before the shooting attracted the Coriolis station guards, at which point the attackers decided to make themselves scarce, the one Razaq had shot taking a moment to pick up his severed arm off the ground and take it with him.  Khalil scarpered in the confusion, and Razaq dropped a smoke bomb and vanished.

The other three were rounded up by the guards, where Sayah and Tahir were quick to explain how they were meeting their old friend from the Ghazali - an easy story to sell given Tahir's fame.  Tahir also told them about the weird behaviour of the attackers, specifically the bit where they picked up an arm.  After an uncomfortably long wait, word finally came through from the Judicator that they were to be released.

Khalil had an idea for how to track the attackers.  They'd all escaped - but one of them had escaped with one of his bullets inside them.  And he had a talent for finding things that had previously belonged to him.  He went into a trance and watched, seeing them regrouping in a building that looked like an abandoned hospital.

Once everyone was reunited, it was time to read the data tag that had cost Brother Ramas his life.  They began with the holo recording, where Ramas explained that a Martyr strike team from Zalos was operating on the station and attempting to wipe out new mystics.  They were being taken to the 'real sanitorium', somewhere down in the cellar.

Other files on the tag mentioned Noor.  She felt she'd been given her powers for some higher purpose, and the last time he'd seen her she was being escorted by the guard after being arrested in the Ozone Plaza.  She'd claimed to have a vision from the Emissary at Xene Station.  Ramas wasn't sure which Emissary she meant - the one on Coriolis or the heretical self-proclaimed 'Judge' from Xene.  She had a strange message for Ramas.  "There will come a time when the darkness in invited in, when people speak without mouths, when sister betrays sister. Only they who live in the darkness will see the light."  Not long after that she'd been taken down to the 'real sanitorium'.

They had to tell the Judicator everything, of course, and she was keen for them to get moving.  Chances are, this 'real sanitorium' in the Cellar was where the Emissary had been taken, and Sayah was equally keen to find Noor.  Should they take the route down through the Sanitorium, or use the guard elevator?  For speed, they went with the elevator.

Once suitably equipped with some armour loaned from the Judicator, plus some other equipment, they set off.  It wasn't long before they heard some people up ahead talking.  Razaq scared them off, and investigation showed they'd ripped out a nexus node, presumably to sell.  They found a screen, which rather unexpectedly was showing a news report from not long after the wreck of the Ghazali, specifically an interview with Tahir.  This couldn't be a coincidence.  Sayah djinned into the network, and confirmed it was being broadcast locally, not from the main station network.

Up ahead they could hear an oppressive thrumming noise, which when they got closer turned out to be huge ventilation fans.  Sayah spotted something stuck on the underside of one - a Vulcan carbine held aloft by the airflow.  Below them, on the hub of a fan, was a body.  He looked like a Coriolis guard, but with a shaved head and some increasingly familiar face tattoos.

Khalil was getting a headache, and not just from the fan noise.  He heard the crackle of a stun gun and smelled ozone.  Just like he had in the Emissary's residence.

Could they retrieve the carbine?  Tahir had a hyperrope, and felt quite confident in his ability to get hold of it if the others held onto the other end.  Khalil had a better idea though, using his mystic power to attempt to wind the end of the rope through the gun.  Instead the rope got caught around the fan and ripped out of his hands.  Good thing that wasn't Tahir.

Emissary Lost, episode 3: A Few Polite Conversations

Khalil had a vision.

He was standing in the room.  The room where the attack had taken place.  Five people were attacking him.  A wave of force burst out, deflecting the bullets.  And then came the knife in his chest, and the vision ended.

He made the decision to trust the others.  None of them seemed to have any prejudice against mystics, and the more informed they all were, the better.

Sayah, Razaq and Arin went to a weapon shop to investigate the silenced bullet they'd found, soon learning that such things were not sold on Coriolis - at least, not in respectable shops like this.  They were used by rebel groups down on Kua though, so could have made it onto the station if brought up by smugglers.  Sayah took a look at the knives, to see if there were any that resembled the one in Khalil's vision, but there were not.  She bought one anyway, to be polite.

Which turned out to be a good choice, as shortly after leaving the shop they were attacked by a group of stevedores.  They fought them off and made a hasty departure, but soon ran into Jeyla Kuhari, the reporter, once again, and had to avoid sharing the story with her.

Khalil and Tahir, being the more social and less paranoid part of the group, went to visit the ambassador.  Not to make any accusations, but because as the last person seen on the camera, he might have caught sight of something important without realising it.  His room was an imposing sight - a group of servants carried potted plants, which Khalil recognised as being a particularly poisonous variety with sharp leaves, where a single touch could prove deadly.

The ambassador spoke briefly.  He'd been given a tag to put into the emissary's music system, as somebody 'wanted him to hear a message'.  He'd since examined the tag, and to nobody's surprise found it infected with a data meme.

The local news was reporting more murders.  Sayah asked Judicator Akouba about them.  The one mentioned as happening at Wahib's was a woman called Kohmina.  Sayah remembered her well - the mad woman with the crystal ball that was really just a ball of sugar, who wanted to go down with the Ghazali because it was the will of the icons.  She'd been saved by Lila's intervention.  Sayah did not know what had happened between the two of them, and did not want to.

Once Khalil had complimented the ambassador on his taste in plants and Tahir had got his assistant's comm address, the two of them left to meet up with the others again to pay another visit to the sanitorium.  Tahir and Sayah went looking for their old friend from the Ghazali, Brother Ramos.  Instead they were introduced to Sister Robwah.  She confirmed that Ramos had met with Noor, and after some prodding, Ramos himself appeared.

They discussed the mystic's disease, and convinced Ramos to talk about Noor once they told him what had happened to Aram.  Noor believed that she was chosen by the icons to perform great deeds.  Specifically, she was chosen by the Martyr - the Zelosian name for the Judge, and according to their beliefs, the only icon.

Razaq had had enough.  Enraged by the constant claims that mystic powers were a disease in need of a cure, he stormed out.  The others followed, but Sayah had had a communicator pressed into her hand as she left, with just one message.  "Contact me."

A meeting was arranged.  That night, in the Garden of Seekers.

The Path to Eden, episode 11: A Puzzling End

Venno's audience were buzzing.  The level of concern for the team members was obvious, especially among fans of Katin and Silas.  Venno smiled as he prepared to begin.  He could already imagine the coming reactions.

"Back at the Ark, they barely had time to deliver the collection of magazines and other valuable documents to the dawn vault before they found themselves dragged into an assembly.  Puzzle Paul was once again pushing the museum, taking advantage of Silas's crushed face preventing him engaging in any coherent argument.  Ultimately the Ark decided that they had quite enough projects on the go and didn't need any more right now.

Katin went straight back to her den for some sleep, while Silas attempted to use the first aid kit he'd found to fix his face - with a bit of help from Lenny.  He ended up using most of the contents of the box, but got the job done.

That night, Katin had a strange dream.  She was outside, surrounded by green grass, with a gentle sun shining down on healthy trees.  Flowers were all around her, but somehow when she tried to sniff them, she couldn't make out a scent.  Looking around, she saw the elf from the tunnel.  Trying to talk to her wasn't helpful, but she was pointing at a wall where there was some writing.  Katin couldn't read it.  The letters wouldn't come into focus.  But there was a picture.  A tower with a clock on it.  And then a loud bang woke her up, and she was back in her den.

The next morning, everyone felt rather better and got to work.  Zippo began working on making some armour for Lenny.  Silas went scouting for building the defenses.  Quin attempted to work on the pigsty, but lacking the proper tools for digging post holes, she strained her back.  Clearly more time reading the Health and Safety manual was required.

Lenny spotted Silas struggling at the defences and went to help, but distracted by worry for both Silas and Katin he managed to injure himself.  Meanwhile, Katin decided to try another attempt at training the hunting party in archery, this time using a regular jury rigged bow which they were more familiar with.  One brilliant archery training session later, they were ready to go.

As the sacred text said, 'Meat's back on the menu, boys!'

The next day, Katin sought out the others at the Prancing Pony, and told them about her dream.  Silas took extensive notes.  Clearly she needed to ask the elf about it.  But before she could find her, a scream echoed across the Ark.

At the site of the museum, they found the body of Puzzle Paul under some bricks, with his head bashed in with one of the bricks.  Gripped in his hands was one of the anti-museum posters Silas had been putting up.  Accusing eyes turned on Silas.  Paul's face had been crushed - just like Silas's was.

The team rapidly leapt to Silas's defence, by pointing out that he was so hopeless in a fight there was absolutely no way he could have killed anyone, because Puzzle Paul would have kicked his arse.  Silas was a coward who once left Lenny to die, not a competent killer.  There's no way he could have snuck up on someone because they'd seen Silas try to sneak and he was really conspicuous.  A reasonably compelling argument, and enough to buy them some time to investigate what really happened.

Lenny promised to keep an eye on Silas, reminding everyone that he was no Boromir or Saruman.  Quin had a look at Puzzle Paul's body to see if she could find something to get a scent from.  The murder weapon looked like a good candidate, and with some assistance from Katin, Ork was soon on the trail.  Noses to the ground, the two of them tracked down the real culprit.

The young man's name was Archie, and he'd never been known to cause trouble in the Ark before.  He was sitting in the ticket office, covered in blood, and repeating the words, 'the voices made me do it'.

Katin went to get the others, while Quin stayed with Archie.  He didn't seem to have even noticed her presence.  She did her best to get through to him, but it seemed he was too far gone.  Zippo's attempt to slap some sense into him when he arrived didn't even register with him.  Finally Lenny's imposing presence got him to talk - although he was still talking mostly about the voice in his head.  He'd been hearing it for two months, every day, telling him to kill Puzzle Paul.  And with that he retreated into himself again.

He obviously needed some help, and the Seven Sisters seemed like the best option.  Silas hung back, not wanting to get thrown under the replacement bus service.  Zippo explained things to Briktoria.  She agreed to look after Archie, on the condition that they were paid for their services.  After some further persuasion and bribery, she was convinced to go out and tell everyone that Silas was not the killer, cementing the work the team had already done.  Silas was off the hook - even though the nickname 'Staircase Silas' seemed to have stuck.

Silas headed for the Dawn Vault to look at the artefacts, where he was rather annoyed to discover that the other chroniclers were planning on naming the museum after Puzzle Paul.  Katin went looking for the elf, who was no longer staying at the Dawn Vault, but had integrated herself with the group from the Misty Mountains and was currently staying at the Prancing Pony.  Rather to her surprise, she found them reading a book.

The book was called Travels With Asterix, and unlike the Ark's sacred texts, it had pictures all the way through.  It was quite an effort to drag herself away from it, but she finally managed to talk to the elf - even if they were all a little confused about why they called her an elf.  Katin told her about the dream, and she did know about the tower with the clock.  It was called Old Ben, and she knew where to find it.  She drew it on Katin's map of the zone.  It was definitely the right place - it looked just like what Katin had seen in her dream.

It was going to be a long walk, into a far more dangerous part of the zone.  The elf didn't think they were ready to go yet, and Katin agreed.  She would have to scout out the first part of the path so they could get through them quickly when they made the push to the tower, and they definitely needed more food and water supplies.  Katin went on her way with the Asterix book on loan.

Katin knew Silas would appreciate the book, so went to visit him.  His eyes lit up at the sight of it.  She explained that she knew he'd had a rough day, and thought he might appreciate it.  Even with his access to the Dawn Vault he'd never seen anything like it.  They passed some time turning the pages.  Katin might not be the most empathic of people, but Silas was starting to feel better all the same."

Emissary Lost, episode 2: Dinner and a Show

Sayah could only stare in horror at the bloody mess in front of her before the others hitting the deck prompted her to join them in taking cover.  But there were no further shots.  Clearly the killer had found their target.

While Sayah, Razaq and Khalil made themselves scarce, Arin distracted the reporter while Tahir made a quick search of Aram's body.  He found some gambling chips in his pocket, along with a communicator and a couple of thousand birr.  He talked to the authorities when they arrived, learning that they believed his death was due to gambling debts.  Aram's parents got the sad news.  He'd been keeping quiet about having the mystic's disease, out of fear that his parents would loose their bakery concession if it came out.

The group regathered for some tea and to eat the baklava they'd got from Aram's parents, which was really excellent.  As they were eating, Khalil suddenly heard a loud sound in his head.  Five notes.

Checking out the local news feeds, there was clearly a lot of discussion of the mystic's disease, and a lot of disagreement, which was sometimes spilling out into violence on the streets.  Then a news alert came up.  The emissary was missing, having failed to show up at the council meeting.  Crowds were forming in Spring Plaza, wanting to know what was going on.  There were claims that the emissary had been sighted, but could reports from down in the Cellar really be trusted?

But the group found themselves with more pressing things to worry about when they were hand delivered an invitation to dinner with a judge.  Sayah assured everyone she could help them find suitable clothing.  This wasn't the first time she'd had to dress people for dinner.  Razaq declined.  He had no intention of going anywhere near a judge.

Dinner was in the evening, and they had plenty of time before that for both shopping and trying to make sense of what had happened to Aram.  They had two leads - the gambling chips and the communicator.  The former were quickly identified as belonging to the Oporium.  The latter proved more enlightening - point to point encrypted, with the other end point being somewhere near the Sanitorium.

Sayah and Tahir went to follow up on the communicator.  While the Sanitorium was next to the library and the museum, it was in the entrance to the Sanitorium itself where they found their target.  Her name was Sanna Torm, and she was expecting to meet Aram.  She recognised Sayah, much to Sayah's alarm, although she relaxed on learning that Sanna had seen her in a vision.  They quietly told her about Aram's death, and advised her not to go into the Sanitorium, but to stay with her family (who were sufficiently rich and powerful for Sayah to recognise their name.)

While Sayah gathered anyone willing for a shopping trip, Razaq went in search of the street children again.  He asked them about the Cellar.  They hadn't been there, and claimed it was full of shambling jelly monsters.  However, they thought if he really wanted to visit, the stevedores might be able to help.

Minus Razaq, the group got dressed and went for dinner with Judge Nigelia.  It was obvious she'd done her research on everyone, as her veiled comments were enough to rattle at least some of them.  She had a job for them: look into the emissary's disappearance.

Once a suitable fee had been negotiated (9000 birr and a weapon license for everyone who didn't already have one) they all headed to the emissary's lakeside residence, accompanied by Judicator Akouba as the Judge required.

It was a strange sight.  Blood all over the living room and trails of it down the hallway to to door.  And yet the rest of the house was almost uncannily clean.  It was as if the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen had never been used.  The only item that seemed out of place was a hand fan by the bed, decorated with First Come religious iconography.

Sayah went straight for the data console, wanting to keep her mind off the blood for as long as possible.  She found it infected with data memes, and after a brief flashback to the horrible time when she'd had to do a system restore on Suleiman to remove an infection, she realised that the codebase was familiar.  The Order of the Pariah.  A group strongly opposed to the Icons - and presumably, by extension, to the emissary.

The security footage had cut out before anything particularly useful could be seen, but there was one familiar face that appeared before that.  Johar Quassar, the ambassador of the Hegemony.  The last thing to be visible before the footage cut out.

The group examined the sitting room.  Its walls were decorated with a mosaic, which had been seriously damaged.  Some examination revealed the cause to be a vulcan carbine on autofire.  On the floor was a Miran prayer rug, heavily stained with blood, much to Tahir and Sayah's distress.  It was a terrible thing to happen to any kind of soft furnishings.  There were books lying around with cut pages, looking like they'd been slashed with a dura knife.

There were also bowls on the floor.  One had contained water, one incense, which had burned a hole in the rug.  One contained couscous and one held candles.  All four were decorated with religious symbols, and their contents and design seemed to link them to Miran and Algolan representations of the four states of all things.

Closer examination of the floor found a series of hairline cracks, and looking at the walls again found a similar pattern.  It was like some kind of wave of force had hit the room, deflecting even bullets.  A single vulcan round was found embedded in the wall.  A noiseless vibro round, not the standard model.  Black market gear.

They questioned the Judicator about the blood.  Six individual sources had been identified, although the biocode analysis was not yet complete.  What they knew so far was that five of them were likely Zelosians.  The sixth had behaved oddly in analysis.

There was one last desecration of soft furnishings - or clue, to those of the group who weren't from the Aliya.  A bloody right hand print on the rug.

The Path to Eden, episode 10: Hospital

Venno's audience weren't quite as nervous as they had been last time, but the chatter suggested they were expecting to hear about a new journey into the zone.  He smiled.  They would not be disappointed.

"The biggest concern in the ark, with so many new people expected to arrive, was food supplies.  After consulting the sacred text, the Ministry of Food, a number of ideas were presented.  Scraggy Maggy suggested rounding up some pigs would allow them to have bacon, and Lenny thought a hunting party could also bring in some meat, both of which would allow them to make more of the recipes from the sacred text.  But there was also the critical matter of defence.  They didn't want to get over-committed.  While at some point they did need to think about a brewery, for now it was time to get to work.

But first, Quin had a gift for Zippo.  She'd found it in the BBC building.  She wasn't sure what it was, but she was sure he would like it, and he did.  While a first attempt to examine it resulted in him accidentally hitting himself over the head with it, he was soon sure it was a tool for repairing things, which was going to be his new best friend.

After some pointed non-discussion of museums, work began.  Quin got to work building the defences, getting a lot of building done but hurting herself in the process.  Silas tried to help, but found himself baffled by the napkin diagrams they were working from.

Zippo decided the hunting party could use some training in how to shoot things.  His first attempt didn't go so well, as they just weren't getting it, but a change of approach involving a lot of running around finally got through to them.

Lenny had a gift for Katin.  As the team's stalker, she was the person best able to make use of the thing for making far away things look close.  Having made Katin very happy, he headed off the the wrestling cage to demonstrate a few moves, and soon had the wrestling team up and running.

Delighted with her new gift, and wanting to support Lenny, Katin went to give the hunting party some training in archery, which had the significant benefit of not requiring any bullets.  Unfortunately, the fact she was using a crossbow and they all had regular bows made for an exhausting session in which nobody learned anything and several bits fell off the crossbow in the resulting argument.

Katin swallowed her pride, apologised to Zippo for blaming him for that time she nearly got blown up, and asked him if he could fix her crossbow.  He managed to stick most of it back together, and fixed the device for finding directions as well.

Everyone had a bit of a rest to recover from their exertions, and then prepared for another mission outside.  Now they knew where the hospital was, they needed to get there as soon as possible to be ready for the arrival of Eriel's hobbit.  Following Katin's lead they headed out through the marshes and turned to the south, and after a couple of hours, found themselves outside St Ann's Hospital.

They weren't alone.  While picking a low rot path into the hospital, Katin spotted a group of zone ghouls up ahead.  Remembering that historically, attempting to sneak past dangerous zone entities had not gone too well, they decided to attempt to surprise them instead.

Quin and Katin lead the charge, surprising the ghouls with rocks and arrows.  The others were...less of a surprise.  Nevertheless, after a brief but brutal fight that included one of the ghouls being dissolved by Lenny's acid spit, the ghouls were defeated and the team were all more or less intact.  They removed the helmet one of the ghouls had been wearing, realising that this was not just any helmet but an ancient artefact.

Lenny donned the helmet, and after some more arguing about the merits of museums, they moved on.  The hospital itself was a creepy sight, with dessicated corpses lying all around and the stench of death in the air.  Ork didn't want to go in, and Katin wasn't particularly keen either.

Leaving Ork outside, they began searching, and soon found a collapsed stairwell.  Zippo activated his mutant powers and used his insectoid limbs to scuttle up the wall, where he managed to locate a sign with directions to different departments.  With some help from Silas, who could remember some important lines from the sacred text, the Health and Safety Manual, he determined that they needed the maternity department on the third floor.

Zippo scuttled the rest of the way up, and found a hose, which he unrolled to allow the others to use it as a climbing rope.  It seemed his difficulty with stairs was not a problem when all the stairs had collapsed and he was soon at the top.

Zippo scuttled back down to give Katin a hand, but despite massive effort, she kept on sliding back down until she was completely exhausted and had to sit down for a rest.  Not wanting to leave her behind, Lenny scooped her up and carried her with him as he climbed.  Quin sensibly decided to stay downstairs and have a look round there instead.

Silas attempted to get Katin back on her feet, but failed to apply the appropriate drugs, leading to a serious case of self doubt.  Lenny stayed with her to look after her while Zippo and Silas searched, sharing his water with her.  The hospital did have some useful bits and pieces, including a box that Silas identified as a first aid kit, as documented in the Health and Safety Manual.  Zippo also found some jars of hobbit food.  Overall, they felt pretty confident they had what they needed.

The four of them descended the stairwell again, Lenny carrying Katin with him and Zippo deploying his insectoid limbs once more.  Silas attempted to follow, but instead the hose snapped and he plummeted down the stairwell.  With Lenny already tired from helping Katin down he couldn't help to break his fall, and Silas landed face down on the ground.

Quin came running at the sudden thud, and managed to put Silas's face back together while Zippo collected stray teeth.  They gathered their finds, and limped slowly back to the ark."