Arriving in system the travellers made contact with the starport and requested permission to land. They are given instructions and follow the virtual path provided. From orbit, Tech-World looks like a rusty wasteland. As the travellers got closer they saw the starport - a huge matt black dome, and around it the city which looked like a circuit board.
The landing instructions drew the ship towards the dome whereupon a platform formed out of the trillions of nanobots that make up the starport, and it extended out for the ship to land on. Upon landing the platform retracted, drawing the ship into a hangar sized just right for the ship. Normal robots approached the ship preparing to refuel, repair or unload the ship as required.
A female figure of steel and brass approached and waited patiently at the hatch. When Sparrow approached she introduced herself as Sophia, who could be the guide and aide for their stay on Tech-World.
Meeting new friends
With customs formalities taken care of, the party asked Sophia for information about robots. Lady Nitrane remembered that the party will need robots for the space station. Slayd asked about weapons, but the planet only makes weapons that will be used by robots.
As the party were travelling to a robot showroom, Sophia suddenly turned to Slayd and said "Admiral, do not ask questions. Behave normally. My masters wish to speak with you. Follow me.".The party followed. Leading through passages long unused, Sophia led the party to an exit that overlooked the dirt surface of the planet. Visible were two GeDeCo guards but the party nonchalantly passed by and reached the indicated building. Inside were three people.
- Dr Gerret Hodal, an elderly statesman and head of the council. Old and wrinkled, white-haired, and with a twinkle in his eye. Dr Hodal introduced himself as the head of the council.
- Archon Dreek, of middle years with a more thoughtful demeanour. He appeared more administrator than scientist, and the party did not learn of his position.
- Dr Rex Darke, dark haired and with a smile that was not entirely believable. He had a habit of rubbing his hands together and occasionally laughing maniacally. He was introduced as a roboticist formerly from the University or Regina.
When a representative of Drinax was known to be on the planet, and one with a good standing (through Peter Vallis' contacts) a decision was made to approach Slayd and put forward a proposition.
The Tech-World starport is owned and controlled by GeDeCo, whereas the rest of the planet is under the control of the scientific council. Because everything goes through the starport that means GeDeCo have an impressive control over the planet. The council want to stop that.
In exchange for joining with Drinax in the new Drinaxian Empire, including access to the technology and facilities that Tech-World has to offer, all they wanted was:
- Regular shipments of cheap Basic Consumables, Basic Raw Materials, Biochemicals, Petrochemicals, Radioactives and Uncommon Raw Materials.
- At least four System Defence Boats or equivalent, massing at least 300 tons each.
- Protection from any reprisals from GeDeCo.
- A contract that ensures Tech-World will be free to carry out any sort of scientific research without restrictions, even in sensitive fields like psionics or artificial intelligence.
Dr Hodal clarified that the planet has the resources to provide most of their own needs, including making robot-controlled System Defence Boats, but doing so would take many months and that in the meantime the planet would be vulnerable to GeDeCo reprisals or from pirate attack.
Slayed agreed that while he was not currently in a position to sign anything that guaranteed these things, the terms sounded fair and reasonable. The King would be approached to ratify these conditions and thus bring Tech-World into the Empire.
It's all about Astor
Lady Nitrane asked about Dr Jali Astor, explaining that they were looking for the scientist to help with a medical situation that only he could help with. Dr Hodal checked and found that Dr Astor was indeed on the planet but that he was not currently available, being in a Do Not Disturb state (common when scientists as in the middle of research).
Meeting concluded, the party were offered accommodation for the night. This was accepted and Sofia lead them to a building where the nanobot technology rearranged the rooms to suit. Settling in and helping themselves to fine processed food, the party were interrupted by Dr Hodal who told them something terrible had happened and that they should follow him.
Arriving a short distance away the party saw a laboratory partly in flames with two or three lab technicians milling about outside. It was explained that this was Dr Astor's lab and that something had caused an explosion, and furthermore the lab would shortly immolate and cleanse itself before returning to a laboratory configuration. This approach apparently being required to ensure that any chemicals or biological agents did not escape.
Suiting up the party decided to enter the lab to see if there was anything to be recovered or that might provide a clue. They found a pad with the word "fantasy" written on it, with some numbers. They also noticed and retrieved a video recording device commonly used by scientists to record their thoughts and their activities. And finally they retrieved some of the memory core of the crucible in which Dr Astor was performing his experiments.
Exiting the lab just in time the party established that the planet Fantasy was important enough to write down and the numbers were interpreted as a location on the planetary surface. The recording device had only some vision available after being damaged but showed Dr Astor receiving a comms call, suddenly looking panicked, and then throwing chemicals and equipment into the crucible causing it to short and burst into flames, whereupon he grabbed something and left the lab. Lastly the crucible memory showed that the experiment was genetic in nature and that the fire was caused by certain volatile chemicals being thrown into it.
Where to next?
The party asked if it was known where Dr Astor had gone and Dr Hodal checked his wrist computer and advised that he had gone to the starport, so the party headed there at high speed.
Looking around for some information the party noticed the bemused Aslan male that they saw before. On a hunch Lady Niitrane asked him what was wrong. He growled somewhat reluctantly that he was looking for his ship. Being a male he was unused and unwilling to talk to robots but on Tech-World that's more or less all there is at the starport. He added that someone had offered to help not long ago bur that they had gone missing too.
Showing him a picture of Dr Astor caused the Aslan, who was called Klowaaar, to snarl and admit that it was Astor who had offered to help. Checking the computers it was apparent now that Astor had fled with Klowaaar's ship.
Returning to their ship the party got the robots to stop the maintenance activities and complete the refuelling. They them left with Klowaaar to the planet Sink, which was the stated destination of the Aslan's ship.
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