The crew hesitantly decide to investigate the odd orbital further. They set up an umbilical between the Sparrow and a seven-sided recess on the crystalline hull. Shortly after they start to pressurise this, the panel segments and opens, releasing a dimensional horror which they later learned had been trapped in stasis.
After just about managing to put this terrifying creature down they discover that there is but a single chamber beyond the orbital’s airlock. The cylindrical room’s curved walls are adorned by a sweeping mural, depicting lithe humanoids with gossamer wings. Within a clear ovoid capsule, one of the same winged humanoids lies motionless.
Upon being awoken, the being tries to communicate telepathically, but all the crew perceive are incoherent fragments of music, akin to the faint tinkling of bells. They radio for Yala.
The being initially recoils upon seeing Yala, generating some kind of psionic shield. However, diplomacy prevails and they discover that she can understand fraal, albeit her psychic voice employs an unknown dialect of the language, with a heavy “accent”.
When questioned, she explains that she was a diplomat from her people, the evrem, to the planet below. During her stay, its star went nova lifetimes earlier than predicted and razed the majority of the world’s surface. The remaining population hastily built the orbitals to hold half a million souls in cryo while a small number of technicians remained active, waiting for the atmosphere to freeze out. After the surface stabilised, they would establish industry sufficient to construct more orbitals and then ships. Unfortunately, something went wrong.
After communing with her ship to find out what happened, she recounts the rest of the tragedy… A massive flare hit, instantly disabling more than half the orbitals, and killing anyone not in a shielded cryo pod on the others. With no one to wake them, the survivors slept on, until a few years later, when one orbital was struck by an interstellar object. This is apparently what delivered the dimensional horror, which proceeded to shred any remaining cryo-sleepers. Eventually, it phased onto the evrem vessel, waking the ship. Within a moment, the ship assessed the situation and trapped the horror in a stasis field.
Unfortunately, this left the ship without enough power to do anything else. And so it waited. The planet drifted further and further from its former parent. With no one to maintain the other orbitals, they succumbed to various misfortunes, or simply time. The crystalline technology of the evrem proved less susceptible to the ravages of time, keeping both passenger and prisoner ensconced until the Sparrow‘s arrival.
Upon realising that the ship had the equivalent of an AI, Gus set about reaching it Galactic Standard. Mere hours later, it is explaining to Cinque the broad principles of evrem technology and instructing him on how to refuel the vessel. It also transliterates the evrem’s melodic name as TiFaDoLaSo.
By the time the stardrives of the Sparrow and Blockade Runner recharge, the evrem vessel is also ready to leave. Tifa declares that she will accompany them so that she may make contact with the current local governing authorities.
Five starfalls later, the convoy arrives in Aegis. Within moments, Conrad and Gus have received warning messages. One prompts Gus to quickly hack the Sparrow‘s transponder to fly Inseer colours.
In their absence, someone released a documentary called Kerensky, which exposes multiple alleged war crimes committed by the protagonist. Some of the footage suggests that VoidCorp had a hand in the production.
As soon as the Sparrow is picked up by the local sensor grid, ships with Austrin, Thuldan, Regency, and Concordian transponders change heading for the convoy. All hail more or less simultaneously. Each declares its intent to intercept the Sparrow, claiming to have jurisdiction. Comms traffic between the vessels suggest some disagreement over this. Wayne detects a sensor anomaly near Redcrown.
After a tense standoff, the lead Regency vessel states it has received new orders to escort Inseer Deputy Ambassador Gustaphine to Haven 6. The Concordians respond that they will comply, while the Thuldans and Austrins protest but reluctantly back down, following at a distance.
On Haven 6, the crew are met by Alloy, who brings them to meet with Foxy Lady and Alan Quinn. After reporting their recent escapades in Vethril, the crew is brought up to speed on local happenings. Insight has been pushing back against V0RL’s incursions onto AeGrid. The Kerensky documentary was released a few weeks ago, possibly in retaliation. Foxy Lady has been in contact with a few high-level individuals from the other powers and things will likely spill over into open sooner or later. Of more immediate concern, Conrad is informed that he stands to be tried for his alleged past crimes. He is placed under house arrest until the higher-ups finish arguing over the specifics…