Chapter 1: The Commencement

Soryn wears a look of authentic concern. "Are you children hurt?" he asks.

With so many on the kids, Sioux continues to scan the area, hoping to find the source of the problem

The boy shakes his head, "I'm Kieu Si and this is my twin sister Kieu Lan," he says, "We're not in trouble, are we?". The little girl stands behind him, peeking out from behind his back.

Sioux doesn't detect anything else in this room that seems interesting. Looking down the hall, there are four different rooms and the hallway curves toward the ship's fore just beyond those doors.

Sioux continues her sweap of the room into the first of the 4 rooms

"Not with us, Kieu Si. Can you tell us what you were doing here before we get you back to your family?"

Xiordin keeps watch over the others, letting them settle the refugees. They're hiding from something, he thinks

Sioux looks through the storage rooms and though they aren't packed to the brim with stuff, she does find some cool things. Each of the rooms contain stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, an ancient-looking curved sword, and an odd spiral of bioluminescent coral.

The little boy looks nearly sick with anxiety as you ask the question, "We were just exploring and the lights went out, honest!" he says too quickly, in the way that children do when they think they're caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

"Uh huh," Soryn says. "And what exactly were you exploring?"

With nothing physical to cause the power and computer problems, Sioux connects to the computers down here to get a service log and/or run a diagnostics on the equipment.

Kieu Si averts his eyes, "We got bored and..." he says, then squirms uncomfortably, "We found something down here. A little guy. We were taking care of him, but he ran off and then the lights shut off." he admits in a rush, having realized he's caught.

Sioux determines that there is some sort of damage to the cabling further down the hall, which is why she needed to re-route the power to begin with. Finding out more would require going down to take a look, as the cameras there aren't functional on the limited power they have.

The computer have identified some defective cables. I'm going to check them out! Sioux calls as goes to take a look at the damage.

"Interesting. Like, a pet? Can you describe it?" He listens to their description, if they're willing to give it, and tries to piece together what it might be.

"I'll come with you Sioux. Could be something nibbled the leads, or sabotage."

"He was little and had black and white fur. His ears were kinda big and super fluffy!" the boy says now that he knows he's not going to be in trouble. The little girl nods excitedly along with her brother's description. Based on the description, it sounds something like a baby panda.

Sioux and Xiordin head down the hall. To the fore of the hall’s curve, a room with exposed ship wiring and internals is accessible. A deactivated computer terminal is located within the tangle of wiring.

Xiordin keeps his drow eyes peeled as he follows Sioux.

Sioux flicks on the computer terminal and looks around while it boots up

She is still running the broad-spectrum scanning kit

"Cute," Soryn says with a wary smile. "And how many times have you snuck in here to visit this friend of yours? Did it have a cage when you first saw it?"

Sioux and Xiordin look around the room and something seems out of place, but it's hard to put their finger on it. "No cage. He was just wandering around, so we started feedin' him," the boy explains.

"That's what we were here for today and then the lights went off!" the girl pipes up.

Xiordin do you see any frayed wires?
Sioux runs through different settings on the scanner. Electromagnetic radiation, heat, arcane... Searching for anything out of place on a spaceship.

Xiordin let's the room speak to him, and tries to put a finger on what's off. "You sense something wrong? Eyes sharp."