Gameplay Thread

The night of the party has arrived. The businesses of the station are closed as people either attend the party or stay at home in the Living Quarters. The Atrium, with its wide variety of xenobotanics, is dark except for the colorful lights strewn along the walking paths. In its center, a hologram of a large evergreen tree with shiny ornaments and looped animation of falling snow dominates the front entrance to the Hardlight Hotel Bar Bank and Casino. The tree points up at the clear geodesic dome and the dark, starry sky beyond.

Like so much of the station, the hotel is well maintained but showing its age. The meeting hall is decorated with garland and stockings and the smell of cinnamon has been pumped through the air handling system. Staff androids, dressed in Santa hats and elf clothes, walk the room serving food catered by Galaxy Dan's Hardlight Hotdogs (as they are programmed to repeatedly tell guests). Drinks are being served but the only kind available is a thick, sweet, milky liquid with the harsh taste of alcohol mixed in. Entry to the party includes one free drink token and anything more must be purchased with credits.

Geneva stifles a sneeze when the artificial scent of cinnamon hits her nose. Three steps past the hotel entrance and she's already on the verge of making a bad impression. Keep it together, girl. She tilts her head up, hoping to find a distraction in the building decor. Glittery wreaths and bright red stockings jostle for space in front of Nakatomi style wall designs. She's going to get a migraine if she continues looking.

Mustering a smile just in case there's a human staffing the booth, Geneva locates the lobby's info-counter. Nobody's there, but she keeps the corners of her mouth up anyway while tap-tap-tapping at the screen for directions to the event hall.

It's her first time visiting the Hardlight. Even if she were so inclined, one look at her cred account would shake her back to reality. Half the time she didn't bother transferring the credits from the stub that paid her RA's stipend. She'd use it all up by the end of the week.

When she read Gennero’s first message, she thought she’d found her lucky break at last. She had a reply composed and sent within fifteen minutes. It took a week for the good doctor to get back to her. Then another week before he actually mentioned the excavation. Nothing specific, mind. That would be too easy. More than a month now, and he’s no-showing the party.

She’d tossed a coin to decide whether to attend the party without him. Tails said no, but then she figured maybe some other VIPs would turn up. If she could hook one of them as a sponsor, she’d be set, Gennero or no Gennero.

Her heels click as she walks. A friend’s. She’d better not be underdressed for this, not after going through nearly an hour of makeup. Baggy pants that her roommate said made her look chic – some old century slang. A field jacket to match. Geneva picked that one out herself.

She reaches the hall. To her horror, there’s no buffet table. Nowhere to retreat to when things go wrong. An android with a pointy hat offers her a hotdog on a stick. She waves a hand to say no and nearly smacks it out of the android’s hand. Shit.

Desperate now, she looks around for someone else who’s alone at the party. There – that skinny man near the stage. Small talk. She’d practiced for this. Her hopes aren’t high that this particular man would be the saviour of her research, but he’d help her blend in until the right person to cozy up to arrived.

Keith was prepared to unwind, have a few drinks, and listen to his sister's seemingly endless ability to nag at him for the evening. And, believe it or not, he was actually looking forward to it. It'd been months since he had done anything but work, so he figured he deserved a little break. Seeing his sister would be good, even with all her not-so-subtle criticisms. Getting ready for the party, he even went out and bought a nice lounge suit since Donna said it would be a casual thing. He has a decent amount of credits because he does nothing besides drink these days anyway, so a little R & R would do him a world of good.

All that would have been fine and dandy, except for as soon as he got to this damn station, he still couldn't get ahold of Donna. After being a wallflower and a few drinks, he finally found someone who seemed at least somewhat in charge, only to find out that Donna had been injured in some accident or something?

The droid he accosted said they would send someone over to talk to him, so he had just been standing nervously near a closed off service desk for the last while, only leaving briefly to refill his milky alcoholic beverage. Sure, he was worried about his little sister, but she had always been more than capable. She would probably be fine without him. Right?

With no chance of relaxing, he was starting to regret coming. Anxiety crept into his chest as he contemplated finding away off the ship. pretending like the he had never even received the invitation in the first place. But what if Donna was really hurt? He had never been that great of a big brother, but he would be a real lowlife if he just abandoned her. Trying not to think about the worry gnawing away at his guts, he flushed it down with booze and waited, pacing a bit as he did so.

" ... and that's what makes a Yakatomi Christmas party so special! Take a look at that holo-tree! The decorations! The authentic Christmas treats! It doesn't get any better than this!" She winks to the small camera perched on a nearby table and checks her relection in the lens.
"Ho, Ho, Ho. This is Calayope Guberg from Yakatomi Internal Comms - but you can call me Opi. When I'm back, I'm going to find us some iiinteresting people to talk to tonight."

She doesn't have any interesting interviews lined up. In fact, she has no interviews lined up. And the camera man, Jak, had bailed on her, so she is on her own with all the equipment. Great start.

It doesn't really matter, though. Once the party is underway, the real job will start. In all the chaos of the party, it should be easy to get into the restricted offices. And thats where she will find the real story. The story that will make her famous.

But all that will have to wait for later. For now, she has to act the part of the over-excited intern with the Yakatomi Internal Communications Department.

"Ok, where do I find the first corporate moron to interview?"

Opi picks up the well-worn bag of recording equipment, and starts scanning the room for her first victim.

Nova stands near the center of the room, an eerie half-smile on her face. The android's facial features make her appear to be mostly human, but there's something just artificial enough to be slightly off-putting to most organics. She holds a drink, though she has no need for sustenance. An official Healthtek nametag is affixed to her chestplate.

She's here at the Christmas party to represent the corporation in the face of Dr. Gennero's absence. She'd much rather be somewhere else. Social engagements like these are tiresome and largely a waste of time. She's a company droid, though, and so she'll do as the company asks her.

Seeing a woman with recording equipment heading her way, Nova straightens her shoulders and forces her smile to widen. "Greetings, and merry Christmas. Welcome to the Hardlight Hotel and the Nakatomi Solutions Christmas party. I am Nova. Are you enjoying the festivities?"

"An android? Well that covers one of the diversity angles that the head of Internal Comms keeps talking about. It's just a shame that the vac-heads that write the standard interview questions have included such absolute shit pearls as 'What's your favorite Christmas food?'. Don't they know that androids don't eat? It's 5 points for intention and 2 for execution as usual. I'll just have to wing it ... as usual."

She runs a hand through her hot-pink pixie cut hair and sends the android a big smile.

"Hey Nova! Good to meet you. Oh, definitely enjoying the festivities. You?" She holds up her ID card. "I'm Opi. I'm with Internal Comms, and we're doing a piece about the party. Mind if I ask you a few questions?

She starts pulling out the camera from her bag while talking.

"Hello, Opi. Yes, I am enjoying the festivities as well," Nova says in what she hopes is a pleasant tone. "Of course. You may ask me whatever you like."

Geneva's mood sours when she notices the android in the middle of the room. Or, to be precise, the Healthtek symbol on its? - her? - torso. Another reminder of the person she'd come all the way here to meet just to be blown off.

Her eyes flick back to the skinny man, Al, who's been her conversation partner the past fifteen minutes. Al's eyes are far away. He's still not done recounting how he'd been ripped off last week on a new vacbot for his living unit. The man liked to talk, which suited her fine, since all she had to do to carry her half of the conversation was ask questions or mutter vague agreements.

Would he even notice if Geneva went away? Deciding to try it out, she takes a couple of steps to the side. Al doesn't react. She turns her back on him and walks off, looking for another of the serving androids. Surely one of them would have other food to offer her instead of hotdogs.

Drink in hand and from his spot on the perimeter of the party, Keith takes notice of the woman with the camera as well as the droid speaking to her. He takes one tentative step forward, mildly interested, but more so hoping for an opportunity to speak with the android should the opportunity arise.

Maybe she knows something about this accident his sister was supposedly involved in? The thought of workplace accidents and the carelessness of their corporate overlords had begun to nag at Keith's mind, as it so often did. He had already lost a loved one due to corporate greed, was he really ready to lose another? The thought alone transformed the anxious butterflies in his stomach into a swarm of angry wasps. He could feel his face flush and took another sip of his drink in order to placate his growing temper.

Suddenly, the power in the hall cuts out, interrupting Blue Christmas mid-chorus. Everything is plunged into total darkness and several moments pass before the station back up power kicks in. However, only the emergency power system is able to come back online, so everything is now bathed in dull red light and silence seems to echo in the hall after the sustained noise of the party. Several party goers start talking in low murmurs as everyone speculates about what is going on.

Warning. Hull breach detected in docking bay seven. Warning. Hull breach detected......... Docking bay seven sealed. Hull breach isolated, the emotionless voice of the station notification system blares loudly into the room.

A well-built man in a nice suit and coat and some sort of tribal tattoo on his face speaks in a loud, reassuring voice "Alright, let's remain calm. I'm sure it was nothing serious and everything seems to be under control now. I'll see if I can contact station security on the comms terminal and see what is going on with the power. Try not to lose that holiday spirit. I'm sure we'll be back to rocking around the christmas tree shortly." He smiles trying to look confident but the red light distorts the effect making him look ghoulish instead. He makes his way through the crowd and exits the hall through a back door.

As soon as he leaves, an irritated looking woman says loudly "This god damn station is falling apart. I swear, if the casino computer forgets to pay out at the correct odds after this, I'm going to fucking lose it." She smacks her palm down on the table, knocking over a metal cup and startling several others nearby.

---

Opi frowns at the lady's outburst. "When was the last time these people had a proper drill? The last thing anyone needs is panic in a crowded room." She pulls her camera out of the bag and turns it on. "Well, if the corporate morons decide to panic and stampede, someone really ought to document it."

Back home on the asteroid mine 'hull breach' had been the most feared combination of words she knew. But here, at the headquarters of a wealthy corporation, she felt quite safe. "Come on people, the station is old, but it still has plenty of redundancy systems. Probably just a sensor malfunction."

"Hmm. That doesn't explain the switch to emergency power, though."

Geneva startles as the room plunges into darkness. The announcement makes her stomach drop. Like most everyone, she'd gone through plenty of blackouts before, but a potential hull breach?

She might need to use that drink token after all.