News Items:

Terrorist Attack Kills 6 in Northwest Territories A GenDiver security aero was shot down with sea-to-air missiles yesterday, killing the pilot and five passengers.

Atlas Announces Outer System Survey Atlas will launch a total of ten probes into the outer reaches of the Poseidon system. They hope to find another gate such as the Earth-Poseidon gate. "It is possible that this is a highway, not a dead end."

Lavender Organics Announces BioGel(tm) LavOrg's new biogel products allow for the friendliness of a pet and the utility of plastic. Get a BioBed(tm) or BioDress(tm)!

US Government Alleges GEO Nanotech Coverup The United States has stated that the GEO policies on nanotechnological research are meant primarily as a roadblock rather than as environmental protection. One official stated off the record "They already have nano and want to make sure no one else gets it."

Amala Denies Dive Love Child! The pop star Amala today denies that her pregnancy is the result of a liaison with missing hydroshot star Dive Jordan.

Zion Government in Dispute With NIS Over Contracts Top officials of the Zion Islands government say that NIS contracts in the islands are meant to draw islanders into indentured servitude.

Hydrospan Announces Great Whale Cloning Project Hydrospan announced today that it will spend a total of a billion dollars over the next twenty years in an attempt to resurrect the great whales on Poseidon. "Seas sing / Again with Resurrected Dreams" says Hydrospan dolphin official 'Spokesman'.

The date is 025.101. Whitney awakens having had a strange dream with colors and swirls and the sensation of ants under the skin and all sorts of hallucinogenic strangeness. Her hands are uncharacteristically twitchy. She goes surfing in the morning, and meets a boat coming from Atlantis with Dr. Marcia Willoughby and her companion, Dr. Bard Carson on board. Their boatman is a local named "Aloha Jack" for his Hawaiian shirts.

Whitney calls herself the biologist and introduces Dive and Jenny. Regina stays hidden behind a door as they meet. They interview Whitney about her qualifications to collect some delicate plants, and reveal that they were hoping for a university-trained botanist. Whitney says that Buckman could probably find something. Regina, listening to Dr. Willoughby's presentation, thinks that it sounds rote, as though she isn't really a botanist. She also recognizes Dr. Carson as a Biogene official.

Strangely, Regina decides to come in to talk to the pair, and Dive and Jenny notice that Bard and Marcia are clearly interested in her beyond her biologist qualifications. Marcia is much better at concealing it, however. They interview Regina as well, then declare that they have other outfits to meet with about this job and take their leave. Afterwards, Regina thinks They are out to get her, where They is Biogene, HIST, her family...

"Whenever I feel that way I just take an extra Happcyd." - Jenny

The group then enters a bitter recriminations phase about what should be done if they come back, why would they be after Regina anyway, what if they try to kidnap her, and so on. Regina decides to answer the "why" by taking off her shirt... revealing a row of eyespots on each shoulder!

"Were you bitten by a radioactive bitey fish?" "They she would have to go fight crime." - Pilot and Whitney

Regina then tells bits and pieces of her story, coming to Poseidon when a little girl, her mother and father dying of a strange disease that her father caught on a geological survey... not that she actually believes that part, she thinks that Biogene had them killed, as she never got to see the bodies or anything.

This winds down and Pilot notices that Whitney is drawing on the table with a chopstick. There's an attempt to trick her into picking up a pencil, which works except that she is using the eraser end. Finally, they just get her to draw, and while she isn't concentrating she draws a series of diagrams of the insides of a stub-pod ( a small squid-like creature ) including high levels of anatomical detail. The nervous system diagram is the most interesting - it has labels at various points that are written in something like a cross between Mayan writing and bar codes.

The next day, they take some "moulded plastics" to Haven for Marcus, and a few legitimate packages for other people. On the way down, they pick up a priority job - a group of three men want to go to Atlantis ASAP, and will pay 700 in Long John for the ride. The team decides this is better than staying overnight in Haven.

On the Haven docks, some GEO customs officials want to inspect their cargo, and aren't willing to stop with just the packages that are legitimate. Luckily, the three passengers, Arabic-looking men in suit/wetsuits, aren't interested in having their ride delayed and pay off the officials with 200 in Long John (taken out of their ticket price later). The moulded plastics, which are in the form of Mary icons, are not inspected, and get delivered to a warehouse quietly. The three men are obviously packing and are carrying a couple of duffels, but prove to be quiet passengers on the way back.

The next day is spent resting from the trip. Jenny takes the time to research Regina's parent's death, and finds a paper written on their disease with gruesome photos and a general description of a horrific Poseidon fungal infection. The little island that the father caught it from is still considered quarantined, although strangely no one has caught it since and no one else on the expedition caught the disease.

028.101. Very early in the morning, well before dawn, Pilot's cicada (set to patrol the cove) detects a large marine animal near Whitney. Pilot decides to indulge his human-rescue fetish rather than retreating from bitey fish as normal, and sets off in pursuit. Whatever it is is Whitney-sized but shaped like a flatworm and is faster than Pilot! It shoots into a lava tube under water and pursuing it Pilot comes face to face with the Great White Eel. He wisely swims for his life, and the eel does not pursue him out of the tube. No one knows what to make of this in the morning.

Also in the morning, Deputy Marshall Lightfoot turns up to ask them what they know about their passengers of 026.101, one of whom has turned up dead. They aren't very helpful, mentioning that they were carrying weapons and later mentioning that they had two duffels. The Marshall tells them she can't protect them if they don't help her, but they really have little to reveal even so. Pilot, Regina, and Whitney spend the day collecting native arts and crafts from surrounding villages (and Whitney trades them some supplies from Atlantis) for the Native Crafts Collective. After wards the go to The Hole and Whitney pumps a local tough for information on the dead guy, and finds out that there was some sort of firefight by the cannery that left two dead (another guy with a tattooed head has turned up in the harbor). The tough reports that there are definitely more people like this in town, professionals. Pilot notes that this fight was near Doc Johnson's shack.

The next morning, Jenny, Regina, and Pilot go to Doc Johnson's to get Jenny's drugs. As they do so, a firefight starts just down the street, with one house getting ripped to shreds by silenced SMGs. Pilot peeks his remote out while everyone else hits the floor. One of the Arab guys breaks from that house and is killed, then there are terrible shrieks from inside the house where the shooting came from. A man with a tattooed head bursts in Doc Johnson's back door shouting "Who are they after?" and makes everyone head out at gun point before being cut down by a ninja in an optical camouflage suit. At this point the GEO patrol arrives and the ninja runs off.

GEO interviews the party but learns little, since they don't know much and have only personal background items to conceal. Eventually they are released to return to the Cove, "but don't go on any long trips."