Beneath

Alright, after a tiring day, and reviewing everything that happened, I think I've got everything settled down in terms of events.

So- part of the main delay in the Overflow station has been the power issues. Every time it's partially restored, it shuts down again not long after. That's expected due to ancient, broken D'ni machinery. A lot of the fixes also seemed to degrade very rapidly, making it as if nothing was being done to begin with.

I'll admit, it was a bout of paranoia on my part- combined with the delay in recovery we'd been seeing in the Lake's health- I was getting worried I was missing something. The metal spike we'd witnessed shouldn't have caused any major long term issues, I'd thought. Still, I went and reviewed everything yesterday, the 17th, just to be on the safe side.

Honestly, I'd gone over everything and was just about to give up and go to the St. Patricks day party in the Pub when I spotted someone mucking about in one of the control rooms. I didn't hear them link in, or arrive through the gate from the dock, but I could've just overlooked it with my head stuck in something. They weren't wearing a KI, either. I couldn't get a System ID off of them.

I confronted them- a woman, actually, dressed in the safety garb for the site, but she wasn't familiar to me. It could've just been my memory acting up, I thought. She had one of the ID badges I issued for the security gate at the dock- atleast, it looked like one- so I asked her to show it.

Needless to say, miss "Sami Lesgrandee" was wearing a damn convincing knockoff. I almost would've bought it if I hadn't caught the Issue date being February 29th of 2021. (Last year was NOT a leap year.) Still, typos happen, right? I asked her what she was doing.

"Someone's been undoing my work. I've been fixing the machines and they keep getting unfixed." Sounded plausible, at any rate. I let her be for a few minutes, but I was watching her carefully while I messaged Kelsei to run a check on our work roster for the name.

'Sami' didn't do anything- just hovered at the console and looked at it. Like she was waiting for me to leave.

Kelsei got back to me that we didn't have anyone with that name on the work crew for the Overflow Station.

So, I confronted 'Sami' about her work, and asked her to show me what was wrong. She grew evasive. "You wouldn't understand. It's very complicated machinery." I told her then that I was the manager on the project and that I probably understood better than she thought. I wanted to know what was going wrong with the machinery, so please show me?

I think I must've tipped her off that I'd caught onto her fake ID at that point. (BTW, I've run it through some anagram ciphers, and "Sami Lesgrandee" is pretty much an anagram of "Aimless Renegade" minus one of the 'E's- which, honestly. What a title to base a fake name on.)

She shoved me to the ground and ran off for one of the mixer stations. I gave chase, though I was a bit slower than I should've been- in retrospect the reasoning seems obvious. By the time I'd got there, she was half way up a ladder, and throwing herself off of it- Relto'd in mid air over the rest of the pit.

At that point I basically realized "Oh, I hit my head when I hit the floor, didn't I?" And promptly basically fell into some kind of half-conscious state, which is where Kelsei found me when she came to check up on me. I'll admit everything after that was kind of a blur for a bit.

I'm fairly recovered now, just tired after a day of concussion recovery. I don't know if our little intruder here was actually sabotaging equipment or just damaging it in some misguided attempt to actually help fix the damned thing.

Honestly, unless we catch her in the act again, probably won't know for sure one way or another. Gonna have to tighten security around the Overflow Station after I review everything to make sure everyone working there is actually supposed to be there or not.

Given past experiences with some explorers circumventing our security locks to get in places they shouldn't be, I'm not surprised someone would sneak their way into the overflow station. First time I've had someone get that physical, though. Not sure whether she was just spooked or what.

I'll have to see if anyone saw her around before yesterday, and if so, see if she mentioned anything that'd be off in retrospect.

In a best case scenario: Miss Lesgrandee, or whatever your name is, just please leave the restoration work to us, and if you really want to help that badly, speak to someone in the crew and volunteer.

In the worst case scenario: please just let us do our work in peace. I've had enough of people trying to actively sabotage the Lake Restoration efforts over the last two decades as it is, and I don't appreciate another attempt at it.

It was rather concerning when you didn't reply to my KI Messages after a point. Honestly, Calum, what have I said time and time again about doing things on your own? If you're going to keep running into trouble like this you might as well wear a Maintainer Suit the entire time!!

This actually puts some context to something else.
I've met a young Irish man, he's a doctor, an MD. He's just arrived and he mentioned that he spoke to a man in what looked like a workman's suit and they just ran away. I found him in the library and after a nice discussion, I learned his name and why he's here, but his encounter seemed odd. Nobody I know would do that to a newcomer, so I wonder, Calum, if this person our new Explorer met was associated with that woman you met?

At any rate, the new explorer's name is Dr. Tiernan Quinlan and he's here because of the Call. He's very interested in D'ni medicine and is researching the Guild of Healers.

Hrmf. A skittish lot, if they're related. But we have so many scattered communities down here, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a percentage who tend to hang out away from the crowds- can't blame an Introvert for wanting to Not Socialize. But... still. Hrm. I swear I've heard something that's itching at the back of my mind. Something from a few years back. Can't recall now, at any rate.

Still, if I run into the Doctor I'll give him my regards and welcome to D'ni.

There are definitely people who hang out away from the crowds, as Calum put it. I've run into several explorers who really just wanted to be left alone. It's totally fine--I respect their decision. But, yeah, they are definitely out there.

I've just got home following my trip to Cambridge and seen this, Cal. To say that I am disturbed by the implications of all this, and outraged by what can only be described as a physical assault on your person, is something of an understatement.

I'll be around in-cavern this weekend if you want to meet up and talk about things.

I'd like to think the best of people and assume it wasn't an intentional attack- just a 'flight' trigger on the ol' fight or flight that went a bit out of hand.

Diranda wrote: Sat Mar 19, 2022 6:52 pm This actually puts some context to something else.
I've met a young Irish man, he's a doctor, an MD. He's just arrived and he mentioned that he spoke to a man in what looked like a workman's suit and they just ran away. I found him in the library and after a nice discussion, I learned his name and why he's here, but his encounter seemed odd. Nobody I know would do that to a newcomer, so I wonder, Calum, if this person our new Explorer met was associated with that woman you met?

At any rate, the new explorer's name is Dr. Tiernan Quinlan and he's here because of the Call. He's very interested in D'ni medicine and is researching the Guild of Healers.

I had the opportunity to meet with the good Dr Quinlan in his hood tonight. Seems a thoroughly sound fellow, he described the above experience to me as well. Twice could be chalked up as a simple co-incidence if one were to believe in such things. In this case, I have my doubts.

I think we need to have a proper chat about all this and hash out some steps to collectively take.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for anyone unfamiliar in our private work spaces, just to be certain.

Gondar gave me some suggestions to review certain things, and I've been busy looking at things, and interviewing the work staff. There've been a few interesting remarks I've noted regarding our intruder 'Sami'.

One is that she was very personable, if shy. Didn't cause trouble for anyone when she was working there, and deferred to other people's expertise on whatever it was she was helping with. Out of everyone, nobody's reported anyone else out of place being on site- I certainly haven't had any other names crop up that aren't on the expected work list.

That said, she did seem skittish around certain folk. And annoyingly, I wasn't able to get interviews with those few people in cavern. Apparently they're quarantining on the surface due to some flu-like bug exposure, which is smart of them. Strangely, I couldn't contact them with the phone numbers they listed though. Texts were ignored, and calls just rang endlessly. Given everything that happened with Wayne I wouldn't surprised if they were just playing hookie, but...

I'm beginning to suspect something very strange is afoot, though.

...Still, once their two weeks are up, I'll be trying to intercept them back at work. See if they've had any ill experiences with our intruder.