HOUR 3

After talking to the - the word monster keeps coming to your mind, but you somehow avoid using it in his presence - individual in the abandoned reactor sector, you slowly get his story out of him.

He calls himself Old Afreed. He likes to think of himself of the gentleman of the vents. He apparently used to work on the situation, though what is job was is not exactly clear, not even to himself. Some time ago, he was supervising some other workers when there was an explosion. He came out of it extremely injured and remembers being taken to a 'special bed' that was supposed to 'fix him up'. It did, but it did it a bit too well. He escaped when the pain of the third extra arm growing was too much to bear. He's been down in the reactor ever since.

He only recently met Adam. Adam discovered him scavenging for scraps, and gave him a box of soup. He's been getting soup from him periodically since then.

Unfortunately, he didn't see anything that would tell him who killed Adam, though he offers his help in 'hurting them like they did to Adam'. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Do you bring him with you or leave him here?

The trek down to the reactor took half an hour, and the trek back - the safe way that Alfreed showed you - took just as long if not a bit longer, so by the time you reach the populated section of the station again, you're well into the third hour on the station. You had a suspect - the owner of the Starfire, Frankie - but the visit he paid to Adam was apparently just before he received another visitor.

Who was this other visitor? Perhaps you should revisit the motive side of things. Why would someone want to kill Adam?

You come out in a small alcove on the observation deck, just above the Galleria Market. Adam is standing there in his temporarily rented android form, looking out the window at the stars. "So many things I never got to seeeeeeeeeoooouuuuuu..." His audio codex hitch midway, then catches back up. "Ireallyhopeyoucatchwhoeverit was that killed me so that at least my family can go." Corporate androids have limited bandwidth.

The Galleria is a huge open space in the middle of the station. It looks just like every other mall has about a decade after it was built, for as long as malls have been a thing. Small pieces of trash lie in corners that bored sweeper-bots don't bother to touch. A few of the lights flicker. The doors of all the empty shops are wrapped in plastic or are covered in aluminum sheeting. Looking down the stairs from the observation deck, you can see four small, vacant shops in the middle. The shop walls don't go all the way to the Galleria's ceiling, so above them, you can see the other staircase that leads down to the Union Hall. On the left-hand side are four more vacant shops. On the right are two larger shops, somehow still in business.

The closer of the two is Anarchy Ink. It's a shop catering to those into glass-surfing and alternative lifestyles. There is a tattoo parlor in
the back. Adam follows your gaze. "That's Lloyd's place. His bedroom is in the back, behind the tattoo place. We used to drink together. Fought a lot too. Maybe we weren't real good for each other, but it was fun." The front of the shop displays a line of glass-surfing suits, armored and brightly painted. The helmet is armored too, and has a HUD instead of a faceplate. Lloyd is in currently, handing out flyers to the newest and greatest glass-surfing location.



The further shop is Lee’s Shop-MART. It's what passes as the only non-corp general and convenience store. It's independently owned and operated by Edwin Lee, a retired botanist. There's two boxes of Raspberry Twist flavored protein sitting by the door at a discounted price.

Lloyd grins. "You wanna go for a ride? It's like nothing you've ever experienced, man, I tell you. The pure exhilaration of seeing the hills sliding by at such a pace... It is such a high. Of course, before you can go on a full course, you've got to train. I imagine a robotic fellow like you could catch on pretty quick though. Probably wouldn't take you more than a couple tries to qualify for a diamond course." He slowly focuses back in and his eyes fall on the boxes. "You want all those protein bars? What for? You don't eat 'em do you?"