Fate of the Reasoner

[Fab]

The next day, early shift. Before meeting the group, Ramón heads towards the responsible for maintenance in the life support module: foreman Juárez. A veteran engineer and shipbuilder with military experience from his younger days. He is seen as cold and direct, feared by most under his watch. Ramón takes his time to prepare and make up his words before confronting Juarez, with the credit card on his pocket as a back-up.

Ramón
Foreman Juárez.

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Foreman Juárez
Technician Ramón. I've been expecting a report. Has the problem in hallway twelve been resolved?

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Ramón
Huh. About that... the problem is bigger than what we expected. We've been clearing the waste compartment for days, but there's still a presence of methane beyond acceptable levels. Biohazards are still present. It's difficult to remove them without taking care of the gasses first. We'll need to isolate the hallway to ventilate the gasses out, then destroy the biohazard using lasers.

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Foreman Juárez
Mhm. Remind me. The "biohazard"... What kind of it?

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Ramón
[He looks left and right before answering] Bacteria and fungi that grew around the toxic waste deposited in the compartment... Dangerous to have, especially in the life support module.

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Foreman Juárez
Uh-huh. I see. What else do you need?

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Ramón
An air pump and covers. That's all.

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Foreman Juárez
I'll get that sorted out. I'll send someone over to deliver within the hour. Anything else?

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Ramón
No, foreman. That's all. I better get back to work. [Ramón nods before leaving]

---

Ramón is convinced his diversion tactic worked. The gasses, despite being present, are in very low concentration. The biohazard is limited to the decaying corpses, which can act as a proof. Ramón is not proud of what he did: lying to an authority is very shunned upon, but it should reward the group with the time they need to uncover the secrets the compartment hide.

He meets the group in hallway twelve, telling them what he did. Martin and Samuel call Ramón crazy, but agree that Ramón's lie will buy them a good amount of time. They prepare the hallway to set a "stage" to receive the air pump and covers, reinforcing Ramón's claims. twenty minutes later, the requested equipment arrives and the group tries to not raise any suspicion by looping around Ramón's lie. They are quick to warn the delivery team to leave the area as soon as possible because of the problems, and they do. The group quickly conceal their operations with the cover sheets and uses the noise of the air pump to muffle whatever they do inside the compartment.

Martin stays outside on watch, faking work by handling liquid containers and boxes. Meanwhile, Samuel and Ramón move into the living room to extract the terminal's data drive. Ramón manages to eject the drive with Samuel's help, and advises him to create evidence and proof of his lie, in case the foreman comes to see their progress. Samuel collects "evidence" by extracting samples of the rotten corpses as "Biohazard", and uses his multisensor to collect electronic samples of the putrid gasses emanating from the corpses.

Samuel, after finishing his "gathering of evidence", warns the group that the foreman should be growing increasingly suspicious by each passing day, and they should clean the compartment and hide the corpses. Martin reluctantly agrees, while Ramón takes his time to mentally prepare. They finish their shift with the locations the bodies were found cleaned, with the corpses themselves hidden in the bathroom. They also move the furniture and hull panels around to make the compartment look like a true waste disposal, not a living space. Exhausted, Martin is tasked with decrypting the data drive and revealing its contents, as the only one with enough technical ability to do so. The others head to their living quarters aboard Rhodes to rest.