DAY 2, SHIFT 4 – Fenna and Exley go to Sokolov‘s room after taking his key from Evidence. Sokolov’s room is located in a disused, industrial part of the dome and requires traveling down several long, increasingly run-down corridors. Normal residential doors are replaced with industrial bulkheads and the lights become utilitarian, many of them flickering or broken.

Arriving at Sokolov’s room and using his key card, the door slides open to reveal a dark, utilitarian room, the curved metal exterior wall pitted and bubbling like ruined paint. The room groans as the detectives enter, the metal clearly corroded and ready to burst at the slightest provocation. Sokolov’s only furnishings are a cot, footlocker, and single bureau.

Moving quickly, Fenna searches the bureau but finds nothing of note. Exley manages to find a metal lockbox in the closet and removes it for further examination. Searching the footlocker turns up a large, black, plastic jug with a screw top. The jug itself is extremely lightweight. The pair takes this with them as well and quickly exits the room and return to the Victorious Dragon to examine the evidence.

Once returned to their makeshift headquarters, Exley and Fenna enter the evidence they collected. Inside the lockbox are patches of military service dated between 2047 and 2056 and the plastic jug is filled with exfoliated skin. There is also a small sensor device in the lockbox that resembles a geiger counter. When powered on, the device’s display flashes six symbols but doesn’t do anything further. Loading these onto the KIA, Laux verifies that these are the same symbols tattooed on Sokolov’s chest.

While Fenna and Exley are logging in the evidence, Laux returns to the security office and examines the baseline machine that Sokolov was using when he died. She is unable to detect any sign of tampering.

DAY 3, SHIFT 1 – Mendelssohn examines the chip recovered from Sokolov’s corpse and learns that it records biological data.

DAY 3, SHIFT 2 – The detectives catch one another up. Laux asks Fenna and Exley if they searched under Sokolov’s cot and they curse and admit that they didn’t think to do that. Laux and Mendelssohn decide to go to Sokolov’s quarters

As the pair approaches Sokolov’s quarters, Mendelssohn notices someone has been following them, but staying very far away. When they stop in front of Sokolov’s door, the person following them stops and leans against a wall, obscured by the dim light but making so further effort to hide.

Laux and Mendelssohn enter Sokolov’s quarters and immediately head to his cot, turning it over to reveal a diary. Opening the diary shows that it is written in some sort of cypher.

At that moment, the bulkhead opens just enough to reveal a hand with a large caliber pistol. A single shot is fired at the far wall, instantly tearing a hole into the softened, corroded metal and creating an incredibly strong suction which pulls them towards the atmosphere of Neptune.

Laux fires twice through the bulkhead, piercing it and driving a bullet into the assailant, who is knocked backwards. The assailant fires again, hitting Laux in the stomach and instantly dropping her to the floor where she is dragged towards the hole. The assailant is wounded himself, looses his footing, and is sucked out through the hole.

Mendelssohn desperately tries to pull Laux out of the room, blood streaming out from her wound and into Neptune’s deadly atmosphere. With incredible effort, he is able to succeed and barely closes the bulkhead, the sound of escaping air whistling through the bullet holes.

Mendelssohn falls to the floor, exhausted and Laux is unresponsive. Mendelssohn realizes he must perform emergency surgery here, now, or Laux will die. He tears open her blouse and gets to work. After hours of surgery, the hallway and both officers drenched in blood, Mendelssohn blacks out from exhaustion and stress. When he comes to, he calls for assistance. Mendelssohn and Laux are taken to the infirmary.

Unable to get much information from them, and needing to do something with his time to take his mind off of what happened, Fenna takes the journal and works through the cypher, decoding it.

Sokolov’s diary is a sparse account of the past 5 years. According to his diary, he left the military in 2050 after serving 2 years around Saturn. After being hired by Nichikon as a security consultant, he was sent to a moon of Saturn he calls Yggdrasil. He was sent with a small team to Yggdrasil to pick up an undisclosed package and return it to Earth. He was informed that the story of Hirokawa’s suicide was cover as Nichikon was given a secret government contract in connection with his pick up from Yggdrasil and he was being sent to Boreas to work undercover. Sokolov writes that he met with Hirokawa on Earth five weeks ago and spoke with her via a secret channel at ‘the old place’. His last entry says that Nichikon is moving to Phase 2 of the Project and he will be given orders soon.

Exley researches Saturn and discovers that none of its moons are called Yggdrasil. Confronting Councilwoman Ren, Exley learns that the offworld colonies of Saturn have been under attack by raiders the past few years.