Freelance Traveller

The Aphasia of the Star Crossed

by Timothy Collinson

Author’s Note: This is laid out in the style of the example scientific puzzles (pp.68-73) of Book 10: Cosmopolite where rules for Research may be found (pp.64-68). This would most likely be a Thorough (1D days) or possibly an Exacting (1D weeks) depth of research. However that volume is not required as there should be enough information here for referees to enable research-oriented players to explore the situation.

Required Skills: Medic, Electronics (sensors), Science (any Life Science)

Suggested Skills: Science (pathology), Science (chronotemporal theory) [or similar]

Required Equipment: Laboratory (TL15+), Chronoscanners, Neuroimagers

Types of Research: Field (onboard the vessel), Laboratory

Researcher Information

The Far Trader Star-Crossed has arrived at the starport after a routine Jump. The ship was involved in a high-speed near miss with another vessel en route from Jump emergence. The crew is unable to provide a coherent report to SPA contollers/customs officials/investigators etc. They appear physically healthy but are suffering from profound disorientation, involuntary motor loops, and “inverted” speech patterns. Initial scans by local medics were inconclusive, leading to fears of a new neuro-toxin or psionic attack. The ship is quarantined. The ship’s owner, a local merchant or noble, has hired the PC(s) to identify the cause and “fix” the crew before the cargo contract expires.

Findings

1. Initial Assessment: The crew exhibits “retrocausal” memory flow. They can recall what they will eat for dinner but have forgotten the Jump emergence.
2. Neuroimaging: Using temporal-phase filters, research will isolate asynchronous neural firing patterns in the hippocampal region.
3. Biological Marker: Tissue entropy readings from the crew show cellular-level metabolic pathways running in reverse.
4. Diagnostic Confirmation: A chronoscan of the ship identifies “spacetime shear” localized around the Jump drive’s primary harmonics stabilizer. [Other suitable technobabble can be inserted here.]
5. The Incident: Ship logs reveal the vessel performed a Jump while too close to a temporal dilation field. [This may take some time and an expedition to the location of the Jump to establish. This could be the lead into further adventure but at least should set off a ‘Notice to Spacefarers’ to the system where the Jump originated. It is left to the referee to determine of the field is temporary, variable, long duration, or permanent.]

Answers

1. The crew is not “insane” or “poisoned”; they are suffering from a severe case of Chrono-Neural Inversion (CNI).
2. The condition was caused by temporal feedback during the Jump, resulting in localized regions of the brain processing entropy in reverse.
3. The “inverted wave forms” on their EEG signals reflect that neural signals are traveling backwards along synaptic pathways.
4. While disabling, the condition is not a contagious plague; however, it is fatal if the systemic tissue instability leads to cellular breakdown. The medical PC(s) may or may not be able to cure this. They might possibly need further help to treat the crew and have adventures finding such help.]

Confirmation

The discovery of disrupted hippocampal chronoproteins in a biopsied tissue sample confirms the brain’s master clock has been radically desynchronized from local spacetime.

Possible Plots

1. Profit Margin: The merchant / noble demands the crew be given experimental phase-alignment drugs (TL16+) immediately to meet the cargo shipment deadline, despite the risk of “Time Reversal Lesions”.
2. The “Ghost Listener”: Kara Veylan, the retired scout, contacts the researcher(s), claiming she can “hear” the crews’ future and that they must not be moved from the ship or the “time echoes” will become permanent.
3. Legal Immunity: Lawyers for the crew argue that their clients’ “chrono-neural instability” absolves them of any responsibility for the high-speed collision that occurred upon their arrival at the starport.
4. The Echo Monks: A group of Echo Monks arrives at the quarantine zone, attempting to “walk between moments” with the afflicted crew, whom they view as prophets.