>>5820411INDEPENDENT FRIENDS ALLIANCE
Samaya City, planet Samaya / Sector 67 PISCIS AUSTRINUS
upgrading Shipping Combine into Armed Merchant Cruiser fleet (20% progress)
and
Asset: Unknown CYBERNINJA attempting to secure invaluable STAR DATA at Klemperer Orbital Carrier Ship, docked at space tether embarcation at the gateway to Monoceros Ring (Sector 55)
>>5817938>reply, ORGANIC COMPOUNDSClara,
>>5818642 the excited technical researcher, pauses a moment, her brow furrowing in perplexity...
-hmmm... how do you know? I am not too sure... Methane is an organic compound, right? So maybe planets with methane are inhabitable? Like those gas giants with the crushing atmospheres? hmmm. I heard once some joke about the meaning of life being 42. But then I thought about it... stellar nucleosynthesis carbon-oxygen, magnesium-silicon ratios, but also how molybdenum, of which the molybdate ion is soluble in water, used by cyanobacteria in nitrogen fixation - without this nitrogenase enzyme there would be no proteins, as eukaryotic life cannot fix nitrogen by themselves. Perhaps molybdenum, which ultimately comes from the stars, was the limiting factor for life... and its atomic number is 42, making it an unusual and rare high atomic metal which is essential for key biological processes! But nonetheless (Clara smiles happily again) ... you spoke so convincingly, I believe you! It is probably right! I will put it in my report recommendation! Mr Vandenberg is going to be so pleased to see this!
Your eyes have slightly glazed over in befuddlement by this point, but as your mind wanders and refocuses, Clara's the Researcher's rambling suddenly makes you aware of a connection... didn't someone mention there is a Vandenberg executive shuttle docked below at this station right now? Vandenberg... of the Vertigo Pact, a defense group? There is probably so much armament and confidential weaponry data on it somewhere - or at the very least, that executive shuttle should provide the means to access it...?
