19 the starship damrey - checking out the key words and credits

Dear Readers,

Not sure what to do with the silver ring and the last space leech, so I'll look at the archive. A thing unlocked called Key Words. It documented a few interesting things under headings.

Nutrition documented insects being processed to make meat using human excrement. Very unappetising.

AR Series documented the robots and their retro aesthetic. They're pretty cool.

ADAM-OS documented the operating system and also the DOS-style prompt, used for retro enthusiast reasons. It is pretty cool alright!

Cookie Can documented that time Large fasted for religious reasons. Mei Ling left some cookies at his door out of concern, which is how he ended up with it. No one understood his reasons since he wasn't a people person at all.

SAM documented the voiced concierge interface thingy with some fun facts, including when Large told it his feelings for Nick.

I looked up the group "Open Sesame" in the credits and checked out their other works. Some very strange and obscure stuff there going back years! They were behind a piece of DS software that told you sad stories! Really interesting history!

18 the starship damrey - wandering around aimlessly with the silver ring

Dear Readers,

There's a thing or two I missed, so I continued my game from before I put in the LUCY password. That's where you start again when you decide to continue after finishing the game.

I looked at my legs, which were draped in this blue garment thing. I never figured I was a Keplarian all this time and that ending was a shock!

There was a vent switch at the end of the room I didn't check before, so I pressed that to explore the part of the vent I couldn't reach because Danny's body was in the way.

In this part of the vent I picked up the shining object, which was the silver ring. I had no idea what to do with it though. I just knew the captain wanted to give it to Alex.

I returned to the crew quarters. I was able to place the ring on desks but that didn't really do anything. When I checked Lucy's photograph in Danny's room(I know it's his now because I was in his cabinet) this music from just before the ending started playing. Not sure what it meant though.

I also had that one remaining space leech in Danny's room, but I couldn't get at it with the locker.

I went back to the Cold Sleep Chamber and made the ending play out again. Nothing different. Not sure what to do to get that final space leech.

17 the starship damrey - nick's awakening!

Dear Readers,

The moment I entered the Cold Sleep Chamber, the ghost girl appeared right in front of the robot with her arms stretched to her sides, making a barrier!

I tried approaching but she said with voiced dialogue "Don't come this way!" yikes...

I retreated a bit and checked out the Cold Sleep capsules I could reach. To the left was Capsule 7 and it was Large's. To the right was Capsule 8 and it was Mei Ling's. I knocked on both of them but there wasn't any answer. They weren't in use anyway.

I then approached the ghost girl again and she disappeared. Yeeks.

I checked the next two cold capsules. Capsule 5 was Bobby's, wasn't in use and had no response to a knock. Capsule 6 was Alex's capsule and it was in use! There was no response to knocking and there was an option to open, but it couldn't be open from the outside.

Capsule 3 was Captain Edward's, wasn't in use and had no response to a knock. Capsule 4 was Abdul's, wasn't in use and had no response to a knock.

Capsule 1 was Nicolas's and was in use! It had no response to a knock though.

Before going further I checked Capsule 2, which was Danny's and was in use as well! I gave it a knock and this was the capsule I was in! What's going on?

This capsule was different to the other ones and had an outer lock. I couldn't open it from the inside. It said I could unlock from the outside by using a password.

I got the prompt for the password and the Lucy music started playing. There were four characters, so I entered the word "Lucy", unlocking it. When I did, some new music started playing. I couldn't open the capsule with the robot, so I had to do it myself from the inside.

When I pressed the blue button on the touch screen, the capsule opened up. Then, a big green hand came out of it along with some creepy noises! Then bam! The credits started playing! Whoa!!!!

When the credits were over, the next scene showed the inside of a capsule with a man's voiced dialogue, thinking the ship got back to Earth. The computer verified the voice and said good morning to 2nd Lieutenant Nicolas Weaver.

Nicolas wasn't able to open the capsule and asked the computer what was going on. The computer told him the ship wasn't able to avoid the asteroid belt and suffered damage. The computer then revealed the Keplarian that was confined got violent and killed several crew members. It wasn't around now but the low oxygen levels prevented him from opening his capsule.

Nick asked for video footage and was shown a robot! The computer told him a user trapped in a Cold Sleep Capsule was controlling it. Nick asked who it was and the computer told him it was a guest, since no voice print files matched. He asked which capsule it was in and was shown the one with the weird lock that I opened.

It was then revealed that 3 Keplarians were captured by the ship. One was injured and was getting treatment. Abdul insisted on this.

Then it turned out the Keplarians were studying humans much longer than humans had been studying them. They seemed to know the humans' technology, solar system and culture.

Nick didn't know how the Keplarian got into the capsule and determined something must've happened while he was asleep to make the others lock it in there. He was astounded that it was able to take control of AR-7. He asked the computer to cut the connection.

The computer, SAM, sounding very much like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, told him he didn't have the authority to rescind guest users' privileges. He was puzzled and asked about the captain. SAM told him the captain wasn't responding.

Nick then said he accessed Captain Goddard's home video from the archives and projected a hologram of his daughter in hopes of confusing or scaring it, but it didn't faze it! So it was Nick who created the ghost girl! Nick also tried to use the other working robots to slow it down, which explained the jumpscare attacks.

Nick then observed that the robot avoided trouble instead of causing it and even tried to help Abdul before he died, but noted it could've just been helping others to help itself. Nick tried using the crane and everything, but couldn't outwit or stop the robot.

Nick then noted that it was thanks to the Keplarian that he escaped his capsule as well. All that was left to do was to confront it, and his chances were slim. If he failed, the mission would be a failure and mankind would suffer the consequences.

Nick said he would set the Damrey's self-destruct mechanism for one hour and confront the alien. If he won, he could disarm the mechanism and enter Cold Sleep until he could get back to Earth. This journey would then take three years. He said if he didn't return, to please regard the crew and himself as killed in action. He signed his name and then the ending screen appeared.

Wow... what an amazing twist and what an excellent story. I thought I was actually him for a while! I didn't think I was a Keplarian the whole time!

That was a superbly suspenseful and entertaining game with excellent and well-paced plotting. I loved it!

But wait, there's more! There's the linked content and Nick's profile to look at in the archive. In Nick's profile, the captain had great admiration for him, calling him rational and level-headed. He said Nick's quick thinking led to the successful capture of the Keplarians and hoped that this mission would be the turning point of the war.

Didn't know anything about a war. I thought this was like a mission of exploration.

The only profiles left blanked out were the last lady, whose name I can safely assume was Alex, unless there's another twist! Then there was the question mark profile.

There's other stuff too like Key Words, but I'll have a look next time.

16 the starship damrey - exploring the airlock chamber

Dear Readers,

I left the captain's quarters and headed for the airlock chamber.

When I got there I saw a freight crane ahead. When I approached it suddenly attacked and gave me another jumpscare!

I went into the control room where I could now see what that dangerous object panel was about. There was a grenade inside! I took it and used it on the freight crane.

A dramatic cutscene played where the crane grabbed at the robot and missed in slow motion, where the robot then attached the grenade to the crane arm. The robot then wheeled away from an explosion in a very "Cool guys don't look at explosions" kind of way! That was pretty funny!

Beyond the the now destroyed crane arm was a space leech to exterminate in the corner and the oxygen control lever. I pulled it and it supplied oxygen to the Cold Sleep Chamber, which then unlocked the door. yay!

I checked out the airlock storage. There was another space leech to exterminate and the airlock manual. The manual said the control room console was for pod maintenance only, the freight crane was for loading freight onto escape pods(also a warning not to walk under the crane), the oxygen tank lever I found already.

All that was left now was to explore the Cold Sleep Chamber at last!

15 the starship damrey - more clues about the crew in the captain's journal

Dear Readers,

I went into the captain's quarters. It was about the size of the doctor's room.There were two very interesting clues here with lots of information.

On the desk there was the regulation book. It was open on the page about the Cold Sleep Chamber locking itself when oxygen falls below safe levels. The oxygen can then be increased with the oxygen lever in the Airlock Chamber. Very handy!

On the bed was the captain's journal with crew observations! Bobby seemed to be drunk, Danny was getting too familiar with female crew and the captain reassigned the rooms because of this. Large seemed to be hiding an unrequited love for Nick, Lt. Cardiff filed a complaint about Alex's music, which the captain found childish. The captain lost the ring he was going to give Alex after all that work. He often thought of Alyssa and longed to see his daughter with a ring of her own.

Interesting stuff. I went back to the archive to make more observations. We finally have the last name, Alex, which could be the last lady's name and she may be the captain's daughter and her room may be close to Abdul's room, but that's still just a guess for now. I know now for sure that Danny's room isn't next to the last lady's room.

14 the starship damrey - exploring the other bedrooms to find out who owns them

Dear Readers,

After leaving the cockpit with the captain's ID access, I returned to the crew members' quarters to check out the other rooms I couldn't before.

The first I checked was opposite Bobby's room. Inside was a space leech to exterminate and a teddy bear on the desk. Didn't find out whose room this was.

The second was opposite Abdul's room. I went inside and the light here was flickering. There was a journal on the bed and I had a look. Whoever wrote it said they installed a system that took the ARs to the vents, though the captain wasn't thrilled about it. Then they mentioned a grenade... whoa... They said in an emergency, how could they get the captain's approval. Hmm... must note for later.

The last two rooms at the end of the hall were unexplored as well. I went into the one marked number 15 on the map and it was another flickering light room. I could hear a space leech but had trouble finding it. There was a picture of a woman on the locker, the same one as in my Cold Sleep chamber! It was Lucy! That means this had to be my room. I ought to be able to open the locker in that case but I couldn't with the robot. I saw no sign of that space leech either, so I left.

I checked the last remaining room across the way from mine. The light was okay and there was a rugby ball on the bed. That was it.

Next up was the captain's quarters. I decided to just unlock it for now and go look in the archive for the new crew member discoveries.

I looked at Danny's profile. It said he liked to observe and listen rather than argue, but things always seemed to go his way. It also said he was a hard man to read, which made people a bit uneasy around him. Some kind of poker face master strategist?

I looked at Captain Edward's profile. This was written in the first person, so it was him that was writing these profiles. It laid out his sworn commitment to this mission and had a lovely little prayer at the end, in that big-hearted American way. He admitted his unease about accepting this years long mission to Keplar 22b.

I looked up the actual planet and it's pretty interesting! A planet that may be habitable but we don't know for sure yet! Might look up more later.

All that's left are two unidentified people and a question mark. The two are a man and a woman as seen in the crew photograph, but the question mark person isn't there.

So who owns what bedroom? What we know so far:

The captain and doctor have their own rooms.

Room 11 had a teddy bear. Resident unknown.

Room 12 was Bobby's Room and had the whisky bottle.

Room 13 had a journal of someone who installed vent access for the ARs. Resident unknown.

Room 14 was Abdul's room, presumably because he was in the locker.

Room 15 was my room, whoever I was. I had someone near and dear to me named Lucy.

Room 16 had a rugby ball. Resident unknown.

Another bit of information is the captain mentioning Mei Ling's possible feelings for someone named Nick. That's probably the remaining guy and it's probably me, but I'll keep an open mind until I can say for sure. In any case, there's one name we don't have yet.

I also want to say that it's probable that Danny is the one who installed that vent access, since his body was found in there. I don't know who the rugby ball is connected to though, and I have a feeling that it isn't Large since he doesn't mix well with people at all.

I don't have any information at all on the remaining lady and I don't really want to assume she owns the teddy bear or the rugby ball yet. I need to keep an open mind about that too.

13 the starship damrey - the wonderful reference to 2001: a space odyssey!

Dear Readers,

I made my way to the Warpdrive Room, now that I had access, and went inside.

There was a ladder here that led to the cockpit, but robots couldn't access it. There was a space leech to exterminate at the back of the room and AR-2 was here. Its locomotion was nonoperational, its camera and arm were functional, and its battery was missing. Its arm was reaching for the panel that controlled gravity.

I attached the battery I was carrying and it started working! It was in the middle of switching the gravity to zero and carried it out fully.

What happened next really made me smile. My robot started floating to the tune of Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II, no doubt a direct reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was awesome! :)

My robot floated all the way up into the cockpit, where there was a lovely view of a ringed planet. Then all of a sudden the robot came crashing down and the music stopped.

I looked around the room and behind me was another dead crew member in a spacesuit, sitting in the captain's chair. I identified him and it was indeed Captain Edward.

The regulation for the case in which the captain was deceased involved following the chain of command to install an acting Captain.

I was able to scan the captain's ID card, which finally allowed me to open all doors. Yay!

There was just the space leech to exterminate in the corner, and that was it. I left the room and got ready for more exploring.