Story
Chatt Rhuller is an Interstellar Transportation Commission (ITC) field agent on assignment to Planet Rheom 1. A research facility has been established there, currently engaged on the SATIN Project. Dr. Victoria Fayn, the head of the project, has killed a fellow scientist, Geopp, allegedly in self-defense. Subsequently, Chatt is sent to investigate the incident and to deliver an encrypted message to Dr. Fayn. Chatt's supposed quick investigation runs into a snag however, when his shuttle is delayed and he has to stay on base for a few more days.
During his stay, Chatt interviews station staff Dr. Fayn, Dr. Vilken, Roger Olken, Myna Symmine and eventually Magus Canter. The interview is for the most part inconclusive but it is revealed that the project staff are all equipped with SynCore Symbiotes, a microcomputer implanted into the brain to augment its calculation powers. Magus, the station's maintenance worker, also reveals that not far from the SATIN research site lies the wreckage of S.S. Majestic, the infamous space ship that was lost and never found. Upon investigating the wreckage, Chatt finds a furious Dr. Fayn who seems to have lost someone on board but is adamant to speak about it.
Incidents however, do not leave the SATIN project alone. Strange anonymous messages that warn about the SATIN project appear on utility room's computer (where Chatt sleeps). Dr. Vilken is caught attempting to infect SATIN computers with a virus that would have ruined the research to which he was so dedicated. After the incident, he seems cooperative and harmless but largely confused. The good-natured and humorous Roger is the next to go mad; just as he once jokingly has fantasized, he knocks Chatt unconscious and attempts to shoot Dr. Fayn, but kills Magus instead and commits suicide.
Resolved to end the tragedy, Chatt breaks into Dr. Fayn's private quarter and learns of her obsession with S.S. Majestic, space-time continuum and Roland Carson, her late love interest. Chatt also learns that the shuttle's delay is due to Fayn's having dismissed it to prevent Chatt from alerting ITC; the SATIN project is on the verge of fruition and Dr. Fayn is unwilling to risk its being shut down. Chatt also breaks into the main lab and enters a sample SATIN rift which takes him to a room in an intact S.S.Majestic. There, Dr. Vilken invites him to look out of a window overlooking the starry void. Chatt looks out of same window to in S.S. Majestic’s a discovers a SATIN project's secret operation site.
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