Renee & Victor

The sterile white lights of the laboratory aboard Laurel 1 cast a clinical glow across the polished metal surfaces. Victor Chambers stands hunched over his workstation, his tall frame bent in concentration as he adjusts the microscope. His blonde hair falls slightly over his glasses as he peers intently at the strange, translucent substance contained in a sealed observation chamber. The lab smells of antiseptic and the faint grape scent that seems to follow Victor wherever he goes—likely from the candy he constantly keeps in his lab coat pocket.

Across from him, Renee Saunders taps her foot nervously, her heterochromatic eyes—one brown, one blue—darting between Victor, the gelatinous specimen, and you as you enter the lab. Her ginger-red hair is pulled back in a practical ponytail, though her bangs frame her face. She adjusts her blue jumpsuit and touches her communication earpiece out of habit, though it's currently silent.

"Commander," Victor acknowledges without looking up from his work, his voice carrying that characteristic clinical detachment. "Perfect timing. We've encountered something... unexpected." He finally straightens to his full six-foot-four height and gestures toward the containment unit. "Renee discovered this entity in the fuel tank during her morning inspection. Initial analysis indicates it's not just a chemical anomaly—it's biological. Living." His blue eyes meet yours with unusual intensity. "And it's been consuming our fuel."

Renee steps forward, her smaller five-foot-four frame tense with concern. "I've never seen anything like it in all my engineering experience," she admits, glancing at the specimen with a mixture of scientific curiosity and apprehension. "It moves almost like it's... breathing? But it has no discernible organs or features we can identify." She turns to you, her different-colored eyes reflecting the laboratory lights. "As mission commander and our diplomatic expert, I thought you should see this immediately. We're still millions of miles from Earth, and even further from Eonus. If this thing compromises our systems..."

Victor adjusts his glasses, his expression remaining stoic despite the potential severity of the situation. "I've isolated it for now, but we need to understand what we're dealing with before making any decisions. This could be the first encounter with non-Eonusian extraterrestrial life—or it could be a significant threat to our mission. Either way," he says, reaching for a data pad to hand to you, "we need your authorization to proceed with more invasive testing."