come in... come in...

[thespaceopera]

[It's been a few weeks since this whole thing began, but Zhade has barely slept. This is heard more than seen as the communicators flicker much in the same way they had before-- a burst of static on any available lines, followed by a message. It sounds clearer this time. Zhade's voice is irritated, excitable, a little weary at the edges.]

Finally! You don't know what terrible things I had to do to get through, namely staying up for weeks at a time and burning through a few memory cores-- which are not easy to come by, mind you.

I'll get to the point. Have any of you seen our missing crew? The more I look into it, the more I'm convinced that they were taken by the Atroma. Which means... they should be somewhere in your vicinity. If you haven't seen them, perhaps it's something to do with these "calibration" files I found in the database?

If all of you can be relied on for anything, it's poking around where you're not supposed to. So go do that. Even if you can't find our missing people, surely you'll find something of use. In the meantime I'll keep trying to brute force my way into the database. This thing has more layers than a H'melli onion; it'll probably take me another damned month.

I'll call you.

[And the broadcast ends. He won't be answering any questions, it seems.]