Fate of the Reasoner

[Fab]

Important Event
Mystery solved?

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In the early morning hours the day after Villalba talked Martin into his plan, him, along with Salazar, hold an emergency press conference, carefully planned to stir up attention. With news outlets itching to get any information they can of the mysterious shootout aboard an even more mysterious ship, the stage is set.

Villalba steps in to address the crowd of journalists. He says that forensic experts finally uncovered the mystery and controversy of the shooting: Using Martin as a scapegoat, Villalba states that a rival company or clan infiltrated the drydock to sabotage the project and steal industrial secrets. The attentive foreman, Juárez, ultimately uncovered the saboteurs' plans and confronted them. Knowing their plan was exposed, they fought Juárez and the security enforcers, resulting in a shootout. Investigators found a hidden room used by the saboteurs to store a dangerous neurotoxin that produced hallucinations and extreme violence in those exposed to it. With "A heavy heart", by his own words, Villalba says all those involved with the shooting unfortunately perished, including the sole survivor, Martin.

The bodies were cremated from fears of contamination, and the depot razed. However, Salazar carefully explains that the contamination still plagues the ship, as the saboteurs used the life support module's filtration systems to expose the entire ship to the toxin. But, to calm the press, Salazar points that the filtration systems did its job by severely reducing the concentration of toxic molecules in the ship's atmosphere. By official report, he states that only three workers out of hundreds suffered from the exposure, and most only felt headaches and anxiety-related symptoms.

When asked "Who did this?", Villalba replies that the interrogators could not get any answers from the survivor, Martin, due to his altered mental state and rapidly decaying health. Despite this, Salazar complements Villalba saying that the ISA is fully committed into resuming the project "one way or another", reassuring the press that the technological advancements made by reverse-engineering are permanent and can not be sabotaged. "The technical insight gained will tremendously help future projects", and "The ISA has several other projects running in parallel at secure locations". A question about the future of the ship arises, and Salazar responds to it: "It is uncertain. The toxin contaminated most of the ship, which might prompt a total discard. In good news, there's nothing we can't build, rebuild or repurpose again".

The conference ends with many questions answered, with all answers being carefully calculated by Villalba, supported by Salazar.