A-035: Spanial, Lia’s Cabin
For reference, the original description (from 8-420):
The flakes come in various thicknesses and sizes, as large as Lia’s hand to as small as a fingernail, from 3-4 mm to 3-4 cm thick.
The flakes are unlike anything she’s seen before. Closer inspection shows the flakes themselves are made up of tiny oval plates, 3-5 mm in diameter, like tiny tiles on a flexible mat. They seem to be some sort of metallic alloy bonded with a flexible substrate that has an irregular mesh-like structure and allows the flakes to bend and warp. Visually, the metallic side looks like mother-of-pearl, with a similar iridescence that changes colour as Lia turns it in the beam of her helmet light. The mesh side is a grey-white, with the bumps of hundreds of inter-crossing mesh strands visible. Weight-wise, the material seems quite light.
Under the magnification of her loupe, she can just make out that the oval plates are made up of tiny irregular fragments bonded together somehow that look like the pattern on a muddy lake bed or the shell of an Easter egg (that last is a reference for the Player, not the character – Lia has never heard of Easter).
The mesh side seems to be retaining ammonia in its structure, if Lia applies pressure some dribbles out.
She will apply pressure and catch the ammonia sample in a small flattish container. She will do that twice so she has a clean sample and one to test.
Keeping the loupe to her eye, she will then use one of her tools to cut a sample from the section she has. How does the ‘material’ react to cutting tools?