A colonist historian turns neglected journals and unverified maintenance reports into a warning about a vanished polar community.
Corian keeps records for the known colony and has searched its fragmented history for evidence about separatists who departed decades earlier. Vi distinguishes written record from personal memory and has tried, without success, to find anyone still alive who spoke directly with them.
At Bellagaia's invitation, Corian joins Karime's underground meeting and explains that reliable contact ended twenty years ago. The separatists concealed their exact location, though occasional maintenance crews reported connections near the polar terraforming engines. Most alarming, their journals and rumors suggest they built underground in a cave system—geologically unlikely enough to imply another pre–Corporation Rim structure or alien-remnant site.
An adult colonist of unspecified age, build, skin tone, hair, and facial features, wearing soft bright clothing and sitting curled-legged on the stone floor.
Corian is the colony's historian, preserving the evidence that transforms the polar settlement from rumor into a credible and dangerous rescue lead.