Alba told them her story:

“After being rocked by the pain that my people felt, I was trance-linked to the quorum, which is the manifestation of my entire species’ collective conciousness. It instructed me to make contact with the Babbage, and inform him that his actions were hurting millions. It was felt that no rational being could knowingly be as cruel as he was, and therefore he must have no comprehension of the suffering that he was causing.

I manifested in the foyer of Babbage’s office, and told his whirring and whistling secretary who I was and what I was there to do. In a flash, a swarm of chronotracers attacked me, and one of them attempted to implant a neurophage in my skull. I flashed my inner power enough to fight them off, but the episode left me with this mark on my forehead.

I barely had enough time to recover, when a response team entered the room, spraying me with chilled water from crystal tanks, and I lost awareness."

The escape pod docked with an audible thunk.

“Stand back” said Alba