Chapter 6 is very much a lot of the same banter as we had seen in Chapter 5. Ava is still feeling bitter and distraught about the situation. Tom reiterates that the ground team's discovery of the organism is dangerous to all life on Earth, which means that nobody is allowed to leave. Because the ISA cannot be sure that the organism isn't airborne, Tom tells Ava that she is also unable to go home. Tom reveals that Ava being in a cryogenic sleep was no coincidence. Tom describes Ava as being the ISA's 'contingency plan' to carry out their direct orders. Tom tells Ava that she has a very special duty to save humanity by fulfilling the ISA's direct command to keep the ground crew on Europa.
Clearly, the crew's best interests were not in mind when they were sent on this mission. It's very obvious that they were expendable. However, I'm not entirely sure if they were originally sent to Europa to find this specific organism.. or if they were merely sent to Europa on the slight chance that they may find something. I don't believe they knew that this specific organism existed. Because they find it to be so threatening, why would they seek to find it in the first place? It's my belief that the ISA knew that the mission had the potential to be dangerous and so they created a contingency plan before the mission started. The crew had supplies to last for years. It makes me wonder: if Europa was devoid of anything useful, would the crew be permitted to come home after mining Europa and finding nothing?
Tom reminds Ava once again that the organism would be a danger to all life on Earth. Ava is disgusted by the lengths that Tom is willing to go in order to keep the ground crew from leaving. Tom would be prepared to protect and feed the crew if they would only agree to stay on Europa. Ava tries to reason with Tom by asking about alternatives. Although Ava doesn't seem entirely convinced that it is morally ethic to save herself and the crew if there is a chance at dooming humanity, she desperately wants to believe that she can save both. She asks Tom about decontaminating the crew. Tom states that decontaminating the crew may not be possible because the organism is an extremophile (meaning that it can survive in conditions that most things on earth cannot). Ava appears to be defeated at this point. Instead of continuing to be fiercely defiant, she becomes more withdrawn. I wouldn't necessarily say that she's accepting, as Ava expresses clearly that she is unhappy about not being able to do all of the things she wanted to do in life. Tom remains staunch in his opinion that leaving is an impossibility and that he may have to do something drastic.
At the end of the chapter, we get our 'story room'. This is the drilling area which houses a gigantic drill for use on Europa's surface. You can interact with the drill to turn it on, but it has no change to the game or the story. This is where the team would have originally discovered the organism while digging for any resources that Europa had. On the catwalk, there are two terminals with several voice clips, all important to the story.
As you enter the catwalk, you can see the first terminal with the first set of 4 audio logs. The first log is a conversation between Daniel and Tom. The conversation is a bit dated at this point, as TOM talks to Dan about the implanted chips. Tom tries to convince Dan that Mikhail is "up to no good" as he is trying to convince the crew that the implants are a bad thing. When Dan tells Tom that Mikhail hasn't broken any rules for simply having thoughts, Tom then tells him that Mikhail has been tampering with the implant. Although Dan acknowledges that his a direct violation of the rules, he seems sympathetic with Mikhail by saying that the ISA should have been more transparent about the implants. Tom immediately deflects any blame on the ISA and instead insists that Dan take on the responsibility, as he is the captain of the mission.
In the second log, Tom is talking to Chris. Tom finds out that Chris wants to remove his implant because he is "always watching" and can see him and Mikhail together. Tom reminds Chris that removing his implant is a direct breach of his contract and if removed, Tom might not be able to "protect him from the dangers of space." When Chris asks Tom about the nature of the implant's mind altering functions Tom says that the chip's information is classified. Chris then states: "the ISA have put a computer in my brain and don't want me to know about it." This seems to cement Chris' decision to ultimately remove his chip.
The third log is either Chris (or Mikhail) screaming as the chip is removed from their arm. It's too illegible to tell who it really is. Being that they were the first ones to have their chips removed, however, one can conclude that it must be one of the two. The final log is incredibly difficult to hear. With no subtitles available in the game, you might have to replay this several times. In it, we can hear Sarah. She is talking to one of her crew, but it is once again unclear as to who it is. Sarah is worried about [someone] finding out about [this]. The male voice insists on asking for help, as it is in [their] best interest to help the crew. Sarah is doubtful, as "[they] are a million miles away." If the crew asks for help, Sarah is sure that [they] will want to "kill us" (sometimes I also hear "they will want the killer"). The male voice then states "perhaps that's what they should do," to which Sarah responds, "You're kidding!"
I've played the voice clip back many times to myself and am still never completely sure about what I hear. I can only speculate: Sarah is concerned about the removal of the chips by the entire crew. She knows that removing the chips is a violation of the ISA's directives and that Mikhail had already been terminated as soon as his chip was removed. Perhaps she regrets the decision but isn't sure what to do about it. She's in too deep. She has the knowledge of the implant's true intentions, but who do they turn to? The ISA is the only real place that they can communicate with, but they've just willingly disobeyed a major order. The male who she's speaking with also seems despondent as the two realize that the entire situation is fruitless. They've removed the chips, but it leaves them at the disadvantage of possibly being stuck on Europa forever. I would feel utterly hopeless too.
As you move up the stairs and further down the platform, you'll see another terminal with four more audio logs. In the first, an enraged Sarah realizes that Tom has cut off the ground crew's food supply and wants them to starve to death. Mikhail's only comment is that Tom is getting worse. They want to speak to Dan but cannot find him. Mikhail then says that he will go and find Sochi.
The second log is a tragic one. Chris is stuck outside on the surface of Europa and wants to get back inside. Sarah is inside but cannot open the door because it's locked. She asks Tom to open the door but there is no response from Tom at all. Chris starts to bang on the door in a panic, as he is now running dangerously low on oxygen. Sarah desperately begs and pleads for Tom to open the door, but we still hear no response from him. The log then goes quiet. Tom's earlier warnings of not being able to protect Chris turn out to be more than just a veiled threat. Chris either suffocates or freezes to death and is left on the surface of Europa. We know that he was never rescued and brought back inside the base, as his crew member status back in Chapter 1 showed his body temp at being -160.C and that his location was 'external'. My heart really goes out to Sarah. She heard (and possibly saw) Chris die and there was nothing that she could have done about it. When you consider that he fathered her unborn son, it's an additional devastating blow. But can we really call Tom a murderer? Is a machine capable of murder if it has no concept of free will or free thinking and is only a product of programming? In Tom's defense, he warned the ground crew several times not to remove their chips. He has also stated in the past that he would happily keep the crew alive and take care of them as long as they agreed not to leave Europa. It makes me wonder: would he have opened the door and allowed Chris inside if he had yet to remove his implant?
In the third log, Tom tries to apologize to Sarah by telling her that he is sorry he hurt her. He wonders what it would be like to have feelings, as he has only ever been known to have logic. Tom states that they (ISA) told him that he was incapable of making mistakes. Tom says: "It is alright to be untouchable, as long as you are infallible. But if you are fallible, than this just leaves untouchable." Although Tom may have no feelings about killing Chris, he certainly recognizes that this has hurt Sarah and is perceptive to her emotional response. Without openly admitting that he was wrong, it seems to me that Tom is able to see that he may be flawed by his own admission. Wrong and right are subjective and abstract concepts. A computer may not be able to process these abstract concepts, but they can certainly recognize when they have made an error or a mistake.
In our final log, Sarah is gathered with the rest of the ground crew. She is absolutely convinced that the entire crew needs to remove the implants and that things have gone far enough. Daniel remains unconvinced and feels that they need more proof. Sarah reminds Dan that they have overwhelming proof that the implants are inside of them and that they are not doing the crew any favors. Dan doesn't seem to care that Tom may be controlling them and remains loyal to the ISA. He gives the crew a direct order not to remove the implants but Sarah is defiant. Dan seems to be the only one still completely under Tom's control, and he is also the only one (most likely) who refused to take the medication prescribed by Mikhail to lessen the implant's mind altering effect. Dan tells Sarah that he is leaving and threatens to inform the ISA of their mutiny, although he also says that he "may look past it."
These logs are important in that they give some confirmation and additional information to some of the facts that we already know about from an earlier point in the story. We knew that Chris was dead from an early point in the game, but now we know how he died and that Tom was responsible (he refers to it earlier on as an 'accident'). Tom mentions earlier that Dan is missing and now we know that he's separated himself from rest of the crew (who are also obviously missing). We can confirm the writings we found in the crew's quarters during Chapter 2 which stated that Mikhail had recruited Chris as the first person to investigate the implants with. We can see how Tom's relationship with Dan is much different than with the other members of the crew who were not able to tolerate him as easily. I really liked listening to these audio logs, especially after the bio lab at the end of Chapter 5 offered little to us in terms of story.
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