Almost unconsciously Nir leaned forward, propelled by some inner part of of his mind set to gaze upon his associate with wide eyes that could take in every aspect of detail. As if he were simply recording data to be used at a later time, in other studies. It could quite possibly come down to that, in the eventuality of the way things seem to work within the fields of science. For now, Nir simply smiled to himself as he noticed every subtle—and not so subtle—reaction Jethro made as he inhaled. From his initial excitement, to the way his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, the grin that tugged at the corners of his lips. It was like watching a flow chart of data. As if every expected reaction was simply a script to be acted out.

"Look at that Nir! That is mighty pretty. Can you think about the possibilities with this leaf? Cigar rolling, chopping it up to dip, you can really get a good industry going for us workers out in the fields!" Jethro enthused.

Nir nodded, satisfied in achieving the desired and proper reactions—were they proper, or expected? ”I believe, good sir, that this discovery may be the revolutionary kickstart to the new world tobacco industry—or rather, Ghost Leaf industry, yes?” Nir waved his off hand animatedly as he spoke, rather preoccupied with jotting down a few sudden notes that happened upon his thought process. The best time to record your thoughts was the moment they happened, if possible. ”Of course there will be the expected losses in quality, as consumers seek lower prices and higher quantities.. And further still are the expected illicit trading rings that it’s inevitably going to give birth to. Then there’s-..”

Nir blinked, pausing in his ramblings as Jethro began to tap out a jovial rhythm on his bongos. In a world—Well, an old world—where science was often associated with classical rhythmics and soft tempered tones, it was quite a pleasant change of pace to find peace in such loud, yet crisp sounds resonating from such a simplistic instrument. Nir rolled the striker of his flip lighter softly, content to remain lost in the music, if for only as long as this moment would allow. Though he did take this opportunity to light his own pipe, and within moments add to the growing column of bluish smoke swirling abstract patterns up towards the ventilation. His chair gave a soft squeak as he tilted it back as far as it’s protesting springs would allow, before setting his feet crossed on his desk and enjoying the few simple things in life that seemed so far and few inbetween nowadays.



Doctor Armand Holtz’ face was pinched in concentration as he hunched over an array of beakers, vials, burners and test tubes all held in their various arrays and attached to their particular gizmos and devices. Often when working in a field with such an expansive dictionary of terminologies and names, it was easy to forget the actual name for the items you worked with, and rather opt for something akin to a pet name. Especially when your underlings were hand-picked from the freshman pool and knew next to nothing about what you were doing, let alone having cognitive memorization abilities.

”Key, bring sample eight-one-eight” Armand requested without losing even the smallest shred of focus from his work. Dropper held in steady hands, tip leveled over the open end of a beaker set on a hot plate—although unlike the archaic models this one could be set to heat down to the second decimal and wouldn’t burn skin.

”A-ah.. Which one is-?” A small, frail body replied. Keira Leath was a small speck of a thing; barely over five foot with skin that looked as if it hadn’t seen the sun in.. well, five years give or take. She wasn’t anything like the women Armand sought after, the ones with plump assets, pretty lashes, and a mouth a man could dream about kissing for hours. Kiera on the other hand, was entirely opposite of all of that. Which would have made her the perfect lab partner, someone Armand wouldn’t find himself distracted with. If she had any sense whatsoever.

”The red one, connected to the twirly-whirls there,” He instrustruced, indicating a frothing red liquid connected to a series of spiraling glass tubes. A single drop of blue liquid splashed into the vial Armand was hovering over, turning the clear liquid into a milky blue. If all went according to his calculations, he would have a biochemical growth hormone to hopefully help with this whole agricultural situation. It was a tiresome, but necessary task, and he had devoted all relevant departments to the cause. Much to the disgruntlement of other beneficiaries and benefactors. Well, he didn’t care much for imaginary red tape and bureaucratic politics, all of that seemed quite trivial when faced with starvation. And according to the projected calculations from the last, weekly meeting, it wouldn’t be terribly long before the city began to feel real hunger.

”Here you go doctor!” Keira chimed next to him, nearly startling him to the point of adding more of the solution he was holding to the experiment. That would have ruined the entire thing, but he tried not to dwell on that as he calmed himself. But that damn woman, moved like a wraith!

”Thank you,” Armand replied. He did try his best to be pleasant despite the grating nature of such an.. Underdeveloped brain. He had neither the time nor the patience to train in her in his field, so for the moment she was something of an assistant crossed with a secretary.

”O-oh, Doctor Holtz, you received a message from the mining department, it seems they found a blue liquid pouring from the rocks during their excavation,” Keira said in a half mumbled, her eyes cast down at the glowing display of a tablet—or were they PDAs now? Armand sighed, half because he couldn’t keep up with the progress of socialized instruments, and half because of his assistance. What was he to do with her? She barely had any formal education in science, and no real job experience other than, what was it, fast food cashier?

He looked at the twenty-five year old pointedly, ”How long ago was this? Have they quarantined the site until I can get somebody down there.. God knows who that’s going to be.” Armand said with a sigh. They were stretched so thin, and with help with Keira’s caliber, the load placed upon the entire department wasn’t likely to lighten any time soon. If her were a religious man he would pray that the next group of arrivals had somebody who knew what they were doing, and didn’t arrive to a colony devolved in starvation induced chaos.

”Almost twenty minutes ago,” The small woman answered.

Armand had to physically restrain himself from another sigh, and settled pinching the bridge of his nose between two of his fingers instead, ”And you didn’t think to say something sooner?”

”A-ah! Sorry sir.. I just ah.. I’m a little flustered there’s just so much work to do an-” Keira cut off as her device gave a quite uncharacteristically happy chime, ”Oh! Good news!”

”Good news?” Armand questioned suspiciously. Good and Kiera were not to things often associated together.

”It’s explosive.”
”Explosive?”
”Well, they said volatile, that’s explosive right?”

”Yes Kiera, that’s what it means..” And suddenly, a brilliant idea came into his head. The old saying came to mind, two birds, one stone. ”I know my line of work can be quite.. Demanding Key, but I’ve just thought of the perfect place for your particular skill set,” Which is none.

A moment later Doctor Armand was racing down the length of twisting hallways, at a steady walk of course. One where little Kiera nearly had to resort to jogging to keep pace. Doors and observation windows flashed by as his long legs carried him further into the complex. To a place he had almost forgotten, in all honestly. Not out of any sort of negative emotion, but because some people were so self sufficient you hardly had to think twice about them. What Armand would give to have a dozen of those types. Hell, two dozen and this entire city would likely be sustainable within a few months.

As he neared the end of the white expanse, his thoughts were perturbed by a strange series of sounds, like two pieces of wet leather violently battling for dominance. ”Oh for fuck’s sake not again,” Armand mumbled. He thumbed the button and the soft hiish of the door briefly added to the cacophony of sounds.

”Nir!” Armand called over the tumultuous thunder, which silence immediately, ”How many times have I told you non-science personnel are not to be.. Leisurely causing a ruckus within the labs! And for the love of god what is all this smoke?!” Armand demanded. The vein in his forehead was likely going to burst at this rate.

”Ahoy Doctor Arms! Jeth is science personnel, I keep telling you. It’s just unofficial, because he works in the fields right.”

Another sigh and Armand closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of respite. Now he remembered why he tried to avoid this section as much as possible, despite the man’s incredible talent for his field.. He was.. He was a constant, never-ending heavy sigh.

”Nir this is Keira,” Armand said quickly, motioning to the small woman next to him clutching a small box of personal, office items, ”She’ll be working with you starting today and for the love of god are you smoking the Ghost Leaf!?”

Nir laughed, or rather gave a high-pitched chuckle, ”Doctor Arms have you met Ava?”

”Nir.. I know who Avaline-
”Doctor.”
”Doctor Avaline Rose is.”
”She said the same thing, are you related?”

At that moment Armand felt as if the pressure building within him was exactly two words away from reaching terminal velocity and achieving a thermonuclear detonation within the cavity of his skull. He did not have time for this. There was important work to do that did not include the amused rambling of a madman!

”Keira Leath, Doctor Nir Ketcher, may you have a long and prosperous relationship,” Armand announced rapidly. Without a second’s more hesitation he spun on his heel and strode from the room, ignorant of all of the smiles present in the room. In fact, was Keira giggling? She Giggled?!. Honestly, Armand felt he shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore. No doubt he would wake up tomorrow with eight new tasks, his teams rendered blind, deaf, and dumb, and hell his lab was probably burning down at this very moment!

Back in the room, Nir stood, clasping his new colleges hand energetically, though she nearly dropped her box. ”Keira, Jethro—Jeth, Keira. Despite what Doctor Arms would like to imply, Jethro’s as fine a scientist as any! Did you know he can manipulate dirt?”

Keira’s eyes widened ever-so-slightly, ”Dirt?”

”Yes, yes, dirt, can change the chemical do-what’s-it-nots too. Do you smoke?”

”No sir-”
”Call me Nir.. except when I’m far.”
”What?”
”It was a joke, go on Keira.”

"You can call me Key—erm, anyways," Keira said, pausing to clear her throat.”Doctor Armand said that I should notify you that the mining crews found a blue liquid substance in the mines. Oh! And it’s explosive.”

Nir stepped back, looking at her quizzically for a moment, ”Blue liquid substance? Isn’t he the chemist though?”

”See, he knew you’d say that and would like me to inform you that, and I quote,” Keira began, doing her best Dr. Arms voice, ”For all I know it’s dead plant juice just go down there and take a damn sample!”

This prompted a brief round of chuckles within the room, before Nir shot a sidelong glance at his friend who had apparently been sitting quite contently throughout the entire debacle with his pipe. ”As ever always my friend, time is fleeting. Another time then?” Nir suggested, clasping Jethro on the shoulder and shaking his hand.

”And don’t forget to smoke that on the low-low Jeth, you know how people be.”
@Americore

Numerous workers were hastily running around the construction site, cleaning their tacks and organising everything back into it's designated space; they were on a mission of presentation perfection. Cerridwen had stepped her way into the job site and just stood there silently observing the people around her, invisible to their vision as they were so intently focused on their allocated roles. With this element of stealth the woman began to make her way through the grounds taking mental notes of anything she could see.

Looking down one corridor the humanoid could see a pile of tools stashed away behind a door that seemed like it wasn't shut properly and across the open floor she observed several deep gouges. Curiously she began to follow the scars, tailing them until they reached the construction vehicle holding holding bays. She observed as one of the vehicles was tagged out of action, a Wasp flyer.

"You there!" Her robotic voice called over to one of the workers, breaking him out of his cleaning trance. He froze up, knowing full well who it was that was calling for him.

"Err. Yes Miss Lanker—" His introduction was cut short by a glare that pierced into his very being. "Doctor! Sorry, Doctor Lankerfield! What did you need?"

"What happened to the Wasp?" She asked, pressing him for information.

"That was a recovery from today! A Wasp crashed or something down in the South West of Landing, and cause we were the closest docking site the Haulers dumped it here." The nervous man began fidgeting with his fingers, a sign of how uncomfortable and out of place he felt. "Am I free to go?"

Cerridwen glared at the man, not changing her static expression as she gave a slight nod of approval. The woman began looked around the area for Borr and Keefer before eventually locking eyes with them. They seemed to be passing by her general direction and therefore insisted on waiting in her spot for them to approach her. As they drew closer she began to speak.

"Borr... Why is more than half of your team cleaning up the work site?" The question came out like a sniper shot causing Borr to stall in his tacks, scurrying to find the words to respond with. Cerridwen hadn't even let him respond before she proceeded with her introduction, "Although this is none of my concern I do have raise attention to this matter as we are currently behind schedule for the next drop. You should think that you are lucky that you lodged your complaint with me, and not Mr Quan."

Cerridwen turned her torso towards the duo, gazing at them with the reflective lenses in her eyes and curious to see how they would respond to her query. The artificial body she was housed in gave her the advantage of coming across as a cold, emotionless individual but internally she chuckled at the dominance she was so easily showing. She decided to continue, this time drawing attention to the matters Borr raised in his message.

"The scaffolding generators seemed to be reacting to interference I believe were your words in your message. Earlier I had the opportunity to transfer my conscious into the machine itself and found the problem that you had observed." Cerridwen paused for a moment, appearing as though her body had ceased operating for the briefest of moments before then activating in order to pace past Borr. She stopped just out of his sights, "Do you realise that you have a worker operating that machine who's Lunos ability is Magnetism?"

Borr's personal tablet chimed with a new message, a log sheet of the workers who had been operating the machinery and the time stamps of each errors. The information was sent from the Noah II, meaning that the woman had made a direct enquiry with the spacestation itself for the information that she required; an advantage with being the closest human to the pseudo AI.

"As for the chalk guns, you are free to choose a different prototype for your next shipment. Noah will just need a weeks notice in order to manufacture the designs and we can assign them to your next cable pack delivery. Unfortunately the atmosphere here contains some trace elements which are affecting certain alloy metals. Until one of the researchers in the science division is able to identify this chemical compound we will just have to log the use a little more stringently."

Cerridwen walked around Keefer taking note of his appearance until she landed face to face with the man. She gave a little look into his eyes, tilting her head as a sign of curiosity. "I'm guessing the reverse engineering on the medical pod have treated you well," she spoke faintly, enough to evade Borr's ears. Without waiting for a response she turned towards Keefer's employer and approached him again about improving the performance of his facility.

@BrokenPromise

Borr scratched his chin. “You bring up some valid points...”

The world started to feel like a distant place to Keefer. He was starting to lose focus, and could barely make out what his boss was talking about.

“...magnetism is something I was aware of, but surely you can't expect me to...”

It was Cerridwen's words. She knew something wasn't right with Keefer. It must be because her body is still on the Noah, she could gain access to everyone's files with ease. At least that was what he had to assume.

“...We have a mobster problem down here. If they lift a calk gun from the work site they can use it to plant explosives....”

Had she told anyone else? Would she tell anyone else? Well, Keefer suspected that without her avatar, she wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone. Not right away at least. It wouldn't be like Keefer was killing her. It would just be buying himself some time. He looked at the calk gun in his hand.

“...Will you tell Mr Quan you were aware of the problem when the mobsters realize this? I''m not trying to get anyone in trouble here, I'm just concerned... ”

No. That wouldn't be fair. Even if Cerridwen didn't die, a lot of people depended on her. Removing her presence from landing would hold everyone back. People could even die as a result of her disappearance. Why should Cerridwen be without a body when Keefer was the one at fault? Yes, he was the one at fault. He was the useless, unremarkable one. A sincere smile crept across his face as he told himself this. He was a loser, a fake. The words made Keefer's smile grow, despite believing every word.

“...Can I get you anything Doctor Lankerfield? Does that body of your need anything for sustenance?”

Keefer lifted his head up. His expression glowed like the morning sun. “Sir, this dust is kind of agitating my nose. I'm going to go start the next build site up, alright?”

Keefer walked away before Borr could respond. He was tied up listening to Doctor Lankerfield.

…

When no one was watching, it was much harder to keep that smile up. What was the best course of action? He had the money to go anywhere and do anything. If he acted fast enough, Keefer could escape. But to where? He knew he couldn't make it in the wild. He refused to join the mafia, and landing was still too small to just disappear inside. He needed someone's help. A single glance at his wrist phone. The first contact to pop up was Lenna. She understood the situation best, but Keefer couldn't be a burden to her this time. Tensions between them were just starting to lift. Placing this on her shoulders wasn't a wise choice. He only had one other contact. Keefer wouldn't have even considered calling her, but she was his neighbor. Without thinking about it further, he tapped the call button.

“I'm so weak.”

Calling a celebrity? Really Keefer? One who made a point to lie to him on her way out the door? Perhaps this just showed how desperate the situation was. Keefer waited patiently for her to pick up. It wasn't until the eighth ring that her image came up on screen. Holla was all wet, and she wasn't wearing anything more than a towel. The room she was in looked really dark too. He smiled nervously.

“Hi Keefie!” Holla was a cheerful as ever.

Keefer blinked. “Is now a bad time?”

She giggled. “I was taking a shower. The lights are off because I'm hiding in the closet. My manager doesn't like me answering the phone.”

“Well, did you want to get dressed first?”

“Nah.” Holla waved her hand dismissively. “It's like my bra suddenly shrank two sizes. Or did my 'heart' grow three sizes when you called?” She winked. “So what's up?”

This was starting to feel like a waist of time. But he had already crossed the point of no return.“I... am in trouble.”

Holla raised an eyebrow. “Trouble?”

Keefer nodded. “I have a secret, and I think someone discovered it.”

“You're being kind of vague.”

“I know.” Keefer rubbed his eyes. “But you never know who could be listening in.”

“Alright.” Holla looked at something off screen. “Who knows your secret?”

“Doctor Cerridwen Lankerfield.”

“Oh...” Holla's face scrunched up like she had just been punched. “Okay, what's the worse thing that could happen to you?”

“I could be put on trial and executed.”

“...Did you hurt anyone, Keefer?”

“No!”

“Okay, just calm down!” Holla took some deep cleansing breaths with Keefer before continuing. “Alright, what makes you think she knows your secret?”

“She said something.”

“You have to tell me exactly what was said or I can't help you.”

“She whispered 'I'm guessing the reverse engineering on the medical pod have treated you well.' to me.”

“So there's something different about you?”

Keefer remained silent.

“...Okay. I don't know everything Keefie, but I don't think you have anything to worry about... yet.”

“Yet!?”

“Please relax.” Holla sighed. “Alright, if the secret she knew was that bad, she'd have done something by now. I think Miss Lankerfield wants something from you.”

“You think?”

“Are you a valley girl or something? Is everything a question with you? Like, I didn't know valley boys existed?”

Keefer groaned. “This really isn't the time to joke.”

“This is totally the time to joke! She doesn't want to hurt you. Black mail? Maybe. Probably. But better that then a trial and execution.”

“What should I do?”

“Well...” Holla lifted a finger to her cheek. “I think you should confirm what she knows, and then arrange to meet her. If you cooperate with her things will go smoothly for you both.”

“I just don't know what she could possibly want.”

“Well, she might want someone to help her come down to landing early. Or she might have... other needs.”

Keefer remained silent.

“I'm just sayin' okay? Don't screw it up! You are one babe away from a harem. Between me and Lenna-”

“That's my sister you're talking about!”

“Oh right.” Lenna gave Keefer a sideways glance. “Speaking of which, why didn't you talk to Lenna about this? You don't think... Me and you are...”

“No, I'm aware of that.” Keefer let out a tired sigh. “She's busy and... probably not ready for it.”

Holla didn't respond right away. “...You should really tell her about this.” She raised her arms to hug herself and looked away from the screen. “Families fall apart when they keep secrets from each other. I'm sure you could tell her more about it and get a better solution.” Holla grabbed a handful of her wet hair and threw it over her other shoulder. “Anyway, my manager is probably wondering why I'm not done yet. I should hang up now. See you later.” And with that, the transmission ended.

Keefer was glad he called Holla. She was a little strange, but he always seemed to take something away with his talks with her. Well, so far anyway. But she was right, this was something he should talk to his sister about. In the meantime though, there was no reason to panic. He had faith Holla was right. Cerridwen needed something. She had something on Keefer, and now she expected him to do her bidding. But wouldn't Keefer be happy to help her anyway? A brilliant mind that gave humanity so much? Helping her would be like saving a princess from peril. With renewed determination, he headed towards the next job site.

@NuttsnBolts

"Well make sure he's snapped out of it and send the forms to me once you're done. I have a hospital to run here, I can't be bothered to check on every drone that comes in," the voice came from far away. Or at least it felt like it. Like Kostia's head was in a fishbowl filled with water an the little goldfish was trying to take a detour via his brain. Why don't I feel any pain? he thought to himself. It was as if a tremendous pressure had been placed on his entire body, but it did not hurt. I need to open my eyes. He focused on his eyelids, but they refused to cooperate. A light suddenly shone on his still closed eyes, clearing the blackness and replacing it with the orange-red of his translucent skin. Suddenly, as if someone had heard his thoughts, two fingers pinched his left eyelid and pried it open. A flashlight shone into his exposed iris, forcing it to narrow reflexively. Discomfort surged through the young man's stiff body, causing him to regain a little piece of his senses. He tried moving his head out of the way of the discomfort, but found he could just slightly jerk it to the side. The fingers let go of his eyelid and it happily restored the relative darkness to Konstantin's vision.

"Awake? Can you hear me, sir?" a low rumbling voice echoed above him, this one much clearer than the one before. It appeared the fish bowl had been removed and the fish evicted from its new home. The young scout opened his eyelids as far as he could, which was enough to give him an impression of the man hovering above him. The stranger seemed a little older, with dark brown skin and bright red hair that gave a jarring contrast. "You were sedated sir, please stay calm, it will wear off in a few minutes," the man said and straightened himself. He walked away from Kostia's bed and the scout closed his lids again, trying to gather his thoughts. I'm not... dead? No, can't be dead. That guy looked like a nurse, not some otherwordly deity. Then again how can I know what an otherwordly deity would look like... sensation was returning to his body. He could feel his mouth was dry and his muscles were stiff. There was a pain building up in his eyes, the pain of unfulfilling sleep.

The pressure finally abated and he could open his eyes fully. It took a moment for his vision to focus, but then he could gather his surroundings. Konstantin slowly pushed himself up on his elbows and took in what little view he had. It was a small hospital room, furnished with nothing but a bed, a chair and a large cupboard. A small LED light illuminated the room, set to a cold dim white light, supposedly to help him rest. He noticed his work clothes on the chair - all tattered and bloody. Kostia looked down to realise he was in nothing but a simple blue hospital gown. Irritated, he fell back onto his pillow and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand. I nearly got killed by those mog'romp... I remember Mark's voice... What the hell happened out there? And why am I here, don't they have healing pods? His head was completely clear now, but he could not find the answers he was looking for. The nurse was gone as well, so Kostia decided sleeping would be his best option right now and dozed off.

"Um, sir?" A hand gently shook him out of his nap. Konstantin mumbled something incoherent and refused to wake up fully. "Sir, I'm sorry, but you have to leave. We can't keep you here once the sedative has worn off," the hand shook him again, more firmly. The young scout turned towards the nurse and pushed himself to his elbows. "What? Why? Why am I even here?" he demanded with displeasure in his voice.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have room for you. We've only got a few beds and a lot of people get injured. Not everyone can use a medical pod, either, so we have to treat some people the old-fashioned way, which takes a lot of time. You were healed in a pod, but put here to wait for your sedative to wear off," the nurse explained calmly, with an apologetic smile on his face. Kostia got the impression that this man was an idealist - someone who wanted to help people above all else. Not a practical stance, but he admired people with convictions like that.

"Okay, uh, but... My clothes are kind of ruined," he nodded towards the neat little pile on the chair. I can't leave with a hospital gown, can I?

"We can issue you a new set of clothes. You can keep them if you want, but it will cost you an additional fee," the nurse put a couple of inputs into his PDA. "I'll go fetch them for you," he added and left the room. Konstantin sank back into the sheets, staring blankly at the ceiling. I should have asked for a glass of water, he thought, feeling the dryness of his throat.



The hospital clothes were plain, but at least they were comfortable. Kostia considered keeping them - would save him a shopping trip a few weeks down the line. He unlocked the door to his apartment, stepped inside. It was considerably less dusty than he expected - possibly because he was sent home about halfway into the expedition - but his first action was to crack the window and let fresh air come inside. He needed to do some dusting, but postponed that to tomorrow. Near-death experiences give you perspective on the pointlessness of actions such as cleaning your apartment. It was more like a room, really. He had been assigned a small l-shaped flat, which was just a single room, with a tiny kitchen area in one corner and his bed in another. Thankfully, the bathroom in the third corner had been separated by an opaque glass partition with a sliding door. It had a small coffee table in the middle with a couple of pillows for sitting and little else in terms of furnishing. It's not like a scout needed much luxury when he was away in the jungles most of the time.

Kostia sat on his bed and unrolled the bundle of clothes he had been carrying. His work pants were still in an ok shape - a couple of stitches and a good wash were all they needed. All of his other clothes could at best be used as rags, but the chunks of congealed blood made him decide throwing them away would be a better option. The young man sighed, threw the clothes into the corner and leaned back against the wall. He had left all his personal possessions at camp and needed to wait for his crew to send them to him. Which could take a couple of days still, depending on whether or not they happen upon some pilot going back into the City.

At least he had the tablet on his wall. He got up and put his fingerprint on the sensor. The computer powered on. Kostia entered his password and checked his messages. Lots of spam, but there were messages from Joshua and Anna. He opened the one from Anna first, fearing the scolding Joshua might give.

"Told you to carry a weapon with you, you idiot. We've given Mark your rations as a way of thanking him for saving your life. I'm sure you won't mind. And now I have to work more to make up for your stupidity TT

Don't get yourself killed while we're not there to protect you. See you in a week :)

P.S.: Mark asked me to tell you you're an idiot."

He smiled and closed the message. Well, the crew seemed to taking it quite well. He expected them to be angrier. A bit relieved, he opened Joseph's message.

"That was incredibly stupid. We'll talk more when we get back. I'll make sure your possessions are safe until we can arrange them to be transported back to the City."

It was pretty much what he expected from Joshua, but it still made him dread the day he would have to meet his leader again. Joshua was not the kind to report these sort of incidents to the upper management, but Kostia did not look forward to the lecture he would get about safety and working as a team. He scrolled through the newsfeed, looking for something to distract him from the events of the past 24 hours.

Rose wasn't having much difficulty keeping up with her new responsibilities. Holla simply didn't receive any Emails, aside from the usual spam. Then there was the occasional creep offering up money for “private appearances.” The miner guessed that Holla received work emails occasionally, but so far almost everything was taken care of by a simple deletion. Lenna's Emails were considerably harder to figure out. Most of them wanted spread sheets and status reports on things that Rose just didn't have access to. Finding that glowing blue fluid really did cause quite a commotion. Rose would never admit it, but Lenna was pretty amazing at multitasking if she could handle answering these Emails.

Lenna walked out of an elevator behind Rose. She was tightening a strap in her coat, and her hair was wet.

“Did you just take a shower?” Rose raised an eyebrow.

“One of the janitors left his mop bucket out around a corner.” Lenna finished tightening the strap and picked up her clip board. “You know you don't have to stay here. You can answer those emails anywhere.”

“I know. But this place is starting to grow on me.”

Lenna didn't look at Rose for more than a few seconds before glancing back at her clip board. “If you can't answer an Email, just leave it. I'll take care of it when I have time.”

Rose nodded.

“Oh, and before I forget.” Lenna pointed outside at the caved in mine. “It's probably going to be a while before we know if it's safe to drill again. Put in a request to find another mining site. I'm sure everyone wants to get back to work tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Rose was already bringing up to appropriate forms from that packet Lenna gave her. It would just take her a few seconds to fill out and submit a public notice to all the scouts.

“I have some things to take care of.” The overseer spoke with her back turned to Rose. “If you get anything pressing, notify me immidiately.”

“Okay, will do.” Rose went back to filling out the form. As soon as she had finished and submitted it, Rose realized the overseer was still standing behind her, back turned. “Um, did you forget something?”

Lenna looked over her shoulder. “Rose, do you love Holla?”

“W-wha?” Rose chuckled. “What do you mean?”

Lenna turned around to face the miner. “I mean do you love her. You're a young woman, you don't have a lot of interests, but you've made Holla one of them. Do you love her?”

Rose made a small gasp. “I-I don't know! I've never been in love before.” Why was her boss asking her this? This was so random, yet it was making her think. “...Maybe, I'm not really sure.”

“It's a simple question.”

“Then how about you answer it!”

“I'm not in love with Holla.”

“You know what I mean!”

Lenna didn't get emotional, and continued to stare Rose down into her seat. “I've been in love a few times. Nothing ever really came of it.”

“Were any of your lovers...” Rose trailed off.

“I can't remember. If I did they weren't very serious.”

Rose groaned and looked away from her overseer. “You broke my nose, wasn't that enough humiliation?”

“I'm not trying to humiliate you.” Lenna placed a hand on her own chest. “Germany had the same progressive views as Sweden. It's my personal view that people who mock other people for who they love have weak character.”

“R-really?”

“I would not have my position if I enjoyed watching my crew suffer.” Lenna hugged her clip board. “So, do you love Holla?”

Well, this revelation changed everything. Maybe Lenna wasn't so bad after all. Rose nodded. “Yea, I think I do. I want to see her dressed up in the clothes I make, and everything she says makes me happy. I think I love her.”

“That's a shame...”

Rose's face turned completely pale. “W-Why!?”

Lenna broke eye contact with Rose and flicked through her notes. “Because we don't have that sort of luxury in this new world. Earth was overpopulated, and everyone was okay with slower birth rates. But now woman don't have the option to keep their legs closed. Especially someone as young as you. I wouldn't be surprised if they hooked you up with two men.”

“They'd never do that!” Rose was practically shrieking. “Besides, we could still be together. If we just got an injection-”

“Holla likes men, right?”

Lenna's words sent Rose scrambling to Holla's profile page. Typically anything about Holla Rose could recall in an instant, but her sudden shift in emotions caused her to lose focus.

“I was kidding when I said you'd have two men assigned to you. But you should be careful with your fantasies. These fantasies, you know why they call them dreams, right?” Lenna fashioned a twisted smile that curled under her eyes. “Because they can only be realized when your eyes are closed.” Without saying another word, Lenna left the bridge.

@Mr Donny

Abigale studied the body, giving another sigh. There was such high hopes for the land, but it was clear to her that whatever they grew here would kill them. Why had the foolish farm hand eaten the tomato without waiting for the proper testing? Not that he deserved to die for that. It was just such a waste...She looked back to the woman that had approached her. She knew she should choose her words carefully.She couldn't help but think that maybe if she had been on hand, she would have been able to do something. Would she have been able to heal this Reggie as fast as the..it had to be some kind of acid, killed him? She might never know. She could do so much, and yet she was limited to where she was, and the extent of her own strength.

She gave another sigh, and said softly "There is a lot that I can actually take from Reggie himself. I know its not much, but if I can find out what...what it was, then maybe I can help figure out why it happened and what we can do to avoid such a thing happening again." She meant for her words to be comforting-sometimes people found it comforting to know that a persons death wasn't meaningless, and that by their death, others might be saved. She only hoped that she could find something that might help them.

"Um. Everythings different here, and I haven't worked out a protocol yet, but did he have any family here? I...I know its hard...really, I do...I would like to do an autopsy on him, to find out all I can, and...I assume there is someone that tests the produce? Would you be able to get them to contact me?" She knew she might have been sounding a little...cold, distant, but it was how Abigale could get through this. She gave a wince, before saying "I'm sorry. I...I really am. The lose of anyone is tragic, and I can see that...that he meant a lot to you. I imagine you've all become family out here...if you, or any of the others need a helping hand, I am more then happy to ablige. Thats all part of the healing process, too" She just couldn't seem to keep herself at a distance. A flaw in her medical abilities, Abigale cared too much about her patients, dead or alive, and her own heart ached from loss, that she wished to reach out to ones suffering from a pretty recent one.