---

---

---

Zari was more then a little bit annoyed with the fact that Vinnie, the most talkative person in the universe it seemed like, had decided to follow along after her. "If you are so afraid of drowning then get lost, and keep quiet, since who knows if there is anyone else around, so just shut up and either leave or keep quiet and keep up. I do not need a babysitter, and despite popular belief I am an adult just like the rest of you, so stop treating me like I can't do a damn thing, oh, and my name is Zari, not Greenie, get it straight," she said, though her voice was a little bit shaky as the cold was starting to get to her as she managed to make it up to the catwalk area and she glanced around. She didn't care what the hell happened towards Vinnie, since Zari knew perfectly well going into this situation that something bad could be waiting for her on the other end of that pipe. The thing was she didn't really care, considering how everything seemed to be going for everyone else, it started feeling like she might actually be the most capable person in the group. No one else seemed to be quite as resilient to the cold as she had been (though now, after spending a lot of time in the cold, her fingers were starting to go a little numb) and she had been the only one instantly willing to go into the vent to try to find out what was going on when no one else wanted to.

So why did they all seem to treat her like she was a little kid?

Once on the catwalk, she wandered a little ways along the path, seeing that she could potentially go off to the left or keep going straight. There was something else she noticed, and that was a water shut off switch of sorts, and before she took the path to the left, she switched the water to the river completely off as she then continued onwards down her chosen path. She froze when she heard what sounded like a door opening and shutting, before the lights overhead seemingly turned on. Flipping off the switch to her flashlight, she edged along, trying to see if she could get a decent view of who was making all of the noise. Zari saw someone who looked to be human, but seemed to be taller then most, and was holding some sort of strange device in their hands as they started up some stairs to the catwalk, straight towards where she was if she had to guess. She ducked down the best that she could, but hiding on a catwalk was not exactly easy, since there weren't too many places to hide.

"Shit shit shit," she muttered under her breath, and was really hoping that Vinnie would take the hint of the whole lights turning on along with the sound of a door and go back down the pipe as opposed to climbing out of it, since that would probably cause problems for the both of them.

---

---

For the most part, Cal's dour expression remained on her face when Kyle attempted to bring up her mood. It wasn't his fault; after everything, making her smile was an impossible task. The corner of her mouth did twitch upward, though, like a boulder someone was trying to push, budging only slightly, but budging nonetheless. She wasn't going to smile, but for half a second, she wasn't frowning. Once that half-second was over, she let out a huff from her nose. "Right then, if we're planning on doing somethin', we should take stock of what we've got, and what we might need. Luckily, we've got the magic menu thing in here, so that's a big plus, but let's see what we've got on us before we decide to make anything," she said, before she began emptying out her pockets and putting her items on the table. First the lighter, then the knife, then the vial of liquid, and finally, her pill bottle. But as her eyes once again brushed against the name typed out on the bottle, it was like unlocking a lock in her head.



It had felt like an eternity had passed when Cal came to, but it had really only been a few seconds, her hand was gripping the table, using it to keep her balance. Her head was hung, staring at the ground, where her cigarette and pill bottle lay. She hazily remembered dropping the bottle when the memory hit, and the cigarette must've fallen out of her mouth when her lips parted in shock. Her cheeks were damp with what her sniffling nose suggested were tears. She pushed herself off the table, stumbling in place in a daze, wiping her cheeks clean with her arm. "S-sorry, where were we?" Her words came out as a weak mumble, as if hoping lowering her volume would help conceal the anguish in her voice. It didn't.

Time: +5:45 hrs
Location: Space, a very far way from Earth

---

---

---

Sophia tried to climb into the pipe but was hit with a face full of water. That did not help Tessa to get past her deep-seated fear, at least she knew why she was so afraid of drowning. Of water. Why she hated the woman in the photo. Having answers was nice. But Noah was also right, those answers were painful. Vinnie was able to get up into the pipe, and shortly after she had the water turned off.

Tessa blinked. She could climb in there now. Though a part of her brain feared what would happen if the water turned back on. She didn't care. This was a route to potential freedom. More answers could be found if they climbed up and out of there through this pipe. With the water off the bigger people in their group stood a chance of getting up and through the pipe, but it would still be a tight fit.

She climbed up into the pipe, glancing back and seeing a faraway look in Manny's eyes. He was staring at the rope and looked like he was about to vomit. "Dude you okay?"

"I remember everything." Tessa nodded, made sense. Remembering was traumatic and if you had a particularly nasty memory...well yeah she couldn't blame a guy who was military for looking like he had seen the end of the world. She didn't push him, just turned back around and started up the pipe until she found the ladder going up with Vinnie still hanging on it. She was shivering.

"What's up?" Tessa didn't know to keep her voice quiet so she asked at her normal speaking volume.

---

---

Luke was lost in his own head thinking. What he noticed though was how both Kyle and Gordon tensed as the empty bottle of pills fell to the ground. Kyle stepped forward and offered his hand to Cal.

"Hey, are you okay?" Worry was etched deeply on his face. "We don't have to do anything if you need some time." He spoke calmly. Luke recognized the voice of someone who had talked people off edges and cared deeply about each of them. Luke looked to Cal seeing the tears and stress in her features.

Gordon stepped over to the machine and returned seconds later almost with a box of tissues and offered it to Cal. "My cakes aren't worth crying over. I promise." Gordon tried to joke.

Luke was at a loss for what to do. He had siblings, lots of them, but that had never made helping one of them out any easier. When his sisters were upset it was always best to just give them space, and with both Kyle and Gordon standing near Cal, he didn't want to overcrowd her so he stayed put.

---

---

Vinnie and Zarina would hear the radio crackle. It wasn't Zarina's radio though. It was the person who was coming to inspect the devices. Raynor's voice was clear. The person paused and looked at the radio on their hip. They removed it and looked at the device confused. Then responded in a low timber voice, "Hello? Who are you?"

---

---

---

---

Sophia started to panic slightly seeing Vinnie quickly starting to climb down into the pipe itself, Vinnie was the only family that she actually knew here and felt like she was responsible for her as well. Tessa started to climb into the pipe as well, looking over at Manny who started to remember everything as well which was a good thing. "I'm going to go in." Sophia said, she was sure what was actually on the other end as she started to climb through the pipe, feeling the cold wet surface of the water as well. She continued to slowly climb her way through the pipe while following behind Tessa as well.

She managed to climb her way out of the pipe itself by using the ladder and stopped a little bit trying to get a good look at some of what was on the other end. "Can you guys move?" Sophia asked, from what she could see on the other end was a lot of piping/

---

---

Vinnie's eyes narrowed as Greenie sassed her. She had been on her side when it came to not trusting Cal, unlike everyone else present. She hadn't done anything to treat her like a kid. It all just felt like a big slap in the face. Sure, Vinnie hadn't had a good first impression of Greenie - she was creepy. But in the few hours, days, weeks, how long had they been there? Well, however long it had been, she had gotten a little bit more used to her weirdness. And now rather than being creeped out towards Zarina, Vinnie was angry. They were in an incredibly confusing and complicated situation, her memories were coming back as slowly as pasta moved through the little slots in a cheese grater, and Greenie had the nerve to yell at her for things other people were doing!

If her anger could have been compared to a mythical creature, well, Vinnie was about to release the kraken. "Seriously? I stood up for you and this is how you're treating me, like I'm a snot booger on a teacher's nose and you just want me gone? News flash, I don't care how old you are! I care about you as a fucking human being and if you've got a stick so far up your ass that you have to belittle the person who came to make sure you weren't a freaking corpse up here, then maybe helping you was a waste of my time and effort! I'm risking my life and you can't even PRETEND to be a little bit nice? You know what, screw you, you can go to hell, I don't need to waste my time on negativity. I don't have space for toxic people in my life."

She heard a radio crackle, as well as Tessa behind her. She then heard what sounded like Sophia even farther down. Fueled by righteous rage, Vinnie hauled herself up the rest of the way, scrambling onto the catwalk. It wasn't a controlled motion at all, as Vinnie stumbled and almost tripped over her own two feet. For a brief second, she felt just the force of gravity on her and the resistance of air, as she almost toppled over the edge. Her heart stopped beating and didn't continue until she regained her balance. She didn't have a real chance to think though before she saw an extremely tall person with a radio - they looked human, but also like they had been stretched out using a torture device to gain a few extra feet. "Hey, Tall Guy, is this the way to the bathroom?" Vinnie shouted, drawing attention to herself. There wasn't really anywhere to hide on a catwalk. She might as well get out in front of this.

---

Raynor barely skipped a beat before he answered. "Identify yourself," he said gruffly. It was like some instinct of his. Everything had redundancies. Everything was confusing. He had no idea who he was talking to but he was worried they had the kid or something - if Raynor could confuse the Them long enough, maybe Zarina would be able to escape.

---

---

---

"You idiot!" Zari couldn't help but say when Vinnie decided to be the biggest loudmouth possible and just start yelling up a storm, she had a half mind to walk over and just push her back into the damn pipe. It probably would make her life easier and keep Vinnie out of trouble too. Problem was one wrong move and she could potentially push Vinnie off the catwalk to her potential death, and that was definitely not something she could really live with. Sure, it actually would be probably interesting to see what would happen if the human body fell from this height and went splat on the ground, but right now definitely was not the time to experiment with something like that.

Instead, she whirled around to look at the alien dude with the radio whose frequency Raynor seemed to be on at the moment, and she decided on a split second decision that was both stupid and insanely reckless. She decided she was going to tackle the person, despite the guy clearly being taller (and probably stronger) than she was. "Sorry weirdo but running into you is seriously ruining this already horrible day," Zari said before she charged and slammed right into the alien guy, both of them tumbling to the ground as the radio in his hands flew out and hit the ground with a clatter. Welp, now knowing her luck she was probably going to die or get seriously injured or something, but at this point she really didn't care.

---

---

Cal squeezed her eyes shut tight, wringing out the tears from her eyes out like water from a towel after a rainy beach day. She quickly covered them with her hand, using her thumb and forefinger to put pressure on the corners of her eyes and the rest of her fingers to wipe her cheeks clean. As her sight was cloaked in the darkness of of her eyelids, she looked back, trying to focus on the memory that had just surfaced in her mind. She narrowed in on the pain, trying to use it to unlock more memories with little success. It was like trying to build a bridge from the middle outwards. After a few moments of holding the traumatic memory under a microscope, she let go of it, letting it float back into the empty section of her brain where the memories would stay if they were there. She cleared her throat, taking a second to compose herself, before pulling her hand away from her face.

"I'm fine, I'm good. Just a...flash of somethin', that's all. It's gone now," Cal said, standing up straight from her position leaning over the table. She didn't want to get into the reality of what had just happened. She'd much rather do something, anything, really, to take her mind off it. "So, we were talking about the space roombas. I s'pose we could just peer in their little cubbies, but I'm not sure how much we'd be able to find out from that. Could we make a camera maybe? One we could, I don't know, tape onto a roomba?" Despite her best efforts, her voice was still shaking as she spoke.

Time: +6 hrs
Location: Space, a very far way from Earth

---

---

---

The tall being's head hit the catwalk, but they were able to keep conscious. "Hey!" They shouted and tried to reach for the radio but it was just far enough out of their reach. They did push Zarina off of them just as Tessa stumbled out of the pipe and almost slipped. She grabbed the railing of the catwalk, then also grabbed Vinnie and pulled her so she wasn't so precariously placed.

"What the heck is going on?" Tessa asked. But before anyone could answer she was already putting it all together. She dashed over and grabbed the radio before the alien being thing could. A quick glance told her that this was a different model than the one Zarina and Raynor had but worked on the same principle. That explained why Raynor and the being had been able to communicate.

"You are not supposed to be here. How did you get out?" The being looked upset. Tessa wondered if they were male or female and realized it was too hard to tell. Their voice was soft and deep and their features muted and mixed.

---

---

"If you need some time, take it. It isn't like we are going anywhere." Luke shrugged. Hell if Cal wanted to just get a drink and sit this out he wouldn't blame her. They had been through a lot in the last few hours and it would be unreasonable in his opinion to expect people to be going at 100% "And honestly I'm a bit hungry. Wild what drowning will do to you." He tried to joke and went over to the machine and made himself a sandwich.

He set about trying to make the equipment that Cal recommended and what ended coming out was a disposable camera. He stared at it. How was that supposed to help them? Gordon snorted. Luke shot a glare at him. "Do you want to do this?"

"Yeah I'll give it a go." Gordon typed in some things into the machine and a camera with a long lead to a display came out. It reminded Luke of the cameras that were used for medical procedures. The tape that came out was washi tape. It was Luke's turn to laugh at Gordon.

"I don't think that'll work." Luke took over and this time the tape that came out was some double stick scotch tape. "We might be able to get that to work." He said wincing. Kyle rolled his eyes and from one of the other machines ordered a tea for Cal, and then a cup of water.

"Here, drink this. My mum always made me tea when I was upset." He said shrugging and then spilled the water on the ground. A little bit later a Roomba came out of the cubby and started cleaning up the mess. Kyle picked it up and held it.

---

---

There was no response from the radio. Raynor wouldn't know why.

Noah stayed in his little spot staring out into the void of space.

Manny attempted to climb into the pipe. Frustrated that they had no idea what was going on. But he couldn't get into the pipe without potentially hurting himself. "Sophia! What is going on?" He yelled up the pipe, she was the last one visible to him.

---

---

---

---

Sophia looked up as the others started to climb out, she was about to join them as well on the other side as she tried to get a few more steps in. Whether it was from the cold, or the water itself Sophia couldnt help but let out a surprised yelp as she lost her balance and started to fall. Managing to catch herself wrapping her arm over one of the rungs of the ladder taking in a few deep breathes as she adjusted her footing some. "That was close.." Sophia said softly as she calmed down slightly looking up at the top of the ladder again as she could hear a scuffle going on.

"Theres someone else on the other end, I cant tell who or what it is the others are topside of the ladder!" Sophia called out to Manny as she panicked slightly, she started to climb a few more rungs of the ladder again back to where she was before she ended up slipping. "Go and get the others!" Sophia told Manny, hoping that he would hear her, and that the others would be able to get over and maybe be able to fit inside as well.

---

---

So many works of art recommended against using anger as a motivator. It was a cheap fuel, only allowing you to go so far. It often resulted in suffering and tragedy. The protagonists were constantly being directed towards more positive emotions to use for their battles, such as love and never hatred. But in this moment, Vinnie had to disagree with popular culture. Anger was a great source for getting things done. It filled her like an intense fire, hearing Greenie insult her. Tessa grabbed onto her and Vinnie nearly jumped, although she realized a second later that Tessa was just helping to make sure she didn't fall from the catwalk.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Vinnie screeched a loud war cry, running at top speed towards the strange being. She didn't care that it was asking questions. Her anger was pumping through her system and she was going to put that rage to good use. Whatever They were up to, it was clearly nothing good as they had all been abducted - and hopefully not anally probed. Her butt felt normal though, so she figured the odds of that happening were low. She slammed into the creature with her entire body, knocking them back down. Vinnie then pinned them expertly, her body so used to this sort of violence, as if she had done this on a daily basis before. Roller Derby. She wished she had a pair of skates.

"Listen, Gabriel, you're going to tell us what's going on here or I'm going to rename you Flapjacks because your face will be a pancake!" Vinnie declared. "So it's your move, talk or be a delicious vital component of a balanced breakfast!"

---

"Fuck!" Raynor cursed, dropping the radio down to his side. He walked over to the entrance, as if somehow that might make the signal better. He kicked at the wall in anger, wishing that he hadn't let the tiny ones go after Zarina. He hoped that Odin was watching over her if no one else could.

---

---

---

Zari wasn't too thrilled by the entire situation given the being in front of them, who seemed to be questioning how the hell they had gotten out. She also wasn't too happy by the alien person then proceeding to shove her off of them, though that was kind of to be expected, she was the smallest person in the group, and the alien person was a lot bigger then her. It was understandable for them to be a lot stronger then her too, it just was still not a nice feeling to have someone just shove you over like that. "Wow, ruuuuuuude!" she said as she got up off of the ground, dusting herself off a little bit and glaring at them.

Of course, her thoughts were interrupted by Vinnie screaming and charging at the alien person, and that stunned her somewhat, but from what she could tell Vinnie was a bit spontaneous, so was it really that surprising? When she thought about it in the long run, it actually really wasn't, and she had a bit of newfound respect for Vinnie for being willing to just flat out tackle the alien. "Okay... I'm with her, mind telling us where the hell we are and what the hell is going on here? You are kind of outnumbered, and why the hell would we tell you how we got out? That would be lame and dumb!" Zari declared, looking at the alien person, well more of glaring.

---

---

Cal let out an involuntary huff of morbidly amused disbelief as Luke proclaimed that they weren't going anywhere. It was only matter of time before they joined up with the others, and she'd be alone again. Again? The strange word latched itself onto the end of her thought like some kind of vocab vagabond jumping into the last railway car of her train of thought, and she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was just referring to the isolation to which she'd woken up to. Or maybe it was something more. Either way, it wasn't the most important thing she had to deal with. Her eyebrows popped up in surprise as the people around her jumped into action, taking her uncertain suggestion to be the beginning of a plan. It felt a bit weird to Cal, having people go along with something she'd said without needing to push or guide them to her way of thinking. But it was a good weird. She jumped a bit when Kyle pushed the warm beverage into her hand, still on edge from the memory that seemed to render her mind raw and sensitive.

"Uh, thanks mate...she sounds like a lovely woman," Cal replied. There was a very subtle undertone of bitterness in her voice that seemed to go unnoticed by her as she took a long sip from the cup. Once the warm liquid was down, she let out a deep sigh as she tried to relax. To some degree it worked. When she spoke, her voice had less of a tremor to it. "Alright, unless there's anything else we need, I say we put this bad boy together. It'd be embarrassing if the others came back with the secrets of the universe in their grasp and all we had was the power of friendship and a fuckin' sandwich."

Time: +6:15 hrs
Location: Space, a very far way from Earth

---

---

---

The being hit their head with a sickening thunk and for a moment Tessa worried that Vinnie had killed them. But then they blinked. "Look I don't mean you any harm. I'm just a technician. Please." Tessa winced. They needed answers, but maybe almost killing technicians wasn't a good way to do it. "You can search me. I swear I don't have any weapons."

"What about that weird device you've got?" Tessa asked them. She didn't bother trying to search the technician, Vinnie had them securely pinned.

"That's just a computer. It stores information about the systems in here. It gave me an alert that a water valve had been shut off. I was coming to check pressures anyway and then you lot were attacking me." Tessa bit her lip at that answer and looked at Vinnie.

"Maybe we take them with us back into the pipe to the rest of the group." She was convinced that what had transpired was a misunderstanding. She didn't trust the capitol Them, but this person was just a technician, a grunt. They probably didn't have a say in the kidnapping of the group even. Tessa realized she didn't know the being's name and felt weird about calling them the being and so on in her head so she asked, "What's your name?"

"My designation is Y92-6." They said the dash. Tessa frowned, was Y92-6 a robot like the one girl in their group had been?

"Hey, either of you got your steak knife still? See if they bleed green like the robot did?" Y92-6's eyes widened in fear.

"Wait please don't hurt me. I swear I'm just a technician." They begged.

---

---

With Cal's help, the group was able to get the camera taped to the grabbed Roomba. They soon had a makeshift set up and set the robot down. It returned to its hidey-hole and the group could watch on the monitor at the end of the line. It was dark in the tunnel, but thankfully the camera was equipped to handle that. At first, it was just a straight line, then it t-sectioned.

"Turn left." Luke said forgetting that they didn't actually have control over how the Roomba moved. It turned right instead. Luke frowned but soon the view showed the Roomba joining several other Roomba in what could be best described as a charging room. There was a door though. Large and round. They had a route to an exit. There were now two doors the group could try, but getting to either would be a tight squeeze.

Manny entered the room at that moment. "Zarina found someone. There apparently is a scuffle going on. What are you lot up to?"

---

---

Manny nodded and moved away from the opening. As he made his way to the Galley he noticed Noah. "Hey, can you fit inside the pipe? You're small." Noah looked up at Manny. Several emotions crossed his face before he finally shrugged and stood up. Manny kept going and went into the Galley.

"Excuse me Raynor, Sophia. Let me see if I fit." Noah said.

---

---

---

---

Sophia looked down as Noah appeared right behind her and nodded slightly as she started to climb back up the ladder and out of the pipe finally. Getting a much better look of the area now, and started to approach Zarina, Tessa and Vinnie who had managed to subdue the alien guy, and started to approach him. She listened to it as it spoke to them and knelt down face to face, while looking at everyone else, she seemed to think that he was being genuine about it all.

"Vinnie, Zari, Tessa I think it's telling the truth." Sophia said as she started to search Y92-6, she didnt find anything of use but took the device that Y92-6 was holding and turned it off handing it to Zari. "Try and find out what you can about this." She said looking back at the alien. "Just tell us what you know, you have my word that we wont hurt you. Just give us some answers, thats all we ask." Sophia said calmly while looking over at Vinnie. "We wont get anything if you threaten or kill Them." Sophia said trying to calm her cousin down some.

---

---

Greenie definitely needed some work when it came to her insults, but Vinnie was all about showing a united front when faced with Them. "Yeah, what she said!" Vinnie chimed in. She'd have to talk to Greenie about creative insults later in private. Everyone had things they could improve on, so there wasn't anything shameful in it. She continued to keep Them pinned down to the ground, even with their cries of just being a technician. "Even if you're just a technician, you work for Them! So if you're just following orders, you're a piece of walking - or I guess lying down - garbage. And if you believe in what's going on here, then you're double garbage! So either way, you're trash!"

It didn't help that Y2K, as Vinnie mentally renamed Them, wasn't telling the full truth. She was pretty positive that they weren't being honest when it came to what the device did. She wasn't sure how she knew, but her gut was convinced of it - maybe she had done a video series on the Top Ten Liars of History or something. Her memories were still incredibly fuzzy and spotty. But since the device had given Them an alert about the water, it probably could do other cool things too. "Hey Greenie, Y2K's fancy gizmo is probably worth messing with. I don't doubt that they're a scared technician, but there's no way that's just a water pressure detector or whatever. It's gotta be a Chekhov's Gun."

---

When Raynor and Sophia had moved aside Noah easily pulled himself up into the pipe and made his way up it. He climbed up the ladder and found the scene of the girls fighting with the unnaturally tall person.

Raynor frowned. He was definitely too big to fit into the pipe as Noah and Sophia had. He wasn't getting anything back on the radio channel. He was grinding his teeth out of frustration, before he made a quick decision and he sprinted to the galley. "Shit got real. Zarina met Them. She isn't answering her radio."

---

---

---

"I mean can you blame us for attacking you? We wake up in some weird place with no memories of who we are or how we got here, so sorry for seeming a bit harsh but it's a little hard to trust anyone we come across, so sorry about that," Zari said towards them, not really too sure what to think, but kind of feeling a little bit bad for attacking the alien now. After all, they seemed fairly genuine when it came to only being a technician and everything like that. She wasn't too sure what to do when Sophia handed her the device that the alien had, and she just started examining it when Vinnie started going off about something as usual.

Except this time, her words actually made some sense in her mind as she spoke about there probably being no way in hell that the device was just a water detector system thing or whatever. Starting to mess with it, it took her a few moments to even get the device turned on, but once she did that she came to a lock screen. Figuring that she might as well see about maybe getting the code from them, she looked over at them, "You wouldn't by chance tell me the code or whatever would ya?" she asked simply, and they did end up giving her the code after a few words back and forth.

The first thing that popped up was some sort of red alert in some weird language that she couldn't understand at all, and behind that she saw what looked like a lot of mathematic equations, something she wasn't too keen on trying to solve. "Anyone better at math then me? Since this is some weird language I can't read but I can kind of make out the equations or something here too..."

---

---

Cal watched with an intense gaze as the Space Roomba rolled back into its little cubby, before shifting her gaze to look down at the monitor that depicted what the camera saw. It moved through a narrow passageway for what felt to Cal like an eternity, and as she watched its movements, her finger absentmindedly rubbed her lighter, as if it might bring them luck. She didn't believe in luck, she realized as soon as the thought crossed her mind; she was of the belief that the universe was chaotic and uncaring, without fortune, karma, or any sort of deity. The rubbing of her lighter was more a nervous twitch than superstition. As their little Roomba finally turned right, quickly finding itself in an open room, a small smile found itself on her lips.

"Alright, lovely, a second option. It's a tight fit, but it's got to be safer than potentially drowning in a pipe. Let's go get some of the smaller people and see if we can figure out a plan," she said, standing up straight from her position leaning on the table. But as soon as she turned towards the door, Manny stepped through, followed by Raynor. Cal's eyes widened, and her smile quickly disappeared. "WHAT?! Where, in the Atrium?! You two've got the most muscle, why didn't you send Vinnie or someone to send the message while you roughed up the aliens?!" she exclaimed, the panic and anger evident in her voice. She quickly shoved passed the pair of them, quickly walking towards the Atrium.

Time: +6:30 hrs
Location: Space, a very far way from Earth

---

---

---

Y92-6 pinned under Vinnie still had given up the code to Zarina. A part of Tessa wondered if they had given it up too easily. But Y92-6 was now speaking again. Responding directly to Vinnie. "Please. I understand you're afraid of me and Them. I have no choice though." Y92-6 took a deep breath and then said, "They made me. I have no free will."

Tessa frowned looking at Y92-6 face. Tears had formed, small, in the corner, in their eyes. They didn't even seem to be struggling against Vinnie's pin anymore.

"I can't help you. I wish I could. I see my past in your future and I'm powerless to do anything." Y92-6 continued. "The only good I can do for you is if you throw me over the edge of the catwalk. The fall will kill me. They won't know you did it." They then turned to Zarina and said, "There is a function to change the language to English. What you see is my native tongue."

Tessa's jaw had dropped. Y92-6 was literally asking the group to kill them. Could they do that? Was it murder or assisted suicide?

Noah knelt beside Y92-6, "Is that what you actually want?" Tessa felt like more was being said in Noah's question. Like he knew something the rest of them didn't.

---

---

Luke followed after Cal into the Atrium. Upon entering the Atrium they found it empty of anyone. All were either behind them or apparently missing. The water was no longer pouring from the pipe though, and it seemed that turned off some automatic system as the pond was not actively draining.

"Where are they?" Luke asked Manny, who pointed to the pipe. Luke ran over to it and looked inside. "I don't see them."

"They went beyond it. Climbed in and up some ladder I guess. Raynor tried to contact them via the radio but someone else responded. Sophia said there was someone there, but she didn't exactly explain. She couldn't see cause it was above wherever the ladder starts."

Luke nodded and climbed into the pipe. It was a tight fit for him, but his swimmer's build made it a bit easier than for the others. At the ladder, he noticed that the rungs were farther apart then he was used to. He exited the ladder and was on the catwalk in time to hear Noah's question.

---

---

---

---

Sophia leaned back slightly as she watched Zarina mess with the little tablet computer thing and shook her head slightly. "I know math, and measurements pretty well, but thats about it." Sophia said, then she turned her attention back towards Y92-6 as it spoke, she wasnt sure why it wanted them to kill it either. "Everyone has a choice and free will to do anything that they want. Whats stopping you from telling us if you just want us to kill you?" Sophia asked, that was a little bit suspicious in her opinion, Y92-6 must have some kind of answer to something at least even if it was just a lowly technician.

Sophia stared at Noah, she thought that Y92-6 would be able to at least give them some kind of information that could be helpful in any kind of way. Then Luke started to climb up the pipe as well looking at them and then over towards Y92-6, she just hoped that it would tell them all something. "Just tell us something, anything and you have my word that we wont hurt you."

---

---

Vinnie scrunched up her face, mad that Y2K seemed to be telling the truth. It would have been so much easier to be filled with self righteous anger and rage against them, but apparently they were just another pawn in whatever game They were playing. Hating them wouldn't accomplish anything - in fact, they were just as much a victim as the rest of them were. She let out an annoyed huff, before getting up and offering a hand to Y2K. She wasn't going to throw them over the edge and kill them. "Ugh, we aren't going to kill you! If you had been evil and complicit, sure, but you're just... I think human is the wrong word but that's the point I'm trying to make."

"But since you're our prisoner, I'm ordering you to fix the language on Greenie's new magic tablet to be in English or whatever the fuck name you gave to our language, since I somehow doubt that you call what we're talking English when the French don't even do that. Also, how can you understand us? Do you have a translator or something on you? Because that might also come in handy. And you're going to spill all the beans about what you know about Them before you try to go Humpty Dumpty on us."

---

Raynor wasn't about to let himself be left behind. Everyone was going on in and he sucked in his belly - well, abs more of - and tried to imagine that he was as small as a mouse. He almost got stuck at several points but he somehow managed to scrape himself on inside, every bit of his body aching from the contortion as he made it to the ladder.