Below Absolute Zero

[DeletedUser35174]

Isaac lead them towards the elevator and punched the button of the floor they were heading in. "Once we've escorted Miss Lynch here to the labs you and me will have to suit up pretty sharpish for our patrol...probably in and around either Alpha or Bravo" said Isaac ignoring Harriet's death glare. Ethan gave Harriet one of his own stares as if to say "remember last night's events" before he nodded in reply to Isaac. The lab wasn't far from the armory so after they dropped Harriet off they headed towards it only to be met by a grinning Captain Speer. Ethan nodded in greet before heading towards his locker and dressing in heavy duty coat and gloves both arctic camouflage. Following Isaac's lead he also took a white balaclava and goggles. “Isaac make sure Ethan knows how we do things around here whilst you’re out there I want him to be on the same page as the rest of us as soon as possible” Speer said just as they were about to leave. He then muttered something to Isaac that Ethan couldn't make out. He then spoke normally again and told them to find out what the GI was up to. “Yes sir, will do… Come along Ethan we’ve got a bus to catch” said Isaac. "ye sure thing" replied Ethan to both Isaac and Speer. He walked off with Isaac wondering why Speer wanted to know about the GI.

 

[Apelatia]

After receiving instructions from Nate as to when he should leave Alpha to get back for the evening shift, Ragnar set off at a brisk pace, racking his brain to try and remember the complicated directions Nate had given him to find his way to the bus station. His good ears eventually payed off though, as Ragnar found himself standing on the bus station platform. There were a few people standing around, obviously waiting for the bus, like he was. Ragnar walked to the back wall of the dimly-lit cave and leaned up against it, waiting for the bus to arrive to take him to his first day at work!
A couple of minutes after he had arrived at the station, he heard a faint noise in the distance, signalling the arrival of the bus. As it pulled into the station, Ragnar eased himself up from his leaning position, and after flashing his company pass at the driver, he got in and sat down on a rough seat on the right side of the bus for the journey.

 

[DeletedUser13682]

After a few minutes of standing around a heater with some fellow workers (reminding Peadar of Canada), the rumbling of an old hydrogen engine could be heard. Although an engine that had water as its only waste product made sense in enclosed areas, Peadar was hoping for the more familiar and elegant petrol engine. Most of Peadar's career in the Cavalry had been petrol powered, the last few being Wankel's beautiful rotary. But then BMW came with their perfected hydrogen engine, and stuffed them everywhere. It was a good engine, great power and response, but the feel and life of the petrol engine was gone forever.

As Peadar climbed on the bus and into his seat, he noticed that one of the people he passed was the Icelander from last night, the one who sided with the AWB brute. Luckily, he didn't notice Peadar, and Peadar wanted to keep it that way. He didn't want to start a fight before he got to work. He also didn't want to face Speer again. Beating up the head of security would not look good on his resumé. After sitting down, Peadar leaned his walking stick against the window, and waited to arrive at Alpha.

(Looking at my char sheet showed Peadar needing a walking stick. And I forgot about that. Sorry cats and kittens. That mistake has been rectified.)

 

[Sam J McCord]

Name: Richard H. Harless
Gender: Male
Age: 49
Nationality: American
Former occupation (If Any): Soldier in the U.S. Army for 28 years.
Physical Description (Including identifying marks such as Scars, tattoos and birthmarks):
A man standing about 6'1, grey receding hair cut short, age lines and heavy bags under the eyes.

Do you have any skills or hobbies?:-Skills/Flaws: 5pts
Skill with a rifle (3) Leadership (2) Mentor (2) Stamina (2)
Heavy Drinker (-2) Mostly Unsympathetic (-2)

Personal Items (Note: all items must be able to fit inside a single hold all bag. Warning! Any offensive weapons or contraband discovered will be confiscated):
Hair comb, Tooth Brush, the basics.

Tell us a little about yourself?:
Richard served in the U.S. Army for 28 years before coming to this icy "Hell Hole" as he refers it to, 3 years ago. He was divorced, and has one son, whom he doesn't contact often. Around the base he is referred to as the "Old Man," and is currently a Sergeant in the Security Unit of the base.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sergeant Richard Harless had been awake since 4:45 AM that morning. He had drank his standard 3 cups of black coffee before heading to the armory to gear up. By the look on his old, grizzled face, it was obvious he had a pretty bad hangover. He was now heading toward the bus to his patrol area.

 

[DeletedUser]

Doemenic’s brow furrowed as he replayed the footage, it was definitely something, and it wasn’t a glitch. However he couldn’t see it on any of the other satellite images.
A thought struck him. Somebody had sent a G.I into this place, possibly to find out what was going on, then maybe the shadow was from some monitoring ship or other. Or something.
Should he report it? Maybe, he loaded the footage onto a data chip, before going back to his usual work. He should wait for any further proof before reporting it. As he eyes read through the endless lines of code scrolling across his screen, his mind went back to the issue of how to get inside the logs. The easiest way would be to use a fire alarm or something, but surely that was way too drastic. No, he’d need to do this his way. Opening a new tab, he rapidly typed in commands, trying to find any link between his servers and the logging server. There was no way he could access it directly, but maybe he could send a virus or similar.

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

Looking over at the man who had called to him, Xenon began to scowl. However, he then noticed that the man's yelling had attracted the attention of the workers around him, looking at him deferentially. Ahh...he must be someone of some importance, he realized. Putting on a neutral expression, he walked over to the man, who was standing with one of the people'd he'd reached the station with. "Thank you for your concern, but I know I'm in the right place. Mark Wells, the new manager for Alpha station. He held his hand out to shake, then as the bus came to a stop he boarded with the others.

As they traveled, Xenon turned to the man. "So, as you likely guessed, I'm new to this hunk of ice. Would you mind bringing me up to speed on Alpha, and what kinds of things I need to watch out for?" The man who'd been part of the launch group, if he had a good memory, would remember that Xenon had been openly hostile the previous day. This respectful side was completely different. In truth, the criminal wanted to be disdainful toward the worker, but as he was new to the place, he needed him on his side. Control the section managers, and you control the underlings. Little by little, chip away at his duties, taking more and more of the responsibilities on personally, and eventually you had a glorified regular worker, one who could easily be disposed of. Then Xenon would truly and utterly have control of the substation, and then his work could truly begin. For now, though, he was new, and this man had value, so he made sure his disdain didn't filter through his eyes, looking every bit the professional manager.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Base Alpha
The journey to Alpha was long, dark and cold as the small heater within the passenger compartment didn't so much keep them warm as add to the stench of diesel as they wound their way through the tunnels before finally arriving at the facility. Situated within a giant cave Alpha itself consisted of a cluster of prefabricated buildings huddled together as if for warmth, the rest of the cave being dominated by the heavy duty mining rigs; giant spider like vehicles that was operated by the pair of crewmen who as well as making sure that they did crash were responsible for carving out large chunks of ice with mining lasers allowing teams of men and androids to access the minerals using more traditional methods.
Around the caves perimeter other tunnels could be seen many of which were blocked off with heavy duty steel doors, the tunnels either leading to various pieces of equipment and plant or other mining area's where the use of the rigs weren't feasible.
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Isaac
Blowing into his gloved hands and rubbing them together in an attempt to warm them up Isaac looks enviously at the engineering team with their heated clothing before turning to look at the three other security members assigned to this sector: Ethan, Richard and Raul "Ok guys we'll go check out the east tunnels before going our separate ways alright?" Isaac suggested to the others, Raul instantly nodding his head in agreement before setting off in the direction of the tunnels.
Isaac was glad that the Columbian Ex-mercenary was with him as he knew that he could depend on him, Ethan as the new boy was an unknown entity and as for the old man...well Isaac would just have to see which way he would go when the proposition was made.
They were about halfway to the tunnel door when they caught sight of the GI; geared up in a full powered armoured suit that seemed to be moulded to his body and capable of stopping pretty much everything within their tiny armoury and the rail gun slung over his shoulder capable of shooting them through a wall “Officers, I wish to go to the surface and will be requiring an escort” he asked in a strong Germanic accent as his pale blue eyes scanned over the four assembled security officers.
Giving Raul a side long glance it is clear that the Columbian wasn’t going to volunteer for this particular job “Very well Ethan and myself will escort you to the surface…We’ll see you guys later” whilst Raul and the Old man departed Isaac turned his attention back to the GI “Very well if you will follow me, you too Ethan I may need your help with the door” that and he didn’t fancy being with the imposing clone soldier on his own, not that he was going to say that out load after all he had a reputation to maintain.
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Raul
Leaving Isaac and the new boy to the unenviable task of escorting the GI to the surface, Raul and Richard started making their way towards the tunnels where they would begin their patrol “So how’s the head Amigo? You were really knocking it back last night” he asked the old man with a smile “I hope it doesn’t effect your work as things are about to go down…if you know what I mean?”
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Stieg
“Ok Scarr you’re in rig A-71 over there, McManus you’re in the workshop today…” The large Norwegian announced reading from his PDA “…and if you two would like to follow me I’ll show you where you need to be” he continued, turning to look at Mark and Ragnar.
Walking across the cave towards the station, the icy floor crunching under their boots with every step they took they came across the workshop first; a long single storey structure built from prefabricated concrete section with the sound of the generator required to power the machines within as well heat the place whirring loudly within “OK Peadar just get started with whatever’s on the white board and I’ll see you later ok?” pausing long enough to answer any questions he may have he then continues on to the rest of the station.
Built from the same ugly grey prefabricated concrete sections the rest of the station was separate from the workshop and looked to be about twice the height. Once inside it takes him mere seconds to point Mark upstairs to his office and Ragnar to the kitchens before departing to begin his own shift.
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Marks Office
Ascending the steep and rather narrow steel staircase, Mark finds himself upon a short landing with four doors running along one of the walls; the nearest two marked as being toilets and the other appearing to be some kind of storeroom when opened leaving the final door at the very end as his office.
The room was small with a single window looking out onto the yard and a desk and chair in the middle of the room with a phone, a PC complete with printer and scanner and a set of trays sat upon its surface. Against one wall stood a single heater that managed to keep the room just warm enough so that he wouldn’t have to wear gloves and the other wall had a pair of filing cabinets.
However it was the boxes of paperwork seemingly scattered throughout the room that caught his attention causing him to understand the smirk on Mr Weiland’s face as it would take Mark hours if not days to get the office into some kind of order let alone get any work done. Perhaps being the area manager wasn’t the promotion he’d figured it to be.
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The Kitchens
Just as Nate had warned him the kitchens basic to say the least and only stocked enough ingredients for most basic of meals, the single oven not even appearing to be functional on first glance.
Stood within the room their stood a man dressed in chef’s whites wiping down one the surfaces with a cloth; his pale plastic like skin and neon blue eyes betraying him as an Andy or Android. Upon hearing Ragnar entering the kitchen the Andy turns to face him and with a smile just a little too wide and too bright to be comfortable greets him “Hello I don’t believe we have met my name is G47y or Gary if you prefer a pleasure to meet you, and who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”

 

[DeletedUser31931]

Sara's smiled wavered for about twenty seconds as she struggled to find her way past the system, but realising she'd need to do more to get into the system she gave up. Just as she did so Margaret called over and told her about some work that needed doing. Sara smiled again, she liked the lady, all more the pity when she ended up betraying her. "Sure, where is the paperwork? I can probably work through it all this morning."

 

[DeletedUser13682]

The ride to Alpha was long and cold (though it would have been colder were it not for the heated protective gear), without even the sweet sounds of a well built petrol engine (damn hydrogen) to soothe the mind and excite the senses (a valid and real paradox). Eventually, the bus arrived at Alpha, a large underground strip mine filled with large laser mining machines and cookie cutter concrete huts.

Peadar was led to his hut by Stieg, who gave a simple explanation of Peadar's job. Do what was on the chalkboard; it was a simple job, in theory. But time would prove how simple this job would really be (probably not very easy actually, but hopefully it would be fun).

Peadar bid the group goodbye and walked into the hut. Inside a geothermal generator was happily humming away, creating energy (converting energy really, but it's all semantics) and sending it throughout Alpha. Hanging above an electrical diagnostics table was a chalkboard (who still used chalk and why?) listing the jobs of the day. Examining the board, Peadar learned that the first job was to look at a suit's heater. So Peadar began his day, waiting for lunch time to come.

 

[Apelatia]

Almost frozen to death, Ragnar let our a sigh of relief as he entered the Kitchens, where there was a small radiator operating at the back of the room. Well, at least he wasn't going to die from frostbite, or something similar...The ride to Base Alpha had been a long struggle to keep himself warm and, at the same time, overcome the horrible stench that the measly heater (well, not really a heater, more of a smell-creating humidifier) had been letting off. Once there, he had been directed to the Kitchens by the man Stieg, who had also pointed Mark and the brash Peadar to their separate job locations. Once in the kitchens, Ragnar was greeted by what appeared to be an Android, who introduced himself as Gary. "A pleasure to meet you too." he replied. There goes any chance of making a good friend round here... Ragnar groaned inwardly, trying to conceal his disappointment by giving the robot a wide grin. "I see this kitchen isn't in the best of shape, but I'm sure we can make do! What is our first task this cold morning?" Ragnar proceeded to put his apron on and retrieved his cooking utensils from the plastic carrier bag he had been carrying with him, ready to do whatever the robot asked him to. His first impressions would have to be good, since this robot would likely report how he had performed back to Nate.

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

The trip to Alpha was about what Xenon had expected. Long, dull, and cold. Steig hadn't said much on the trip, and merely pointed the criminal toward his new office when they arrived. Aside from two bathrooms and a storeroom, his office was isolated. This was good, as it meant it'd be less likely for him to be interrupted. Upon entering his office, however, his satisfaction faded. Apparently the previous manager of the place had either been a horrible slob, or he'd been fired and trashed the place to show his dissatisfaction. It'd take several hours at LEAST to get it all sorted. Xenon's first reaction was to become mildly irritated, which for him was quite angry, but then he returned to his state of neutrality. Why be annoyed at something he couldn't change? No, much better to treat it as an opportunity. He'd read each paper carefully before filing it away. That way he could learn about the station at the same time as cleaning his office. Two birds with one stone. With that in mind, he sat down in the chair that'd been supplied to him and set to work.

 

[Sam J McCord]

The Old man and Raul walked down towards their tunnel as Isaac and the new guy went to escort the GI to the surface. The Old Man had heard the Colombian ask him "How the head was doing," and "hope it doesn't affect you out here." Through the throbbing and pain, he tried to remember the previous night's events, all that came to his mind was what he had spent the night trying to forget, the horrible occurrences of twenty or more years. The Old Man gave a short "Hurts like heck, and don't worry about it," in reply, as the two continued on.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Raul
"Good to hear amigo as things are about to start happening if you know what I mean...Captain Speer got the call late last night just so you know" he said, though not before checking over his shoulders to see if anybody was nearby it wouldn't do to have somebody over hear what they were talking about.
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Domenic
With the quick tapping of keys it didn't take Domenic too long to gain access to the other server although it did take some creative thinking on his part in order to do so.
Upon seeing the huge quantity of files at his disposal it soon became apparent that it would take him hours to go through all of the data before him without having some form of starting point.
However it was as he was scrolling through the array of files before him it soon became apparent that he wasn't the only one interested in these files, as one of the PC's from the main office tried a similarly random search of the files.
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Sara
"And all of tomorrow...and the next day and the next..." Margaret said with a good natured chuckle knowing that paperwork was a never ending job "though there are some documents from the survey team that probably need doing before anything else" sure enough just as the receptionist had said right on top of the pile there were a handful of documents from what at first glance appeared to be from some kind of consultant however for some reason something about them just didn't seem quite right about them.
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G47Y
Upon being asked by the human what he should do the android instantly became uncomfortable with a growing look of confusion on its face. It wasn't his place to command humans they were supposed to command him... or at least that was how it had worked before "It is not my place to tell you what to do..." he began with an artificial smile instantly springing to his face, however upon realising that perhaps this was some kind of test to see whether or not he should remain in the relatively cushy environment of the kitchens as opposed to being sent to work in the mines he decided to go along with the humans request "...but the chef would normally compile a menu according to what we have in stock and then I would do any cleaning and prep required" he said hoping that the human would be satisfied his answer.

 

[DeletedUser]

Doemenic's eyes narrowed, someone else was trawling through the data. Ctrl + T. He opened a new tab and ran a trace on whoever it was that was also checking the logs.
Whilst the trace ran, he went back to the other tab. Trawling through the logs manually would take hours, maybe days. Firstly he searched the logs for 'Accident', 'Fatality' and 'Injury'. As the search engine trawled through the logs he tried to set up an untraceable connection between the servers and his PDA.

 

[Apelatia]

"I will treat you as my equal then, as I'm hardly 'experienced,'" Ragnar said, giving the robot a smile, before continuing... "So, breakfast! What do we have in stock here that we could use to cook up something for the...miners. ...It doesn't look like we have all that much at first glance," Ragnar chuckled. He wanted to keep the atmosphere as light as possible, while maintaining a sense of equality between the two of them, not intending to end up in command of the robot, who would obviously know all the ins and outs of working in this kitchen. "Lets see if we have enough ingredients to make toast for now, then maybe we could look at giving them some lemons..." Ragnar chuckled to himself again, as he remembered the overwhelming supply of the yellow citrus fruit that Nate and his colleague had received in the main Kitchens.

 

[DeletedUser31931]

Sara picked up the document on top of the pile and began to make a rather large read through of it, she didn't understand all the language but she could figure out what she knew. She began leafing through it, looking at the questions and thinking how best to answer them.

(OOC: I sort of need to know what I'm actually reading here to make a detailed post, sorry).

 

[DeletedUser35174]

Just like Ethan suspected, the journey to Alpha was cold and long. He spent the entire journey blowing into his hands, just like Isaac. With him and Isaac were 2 other guards, an old man and the other looked to be from south america. "Ok guys we'll go check out the east tunnels before going our separate ways alright?" said Isaac. Ethan nodded as did the other guards, as they started walking he saw the Gi some in a powered armor that looked like it was made specifically for him. “Officers, I wish to go to the surface and will be requiring an escort” He asked in his German accent. “Very well Ethan and myself will escort you to the surface…We’ll see you guys later” Isaac said when it was clear that the other two didn't want to go up to the surface. As they followed the GI Ethan couldn't help but wonder why was the GI going to the surface, and why did he need a powered armor. Were there some sort of species living in this planet that they weren't informed of.?

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Domenic
Upon running a trace on the other user it soon became apparent that they were working off of the machine reserved for the MD's PA however who was actually behind the keyboard was still a mystery.
After typing in his key words Domenic discovered that with exception of two miners killed ten years ago in a cave in that none of the base personnel had been killed although the number of accidents and subsequent injuries was through the roof as was to be expected considering the nature of the base.
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Ragnar
The Android nodded in agreement over the proposed arrangement before moving to carry out the new chef’s request.
When it came time for him to step into the large walk-in cold room; a feat achieved by not so much by chilling the room as by not putting any heating in it. The contents were of a simple affair; bread, cheese, margarine, a selection of cooked meats so on so forth allowing you to cook whatever you liked so long as you didn't want anything more adventurous than a Panini.
It was as he was stood within the room examining the labelled cartons along the wall that it heard a strange scuttling noise coming from the ventilation system overhead though it was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. It was probably something as simple as an iced up fan blade...but then again...
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Sara
Although she wasn't despite what her CV said an experienced admin worker and nor had she more than a passing knowledge of the off world protocols and procedures required she could recognise a forgery when she saw one.
Taking a closer look at the document she noticed that it was for some kind of planetary survey that had performed by the same consultant as every other survey and health and safety procedure within the facility. How and why nobody had never discovered this irregularity before was a mystery though admittedly not one that couldn't be solved with a little imagination.
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Isaac
Moving deeper and deeper into the frozen tunnels surrounding facility Alpha the two security men and the GI they were escorting soon found themselves completely alone with even the sounds of the heavy machinery being used by the miners now no more than a murmur.
Scaling a pair of metal ladders the three of them entered a small no larger than bathroom with a single door leading into a lift and a small closet containing breathing apparatus "Hang tight guys I've got to swipe my card through the reader before the lift will work, wouldn't want just anyone getting easy access to the surface now would we?" Isaac spoke as he fumbled the card from out of his pocket and fed it into the reader a green LED springing into life upon its removal "There you go sir, just step inside the lift and push the big green button and it'll take you straight to the top" he instructed the GI as the infantryman pulled on a helmet dotted with tiny micro camera's that would provide him with a full 360 degree view of his surroundings "...We'll stay down here if its all the same to you...well...not unless you'd like to take a look Ethan? we should be fine for a couple of minutes so long as we don't leave the lift housing" he continued turning to look at his new colleague, the look on his face saying that it was entirely up to him whether or not they went or not.

 

[DeletedUser]

Interesting. No deaths, just many many injuries. And could it be Weilland's PA that was also accessing the database? Time to find out. Doemenic tried to access the CCTV monitoring the command centre. He'd need to cross-reference the tiem of access to the server with the CCTV, but if he could then he'd know for sure.
Meanwhile he opened up several of the 'Accident' files, looking for causes. If there was a common denominator then he'd have something to work with.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Isaac
Taking his partners silence as a no the ex-Ranger simply shrugs his shoulders before pushing the lifts door button; the motors slowly grinding to life as they transported the GI inside to the planet’s surface leaving the two security personnel alone in the small and poorly lit room “Listen Ethan there’s something I need to tell you…Speer has made contact with a group and well…we’re going to seize control of the station” Looking the other man square in the eye it was clear that he wasn’t messing around and that what he was saying was deadly important “…we need to know that your with us Ethan, there’s no room for fence sitting on this you’re either with us or you’re not, you have two days in which to make your decision and then Speers coming for you” the plan had been in the works for several years now and more than a few people had had accidents or simply vanished during that time without the management taking any notice so one more wouldn’t be an issue.
With the necessity of thinly veiled threats out of the way Isaac smiles at the other man as he claps him on the back in a friendly manner “...trust me friend the rewards are well worth the risk if we pull this off and besides we could use a good man such as yourself, now come we have a patrol to finish”
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Two Days Later
The days pass slowly and without major incident as those within the station awoke, got dressed, went to work and then came home again satisfied in the knowledge that they would be well paid for their efforts.
However despite the normality of the working day experienced by the newcomers in Charlie block some of them couldn’t help but notice strange...well…things happening, nothing that they could put their fingers on for sure just odd little things like strange noises coming from ventilation ducts or the feeling of being watched only to find nobody around.
It had also become clear to both Domenic and Sara that the company was up to something as they found countless reports of missing personnel and faked and forged documentation though not enough for them to risk contacting the authorities back on Earth or in Sara’s case sell the information to her client. Either way both had found that they were becoming increasingly wary of people discovering their extracurricular activities and knew that should they be discovered by the wrong people then the punishment could be very harsh indeed.

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The Meeting
Closing the heavy duty steel door behind him the man turns to face the others gathered within the pre-prepared room, having been already thoroughly swept for bugs “I’ve made contact with the ship, the glitch with their cloaking device has been resolved and they’ll be making planet fall within the next few hours”
“What about the GI?”
“He’s dead, he may not realise it yet but he’s dead…if it makes you feel any better we’ll seal all of the exits but trust me no one and I mean no one can survive out there for long”
“What about the new boy is he in?”
“Well it’s too late for him to do anything about it now, worst case scenario we shoot him in the ensuing chaos, problem solved…any questions”
A moment of silence falls over the room as those gathered within consider the implications of what was about to go down and their respective roles within it “Good, lets get out of here we’ve work to do”
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Harriet
“I am sorry ok? I am really, really sorry” Harriet said apologetically to the people sat with her in the canteen, People whom she considered to be if not her friends to be at least close acquaintances of hers, though she would much prefer it to be the former of the two.
It had been the third time she had awoken the occupants of the rooms surrounding hers with her screaming in the dead of night, although unlike the first time nobody had bothered to kick down her door or call a security team so that at least was a plus “…Mei was the only one capable of keeping me calm and she isn’t here” Harriet lamented quietly at the memory of her former Chinese cell mate who unlike the last two hadn’t beaten her to a pulp but had in fact tried to help her. She would never forgive her father for having her taken from prison and separated from Mei; he would never understand how much that had truly hurt her.
“Do we have time for another coffee before we go to the station?” she asked eyeing the large wall mounted clock. Mark had made great headway with his office and had even managed to wrangle a girl from the office to help him at Alpha station although the girl in question was far from happy at being transferred from the nice warm office to the somewhat basic affair of the site office. Either way the new manager had authorised a new dig site and so Harriet as the most junior member of the science team was to join them at Alpha for the day in order to perform some tests “also whose round is it anyway?”