"It'll be ok Lysander. If you're really worried we can go with them."

"For taking pictures. It's what I would do if we weren't stuck in a mysterious complex, so I figured I should do it anyway."

"I'm not that worried. Someone should stay here."

He waves goodbye to Zahn and Greg.

"Oh, so you're a photographer, that makes sense." Onto the satellite phone store.

"So, anything you want to do while we're waiting for them?"

"Should we take more than two? We could store them in decent hiding places, in case we lose ours."

"There's probably something we could be doing, but mostly I want to do something uncomplicated. Let's swap stories."

As soon as Zahn is ready, they can go.

"So how are you guys holding up? The other two looked kind of tense."

"I think taking a couple spares might make sense in case one gets broken or we run into other people we want to stay in touch with. We also need to figure out how to activate them."

"I'm a political science major. I... I tell most people that I'm hoping to work for the State Department, but my real dream is to work for the CIA. I figure if we're stuck here together I should be honest about that. Zahn and I have been friends since we were eleven or so."

"Lysander thinks you might be a plant from whoever brought us here. He's a little bit on edge with this whole thing, I think we all are to a degree. Alice, she tends to be either very playful or very serious and this situation has her in her serious mode."

It looks like they'll need to connect them to something. The only place with the right kind of technology is the library, so they'll have to make their way back.

"A spy? Impressive. I'm aspiring to world-famous mathematician, myself."

"A plant, really? I'm a horrible liar, but I guess he doesn't know that. I guess it is pretty weird, but you gotta roll with the punches, I think. Otherwise you get tripped up and lose focus."

"Interesting, are you still in the learn the basics phase or have you started researching one of the open problems?"

"I don't think this place was built by humans. I suppose human collaborators are theoretically possible, but in that case I'd expect this place to be less weird."

"I'm trying to pick a problem, I've done enough learning for now."

"That's true. Why do they want humans, anyway? Do you think it's a zoo?"

"I'm happy to listen but I don't particularly have any expertise in mathematics."

"I honestly have no idea. If this is some sort of alien reality TV show or zoo they gave us an awfully big place to get lost in."

He summarizes the open problems in the field eagerly. 

"Not if we keep finding more people. Maybe it's a gladiator sort of thing."

She listens and makes affirming noises. Occasionally, she'll ask a question.

"In what sense? Do you think there's a meaningfully limited amount of resources?"

"...so, anyway, that's what I'm doing. It's probably not worth minoring in fashion design when physics is an option, but I've considered it."