"I think I want to check out the warehouse again, and the science museum we found, while Zahn tries to make Foamy do a grid search. Alice, here's the first phone, it's number is -" he gives it "-and I'm going to register a new one to my old number when I get there. I'll call to get back in at some point."

"Alright, if you're going to pick up the phones that works. I'm ready to go Walta, you've got the signs right?"

"Yep, and plenty of copies."

And so they set off, even at a leisurely pace it only takes about fifteen minutes of biking until they arrive. The hub is, of course, a hexagonal room. It has a large skylight far above them, and in the center of the room six colored jewels set into the floor. Beside the entrance to each section of the mall is the symbol for advancement and a couple other symbols and an inscription. The one for the white sector says 'Deep below at river's end', "Maybe that's a reference to Biosphere One, didn't you say that Centerpoint Island was in the middle of a river?" 

"Yeah. There's a river down there. Hm. What's it referencing though? Some sort of reward for reaching it?"

"It is the symbol for advancement, that makes me think it's a reward of knowledge or skill. I suppose we wouldn't know until we got there."

"The place sounds a bit dangerous, from what I read about it. Had a danger symbol on the file, at least."

"Maybe it's a long term goal then. I don't think we're in a position to take big risks yet."

"Bit surprising nobody else is here. Or maybe they came and left." She rides a circuit around, looking down each spiral.

The blue mall inscription says "At the top of the tower." Green is "Behind, below, and above the water." Black says "Stepping back in time." Yellow says "Seek to learn." and finally Red says "Between the trees"

"We aren't planning to stay at the hub."

"Yeah. So let's leave the info sheet next to each other spoke's inscription. They're the only interesting thing here, they'll get noticed."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

So she puts them down. 

"...I'm getting itchy to find the Biosphere though. It seems like it's important, if this inscription points us there."

"It said deep below. To me that implies either a long staircase or some sort of elevator thing, but given the ten kilometer long malls I'm betting it won't be convenient enough to give us an elevator to go there the first time."

Sigh. "Yeah, it can probably wait. This is literally day two. Too bad this trip was a bit fruitless apart from the exercise, and a few intriguing tidbits."

"Yeah, but we got more than I expected out of it. It didn't seem likely that we'd happen to get here at the same time as anyone else."

"And we have a better sense of what stores are down here, I suppose."

"Yeah, I mean the directory helps a lot but there's something to be said for window shopping, even if there aren't you know, windows."

"Mm-hmm. In fact, I think I'm going to stop at that Best Buy. Some laptops and a little TV. We can set up a message board forum thing that's less erasable than markers and whiteboards."

"I wonder if there's a way to transfer the Encyclopedia onto a laptop. That could be useful."

"Sounds like something else to poke Nick about. Or Zahn. He'll get peeved off for being asked for every random task eventually though. Guess I'll try to figure it out first."

"Yeah, it's a shame we don't have more engineers with us. A party invitation is a stupid way to select who from Earth to save."

"...It's a pretty sneaky way, relative to several other options, when you think about it."

"It is, if they were trying to hide, I wish I understood who they were hiding from though. I think I heard one person suggesting that there were two groups of aliens, one trying to kill us and one trying to save us."

"Yeah, I heard Nick musing about that. It's one possible explanation for stealthy abductions and a relatively nice environment, and yet a neutron star on collision course with the sun."