"...We should wake up Nick. He tends to be good at stuff like this, and this is kind of worth an early wakeup call."

"Yeah, probably. Do you know where he's sleeping?"

"I'm not positive. I know which one he put his stuff in yesterday so that's probably it though."

"Do you want me to go with you? I think the doors might be soundproof when they're locked."

"Yeah, let's go."

Zahn follows Walta to Nick's room and clicks the lock open so they can knock. If anyone's going to try yelling through the door he'll leave that to Walta.

"Who the hell is wakin' me up f'r what now-"

"Nick," she says, clear upset in her voice, "Sorry to unlock your door, and wake you up, but something pretty urgent came up - I can explain faster with a link?"

"...No link. And this had better be good."

So she explains.

"...Yeah, I think this qualifies as urgent enough. Gimmie the phone, I'll start trying things - might need a certain cable from the warehouse if it matches - and one of you get me a coffee. Please?"

Zahn hands over the phone. "I um, never picked up the habit of drinking coffee, do you know how to make it Walta?"

"He really means 'any kind of semi-drinkable caffeine'. I'll take care of it."

Nick investigates the phone while heading to the games/work room, does it have the same data port as the temporal relay?

Zahn follows after him. It does have the same port.

"So Alice brought this temporal relay back yesterday and I was looking at it, we need a power cable and a data cable for it. There's the same port on the back of the computers, and there's supposed to be a handheld thing for it, we should go check the warehouse as soon as I get my coffee. If we find the right cable we can actually use any of this advanced tech."

"Alright, I assume that Walta can show us where it is."

"One would think. We'll go start making this stuff our own as much as we can. Make the best of the pile of - garbage - we're being handed."

"Hm, I'm still not sure what to make of how this place is setup. It seems on the surface to be well intentioned, but things like the way the encyclopedia works are almost game-like. I'm not sure why that would be though."

"Possibly because aliens don't get humans on some levels. It's a sci-fi staple, and it does make sense."

Yeah, maybe. That feels like most of an explanation at least. I believe that for the lack of privacy, not totally sure I buy it for the gameish tendencies but maybe."

"Then maybe it's a test. See if humans are assholes or saints when pressured."

"Yeah, some sick test to see if we're really worth saving. That feels like it fits. Like Alice's privileges would be great for trying to be a dictator if someone was so inclined."

He slumps his shoulders and sets his head down on one of the tables. Sigh.

"Yeah, I hate the idea. It's stupid to think that putting people in a really high stress situation divorced from all the social safety nets that keep people cooperating is a fair test. Let alone the idea that people need to earn being judges worthy of survival."

He doesn't respond.

Walta returns with coffee and volunteers to point the way to that warehouse a minute later.

Zahn follows her, Nick can also come if he wants.

Of course Nick comes.

The news blares from the TV room as they pass. A couple people are crying in the hall. Walta links briefly with one guy, it seems to calm him down. "We had a class together..."