"Oh, I guess it's good that more people you know are here."

"Yeah. Everyone knows someone. We're going to get to know each other more, soon."

They keep walking.

"Yeah, I suppose we will. I hope Nick can get the phone working, even if just to give people a chance to say goodbye."

"Yeah..."

"Zahn, look at this. I've got lots of pirated textbooks on my laptop because reasons, one of them on cellular networks, think you can make sense of it?"

Zahn peers at the page Nick is pointing at. "That looks like something I might be able to figure out, but without the crypto keys it's referencing there I don't think we could connect. Also, I don't know what language the phone is programmed in, if it's similar enough to one I know I can probably pick it up in a couple hours tops but if it's really weird it'll take longer."

He rubs his eyes. "Right, well, areas of specialization right? Is that the warehouse?"

"Yeah, closest building out the exit that's past the tennis court."

"Yeah, I haven't gotten too far into systems coding, if I need to code in assembly for this I don't think I can finish in a useful amount of time."

They get to the warehouse. Nick scrolls through inventory and requisitions one of anything that sounds useful, especially the handheld controller and the relevant cables. Plus a power supply, if one can be found.

There is a compatible power locus, along with the handheld controller, and cables for power and data. "I wonder what's happening to the casing on those crates. Is their teleportation tech just a lot more flexible than the elevators or is the casing some sort of forcefield."

"The computer gave me stuff about that temporal relay, they're pretty finessed, I bet it's teleportation."

Plug and plug and does the controller display any settings for the phone?

The controller lets you change the phone number on the phone and set which satellites it's connected to. Apparently, there are location calibration satellites overhead, along with some communication relay satellites. The phone was already connected to the location calibration ones but not to any of the relay satellites. Switching that is straightforwards. When he does switch it additional debug information grants him access to the list of phone numbers on the network. Which contains a single value. The one assigned to the phone in their hands. "Well, that's not promising at all."

"If it's doing location calibration, perhaps this is at least a source of a proper map?"

"Ooh, that's an interesting question." Zahn picks up the phone and turns on the screen. There is a mapping app, it's entirely unlabeled and it's only showing a small radius along their path from the home complex to the warehouse. "More stupid games."

"Think you can play with it? See if it will unlock from input from my drone's feed. I want to poke this other tech, get used to it."

"I think I'll check out another building and come right back here."

"I think it would be better to have your drone carry the phone and fly a search pattern. It looks like the imagery is better than we can get from your camera. Make sure you don't go through a one way door Walta."

"I know the symbols." Off she goes, heading to the nearest building she can see that isn't a warehouse or apartment."

"You might have to program that for me, my navigation code is, shall we say, minimal."

"Hm, if you can show me the code I think I can figure something out, especially if it already compensates for the drift. I bet with some work we can figure out an interface between Earth stuff and Alien stuff, or maybe find a drone in the mall with compatible inputs. The program would be easiest to write if it had access to the alien's version of GPS satellites."

"Yeah, I have a good accelerometer. And an IR beacon for returning. No GPS even on Earth for the drone anyway."

"If there isn't a quick way to do the GPS thing that will suffice. I haven't worked with your code yet so I don't know how long it'd take but getting a map would be really useful."

"Here, let me... Okay, have a look. I'm going to see what kind of options the temporal relay has on it."

Zahn takes the laptop and starts reading over the code. After a little bit, he saves a copy and starts tweaking things; working towards something that can handle gridded flight.

The relay has two quick configuration modes and an advanced move. The first mode is described as reinforcement, it slows time to about a millionth of the rate in a paper thin layer of matter on a nearby surface. It has sensors which auto detect compatible surfaces. The second configuration mode is designed for storage. It allows free form areas to be slowed by the same factor. A side note mentions that this auto configuration mode will not activate while unexpected materials are present crossing the boundary. The advanced mode does not include that safety precaution by default. It also allows time to be accelerated within it's area of effect. Next to the save button it notes that only a engineering technician can save advanced configurations and that that employment option is now available to citizen ID 46 which Nick well recognize from his previous work with the interface as his citizen number.