Sarah walks in ahead of the other two, first noticing the excited Squirrel, then the large metal crate in the corner. She makes her way over to lean against some cabinets, while Jack and Wolf don’t venture far from the portal and remain close together.

  Squirrel seems to remember something and turns to retrieve it. She picks up a thermos and a small box, then walks towards Jack and Wolf.

  “Squirrel?” Sarah asks.

  “Hmm?” comes the reply.

  “Didn’t I leave something in your care?”

  “Oh yes,” Squirrel says, turning to set the grasped items on a counter, then moves to her workbench and opens a drawer. She retrieves the pistol and hurries over to Sarah, proffering it like a relay baton and retreating once it’s taken from her hand.

  Sarah takes the weapon and hefts it, noticing the weight is several ounces heavier that what she’s accustomed to. That’s mildly annoying, she thinks. Her thumb activates the magazine release, but nothing happens. What the hell? She turns the weapon over to examine the magazine inside the well to find the crevices filled in.

  Sarah pulls back the slide to look inside the chamber. She moves it and light floods out, filling the room and blinding her. “Ugh, Squirrel?” she says while blinking away her momentary blindness.

  Squirrel stops abruptly, looking back with the items in hands.

  “What’s wrong with my gun, Squirrel?”

  “Oh, right,” Squirrel says, nodding and setting the items down again. “I should probably explain a few things.”

  Sarah nods. “Yeah, I realize this goes against everything I’ve ever told you, but I’m really going to need you to do more talking here, not less.”

  Squirrel takes the weapon back from her and nods, then points to the magazine well. “You won’t be able to open this anymore because I sealed it.”

  “Yeah, I see that,” Sarah says, arching her eyebrows. “The problem is that it’s contrary to how it should work. You know how that’s a problem, right?”

  Squirrel raises a finger and shakes it. “But then you have this,” she says, turning the pistol over to action the slide. She does so and Sarah looks away, preparing for the blinding light, but it doesn’t happen. They both look at the weapon, confused, then at each other.

  “Did you pull this back?” Squirrel asks, pointing to the slide.

  Sarah’s eyes narrow. “You mean, did I attempt to function check one of my primary means of survival? Yeah, I did. And I’m a little concerned about that being a surprise, considering I was just handed an altered firearm with no guidance. Why is it relevant that I manipulated the slide? That’s part of its function.”

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  Squirrel takes hold of the handgrip and raises the pistol to eye level. “This charges,” she says, gesturing to the upper slide.

  Sarah reaches towards Squirrel’s demonstration to pull her finger off the trigger, then shakes her head and takes it away. “I’ll hold it. You just do the talking. What do you mean by charge? Chambering rounds is what it’s always done, so that’s not an upgrade.”

  Squirrel beckons her to follow and leads her over to the crate in the corner. She stops beside it with its height being level with their chests.

  Sarah looks at it, then looks over to the counter space where the terrarium had been. “What happened to Henry?”

  “Oh, he didn’t make it. I’ve been working with Henry NXT, but he’s still sedated in his adjustment period.”

  “NXT? What happened to the number system?”

  “I still use that. It’s just that ten seems kind of dark, so I’m using ‘Next’ instead.”

  “You’ve already killed two more?”

  “Oh, I didn’t kill them. They died of natural causes when interfaced with the new semi-sentient alloy.”

  Sarah pinches the bridge of her nose. “Why are you even experimenting on animals? Isn’t this supposed to be for a sword?”

  “Of course, but what if you get wounded by it? It could also contaminate the people you’re fighting.”

  “There’s so much wrong with that; I don’t even know where to begin. So for one, you’re worried that I might get injured by my weapon---spoiler alert; no chance in hell.”

  Jack coughs and earns a glare from Sarah. “You do,” Jack begins, gently, “tend to hurl yourself through the air fairly often... the landings aren’t usually very graceful.”

  Sarah flicks her eyes over to Wolf, who nods along sagely.

  “Ok, that’s fair,” Sarah agrees. “But with the other people being cut, they really have a more immediate concern than what metal you used in my blade---namely that they’re about to die from trauma or blood loss.”

  Squirrel nods along. “That’s valid,” she agrees, “for the first round at least. That’s assuming that the alloy doesn’t interface with their nervous system and reanimate the corpse postmortem.”

  “Ugh, what?”

  “Henry IV and VII,” Squirrel says, as if they had all taken part in her research.

  Sarah looks over at Jack and Wolf before looking back at Squirrel. “Is there anything I should know about four and seven?”

  “Not really. They just didn’t work. The metal took on a parasite quality where it killed the host, then took control of it. Henry VII even replicated the metal internally and pushed it through his skin to harden and cover vital organs.”

  “That is horrifying. Zombie-androids are very high on my list of things I don’t want to see, especially when it concerns semi-sentient nanotech. I’m not sure how much more time you need to finish this project, but please take all the time you need.”

  “Of course,” Squirrel proclaims. “Safety first!”

  Sarah stares across the crate to see a red bracket in the corner, then looks back around the lab for a similar color. Squirrel follows the search until Sarah’s eyes return to her. She points at the red bracket beyond the crate. “Is that really the only fire extinguisher you have in here?”

  Squirrel looks across and adjusts her glasses as if looking for something farther away than the four-foot distance. “Is that where it made it off to?” she asks. “I wondered where that went.”

  “What are you talking about? It didn’t go anywhere. It’s mounted to the wall and in plain sight, so you don’t have to search for it.”

  “But it’s not in plain sight.”

  Sarah’s eyes grow large. “And why do you suppose that is?”

  “This crate’s in the way.”

  Sarah puts her forehead in her hand and shakes it in her grasp. “I don’t know why I even bother.” She opens a portal and reaches through to grab the extinguisher, then looks around for a prominent location to place it. “We can’t put it by the door, because you probably never look in that direction. Ah, your workbench.” She marches over and sets it in the back corner, then nods.