Thankfully the new keycard proved far more helpful than the prior one, and with a little tweaking on the leave tallying Joe Hopper was flagged as out sick for a few centuries, though the system did politely inform me that from now on he would no longer be eligible for sick leave for about two thousand years, and any further absences were to be met with dismissal. (I figured Joe probably wouldn’t mind, seeing as being dead is the ultimate sick leave and all, though with any luck his ghost wasn’t cursing at me from wherever it is that dead things go apart from the stomachs of a bunch of microorganisms.)

I silently gave my thanks to the eternal employee of the month, before quickly scanning the keycard.

“Identification confirmed, welcome Jennifer Bahdee” the automated greeting chimed in. Was it just me, or did they deliberately set a tone on these automated messages, Joe’s greeting had sounded like a teacher telling you off, and Jennifer’s sounded like a kindly old grandma about to start passing out sweets.

After the door swung open without so much as an open sez me, and we were in. Apparently, the area beyond was a chamber that smelled suspiciously like labs and med-bays. Both Jenel and I shared a wince, neither of us had what you would call the best of experiences with places like this, given that our current cybernetic state was the fault of facilities like this, but at least this one was free of religious symbolism. That was a small comfort, we had been subjected to quite enough “betterment of humanity” already thank you very much, and sister superior can shove her “divine form” where the sun does not shine, preferably accompanied by an EMP.

Still, this was too good to pass up, med bays meant med software, and we were in desperate need of that. Ol’ sawbones was all very well, but given how lacking your average poodle is in cybernetics, the veterinary software we’d modded was far from ideal for use on the human body, let alone cyborgs. We had to see what we could score down here, after screening it to make sure no phantom coding turned us into lab rats for a shady experiment that started before the collapse I mean. (See I actually do have a brain in there somewhere, as underutilised as it is.) I reached out a hand to Jenel, she was definitely going to need it.

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The smell hit Jenel like a bomb, she was back in that place. The walls closing in around her. She hated that place, hated everything it stood for, as her breathing sped up out of her control, cybernetics readying themselves for combat She tried her best to regulate her breathing while her subsystems blared out warnings about irregular heart rate, and ventilation issues. Jenel had other concerns right now though, this place was her own personal hell. She looked around desperately for a way to get away from the far too familiar environment, and the smell of decay a room back was not helping. At the moment if she could she would probably claw her way out of this place barehanded, she had to get out, get away, run run run run RUN RUN RUN. Her eyes darted around looking for a hiding space, then she remembered she had a gun, that was it, she could FIGHT. Suddenly a familiar hand slipped into hers, it felt warm, safe.

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Wait, Eileen was here, in the labs, she had to save her, to protect. From her back came a familiar-sounding hiss, as inhibitors did their work, pressing to her skin as she geared up for combat. Wait, something was holding her, restraining her, she had to fight, but a little voice in her head was telling her not to, but Eileen............danger, she had to keep her safe. Then another figure was restraining her. This one stronger, but still familiar.

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Nara saw Jenel going into a freakout, she hadn’t seen one this bad for a while, every member of their group had their issues, but when it came to medical stuff Jenel had it worst. For now, Eileen had it, but that wouldn’t continue for long, as soon as she saw Eileen hugging her she knew what she had to do. Stepping forward to hug her too, usually when people melt down this bad you’d talk in a soothing voice. But Jenel, well she hated that. So instead she settled for hugging tightly, while Jenel kicked and squirmed as the inhibitors kicked in. It was like trying to hug a mechanical bull. But Jenel needed them, and a few bruises were a small price to pay for her. So for the next couple of hours, they just sat and held her, until eventually they got through to her and she stopped struggling.

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Bleyk observed from a safe distance, that there was clearly nothing they could do in this circumstance, there was something to this story they didn’t know, and they felt restraint would be ill-advised in this circumstance. These humans seemed to share a herd bond, and as an outsider, Bleyk’s interference would likely only result in injury. So they stepped back, and put their support frame into low energy mode, with a quick start of course. When you were in an unfamiliar environment it did not go well to lower your guard. So the best they could do was stay out of the way, and try not to appear threatening. They had observed enough primates in their travels to know that when they were in a combative mood it was best not to rouse their ire. The scent of adrenaline was practically all-encompassing, and they really did not want anybody to get hurt, preferably including themselves.

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It took a while for Jenel to come back to reality, we all knew it hit her bad sometimes, but that was rough, and my muscles ached. If we got out of here I was definitely going to be sore in the morning. But as long as our sweetie was OK it was totally worth it.