'Alex?' she called. 'Are you having any luck tracking down where the survivors are?'
'I've turned on all the exterior lights,' Alex said. 'I hoped that I'd be able to lure some of them out into the open, but it's no good.' She activated his helmet-camera and watched his gloved hand typing override orders into the keyboard of the main AI console. Override orders had to be put in by hand, with a specific set of override codes, no matter how minor the change was. That was to keep someone from taking over an AI with a shout or two. 'Right now I'm giving myself full access to everything. I may not need it, but who knows?'
'I've got our first set of orders,' she told him. 'Do you want to hear them?'
'Sure.' Typing in a pressure-suit was no easy task, and Tia did not envy him. It took incredible patience to manage a normal keyboard in those stiff gloves.
She retransmitted Doctor Kenny's message and waited patiently for his response when she finished.
'So I have to stay in the suit.' He sighed gustily, 'Oh, well. It could be worse, I suppose. It could be two weeks to base, instead of four days.' He typed the last few characters with a flourish and was rewarded by the 'Full Access, Voice Commands accepted' legend. 'No choice, right? Look, Tia, I know you're going to be lonely, but if I have to stay in this suit, I might just as well sleep out here.'
'But,' she protested, 'what if they decide you're an enemy or something?'
'What, the Zombies?' He snorted. 'Tia, right now they're all crammed into some of the darnedest nooks and crannies you ever saw in your life. I couldn't pry them out of there with a forklift. I know where they all are, but I'd have to break bones to get them. Their bones. They're terrified, even with all the floodlights on. No, they aren't going to come after me in the dark.'
'All right,' she agreed reluctantly. She knew he was right; he'd be much more comfortable out there. There was certainly more room available to him there.
'I'll be closer to the Zombies,' he said wearily, 'and I can barricade myself in one of the offices, get enough bedding from stores to make a reasonable nest I'll plug the suit in to keep everything charged up, and you can monitor the mike and camera. I snore.'
'I know,' she said, in a weak attempt to tease him.
'You would.' He turned, and the camera tracked what he was seeing. 'Look, I'm here in the site supervisor's office. There's even a real nice couch in here and...' He leaned down and fiddled with the underside of the piece of furniture. 'Ah hah. As I thought. There's a real bed in the couch. Bet the old man liked to sneak naps. Look.'He panned around the office. 'No windows. One door. A full-access terminal. I'll be fine.'
'All right, I believe you.' She thought, quickly. 'Ill look over those plans for traps and transmit them to the AI, and I'11 find out where everything you'll need is stored. You can start collecting the team tomorrow.'
What's left of them, she thought sadly. What isn't already stored in the freezer.
'See what you can do about adding some sleepygas to the equation,' he suggested, yawning under his breath. 'If we can knock them out once they're in the boxes, rather than trapping them with field generators, that should solve the problem of frightening the others.'
That was a good suggestion. A much better one than Doctor Kenny's. If she had enough gas...
But wait; this was a fully-stocked station. There might be another option. Crime did exist wherever there were people, and mental breakdowns. Sometimes it was necessary to immobilize someone for his protection and the protection of others.
She interrogated the AI and discovered that, indeed, there were several special low-power needlers in the arms locker. And with them, full clips of anesthetic needles.
'Alex,' she said, slowly, 'how good a shot are you?'
'When this is over, I'm requisitioning an ethological tagging kit,' she said fiercely, as Alex crouched on the roof of the mess hall and waited for his subject's hunger to overcome her timidity. She hesitated, just in front of the crate. She smelled the food, and she wanted it, but she was afraid to go inside after it. She swayed from side to side, like one of the first three survivors they'd seen; that swaying seemed to be the outward sign of inner conflict.
'Why?' he asked. The woman stopped swaying and was creeping, cautiously, into the crate. Alex wanted her to be all the way inside before he darted her, both to prevent the rest from seeing her collapse and to avoid having to haul her about and perhaps hurt her.
'Because they have full bio-monitor contact-buttons in them,' she replied. 'Skin adhesive ones. They're normally put inside ears, or on a shaved patch.'
After a bit more consultation with Kleinman Base and Doctor Kenny, darting the survivors had been given full
