T-Plus 16

Once the trio recovered from the blinding audacious posters and idol merchandise that littered the room, they walked further in, skirting Joey’s items that covered the ground. Of all the rooms they had walked in on so far, this one was the most cluttered with fallen items. Whether from bad arrangement or the room was filled to the brim to begin with, they couldn’t tell. Ranging from the general furniture to daily necessities to leftover snacks to small trinkets to merchandised pillow covers to wall covering posters to even a cardboard cutout that had folded over and was crumpled in a corner. Honestly, Oliver felt that he’d gone back to college, and he’d accidentally stumbled in on a fanboy’s secret hideaway. Oh, wait, he did, it just happened to be at work instead.

“He hasn’t been here for long, right?” Emerson asked, her nose wrinkling in distaste at the girls wearing short skirts and bright colors. “How did he manage to bring all of this stuff up here?”

“Huh, I didn’t think Joey was this into M-pop,” Toast remarked, also staring at the mostly intact posters that remained on the walls. “Despite being such an enthusiastic fanboy, he doesn’t talk about it much, does he?”

“It’s probably because they would make fun of him if his seniors found out,” Emerson deduced, tossing a glance over at Oliver.

“What even is all this hype behind M-pop anyways?” Oliver asked, refraining from touching anything he didn’t have to. “Isn’t it just pop music but in Martian?”

“I have a feeling that if the intern was here, he’d have a word with you about that, but otherwise, I don’t know either,” Emerson replied. “It’s gotten more popular outside of Mars recently, but I don’t listen to any of it.”

“Should we bring one of his posters back with us, so we can ask him about it?” Toast asked, already reaching for one of the magnets keeping the images tacked to the walls.

“That is exactly why he probably never bothered talking about it,” Emerson snorted, smacking the scientist’s hand away. “Let’s just grab his laptop and leave.”

The three sifted through the junk that cluttered the ground, unearthing more of the intern’s interests as they went. His collection of musical hardcopies had fallen off the shelf and most were either cracked or scratched, although he seemed like he had kept his favorites locked in a glass cabinet, where they remained. Regardless of how careful they were as they moved, they stepped on several pins and keychains that had hidden themselves beneath the pillows and sheets that had fallen from their places. As more time passed, it almost seemed like the faces on the posters that were above them were judging them with their voidless eyes. Eventually, Toast found the elusive laptop first, hidden in a small crack between the shelf and the floor where it had probably slid during the mayhem.

“I’m assuming this is the only official device he has?” Emerson asked as Toast shoved Joey’s laptop into his backpack.

“It’s the only one interns are allowed to have,” Oliver affirmed. “Although, if he had brought his own, then I’d have no clue.”

“Should we go digging again to make sure?” Toast asked, his eyes sparkling for some reason.

“There’s no point,” Oliver said, quickly pulling back the scheming scientist before he brought back some of Joey’s possessions. “Even if he did bring his personal devices, they wouldn’t be able to access the Station’s server, much less Triton’s.”

With a nod and a glance, the two sensible ones dragged their companion out of the room, letting the door shield Joey’s black material behind its sturdy frame. Keeping Toast in between them, they returned to the empty main corridor where there was more light to check on their progress of obtaining devices.

Checking between the three of them, they were now in possession of four laptops, three tablets, and two visors. Although they had several devices they could go back up to test, after careful consideration, they decided to check the other residential sections instead of having to make a second trip.

“Are you sure that you’ll be able to carry so many laptops?” Emerson asked, pointing at the already heavy bags on their backs.

“I can hold maybe one more,” the technician affirmed, readjusting the straps on his shoulder to be more comfortable.

“Me too!” Toast said, raising his hand to declare his existence, having freed himself from their firm grasps.

“If it gets too heavy, I can carry the tablets and visors for you,” Emerson offered with a nod.

Her own bag that she’d brought was still empty, and could easily carry the smaller devices when it came down to it. Their next course of action decided, they ducked back into the Chief’s room to discuss more in depth about their next destination.

“Both of our rooms are on the opposite side of the Station,” Emerson said as she massaged her legs.

She had them propped up on the Chief’s coffee table, which was now back in its proper position. Oliver had volunteered to clear a space on the floor for himself, while Toast had made himself comfortable sitting on several cushions he had rescued from the overturned furniture. Their backpacks leaned against the wall by the door, relieving their shoulders of unnecessary weight for the moment.

“I don’t think anyone’s been over there since the start of this, right?” she continued, looking at the two who often went on expeditions.

“Not that I know of,” Oliver agreed. “Daniel and Soup might’ve gone partway early on, but they didn’t mention going to the back sections.”

“You think we’ll run into the others if we go back there?” Toast asked.

“Well, the storage rooms should be halfway there no matter which direction we go,” Oliver said, imagining the Station’s map in his head. “It’s been a few days, though, they could be anywhere.”

“Let’s just hope that with the lights on, they made it out of wherever they’re stuck in,” Emerson said, rotating her ankles. “So? Should we head for mine or Dr. Vaughn’s room first?”

“Isn’t yours closer, Doc?” Toast asked. “Mine’s 4A, Room 193.”

“3A, Room 187,” Emerson replied, done with her leg exercises. “They’re right next to each other, so let’s just pick a direction and go.”

“Since we’re over here, we can just keep heading toward 4A then,” Oliver decided.

“Aww, mine first? I won’t have time to clean up then!” Toast complained, sighing as he leaned back into the cushions.

“I would be amazed if you could clean up,” Oliver remarked, remembering the one time he was invited over to the scientist’s room.

It’d been the only time he had seen both Toast and Soup away from their lab on the third floor, not including the current situation. Packed with a myriad of books and trash, it could out-clutter Joey’s room. It was no wonder he didn’t bother sleeping in his own room most nights, and just pulled all-nighters in the lab. One step in was another ten minutes he wouldn’t be able to leave, since he’d be roped into cleaning the room with Soup while Toast was thrown out, so he wouldn’t be able to leave another mess.

With a shake of his head, Oliver shoved those memories out. He was the first to stand, heading for his backpack by the door.

“We leaving already?” Toast asked, giving one last longing glance at the Chief’s collection.

“Yeah, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can crash,” Oliver said, fishing for the stack of key cards he had in his pocket.

He had a total of seven, four of which they had already used. The remaining three were Toast’s, Emerson’s, and Soup’s. The Navigators had their own private rooms on the third floor near ARCNAV, but that was a trip that would have to be saved as a last resort. Of the three they had left, he’d never been to Soup’s room. Like the scientist with them, the engineer of Lab 5C was rarely seen away from the third floor. When he was away, he was usually accompanying Toast, granting him the name of “Toast’s babysitter.”

“Oh! Soup gave his to you as well?” Toast asked as he picked up his own backpack. “His room is in 2A, so his might be the last one we get to.”

Oliver flipped Soup’s key card around, spotting the characters “2A134” on the back. The engineer did live in Section 2A, which was an odd place for a lab assistant to be living in. If the Chief hadn’t found an excuse to be living among the other technicians, his official room should’ve been near Soup’s.

“2A?” Emerson asked, her head tilting as she opened the door. “Isn’t 2A and 5A the sections where the Station and UEA officials live?”

Her unasked question hung in the air, obvious to the other two that heard it.

“What? He never told you?” Toast said with a laugh as he led the way out of the room. “He might be posing as my assistant, but he’s actually a UEA official.”

“Posing as your assistant?” Oliver asked, furrowing his brows as he stared at the scientist. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh.... right, that’s why you never knew...” Toast muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, forget I said that.”

“You already said it, there’s no point in hiding things in this situation,” Emerson said flatly, her piercing stare going through the back of the scientist’s head.

Although she said that, Oliver recognized the look on her face as one that already knew the answer. Like a scientist that had come to a realization and just needed the last bit of data that would make it truely conclusive.

“Weeeeeeeeell, I didn’t say this, okay?” Toast said, giving up easily as he watched Oliver close the door behind them. “Do you two know why I’m here at this Station?”

“Isn’t it because of your achievements in astrological and gravitational anomalies?” Oliver asked, trying to recall the stir the Lab 5C duo had brought when they first arrived at the Station several years ago.

“Wasn’t it because you were kicked out from your previous Station and got blacklisted by most of the galactic scientific community, but the UEA didn’t want to lose your intelligence to space piracy, so they assigned you to the farthest reach of the galaxy?” Emerson said, crossing her arms, leaving no room for denial.

“Oh, wow, I didn’t think anyone outside of the community knew about that.”

“I, too, am part of the community,” Emerson reminded him with a roll of her eyes as she shook her head.

She stopped once they arrived in the main corridor again, turning to continue the conversation.

“So? Are you trying to say that Kuznetsov was sent by the UEA to keep an eye on you?”

“Basicallly, yeah,” Toast said with a nod as he beckoned the two of them to catch up.

Oliver pressed his fingers against his temples, wondering if the entire conversation he had just heard casually from the two of them wasn’t just a hallucination of his that happened because of lack of sleep. He definitely didn’t just hear something that sounded like classified information come up in casual dialogue. He glanced at Emerson who was walking beside him and whispered,

“Is this supposed to be common knowledge?”

She only shrugged in response.

“The Engineering Bays might not know about it, but Dr. Vaughn’s infamy is an open secret in the larger scientific community. The fact that Kuznetsov is an UEA agent comes as a surprise even to me, but it makes sense if you calm down and think about it for a moment. There’s a reason why Dr. Vaughn was never seen without Kuznetsov. And even now, I can think of two reasons why he’s allowed this defunct of a human being to tag along.”

She raised two fingers, listing off the reasons that she thought were true.

“One, it’s because Kuznetsov trusts one of us is capable of keeping that one from doing anything too out of line with common sense. Two, he really thinks that since the Station is under quarantine, Dr. Vaughn won’t do anything that would jeopardize his own life. Probably.”

Emerson threw a glance over at the scientist that was still leading the way, although he was throwing his own gazes over his shoulder at them. She straightened, muttering something that Oliver could barely hear.

“A lot of things make more sense now...”