The lab has wide corridors and something resembling the decorations from her house though mostly as flat paint. There are frequent pedestals similar to the one in the room above. A small robotic spider leads her to a wall with several dogs contained in individual spaces. When she approaches the first one, an Irish setter, unfreezes. It begins barking loudly and rests its paws against the fencing separating it from her.

"Hello there." She lets it sniff her hand.

It sniffs her cautiously.

And she tries telling it to sit.

It looks at her uncertainly.

"Sit," she repeats firmly.

This time it obeys her and sits on its haunches.

"Good dog."

The dog barks happily and looks at her hands.

Do we have dog treats? wonders Mirelótë.

No, I wasn't sure how to accurately identify those. I could probably provide you with certain types of meat or produce though.

Huan likes bits of beef liver or bacon, this one might too.

Meat will take slightly more time. Probably a few minutes, should I pause the dog?

Yes please, I think it will be annoyed with me if I don't produce a treat subjectively soon.

There's a soft snap-hiss sound and the dog freezes in place.

That's really quite fantastic.

Yes, it was a good idea for a test and I'm glad it worked.

The time freezing. But it's so encouraging that the dog remembers its training! It's not a guarantee people will come through perfectly but it would make anyone on the fence more confident in allowing a check.

Time freezing is quite useful. I take it that you think we should continue to wait?

I might find some indicator I'd trust with more reading, but absent that - unless there's risk incurred by waiting - asking some rescued humans who might be a good first check seems prudent.

I don't think there's a risk in terms of being able to successfully retrieve as many humans as we can, there may however be cultural artifacts or similar things which the humans would like me to scan. It would be easier to scan them all if we have the larger time window prior to the teleportation in which to do it.

That makes sense. I'll look for a trustworthy indicator.

A robot rolls up with a small plate of the requested meats. Should I unfreeze the dog?

She picks up a bit of bacon. Yes.

The dog unfreezes and then flinches slightly at the sudden appearance of the robot. Its apprehension is quickly overridden by the smell of the meat though and it once more puts its paws in the fence.