Supervisor 17 dismisses Worker 23 with a gesture and turns back to staring at the map with various positions and resources marked.

The worker leaves the supervisor to do... supervisor things. 

The researchers on base all work in the same area. They will all be very busy, most likely, so Worker 23 makes its way to the sustenance area first. While it is there it helps itself to a cup of nutrient beverage and its ration of sugar. 

Once it has completed its meal, it makes its way to the research area and flags down an assisting worker to gain knowledge of Researcher 4's location. 

It tries to settle itself on its way to the researcher's office. A number 4 is very high on the Collective's hierarchy; Worker 23 cannot afford to show any of its recent oddities in the researcher's vicinity. 

Researcher 4 is - unsurprisingly - researching, he does not even look up from what he is reading, before demanding a report on the situation.

Without even looking - or touching - Worker 23 for the information, Researcher 4 demands the original to be brought over for "uncontaminated assimilation" whatever that means.

So Worker 23 leaves the research area for the storage area. It inquires with the workers there for the pod holding the original it brought in earlier, and then has one of them assist it in carrying the human back to Researcher 4, still wearing a mask to keep him unconscious and thus unbothersome. 

"The original, Researcher 4," Worker 23 states. 

Wordlessly, Researcher 4 takes the form...

"...Interesting. Take the original back to storage and return here for further instructions."

The worker does so.

Once it returns, it waits stoically for the researcher to address it. 

For a long time Researcher 4 just stands there contemplating.

Worker 23 can stand very still for a very long time, and has no intention of interrupting Researcher 4. Standing around waiting for orders is one of the duties expected of Workers, after all.

And after a moment, Researcher 4 notices that Worker 23 is there, looking annoyed. He still doesn't speak for a few long minutes. And then he starts giving orders. They shall use the original's primitive vehicle and go to its place of residence.

Worker 23 snaps to obey the researcher's orders immediately. He shows the researcher to the vehicle and waits for them to determine which shifter will drive. 

"Drive." Researcher 4 says like it is obvious. He will spend the entire drive with his face in a book.

He is not reading it. Just covering his own face.

So it drives. 

The librarian lives in an old but well-kept apartment complex. The worker parks the car in the lot out back, as close to the door as it can get. 

The apartment is on the third floor. The worker has the keys on the same ring as the car key is on. 

"You should have left me in the second to last corner before his residence and then I would meet you there after you got inside." Researcher 4 says with scorn. "Now that we are both here, very visible. Go take an alternative route through piping or something. I will take the main route."

The worker nods, chastised, "Yes, Researcher." 

It opens the car door and dissolves into its coppery form in the shadow of the car, pooling under it and then carefully making its way from shadow to shadow until it reaches an access to the sewer system. 

It takes it a little while to figure out the confusing piping, but eventually it seeps out of the bathtub drain in the correct apartment.

Researcher 4 has started on some sort of organization system of all the original's belongs. Separating objects according function. Relevance for disguise integration. Potential threat level. And research relevance, of course. He instructs Worker 23 on how to help.

It follows the researcher's directions. 

So passes the night, and in the morning they enact the plan to infiltrate the library, the worker using the librarian's face to complete his duties while the researcher uses another to look into the wealth of information stored there.

Meanwhile, back at Erin's house... 

While Soren remains by scout 15s side to reassure him, the others return to the lair. 

"There's a medical center, an armoury, and a hangar," Erin says, gesturing to each door in turn. "I think this room must be some kind of command center," she adds, going over to take a closer look at the round table in the middle. Not unexpectedly, she finds she can read the writing on the control panel - it's the same as the laguage her devices use. Allurian, perhaps? 

She presses a few likely looking buttons, and the pyramidal device in the center of the table opens, revealing a smaller, transparent pyramid with glowing ball of energy inside. A ray of light extends from its point, slowly diffusing into a plane and then coalescing into a map of the facility. 

"...Well, that's useful."

Felix investigates. "Any area we haven't explored yet?"

She looks up from the controls, "We haven't looked very closely at the hangar," she says, "There's a massive bay, probably for a larger starship," sometimes she can't believe the words that come out of her mouth, "There might be something on the other side of it?"

She pokes at the controls, seeing if she can manipulate the map. It circles around to show another view of the facility. 

"Huh. Is that..." 

She reaches out to point at a tunnel branching off from the hangar. 

"I wonder where that goes." 

"Is that how far it goes? Does this thing have notes or something?"

She hums, poking at the control panel a bit more. This one rotates, this one magnifies...

Something in her suggests that it would probably be easier to just... 

She reaches out and runs a finger over the projection, spinning it lightly. 

"Oh hey, manual control," she murmurs, pinching two fingers and then drawing them apart to magnify the tunnel, the rest of the map fading out as it gets bigger. She taps it twice and it pulls back as an opaque panel covered in writing hovers beside it. 

The writing is Allurian again. She glances at him, "Given your powerset, do you have anything for translation?" She wonders. She can read it, but it wouldn't hurt to have someone else around who could. 

"I absolutely have magic to decipher runes of important knowledge. He holds up his staff and taps it on the ground four times.

And lo, he can read the language! 

Emergency escape tunnel leading to secondary base. DNA locked. 

The control panel is readable now too. Besides the control pads, with which she was rotating and magnifying the map earlier, there are several others. Including a Big Red Button, of course. 

She smiles at him, "Do you want to poke at it before we take a look at the tunnel?" They are living in a science fiction, might as well have fun with it!

"Sure. Do you expect to be able to access the tunnel through your own DNA?"