"I'm not asking you to assume the WAU had access to Catherine, I'm specifically claiming the WAU didn't have access to Catherine, or at least not to her thoughts. And she doesn't have to say something nobody else knows, just something the WAU couldn't know without reading minds. Because, again, if the WAU can read minds, then either I'm not the WAU or I can read your mind, and I can't read your mind or I wouldn't be asking you questions."

""Look, whoever you are, I don't know if you know Catherine Chun, but she's not exactly what you'd call social," Brandon says. "No one who wasn't working with her on her creepy project that kept getting people to kill themselves really talked to her much."

"Mr. Wan, I don't think I ever actually met you," Catherine says. "I scanned myself early on, and I didn't know anyone from Delta that well before the scan. I'm...sorry it doesn't sound like we got along?"

"Fucking incredible," Brandon says, turning from staring at parade rest out one of the ski lodge windows into the simulated snow. "So you're a scan too? I'm a scan, you're a scan, mystery girl's a scan, is anyone down here a real boy, or are we all the just WAU's Pinocchios?"

"Uhhhh I saw a couple of fully-biological humans but they were all incapacitated and I don't know how they'd prove they were biological if they were here, sorry. Look, we're off track, we don't need to prove Catherine is Catherine, just that we're humans. Is there anywhere you've both been, anything you've both done, that isn't down here? Something the WAU would have no reason to know about?"

The fact that she has to lean on Catherine for shared human experiences with Brandon is making it really salient that she's a transplant from another century right now.

"What, the old sports-player trick? I don't suppose you followed soccer, Chun?"

"No, I was too busy starting a suicide cult, apparently."

"Sheesh," Brandon says. "OK, Chun. That's Chinese right? You ever fly through Bangkok? What'd you think of the old airport? Recall it much?"

"It's Taiwanese," Catherine says. "But yes, I flew through there a few times before they replaced it with the harbor airport. I liked the layout, it was easy to find my way through, but the carpet was too busy to walk on properly, and I remember they always kept it too cold, at least if your gate was on the side with the windows facing the sun. You either had the glare, or you were freezing."

Brandon glares into the snow a bit longer. "Yeah, OK. Let's say I believe you. Or, if you can figure that out, it's not like any other system here will keep you out." He sighs. "You should be able to pull togther the standard base from the main computers, and then it's seeded 1729 over 42, 12 over 47. Got that?"

Margaret memorizes that and also scratches it into the workbench with the tip of her pliers because what the hell, it's not like anyone is going to need it unscratched later. "Got it."

"Thank you, Mr. Wan," Catherine says. 

Oh boy, the previous bit was so hard she almost forgot that this was going to be the hard bit.

"So, um, Brandon? I assume you don't want us to just wander off and leave you running, but also if we just end this program you won't remember any of this in the ARK. Are you okay with forgetting we had this conversation?" Technically everything she just said was either true or a question but wow does she feel like the most manipulative manipulator ever.

"Forgetting this entire thing ever happened? I'd take that in a heartbeat. I'd say that about all of things since the comet, except...well, Alice. Anyway, nice never meeting you, let's all of us pinochios try to forget this ever happened," Brandon says.

"If you met her before you were scanned, you won't forget her. Um. Goodbye, Brandon. Thank you." And she shuts him off and then is very aware of how hard she isn't breathing.

It wasn't murder. There's another one of him out there. He said he didn't care about those experience-moments. Just because it would have bothered her doesn't mean everyone else has to be squeamish. She didn't do anything wrong.

Yeah, right.

"All right, well that worked...better than I was expecting," Catherine says. "I've got the cipher ready for the DUNBAT now, come meet me in the control room, if there's nothing else here you want to look around."

"I want to get that broken omnitool fixed first, if I can find the tools for it here." There are still parts of this place she hasn't explored yet, some upstairs but mostly downstairs, and it seems not impossible that one of them has a workbench that's better-stocked than her pockets. She goes back to the living quarters and looks for a way to get down.

"Hmm. There might be something downstairs, in the lab or maintenance areas?" Catherine says. "I'm a little locked out of those systems right now, it looks like something cut the hard lines. There should be access from the cargo bay, the R&D area, or back in the dorms." Margaret's already seen two of those doors: the big access doors to the lab spaces in the cargo bay were closed and the lock pad dark, and the door from the R&D area was the same and crusted with some kind of structure gel. On the other hand, she does have a power saw...

She'll check the dorms before spending any electricity on the power saw, but having it is still comforting.

The dorms looks like something out of a grad student lounge. The hallway leads to a common room with a few bookshelves, scattered plates and dirty clothes, and a few chairs and worn couches facing a a large screen up on the wall. A large bathroom is off one side, and the other opens to a long hallway of doors, each with a nametag. Across the lounge is a stairwell access, and an elevator, it's doors torn half-open like something burst out of it. The sounds of distant structure groaning and dripping water is enough to give Margaret a twinge just hearing it.

The stairwell is too collapsed to get to the stairs, but the damage to the elevator shaft actually makes it more accessible. She looks down the hole, trying to judge whether there's a way out at the bottom and how likely it is that she could climb back up it if there turns out not to be.

It looks like there's at least two levels of elevator doors below, and one above...with the elevator parked at it. It looks like there might be enough hand-holds on the wall to climb down.

She would feel better about this if she had a rope or a cable or something, and spends a while looking through the facility for one, but if she doesn't find anything good she'll go down hand over hand.

A spool of cable turns up in one of the store-rooms. It looks like it might be data cables, but it seems strong enough when tested to take Margaret's weight.

It seems like while Margaret was working, Catherine was watching. "I still haven't had any luck getting into the systems downstairs. If you're going down there, you should bring the omnitool with you."