She punches the elevator wall. "If I'd known about this two minutes ago... Oh, mom..."

"Oh, shit yeah. My sister, and my parents."

The others make similar comments.

"I want to talk to this Riley, if she knows what's happening."

"She'll either be in the clinic or the library. I'll take you."

She takes off her balaclava and flips the hoodie's hood down. "Thanks. I'm Gren."

She smile, "Joanna."

"I'd say nice to meet you in better circumstances, afraid it'd be a lie right this moment. Lead on?"

"Yeah, I understand." Joanna leads the way out the door at the back of the kitchen and down a spiraling ramp. On the next floor down she opens the door into a small library. There are a few more people walking in the stacks and sitting at worktables or in chairs. There are also a few people sitting at the computers along the wall they enter through. Joana steps over to one of them. "Riley, this is Gren, she just came from Earth."

"Well that's interesting, I wouldn't have expected the elevators to still be working. Nice to meet you."

"...Nice to not be about to die. What the hell are these aliens thinking?"

"What do you mean by nice to not be about to die? The mall seemed pretty safe. Did things go really wrong on Earth since we came here?"

"Aliens - or some freak cosmic accident - have slung a, quote, neutron star, end quote, at the Sun. The talking heads say Earth will be fine. I have my doubts."

"That's not good, I'm not a physics major but like I know what a neutron star is and I don't think we want one of those anywhere near the sun. I guess would be an incredible coincidence if this place and that are unrelated. If this is a poorly managed rescue maybe there was some sort of information security concern?"

"We're mushrooms, huh? Typical."

"Maybe? If the neutron star was intentional I have no idea what they could do in terms of surveillance, they're such disparate fields."

"Information security penetration from a tech disadvantage would rely on what they call 'hum-int', human intelligence. Making friends with whoever has the secrets you want. Or exploiting their carelessness. Which doesn't seem to be an option?"

"I was more thinking that if they informed large portions of Earth that the people who send the neutron star would find out, assuming that the neutron star was intentional."

"That's a valid point."

"I hope that's not what happened though, Xenocide is not a safe thing to have happening in the universe you live in."

"And someone who can fling a Neutron Star around is K-2 or K-3..."

"Yeah, if that's what's happening I hope our host isn't too much less powerful."

"...God, this is weird. I'm calmly discussing aliens destroying Earth and thinking about what to do about it. ROTC did not prepare me for this."

"I can't say I'm too comfortable with the idea either. I don't want to accomplish great things on my own just because all my best competition is dead."

"Choice is a luxury. What have you learned about this place so far?"

"It's biotech is really good, like potentially curing aging good. I'm not really in a position to evaluate the physics textbooks but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some pretty shocking stuff there too if you look closely."