"And we should all be near each other too, right guys?" John says.

Variously enthusiastic affirmative responses.

"Well there are six rooms on each hall and four halls. We could separate out by elevator load but that seems a little silly. Otherwise you four could take one hall and the rest of us could take another."

"I think that sounds cozy."

"Works for me."

"I think that should work for us also." says Rose.

"Yeah sure, no problem..", says Dave (who is browsing the encyclopedia for security related topics).

The encyclopedia doesn't actually have very many security articles. There are specific articles on a handful of security systems from occupancy detectors, to user identifiers, to threat recognition profilers. Those articles explain what they do but not the mechanism. There are also references to mall store locks and six stores that carry them. The closest of those stores is a very long way away though. Even further away there's a store called Matrix security that sells security cameras of some sort.

"I'll be reading over there whenever you're ready to go."

Jade says, "I'm gonna try the gardener test and then I'm okay to leave."

Dave says, "There's not a lot of info here. I guess I'll just go ahead and try the test."

"Alright," Alex goes over to find one of the physics textbooks and continue trying to understand it.

The gardening test has questions about dozens of specific plants including what climates they grow in and what their nutritional value is, how various soil conditions influence plant growth, how growing crops in greenhouses influences their growing season, the properties of fertilizers and various other miscellany.

The Security test asks questions about forensics, how various security systems work, close quarters combat, and the meaning of the various symbols for dangerous or unusual conditions around the complex.

Jade knows about a fair number of plants but not all of them and has a general idea about soil conditions and fertilizers.

Dave knows a lot about close quarters combat. He doesn't know much more about security systems than was in the encyclopedia. He did skim through the list of symbols.

Then they will both be judged moderately competent and given their roles provisionally with a request to spend at least two hours a day in training.

Jade can now access readouts on the past and expected crop yields from areas under her management and order different crops to be planted in the next cycle. She can also change the preferred ripeness stage for various plants and which parts of the plant are preserved or discarded.

His new abilities largely amount to the ability to lock and unlock doors as well as the ability to shut down a teleporter in his zone so it can't receive incoming passengers, and reactivate it at a later time. He can also check occupancy for buildings in his area from a console. If he does so he'll have a long list of buildings including manufacturing complexes, apartment complexes, warehouses, museums, libraries greenhouses and more. There are also references to six biospheres. The only occupied building is the 'Black Section Home Complex' which contains ten people including him.

Jade would not like to fiddle with crops just yet!

Dave pokes through the list of buildings. "There's a list of buildings here. Apparently there are museums. Which is weird as fuck."

"That sounds fun, all the more reason to go exploring."

"What sort of museums?" There's a couple science museums, a history museum, a few art museums and a couple museums devoted to specific disciplines like linguistics and architecture.

"Couple of science museums, some art museums, and like linguistics and architecture."

Rose says, "The science museums could be useful. We should look for one of those."

"If they're as ahead in all the sciences as they are in physics and biology it would be a very useful thing to see."

"That was my thought also."

"So, are you four ready to go shopping now?"

"Yeah sure." says Dave.

"Okay!" says Jade.

The others also agree.

"You guys and gals have fun."

"So, Anna, want to check out the clinic? It says we can run basic physicals on people and that might give a sense of where we should focus."

"I'd love to."

Riley gets up and walks over to the clinic. "Do you want to get the physical first or should I?"

"I'll go first. Live dangerously and all that."

"Then you need to lie on that exam table in the center." Riley points.

"Sure."

She lies down.