Chitchatting over cake.

"Why did you have to lock the blast doors?" Zoe asked with mouthful of chocolate cake.

"To keep you inside with me!" Allison grinned with a wink.

"That's not funny..." Zoe growled.

"Actually that's not far from the truth," Jonathan noted. "We're stuck in here now for the next two years and it's to prevent contamination of the experiment if one of us tries to leave the compound."

"What if there's an emergency?" Zoe asked.

"We have three medical doctors to handle any medical emergencies," Hane answered, smiling at Jonathan, Cindy, and Jennifer, "and engineers to handle the logistics side of things."

"However, if something extremely dire happens we do have an emergency line in the control room," Lauren explained. "That is a measure of last resort since it would effectively suspend the project."

"So what if someone tries break in?" Natalie wondered, taking a bite of red velvet cake.

"Well, the outer double blast doors are three foot-thick walls of steel-reinforced concrete that can withstand a nuclear blast or 500 miles per hour winds," Jonathan answered. "Good luck trying to getting through them!"

"So what do we do now?" Eva asked after finishing her slice of pound cake.

"We all have experiments and projects to do," Hane explained. "We're all professionals so noone is going to manage you except yourself."

"However, at five everyone is to meet at the gym," Crystal announced.

"Why?" Zoe whined.

"We will all be exercising," Jade replied, "to keep in shape and monitor your physical health."

"Speaking of physical health," Kaylee interrupted, "as the project dietitian and chef, I'm going to make sure from now on that we'll be having healthier meals than pancake and cakes."

"God, you're no fun!" Allison jeered before taking a big bite of her cake.

"Well, not all of us thin like you," Kaylee scoffed as she took away the cakes to store them in the refrigerators.

"So what are we going to have for dinner?" Ming Yue asked, trying to diffuse the situation.

"I haven't decided yet but it'll have to make up for what we had for breakfast and lunch," Kaylee replied.

"I guess that's it for lunch," Jonathan stated, standing up to clear away the plates and forks to the dishwasher.

"Okay, everyone grab some fruit before you leave," Kaylee announced, laying out bowls of bananas, apples, and oranges on the table. "Enjoy eating fresh fruit while you can before we start eating them out of cans!"

The triplets grabbed bananas and winked at Jonathan when they took slow big bites. He did his best poker face lest arousing suspicion from the other women and nonchalantly took an apple.