Secret rendezvous

Further attempts to access a menu from the console didn't work, and it appeared that Daphne's suspicions had been confirmed. Someone was watching you. If you wanted answers about Project Gradient or Daphne, you didn't have much choice; you'd have to meet them in the storage level. However, you didn't want to go there unprepared, so you turned to your floating companion and requested, "MPAD-24, please show me a map of storage level 8."

Surprisingly, the MPAD unit didn't respond. "MPAD-24, can you hear me?" you asked in a louder voice, but there was still no response. Finally, you tried touching it. In response, a small message appeared briefly on its surface, "Temporarily disabled for routine maintenance." The timing of that didn't seem like a coincidence. Whoever was watching somehow obtained authorization in the system to disable your console and also shutdown the MPAD unit.

Who could it be? You doubted that it was the captain since he would just invite you to his office quarters. Similarly, if it was the doctor, they could speak to you in the medical lab. It didn't seem likely that it was any of the engineers or other Grey onboard that you'd met. It also seemed unlikely to be Klix, the Arthro ambassador. Could it be Daphne? Or what about Lily? It was doubtful that either of them had figured out a way to spy on other users or to turn off the console or MPAD unit. If not any of them, who else could it be? 6T9? It was plausible that she could disable the console and the MPAD unit, but why would she be spying on you or care what you were searching for?

After several minutes of racking your brain for ideas, you finally reached and entered the elevator. As you waited for it to descend, you realized that this was the first time since your original meeting with the captain that you didn't have MPAD-24 with you, and it led to a new concern. Previously if there was a problem, MPAD-24 had be there to help you, but without it along you had no such safety net. Whatever was waiting for you on level 8, you would be facing it alone.

The door slid open, and the elevator's light spilled out into the darkened storage level. The last time you'd seen this level, there had been lights on. As you walked out, you made the hand signal to turn on the lightning, but nothing happened. This would be a perfect location for an ambush, and now you wondered if some of the Cunis might be involved. If they attacked you here, you'd have no water hose to drive them off. Cautiously, you stepped forward, and then the elevator door closed behind you, removing the only light source. You froze in your tracks since you were now completely blind in the darkened storage room.

"Hello?" you called out. "Can we get some lights on?"

To your left, you heard a slight electronic hum begin, and then it steadily grew in intensity. Slowly, you began moving toward it, using your outstretched hands to guide yourself past various containers. The closer you got to the sound, the more it reminded you of random noise. The sound grew in intensity as you approached, but then it suddenly began to drop off. Apparently you'd crossed some sort of harmonic resonance point. After a few more steps, the sound had diminished to an almost inaudible level.

"That's close enough, Sky."