“Will you missing links please stop breathing through your mouths long enough to move the prisoner? Unless you think afternoon tea with an angry Lorann is preferable. Take your time. We have several whole seconds to deliberate.”

Before we could respond, the Final Jeopardy! music started playing.

I chuckled and reached into the trunk. With Patrick taking the other end, we carried the prisoner into the barn, while Nat held the door. An airlock stairway was already waiting for us, with a rose-colored pulsing line at the top. We took the obvious hint and followed the line to an open stateroom door.

“This is secure?” I asked.

“All staterooms are required to act as personal environmental pods in case of catastrophe,” Sheldon said, “so the construction is already more than robust enough to contain an uncooperative tenant. I’ve added a mesh doorway to the configuration, and disabled any ability to open it from the inside. It’s a standardized process, albeit not one that is used very often.”

“Why—” Patrick cut off his question and shook his head.

Quickly, we maneuvered the unconscious Lorann into the stateroom and placed her on the bed. I reached down, felt around, and unclasped her cloaking belt. Karen Ingram changed into an orange, slightly scaly being with a tuft of browner, hairlike stuff on her head.

As we stepped out of the stateroom, the door closed with the usual soft rumble. But instead of the expected solid door, the partition was a kind of screened affair, with four mesh panels in a metal frame. I pushed on the one of the panels, but it didn’t give at all. Much stronger than screen-door material, then.

“Ah,” Patrick said. “So we can see the prisoner and talk to her.”

“Very good,” Sheldon replied. “You may yet achieve sentience.”

The Jeopardy! music started playing again and Patrick rolled his eyes. “Do any of those gadgets have a mute button?”

We sat in the conference room, where we’d gathered to wait for Karen to recover from her second zapping. And to discuss our options.

I held up the thumb drive. “So this is probably what she was coming back for.”

“Which means it must have some files that she needed for the management seminar,” Nat replied. “Any chance you can read it, Sheldon?”

“Hmm, USB spec—check. APFS or NTFS file-system spec—check. I’ll need to print a reader. Maybe two hours.”

“Unless it’s encrypted,” Nat said.

“Two hours and one minute then.”

Nat persisted. “You’ll want to watch for viruses.”

Sheldon responded with a snort and I laughed. A snort from a being with no actual respiratory system was a deliberate affectation. Sheldon continued to improve.

“Should we wait for Sheldon to read the files before interrogating Karen?” Patrick asked.