“Thank you,” she told him, glancing at Berdle, who came forward and accepted the box as Cossont rose to her feet.

“Ms Cossont herself will need to open the …” the officer said, as Cossont opened the box, looked inside and lifted out a silver-grey cube.

“Also, the storage container remains our …” the officer said, as Berdle handed the white box back to the officer and Cossont slipped the cube into her shoulder bag.

“Thank you for your help,” Berdle told the officer. “We’ll be on our way.”

“My pleasure,” the Executive Recoupments Officer said, as the three walked towards the elevators.

“We still have two-thirds of an hour before the ship returns,” Berdle said through Cossont’s earbud as they stepped into the lift. “I thought we might leave the facility and find a hostelry of some sort on the lake shore, to wait there.”

Cossont nodded as the doors closed.

The car started its descent, then its soft lighting seemed to flicker delicately. It drew smoothly to a stop, settling, finally, with what Cossont heard as a single click and the two non-humans present both heard as three distinct snicking noises. A background susurrus Cossont had hardly noticed consciously ceased, suddenly.

The android and the avatar exchanged looks.

“Ah-hah!” Parinherm said, with a smile.

“This is,” Berdle said aloud, and then seemed to think about what it was, “un-promising,” he concluded.

~Is that you? he was asking the android at the same time.

~Facility mainframe / material systems / motile systems / general elevator control suite / basement-to-mid-section shaft complex / core-central / faults / fault notification / fault confirmation / fault over-ride / safe fault work-arounds …?

~Yes, all that. Please leave that to me. You’re getting in the way. And stop trying to remove the block on the car’s external AV feed; I did that nearly a quarter of a second ago.

~Very well. What may I do?

~Please remain/be on full alert within the immediate physical environment with particular regard to extraneous anomalous audible and general vibration signals, extending your sensor/effector abilities no further than the elevator car’s and the shaft’s own monitoring and activation circuits. I’ll continue monitoring and trying to affect further afield.

~My on-board expert systems precedents set indicates strongly we might be in a definitional pre-attack phase and so close to the point at which some sort of physical measure may become advisable.

~Agreed. Currently eliminating all chances this could be happenstance before taking any irretrievably physical action.

~We should warn/prepare Ms Cossont.

~Also agreed. I am in the process of interrupting her.

“‘Un-promis—’?” Cossont was saying as Berdle talked over her, saying,

“Strong likelihood this is hostile. I’m activating your eSuit and neck-helmet. Please do not be alarmed and remember to put all your weight first on one foot and then the other.”

“‘—ing’?” Cossont finished, as something happened all over her body.