34 Mission Impossible II

This Tono turns after backing out of the duct turns towards the entrance "Yea?" They shout back and exit the small chamber the doors close with a hiss behind them as they left.

I can't help but let out an audible sigh, the adrenaline surge from that short moment still causing my heart to palpate quickly. I can't even begin to fathom the sheer dumb luck that just befell me here. What are the odds that in this tiny room, someone would enter it, and even with me pressed up against the wall, if I reached out I could have touched them.

Not only did they not notice me from this just entering the room, but they turned away from me, and never once did they look in my direction. If I were a praying type of person, I would offer whatever gods there might be my sincerest thanks for this providence.

I waste no more time and get out of that little chamber and just as I'm about to slide down the duct access the way I came, I notice that Tono apparently left the pad they were working on when entering. Seriously, this couldn't have been a better situation if I had even tried for it. I grab the pad and then slip into the duct I came from.

Seconds after my feet get I to the duct I hear the door open, presumably Tono has returned to continue whatever they were doing. I'm glad I did not waste any time, but I'm still in a bit of a precarious position because all they would have to do is look down the duct I went to find me. So I try to speed up my crawling while making as little noise as possible. I need to make it to the junction and get around that corner quickly.

Somehow I feel like I managed to slip around the corner without being noticed. I breath a sigh of relief and make my way back to the storage area where I decided to set up my hideout and try to figure out what's going on and get my bearings.

A few minutes later I crawl out of the maintenance ducts and into the storage room. Making my way to a back corner of the room where I repositioned some of the crates to make a bit of a maze. It's not too far away from the access point for the maintenance ducts, in case I need to make a quick exit. And I've hidden both from view of the door.

I begin to examine the pad that I acquired from the maintenance person. There is a great deal of information on it, and the thing has no security, accounts or any other such setup on the pad which I am relieved to discover. As this indicates that the pad itself and what it's used for is fairly basic.

The symbols on the pad for the writing are familiar to me as the Theron script, so it's not difficult for me to read based on the memories in my head. It's still jumbled up, I have no idea who I am, not with three different personalities floating around in my head. Though one of them I can be fairly sure is not an actual personality or identity, that being the AI one. But as for the other two? They are far to similar but with their own differences, both with a lifetimes worth of memories for someone presumed to be of an adult age.

I shake my head to get these thoughts out, figuring out who I am unfortunately will have to wait, there are more pressing concerns at the moment. So I return to focus on the pad and it's information.

The pad has maintenance information on it, and has access to a map of the facility, and more specific mechanical and engineering information. I put that off to the side for later, it's not important at the moment. I need to study the map, it's labyrinthine in its construct, the maintenances ducts spiderweb the facility, I can crawl myself to anywhere in the facility. And it is massive, by these numbers it indicates that the whole facility is about two whole kilometers in length, half a kilometer in width, and varies in floors, but there's an average of some forty floors, or as according to this map they are labeled as decks. It would seem as though this facility is actually a ship, and a damn massive one at that.

According to this map, I'm on the 23rd deck, the 25th through the 30th deck is restricted to science staff only and has its own maintenance crew assigned to those decks. I think it's safe to assume that I woke up somewhere within those decks. But I'm not entire sure where I am, as there's no direct indication on this pad about where I, or rather it is

on. At least I possibly don't have to worry about them tracking down the pad within the ship. Or it's not readily apparent that it has wireless access to the ship so hopefully I don't have to worry about tracking on it.

I make my way to the door of the storage room and as I approach it, it's not an automatic door, there happens to be a panel on the side that I can access and open the door from. I figure I will take the risk and peak outside, hopefully it'll indicate the storage room it is so I can figure out where I am on the map.

I hold off however a few minutes at the door to continue familiarizing myself with the pad, it would appear as though it has the capability of interfacing with the ships computer. That might come in handy, so I pull up information about the computer system. If I'm going to hack into it, I better know what I'm dealing with. Best not to get hit with too many surprises. Maybe this is why there's no wireless capability of it. But regardless that probably benefits me more than hurts me at present.

I take a deep breath and hit the open button on the door, enough dallying around, I need to figure out where I am.