They had just started the afternoon’s movement tests when more visitors came to interrupt their day.
“Lieutenant Bean, kindly pause all testing activity. The servers have logged an unauthorized communication from this location and we are required to investigate.” A Major from the lab’s Military Police directed, accompanied by no fewer than twenty other officers, including specialists from the Anti-hacking team.
“You idiots had better not have been on social media at work.” Lieutenant Bean complained, and Moonie began to panic.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t her workstation and she wasn’t supposed to be in the Mecha during testing. Max didn’t look worried though, so she began to relax a little. Unlike her specialist rank of Lance Corporal, Max was a Major and a Pilot. He could get away with some little breaches of the standard protocol using personal initiative as an excuse. The enlisted personnel didn’t often get that luxury.
Max opened the side door for Moonie and smoothed out her hair a little before lowering them both down on the chassis winch, gently dropping them to the ground.
“Come see me tonight with your chess board,” Max whispered to her before she scurried over to where Sister Lilith was looking at her with a mixture of motherly pride and understanding.
“Everyone present, please place all electronic devices on the counter and empty all pockets.” The officers instructed.
That amounted to wrist devices and a few markers and data tablets since they all checked their outside items into lockers at the start of their shifts.
One by one, starting with the most suspicious group in the officer’s minds, the two from the Chassis design labs, they went through everyone who was not from this bay, then scanned them all thoroughly a second time.
Lilith and Moonie were all clear, as were the team from the X104 project, though they spent quite a while doing a diagnostic on Nico, who had internal communication capabilities.
Her logs didn’t show anything, and the scan determined that the signal definitely didn’t come from her internal transmitter.
About half of the researchers had an augmentic implant for either data processing or calculations that the human mind was not great at, and they were all scanned without incident until the officers double-checked Lieutenant Bean.
He had a data tablet still in his pocket and the officers were not impressed.
“Hands behind your head, fingers laced. Care to explain?” The Military Police Major demanded harshly.
“I just forgot it was in there. It is a lab issue tablet.” He insisted.
The officers searched the device, then confiscated it for further inspection. Only Max, Nico, and Moonie got their wrist device back, as they were all standard military issue models and easily searched, the others were gathered for additional inspection.
“This bay is closed for security investigation. Your continued presence in the security offices may be required at a later time, please don’t leave the secure area.” The Military Police team instructed before directing them to the catwalk and out of the bay.
“There is a break room by the change rooms. We might as well go wait.” Nico suggested, leading everyone out of the main testing area, while still wearing the experimental exoskeleton.
“Shouldn’t you take that off?” One of the members of Max’s team asked.
“We’re doing long-term usage testing. The four of us are wearing them during our entire shift for the next week. We needed more data on task assistance and interference before making them general issue.” Nico explained, pointing toward the other members of her team who had tucked the extra arms tight to their bodies when not in use, while Nico kept two of the six active as extra appendages.
While Nico preferred the more flexible side limbs, the others seemed to prefer the crane arm that extend from the top for grabbing and holding things in front of them. They had also used the extra appendage to hold their lunch plates and found that it made an excellent improvised table.
If you loop the flexible arms behind your back you can sit comfortably on the couch.” Nico suggested, gently settling down on one and grabbing the remote for the television.
The room had a simple flat screen instead of a holoprojector, leaving more space for seating. There wasn’t much to talk about when everyone was suspicious about a traitor in the room, so they all relaxed and waited for the next few hours while a comedy movie played in the background.
One after another, they were called away by security to give a report, but none of the members who were called returned afterward, so the researchers in the waiting room couldn’t get any additional information and just had to suffer the boredom and anticipation.
Finally, it was Max’s turn and he was brought to a room where Sister Lilith, Moonie, and Nico were already waiting along with Uncle Lu and the Testing Lab security chief.
“We have cleared you four as non-suspicious, due to video surveillance of your locations at the time of the incident. The signal originated from somewhere in the lab, but not the Mecha, which clears Major Max and Lance Corporal Moonie. Lilith was on the catwalk at that time, and Major Nico was at the garbage disposal, away from all communications devices.” The head of security informed him.
“Could it have been a delayed signal? A lot of people were in the lab over lunch.” Max asked, unsure what sort of signal was sent.
“We are investigating that now. We gathered you all here to clear you to return to your duties tomorrow. Live testing of the X137 has been transferred to the team under Sister Lilith until further notice. Major Max, you are still the lead test pilot on the project.”
The security officers left and Nico smiled at Uncle Lu. “We’re all cleared because we didn’t have to send anything from the lab if we wanted to take the data, right?”
Uncle Lu nodded solemnly. “You all have had full access to the data, and were mostly unsupervised through the initial testing phases without a breach. The signal was intercepted and never left the lab, thanks to our security measures, but it only contained a short video clip of the mecha in motion and a bit of basic data from the morning tests.”
“Wait, how did Nico get access? She’s not on this project.” Max asked, confused.
“She is working directly with me on the shield generator project, and we had all the new designs open.” Uncle Lu shrugged, reminding Max of all the time they spent talking about technical details.
He was certain neither of them had taken a full night’s sleep since he arrived here, but that didn’t surprise him at all. Those two valued a good night’s rest far less than he did.