Fallout Shelter Fourteen

Fallout Shelter Fourteen
Chapter 4 - Part Of The Problem

June 2281

We continued with our normal duties. Just because we were planning on breaking out of here, at some point, didn’t mean we just dropped everything and stopped working. The Reactor went down again after another week and we went down to repair it.

“The main coupler between the first and second core is almost literally held together by bailing wire and duct tape.” Engi’s expression for a shitty repair job, “This thing rattles like crazy and we’re not expecting it to break once a month?” Engi talked to himself while he repaired it, I was there mostly to carry tools.

“Why don’t we just weld it?” I recommended.

“Plasma from the torch could bridge the gap between myself and ground, which would cause energy from the reactor to jump to ground, shocking, and maybe disintegrating whatever’s in between.”

“Isn’t the reactor off?”

“No, just whenever it picks up a mechanical fault, coupler going in this case, it flips the breakers on the main board, shutting down power to the rest of the Stable. That reduces load on the system. I’ve been tempted to bypass the main board altogether but the Overseer... she didn’t wanna hear it.”

“Well, why don’t we shut the reactor off?”

“Because itwould never restart... probably. I’m sure we’re gonna have to shut it off to repair it at some point. But the less downtime this thing has the better.”

“... Ohhhhh. I always though when something broke shutting it off and turning it back on was the first thing on the list of stuff to do to fix it.”

“Only with computers, Silver.” Engi smiled, “You’re gonna be learning about them pretty soon. I wasn’t going to try to teach a nine year old how to fix a computer, whether it be hardware or software. But you’re more than old enough now, and you don’t need foal sitting anymore.”

“I don’t consider myself very smart.” I sighed, “Not compared to you.”

“Knowledge and intelligence isn’t the same thing. You’re very sharp.” Engi complimented, I felt embarrassed, “You’ve got it where it counts. Also, you’re patient, something I’m not. So that’s why I’ve been letting you learn the computers, because I personally like repair better than computer science. So I’m going to have you doing most of the computer work. You seem to enjoy it. That being said, got any ideas for this one, Sharpy?”

I was alright learning how to fix computers, I was already familiar with them, and the worst case scenario was I got dusty; Engi replacing and working on stuff here on level 4b generally got him dirty and greasy. And that generally meant I was the one who got to handle all the fine bits because I had smaller, and more importantly, clean hooves. I was getting used to getting my hooves dirty though, although it took a long time, I had been doing this for years, but lately Engi was really starting to let me do things by myself without constantly having an eye on me.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“The coupler’s held together by two metal rods on the inside and metal expands when it gets hot, so we need to figure out a way to keep the two halves together without ruining the rods on the inside, because those are what allow power to flow.”

I continued, “What if... we insulate the coupler and then weld it?”

“I don’t think we have an insulator material that can handle the heat of the coupler, it’s about 300 degrees right now.”

“Celsius or Fahrenheit?”

“Kolten.”

“What? ... Oh, haha. Nice try. You forget I’ve been reading books for the last four years. That would be 26 Celsius by the way. So you’re lying.” I smirked.

“You know, you’re getting way too emerged into books. They’re not everything you know. Oh, and it was in Celsius.”

“No, but there’s not much down here. And that library has damn near everything listed in it.” I continued, “What if we... I got nothing.”

“Believe me, I’ve been trying to find ways to permanently fix the coupler problem. This has been plaguing me for ages. Before you even were assigned to me, but in the last couple years, it’s been getting worse.”

“Can we replace it?”

“With what parts?”

“Didn’t Stable-Tec give us spares?”

“Oh hell no, these were supposed to be able to run for 400 years before needing replacement. But look at us now, we’re working on it every other weekend, and it’s never the same problem twice in a row.”

Engi was getting annoyed these reactor problems were driving him up the wall.

He kept going, “Hey do you have the swing wrench?”

That was an unusual request, that was for lights not a power core. It was one of the few tools I hadn’t added to my equipment belt.

“No, I didn’t think we’d need it.” I explained.

“Could you go back,” He asked, “And get it for me?”

I nodded and trotted off, I took the stairs upto the third floor, the lights were out, I had my PipBuck though. I was at the turn to the maintenance office when I heard talking, so I stopped at the corner and killed the light on my PipBuck.

“These two are up to something, BV. I wanna know what.”

BV, BlueVisor Chief Head of Security in Stable 14.

“Of course ma’am. But I seriously doubt a mechanic and an apprentice could be up to that much, they’re always busy. I’ve seen them both working like mad. The five times in the last year I’ve searched the office, I haven’t come up with anything.”

Wait fives times they’ve searched the office? We’d had only been searched thrice to my knowledge.

“Well then you’re not searching hard enough. Do another check it won’t be long before Engi and his little follower get the reactor working again.”

As if right on cue, the lights came back on, and after a few seconds they shut off again. I got some bad vibes out of that and turned around going back the way I came. I forgot about the swing wrench.

Little follower? A nuisance? Another everyday problem to deal with?

Dammit, NOT right now brain!

***

When I got to the reactor room, I found Engi on the other side of the room, he had been thrown up against the wall, and he was singed, and it looked like his entire body had been smoking just a little bit. I rushed over to him, he coughed. I couldn’t carry him out myself. He was too heavy.

“Engi are you alright?”

He coughed again, “Do I look like I’m alright?”

The secondary generators had turned on from the mane power being off for so long, I hoped that the panic buttons would work. I scampered over to the wall where the red button was. I was too short to reach it, even planting a forehoof on the wall and reaching, I was too short.

Getting desperate, I took off my equipment belt and threw it at the button.

Thankfully that worked.

A few minutes later help showed up, our Stable’s doctor. Redcross, one of the colt assistances he had taken under, and too my surprise the Overseer as well.

“By Celestia! He’s practically cooked!” Cross went and pulled him off the wall, “Hey, Engi! Can you hear me? Come on, I know you’re in there.”

“What happened here?” The Overseer asked.

Oh crap. I wasn’t sure what to do. I had just found him like this, I didn’t see it happen. I had been eavesdropping on the Overseer and the Security Head before I got here. What did I say?

Nothing. I said nothing. I just sat there and said nothing.

“Excuse me, I’m talking to you.” The Overseer sounded agitated

I continued to be a mute.

“He suffered serious electrical burns. As for her.” Cross beckoned a hoof towards me, “I’d say she’s in shock.”

What a terrible pun.

Dammit, this was not the time or place to be making light of the situation brain. Cut it out.

A few minutes later I found myself back in the medical lab, Engi on a medical bed. Engi had woke up, he was groaning in serious pain.

“Get me some Med-X!” Cross ordered. The little colt who was with him went over to the cabinet.

“We’re all out!” He pipped.

Shit, that would be my fault. This was the first major accident the Stable had in nearly a year.

“Then get it from storage!” Cross snapped. He was not in a good mood. Within thirty seconds the colt, I couldn’t remember his name, had returned with three needles of the stuff. Cross was less than nice when he punctured one of Engi’s veins and emptied the syringe. He didn’t hesitate with the second one either. I phased out.

***

“His condition’s stabilized. But he’s gonna be out of it for awhile Ma’am.” Cross explained.

The Overseer replied, “I see.” She turned and looked at me, I looked back. Our eyes met. Something told me this was off, “What of the girl?”

“Physically? She’s fine. Mentally?” Cross shook his head, “I don’t think she’s up for talking to anypony. She hasn’t left the bedside since we got here, that was yesterday.”

“She hasn’t been bothering you at all has she? I know friends have a habit of doing that.”

“Nope, she’s been completely quiet since the incident.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“I asked her some questions. She didn’t say anything. I’m not surprised. I did however find the arcing point. He must of accidently touched something he wasn’t supposed too. What he did, I couldn’t say.”

“Look, I hate to do this to you Doctor, but manepower is still out. We need it back immediately.”

“Engi is in NO condition to do anything right now. And probably won’t be for the next week or so. And I don’t see why you need manepower back so bad. The secondaries seem to be able to handle it.”

“That’s not your domain Cross.” The Overseer snapped back.

“‘Not your domain’. Yes, and you’re a Mechanical Engineer as well I assume?” Cross tilted his head slightly and answered with complete sarcasm.

I just sat there listening. The glass to Cross’ office was not soundproof. I wasn’t to sure why the Overseer wanted the manes back up on such a short schedule.

“Ma’am, I will not allow you to remove Engi from my care, for the at least the next two weeks at least, that could change depending on how well he recovers. But he’s lucky he’s even alive. He’s covered in second degree electrical burns, and has third degree burns at the arcing point and where he was grounded at. You are not taking him ANYWHERE until I say so.”

The Overseer looked furious.

“Fine, then she has to do it.” She ordered.

Doctor Cross looked puzzled, my ears shot straight up.

“She as in, Silver Wind?”

“Yes, she as in Silver Wind”

“Ma’am with all due respect...” Cross started.

The Overseer cut him off, “Why is it whenever I hear ‘With all due respect’ from you, it really means kiss my ass, because I’m wrong?”

“Because you are wrong!” Cross raised his voice, at the Overseer of all ponies.

The Overseer, she looked about ready to blow it, “I.”

Get out of my medbay.” Cross opened the door to his office. The Overseer reluctantly left, she cast a glance to me on the way out.

Cross shook his head in disgust.

“Um Doctor?” The little colt said.

“What!” Cross snapped, the colt recoiled. “Sorry. What is it Evo?” Cross’ voice changed from hostile to empathetic in an instant.

Evo? Evodi, right that was his name.

“He’s woke up.” Evo jumped off the stool he had been using while caring for Engi.

Engi tried to move, but Cross pushed him back down on the bed.

“Easy, don’t try to move too quickly, you’ve suffered severe third degree electrical burns around your front left and back right hooves.” Cross soothed, “Now, can you tell me what happened?”

“I accidently grounded the connection coupler between the first and second core while trying to repair it, I didn’t feel a thing until I hit the back wall.”

That sent some seriously bad and disturbing images into my head.

NOPE, not gonna think about it.

Engi accidently having a tool slip and hit the coupl....

I SAID NO!!!

Getting jolted by about 70 thousand volts. Flying the five or so meters to the back...

WHAT DID I JUST SAY?! You had ONE job brain.

Getting back on topic, the Overseer would eventually ask me to try and repair the reactor myself. I still wasn’t sure why she wanted it back so badly.

I left Engi’s bedside and scampered up to the Doctor, “She’s not actually going to make me fix it?” I croaked with tears in my eyes, Engi, if only I was there, this wouldn’t have happened.

“You’re the one that found Engi, right?” Doctor Cross asked.

“Yes.” I nodded my head, I relived the moments of walking down the staircase and immediately noticing Engi leaning up against the far wall in the reactor room.

“I am officially taking you off of major duty, reason: because of mental shock, until Engi is recovered. I’ll write you a slip and you shove it in the Overseer’s face if she approaches you.” Cross ran a hoof through my mane, I didn’t normally allow ponies, other than my mom, to touch it, but I found it oddly comforting so I didn’t object or recoil, “I want you to know, you did the right thing, which was, hitting the panic button. I wish they were more abundant. They have more of them upstairs than they do down here.”

Reason: because of mental shock.

Again with the horrible puns! Shut up brain!

I was incredibly tired, so I left the infirmary with the note Cross had written up for me. I trotted back to my family’s room. I found nopony there waiting for me, they were all inside and already having dinner. The Secondaries had long since come on to fill in the gap.

My mother said something about not expecting me back. What was that supposed to mean? I ate my dinner washed up and went to bed.

I slept in the following morning. Way later then I usually would have. I was the Stable’s maintenance head for the time being.

***

The following day, I wasn’t sure why I was so tired. Had I always been this worn out? I went back up to the infirmary, after I had visited the secret library for a bit to clear my head. Engi was still there, but he had been moved to a cot that was pulled out from the wall, the burns around his hooves had been bandaged up. Third degree burns were nasty, I had only gotten a second degree burn from a soldering iron, and only a tiny one. Engi told me he had gotten third degree burns before, a light bulb exploded in his face.

Evodi was attending to him at the time, giving him some water and washing the fur around his burns, some of his orange fur had been shaved off entirely, the ends had been fried and turned black, were as some had melted their ends together with other hairs. The image of originally finding Engi came back and haunted me again... Cross kept telling me it wasn’t my fault, but I should have been there. I wouldn’t have needed to leave if I had brought a full kit, instead of my streamlined one. I wouldn’t be making that mistake again. This was my fault.

“Excuse me, I’d like to talk to ‘Kota in private.” He asked.

“I’m almost done here.” Evo responded.

“That wasn’t a request.” Engi was getting impatient, Engi began driving Evo away with a hoof.

“Okay! Okay, you have 5 minutes. Then I need to finish cleaning your fur out. You took a pretty nasty jolt.”

Evo got up and left.

“‘Kota... Silver, come here.” Engi used my actual name, so I knew this was serious. I had a million and one things rushing through my head.

I bounded up to him, I was so worried about what the Overseer was going to do. Before he even started I cut him off.

“The Overseer wants me to fix the reactor.” I blurted out.

Engi stopped. Then he sighed. He tried to sit up again, and got respectfully close before he just fell back onto the cot with a thud.

Engi made some conversation to distract me, “You know,” Engi tossed and turned on the cot, “These are pretty comfortable.”

I shook my head, he was just trying to distract me, with the best intentions of course, “How did it actually happen?” I asked.

“I thought I had isolated the coupler enough to deter any current from going through... I guess I was wrong.”

I suddenly got a flash, almost vivid. It was Engi working on the core, he had pulled the coupler off the second core entirely. How he managed that I had no idea. It was still a few hundred degrees. When he went pull it out of the primary core, using that holding device he made, using his left hoof. (Engi is left hooved) He put his right hoof on the second core, then went to pull the other half of the coupler out of the first core. He got jolted by the core, and that sent him flying.

I shook my head and came back to reality.

“And that’s what happened.... are you okay?”

I shook my head violently, “I’m fine. I’m more concerned about you.”

Engi cocked an eyebrow, “Shaking your head like this,” Engi shook his head left and right, “Is fine huh?”

“I’m okay, you’re not. But the Overseer is going to ask my to fix the reactor, soon.”

“You’re going to have a hard time doing that. I suspect the coupler in the first core got welded after that arc jumped.”

“Then I’ll pull it off without touching it.”

“Kota, I’m trying to give you legitimate reasons not to do the repair yourself. Something to tell the Overseer”

“Tell me what?” Another voice in the room said.

Umm, what’s the expression Engi would have used. Ah yes, I believe “Oh fuck” would be the one. In that case.

Oh fuck.

There she was, the Overseer, standing in the Infirmary doorway.

Engi had to wing it, “I was telling Dakota that fixing the Reactor would be impossible until I recovered. She expressed that she wanted to fix it herself.”

Wow, nice lying Engi. Not that Applejack would have been too pleased.

The Overseer put on that fake smile that made me want to scream, she trotted over to me. “How... thoughtful of you Dakota to step forward like that. I see you’re as eager as anypony to get the manes back online. But, Engi please explain to me why she can’t do the repair herself.”

Engi looked at me, “To be honest. It’s not just the dangers of trying to work on the core... She’s incompetent.”

The words hit me harder than a metal pipe would have.

“She would have to shut the reactor down fully, which in itself is extremely complicated and well beyond her own skills and understanding.”

I wanted to cry.

“Then she’d have to be able to pull the coupler that’s stuck in the primary core out, repair it. Get it back in place, restart the 7 cores in the correct order, flick the manes back on, and then after all that is done. Monitor the reactor’s energy output for a prolonged period of time, while making sure it doesn’t overheat. And that, that is not a job I would leave for a filly that can barely put a lightbulb back into its socket.”

I sniffed. The Overseer was less than impressed. Didn’t Engi say shutting the reactor off would be extremely dangerous as it might not restart?

“Is that a sufficient explanation? Or would you like me to get into the intricate details of all the jobs I’ve had to parent her on?” Engi concluded.

“I see, Engi. I will take that under advisement.” The Overseer turned to me, I was staring at the floor. Head below my shoulders.

The Overseer turned her head across the room, she quickly turned around and trotted for the door. I looked to where she had looked, Cross was standing in his office with a death stare pointing in her direction.

“Really? Did you have to drive it home that badly?” I asked, I had a tear in my eye. “Am I really that terrible?”

“Well, the Overseer bought it right?”

Wait what? ... Of course, have that moment of realization after your mentor says you’re a terrible trainee.

“Yeah, but now she’s going to think I’m an idiot.”

I think that ship has already set sail.

“You know, I didn’t mean any of that. Had to put that act on for the Overseer.”

“It hurt though.” I sighed.

“Of course it did, ‘cause you know it’s not true.” Engi managed to sit up.

“So, did she buy it?”

I spun around, it was Cross.

“I wanna say yes.” Engi nodded his head once. He was talking to Cross.

Engi told Cross. Didn’t he know how risky that was?

“Evo doesn’t know does he?” I asked.

Cross simply answered, “Knows what?”

“Red, she’s the whole reason we’re doing this.” Engi replied.

“He left that part out did he?” I smiled.

“Engi says you’re one of the sharper tools in the shed.” Cross commented.

“She’s got carbide teeth, if you know what I’m saying.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s exaggerating.” I ever so slightly blushed, “Why did you tell the doctor?”

Engi sighed. From the looks of it he hadn’t by choice.

“He tracked down where his missing supplies went.”

Yet again, my fault.

“So he gave me two options. Tell him what was going on or I could deal with the Overseer. He thought I was an addict.”

“So, what did you tell him?” I asked.

“That the Overseer has been lying to the entire Stable.”

I hoped Engi hadn’t told Cross about the plan to escape. The more ponies that knew about it, the more likely we would spring a leak.

“So, under my advisement. We’ll keep you in here for the next week. After that, I want you back every day for another 2 weeks so I can check up on you.” Cross ordered, “Am I clear?”

“Yes, Doctor.” Engi didn’t seem entirely pleased.

“Dakota...” Engi began. “Cross, I would like to speak to her alone.”

“Hmm. Alright.” Cross said blankly, returning to his office.

“Dakota...” Engi started again.

I cut him off. “That office isn’t soundproof.”

“Dakota, I electrocuted myself on purpose.” Engi deadpanned.

Uhhh.... What?

This was bringing up more questions than answers.

“With the mane core not powering the Stable. It’s reverted to minimum mode on the secondary reactor. That means security is offline, no cameras. You can bust into the Overseer’s office and poke around a bit.” Engi continued, “As for Cross’ missing medical supplies. I popped a syringe of Med-X before bridging the cores.”

“I didn’t feel a thing until I hit the back wall.”

Engi didn’t directly say the password to the Stable door control terminal on level 1. Speaking of which.

“That glass isn’t soundproof, Engi.” I noted again.

“I’m aware. I heard him and the Overseer arguing as well.”

“I thought you were out.”

“I am a very good actor.”

“Evo’s not gonna walk in unexpected is he?”

“He should be back soon, anything else you want to add? He’s gonna clean me up. Nice kid, young, head in the clouds, well lights. No clouds down here.” Engi shook his head, “Anything else?”

“I found another technical readout of the door, but specifically the locking device.” Oh, I hope Cross couldn’t hear us.

“Go on...” Engi encouraged me to continue.

“To prime the explosive bolts, we have to ‘dial’ the correct code. There is a ring of 60 symbols that runs along the outside of the door. What I found didn’t give us the code, but the ring spins and then the explosive bolt ‘primes’ when given a correct symbol. The same symbol can’t be used twice and it does matter which order we input them into the system.” I explained.

Engi nodded his head, he was still partially out of it, so I’d probably end up reexplaining this to him later.

“It takes time to ‘dial out’ as it was explained on the blueprint I found. I was hoping it would be as simple as punching in a password but it’s not.” I took a deep breath, “What this does mean, is that given the 9 correct symbols, there is only three hundred and sixty two thousand, eight hundred and eighty possible combinations. Nine Factorial; however, I’m pretty sure we only have to try each explosive bolt at most, 9 times before it primes. So worst case scenario we’re looking at 45 attempts across every bolt put together. Because we remove a symbol from the pool every time we get it right, so nine plus eight, plus seven, plus six... so on. With every additional symbol that primes.”

Engi smiled, I had a feeling he was just trying to understand the jarble I had just thrown at him.

“That also means, that for every symbol we get right, our chances of guessing the correct symbol for the next bolt goes up, meaning, if we get lucky, we shouldn’t have to guess down to the wire every time. However, this is assuming we can find the correct set of symbols to start with.”

“Well done, Dakota.” Engi was visibly impressed, and that was a rare sight.

“The point of all that. We’ll be better off chasing the password rather than the code. If we get the password without knowing the symbols, we have 60 factorial, divided by 51 factorial, which leaves us with 5 or so quadrillion combinations that can be entered, but yet again not really, because it’ll prime when given the correct symbol and not any other symbol, so in reality, 60 plus 59 plus 58 and so on... which leaves us with 504 possible combinations.”

When I scored slightly better in math on my CAT, they gave me a bunch of prewar textbooks on mathematics. I didn’t even know we had access to these in the public library, until the Overseer had the librarian give them to me.

“Yet again, that’s assuming the same symbol can’t be used twice...” I thought aloud, “That would mean... oh 60 to the power of 9?” I’d have to check that on a calculator later.

Engi looked more than just impressed. He was outright prideful.

“You’ve... that’s awesome.” Engi smiled. He had the most outrageous smile. “Very well done Silver.”

“Now, lets just hope Doctor Cross didn’t hear a peep of that.” I had been pretty quiet explaining that.

Looking at the Doctor’s office he was still sitting there working away. That didn’t mean anything though.

“Dakota.” Engi jerked his head to get me to come closer, “You need to get into the Overseer’s office. You have a week before I’m up and about, and I can guarantee you, the second Cross clears me for duty, the Overseer is going to make me fix the Mane Reactor.”

“I still don’t get why she wants it fixed so badly. For all intents and purposes, this Stable is running normally.”

“It’s most likely security, the hallways have cameras, the rooms don’t. Now ponies are free to move as they please without the Overseer watching their every move in the halls.”

Hm. A gear clicked in my head. “That would be why she had BlueVisor search the Maintenance office by hoof, while we weren’t there. There’s no security cameras. There must not be any in line of sight to the library of the library either...”

Engi’s face contorted. “She what?! When were you planning on telling me this Dakota? When did this happen?!?”

Besides my recoil from Engi’s less than happy questions, I heard Cross moving around in his office. I turned around and he was looking right at me. I waved a hoof. He went back to work.

“Listen to everything before you fly off again at me.” I told Engi, “After you sent me back to get the swing wrench, I was nearly back to the Maintenance office when I stopped at the corner because I heard the Overseer and Bee-Vee talking. She’s had it searched at least twice without us knowing, and the Chief said he hadn’t found anything of interest.”

Engi’s expression lessened a bit. He still wasn’t too pleased.

“This complicates things.” Engi said. “We need to be careful what we leave in there.” Engi’s thinking face appeared, as he looked at the cot it was laying on. Not sure what he was thinking, I didn’t ask.

“Then it’s a good thing we’ve kept almost everything in the library.” I reassured, “Which is, yet again. The last place anypony, including the Overseer, would look. A room that apparently doesn’t exist.”

“Almost everything?” Engi asked.

“Portable generators. Though I do have some in the library. And whatever medical supplies you kept in there, I thought you gave me it all after I stole it.”

“Ahh, right.” Engi’s eyes rolled, “Good thing I hid the medical stuff well then.”

Cross opened the door to his office, and trotted out, past us both, and to the door.

“Cross, where ya goin’?” Engi asked.

“I’m not telling the guards anything, if that’s what you mean. And I didn’t hear most of that. You talk way too quietly, Dakota.”

***

Two days had passed, and I hadn’t been arrested yet, so the doctor, Cross, mustn’t have told any of the guards yet. He and Engi were pretty good friends. I went out of the way to check that ‘worst case scenario the same symbol could be used multiple times’ problem. That came to 10 quadrillion with change in terms of possible combinations.

So, I needed to get into the Overseer’s office. It was locked whenever she wasn’t in there. So I needed to catch her leaving it unlocked, or something. I wasn’t entirely sure. I was hoping to recover the password to the Stable Door Terminal or the 9 symbols required to unlock the vault door. Preferably the latter rather than the former. But both would have been just fine by me.

The Overseer’s office was on the second floor of the Manehub, up and to the left of the hallway I used to head to the library. Fortunately, the office connected to the lounge on the second floor on the hub. Where everypony went when they had extra time and weren’t doing their job in the Stable. So, I started there. I had noticed over the years, that whenever the Overseer left her office, the entire room would go quiet while she passed by. She never bothered to say hi, or take a seat. The occasional pony would greet the Overseer...

Only to get the cold shoulder. Engi was right, she was a colossal bitch.

A few minutes later she returned. The door hissed shut and then made the clink click noises all doors in the Stable made when they locked. I had been trying to think of a way to get in without being caught for two days and it was just becoming more frustrating the longer I thought about it.

I decided to try and clear my head, so I left the lounge. I was by Officer Oliver.

He had his hooves up on the railing overlooking the lower floor of the hub. I decided to join him. I trotted over to the railing and did the same thing. I was, being generous, maybe two thirds his height. He was watching all the foals playing hide and seek.

He didn’t even look at me, “Why don’t-cha play with them anymore?”

I lied, “Got too old for it I guess?” Personally I had better things to do... like read the wealth of knowledge I had singular access to.

“Lies!” Oliver turned and looked at me, “Nopony’s ever too old for Hide and Seek.”

I thought about it for a moment, “Okay, how about, ohhhh... Everypony knows the hiding spots? And any new ones don’t stay new for that long.”

“I don’t know about that. You had one that was good for awhile there.” Officer Oliver reminisced, “But I guess they found it didn’t they? Still can’t believe all the effort you went into keeping it hidden. I mean, right up over the railing? That’s dedication. Where did ya hide anyway?”

Uhh, shit. He remembered that? The one time I made my self standout. Better refrain from that in the future. Stakes were high enough as is right now.

I didn’t answer. I simply hoped that he’d continue talking. To my relief he did.

“The Overseer didn’t appreciate it too much. But the fellas got a laugh out of it when I told them. She even opened her window there to ask me what the hay was going on. She was less than impressed when I told her what you did. She must have caught a glimpse or something.”

“Oh well. Whoops.” I said, trying to suppress a smile.

And then it clicked. The words ran through my head.

“Opened her window.”

I would have to bust in through the window. The door was impossible. The only problem would be getting out to it, and of course getting it opened. Fortunately, there was an edge I could shimmy along to get to the window. Thank you Stable-Tec.

“She can open her window?” I asked in disbelief.

“Oh yeah, she does that whenever it gets too hot in her office. There’s no vents in there, but like 7 computers. And they’re all on 24/7 so they constantly pump hot air into the room.”

SEVEN Computers. That could complicate things, but I would have to cross that bridge when I came to it. I supposed that could be a gift and a curse in itself, there was bound to be something helpful in all that data.

“I can’t image how hot it gets in there. How often does she have to open the window?” I asked pressing the subject on.

“Well, see, out here the air is conditioned. Her desk is right by the window. So she just opens it up and lets the air get to her. She doesn’t actually need to cool the entire room. Just her desk.”

I looked into the window, her back was to the window she was on a computer doing... something. I wasn’t sure what. I watched her reach for a glass of water, she downed the entire thing. It must have been pretty hot.

She looked around, and out the window. She locked eye contact with me, and then switched to Oliver. A moment later she got up and yanked on a cord to the side of the window. The blinds fell and neither of us could see her anymore.

Oliver made a ‘chhh’ sound before he said, “Jeez, I wonder what her problem is?” Before he got off the railing and went to do his rounds. I stayed in the hub and continued to watch her window.

And I did just that, watch her window for the next three days.

***

I had two days before Engi would be put back into active service, maybe three if he could convince Cross; that also depended on Cross being able to convince the Overseer.

But I had learned a few things over the last three days.

There was no screen behind the window. The blinds shut out all light from the room That she opened the window around 4:30 every day, and she left it open for about an hour before closing it. That was my window, figuratively, and literally. 60 precious minutes of opportunity to find what I needed when I broke in. I’d have to get her out of the office though, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. I considered simply edging across while she wasn’t there, but if I wasn’t caught getting in, I’d double my chances of being seen, not just by the Overseer, if I didn’t plan this out properly. The door to the lounge drew the attention of everypony in the room, so that was a bust. I not only needed to get her out of the office, but also away from it.

I was on the second floor, it was about 2:00, Oliver was doing his rounds, so he wasn’t in the hub, else I would have been talking to him. A bunch of the foals, and even the slightly more older ponies were regrouping in the hub’s lower floor.

I stopped watching the window and listened to their conversation.

“Alright guys, I gotta go. But I won’t be able to play again tomorrow until around three O’clock.”

It was Shade talking, he had been assigned to security. He always walked around with his signature baton. He called it ‘The Vault Guardener’ (pun intended) although he had never needed to use it. It was the same as a normal Stable baton, but he had painted it green. He also said it was lighter, and that allowed him to swing it faster. His witty line of choice was “I use this to remove weeds, are you a weed?” He never let anypony touch it either.

The crowd went “Awwwww.” before they disbanded. So Shade was the group’s glue, interesting... I was forming a plan in my head. But the timing would have to be flawless. There was a couple things I needed to do first though. Zero margin for error.