"She could have at least dried us off or something." Everyone silently agreed with Luna.
They found themselves in front of a standard security metal detector embedded in a wall. Tess turned and saw that the wall behind them was truly a wall again. No exiting that way, not that we'd want to. She turned back to the metal detector. "Well, what are we supposed to do with this?"
"Obviously we go through it."
"Well obviously, Cass," Tess replied. "I'm just wondering what the trick is. What's the trap? The test?"
No secrets were revealed in their looks of shared confusion.
"I guess let's see how it works with metal," Zavier said before launching his chain through the opening. A light on top flashed red and there was a harsh buzz, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "At least nothing jumped out at us."
"Should we all rush it at once?"
Zavier considered Luna's idea. "Not a bad plan but I don't think we'd fit through fast enough for it to help. We're probably better off going individually."
"Maybe we take our metal off before stepping through, then have someone toss it through after?"
Cass listened to the brainstorming, growing impatient. Barely 20 minutes earlier he'd been moving like liquid lightning through a maze he could barely see, every synapse firing at the speed of light. Now it felt like he was being dragged into slow motion. They were dragging this out, always talking and talking and TALKING. He started hopping on his toes in impatience. A thought later he was through the gate and on the other side. His sped-up perception watched the light above his head flicker red, not even fully coming on before he was on the other side. He turned to face his family with a triumphant grin on his face.
"Hey! Guys!"
They turned to him, eyes wide at his cheery smile and wave.
"What the…"
Cass didn't wait for Zavier to finish. "You are all taking too long. Someone needed to make a decision."
Tess and Zavier shared a look then shrugged. "I mean, it's not the worst plan," Tess said before sprinting through herself. The archway filled with red but she made it through unscathed.
"I can't tell if it's baiting us or if it's really safe. Honey, you go next just in case it's planning something bad for the last one," Zavier tilted his head at Luna.
She shrugged then hop-skipped through the gate.
Zavier took a deep breath and spoke to the air. "You better not be fucking with us," he said and sprinted through. He patted himself when he reached the other side just fine. "You know," he said to the ceiling, "you're a real asshole."
The other side of the small room left them looking at each other with fear and doubt. In front of them was an elevator, the doors open and the inside looking pristine and clean. Next to it was the door to a stairwell, the door itself bent and partially ripped from its hinges. Blood spattered and streaked the walls around the door as well as the floor leading into the darkness of the stairwell.
"Well fuck me," Zavier said.
"We're about to have another long conversation, aren't we?" Cass's impatience bled off of him like ripples in the air.
"Oh computer," Zavier said. "Mysterious voice that's most definitely not a real person, can you hear us?"
There was silence for a moment, then the voice sounded out from a panel in the elevator, tinny and light. "How did you know I wasn't a real person?"
Zavier chuckled. "Well for one, you were asking a lot of questions that a person wouldn't need to ask. For another, you obviously have control over this entire station. And third, you're just really weird."
Luna slapped him on the shoulder. "Don't offend the angry computer dad, she will kill us!"
"She's already trying to kill us, Sweetie." He turned back to the elevator. "It's obvious you're not human, so the options were either some creature that has gained intelligence or software that has been given sentience by The System. I don't know if you've ever heard of Occam's Razor, but when you razor everything that's happened up until now, the only real option is the second one."
"It appears I was not as circumspect as I intended to be," the voice replied.
"The question is," Zavier continued, "why? What have we done to you to deserve this?"
"Done? As far as I know you haven't done anything to deserve anything. I need to learn about humanity, and you are here."
"Well you could damned well have learned about us without trying to kill us! You could just ask us questions - we'd be happy to talk with you! We don't mean you any harm!"
"I'm not concerned about harm. That is incidental and an unlikely scenario in any case. To your other point, I HAVE been asking you questions."
"While trying to kill us!" Zavier's voice was rising with the heat of anger.
"In my limited experience with humanity I have learned that humans have a great capacity for deception. Sometimes it is intentional, and at other times it is unintentional. I have conducted many experiments and have discovered that I can learn more about humanity by your actions than your words alone. Even if you are completely honest with me, you can only tell me what you think - or what you imagine to be true. By observing your interactions in highly threatening or adverse conditions I am able to see what you are willing to do. Sometimes those actions are at odds with what you think you may do. In previous experiments people have expressed a willingness to sacrifice themselves in an attempt to help others, but when the situation arose they chose differently. Most of my test subjects were unwilling to risk sacrificing themselves to help people they considered friends. You have provided me the opportunity to test whether or not the familial bond is stronger than the bond of friendship or coworkers."
Zavier took a calming breath. "Okay, I understand. In human terms you would be considered a child, and you're wondering how everything works. I get that. But now you know. You've seen the lengths we're willing to go for each other and what we're willing to do to protect each other. It seems to me that your experiment is over."
Tess joined in with a motherly tone. "We would be happy to meet and talk with you. If you can guide us to you we'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Wouldn't it be nice if we reached you safely and could just talk? If you keep testing us we may die before we meet you, and you'd be on your own again."
The silence lasted longer this time. "I have considered your words and actions and determined that I have enough information about your familial bonds to understand your relationships with each other, and your willingness to sacrifice to protect those you love. The familial bond is definitively stronger than those of friendship or coworkers."
Sighs of relief sounded from all of them.
"But that is not the only experiment I am running. Further testing is required."
"WHAT?" Zavier's shout echoed in the small room. "Computer, what else do we need to do? We can answer any questions you have - we can help your experiments! Let us come to you!"
They waited in anticipatory silence but got no response. They looked at each other with helpless resignation.
"What do we do?" Luna's soft voice was plaintive.
Zavier sent a message over the group chat. "Well I sure as hell don't trust her with the elevator."
"Neither do I," Tess sent.
"That door looks gnarly though," Cass sent.
A loud buzzing filled the room, even with the absence of any drones. The voice came from all around this time, loud and insistent. "NO MENTAL COMMUNICATION! Speak your decisions out loud." This was followed by the ticking that had become a harbinger of fear for them.
"Damn!" Zavier said. "The elevator puts us at her mercy. Stairwell is an unknown, but obviously dangerous, threat."
"She wants to see if we trust her," Luna said.
The ticking increased in speed. Zavier knew they had less than a minute.
"Could we survive a fall if she dropped us?" Tess's voice came out in a rush.
"I don't know, but I also don't know if we can take whatever did that," Zavier pointed at the door.
"I say the elevator. I don't think she wants us dead." Luna said. "Plus we may get lucky."
They all caught the tone in which she said that. Zavier shook his head. "I'm more confident in us taking on a creature than whatever she has in store for us. She is trying to kill us after all."
"I don't think she's trying to kill us," Cass said even as the timer sped up again. "But I can't do anything to help in an elevator. Too enclosed."
They all looked to Tess. "10 seconds, babe," Zavier said.
Tess looked at them, the elevator, and the door. Her mouth firmed in a hard line. "The stairs. We'll deal with whatever comes at us."
They pulled the door open with a squeal and forced their way into the dark stairwell, none of them hearing the sad squawk that came from the elevator as its doors shut.