Snippet #1455138

A. Golikova
Castle Main Building, Second Floor (F9)

When Golikova came across the floppy disk with her own last name on it, she immediately started searching for any that might belong to one of the others, but all the names and dates were unfamiliar. Still... she took the one with the oldest date, and shoved both it and the one with her name on it into a pocket, just in case perhaps they could find a way to see what was on them later. For now, priority still had to be reaching Taylor and P, but there was a chance they'd come back, or maybe find a working computer elsewhere.

Something struck her about the prism, but she was immediately drawn elsewhere when Stone appeared, rambling about something Golikova wasn't sure she was supposed to understand. A voice inside her head? Was she trying to give off the impression that she was unstable? At this point, though, active suspension of disbelief was still in effect for Golikova, and she decided for now to assume that the incident was both real and unusual for Stone.

Of course, even if this was the case, there was nothing to be done about it now, and so Golikova simply nodded, at least until the other woman got to the part about what would happen in a combat situation. The Russian paused, contemplating doing something she was not usually inclined to do- speaking. White-blond eyebrows drew together, and she closed her eyes, exhaling softly before turning to regard Stone with a heavy stare. Crossing her arms over her chest, Golikova narrowed her eyes at her counterpart, maintaining the silence intentionally for longer than was comfortable.

"Stone," she said, the single word dropping heavily into the silence. It was not the harsh bark of a drill sergeant, but it was just as effective given the situation. "Your uncertainty is a far worse opponant zan anyzing ve have seen zus far. I vill tell you vhat vill happen vhen 'push comes to shove' as you put it: you vill fight, you vill remember your training, and you vill pull your own veight. And you vill vanish zis... hesitation, zis uncertainty. Because if you do not, you vill die. Or I vill die. Vone or ze ozer, perhaps both. I expect no less out of you zan I do out of P or Taylor. In fact, I expect more. Vhy? Because you haff managed to survive zis far. Of all ze people who might be here, ve are. Zat means somezing. Besides..." here Golikova trailed off for a second, realizing that her accent had thickened considerably over the course of her speech, "Ze fact zat you are both female and vearing zat uniform means zat at some point, you had to vork twice as hard as anyvone else for half ze respect, yes?" Golikova relaxed her stance, and for a moment, it almost seemed like she may have possibly told a joke. A dry joke, certainly, but...

More than sick of speaking, she turned on her heel and advanced back towards the prism. "Check ze telescope if you vant," she said without looking back, tone back to the same flat deadpan she usually used, the sharp edge and inflection having seeped from it quickly once she had said her piece.

The prism, she decided, looked more like one of those old-fashioned combination locks than anything else. She wondered if there was some kind of word she could spell that would make the thing unlock something. Not that she had any idea what might happen, but, well... information was survival. Examining all the letters, she wondered for a moment if it was a matter of making them all match up so that every face had a sensical word. Shaking her head, she quickly decided that if it was indeed a combination lock, only the front face mattered. But there were a lot of possibilities... how was she to know what would do the trick?

Vait a minute... three letters. A look of intent concentration on her face, Golikova checked to see if she had the requisite letters. As it turned out, this was the case, and she carefully rotated each segment on the axis until she was looking down at what she had last seen carved into a doorway.

REM.

Individual movement
Takes floppy disks 'Golikova 6-4-09' and '7-12-88'
Spells out 'REM' on metal prism