Alien: Isolation

Chapter Seven: Tut, Tut

Moving down the corridor, it was nice to not have to worry about insane people running around trying to kill her for a while, but now Ripley was facing a different kind of obstacle. The Working Joes were walking around, kind of arbitrarily performing their assigned tasks, but most of them wouldn't respond to her beyond what sounded like a pre-recorded greeting, and all of them spoke in the same deep, calm voice, which was unnerving in itself. Still, she was able to follow the directory signs until she passed a security office, but instead of wasting time with the android behind the glass, she decided to just go through the door... but the door didn't open.

"That is a restricted area." The android said, turning its glowing eyes toward her. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I need to get into Comms Control." Ripley replied, moving up to the glass. "It's urgent."

She didn't know why she kept expecting these things to understand the emotion in her voice, since part of the Seegson line of Synthetics was to make them easy for people to identify. This meant no simulated emotions, no deviation from standard programing, no nothing, proven when the android simply repeated that Comms Control was a restricted area, while adding a request for her to leave.

"Damn it, I need to contact my ship!" Ripley yelled, punching the glass. "This is an emergency, don't you realize what's happening on this station?!"

"Apollo has the situation in hand." The android replied as calmly as ever. "Further attempt to access restricted areas... is not recommended."

Fine, she thought to herself as she stepped away from the glass. If the Working Joes weren't going to help her, then she supposed that she was just going to have to find her own way in. One nice thing that she had learned about even the most secured locations over the years, was that there was always another way in, if only for emergencies. And most of those emergencies just happened to involve the Maintenance or Engineering departments, meaning that there had to be an access point around there somewhere.

Sure enough, there was a round maintenance hatch nearby, like the ones that Axel had used to move around the station undetected. It was positioned around the corner, away from where most people coming and going would see, which included the Working Joe in the security office. The hatch was locked down, but that was no problem thanks to the access tuner on her belt, and just like with the elevator in the Transit Hub, the maintenance hatch soon opened for her.

"Further attempts are not recommended." Ripley mocked as she crawled into the duct. "Asshole."

Well, what were the androids going to do even if they caught her inside a restricted area? Unlike with the lunatics that she had met in the other tower, the first law of primary synthetic programming was that they were not allowed to harm a human being. Of course they were also not allowed to let themselves be harmed by humans either, so there was always a question of how exactly those rules worked. Either way, the direction of the duct was taking her past the locked door, meaning that it shouldn't be a problem to get into Comms Control from that point on.

"This is a restricted area." The android's muffled voice said. "You are trespassing."

At first Ripley was worried that the one from the security office had somehow discovered her, but then she realized two important things: First was that the voice was coming from up ahead, while the security office was behind her, and second... there was a second voice. It sounded like a human voice, but it was too muffled for her to understand what it was saying, so she crawled ahead a little faster until she came to a vent where she could see that there was, in fact, a human standing there talking with another Working Joe in the corridor.

"Listen to me!" The man exclaimed. "We've got to reestablish long-range communications!"

"You are becoming hysterical." The android replied, grabbing him by the forearm. "Let's resolve this amicably."