“None taken.” Gavin said in reply to Bill’s mention about not wanting to visit him in a professional capacity. “Trust me, my practice of medicine is a secondary feature necessitated by humanity’s current, shall we say, [i]less than flourishing[/i] reality.” Gavin opened his hands as if surrendering to this truth. “Still, if you should ever need anything, my door is always open.”

With that brief exchange over, Gavin allowed himself the simple pleasure of watching another unfold before him. The young man with the electric-blue hair approached the trio of two miners and a doctor, and took a hesitant seat before plucking up the offered donut.

[i]Sounds like the beginnings of an awful joke,[/i] Gavin thought with a smirk.

He listened with interest as the blue-haired man introduced himself as Connor, and as a mechanical engineer assigned to maintain and repair the mining ships. Gavin’s eyebrows rose with an impressed air as Connor continued on despite the ribbing from both Bill and Owen, and informed upon his prestigious tutelage.

The fact that the miners held little stock in Connor’s pedigree did not surprise him, though it did not make the encounter any more pleasant to watch. Gavin felt an empathetic twinge of discomfort for the young mechanic. As Connor at last departed, looking justifiably put off at the unspoken price of the donut, Gavin made a mental note to meet the MIT grad himself when time permitted. 

The meeting began shortly following the donut incident, and Gavin settled in to his chair as General Lahan was heralded into the Auditorium by Abby’s voice. He watched with perfunctory interest as the commander of the [i]Copernicus[/i] spoke his greeting, and gave the obligatory note about his door being perpetually open. Gavin was somewhat put off with the man’s effort, as even given the General’s high capacity, he had to have a free fifteen minutes in his schedule to give an update on the ship’s voyage himself. 

[i]Oh well,[/i] Gavin smiled, looking to the bright side as the General disappeared. [i]At least we have Abby to do the honors for us.[/i]

What followed, however, was a wrinkle no one in the Auditorium was prepared for. Least of all Gavin. Sitting up in his chair, Gavin’s eyes were narrowed with intensity. The corners of his mouth tugged downward in disgust as Abby described the events and tragedy that had been Second Shift. 

The capacity for human cruelty was shocking, all the more so when it was carried out at the brink of Armageddon. It was a truth that soured Gavin’s stomach, and turned it within him. Five souls. That had been the same number Abby and her team had saved that day back at the Mountain when he had been with Michael, her son. Such a correlation made the loss all the more poignant.

[i]Once again, the ledger of humanity moves ever closer to the red. Except this time, it was of our own doing[/i].

Gavin listened as Abby was bombarded with questions. Connor’s query about motivation sparked a thought in his own mind. His hand rose, and after a woman that Gavin recognized to be one of the veterinarians asked after the reasoning for shift changes, he added his own voice to the room.

“The victims,” he said, “how were they killed?”