Antoine straightened as Ms -no, [i]First Sergeant[/i]- Larson called attention, Mowzer nibbling at his cheek indignantly as the scritches paused. Military discipline didn't fade so quickly, it seemed, though he relaxed quickly once the 'at ease' call came. One hand returned to keeping his cat well and happy then, the other falling down by his hip, thumb hooking into the pocket of his khaki's for support.

And he stayed pretty much like that, despite the news that rocked everyone else back, despite the storm of questions and worries that then surged forwards. He remained steady and calm at the edge of the mass, idly petting his pet, only the faintest smile still remaining.

It wasn't that he didn't care, or didn't agree what happened was horrific, or anything close to that. But unlike most of the crowd gathered to hear these words, he had already known the news- if not every detail.

A medtech killing his cryo-patients? Taking advantage of the then-helpless human beings he had been chosen to oversee? Oh yes, [i]every[/i] medtech had heard of that. The news of security changes hadn't told them why, at first, when they were woken up to prepare for the third shift, but it hadn't taken long for word to get out. Whispers traded from the techs of the second shift during those quiet days when barely anyone had been awake. Rumors that flourished even now, after the third shift had woken up, finding nothing but more evidence to support the claims that yes, this had indeed happened.

And every one of Antoine's peers had been asking the same questions: [i]Why?[/i] [i]How?[/i]

Much of the cryo process -from going to sleep to being woken up- was automated, it had to be. No human could be trusted to accurately calculate the dosage needed for each individual aboard the [i]Copernicus[/i]- No human could trust they had accurate enough information on everyone to even attempt such a feat. To drug someone to the point of near-death, where the brain functioned only the absolute barest minimum required to be woken again, called for a kind of precision humans simply weren't capable of.

But they [i]were[/i] capable of programming computers that could perform that very task. Computers that could take near-perfect measurements of a person's health, and know precisely the dosage required to induce the state needed for cryo-sleep. Computers that could evenly cool the body down to near-freezing, maintaining the delicate environment required for preservation. Computers that could then warm the body once more, leaving only what residual drug remained as the 'symptoms' of waking from cryo-sleep.

It was work that required repetitive perfection. That was why the computers were set to do their job and [i]only[/i] their job. That was why the Techs kept constant watch to ensure no changes led to bugs in the programming, that the computers were kept in top condition, that even in the remote case something went wrong, a human hand was there to fix it.

But this time, a human hand had broken it all. How had he bypassed the security protocols he should never have had access to? How did he manage to individually thaw and re-cool sleepers without [i]any[/i] alarm being raised? People were [i]vulnerable[/i] in cryo-sleep. That's why there were computers, there were checks, there were walls even a tech couldn't be able to bypass... [i]shouldn't[/i] be able to bypass.

But one had. And now everyone knew.

"What do you think, Mowzer?" He murmured the words softly into his pets ear... who promptly turned to rub his cheek down Antoine's nose. "The next round of checkups will be fun, right?"

Shaking his head at his own bad joke, the Medtech smiled a little more and kept himself at the back of the crowd, tending to his cat. It'd be curious how many of his peers had chosen to attend this meeting, if there were those who were too scared to stand in public when the news was dropped. Nothing to blame them for, really, but it was good to hear the official word. Good to see the human reaction. Antoine made no attempt to raise his voice in question alongside the others, or to whisper in horror between those around him, but he did watch, and listen. 

It was a bit like rebreaking a bone in order to set it. Painful for all involved, but necessary to heal. This was the low, right here and now, and he hoped others could see that too. The break was made, the setting was in order, and the healing would soon begin. It would only get better from here on.