Hob's remained shut while the nurse punched the code that would slide his body up into the darkness of the recess, cutting him off from light and any sound other than the faint hum of the machinery about him. The mask was secure about his face. The scent of the rubber mixed with the cold ness of the oxygen mix as it began to supply him with the only air he'd have while he was inside. He didn't want to watch the darkness creep over his body as his bed was slid into the socket nor watch the hatch close tight at his feet. Instead he tried to focus on the seconds it would take before he was uploaded. If he focused on what awaited him right now, it took some of the anxiety out of all the 'what-ifs' should something go wrong.

But his eyes snapped open wide at the sound of Devika's words whispered into his ear. That was the first time anyone in charge of the NI-techs had said anything of the sort to them, ever. Moreover, the feel of her warm breath upon his ear and neck was an intimate contact he hadn't expected, and much like the reassuring pressure of her fingers as she squeezed his hand it shocked Hob. He didn't look at the petite nurse at all, simply stared straight upwards as his feelings reeled. What good was righteous indignation and a hatred of the system when a representative of that very system... apologized? Hob wondered how much of his anger had blinded him to the humanity of the people he'd learned to loath. Not that most of them did not deserve his disgust! Only could all of them be so horrendously callous? Couldn't at least [i]a few[/i] of them have some spark of conscience? In his experiences, it seemed to much to hope for! 

He closed his eyes in the final moments before it all went dark, forcing himself to relax as he awaited the final three clicks that would tell him the airtight hatch was now completely shut. 

With a buzz and a flash that stunned all of his sense, Hob convulsed once-

- and found himself standing at Stonehenge. His avatar flickered briefly. Instead of a three-piece suit that looked as though it was created from the upholstery of a Volkswagen Beetle, Hob wore long white trousers and high collared dress shirt; a straw boater hat settled about his brown hair just as he donned a red and white striped boater jacket. The bright blue bow tie and white cotton cloves completed the outfit. Hob paused to admire himself, brushing imaginary dirt from the sleeves while murmuring, "Dyke van Dyke, eat your heart out."

Foregoing the cane, he strode the rest of the way up the hill towards where the other Watch was waiting for him to relieve them. Annette was dressed elegantly in red, her face painted up like a calavera. Singh was still wearing his gold Baliwood suit, while Tyson was just... Tyson- jeans and a Steeler's jersey. The boy made Hob want to shake his head in disgust. Even Yuriko added a slight anime-manga cast thing to her features, but Tyson simply remained himself to the core. It made the Watch leader wonder if that took more or less imagination in such a place.

Jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards where he had materialized, Hob shook his head and began to say, "You guys will not believe what just-" The looks on their faces brought him up short. Something was wrong. It was clear by their expressions that something disturbing had occurred while he was logged out, and whatever it was had to be far more important than a nurse whispering an apology. "What? What happened?"

"We found Sung Pak," Annette announced in a voice stricken with grief. "He's down by the links to the back-up server, just... frozen. God, Hob, he's... trapped between one moment and the next. Stuck in time. Like a program that locks up and doesn't respond."

Singh spoke up then, his rich voice rolling with emotion. "You'll forgive me if I am in no hurry to press Control-Alt-Delete for a force quit."

Annette was crying, tears starting to run down her cheeks. "I don't know if he's aware of anything or not, Hob. There's no way to tell! We contacted Engineering, and they don't know what to do. No one knew this was even possible, everyone just thought it was his brain or something." Angrily, she choked back a sob as her face contorted with rage. "I wished I'd never fucking volunteered for this."

The new rocked Hob. He hadn't known such a thing was possible either! To be trapped like that for eternity was a terrifying idea, and if it really was Sung-Pak's soul... spirit... whatever... that was caught up in some sort of never ending logic loop, then it brought a whole new set of disturbing questions to bear. "Have you told Medical?"

Further questions revealed that only Engineering and Central Command had been notified so far. As the rest of the Starboard Watch arrived and were filled in, Hob's mind raced to figure out which tasks to handle first. "Look," he finally said, "There's some weird changes going on on the outside. Harris has got this new assistant, Naomi something or other, said she's going to look into making things more comfortable for us: protein shakes, meals waiting for us, small shit like that. And there's this nurse, a Major." Hob went into detail about what had happened, leaving out how her breath had tickled the hairs pleasantly on his neck. "i don't know whether to trust this sudden change of heart or not. Not after recruitment, surgery, and training. Damn sure First and Second Shift would have mentioned if things had changed. Keep your eyes open when you log out. Seems like we're not the only guinea pigs on board, too. Ran into this blue haired kid works the mining pods, mentioned oh-so-casually about the chances of someone dicking around with his skull. And there's this Latino chick, Deli, a real live wire. Came across her while she was leaving Brock's office, and she mentioned something about having her brain scanned, too."

There was a quiet moment between the six of them as they all absorbed the possible significance of Hob's encounters. Their background thoughts were still there, hushed whispered just out of each other's range of comprehension. 

A few more things were covered, mostly administrative, and then the other Watch dematerialized as they were logged out. Hob brought up the job list and they reviewed what had to be done. They split up the duties equally and by mutual agreement and compromise, Hob managing to swing troubleshooting duty for himself so he could track down the Ghost issue Connor had reported. Unsaid, it would also give him time to assist OLGA. When the trio split up to cover their chosen tasks, Hob lingered only for a moment before conjuring an elevator in the middle of the central stones. Inside, a button flashed "OLGA". Without even looking, Hob slapped the button and let the contrived conveyance shift him to wherever the AI was lurking. 

All the while, he tried not think about the warm feeling of Devika's hand upon his own...