[h3]The Lone Survivor[/h3]

	He had a minute to ponder over what she had told him as he partook in Kay's meager provisions and she herself was preoccupied with controlling her drone. 
	How different was controlling a drone by means of screens and external controls compared to doing what she did? He supposed it made little difference in terms of control - a glove, levers, same general thing. He also figured it probably did not make much difference whether a screen was in front of you or grafted into you, aside of it presumably being a bit more inconvenient, should someone manage to substitute whatever input the system was supposed to take with their own feed.
	Everything else, though... If it were just her eye, only capable or receiving a signal of one specific type, it would probably have been fine. But [i]"translates human thought into digital signals and vice versa”[/i]? Did it mean that a machine - or just someone with suitable receiver - could read her thoughts? See what she saw? Input thoughts into her mind she would not be able to discern from her own given a compatible transceiver? Could someone commandeer her? How far could one with sufficient technical knowledge go? How could she know someone had not? How could he know she was even there, in control of her actions, as opposed to someone piloting a body from a safe distance? She said she should not go near the machines of the east because they could "get into her head", but perhaps it was more akin to "take over" or even "release the owner of this body"? At this stage, he had no damn way of really knowing for certain, unless his helmet had a setting that by chance could pick something up...
	He could also not help to notice that she was either purposefully obfuscating the exact functional mechanisms of her brain-machine interface, or she simply did not know. That she had been kept in the same kind of darkness he had been left with most Anderekian equipment. And there was some manner of reluctance in her tone, or apprehension ... she was not telling him everything. She was omitting something, and chances were it was sinister or unpleasant in nature. 
	He had mostly just been staring dully in front of himself, with an expression that seemed to be neutral for the time being. 

	He only gave a brief nod once Kay had the little drone return and commented on him noticing the static, and silently held out a hand to accept the bottle Kay offered him. 
	Twenty kilometers to Eighfour... He swallowed before he spoke up. 
	"Still, about three hours..." he noted. They will be caught well and good indeed ... hopefully, the trees would provide some additional protection. "Probably four or five, with the cart."
	He held the bottle to eye-level, scrutinizing the clear liquid within, then unscrewing the cap and holding the mouth of the bottle close to his nose. Looked like water, smelled like water, if perhaps slightly stale. He took a swig, even as Kay saw fit to ask him another question, and he looked up at her.
	"Trenian drones...?" He thought for a moment. "I know ours - Anderekian drones - were not capable of transmitting or receiving during them. They were usually docked to trees when the signal got unclear, and just left there for the duration of the sunstorm. Hopefully they were still there once it had passed. Trenian drones would often stay in air, but would fly higher and just circle over a single place... I think they were just switched to autopilot or something, and likewise could not transmit or receive. I haven't seen or heard of them flying below tree level during that time, at least. Or targeting people, for the matter. Why?" 
	Well, at least the sunstorm meant they would not have to worry about drones as much, he supposed...