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You try to manage the Voss with an even hand. Blayz is the only one you regularly subject to memes, a fate that he earned with his manipulative behaviour when you were still a guest in his village. Over the course of past week, you have transformed into an ideal servant. He is not a mindless automaton like the Soulless slaves – he still has all of his wit and cunning. The only thing that you have stripped him of his ambition.
As for the three tribesmen who are starting to show the same symptoms as the thralls, you segregate them from the rest. The vastness of Dispenser 300-9 makes this simple enough. You assign them a room in the outer reaches, far away from the hall that the others use a dwelling. They're allowed to leave the bunker and hunt if they wish, but you forbid them from straying near the rest of the tribe. Some of the Voss grumble about this, but you try to mollify them by explaining germ theory. It's a slow process.
Finally, there's Ghee, the boy who was stupid enough to snoop around Cryostasis and paid the price. You see no reason to use him as a test subject, that would just be inhumane. Instead, you amputate the petrified hand as hygienically as you're able. While it puts a stop to the young man's pain, there's a good chance that the wound will still end up infected. It's a toss of the dice.
Overall, the Voss are productive and while they aren't in high spirits, morale isn't dismal either.
Over the course of that week, you broke over a third of the lockers open and spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to operate the drones and crack open the armoury. Each UAV seems to come with a detachable ceramic disc near its charging port, complete with a chrome bump protruding from it. They reminded you of electrodes, the sort used for recording brain activity. Just to test your theory, you placed one against your temple...
… and immediately regretted it. In that instant, you were suddenly able to see with eyes that weren't your own and your brain was bombarded with a stream of incomprehensible code. Even though you tore the electrode off as soon as you could, the nausea of the experience almost made you vomit. Mastering these drones will be a slow process indeed.
As for the opening the armoury, all of your attempts to open it failed miserably. None of the access codes you thought of worked, none of your attempts to force the door open made it budge an inch. Even after a week, you made absolutely no progress.
So what are you going to try next?
>Experiment with the nanites from Cryostasis. If you use them carefully, they could be a quick solution to your problem.
>Focus on mastering drone control. Each of the UAVs has a welding torch of some sort that could play a vital part.
>Plan a visit to Mulhouse. You need help, preferably from people who aren't stuck in the Stone Age like the Voss.
>Give up on the armoury for now and focus on leading the Voss instead. You accept that it's a lost cause.
