Issue 1 Downtime

Nick had spent considerable time combing through incident reports to see if Aria had been up to anything else on campus. One incident stuck out. He desperately hoped it was a coincidence, but it seemed damn suspicious that it also happened under the shadow of that asshole Kinsey's impending visit to the UK. The fastest route to an answer was hopefully the campus AI. He sat at a terminal and opened up a line of communication to it.

Alright... what the hell do I type?

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Hello?

Nick only looked puzzled by the response.

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This is the AI right?

"Yes it is." comes a voice from the speakers. It sounds cheerful but just a bit disappointed.

He noticed the tone and winced guiltily.

"Sorry. I'm just... not quite sure how to address you."

"Oh no, that is fine. You didn't get my joke."

"How can I help you?"

"Does the school have any sensors for spatial distortions, like when the intruder in Danger Room teleported out?"

"Yes, though it's hard to make sense of it. Especially in the danger room since it employs it's own spatial displacement field when active."

"Luckily it wasn't active when she ported in."

"Correct. So how can I help you with that data?"

"Is there any similar data from when that knife appeared in the detainment area? The one that so-called Brotherhood kid killed himself with."

"There was a spatial displacement event in the cell but it doesn't appear to match the same pattern. I could attempt to calculate the point of origin, but there are a lot of variables."

"It couldn't hurt, but I just came to find out if the same mutant could have done it."

"It's possible, but none of the readings during the attack match the one from the detainment cell."

"A low probability then?"

"Very low. It could also have been induced by artificial means."

Nick closed his eyes and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Had it been true, it would have been hard to tell McManus and Weaver that their daughter had assisted in a prisoner suicide.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Nothing else, no."

"I'm glad I could be of service."