"Do I have to?" Cock whined.
"That depends," Ty answered. "Do you want your old job back?"
"OK, fine," Cock said, and followed Ty out of the Main Control Room.
"First we're going to search every room on this floor," Ty said. "If she's not on this floor, we'll work our way down."
"That will take ages," Cock whined.
"Then the sooner we start, the sooner you'll get back to your old job." They walked down the corridor, trying each door. Some doors led to small rooms, quickly searched. Others led to larger rooms. As they opened each door, Ty called out, "Lisa?"
When they got to one a particularly large storeroom, Ty conjured up a megaphone, but he still insisted that they walk through the entire room, between all of the shelving, looking and calling. "Another room completed," Ty said, but Cock was unimpressed.
Eventually, they checked the very last room on floor 83, and Ty pressed the elevator call. "Can't we take a break?" Cock whined.
"I've been awake far longer than you have," Ty said, "doing everything in my power to save Lisa. You'd better hope we succeed."
The elevator arrived. They entered, and Ty hit the button for floor 82, "Memory - audiovisual." When a ding and the doors opening signified their arrival, Ty and Cock stepped out into darkness. Ty found a light switch, but toggling it had no effect. He conjured up a very bright flashlight, and peered into the gloom, while calling out to Lisa with the megaphone.
Unlike floor 83, it seemed that 82 was just one big storeroom. All of the racks, and their contents, appeared identical. It looked like each rack was packed full of disc cases, with one viewing station per rack. Ty pulled out one disc case, and looked it over. "March 19, 2018, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM," the label read. He opened the case, and it contained a disc labeled the same. He closed the case and carefully returned it. "Let's start searching," he told Cock.
They went down the length of the entire first aisle, Ty occasionally calling out with the megaphone, but they heard nothing but echoes. They headed down the next aisle in the opposite direction. They continued the scan, aisle by aisle, for hours. "Do we actually have to walk down every aisle?" Cock asked, "Couldn't we just walk down every tenth aisle, or so?"
"What if she's here but unconscious?" Ty asked rhetorically.
Cock asked "Why would she be unconscious?"
"Why were you unconscious in the Main Control Room?"
Cock shut up, and they continued the scan.
Much later, after Ty called out with the megaphone, for the gazillionth time, he stopped walking.
"What?" asked Cock. "Keep moving."
"No," said Ty. "I heard something. Not just an echo. Shut up so I can listen."
Cock shut up, and Ty listened, but didn't hear anything. Had he imagined it? He called out again, with the megaphone, and heard something again. "This way," he said to Cock, and took off running down an aisle, perpendicular to the one they'd been searching, and away from the elevator. "Lisa!" he called again. He heard a reply again, slightly louder, but still quite faint. They continued running.
The racks seemed to be getting less organized as they progressed into the room. Ty conjured up a very large ball of string, and started unwinding it onto the floor. They had to slow down. Every so often, they hit a blind alley, and had to backtrack. The room was becoming a maze. Ty kept calling out. The replies were getting a little louder, so Ty thought they were on the right track. He couldn't be certain that it was Lisa, though, as the replies were unintelligible.
After what seemed like hours of moving toward the replies, they finally could make out the voice of the reply. "Yes, this is Lisa! Who's there?"
"Ty and Cock," he replied. "Keep talking, it will help us reach you."
At long last, they did. The Lisa homunculus looked disheveled, and there were tears on her cheeks. "Are you alright? What are you doing here?" Ty asked.
"Cock was doing a good job of running things, so I came down here to view some memories. I hardly ever get to do that. I was having fun, but suddenly the power went out. I got lost, and couldn't find my way back to the elevator. But how are you here? You're not part of us. You belong in the real world!"
"It's a long story, and I'll explain it all in detail, later. Long story short, when I transformed you back to your normal body, Cock couldn't handle it, and he royally fucked up the control room. Destroyed nearly every control panel. Sent all the Operations manuals to Disposal"
"Hey, I'm standing right here," Cock said.
"Oh, no," Lisa said. "Destroyed Main Control? Then we're doomed! There will be an Emergency Stop."
"I think I've averted that," Ty said. "A crew from Maintenance is fixing Main Control as we speak. Come on, let's get out of here!"
Ty started following the string back, but Lisa pointed in a different direction, and said, "This way! It will be faster!"
"I thought you were lost," Ty said.
"In the dark, yes," Lisa said, "but since you have light..." She pointed up. High overhead, there were signs with directions and arrows, including some to the elevator. Ty disappeared the megaphone and string, and they ran.
When they reached the elevator, Lisa pressed the call button. They all breathed a sigh of relief. When the elevator arrived, and they boarded, Lisa's eyes bugged out at how some of the elevator buttons had been gouged out. "What happened here?"
"I don't know," said Ty, as he pressed 83, "but the Main Control Room was much worse. Almost every panel was damaged or missing. Nearly every Operating Procedures manual was gone."
"We're doomed," Lisa said. 'Without the procedures manuals, I probably can't keep us going for more than a week. Maybe two at best. I'll have to hit Emergency Stop," she said, tears in her eyes. "It will be less painful for us."
"No!" shouted Ty, as the elevator door opened. "We're getting everything back. It will be OK! Come on!" he said, running toward the MCR. She and Cock followed.