After finishing her call with Samantha, she snuck past Johnathan-nii's room towards the door to the 'public' sectors of the dwelling. If he had seen her, then he would have wanted to tag along and that would have eaten up a lot of time. Because of their 'adventures' when they were younger, the boy now had to get permission from their Mother to exit the 'private' section of the house. Even after gaining authorization, he would have to be escorted by a sentry. Just getting all that straightened out would take thirty to forty-five minutes. Christiana could probably complete her entire task in that period, so it simply made sense to leave her Brother behind.

Upon reaching the 'inner' security station in front of the exit portal, Jessica looked surprised to see her leaving at this hour of the evening.

"Miss, may I ask where you are going this late?" the guard politely asked, making no move to activate the egress.

"I want to say hi to Sara-nee," she replied. This was the truth, but only partially. While she planned to visit the friendly security member, she mostly wanted to go to the main control room. There was identification equipment located there that couldn't be found anywhere else inside the complex.

"Ah, I will let her know you are coming," Jessica returned. It wasn't uncommon for one of the children to stop in to see Sara. Not only did they all get along with her, but she seemed to keep a nearly endless supply of candy hidden away in her workstation. So, while it was not a daily thing there was regular traffic back and forth in the evenings. It just rarely occurred this late.

"Thank you!" Christiana responded with a grin and a small wave as the heavy metal door slowly opened.

She quickly made her way to the security wing where the main control room was located. This section of the 'public' part of the complex housed the sentries. Besides the guards' private sleeping chambers and bathrooms, there were two common rooms, a miniature kitchen, and an eating area. There was also an exercise chamber, although this was situated between their sector and that of the servants. While both groups shared the modest gym, the sentinels were the ones who used it most often.

Upon reaching the passageway to the annex, she scanned her palm on the scanner and spoke her daily passcode. As soon as the entrance opened, it revealed Sara-nee standing there.

"Hey there. I haven't seen you in quite a while, so I decided to greet you at the door!" the tall young woman explained.

"Sara-nee!," she exclaimed with a blossoming grin as she ran up and hugged the youthful lady.

Due to their height difference, Christiana's face only came up to the other person's sternum. While she was short for her age, Sara was unusually lanky. As in one hundred seventy-five see-emms. That was why she towered over the child's one hundred forty-five see-emm frame.

After stepping back from the hug, one set of blue eyes looked into another.

"Come inside before the door auto closes."

"Okay," Christiana promptly responded as they both went deeper into the corridor and onward into the control center.

Sara sat at her normal workstation and she motioned for the girl to sit in the chair next to hers.

"I'm glad that you decided to visit!" Sara said as she rummaged around in her desk drawers. Just like secMother Karen, the guard's hair color changed on a biweekly basis. She naturally had deep brown, curly locks, but the schoolgirl had only seen her shoulder-length mane that hue a handful of times.

After a few moments, Sara let out an "Ah-Ha!" before revealing what was in her hand. There were suckers of various flavors, butterscotches, and mints wrapped in cellophane, and even a plastic wrap clad blow pop.

"I'm sorry but I am out of gum, but I am sure if I rummage around a bit more I can find some more gum-filled lollipops."

"That's okay," she responded. It was Johnathan-nii who liked gum. That is why she and Haruhi-nee always asked for it when they visited. Since she didn't want him to know about her covert meeting, it was a good thing that the guard was out of chewing gum.

"Take as much as you wish," she was told as the double handful of treats were laid out before her.

Thinking ahead, she only took five of the wrapped candies and the larger treat-filled sucker. If she kept the number small enough, she could smuggle it into her room and stash it away. Even if Haruhi-nee was nosey and found it, an amount this tiny could have been hidden and later misplaced. Her memory wasn't perfect after all, and a few pieces of candy could easily get lost in the bottom of her sock drawer.

"Is that all you are taking?" Sara-nee protested. The older girl loved to give the kids sweets. That was a good thing because there were no candies to be found in the "inner" house. If it was not for the friendly guard, they would have been tempted to sneak off and buy candy from the vending machines outside the middle school. Since that would have put the younger girls at risk, the sentry was performing a service to keep the youngsters safe.

"I'm full from dinner, so this is enough."

"Are you feeling alright?" Sara asked, out of concern for Christiana.

"I am fine," Christiana promptly answered. She could tell by how the sentinel frowned that this response bewildered her.

"Okay," Sara said, in a relieved tone. "I assumed that you would have liked a lot of sweets since you haven't been here for a while."

As Sara put the remaining candy away, Christiana quickly thought of a good reason for her to refuse the extra treats. After all, there was a plausible excuse staring her directly in the face.

"Remember, I have access to the vending machines daily at the school where I am training."

"Ah, that's right!" Sara replied with a grin. "I guess you can buy all the snacks that you want."

"Exactly!"

"Aww, but how will I lure you to stop by to see me?" Sara joked with an exaggerated pout.

The youngster giggled at the older girl's antics. "You don't have to do anything to get me to call on you. I enjoy talking with you."

"That's good!" Sara exclaimed happily. "So.... did you have a reason other than candy to show up at the control room?"

"Ummm," Christiana responded, trying to come up with an excuse for her visit.

"It's fine," Sara reassured her. "I know you are tired in the evenings because of your combat training. It doesn't help that I always work the 'Dead Shift.'"

'Dead Shift' was how Sara-nee described the time that she consistently worked. Back on Old Earth, they called it the night shift, but that didn't always apply here on Cooper's World. Last shift was the more common way of referring to her job schedule, but then this woman never did things in the normal fashion.

"That's why I don't believe that you are just here for a chat," Sara pointed out.

"Well, I need to use the terminal with the multiple biometric eye-dee systems," Christiana admitted.

"I am pretty sure that I know what you are up to," the sentry said with a knowing smile.

"Oh," Christiana asked, attempting to sound as innocent as possible. "What do you think I am trying to do?"

Her companion simply smiled while pressing the keys on the top of her workstation. Sara then activated her com' and announced, "Carmilla please report to the main control area."

Christiana wondered why Sara-nee had called her fellow sentry to come to her. Meanwhile, her friend kept tapping away on her keyboard.

Moments later the door opened, and another young woman walked into the office. This was Carmilla, the other officer who always worked the 'Dead Shift.' While tall for an Asian, this person was shorter than her coworker by a good ten see-emms. Both her eyes and her hair were black, and her long tresses had a healthy sheen.
Unfortunately, her haircut obscured her face when she looked downward, which was most of the time. This made it impossible for the girl to get an unobstructed view of her visage, only seeing the parts momentarily unobscured by her mane.

"I'm here," Carmilla reported as she walked over to the third and final workstation in the chamber. This left only the identification terminal at the rear of the room unwomanned.

Without even asking why Sara-nee summoned her, the newcomer sat down, started typing, and quickly took over monitoring the security of the property.

"Thank you," Sara responded as she continued tapping away at her keyboard.

The youngster knew better than to be offended by the dark-haired girl's timid attitude. This was how the sentry always acted when Christiana was present. Sara had once told her that the coworker in question was very bashful in the presence of people that she did not know well. That was the reason for her slightly odd behavior around the children. The blonde hoped the Asian would eventually warm up to her, but the two rarely interacted. At this rate, it would take Years for the sentinel to act normally while in her company.