#;the node

The node wiggles a little beneath the man’s hand, almost nervously, but then it rolls around him in a circle before floating a little higher. “There isn’t supposed to be anyone still here,” it says -- and the more it speaks, the more obvious it is that it’s far more human than nodes are meant to be. “The computer system says so. The only ones are the people at Helix that flew up here from other places. But you’re here. How come?” It also sounds far too much like a child, far too out of place in its speech patterns. “Did you escape and hide, too?”