"Serenade?" Sophie echoed, incredulously.  "Banging on an air duct at four AM is not a serenade.  That's something that you do if you've lost a bet."  Even before he backed off, however, she was beginning to get the sinking feeling -- no pun intended, considering the state of the base -- that he'd actually had a reason for this outrageously early visit, and she wasn't going to like it.  His suddenly apologetic manner convinced her that she<em>really</em>wasn't going to like it.  And as he finally explained, she could only gape at him at first.<br/><br/>"They're going into -- But that's ridiculous!" she exclaimed, then quickly dropped her voice to a whisper.  "Right after the crash, I tried getting permission to go in and retrieve some of our work and no one would even listen to me.  And that was when there still might have been a chance --"  She broke off uncomfortably, thinking of the lost as well as the research.  Winter was often annoying and quite frankly rather shallow, as she'd learned to her disappointment, but that was no reason to dwell painfully on what he'd lost.  "So now, after more than two weeks they're<em>ordering</em>someone to go down there?  What can they possibly hope to find?  I know, I know, above your pay grade," she said more calmly, taking a deep breath.  "And mine too, it would seem.  All right, let me go find someone.  Far be it from me to keep any Marines waiting," she added, with a wry little smile.<br/><br/>On the way back down the hall, she considered who best to ask on this unappealing mission.  Finally she settled on Abby, a thirty-something redhead with a slightly freckled face who was one of the chemical engineers Sophie often worked with.  If she remembered correctly, Abby also had some small experience in scuba diving, which was suddenly a very valuable skill set to have.  And Abby had also always seemed fairly even-tempered, which meant that she might actually forgive Sophie for this at some point.<br/><br/>A few minutes later, the two were walking back down the hall to meet Winter, though Abby was still asking mystified questions that Sophie could not quite answer.  But the newest 'volunteer' was ready to help despite that -- having several more years of experience than Sophie, she was apparently more used to humoring some of the Company's odder requests.  Either that, or she wasn't awake enough yet to fully understand what was going on... which was probably more likely, Sophie decided.<br/><br/>Back outside the main door to the hab, Sophie made perfunctory introductions.  "Abby Shepherd, you remember Winter," she said, stifling a yawn of her own.  Tooo late, she remembered that the other woman had once witnessed a few moments of flirting between Winter and Sophie, and had naturally teased the biologist afterwards, but there was nothing to be done about that now.  And Abby was thankfully diplomatic, merely giving a nod and a smile of recognition.<br/><br/>"I don't suppose you can tell us any more about all this?" Abby asked, though clearly without much hope of further answers.  "This is pretty sudden."