19 March 2025
Wednesday. Seven people at the airlock this morning, all insisting they were one team. The lab takes four. Two at the very least, four at the very most, every day of the week. I wrote that rule. I wrote it in capitals.
It is not a cruel rule. The lab is built around one chamber, and the work happens close to it. A fifth survivor would have nothing to do but stand about looking at Gerald, and Gerald does not like being looked at by people who are not helping.
So the staff did the sensible thing. Four went into my lab. Three went into another room starting at exactly the same time. They met in the foyer afterwards to compare notes, and each group claimed to have had the harder hour. Both were right, in their way. Mine were more right.
For really large parties, I am told, there are people who organise whole evenings across several rooms at once. I do not know how they manage it. I can barely manage one Gerald.
Note to self: order a fifth chair. Then hide it.
— Dr Morrow, Storeroom B
