Even being unexpectedly awoken so much earlier than the start of her normal shift, Mara Peridot retained her trademark cheer as she made her way to the upper floor of the Vault where everyone was being assembled. Weaving through the assembly of people, she tried to make small talk with one of the computationists who happened to be just ahead of her, but he drearily waved her away while sucking a wakeup paste from a small pouch. Oh well, surely this call by the Overseer was something momentous. She sidled into the large room, the available chairs long since gone, and stood near the wall. She could just see the Overseer just over the heads of some of her taller fellow dwellers. He was a stocky older man, with grey hair and a square face. She had only ever talked with him a few times, normally when he had come into the hydroponics garden to discuss some matter with the more senior biological technicians, but she still fondly remembered when he had stopped on the way out to compliment her agrobacterium-mediated recombination work.