Greetings, Part 2

The calico purred as Bernard absent-mindedly scratched its head. He stared at three monitors worth of data from the running cells. Somewhere in all that mess was the reason why the sixth in “dire need” was misbehaving. His eyes had long gone fuzzy from starting at the screens, but this wasn't something he could leave to later. The cells were made to run in tandem. If he didn't figure it out, they'd have to take them all off-line again and start from the beginning.

Bernard gave himself a few moments of rest with his eyes closed. What was he missing?

He listened to the purr of the kitten. To the gentle whir of the computer. Somewhere in the next room, something was clicking. One point five hertz.

Click. Click. Click.The calico's plaintive meow startled him awake. He glanced at his watch and realized he'd been out for five minutes. He really had been working too hard.

When had the lights gone out? He looked around the dim twilight of the office.

“Deirdre?” he called. Nobody answered.