A knock on the door distracted Shelly's train of thought. She looked at her watch. It was 9:30 pm! Who would dare to disturb her at this hour? Maybe a security guard? She opened the door, ready to give them a good tongue lashing.
She was surprised to see a young girl standing in front of her. The girl looked to be in her early twenties, and stood a few inches taller than Shelly at around 5'6". Her skin was deathly pale, and she wore dark clothes. She had on heavy black mascara, and had a few piercings on her face. Her head was partially shaved, but what was left of her hair was a dark black. Shelly guessed that this girl was goth, or emo, or maybe punk. She didn't keep up with the nonsense styles the younger kids followed. And she didn't have the time to put up with any nonsense tonight.
"What do you want? I am very busy, and I have a lot of work to do," said Shelly.
The girl held one of Shelly's fliers in her hand. "Umm, the flyer said you had a job, and I need some money."
So she is an undergraduate student from the University, thought Shelly. She carefully inspected the girl again. "Do you have any experience with particle accelerators? " asked Shelly hopefully. "Or maybe the Keysian Method of Object Classification and Selection used in AI programming?"
The girl chuckled. "Man, I am more interested in Biology. I thought you needed someone to take care of animals and stuff. I also like Chemistry. You know, making drugs and stuff. Is that what you do here? " said the girl, as she looked around the lab.
Shelly sighed. This was not the ideal candidate she had hoped for. But beggars couldn't be choosers.
"No, we are doing something much more important than that. But if you want the job, it's yours. Just hurry and come in. We have a lot of work to do, " said Shelly.
The girl walked inside, her large black boots thumbing on the floor. She looked around the lab. "My name is Zoey, by the way. What yours?"
Shelly returned to the cages and began to inspect the few remaining animals. She hadn't really cared what the girls' name was. To Shelly, she was just another tool. "You can just call me Doctor, " said Shelly, annoyed by the interruption.
"Okay, Doc. What do I do?" said Zoey.
Shelly cringed. She hated being called Doc. This was not a good beginning. She glared at the girl. "Well, first of all you can get rid of those piercings. No metal in the lab. It's ... unsanitary, " said Shelly.
Shelly was a little worried that some small piece of metal might end up in the chamber. She didn't want some loose piece of metal to fuse with some poor animal when it was transported. But the truth was she actually wanted to punish the girl a little bit for her insolence.
"All of them?" said Zoey.
Shelly's jaw dropped. Yes, she had picked a winner here. Zoey disappeared into the bathroom room and returned with a handful of metal. Shelly didn't want to guess where it came from.
"Okay, Doc. What now?" said Zoey.
Shelly was working on the computer program. She brushed her off. "Just get a rag and doo some cleaning for now. And be quiet so I can think."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few hours later, Shelly hit enter as she finished tweaking the AI. Suddenly, she heard the door to the first chamber close.
Huh, thought Shelly. I must have accidently activated the program. I wonder what it will do when nothing is inside.
A sudden knocking distracted her. What had that fool lab assistant done now? She followed the noise to the first chamber. Peering through the viewing window, she saw the girl inside the chamber.
"Uh, Doc? What's going on? I was just cleaning the floor when the door closed. What is this thing?" said Zoey.
"Uh, don't worry about it. I'll have you out in a second," said Shelly.
She ran to the computer. The screen was a blur as calculations and text whirled by, occasionally flashing red as warning appeared and was quickly automatically corrected by the computer program. It was thinking, trying to figure out what to do with its new test subject. The program was designed to run to completion once started, but Shelly still tried to think of a way to stop it.
Part of her hesitated. Deep inside, she really wanted to see how the program would handle its first human test subject. The results would be fascinating, and the data would be very useful. The whirring of the high power laser as it charged brought her back to her senses. She tried to run over to the laser and manually disable its power supply. But she was too late. There was a flash as the laser discharged, and Zoey was gone.
Shelly ran over to the exit chamber, eager to see what her science had wrought.