James parked the car and ran around to help Amy get out. They walked briskly into the building, James swiped his ID against the door which clicked as it unlocked.
"Hurry" he said as they made their way down the corridor.
He swiped his ID one more time and entered a lab full of machinery. "Set them there" he said to Amy and pointed to a long empty table.
Running to a workstation, he logged onto a computer and entered more credentials.
His associate, Jules burst in. "What's going on?"
James looked at the short, middle aged woman, 15 years senior. "Mia and Eric...uh there was an accident at home" he said and pointed to the containers on the table.
Jules walked over to where Amy had sat them down and removed the lids. "Oh Lord" she said and made the sign of her cross. "How long has it been?" she asked pointedly. Unfortunately both she and James had seen this type of accident before. Two years ago a visiting Fellow had been trapped in a test. It was several hours before anyone had notices she was missing and when they found her, or what remained of her she had already dehydrated to ashy dust.
The official review of the accident resulted in protocols to use in another emergency situation. The first being a full template of staff shall be established and saved in the event of a restore.
"Jules..." James paused his mind going a hundred different directions at once. "Help me bring in the restoration unit" she nodded and started to roll in a contraption that looked like a commercial dish washing unit, but taller.
James got back on the workstation and began entering commands, scrolling through profiles he knew what he needed to find...and going through the list one last time he settled on the profile that had the most probability of success. He hit ENTER one final time.
"We'll have to do both at once, there isn't time to do one and reboot"
Jules looked nervous, she nodded understanding the grave situation at hand and walked over to the table.
"NO!" said Amy "They're mine....I'll do it"
James nodded to Jules and she stepped back.
Amy picked up the containers and walked slowly to the machine. Jules opened a sliding metal door.
Amy looked at Jules...
Jules said "ok gently put them on base"
Slowly tipping the first one on it's side Eric rolled softly onto the deck. She did the same for Mia, slowly sliding her out and onto the base.
"GET BACK!" James yelled and he motioned to the door. "Over there...Stand over there.
A soon as Jules and Amy were clear he pressed CTL ALT R. The machine whirred and hummed as it booted up.
About 2 minutes later the monitor said READY. James took a deep breath and pressed ENTER.
The humming increased, getting louder until it suddenly stopped. It creaked and popped as the electronics wound down until there was beep and a green light.
James ran over and threw open the door. Peering into the dark,he could see an arm and a foot. Carefully he felt the arm and gently took hold and pulled the first one out, he did the same for the second and stepped back breathing fast and hard.
Amy stood stupefied. "This didn't make sense" she thought. "Whh...where is Mia? Where is Eric?" she started to get hysterical.
James had put his head down on the chest of one of the bodies. "Breathing!....and a heart beat!" he yelled. Jules had ran over to the other body. "Same here!" she yelled.
Amy walked over slowly and looked at James. "what's going on? Where are my kids? Where are Mia and Eric?"
The adrenaline in James's body was slowly diminishing. He looked at Amy, then it dawned on him. He walked over "It's ok, they're ok". he said calmly.
"We didn't have time to spare, I picked the best profile that would have the most likely outcome of saving their lives."
Amy squeezed his hand. "You mean they are in there???" she said pointing to the naked bodies that appeared to be sleeping soundly on the floor.
"We'll know more when they wake up" James said "but, I believe we were able to save them"
Amy walked over and gently brushed the red hair out of the face of one of them. She looked over at Jules. "It's....It's you" she said
Jules nodded and with her own adrenaline coming down, started to realize her naked body was now on display twofold on the lab floor. She hustled to a closet and retrieved some lab coats to cover them.
James walked over and stood next to his wife. "They're safe now" he said "We'll figure out what to do next"
Jules had sat down at the computer monitors. She was suddenly very uneasy and had a growing feeling of violation. Two strangers, two...kids seeing, touching her body. She looked at the screen and tried to block out the thoughts. "Wait a minute" she thought and clicked through some menus.
"James....you need to see this" she said nervously.
James walked over and stood over her shoulder. "What's is it?" he asked.
This test algorithm...this is new. It wasn't supposed to be accessible for at least another year.
Jules turned "I've been working partly on that project, see this line of code?"
James nodded "Yes" he said.
"James" she said "I....I hate to tell you this but this version of the code has encryption."
Amy walked over...she could see something was wrong by the looks on Jules an James's faces. "What is it?" she asked.
James looked up his eyes weary and sad. "It means this profile is locked....once written it cannot be modified" He held his hands in his head.
Amy blinked rapidly. "you mean?"
"Yes" said Jules "They're stuck like this"
Amy looked over where one of them was starting to regain consciousness. She looked back at Jules..."But you're..old, I mean I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that...They...They're just kid and you're older than me..." she said and started to shake.
"I'm 51" Jules said fighting back tears. "My profile was scanned last year...God help those poor kids..." she said.