Andrew Reinhardt had just come home from class at his local community college. At 19, he was hoping to finish up his sophomore year and transfer to the state college.
Going upstairs, he opened his bedroom door to find a package sitting on his bed. Curious, he approached and examined it, slinging his backpack off his shoulder and setting it down next to his bed as he did so. A medium-sized box, addressed to him. "TransDem Labs" was the only thing written in the return address, no other details.
He stared at the box, nonplussed. He hadn't ordered anything, and his mother never said anything about buying him a gift.
Andrew grabbed a pair of scissors from his desk and sliced open the box. Inside, he found a CD, a USB cable, and a strange looking computer attachment. It was about the size of a big TV remote, with a big touchscreen and a few buttons below it, and a small signal dish pointing off the end. Tapping the screen, nothing happened, so Andrew put it back down and looked back in the box. Underneath all of the stuff was a piece of paper with an image of the strange device on it. Above the picture were the words "Chronivac 4.0, new and improved!" Flipping it over, he saw a small note;
Congratulations! You have been selected to test the newest model of TransDem Labs flagship product, the Chronivac. Our latest version is the most comprehensive and reliable device on the market today. Please feel free to send us questions, concerns, or other feedback at...
The rest of the message seemed to be smudged from some kind of printing error. Below it seemed to be the usual boilerplate corporate language on product liability.
"This still doesn't tell me what this thing is." Andrew murmured to himself, his brow furrowing. "What could it hurt though?"
Andrew put the note down and picked up the other contents of the box. He took one look at the CD before tossing it back in the box. He pulled his laptop out of his backpack and set it up on his desk. He hooked one end of the USB cable up to device and slotted the other end into his computer.
The computer recognized the device and began installing the drivers. Once complete the device came to life, a program started up and the computer screen read presets, custom, and options. Clicking on custom, a long list of parameters popped up and Andrew started scrolling through them. They seemed to cover anything and everything one could use to describe a person; ethnicity, age, gender, height, hair, species, clothing, mind.
Up in the corner, a previously unseen progress bar reached 100% and a box popped up on screen. The screen flashed configuration complete, wireless functionality established. He unplugged the device and examined it again. The touchscreen had now lit up and had the same options as what appeared on his computer screen. There were other buttons; off/on, scan, save, undo, and unaware. The off/on button and the unaware button both had LED's above them to show status. The power button glowed green while unaware was set to red.
He turned the device around, pointing the little radar dish at himself, and pressed 'scan'. The device came to life, the word 'Scanning" came on. After a short period, in the upper corner he saw the words "Subject: Andrew Reinhardt" appear. Tapping on it, he saw a bunch of statistics pop up on screen. He quickly realized that they were his own...and they were correct. Age: 19, Weight: 190, Height: 6'1". Tapping on "Appearance", a small image of himself popped up, wearing the same clothes he had on now.
"Holy shit it, how'd it do that?"
He realized that he could alter the stats if he wanted. Curious, he looked over height and dropped it down by 6 inches. Nothing happened, then he remembered the save button and pressed it.
Suddenly, the world seemed to be shifting around him, getting bigger. His clothes felt looser as the ceiling pulled away from him.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, what the fuck!" Andrew said aloud, nearly dropping the device. He shuffled over to the mirror hanging off his closet door and stared at himself. It was him, but all his clothes were hanging off of him as if he was a kid who had tried on his older brother's outfits.
Very quickly, he looked back over his stats and changed his height back to normal, furiously pressing save. The world shifted again, returning his height and perspective to what he was used to.
"Thank goodness I didn't turn 'unaware' on" he said, tugging his clothing back into their proper places. He marveled at the device in his hands, mind racing with the possibilities that it offered.