"Just sign here, sir." The messenger held out his clipboard.
Shane was confused. "I wasn't expecting any sort of package. What ..."
"Sir, I just deliver the things, I don't know the what, the why, or the how - just the 'who' and 'where', ok?" He shrugged his shoulders.
Shane figured, what the hell, and with a shrug of his own, signed for the small brown box. As the delivery man left, he ripped the tape off the box and opened it. Inside, there was what looked like a cross between a mini USB drive and a Type 1 Star Trek phaser. There was also a small USB cable and a DVD-ROM that said 'CHRONIVAC' in big letters, 'PC/MAC Installation' in smaller type.
Now Shane had heard that name before. As a matter of fact, he'd thought about buying their previous device, but never quite had the money for it. (He was making good money with his web-page design business, but had the tendency to pour all of his money into making his computer a monster gaming rig. Naturally, he didn't get out much.) It was a smaller unit than the photos he'd seen on the web, though, about as big as his RAZR phone when it was folder, although it was somewhat thicker. It had an on/off switch, a 'hold' switch, and two up-down buttons on the bottom of the screen, and a small mini-USB port on the side; the top looked like a worrisome-looking remote control emitter, although it was difficult to say exactly why this was so.
He'd just turned on his PC to go searching for the specs on the X2900 card, but this was a little more interesting. Shane inserted the DVD into the drive, selected 'quick install', and sat back to watch the install procedure. Amazingly, it only took a minute, after which the screen displayed the following:
NAME | Shane Cromwell |
SPECIES | Human |
GENDER | Male |
AGE | 30 yrs 2 months |
HT | 5' 10" |
WT | 220lbs |
ETHNICITY | 50% Eastern European 50% British/Irish |
SKINTONE | Pale (12% Tan) |
HAIR COLOR | Brown |
HAIR STYLE | Short Modified Crew |
DIMENSIONS | 39 Chest -- 40 Waist -- 43 Hips -- 6.2 Member |
BODY HAIR | Sparse |
PUBIC HAIR | Natural |
MENTAL AGE | c30 |
ACUITY | IQ 130 |
ORIENTATION | 1.1 (0-6) |
SEX DRIVE | 35% |
SKILLSET | PC 90%, VIDEOGAMES 80% |
[ADVANCED OPTIONS ...] |
And then a dialog box came up: "DETERMINING IDEAL PRESETS ... SCANNING..." and he noticed that his XBOX 360 was being accessed too, through the network. But before he could wonder about that - or wonder how much more 'Advanced' the options could get, the box popped up with "IDEAL PRESETS DETERMINED. VIEW?" Shane decided to call up the preset list ... and suddenly he realized why his Xbox was accessed: