Ethan Carter had taken a lot of his work home, and with Melissa's blessing, Jenny and I
were cleaning out his "lab" in the basement. Jenny's Dad and my old man would have
gotten along well, I think. We moved out a lot of electronic equipment, soldering gear,
and other stuff, when Jenny found the box.
It was 5' tall and 4' wide, made of thin metal, kind of like a computer tower. There didn't
seem to be any way to open it; it had a USB port and a power cord. We tried plugging it in
to Melissa's computer, but it failed to detect new hardware, and the box didn't so much as
make a sound.
Jenny begged me to fix it, so I took it home and took a screwdriver. Several circuitboards
and tons of wiring were inside, and took me awhile to find the problem; nothing a
soldering iron and a new power cord couldn't fix.
On a whim, I hooked it up to my old Compaq and sure enough, "New Hardware Detected".
I let the thing install, wondering what it was.
A black command window popped open.
Proceed to Scan? (Y/N).
I typed Y.
Scanning....
Found: 1 human female (age 19).
Scan additional subject? (Y/N)
I blinked. What the hell was this thing? I hit Y as the doorbell rang.
Scanning....
Found: 1 human female (age 6).
Compiling template...
I walked away. It was Jenny, telling me it was time for dinner. I forgot all about the box
until I came back home.
Template complete. Apply? (Y/N)
I had no idea, but I hit Y. My skin tingled and I felt a strange sensation in my gut, and
then it was over.
Powering Down...system will be available in 4 hours.
With that, the box whined for a few minutes, and was silent.
That was pretty weird, but I shrugged and went to bed.