TransDem Laboratories HQ
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Red lights flashed and klaxons blared. A lone woman walked with purpose down a featureless concrete hall. She carried an important looking stack of files, her face set in a tight scowl. She wore a billowing white lab coat over top a closely fitting yet professional looking blouse and slacks. Her hair was cut short and stylishly flared out at the ends. She was on a mission.
As she walked down the hall, she passed a panicked-looking technician, glancing wide-eyed at the flashing red lights and wincing at the blaring alarms.
"You!" the woman growled, pointing at the technician.
"Y-Yes, ma'am?" he answered, straightening up a little.
"Get somebody to turn that damn alarm off! We know there's an emergency and don't need reminding every five seconds!"
The technician nodded nervously. "Y-Yes! Of course, ma'am!"
He ran off and, after a minute or two, the alarms thankfully ceased.
The woman eventually arrived at a set of large, oaken doors that looked extremely out of place in the stark concrete halls. She took a deep breath and took a second to focus her thoughts before opening the doors and stepping through.
Inside was a large, decorated room, the walls completely covered in wood paneling. A plant adorned every corner and brass and marble artwork adorned the mantle of a large fireplace at the far end of the room. Dominating the room at its center was a large, round, oaken conference table surrounded by a dozen leather-backed chairs.
Sitting at each chair was a man or woman in a suit, most of which looked to be in their twenties, save for a couple who appeared to in their forties or fifties. They all looked very attractive for their age. Of course they did. Their company did develop a device that could completely customize the human body, after all.
The executive who appeared to be an attractive suited man in his mid- to late-forties stood up and nodded at the woman who had just entered.
"Dr. Lane," he said, addressing her. "It's good to see you. Would you mine explaining to us why were all called here for this 'emergency meeting'."
Dr. Lane could tell he was a little peeved to have been pulled out of whatever important 'business meeting' he and his fellow executives were in, but this was important.
Swallowing the snide remarks that came to mind, Dr. Lane looked grimly at the executives. "I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances, sir. We have a situation involving one of our test units sent out."
With that, she placed the thick file on the table, spilling out some of its contents. Among them were three photographs of three different men, two of rich attractive and muscular, the other being more or less average. They looked as though they could be brothers.
Dr. Lane took the photo of the average man and placed it in the center of the table.
"This," she said, tapping the picture, "is Steve. When sent the Chronivac, our logs show him testing it on a nearby rodent before applying a large scale full reality change."
One of the executives, an attractive woman in her twenties with a professional blonde up-do, quirked an eyebrow. "I don't see they problem. All Chronivac 4.0 units pull their power from our remote power source here in the base. All tests have shown that our generator is more than capable of producing many times that amount of power."
Dr. Lane nodded. "That is correct, ma'am. However, Steve seems to have managed to get himself caught in an infinity loop. He keeps looping between these three realities..." Dr. Lane moved the other two photos next to Steve's. "Each time, he erases all memories of previous iterations. Steve isn't aware of what's going on."
Another executive, a muscular dark-skinned man in his late-twenties shook his head. "So some poor fool has managed to trap himself in a loop. Just send a termination signal to his Chronivac unit, send out a patch to keep it from happening again, and be done with it. We're wasting our time here. I have a golf meeting to get back to." He began to leave his chair, as well as a few of the other executives.
Dr. Lane felt impatience building up in her. The fools wouldn't listen! "Respectfully, sir," she said, keeping her voice steady, "there's more."
She pulled a small stack of papers out of the file and splayed them out on the table. The executives that had stood up stopped where they were and leaned in the get a better look.
"These papers show," said Dr. Lane, "that through the continuous reality alterations performed by Steve's Chronivac unit reality around his unit has become incredibly warped. No signals sent from our base have even a remote chance of reaching his unit. If one by some miracle does make it through, it will take years for it to navigate the warped space-time."
"My God," murmured an executive.
Dr. Lane pulled another set of papers out of the file. "There's more. These show that Steve's unit is pulling such a continuous amount of energy from our remote generator, it could send the facility into meltdown."
The room was silent. The executives looked from one another with shock, save for the man in his forties who had spoken first. He merely looked upon Dr. Lane, his face inscrutable.
"I'm assuming, Dr. Lane," he said, "that you have a solution in mind."
Dr. Lane attempted to hide her grin and nodded. "I propose sending in a single person equipped with a portable Chronivac unit to interrupt and loop and remove the unit from Steve's residence. The reality warps would make it dangerous and unpredictable, but I feel that is our best option."
The head executive nodded. "I take it you have somebody in mind, doctor," he said.
This time, Dr. Lane could not suppress her grin. "Yes, sir. I would like to go. I have the expertise when it comes to these matters and successfully navigate the reality warps and resolve the situation."
"Well, then," said the head executive, "What are you waiting for? Take care of it."
Dr. Lane was a little stunned. She'd been expecting an argument. She quickly gathered up her file and its contents and said her thanks to the executives before leaving.
No time to waste, she had a job to do.