A bright bob of red hair weaved its way through the chaotic mess of the early morning subway station. The woman attached to the hair tried her best not to bump into any of the numerous early morning commuters as she rushed to get to her own platform. She nimbly stepped out of a collision course with an oblivious man holding what appeared to be a boiling cup of coffee, trying not to crash into the businesswoman walking briskly behind. She quickly stepped into the wake left by a large man who strode through the sea of pedestrians, people moving out to not get pushed around until the man started going off in a direction she didn’t need to go to.

Devi continued her dance through the crowd, quick, precise steps carried her away from all potential collisions until she finally stopped next to a brick wall, a little way away from one of the platforms. She let out a relieved sigh and leaned up against the wall, grateful to be out of the crazed mass of pedestrians. A pair of large headphones were pulled out of a bag slung over her shoulder and set over her ears. She pulled the hood of her jacket up and tried her best to meld into the wall behind her as she waited for her subway.

She quickly checked the time on her phone. Right on time, 15 minutes before the subway should arrive. Never know when it’s going to be early. She gave a mental shrug, though it rarely is early, mostly late if anything. At least I got my spot.

The uncased phone was then slid back into her pocket as Devi settled back to wait for her subway. She spent the time people-watching in silence, trying her best to remain part of the background. Unfortunately for her, a man seemingly noticed her and made his way over.

Well, there goes my peaceful morning, Devi thought bitterly as the man approached. Why do people have to be like this?

The man approached and leaned up against the wall next to her. He looked to be in his early 30s, hair buzzed short with an unkempt beard did no favors for his slightly boxy face. If Devi had to guess, she would put him as middle management at some office. He just had the vibe of needing to tell people what to do, without actually knowing what to do.

“Hopefully the subway gets here on time, right?” the man said, trying to start up a conversation.

Devi ignored him, hoping that her headphones would give the man a hint that she didn’t want to talk to anyone, especially him.

“I’m a general manager of ad design over at Advanti Sales,” the man continued, obviously not taking the hint. There was a hint of pride in the man’s voice when he said it. Like that was supposed to be impressive or something, Devi thought scathingly.

“So, what do you do?” The man asked.

Devi quickly glanced over to one of the many clocks hung around the station, noting she still had 4 minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive. Guess I can’t hope the train gets here before I need to deal with the person.

She let out a mental sigh and took popped one side of her headphones off, trying to draw as much attention to it as possible.

“Sorry, did you say something?

“Yeah, I was just commenting on how I hope the subway isn’t late, since I’ve got a meeting with the VP of sales today.” He turned towards Devi and rested his arm against the brick wall.

Devi rolled her eyes mentally but remained outwardly calm.

“Fun,” she said noncommittedly. Hopefully he takes the hint and pesters someone else about his life.

“So, what do you do for work?”

Apparently, he can not take a hint after all.

“Engineering,” she replied in a clipped tone, and then promptly put her headphone back in place over her ear, muffling the noise of the station. Please let that be obvious enough.

“Wow, that’s really cool. Must mean you’re pretty smart, right? I could never do something like that.”

Devi slowly turned to the man that was pestering her.

“That much is obvious,” she said as she quickly flicked her eyes over him, and then turned her head away, looking at the tracks, keeping the man in her peripheral.

There was an awkward pause as the man stood there, unsure of what to do. It only lasted a few seconds before he muttered something about the subway coming soon as he wandered off to another spot in the station.

Devi let out a deep breath, her body slowly untensing from the encounter. I really wish I did not have to talk to people.

After a few minutes more of Devi trying her best to blend into the bricks behind her, the subway came, and she joined the throng of humans rushing to get seats

******** ~ᵥ----ᵥ~ ********

Devi didn’t spare a glance at the impressive building that she entered, though the first few times she had walked into the lab she had taken a bit of time to soak into the impressive building. A modern-looking office building, with lots of glass and unique angles that told everyone that they were trying very hard to look futuristic. The large gear-shaped logo proudly declaring the company name to be TomorowThink.

She quickly slipped through one of the multiple glass doors adorning the front of the building. A bright bubbly face greeted her as soon as Devi stepped into the building. Janice was in her normal spot at the welcome desk, a beaming smile across her face.

I have no idea the full extent of what Janice does, but there is no amount of money in the world that would see me sitting down on the other side of that desk, Devi thought to herself as she nodded in return to Janice’s warm welcome that she gave to everyone. She better be making the big bucks, having to greet every single person, with a smile as well!

With her greeting done, Devi pulled out her lanyard and used it to pass through the gates on the far side of the impressive lobby. Walking past the elevators, she elected to take the stairs down to the specific lab she worked in, not wanting to be trapped in a small space with a bunch of random people, or worse, someone she tangentially knew.

As she was walking down the hallway, she spotted the familiar figure of her supervisor, Mark. He was a pretty good boss if a little oblivious most of the time. Usually, one to take a hands-off approach, he mainly stayed out of his team’s hair, preferring to do his own work than micromanage everyone else. Unfortunately, the team’s deadline for their latest project they had been assigned was fast approaching, and there had been a few snags recently, so Mark had been a little more hands-on than usual.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Mark raised his hand in greeting, and Devi slowed to a stop to talk.

“Did you get those drawings done yet, Devi?” Mark asked.

“They were done yesterday, I handed them over to Simon before I left.”

“Well, he said he never got them.”

I would not trust Simon with boiling water, let alone being on a design team.

“I will go check, he probably did not see them,” she replied.

“Thanks Devi, management wants to see a prototype of what we’re trying to do, not just the drawing by now. We should have gotten something out by now.”

“I’ll start printing something then, though I won’t have time for anything very precise, so I don’t know how well anything will work.”

“That’s fine, as long as it’s something physical, I can work with that. My bosses want to see what we’ve been working on tomorrow, so we don’t have too much time.”

With that, Mark bustled off somewhere, leaving Devi to swipe her badge and enter the space where the team worked. A couple of 3D printers were off to one side, currently waiting to be used while a few desks and worktables were scattered around the room. On one of the tables sat the mangled remains of the latest failed prosthetic prototype. It had failed due to an oversight regarding the wires needed to control them not being properly added to the drawing, making the joints not able to articulate as they should. That led to the whole thing crumpling in on itself since the program thought it would move in a way that wasn’t possible.

Devi logged into her station and bought up the drawings that she had added the cables and wires to. Checking the internal work service, she confirmed that the updated drawing had indeed been shared, and an email had been sent to Simon alerting him to the fact.

Rolling her eyes, she prepared the new drawing to be printed and sent them over to the two printers. Double-checking the filaments that were loaded in the printers, Devi started the printing process.

With the whirring of the printers as background, she started poking around at the code, throwing it into a few simulations of the prosthetic, making sure there weren’t going to be any other unforeseen complications.

While she was working on that, one of her coworkers came into the lab. They exchanged a brief nod of greeting, and they both went back to what they were doing. She got along the best with Mathew, mainly because he kept to himself, and wasn’t a complete idiot. He was actually an amazing coder, being the one to do most of the actual coding for the prosthetic, with Devi helping out a bit.

He logged into his station and turned to Devi.

“Did Simon not check the servers for the drawings again?”

“It’s par for the course at this point,” Devi responded, and they both rolled their eyes.

“Don’t know why he’s even on this team,” Mathew complained.

“Nepotism,” was Devi’s reply, and they both returned to their own workstations.

After a few hours, the printers finished the parts, since she had done a rushed job trying to get something that kind of worked so that they could show it off. She inspected the finished parts, noting the multitude of errant strands and imperfections that she would have to sand off to get the pieces to fit together as they should.

Devi sat hunched over a row of intricate plastic pieces, meticulously sanding away the imperfections the printer left. A small pile of shavings soon accumulated as Devi got absorbed in her work, the world around her fading from her consciousness. She absentmindedly tucked a strand of curly red hair behind her ear, a brief flicker of annoyance on her face from the monetary distraction, before focusing once again on her task.

“Hey there Dav- I mean Devi, how’s the new prototype coming along?” A voice rang out behind her.

Devi’s focus snapped at the annoying voice of Simon, her coworker, her hand slipping and carving out a large gouge in the piece she was filing down.

“It was going good,” Devi replied in a clipped tone as she picked up the ruined part. “I had to rush the print, so the tolerances won’t be as precise, but this iteration should have taken that into account. As well as the cords.”

Simon bent over her shoulder to inspect the neatly arrayed parts, almost all of them having been cleaned up and sanded.

“Looks like it should work. I can take it from here. Why don’t you go get everyone a coffee?”

Devi stamped down hard on the anger that was trying to bubble up from that comment.

“It would be better for everyone to work on this project instead,” Devi said.

“We really don’t need any coffee right now,” Mathew spoke up from the other side of the room. “We need to get this finished soon.”

Simon scoffed and turned to Philip, the last member of the team, who was standing next to him.

“We can handle it, can’t trust the intern with things like this. Better they get coffee instead of making another mistake like forgetting to include room for the wires.”

Everyone just looked at Simon, as they all knew that it was Simon’s fault for not putting them in, as he was the one modeling the electronics.

Devi waited for a few seconds for anyone to speak up, but everyone just stood there awkwardly. Mathew gave her a weak smile, and Philp didn’t meet her eyes.

“What does everyone want?” Devi asked. I’ll just get this done and get back before Simon can mess anything up. He’s only on this team because his uncle is some bigwig executive. Something he never shuts up about.

******** ~ᵥ----ᵥ~ ********

Devi walked briskly to the small coffee shop that was a few blocks away from the lab, seething the whole way. There had been nothing she could have done to get out of it, with everyone not wanting to confront Simon and the fact that there wasn’t really anything that could be done.

I’m very tempted to do something to Simon’s coffee, it’s not like he would notice or anything. Maybe a generous portion of chili powder would do the trick.

Devi grinned to herself at the thought of seeing Simon frantically trying to cool his mouth. Everyone knew that he couldn’t handle the barest hint of anything spicy.

I feel like that would be an appropriate level of payback for the number of idiotic actions I’ve had to witness him performing, more often than most, they’re directed at me.

Thankfully, the coffee shop that Simon had chosen was basically empty, the early morning rush for coffee long past. She slipped through the doors and went straight up to the counter to order.

It didn’t take long for the barista to come up to greet her and start taking her order. Devi repeated all her coworkers' orders from memory, not having bothered to write them down. Simon’s was unnecessarily complex, while the rest were quite simple, and Devi’s own was just black coffee.

With that done, Devi stepped back and slipped into a seat near the back of the cafe to wait for the order to be ready.

As she was sitting there, a flash of light outside caught her eye. She turned to look out the large storefront windows to see the sky light up in a blinding cascade of colors. Bright iridescent sparks seemed to poor out from the sky, slowly spreading over the horizon. In just a few seconds, all she could see when she looked up was a blanket of lights.

Devi put up a hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the sparks. The light was almost blinding, but also not quite burning her eyes to look at. Her eyes widened in shock as the sky seemed to fall down, the lights streaming toward Earth with reckless abandon. All she could do was watch in growing apprehension as the sky seemed to fall to earth in a scintillating descent.

The lights washed over the tall skyscraper in mere moments and then crashed into Devi. She fought with her body to keep her eyes open, not wanting to miss the last moments of Earth. Her vision turned bright white as the lights neared. She braced herself for the inevitable contact, but when it came, instead of pain and heat, her whole body felt alive for a few seconds before everything felt like it was waking up. It was like a thousand needles were pricking her whole body simultaneously. Not painful per se, but definitely unpleasant.

The sensation only lasted a few seconds before it faded, and she regained her vision. Devi looked around frantically but didn’t recognize where she was. For starters, there were no looming buildings blocking out the sun, instead, there were large trees towering in the distance. A carpet of lush green grass covered the clearing where she found herself in. Herself, and quite a number of other individuals all wearing loose greenish-brown clothing. Glancing down at herself, Devi found she was also wearing the same garments as everyone else.

The oddest part of the whole express was the floating semi-translucent box in front of her face. No matter how Devi turned her head, it was always there, though when she didn’t focus, it faded into the background.

She turned her attention to it.

Welcome denizen, to the cosmos!

Your journey is but starting, reach for the stars and grasp the power to control your fate.

Good Luck!

Well, this certainly is interesting.