Lila looked towards the stairwell and an idea came to mind;
“Wait, Juan… Quickly, we’ll go through and go under the stairs as the guy passes”
Juan seemed to understand and pulled Lila forward as the unknown person drew closer. They heard the steps echoing off the stairwell, and mere moments after Juan pulled her under the stairwell they heard the person walking on top of them.
Lila peeked out and saw it was another guard, just leaving through the door to the stairwell. Through the doors she saw that he had stopped in front of the guard office. Knocking on the office window, he went around and into the office to talk to the guard already inside.
Juan spoke;
"Got under! What are they doing there?"
David let out a relieved sigh over the line and his voice shook;
"Probably discussing some shift swap. Right now it works perfectly in our favour, head up the stairs and keep looking for a van with the licence plate that I sent you earlier."
The pair quickly headed up the stairs and looked around the garage. Juan spoke first;
"No cameras, looks like we’re clear”
David agreed with them;
"Yep, camera's look disabled anyway, we should be good"
Lila scanned the garage looking for the specific licence plate in question, it didn’t take long for her eyes to find it and Juan to give a positive call to David;
"Bingo! Found the van"
"Good. Hurry up, we don’t know how long those two guards will be chatting"
Juan sprinted ahead and kept an eye out for other people, Lila moved behind him and stopped by the passenger seat.
"Got the crowbar?”
Juan handed it to her, and Lila proceeded to jemmy open the door of the van;
"Give me a hand and hold it open"
Juan came over and helped force the sliding door open, the two got inside and Juan popped the panel below the steering wheel open.
"Found it! These are always the same"
Lila watched Juan fiddle with the wires for a moment before stripping the rubber ends and spliced two of the cables together. The car started, and Juan grinned triumphantly.
Lila spoke into the earpiece;
Her father replied a second or so later;
"Ok, great. Time's up for those two guards as well, they are finishing up their meeting. Get the van out of the parking lotas quick as you can. They’ll notice you leaving, but when they leave the corridor, I will lock them in so they can’t follow you. So just drive away after that"
"Copy!" Juan confirmed and Lila turned around to see the door from the garage staircase begin to slide shut. They pulled out of the garage and out into the open streets.
David spoke again over the earpiece;
"Whew, that was tight. Ok, dump the van in that parking lot I highlighted earlier and we’ll transfer the box to the car”
Lila responded positively to him and turned into the parking lot. The drive back to David was anticlimactic for the stressful robbery she’d been a part of. Coming to a complete stop in an empty spot. Waiting there was David, packing away an antenna into the boot of her car.
Lila looked at David;
"Holy shit"
David laughed softly;
“Holy shit indeed, great job you two. The guard won’t even know anything until they make their first round in… 10 minutes and thats IF they notice anything."
Juan spoke up “Like clockwork! And you doubted me hermano”
Juan and Lila hopped into the car with David and got comfortable in their seats.
"Ok, what now?"
David grinned
“Now we head home.”
After setting the box onto the dining table David, Juan and Lila stood around it. David and Lila were leaning towards the box and inspecting it, whilst Juan stood bored off to the side.
David scratched away at the side of the box, loosening a number of different tabs securing the lid of the box. The lid let off a few pressurised blasts of air in different directions, before stopping. He then lifted the lid and moved it to the side.
“What’s in it?” Lila asked
David peered inside “Looks to be a computer of some kind, theres a screen inside. I’ll get my laptop, just give me a moment”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Lila peered inside, she saw what looked like a pure metallic vambrace that was designed to attach to someone’s wrist. She reached inside and pulled out the vambrace She inspected it closely whilst David rushed downstairs to his room and grabbed his laptop. It looked to be a pure silver metal, with some golden inlays.
She called out loudly towards David
“Hey, Dad… Come take a look at this thing! It’s all metallic, but it feels like some kind of foam. Think this is some new tech the government is researching?"
David shouted back in response
"Maybe, although I doubt it's something that would get mass produced and given out to us normal folk. Looks a bit too small for me and Juan though”
David returned with the laptop and some wires, he plugged one end into the laptop and the other into the vambrace Lila was still holding. The vambraces suddenly lit up.
Both Lila and David startled, shocked that the device had lit up and activated in Lila’s hand.
Lila noticed the vambraces inlay beginning to turn purple gold colour in the centre, a faint humming could be felt coming from the device before it eventually cut out.
David narrowed his eyebrows and looked at the screen on the laptop “Well… It’s doing something.”
David turned the laptops screen towards Lila and Juan, Lila saw messages appearing on the vambrace and computer, the humming had now returned and began to pick up in speed and intensity
“Uh, Dad… Should that be happening?”
Davids pocket began rumbling aggressively, before the vial shot out and directly towards the vambrace Lila was holding, before a port opened up on it and quickly closed afterwards. Lila slowly put the vambrace onto the table, and moved her hand away.
Suddenly, the laptops screen broke outwards and shot glass fragments in every direction.
Everyone screamed in panic, Lila managed;
"WHAT THE HELL!" whilst Juan managed only
"WHAT?!"
David meanwhile spoke;
"Did… did any piece hit anyone? Does anyone have any scratches or wounds anywhere? "
Both Lila and Juan scanned themselves up and down
"All fine here David, what about yourself"
David pulled the wire free from the laptop and surveyed himself;
"I'm clear..”
He continued pulling the wire, and eventually looked towards Lila. Lila followed the direction of the wire, and looked at her hand.
The vambrace was now on her wrist. Lila tugged at the vambrace with her other hand, but it didn’t come loose and instead felt like it was locked on very tightly.
“Shit”
David looked at Lila’s wrist “Don’t worry too much, I’m sure we can get it off”
The wire came undone and the vambrace beeped aloud;
-Unknown organism detected, coordinate location detected as 01010111 01100001 01101100 01101110 01110101 01110100 00001010. Location detected as restricted space, relocating user.-
-Unable to connect to database-
-Diagnosing biological compatibility-
-Minus 82.7% Bio compatible entity identified, adjusted initialisation commencing-
The longer the device spoke, the more worried David became. David tapped on it lightly, Lila couldn't feel anything being done as David was tapping the device, but David's look turned from curiosity to alarm;
The Vambrace pulsed once and chimed quicker than before;
-System reboot initialising-
-Injecting Nanobots into entity-
-Stabilising body for dimensional travel-
She thought “Double shit” before she yelled in pain and fell back
-Calibration initialising-
-Adaptation Finalising-
-Project initiated. Initiate Coordinate Translation-
-Switching off Biological Monitor-
-Entity integration finalised-
David tried to wedge the Vambraces edges with a knife, but the Vambrace pulsed brightly and a charge went outwards, stunning Juan, Lila and her father. Lila saw but couldn’t hear David swearing at the Vambrace;
-Connection disrupted, switching to manual Initiation-
The Vambrace distorted around Lila in a bubble, before pulling Lila and itself into the floor and into nothingness;
-Teleport sequence 00100011 00110000 initiated-
"No no NO NO!" David swore as his daughter was torn away from them with the vambrace in seconds.
Lila blacked out, the bright lights that had surrounded her from the Vambrace fading after a while. She felt exhausted, and blacked out as soon as her feet touched onto some unfamiliar terrain.
Her mind rested, and the last thought that coursed through her was;
“Triple Shit”
She woke up, and as her eyes were blinking away dust that had accumulated on it, she noticed a text panel appear in front of her, full of alien symbols. The symbols soon began rearranging themselves, before new text was displayed:
-User connected, translator online-
-Safety protocols online-
-Auxiliary core activation confirmed-
-Beginning adaptation protocol-
-Scanning Coordinate 01010- Kltff0w5-k8--.q-.2u…-
-Data acquisition Confirmed-
Lila swatted at the window and it flew away with her hand before disappearing into nothingness. Behind the window was a bare metal wall. Lila looked around and realised she was looking at a ceiling, she also felt back with her hands and realised she didn’t feel the floor. Pressing her hand back further behind her, she pushed her whole body towards the ceiling like she was in zero gravity.
She now realised that her current environment actually HAD zero gravity. In Lila's bleary state she flailed around and her momentum swung her forward again, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Calming herself and with a slow deliberate hand, she brought a foot forward in an attempt to orient herself into a position where she wouldn’t just float around wildly. She eventually slowed herself enough that she could look around. She felt off, very off. Nothing in the room really made sense, various barrels, boxes and containers seemed to just stick against walls and ceiling.
She pressed the heel of her feet against a wall, and with one hand she felt the wall in an attempt to find some door. Whilst fumbling around a panel lit up, she hadn’t noticed until it flashed on.
In her vision a light purple circle lit up around the panel, and when she focused on it she felt the vambrace she was wearing pulse and a prompt appeared:
-Initiate manual override-
She pondered what it was telling her
"Like… an open button i guess?"
She guessed that the purple circle was marking her intent, so she gave her affirmative consent to the Vambrace;
"Do it"
Another text prompt appeared
-Affirmative, manual override requested-
-Activating standard salvage settings, detecting connection from control unit. Activating gravity unit-
Lila awkwardly pushed herself over towards the panel. Suddenly gravity shot back into frame and Lila fell with a hard thud onto the floor, barely managing to stay on her feet. Lila was unprepared for the mass of boxes falling down from the walls and ceiling as they fell and scattered around her. One box hit Lila on the back, and she collapsed with the box falling on top of her.