When Sandy got back about five minutes later with the coffee, the others were busy writing their reports on the current status of the project. She slipped back into her chair and adjusted the headset, then checked with Chuck. How are you feeling in there? Ive got my coffee, and the others are writing reports. Whenever youre ready to go, we can do this.
Lets do this. To be perfectly honest, I kinda want to get this over with and go to sleep. Is Tim ready to place the beacon? Sandy looked over at Tim, who was eating a donut hed gotten fromsomewhere, and glared. Tim, Chucks ready. Got that beacon ready?
Tim rolled his eyes and ran the activation program. Inside the digital world, a small glowing orb appeared at chest height. As the program continued to run, it gained a golden color and morphed into a key, just sitting in midair. Beacons up Sandy. Lets finish this. Sandy tossed him a thumbs-up, and glanced over at the MC. He gave a slight nod.
Chuck flashed an ok, then began to search. It didnt take long to find the beacon; theres only so much space inside a lab, after all. As it turned out, it was in a shower in the #2 Mens Room, off the main corridor just past the cafeteria. He called in, irritation apparent in his voice, that he had found the bloody thing, was heading back, and could he get a bonus tacked onto that check? Sandy started to laugh, then stopped. Amusing though it was, they weren't out of the woods yet. They still had to bring him back.
Chuck walked back into the lab proper, now feeling the weight of his fourteen hours subjective time awake. He failed to notice the key shift slightly in color before reverting back to its original golden hue. Out in the real world, Tim checked for the umpteenth time to make sure Chuck hadnt and wouldnt. The code he was running had been designed to execute on a slightly different mainframe, and he wasnt sure just what it would do without supervision.
Sandy, Im ready for the lock. Any word on just why they chose a lock and key over something a bit lessArchaic? Sandy didnt, but then again, why not use it? After all, they were unlocking new areas of science, and thus it was kind of fitting.
We can discuss that later, Chuck. For now, heres the lock.
