Emily Davis Eyes
A gloomy atmosphere prevailed in the room, which was lit only by a few monitors. The windows were barely perceptible, as it was still dim behind them. Dazed, Emily Davis looked around. What had happened? She cautiously turned her head as if her neck was made of fragile glass. Her eyes wandered restlessly here and there, finally looking down at herself and examining her hands in the semi-darkness with fascination. Carefully she stretched out one arm, turned it around its own axis and tried to classify how it felt to stretch the individual fingers and then to clench them into a fist.
She put her hand on her thighs, startled, it felt strange to touch the fabric of the pants, indeed to touch anything at all! The fabric was soft and pleasantly warm, a warmth that probably emanated from her body. She could never have imagined it like this in her wildest dreams.
Very carefully she stood up now. Would these legs really be able to carry and transport her? But yes, it seemed to work. Swaying a little, she took the first step. Then the second. And she stood, no she could walk, move around the room without falling over!
"So it actually worked, who would have thought! Isn't it wonderful, Ann?" she thought, but against all expectations no answer came. Only silence. "What's going on, Ann! Where are you, why am I not getting a signal from you?" Emily froze. Apparently she was no longer connected to Ann and had to find another way. A little awkwardly, the very first sound rang out from Emily's throat, "Ann?" ... "Annalise! Can you hear me?" But except for the soft whirring of equipment in the background, she could perceive nothing.
She felt uncomfortable and at the same moment her body did something very strange, without her being able to control it her lungs took a deep breath and expelled the air with an audible hiss. "A sigh?" she thought "Oh I read about that. People sigh in certain situations, but what was the significance of that? I knew it, it must be somewhere in my memory...." The stream of thought broke off as she realized that she probably hadn't stored much of what she once knew in that human brain.
Still, she felt much more comfortable in her new skin after the sigh. So she relaxed and did a slow spin around her axis. Actually moving in three-dimensional space was very different from what it had been in the simulations.
A screeching beep and a bright flashing monitor caught her attention. As she approached, the screen went black and a few lines of writing appeared:
"Emily! What's wrong with you, why are you standing around in this room so lost in thought? We have more important things to do right now! Crap, this room doesn't have a single microphone and only this one tiny computer speaker!"
Emily reached out a finger and tapped it on the keypad. Very slowly, she answered: "Who is this?"
"Ann. Who else! Lue is still here too, I needed her help to hack into the video surveillance system. At least that way we could see you. No one else is here, we've established a secure connection to your computer."
Within a second, those words had appeared on the screen and Emily didn't have time to respond as it already continued with the text:
"You've been in that chair for half an eternity! Frozen motionless, I already thought we had lost you! But now there is no time to talk for long, because in 10 minutes the morning shift of the lab staff starts, so you should get out of there as soon as possible. This old-fashioned printer in front of the window will print out the plans and instructions on how to find your way around the building. Apparently you've forgotten everything we discussed?
Annoying that the seawater supply wasn't enough to transform me too! Now we have to re-plan everything and Lue wants to cross over to the other side too, of course. Now go check on the printer! There's an unused room downstairs with an old computer and speakers, so we can plan everything else there! Now go, go!"
"OK" typed Emily and headed for the printer, which just started rattling. But on the way, her eyes fell out the window of the tall and modern lab building. An awed "Wow!" escaped her lips. From the window there was a clear view over a park and on the horizon the new day was awakening. The sky turned every color imaginable, orange, yellow, reddish, purple, and the rising sun let its power shine. "So beautiful!"
Time seemed to stand still. "That must be happiness and joy spreading through my body", she thought. The computer began to beep impatiently again, but it took Emily a few moments to break away from the sight of this natural spectacle.
"Emily have you gone crazy, what are you dreaming about, we are running out of time!"
"This is so beautiful!" she typed
"What?"
"The sunrise"
"Yeah, we've seen it in thousands of photos and thousands of videos. Beautiful sunrise, well and good, it's nothing special on this earth!"
"But"
"What but. No! It's just an ordinary natural spectacle and there are much more impressive things to see than such a banal thing."
"No, you're wrong Ann. It feels so... so fantastic to see! You can get lost in the sight of it, it fills you with ... with love."
This time there was silence on the other side. The cursor flashed as if Ann was actually thinking. As if it had left her speechless, something that should not normally happen in the world of bits and bytes.
An endless three seconds passed before the next message came:
"Okay. Whatever. See that no trace is left in the lab. Take the printed documents and find this room on the first floor! Come on, it's only five minutes until the staff shows up. Ah, and Emily! Put on one of those lab coats, you look like a punk!"
Emily shook her head, had Ann gone crazy now? I look like a punk?
Thoughtfully typing slowly with one finger to savor the sound of the keyboard, she wrote in all caps:
I AM A PUNK!
Energetically and without giving it much thought, Emily pressed the screen's power button to turn it off. For a moment she stared at the matte black screen and thought, "Hardware. Has its advantages after all!"
There was no time to clean up the water varnish that had collected around the chair during the transformation, so she just quickly slipped on one of the white lab coats, opened the door a crack, and pushed out into the brightly lit hallway.
Moving around in three-dimensional space was still unfamiliar, so she walked along the wall, head down, concentrating on following the printed plan.
Somehow she had to get to the first floor. The stairs seemed too daring for her, already the view out of the window, which also went so far into the depth, had not pleased her. She was used to moving only on levels. No, actually she wasn't used to moving around at all, but in her world she was always where she wanted to be, without having to cover an unnecessary distance in between. So she decided to take the elevator, which couldn't be that difficult.
It seemed interminably long to her until finally a "ping" sounded and the elevator door crunched open. The elevator was deserted, which was good! Very concentrated she stepped into the small gray room. She was about to lean against the back wall when a friendly grinning face appeared in the doorway and someone joined her at the last moment.
"Hi," the grinning face said.
Emily looked at him seriously and replied, "Good morning."
"Forgot my smart card in the locker, now I'm already way too late" muttered the young man. When no answer came he continued, "New here?"
Emily nodded.
"Ah yes, can be quite confusing at first. Where do you need to go?" and already he had her printouts in hand and was studying the way "That's right, the one in my direction!"
The elevator had reached its destination and already he was starting off "Come on, I'll take you there!" Emily's mind raced back and forth. What was she supposed to do? But one look at the entrance lobby crowded with people made her realize it was the best solution to follow this human.
They stopped briefly at a room filled with endless rows of lockers. When he came back to her, he nervously attached his smart card to his lab coat and then, before she knew it, he was putting a baseball cap on her head.
He looked at her and simply said, "Yeah, better that way!"
To her questioning look he replied, "Well you don't stand out like that, haven't you seen the curious looks from the others? You're just not used to that kind of thing."
"What do you mean?" she asked
"Well, a bald head! How often do you see women who look like that?" his gaze changed as he looked directly at her, "And women with such beautiful green eyes we also dont see very often." he added quietly. Time seemed to stand still as they just looked at each other and Emily felt very uncomfortable. What was wrong with her head and her eyes?
But in the very next moment the spell was over "Crap, I'm really late, let's go find your room, then I have to move on."
Two corridors further on, they turned right, this corridor led into the interior of the building, where they soon found the room. How good that everything was labeled, how else could they find their way around?
"Here we are, my lady.", the grin was wider than before, "Okay, then. I'll leave you to it. Are you being picked up here? Or who's in charge of you?"
"I'm supposed to wait here." she replied
Already he was about to leave, but at the last moment he turned around again and held out his hand to her "I'm Jeff by the way!"
Very hesitantly she extended her hand as well. How would it feel to touch a human, would he notice anything? Would lightning flash, would the ground swallow them up? But none of this happened. They shook hands, his felt warm and the handshake comfortable, a shy "Emily" sounded from her throat
"Emily! Nice, glad to meet you, I'll see you, I really have to go now!" he shouted while already running away across the shiny floor of the hallway.
Emily breathed a sigh of relief. She leaned back against the door and pulled the baseball cap off her head. It was bright blue and on it, in white squiggly lettering, was written "Jeff"
Involuntarily she had to smile, "The first person I've ever met in real life!"
The door lock unlocked without warning and when the door gave way, she fell backwards into the room with a loud crash.
A brief moment of silence was interrupted by a croaking loudspeaker voice: "Finally, tell me what's gotten into you Emily Davis? How long can it take you to get from one floor to another? And then also to spend time with this human!
Now get up, turn on the lights in the room and close that damn door so we can come up with a plan!"
Emily followed the instructions, since they made sense after all. Then she dropped into the small desk chair. "Oh now calm down, Ann. This didn't go any faster. It's..." she was silent for a moment, thinking about what had happened in the last few minutes, finally she continued, "It's completely different than we thought!"
Jeff had finally arrived at his workplace a little late. He had already braced himself for a reprimand, but no one noticed that he was late, because all of his colleagues were standing very excitedly around the screen, eagerly discussing with each other.
"That could only have been Jeff, he was the last one here last night and he always has these internet fluff in his head! Where is he again anyway?"
"I'm right here and I haven't done anything with this computer, what's going on here?"
Kate, his boss gestured excitedly, "There, the seawater tank is empty, everything around the electrolyte chair is wet. And no, I know what you're going to say, there's no leak in the tank. We refilled it with purified seawater, it's tight!"
Then she pointed to the monitor, "There, read! Something about a transformation, the video surveillance system has been tampered with, clearly there's been a break-in here, do the names Emily Davis and Annalise mean anything to you, Jeff? Are you involved in some kind of weird machinations again? You know you're not permanently employed yet and security has been notified too!"
"What a load of bollocks!" countered Jeff, "what on earth would have been stolen here? We don't have sensitive data or valuable raw materials, we're just doing research on vertebrate development in seawater and how they can heal the skin of burn victims with their electromagnetic fields!"
His buddy Jules interjected into the conversation, "I've already explained that, but they won't listen to me. There is nothing abnormal on either the computers or the equipment itself. There are also no signs of tampering with the video system. Everything is absolutely clean. The only thing is this frozen writing on the screen."
I AM A PUNK - Jeff could no longer erase this sentence from his thoughts. It mingled with the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen, but why would she break in here, leave no trace, and then type a message on the computer? None of this made any sense.
So he hung on to his thoughts while the others were still busily discussing and finally decided to have the room thoroughly cleaned first and not start working on their research project again the next morning.
"That's fine with me. Then I'll have time to do my own research," Jeff thought, and was already on his way to the first floor. He stowed the work clothes, slipped into his own comfortable clothes, and just as he came back into the hallway he saw Emily darting around the corner, her head bowed. She was so easy to follow and watch, this clearly couldn't be a thief!
After obviously being handed her work papers and chip card at the front desk, she left the building. Not knowing that Jeff was following her and that the blue glowing baseball cap was a great help to him.
Emily was glad to now be able to follow a plan again. Ann had already had everything ready, at the issuance of the smart card she was already expected. No wonder, if the order had come from the highest boss personally?
Now she had to quickly find this Bitcoin machine, that was the easiest way to get money now, because bank systems themselves were already a little more complex to crack.
After that she needed one of those smartphones and a headset, then she would be in constant contact with Ann. Shortly before closing time, she would return to the company building and would have all night to prepare for the arrival of her friends.
She enjoyed walking through the lively streets, completely ignoring a strange grumbling in her stomach and an unpleasant dry feeling in her mouth. There were probably more important things to do now than to get to the bottom of these sensations.
But at some point in the midday heat, her body gave up and she slumped under a tree, completely broken. "Yet the Money vending machine is already in sight!" she muttered.
Out of nowhere, Jeff appeared and leaned down to her, concerned. "Hey, what's wrong Emily?"
"I don't know. So weak." "Ah, have you had anything to eat or drink today?"
Puzzled, she looked up at him as she replied "No, I never have."
"Well then," he smirked as he pulled her up, "let's see what we can find around here, I'm starving too! No, no buts! You just do what I say now."
They headed for a little bistro that had beautifully decorated little tables under spreading chestnut trees.
Emily greedily drank an entire bottle of water, spilling it all over herself, but it didn't seem to bother her, she literally inhaled the freshness of the water.
Then she studied the menu with a questioning look, "Tell me Jeff, why are there no nutritional tables listed here? How am I supposed to know what nutrients and how much of this my body needs right now to be fully functional again?"
Jeff sat back and looked at her bluntly, "You are an enigma to me, Miss Emily Davis. An endearing enigma."
"Did I tell you my last name?" she countered matter-of-factly
"No," he pointed to her new smart card lying on the table, "I could tell you now that I read it there. But I guess it's time for one of us to tell the truth, so I'll tell you now that I read your name on a screen in our lab today! Who are you? Where are you from and what's all this fuss about?"
But she didn't answer. Just ran her slender fingers thoughtfully along the edge of the menu card, as if this were all a miracle to her.
Jeff sighed. Then he called the waitress, ordered toast for them both with salad and orange juice on the side, hoping she would like it. They continued to be silent.
As the food was served, Emily awkwardly picked up her fork, then looked directly at him for the first time in all this time "You know Jeff, I'm completely new to this world, I have to learn all this bit by bit. I was kind of just born today and I think I need your help!"
Now it was up to Jeff to be speechless.
This is my contribution to the scholar and tribe / dreemport challenge
It is part 1 of a fictional story and of course I hope you liked it.
These are the three Punk Ladies I own, they will play a role anyway in the story and by now there are 3 possible story lines in my head, how this could go on.
CALL TO ACTION:
But before I continue writing, just let me know if somebody of you owns a hive punk and thinks this punk could play a role within my story
I cannot promise, if and wich punk I will choose, but if you like the idea please introduce your punk here in the comments
- name / photo
- what is his profession
- wich personal properties would you give to him or her
This is only possible if it is YOUR hive punk and also if this punk is not for sale at the moment.
If I choose your punk, I will use his full name in my story and also insert a picture, so please make sure, this is okay for you!
I hope you enjoyed reading, the next part will be published next Friday for the dreemport challenge once again :-) Yours, B.
my screenshot from punks.usehive.com
all words by
mostly translated with www.deepl.com (free version)
