My coworker at Ashida-Kikuchi was named Lauren. We were both techs in the whacked out physics lab. It was a pretty sweet gig because the doctor was never around and Lauren was really brilliant so whatever assignments we did get she handled easily. I only got the job because my uncle was a janitor but she was a groupie to Dr Kikuchi if science has such people so she was really enthusiastic about everything. She was also pretty cute; tall, blond ponytail, short skirts showing off her long, toned legs... What was I talking about? Yeah, she wasn't model material with her biggish nose and glasses but her brains put her out of my league. She was really nice though in a geeky sort of way.
One night I was watching the little black and white TV and eating pork rinds while she was fine-tuning some gadget left for us to tend to by the doc. Neither of us ever saw him much anymore since he worked days and we were put on nights to keep us out of his way.
"Done!" Lauren exclaimed, and put the gizmo down. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.
"You're a marvel, Lauren."
"It's nothing: just some little lamp with a laser rod attached. It's practically junk, really. Why would Dr Kikuchi even have this? It has nothing to do with his wormhole theory."
"I'm sure I don't know."
"I wish I could ask him." Suddenly there was a noise from The Room; that's a rear office that was always, always locked. Only Dr K ever had admittance. We both jumped, and looked at each other. "Do you know who's in there?" she half stage-whispered and half-pantomimed.
"No," I replied in kind. Lauren mimed talking on a phone.
"Maybe we should..."
"We're in a shack in the middle of a desert," I whispered. "Who would rob us? How long would it even take for police-" Suddenly the door opened, and my Uncle Al walked out of The Room backwards, with his mobile sanitation station in tow.
"Hey, you two!" he said, half turning to see us.
"Geez, Uncle Al, you scared the shit out of us!"
"Ha ha, sorry. I had to straighten some things. Lock up for me, will ya?" He dragged his equipment out of our lab before we could say anything. Lauren and I looked at each other in shock. We were both thinking the same thing.
My uncle was not much of an employee. I guess it runs in the family. He should have known, but didn't, that tech privileges didn't extend to that room. Neither of us even had a key. He also could have known, but didn't, that Lauren would be dying to see what was in there. I was less likely to understand any of it, so it didn't matter much to me, but I didn't want her getting fired over it and leaving me vulnerable to be revealed to be a spare part.
"Just a peek," she said.
"Don't wreck anything, please." She was extremely clumsy.
"I won't. He must have been in there today. I wonder what he's been doing. What if he's made some kind of breakthrough? We'd be the first people in the world to... Oh, I really shouldn't... I don't know..."
"It can't hurt to take a quick look."
"My thought exactly," she said, and stormed over to the door. She turned to me before she went in. "Are you coming?" I shrugged and followed her. I guess she was too chicken to go in alone. Anyway, I'd be able to keep an eye on her.
The door creaked open and she stuck her head in. "Oh, wow!" she exclaimed and went to sift through all the science things.
"Yeah, very impressive," I said, standing back with my hands in my pockets.
"Wow, that's a heavy duty charger. What's this? A field emitter?"
"It looks like a hot plate."
"He must have been planning to try something, or he has already. It's even on a, what is this, a harness? Mm..." She studied a blackboard covered in equations, with her hand on her chin. "No, he couldn't have. How would he power it?"
A bit lost, I wandered over to a table top that had a cylindrical impression in it. I reached my hand down into it and found a used cup, still wet with coffee. "Euww," I said, and dropped the cup. I heard a noise in the trash can a few feet away. Stunned by a vague realization, I put my hand back into the hole on the table, and felt around for the cup. When I crushed it, I heard another noise from the garbage. I withdrew my hand and wiped it on my lab coat. "Uhh, Lauren, I think we should go."
"Do you know what this is?" she asked, pointing at the harness with the metal disk on it. I could see her eyes had become wild behind her thick lenses.