mama

STACKING UP

"Bring in the test subject." said Dr. Vang, sitting in the control both.

He watched as the guards brought the D-Class subject into the chamber. She was clad in an orange jumpsuit, slightly filthy, with a shiny bald head and beady olive eyes. Vang wondered where she'd come from. He didn't really believe that D-Class came from prisons, more likely political prison camps. But she didn't look Asian, or Russian, but maybe she was from one of those countries where they-

A hand on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts. "Vang, start the test already, would ya? We don't have all day here?"

"Oh, sure, sure." Vang quickly pressed some buttons on the control panel, and the first object was brought out. It was a shaving mirror, highly polished. She looked at it, then shouted up to the booth. "What the hell'm I supposed to do with this thing?"

Vang touched the intercom button. "Observe your reflection, please."

He leaned back in the swivel chair. She sounded like an American. Maybe Canada? But Canada didn't have any political prisons. At least, not that Vang knew of. He watched as she looked into the mirror for a few seconds.

<more objects here>

As he watched her exit the containment chamber, Vang considered his newfound job power. All he had to do was submit some vague form of weaponization to his commanders, and they were commanders now, not just administrators, and the money would come.

Vang often joked about this with his fellows. 'It's like we're really working for the GOC now, isn't it?' Then they'd laugh nervously, and not really respond to him. That was what happened with most things Vang said to his coworkers. Not that it ever stopped him from saying things.

The red phone was ringing.

Vang stared at it. There were a million different people who could be calling. His supervisor might want to know how the test'd gone, or someone who needed to borrow some testing tools, maybe his Mom. Vang hoped his Mom wasn't calling him at work. That would be weird.

A firm hand slapped him upside the hand. "Answer it already, Vang!"

~Sheesh~

Vang picked up the phone, and held the bright red handset up to his head. "Hello, this is Dr. Vang. Who's this?"

"I thought you said 'this' is Dr. Vang."

"You're a riot. What do you need? I'm in the middle of our testing."

"That's all I wanted to know. You're certain this will let us create the... correct programming?"

"Oh yeah." Vang spun his chair idly, watching the room and the other researcher flash by him as he talked.