Harvest
Ryan let the deliveryman wheel the big box into his “living room”, the most open space in his little apartment. It was even bigger than he had imagined. He signed the delivery ticket with a hurried hand.
The man left, taking his utility cart with him.
Ryan paused to scratch his head as he pondered how to open the box.
It was a bold proposal in the advertising that had attracted his attention. “Two week FREE trial! If you are not completely satisfied, return the package at our expense, and we will pay you ten dollars for your trouble!”
He hadn't seen how he could go wrong. If nothing else, he'd make ten bucks just for trying it out.
But even that wasn't the only thing that drew him in. This equipment was billed as a machine to help improve the appearance of anyone who was interested in good health, monitoring the skin for early indications of blood circulation problems, skin disorders, and fungal or other infections.
Supposedly, it focused precisely-tuned laser beams of low power onto the skin, to promote healthy chemical reactions and speed healing, and to destroy harmful organisms.
Likely it was all hype, but Ryan had been hooked on the alleged skin-tone improvement as shown by “unsolicited endorsements of previous users”. Most likely models, but they had looked good!
Ryan opened the package carefully, suspecting that he would be packing it all back up again in very short order. The instructions for a return were clearly spelled out, and a packing label for the purpose had been included in the packaging. It seemed to indicate considerable confidence in the equipment's functioning.
It was supposed to be assembled in the shower. It would operate on battery power and gravity as the laser array slowly scanned down the freshly-cleaned body with a friction mechanism controlling its fall. That meant that he would have to raise the scanner before each use, but that also meant that it wouldn't have any source of power to cause him harm other than the battery-operated scanning device.
Basically, it was two large rings; one open, the other with a mesh grid across it, that were to be separated by stacked tubular rods. He assembled it and read the instructions.
It couldn't be easier to use. After putting the machine together and “cocking” it, by raising the upper ring, you simply took a shower, toweled dry, and then activated the scanner to look you over.
Ryan thought about it. He couldn't see what the connection was between showering and using the device, except that maybe human nature would keep people from using the scanner while naked.
That was probably it. Some idiot girl would want to keep her bra on for modesty, and end up suing the company for burns from some wires or something.
Certainly it made sense to use the machine with your clothes off. If you wanted your skin to be healthy, you'd have to expose it to the rays. Assuming it worked.
Ryan decided to try it out. He placed it in the shower, and then went about his normal pattern, placing his glasses on the counter, and a towel within reach.
Rather than fight the cage around him, Ryan left the scanner collapsed at his feet while he showered. Then he toweled dry, and raised up the assembly. From outside the shower, he started the scanner and watched it descend over an empty column of air. The laser beams played over each other like a light show, illuminating droplets of invisible moisture in the air.
He reached into the beam with his hand. The light was slightly warming, but not painful at all.
Ryan stopped the scanner, and raised it up again. Stepping into the ring chamber, he activated it again, placed his hands at his side, and closed his eyes.
The beams came down slowly, playing over his body like searchlights scanning the skies for invading airplanes. The scanning layer moved down his body as if he were the rising moon, and all of his topography was being photographed.
Finally, it reached bottom, and shut itself off.
And the lights went out.
Ryan opened his eyes. He was standing in a waist-high glass tube in a darkened chamber. His shower, his towel, his glasses, and his bathroom were nowhere to be seen.
Astonishingly, he realized that he was able to see all the way across the chamber, even without his glasses!
That discovery was not quite the happy news that it perhaps should have been, because in that chamber, Ryan saw about two or three dozen other people, all standing in glass tubes like his, and all equally naked.
All of them appeared to be too surprised by what they were seeing to react to anything at all, including their nakedness. They were all collecting information, and trying to sort it out, in that last calm moment that everyone has, just before panic sets in.
With very little interest or excitement about it, Ryan noted without mental comment that about half of the people he was seeing were female, and everyone was as bald as a billiard ball.
He reached up to his head, and felt skin tissue he had not touched in living memory, but there was no hair. Across the chamber, dozens of others were doing exactly the same thing.
Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:02 pm
Deadline?