A Collection of Fantasy and Science Fiction Short Stories - Special ...

Jeff nodded as he shoveled eggs into his mouth then swallowed before speaking.
“I don’t really know what we’re doing. They probably just want to get opinions of
potential customers before it gets put on the market.” He stood and put his dishes in the
dishwasher.
“Ok, you be careful. If it looks too dangerous, you can always back out of it and
come back home. I don’t want you getting any unnecessary injuries.” She kissed his
cheek and gave a wave as she focused on her own breakfast.
Jeff left the house and walked the three minutes to the station and was just in
time to take the 7:46 am teletube to Bino Technical Corporation. He didn’t like public
teletubes very much, especially those made for massive amounts of people. Groups of ten
to forty people walk into a painted circle on the ground to stand directly beneath a giant
tube that sucked them up and spat them out at their destination. Home teletubes—which
Jeff preferred—worked differently; more like materialization, but the technology only
transported two people safely. Anything more than that and people come out with arms
sticking out of their heads.
Jeff arrived early to make sure he didn’t get lost. The place was bigger than he
thought it would be; it easily could have held a small amusement park. He walked
through the automatic doors and gave his name to the woman at the front desk. Her smile
was polite and false as she nodded and began clicking away at her computer. She asked
for photo identification and carefully checked it over before returning it to him.
“Ok, you’re in test room 49-Q.” She continued, giving Jeff directions on which
elevator to take and which wing to enter and how many doors he would be passing. He
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