Crystalline

Chapter 1
10:00 AM

Chapter Description: Lab preparations don't always go as planned.

[img align=left; footer=’’; border=0; showfooter=1;]http://i.imgur.com/DWeX0.jpg[/img]

Another day in the lab.

Ben put on his lab coat and began his preparations for the day’s experiments. The analyzer looked like it was working fine, all the chemicals had been restocked the previous day. All the measuring tapes had been put back, all the glassware had been washed. What else was there to do? He fiddled with his phone a little bit before absent-mindedly checking the time on the clock mounted on the wall. It was barely 10 AM. He would be stuck here until at LEAST 5 PM. Probably longer.

He didn’t see the point in waiting around when he had no more samples to analyze, that was stupid; nevertheless, his colleagues were counting on him to produce results from something. He wasn’t even sure what the project really WAS, now that he thought of it. Recalibration of Crystal Fields and Their Effect on Temporal Variance. He was basically crushing up crystals and analyzing the powder. That was his job. He’d grind up a quartz crystal, analyze the powder, send the results in. Get another crystal, grind it up, send in the results. Get. Grind. Send.

The door burst open, scattering several papers nearby due to the breeze let in from the door. Miranda, his lab mate, stood breathlessly in the doorway holding several brown packages in her hands. She was much shorter than he was, but much more youthful in appearance. She had a rounded face and short pixie-cut hair that, strangely, was down today, instead of tied back for lab work.

“Great news!” she exclaimed, setting down several of the smaller boxes.

“More crystals?” Ben said, not looking up from his phone, but raising an eyebrow.

“Better!” she said, opening one of the small boxes with her fingernail, sliding her finger under the tape and removing it with a satisfying pop.

“Blue crystals?” Ben replied, coyly.

“Very funny. No, I actually got some equipment for my part of the project: a few lenses that I needed, the Lithium core that I mentioned last week, and even better than that, I got a watch!”

“A watch?” he inquired.

“Well, a pocketwatch, really. I gave some money to a homeless guy on the bus, and to repay me, he gave me his pocketwatch. I tried to tell him it was okay, but he insisted on giving it to me. I figured it’d be some crummy old thing, but look for yourself!” she said, holding out the watch in her outstretched hand.

The watch gleamed brilliantly, even in the fluorescent lighting of the laboratory. It really was a beautiful thing, Ben thought to himself, as he admired the fine silver inlay, the opal that shone from the face of the watch and the incredibly fine chain that came off the top of the watch, encircling the engraved cover, embossed with depictions of cherubs, that clasped onto the front in Miranda’s small, smooth palm.

“That’s beautiful!” he said, chuckling to himself, “Now you can tell me when I can get the hell out of here and go home.”

“I wish I could, unfortunately, the stupid thing is broken. The watch isn’t the best part, though, look!” she said, flipping the watch over to reveal a magnificent amethyst crystal that took up nearly the entire backing of the watch. As she turned it over in her palm, it glittered like the ocean at sunset, casting tiny pinpoints of light around the room, throwing a violet hue over Ben and herself.

“Holy shit, now I see why you like it so much! That’s the biggest crystal I’ve ever seen! It must be worth a fortune, working or not!” he exclaimed, still staring at the clam-sized gem jutting out of the back.

“I know, I know, I just need to take it to a shop or something. I can’t figure out how to get it started again, and I’m no watchmaker.”

“Can I see? I used to have an old pocketwatch in high school senior year,” Ben mused, “That was almost ten years ago, though, but I always thought they were interesting.”

“Sure, knock yourself out,” she said, handing him the watch, crystal side down.

The front of the watch had a small inscription he could barely make out. At the top, it seemed to read “MO.” At the bottom, it read, in fine script, “INTERVAL.” Other than that, it seemed an ordinary watch with an hour hand and a second hand. As Ben flipped the watch over in his hand, he examined the sides of the watch closely, seeing tiny gemstones poking from the watch like points on a cog. He pushed against them, one by one, until one finally gave and spun in his fingers.

“Hey, I think I figured it out,” he said, “See, this little gem here controls the hands! It’s just like a normal watch, you pull out the little doo-whackey and spin it until it’s the right time, 10:05, and then you just push it in like this!”

Ben pushed the small clear gem back into the watch after setting the hands to the appropriate time, with the hour hand on the ten and the minute hand on the five. The watch did nothing.

“Maybe you have to wind it?” Miranda asked.

“Probably,” Ben said, still staring at the puzzle before him, “but how?”

As his hand slid over the watch, it grazed the enormous purple crystal, causing it to rotate in its slot. It moved in and out of the watch as Ben rotated it until eventually clicking into a final position.

“Okay, I think I got it. Turns out all you had to do was turn the crys—“

Ben was rocked backward by a blast of purple light emanating from the watch. His hand burned where the watch had been and he nearly dropped it, catching it by the chain. His ears felt like he had been riding in an airplane at 50,000 feet and someone had opened the emergency exit.

As he refocused his eyes, he realized Miranda did not look surprised at all, but rather, angry. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, only the tinny sound reverberating in his ears remained. As she gestured at him to hand the watch over, he did so, and slowly her deliberate voice filled the room.

“—and like I said, thanks for the help, but we really can’t have you meddling around in here without your supervisor.”

“Huh?” Ben said, confused.

“Your supervisor. You can’t be in here without me. As an undergrad, you’re not allowed to work in the labs by yourself, it’s a liability, alright? I know, I know, but rules are rules and this is one that I won’t break.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been here for years, Miranda!” he said, trying to come up with an answer to a response he didn’t quite hear.

She smiled, “I know it feels like that, sometimes, but when I was 20, I felt the same way, you feel like you can handle it, but trust me, it’s good to have someone there to help you before you’re thrown out into a lab at a REAL JOB and you’re the only person accountable. Enjoy it while it last, but seriously, you should probably head off to class.”

“I don’t have class, Miranda!”

“Oh, well lucky you! I wish I had off when I was in undergrad. Anyway, I’ve got a meeting in a few hours, and it’s already 10:10, so I should go prep for it. Anyway, thanks for fixing the wat—“

Another blast of purple light blew out his vision. He felt like someone was shining a flashlight into his face. Had he passed out? He felt the cold concrete on his back. Where was his labcoat? As he stood to his feet, he wobbled slightly, before looking down in horror.