Toys

Freeing. After the Suspended Temporal Area, the ‘therapists’ office and The Official’s room, Lore was glad to be somewhere that had ample room to swing a cat or, at the very least, dance around with one without bumping a wall or two in the process. The space was wide open and empty; there was almost nothing around for as far as they could see.
“This is the testing level.” The Hologram suddenly appeared beside them, causing them to jump. “Vehicles and devices that require significant space are tested here.”
“And why are we here?” Lore looked around again to see if they had missed anything. Beside a beautiful mess of a desk, there was nothing and no-one around.
“Because this room is where Loren and Crait developed The Slider protocols and ensured it was safe for field use.” The Hologram waved its hand. Loren and Crait appeared.

Crait followed behind Loren, jogging to keep up with their weirdly rapid walk as they crossed the room to the bench. “If I’m following, the ring I made you was the thing keeping us from teleportation in normal time?”
Loren bobbed their head from side to side. “Almost. It’s not teleportation but rather… Sliding… I guess.” They grabbed a small ball from the table. They depressed a circle on the top of the ball, causing it to glow blue. “You know how a grav-ball negates gravity by emitting a controlled temporal field?” Crait nodded. “It can remain in place because without time, gravity can’t act on it.” He placed the ball in front of his face and pushed it. It started slowly moving towards Crait. “It moves because it’s been given motion however, without gravity or any other to act on it, it won’t stop sliding.”
“That’s what your device does? But to a person?” Crait was picturing the uses of such a device.
“Yes and no.” He took his creation off of the bench. “It works by creating a gravity well and a temporary suspended temporal area around the user. Almost like a hook-shot but more advanced.” He held the device out in front of him. “You point, press and it takes you in that direction.” He paused. “You do first have to dial in a range too. In a place like this, I’d be sliding from wall to wall.” They fiddled with the ring. Depressing the button saw him seemingly teleport from one side of the bench to about a metre behind Crait. He turned and vanished once more, returning to his starting point.
“But how come I can’t see you when you do it?” Crait waved their hand through Loren’s supposed path trying to detect him as he slid between his two points.
“Because it’s happening instantaneously. The gravity well accelerates the user while also bending light around them so they’re doubly invisible.” He scoffed. “Fancy giving it a test ride?”
Crait took the device and almost immediately broke it. Loren smiled and held his hand out for the pieces. “Pass it here.” He scanned the parts in his hand before reassembling the device. Before returning it to them, he thought it best to teach them how to use it properly. “Okay. So the red end is the emitter. Do not block it. Ever. I have it set and ready to go, so no need to mess with the distance gauge. Hold it firmly here.” He held the device out to them and wrapped their hand around the core. “And, when you’re ready and I’m not holding on to you, push the button.”
Take two and Crait was ready to finally test it for themselves. They held out the device as Loren had shown them, pointed it ahead of themselves and fired. Loren turned to face the spot where they should have appeared however saw it still empty.
“Ah.” Loren thought to themselves as they realised what had happened. “Wonder if they figure it out or if… Nope.” They expanded their search and saw Crait walking towards them, Slider in hand, in the far distance. He waited with a massive grin on his face; eventually, Crait made it back.
“What’s so funny?” They thrust the Slider back into Loren’s hand.
Loren quickly checked the settings and activated it. They vanished for a moment before returning to almost the exact spot they disappeared from. “That.”
“What? The fact your tech is broken?” Crait shook their head.
“No, the fact that you didn’t use it to get back.” Loren chuckled. “Plus, it wasn’t broken, I just forgot to properly calibrate it after reassembly. At least you weren’t catapulted into a wall.”
Crait tried their hardest not to laugh but cracks formed in their veneer of stoicism. “We know it works, why are we here?”
“Because R&D won’t take the project seriously if we can’t reproduce the findings. To do that, we need to make another one; and to do that, we need more of whatever stone you put in this ring.” Loren removed the engagement band from the Slider. He held it up to his eye and looked at the gems from several angles. “Where did you find these stones anyway?”
“You remember those ‘missions’ they’d send us on, the infiltration and extraction jobs we’d have to do when we were younger?” Loren nodded, Crait continued. “While we were in the labs, I may have found a box with an impossible date on it so I opened it and found three stones. I stole one which I broke up to make the stones for that ring.”
Loren’s face lost emotion for a moment as he thought about his next move. A cheeky smile was chiselled into his stony visage. “You remember which lab?” The memory faded as months of research were condensed into minutes around them.

“After stealing the second sample, they cut the stones exactly as Crait had and embedded them into a second ring.” The Hologram reappeared. “Both prototypes were handed off to the Research and Development groups and, The Slider finally entered full production.” Lore’s look of confusion led The Hologram to continue. “From the prototype, the production model was created which, eventually, led to the creation of the Breacher.”
“You just wanted to look clever… Didn’t you?” Lore concluded.
“It will be of relevance later.” The Hologram maintained. “Until then, we continue.” Briefings.