Metal Roses

Carena couldn’t believe her luck. She had managed- somehow- to get past the guards on the front gate, and into the building. It shouldn’t be this easy! She thought to herself, slipping on the glasses that enabled her to see… well, everything that she needed to, even through a certain type of wall (i.e.: a very thin glass one).

She abhorred them, they made her look like an idiot, and the first time she saw them she convulsed into a fit of laughter- until she realized she had to wear them. But as much as she hated to admit it, they were good. After all, she couldn’t expect these goggles- which practically bent the rules of space for her- to do anything so crass as to look good.

But they don’t have to look so horrific she thought as she scanned the hall for any possible dangers. There were lasers, but they were easy. There would be something rather more subtle, more… tricky. Carena liked tricky.

Daniel made them terrifyingly ugly on purpose. He knew I’d hate them. What would he say if he knew what I’m using them for? Not that I’ll tell him. No matter how hard he begs… Her train of thought paused as the repulsive goggles locked in on a motion sensor beneath the floor. It would shift beneath her, triggering an alarm if she didn’t play this right. She wished she had more time to think about this, but she only had a certain amount of time before the curator came. There was little space for thought outside of her plans.

The sensor didn’t reach the sides of the corridor, it left about two inches to either side, but the corridor was riddled with straight lasers. It was like a disease, and she didn’t know the cure.

Carena liked tricky, but this was just mean. Contrary to popular belief, straight lasers were much harder to get past then those lasers that refracted the light in every direction, because you had to get the right type of mirror, at the right angle, and you couldn’t make a single mistake, or the light wouldn’t return right.

It was all really, very complicated.

And a motion sensor… they would be set on time limits, so the timing had to be exactly right. Even the caretakers and curators had to do everything to a set time pattern. And there was no other route to where she wanted to get to.

The goggles had scanned for any discrepancy in the sensor, but there was none. It couldn’t be fooled, without her some how changing the clock it was set to.

Carena’s interrupted hind thoughts resumed their pathway, as her front thoughts tried to work out how to get past this first obstacle. No matter how hard he begs, I won’t tell him… although, Daniel didn’t seemed remotely interested, which is just annoying. But I annoyed him by being grateful for these monstrosities. I most definitely would be in a police craft right now, if I hadn’t had these. I’d have rushed forward… but that doesn’t make Daniel any less of a prat.

Her hind thoughts halted once again to make way for an idea… she could use a temporary temporal spin. That would get rid of the laser and sensor problem, and would leave her with four minutes to get through the gap.

Temporal spins were risky. Cast them the wrong way, and trouble was standing right behind you. And Carena barely knew how to do them. But she couldn’t go back now. Going back now could mean she might get caught, without even doing anything.

She had a pack of small temporal spins in her belt, just in case of a guard. One was big enough to do the job, but small enough to leave absolutely no traces. She got it out of her bag, and lay out the blue pads on the floor, trying desperately to remember what David told her about them. I wish I paid more attention when he was going on about these… I can just about remember it, but it was his fault for getting that stupid haircut. How could I not be distracted by that one lock of long hair that was just protruding from the middle of his head? I mean it was just dangling there, and getting in the way. It was worse then when it was all long, she thought as she changed the pattern of the blue pads a fourth time.

This had to be right. She remembered thinking diamond formation, because she had been wearing diamond earrings that day. She took her stun stick from it’s holder on her belt. Set it to four, that was one watt for each diamond… and you had to make sure you're standing five meters back… Light blue pad with the purplish dot had to face the direction of spin… Carena leapt forward to adjust the pads, and walked back, setting the distance on the glasses to alert her when she’d reached five meters.

Then, she pressed the button on the stun stick, and heard the crackle of electricity as it leapt from the stick to the blue pad next to the light blue one. Each pad lit up momentarily as the electricity hit, and was absorbed, and inside each, a minute was gathered and yielded to the light blue, directional pad. Four minutes of suspended time hit the sensors and the lasers, forging a path barely larger then the breadth of Carena’s from shoulder to shoulder.

She rushed forward and picked up the faded pads, and put them in the pouch. Then, grasping the stick in hand, she made her way boldly forward on the small path the ‘hang time’ cast had given her.

Around her, time went on unaffected.

Thanking God and Daniel for temporal spins, she got to the other side of the sensors. She was in. Then she switched off the camera Daniel had tried to hide inside of the goggles.

Did he really think she was that stupid?



Having reached the centre of the building, and gaining access to the lab, Carena stood in the middle of the big white operating room. It was clinically clean, and the glasses detected traces of the ultra-violet radiation they used to keep it that way everywhere. The light blue mist- that’s what it looked like- intensified every so often as more UV was released in the room. She had donned a protective suit, a hideous, shapeless, baggy thing, and could walk around unharmed as the room was gently disinfected with pulses of the UV.

In one of these walls would be a box, lined in lead that was covered in 15 inches of steel. And that box would contain the blueprints for the neo-technology, and that was what Carena needed. Neo-tech was the nice word for new weapons, soldiers, robotics, and all AI techs. It covered every one of all the governments’ experiments before they were made public. And Carena desperately needed that box.

She scanned the walls for any inconsistencies. At first, nothing gave away the position of the box, but on a closer inspection, Carena noticed a small cooling device. It made the area it was cooling only fractionally cooler than the overall temperature of the room, but it would stop the heat from the UV Cleaners from damaging the box that was hidden in the wall, and keep its contents cool.

She tapped the wall with her stun stick and listened to the sound it made…it was hollow just here, but nowhere else. A cavity had been made to hold the box. To the side of the cavity, a white scanner made for checking the ID cards blended in neatly with the wall. And here Carena was suddenly at a loss. There was a code, in case an ID card was damaged, but that was practically undecipherable. This was, after all, a high security building. Carena peered through the goggles at the scanner. The blue filter exposed a pattern of dots. Clearly, they were for inputting the code. Carena looked at the scanner through the infrared, but the cooling device had wiped away any traces of residue heat from fingertips.

Carena took off the glasses, and peered closer, looking for any wear of the shiny scan surface, but then remembered the UV, and hurriedly put them back on. Not even getting those glasses off was worth cancer. At least she could have enhanced vision. She cleared the screen, and set it to magnify. There were slight matt patches, were fingertips had worn away the gloss finish. There was still no idea of identifying the code, just where to put her fingers. Carena looked again, and waited for inspiration to strike. She checked the clock that was built in to one corner of the goggles. She had one hour in which to figure out how to open the box. Peering even closer at the pad, she saw that there were only ten patches. It could mean there were ten finger placements, but it could also mean that you just placed the fingers so.

Tentatively, scared to make a mistake, scared that what she was about to do would be wrong, she placed her fingers on the matt patches. The white scanner pulsed, first red, then, as Carena stood, almost paralysed with fear, green. She sighed, and removed her fingers as the wall in front of the cavity swung back, and thanked God for gloves. Inside the box, there was a sheaf of papers, and a faint blue glow that could only be picked up with the goggles set to blue filter. She reached her hand in to pick up the papers. Her hand passed right through them. She tried again, but the same thing happened. The faint blue glow, she realized was the result of a temporal spin, different to the one she used to de-activate the lasers and the motion sensors. This one acted more like a loop on a camera system, constantly bringing back the view inside the box to a time when the sheaf of papers was there, but in reality, the cavity was empty. Someone had stolen the papers before she’d gotten there. She let a hiss escape between her teeth. That is so completely inconsiderate. At least I was only going to copy the papers, and then replace them once I’d done with them, which is a lot smarter.

The blue filter detected that the spin had only been in action for twenty-eight minutes. Carena had just missed the thief, and the UV radiation had taken care of any tracks the thief might’ve left, just as she knew it would to hers. She slammed the wall shut, and noticing a hitherto unnoticed light give a red warning flash, placed her fingers on the patches again, as quickly as accuracy would allow. Then, she left the room hurriedly, glaring behind the hideous goggles.



Once out of the building, skimming through the air on the hover board that she’d picked up on the way, Carena felt much better. At least she knew how to get in now, and that she could do it again, if need be. Only next time, she’d be much quicker. And she’d find out where those blueprints were. They were the only ones in the city. She spotted a patrol craft using the goggles- she hadn’t bothered to take them off, all shame of wearing them dissipated by her anger- and dropped down almost to ground level, in a quiet back street. She switched off the board, and hid in a convenient deep doorway. The hovercraft flew on overhead silently.

Officially she had done nothing wrong, because she didn't consider borrowing a board and a little light breaking and entering wrong. But it wouldn’t do for her to be noticed roaming the streets alone at 11:30 at night. No-one did that: she would be glaringly obvious. The threat gone, she switched back on her board, and rose up into the night sky again. She would find out where those blueprints were. She needed them desperately. But before she did that, she had to pay a visit to Daniel. And she would. In the morning.