PROMPT: Saida au but Sana is a lonely immortal while Dahyun is a time-travelling lesbian.  

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FROM 1000 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE, WITH LOVE

 

 

Park Industries and Research Incorporated is Korea's leading advance technological corporation led by Park Jihyo and her associates. Jihyo and her friends started company after they graduated college. In a span of 5 years the company grew from a small company that makes electrical components, programs, and Artificial Intelligence to a multi-billion company worth more than South Korea itself. People don't know the secret of PIRE's success but a lot could be attributed to the genius visionary herself and her loyal friends who helped make vision into a reality.

 

Kim Dahyun knew her importance in the company. She and Chaeyoung helped Jihyo vastly improve augmentations. Which the company attributes its first breakthrough into the stock market. Now, they are trying to have another breakthrough in both science, physics, and astrophysics by inventing a Time hopper. "Time travel" is already a commodity but what is offered to the public is only a simulation. The person cannot be seen or cannot interact with other people physically in what is publicly available. Dahyun wants to change that by actually putting the person in the actual time period instead of just being a non-existent ghost. Obviously when Dahyun proposed this Jihyo was skeptical until Dahyun built a prototype testing it on Mark I SIRs (Synthetic Individual Robot). 

 

"Chaeyoung have you checked what was causing the blackout last test? I don't to get lost in limbo again." Dahyun asked her fellow colleague, and best friend, Son Chaeyoung about some minor problem about some electrical wiring or whatnot. For Chaeyoung, that is way below her level of expertise took an offense for such matters that should be left for the electricians instead of an expert in Quantum Physics and Engineering. She didn't answer Dahyun's question instead she remained fixated on the holograph in front of her calculating minor specifics that can cause major changes if overseen.

 

"Oi, Chaeyoung-ah! Answer me." Dahyun shouted from the 2nd floor balcony of the Park Industries Quantum Engineering Lab when Chaeyoung didn't answer her question. The latter looked up at her with an offended stare to which Dahyun ignored as she waited for an answer.

 

"Ask the electrical devs that not me. I got important things to do than fix some wires." Chaeyoung replied as she went back to the holographic screen writing equations.

 

"Ugh." Dahyun rolled her eyes in frustration. She activated her neural communication implants that then connected her to Chan, the head of the IT department.

 

"Yow, what do I owe you today?" Chan greeted merrily. A stark contrast to Chaeyoung cold reply earlier.

 

"Have you fixed the blackout issue I told you last time? We are running test on the Teletransponder and I don't wan't getting stuck in Timespace limbo again." Dahyun asked. Her voiced is strained and tired after 2 weeks of barely not sleeping along with the whole Quantum Team just to get the Teletransponder up and safely running before Jihyo's launch date.

 

"Yeah. I sent some of my guys to check it out. They had to replace some fuses since apparently the thing fried the fuses when you first traveled back. Which caused the whole building to shut down. Don't worry though, after that I asked Ms. Im to tell our boss lady to upgrade the power sources in the basement. I think they did the upgrades last week." Chan informed Dahyun. She can hear the constant small beeps from his keyboard while they were talking.

 

"I knew it. I already nagged Jihyo about upgrading the those outdated fuses so many times. It took her for me to get lost in timespace before she did." Dahyun sarcastically sneered. This caused Chan to let out an amused chuckle.

 

"I think you should still ask Ms. Im if the upgrades are done since I really didn't get an memo about that." Chan advised. Dahyun silently acknowledged it before disconnecting.

 

Dahyun then heads to the top floor of Park Industries where the office of its CEO, Park Jihyo is located as well as her secretary, Im Nayeon's office. The elevator opened and Yoo Jeongyeon, the head of security of Park Industries entered. Jeongyeon smiled at Dahyun and seeing the stressed woman, she offered her a stick of gum. Dahyun refuses as she knows Yoo Jeongyeon since college, the prankster so no, Dahyun is not falling for the gum stick prank that even though it is a century old prank it always manage to get Nayeon.

 

"You are no fun." Jeongyeon commented.

 

"I'm stressed." Dahyun replied.

 

"How's the project doing?" Jeongyeon casually asked as she leaned against the cold elevator wall.

 

"Just fixing some issues. We are trying to get it running before Jihyo's launch event. Everyone in the department are either sleep deprived or is running purely on caffeine right now." Dahyun said.

 

"How 'bout you? How's the new body?" Dahyun asked her newly-augmented friend.

 

Dahyun remembers hearing the news that the building was broken into by 4 armed and augmented goons at 3am. Since Jeongyeon was the head of security, Jihyo immediately called her into action. Dahyun knows that Jeongyeon is loyal to her job and despite having the odds against her, she went into the building protecting the valuable data and future blueprints and plans that if put into the black market could cost more than the GDP of a small country. Jeongyeon was able to stall them until the police arrived and neutralized the threats but at the cost of her whole body.

 

"Good, i guess. I still got my torso and my left arm still made out of basic human skin and bones so I'm not a full machine or something which kinda gives me peace." Jeongyeon said as she opened and closed her both hands. Her right hand made some tiny mechanical noises as she moved them.

 

"Funny since you got yours on right I got mine on my left." Dahyun said as she showed her old friend her left arm. "It is a Mark VII SILLA Cyberskin Dermalplated modified Arm. It doesn't look obvious that my arm is augmented because its basically the same color as my skin except for the lines. Obviously, yours is more advance than mine but this does the job anyways."

 

"Lab accident?" Jeongyeon asked.

 

"Yup. Unfortunately two doctorate degrees Quantum Physics doesn't make you any less stupid." Dahyun replied.

 

"You referring to Chaeyoung or to yourself?" Jeongyeon asked with a sly grin.

 

"To her, of course! I have three." Dahyun replied to Jeongyeon's audacious question.

 

"Let me guess? She spilled something on you." Jeongyeon asked with an amused look on her face.

 

"Nothing hurts more than your best friend accidentally spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on your arm." Dahyun sighs.

 

"Yeesh. Anyways Fist bump?" Jeongyeon offered her augmented fist.

 

"But hey. I don't miss my lame flesh arm anyways." Dahyun shrugs as she and Jeongyeon crash their augmented arms against each other making a distinct clang.

 

"Who you meeting by the way?" Jeongyeon asked.

 

"Nayeon. I have to confirm the upgrades about the electrical fuses before we start testing the TITUS ONE. You?" Dahyun answered as she lets out a sleepy yawn.

 

"Meeting Jihyo about the security details for the Launch event. According to Jihyo, Tzuyu wants the security to be subtle as to not intimidate the crowd so we have to compromise around that." Jeongyeon said.

 

"I mean I would also be intimidated especially if I saw the head of security looking like some Batman-Iron Man hybrid capable of permanently putting me to sleep." Dahyun joked. Jeongyeon hits Dahyun with her 'lame flesh arm'.

 

"Ow! That hurt, you dingus!" Dahyun complained as she rubs the part where Jeongyeon hit her.

 

The elevator door opened and Nayeon immediately looked up from her desk to greet both of them. As they walk to Nayeon's desk, Jeongyeon leaned closer to Dahyun to whisper something.

 

"Say hi to Nabongs for me." Jeongyeon then gave her wife a wave before heading inside Jihyo's office.

 

"Jeongyeon said hi by the way." Dahyun said as she approached Nayeon's desk.

 

"Yeah I know." Nayeon smiled as she rolled her eyes at her wife's corny attempts of flirting. "So what do you need, Dahyun? Jihyo is currently meeting with Tzuyu and Jeongyeon about the Launch if you need her you have to come back after lunch." Nayeon told her.

 

"No. I just want to confirm about the building's power upgrades if it already installed. We will try to make test the TITUS ONE today."

 

"Yes. It was installed last week.” Nayeon replied. Dahyun smiled and nodded to her as she turns her back to walk to the elevator when Nayeon stopped her.

 

“Dahyun, please don’t put the whole building into a blackout again, we lost considerable amount of money during that period and Jihyo was fuming the for days trying to get us back in the stock market. Also those things aren’t cheap.” Nayeon, the tone of her voice is sweet and desperately pleading that it won’t happen again. As if trying to get assurance from Dahyun, that not even herself know.

 

“I’ll ask Chaeyoung about it. She does most of the algorithms and stuff.” Dahyun said with a weak smile.

 

“Wait, again before you go. I have a suggestion.” Nayeon halted Dahyun from her tracks again.

 

“What?”

 

“Connect it to the backup solar energy supply. I think you overlooked that you were given access by Jihyo to use it in your more grandiose projects that almost need like two suns of energy to run.” Nayeon said. Dahyun stared at her in both shock and realization.

 

“See. I knew it. You totally forgot.” Nayeon said as she slightly smirked to bask in her own intelligence. People forget that she and Jihyo were once classmates back in College and have the same degree in Engineering but pursued to Business Management after graduation.

 

“You are ing amazing! Thanks, Nayeon. I gotta run.” Dahyun sprinted towards the elevator.

 

Dahyun went back to the lab and everyone are busy doing their assigned tasks. Lab assistants doing last minute formulas for their superiors while their superiors are going back and forth to Chaeyoung to compare charts, formulas, data, and show possible flaws that can cause problems if not seen. Chaeyoung meticulously snaps the holograms around. Her hands move as if it has a mind of its own.

 

“Dr. Son. Do we switch off ports 3, 4, and 5 this time? Last time they were off and we ran some simulations with those ports off and it the readings were 25% more stable than last time.” A Head Scientist was talking to Chaeyoung when Dahyun walked over to Chaeyoung’s large holographic display of equations, drawings, graphs, and other notes.

 

“Are you certain Dr. Han?” Chaeyoung asked.

 

“Yes. As you can see here…” Dr. Han showed his holotablet to Chaeyoung, who attentively listens.

 

“Run it again but I suggest not putting the outage to full. I want simulation data from 90 to 70% percent.” Chaeyoung firmly suggested.

 

“Is that a dinosaur eating a strawberry doodle over there?” Dahyun asked as she’s been inside Chaeyoung’s holographic sphere during the whole conversation with Dr. Han. Reading her notes and checking her formulas while she was busy.

 

“Yes, I drew them because I got bored.” Chaeyoung answered with her back still facing Dahyun.

 

“Anyway, have you solved that .001% margin of error we keep getting?” Dahyun asked.

 

“Yes, it took me a week of sleepless nights trying to find that little . Next time you are solving.” Chaeyoung replied as she faced Dahyun. She flicked her wrist and a floating display of the formula zooms into Chaeyoung’s hand.

 

“There. Stare at it.” Chaeyoung said. Dahyun activated her neural implants that quickly analyzed Chaeyoung’s formula. It immediately highlighted a flaw.

 

“Dude, you this should be 1 instead of 7.” Dahyun showed Chaeyoung who then let out a tired groan.

 

“I ing hate you.” Chaeyoung sneered at Dahyun who just smiled at her.

 

“Do you want your best friend to be stuck in the limbo of timespace again?” Dahyun asked. Trying to appeal to their friendship.

 

“You know, at this point I’d say yes.” Chaeyoung replied. The two woman then both laughed at each other.

 

“Give it here I’m changing it.” Chaeyoung said.

 

“Nah, I got this.” Dahyun transferred the data to her neural database. “By the way, Nayeon suggested we use the SEBS instead of the main power supply of the building.” Dahyun added.

 

“Wait? Like the backup supply?” Chaeyoung asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“We have access to that?” Chaeyoung asked surprised.

 

“Obviously, did you malfunction or something? Jihyo gave access to use that if we need it.” Dahyun replied as if she didn’t forget about it earlier.

 

“Damn I’m getting older.” Chaeyoung commented.

 

“Dude you are only 35.” Dahyun replied.

 

“Exactly.”

 

“Life expectancy is 90.” Dahyun reminded her.

 

“That doesn’t make me any less old.” Chaeyoung answered back.

 

“We can develop age-suppressants if you want.” Dahyun suggested. They stared at each other for a second before Chaeyoung spoke again.

 

“I’ll write that down.” Chaeyoung scribbled somewhere in her hologram bubble.

 

After being bombarded by questions, inquiries and clarifications on her way to her office, she is finally greeted by the solitude of her messy lair. It wasn’t that messy but there is a reasonable amount of clutter and junk inside it. After the discovery of holographic and 4D display, the use of paper became obsolete. The shift was necessary in order to preserve forests from further damage. So, it is strange that Dahyun have a polaroid of a woman on her desk.

 

After Dahyun resolves Chaeyoung’s formula, she disables her neural implants as over working it can physically and mentally be harmful for her. She took a bar of chocolate flavored Augbars in order to further ease the strain her neural implants are causing her. Dahyun saw that she got a spare bar, she got out of her office on the way to Chaeyoung’s hologram bubble.

 

“Still busy?” Dahyun asked. Chaeyoung just nodded in response.

 

“Here.” Dahyun gave Chaeyoung her extra bar of Augbars along with the revised solution.

 

“Thanks.” Chaeyoung smiled as she took them. She opened the Augbars on after she puts the solution back somewhere in her hologram bubble

 

“Rest your neural implants from time to time. Okay?” Dahyun reminded her friend.

 

“I’ll try.”

 

“No. You DO it.”

 

“Fine.” Chaeyoung sighed in defeat.

 

“Good. I’ll be in my office if you need something.”

 

“Sure sure. I’ll make sure things are ok.”

 

“Great!” Dahyun said then walked back to her office.

 

Dahyun flops back down to her chair. Again, noticing the polaroid on her desk. Dahyun took it and looked at the woman in the picture. Polaroids doesn’t exist anymore in the 22nd Century. You can take a photo with your eyes these days. People who still use cameras are either collecting them, or uses them for professional use or something. Dahyun stared at the woman in the picture. Smiling with her eyes closed. Her hair dyed blonde, wearing a white crop top and waist-high mom-jeans and a pair of Birkenstocks. It is no denying she is beautiful and if Dahyun lived in the same timeline as her, she’d probably have a crush on her.

 

Dahyun remembered taking this photo two weeks ago during the first test of TITUS ONE. She was transported back in 2019 in a Seoul back alley. She walked around until she reached the Han River where families, couples, and friends are enjoying their day by the scenic view. Dahyun walked around for a bit until the said woman in the polaroid asked her to take a picture of her. Dahyun was too polite to reject despite telling herself not to engage in conversations with people during the test run. She took the picture and before she returned the camera back to the beautiful stranger, Chaeyoung’s panicked voice echoed in her communications implant in her ear.

 

Dahyun returned the camera but forgot to return the picture as her mind is racing and her body immediately kicks into a fight or flight mode. She doesn’t want to be stuck in a different timeline. Now, looking back at the events that transpired that day, she cringed at herself for running away with a woman’s photo. Centuries might have passed but the same rules still apply. You don’t run away with someone’s things because it is theft or in Dahyun’s case, she stole a woman’s photo who is probably dead by now and thinks of her as a creepy woman who stole her picture.

 

“Hey, wanna ask what are the coordinates for today’s test?” Chaeyoung said through her comms.

 

Chaeyoung’s questio