Trisha turned as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, admiring the dark blue, two-piece suit she had on.
"Oh, looking good!" she said. She didn't really intend to go into the water, but it was always good to be prepared. Besides, maybe she'd work on her tan.
Her phone lit up.
<We'll be there in 5 min!>
She threw on a sun dress and pulled her summer hat out of the closet. When the white Jeep pulled up, she grabbed her beach bag and slipped on her flip flops before heading outside.
"Hey Trish!" yelled the blonde in the passenger seat as the driver beeped the horn. Trisha laughed as she ran to the vehicle, throwing her bag in the back before getting in. She reached around the driver's seat and gave Samantha a little hug.
"Thanks for getting us all together!" she said with a smile.
"No problem, Trish. Now buckle up!"
-----------
David yawned as he rubbed his eyes. It wasn't a hard job, being a technician for the research center, but it could certainly be boring. Especially now, as we sat around, fooling around on his phone while he updated the main computers in the classified projects section. He didn’t even really know what this huge terminal, with its various monitors and readouts, even did. All he knew is they needed a patch for their software and that the cute secretary from the main office had asked him to remove all the game apps.
He yawned as he finished another hole of virtual golf on his phone. It was barely 10 AM and the day was already dragging. As he plugged in his memory key and started to update the drivers, the terminal began to beep. It started as a short, separated tone but soon evolved into an annoying hum. David ground his teeth as he lowered the volume. He’d heard things like that before and was pretty sure it would go away after the update was finished.
“Yo Dave,” said the scrawny, brown haired man as he approached the terminal. David looked up at him and smiled.
“Hey Steve, just pushing updates through to your terminal. I’ll be done in a few.”
“Cool cool,” Steve said as he took a swig of his coffee. “So how’s the virtual football?”
“Gold today, man,” Dave replied as he showed his screen to his companion. “It just gets so boring, especially when I don’t know what all these screens mean.”
Steve laughed. “Well, you know I can’t tell you what any of this is...you’re too nice a guy, I’d hate to have to kill you.”
Dave laughed too. “Yea yea. Not even if I leave the minesweeper app for you?”
Steve frowned. “Aw man...they’re taking off minesweeper?! That sucks! Way to ruin my day-”
Steve cut himself off as he stared at the blinking lights on one of the screens.
“Uhh...Dave? Has that light been blinking like that a while now?”
“Hmm?” Dave said as he turned his attention to the monitor. “Oh...I dunno. Is it supposed to.”
Steve frowned. “No it’s not. But there’s supposed to be an audible alarm if anything like that happens.”
Dave rubbed his head. “Yea...uhhh...maybe that’s what that tone was then….”
“What?!” Steve sprang into action, rushing to the console and tapping keys.
“Dave, what’s wrong with my computer?! Why can’t I get in?!”
Dave flashed an embarrassed grin. “It’s still updating….”
Steve went white as he looked back up at the monitor.
“Not good….”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“We’re here!” Lily exclaimed as the beach came into view. The girls cheered as Samantha left the road and made her way onto the sand. They drove about a quarter mile down the coast before settling into a spot. There was an average number of people and not too many cars: an ideal combination.
The women got out of the car. Lily adjusted her glasses as she shut the passenger side door.
“I’ll get the cooler!” Kayla shouted as she opened up the back and pulled out the blue and white object with a grunt.
“Let me help you with that,” Sam said as she took one side, her flowery sun dress blowing in the wind.
“Sam, you’re not too worried about the car getting hot out here on the sand, are you? I remember last time it was practically an oven when we got back,” Trisha explained.
Sam smiled. “Nope! I got that cool new reflective coating. You know...the ones they have all those ads for online.”
“Too much talk, not enough beach!” Lily teased, her blonde hair flowing in the wind. “First one there gets the best spot!”
-------------------------------
High above the beach...above the sky...in orbit around the planet, a very secret satellite orbited the globe silently. At least, it usually was silent...at the moment, though, it was sending signals like crazy to home base as it tracked a certain group of friends at the beach.
<Threat located...reflective pattern consistent with ID#17 Known WMDs.>
After receiving no input, it began its next subroutine.
<Number of linked insurgents: 4. Tracking positions. Instructions?>
It waited patiently for input from below, its internal timer slowly counting down.
----------------------------------------------------------
“This is the life, girls. We should do this more often,” Samantha said as she lay on her towel, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her skin.
“I couldn’t agree more, Sam,” Kayla said, yawning as she turned over and started to sun her back.
“Just a bunch of lazy mammals hopped up on sunshine,” Sam added with a laugh.
“Booooo!” said Lily, sticking out her tongue. “You guys are boring, I want to go swimming.”
“I’ll come with you,” Trisha said, sitting up on her towel.
“Yay!” Lily yelled as she threw off her clothes, revealing her green, two-piece suit. “Last one in’s a rotten egg!”
The women ran into the water, yelping at the sudden coldness, splashing each other before settling down and swimming. Trish hadn’t been in the water for years now even though she’d been on the swim team back in college. It all came back to her at once and she bobbed like a fish for a number of minutes before heading back to shore.
“That was fun,” Lily said as she squeezed a stream of water from her hair.
“Yea...know what else is fun?” Trisha said, giving Lily a devilish look. “Doing it again!”
Trisha splashed Lily who screamed as she ran out of the water.
“No! Don...oof!” she said as she collided with something. Tripping and falling into the sand, she turned and saw that she had accidentally knocked down a child. The little girl also made a small ‘oof’ noise as she landed on her butt in the sand.
“Oh no!” Lily said as she picked herself up, trying the best she could to brush the sand from her body. “Are you alright?”
The little girl nodded as a tall, brown haired woman ran over.
“Natalie! Are you okay?”
“Uh huh...I’m fine mommy. Just a little oopsie.”
“Yea...sorry about that,” Lily said as Trisha reached the group. The other woman smiled.
“No harm done. And Natalie should really watch where she’s going too.”
“No, totally my fault,” Lily said before turning around, leaning over to address the child. “Natalie was it? That’s a pretty name. How old are you Natalie?”
The little girl held out her hand with all the fingers raised.
“Ooh...five. You’re such a big girl! Are you having fun at the beach with your mom?”
“Uh huh,” said the five-year-old, nodding her head before picking her nose. Lily laughed.
“Well, it was nice meeting you. I’m Karen, by the way.”
“My name is Lily. Nice to meet you too,” Lily said before kneeling down to speak with the little girl again. “And nice to meet you too, Natalie! I hope you have a nice day!”
Karen smiled as she walked off with her daughter, leaving Trisha and Lily to rejoin their friends.
----------------------------------
The satellite’s internal subroutine counter reached zero, pushing the programming on toward the next step.
<No response from command. Decision trees active. Determining course of action.>
A few milliseconds later, it had made its decision.
<Insurgents within negligible distance of WMD. Civilians in danger: 0. Use of equipment authorized.>
An air jet went off as the satellite opened, revealing a large emitter. Jets fired all around the large, metal object as it rotated to point itself at the exact location on the globe that it needed to in order to fulfil its program.
<Capacitor power adequate. Targeting complete. Arrays engaged.>
Although impossible to see from the surface, the emitters on the satellite began to glow ever so faintly.
<Neutralizing targets.>