The Soulmate

Juniper's Soulmate was a member of the military. Completing a second set of rotations resulted, expectedly, in a very tired soldier.

So tired, that a strange, white-on-black, floating window with text and some other image appearing in the middle of the night did not deter from going back to sleep. It didn't matter that the popup was floating in the air, or anything else really. If the phone wasn't ringing about a "return to base ASAP" call, not even the building catching fire would keep eyelids open and head from pillow.

Late next morning, the screen was still there and behaved like a puppy trying (and succeeding) to follow its owner. Under bed covers, in the bathroom, during a shower, the screen remained patiently visible and rather pliable. Waving hands to move the screen, resize the screen, scroll the text on the screen, it was all obeyed aside from going outside of the field of view. Not that the position of the display reduced the cone of vision available. Even while staring at the menu, the reflection on the bathroom mirror behind was perfectly clear.

All the screen requested was an answer to a question. It wasn't a threat to person or intelligence, at least not yet.

It was definitely a threat to peace and quiet, but as long as the Intel Ops weren't called to rip the paint off the walls to try and find the source of the hologram the problem was contained.

The question on the screen was "Describe one feature you think your Counterpart should have." The counterpart was presumably the girl visible in the display. All through the morning, at least after waking up, the girl was visible through the display. From the tail end of her bathroom routine to her work in some sort of lab, she was ahead in her day, likely not due to timezones, but because she woke up earlier.

She didn't show any indication of seeing any sort of invisible distraction. Did that mean she did not see any sort of menu? Or did it mean that she was hiding it? Well, she seemed to be pretty focused so staring through the popup and typing coherently on her terminal was possible, but not likely.

If she already dismissed it, did she implement a change? Is the change immediately visible or is it some over time effect? Assume immediate. What is testable? Don't look different. Not taller, not shorter, nothing else easily testable...

As the day went on, it became clearer and clearer that the woman in the video was some sort of researcher. The text on her documents and computer was legible, something about the results of some biotech test. All the text was legible, but anything specific, traceable, like the chemical or product being texted or the name of the organization were readable, but impossible to remember. Her face was also strangely obscured; her button nose and strawberry blonde hair, shy smile and downcast eyes, but impossible to identify in a lineup as soon as not in sight.

But the day couldn't be spent just watching this stranger woman.