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It was night on the streets of Manhattan, and the hustling bustling city was drawing to a conclusion for the day, as residents hurried home from their long days of work, ready to relax and enjoy themselves.
It was a particular enjoyment in the apartment of Dave Nelson, manager at WYNX broadcast radio, one of the most well known radio stations in all of New York City. But today, he was Dave Nelson, loving partner of Lisa Miller, who was also employed at WYNX when she wasn’t being with Dave.
This was the night of their 5 year anniversary, and they both were madly in love with each other, there was no doubt about then, whenever they looked into each other’s eyes they saw a level of compatibility they had never experienced before with anyone else, and they never thought they would experience with another person ever again.
They enjoyed a nice dinner in the privacy of Dave’s apartment, the food wonderfully ordered from the best delivery service within a radius of the apartment. They had scented candles set in the middle of the table, burning a nice clean scent. Dave and Lisa looked into each other’s eyes often with a sense of wonder and ecstasy as they knew they had found some great people to spend the rest of their lives with.
After dinner the two had prepared something very special for each other. Anniversary presents, bought with care and tailored to their partner’s interest.
“So…”
“So…”
It was the kind of awkward silence they still felt, even after 5 years knowing each other, it was adorable to the outside eye, but painful to either of the parties involved.
“So…”
“So…
They continued this dance for the next little while until Lisa finally decided to break the ice and grab her present from her bag next to the refrigerator. She grabbed a box wrapped in striped blue wrapping, and gave it to Dave.
“Here you go, I got it, special…for you…”
“Well, thank you so much Lisa…”
Dave slowly opened his present, using careful care to avoid making too much of a mess or a noise with his gift, much to Lisa’s chagrin.
Inside the wrapping was a box containing a figurine, it was Lt. Data, from Star Trek.
“Oh wow Lisa, this is…”
Dave was stunned, he noticed something peculiar about this particular figurine, some handwriting done on the box the figure came in.
The handwriting said “To Dave Nelson, from Brett Spiner.”
Dave froze in shock
“Does this…actually say….’to Dave’?”
Lisa smiled when she looked at him.
“I bought the figurine at that comic shop, after I found out that Brett was in the area and I know how much you love Star Trek so…Of course I made the effort.”
An ecstatic grin came on Dave’s face, and he wept some slight tears of joy.
He got up and hugged Lisa for being so caring, it was hella cute.
“Thank you so much Lisa!“
“Oh! It was no problem Dave, with all you mean to me, it was nothing!”
Dave got himself off and desperately tried to regain his composure.
“I bet you feel bad for whatever gift you got me.”
Dave chuckled and said “I wouldn't be so sure of that…”
Dave went into his closet to get Lisa’s present. Out he came with a box that could fit in his palm, wrapped in wrapping paper covered in stars and a giant, oversized bow.
“Here, I know you’ll love it.” Dave said, handing the box to Lisa.
Lisa grew wide-eyed as she starting to take apart the bow and viciously tore off what little wrapping paper there was.
And underneath the wrapping paper was a little black box.
Lisa grew with tension.
And she opened the box, and inside the black box, she couldn't believe her eyes.
Inside was a ring, with a diamond the size of a thumbnail, and it was gorgeous.
Dave stammered over himself and said to Lisa “It, it was the best I could find, sorry to give it to you under these circumstances but.”
But Lisa couldn’t hear him under the noise of her own internal excitement. “Does, does this mean…”
“Yes,” Dave said. “It’s time.”
They both looked at each other and knew what to do. They both grabbed their coats and rushed downstairs to the basement of the apartment building. They hadn't a second to spare.
They ran down all the stories of the building until they made it to the ground floor, where they headed down one of the corridors.
At the end of the corridor, there were a few vending machines, and a janitors closet. Dave was quick to input the right code into the vending machine on the left. A-7-D-H-C-3-G-2-9-E-A-5. The janitor’s closet opened, and so was the entrance to the basement of the building.
Inside the basement was a giant dust covered machine. It had two towers sticking out of it, a Tesla coil in the middle of those towers, wires upon wires connecting anywhere they could, and a computer interface.
They rushed down the basement stairs so hard they almost tripped over, this was too serious to bare.
Dave ran over to the computer panel and turned it on. A booting up noise came on and lights surrounding the entire machine flashed on. The sounds of internal fans busted on as dust flew everywhere. Dave covered his mouth to cough, but did not let it deter him.
Lisa climbed onto the machine and went behind it. She grabbed a screwdriver that was on the ground and yelled at Dave “Open the rear panels!”
Dave punched information into the computer and responded “The panels are open!”
Lisa unscrewed the back-up protection screws and opened a secret compartment. Inside it was a strange, flashy liquid in a test tube. She grabbed it out and started to climb up the machine itself.
She poured the liquid into the vents on top of the tower on her left, and green lights started to cover it.
Going to the tower on her right, Lisa grabbed the ring from her box, and dropped it in the vents of that tower. Green lights began to cover that one.
Lisa hurried down to the front of the machine to track Dave’s progress.
A message appeared on the screen. “Congratulations! You have solved the Janitor’s space/time manipulator/travel device! Access is yours.”
Dave broke down in tears. He dropped to his knees and wept tears of joy.
“Dave…don’t cry Dave.”
Dave looked up and Lisa, still tears on his face.
“We did it. We’re making this happen.”
Dave started smiling, and stood up, again struggling to regain his composure.
Dave input the date “5/27/1998 CE” into the machine. The entire room started shaking and lights began to flash colors, and the whirring noises of the Time Machine began to ring and whir louder and louder.
“We’ll save him Lisa…we can finally save him from those Somali pirates and Neo-Nazis that took Bill away from us.”
Lisa then started to cry tears of joy.
The two looked at each other intensely and the fabric of the room began to tear.
They started moving in toward each other and shared a passionate kiss. They did it. They made it.
Pulling away from each other, they kept up their grin and began to look toward the machine.
As the room began to tear itself apart at the seams, Dave and Lisa reached out and held each other’s hands, reality turning more and more violent.
One thought raced through the both of their heads and they braced impact for what was next.
“Here
We
Go.”