Well, here's my entry, music is included, so play for full effect. If the link doesn't work, there's a pretty big hint right at the beginning there for what to search for yourself.
EXPLOSION DAY
EXPLOSION DAY
Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian blasted across the Science Division's speaker system.
On repeat.
The director flew down the halls at a dangerous speeds, atop one of his force field bubbles. He was lost in his own mind's workings. It was a day he had been planning for all year, the day when a very specific set of experiments were to be carried out. It brought a wide smile to his face, a smile that made you cringe on the inside every time you saw it.
You watched him over the screens in the director's office. You usually watched him from his office. It was where you worked. Well, it was where you lived, technically speaking.
Your name is Alice. Science Division V.I. #1. While the other V.I.'s are assigned to, and reside in, specific departments, you are the one V.I. designated to control and maintain the entire operation. You have always done your job admirably. However keeping the Science Division running is only half of your job. The other half is by far the hardest part. It is far less tedious, but that doesn't mean you enjoy it. In fact, it was for the second half of your job that you were truly created. It was the reason for your strict demeanor, your professional look, and the stern face you made most hours of the day.
Your job is to keep Director Sken from getting himself killed.
“Again…” You thought with tightly closed eyes and a furrowed brow, before activating a voice line to the director. Even though you had a direct link to his skull, you hoped he could hear you over the music. “Director, please be aware that you are exceeding recommended speeds for the upcoming department.”
The music still blared, but you could filter out the director's voice. “Thanks Alice!” He said, without actually slowing down. Director Sken at least took the next turn more carefully. Much to your relief, it was the last one before he hopped down to ground level, and popped into one of the labs. You flipped to a separate camera to monitor the situation further.
The lab beyond consisted of two rooms. The first, was a small control room with a window. The second, a large box of reinforced concrete. Both were heavily reinforced to withstand what was about to happen in the larger of the pair
The director did a few twirls as he danced up to the object in the center of the dull, concrete and metal room. For all the world, it looked like a teddy bear. Well, it looked like a teddy bear in an adorable sailor's outfit, but that was beside the point. You knew it wasn't a teddy bear. It was an object of seemingly undeterminable mass and shape that had fallen out of a portal the director had opened earlier in the year. It just happened to look like a teddy bear in this moment. The day before it had been an egg. A week ago it had been a refrigerator.
Director Sken checked his connections. He had spent the weeks prior laying out a massive explosive yield around the object. In theory it would all be directed inwards, and no blowback would be directed towards the director himself.
In theory.
Sure of his set up, the director turned towards the camera he knew you would be watching from. He opened his arms with a dramatic flourish. “Alice, begin recording! Experiment: #6528, Object: #453 Codename: SharkTooth. SharkTooth has withstood all traditional means of study. Moving on to next phase of testing. Experiment will commence in one minute.”
The director scurried back into the smaller room. You closed the heavy metal door behind him as he passed. You didn't like this experiment one bit. You can't get just go around blowing up objects with no earthly reason for their existing. The director had been determined however, so here you were, watching your creator priming enough explosives to level a building.
He spoke to you, but never took his eyes off the object.
“Initiating blast in three...two...one!”
Click click.
Nothing.
You could see the director's jaw working. He was questioning his wiring. He opened his mouth to address the recording software.
Boom.
The whole load went off at once. Panic went through you as the dust filled all of your cameras. Not just the ones in the blast chamber, but the ones in the control room, and in the corridor beyond.
You activated the exhaust system, and at long last you found the director in the hallway. He was pressed up against the wall, having been blasted out with the walls, but he had a shield around him.
You sighed. The fool had lived through another experiment. “Director, are you okay?”
He wasn't slow on the response. “Just fine Alice! I'm going back in!”
“Sir!”
He was already off. The director pushed through the smoke and back into the blast chamber. You switched back to the interior view to see him walking up to where the object had been. You saw… nothing. It seemed that whatever it had been, it was not explosion proof.
The director yelled at you. “Alice, look in close!”
You sent the camera servos into action. Slowly, you zoomed into the small crater where Director Sken was digging with his bare hands. That's when you saw it.
“Oh, damn it all.” You thought.
There, laying in the dust and the rubble, although completely free of both, was an open pack of cookies. The little plastic tray that held the sugary treats was half pulled out of the plastic packaging. You could count individual crumbs.
“I don't like this.” You said to the director.
“I'm going to take one.” The director said to you.
You have no body, but you think you felt your hologram having an aneurysm. “Director-!”
It was already in his hand. He held it up so the camera could get a better shot.
Shortbread, a dark-chocolate drizzle. The director sniffed it. “The object smells exactly like a shortbread cookie.”
You watched with horror as he brought it close to his mouth, but thankfully, he thought better of the idea. Tension fell away from your non-existent shoulders as he placed the cookie back in its plastic tray.
Just in time for the tray to suck itself back into the packaging, and for the brightly colored plastic to close tightly together, as if it were trying to reseal itself.
All with the director's hand still inside.
“It's got me!"
You opened a wide broadcast to the entire Science Division. “Attention, all V.I.'s and sanctioned intruders! Director Sken is under assault by an unknown entity! Lock down your departments and render all assistance possible!”
You turned your attention back to the director just in time to see him slam against the wall of the corridor. His mouth was open, and emitted a sound of worry. It wasn't a scream, but could be described as a scream from a great distance, as heard through a tin can. He held the hand which the cookie package was latched onto in the air, and supported that arm with his other hand.
As the director ran down the hallway, he started banging the package of cookies against the metal walls. Seemingly to no effect, although you could hear the crackling of cellophane with each impact.
As this was going nowhere, you reached back out to the director. “Director, the other V.I.'s have closed down the rest of the division. What do you need?”
“Where's the next experiment for the day?!”
“What?!”
He hopped up onto a new shield bubble. “I think we scared it!”
“Who's we?!”
“It didn't attack right away after the first blast! I think it may have been stunned! If we can stun it again, maybe it will release me!”
“Or maybe it will turn into an elephant and crush you!” You yelled, but you were already transmitting the next lab's location. “Mechanical Engineering and Development, Lab 6, Bay 3. Get there quick.”
The director shot off. This time, you omitted any speed warnings. He spent half the trip there trying to scrape the container of cookies off on the ceiling, to no avail. Thankfully, the day's route had been laid out in sequence, so it did not take long to arrive. The director made a beeline through the lab, and burst into a truly massive room.
In the center was a metal elbow joint, that could have allowed two monumental pieces of machinery to bend with each other. It was slated for stress testing, which explained the explosives. You had questioned this as well, but you were starting to think that maybe the director had been correct in this instance.
Director Sken kicked open the door to a small bunker he had constructed in the docking bay. His free hand, he used to input the commands to prime the explosives. The cookie hand, he stuck back out the still open door.
“Test number, whatever we'll fill it in in post! Three… two one…!”
The director cringed. You cringed. The sneaking suspicion that you were about to spend the rest of your day directing a rescue crew on the best way to collect your creator's chunks flashed through your mind. You closed your eyes while waiting for the blast to happen.
Only.
It didn't.
You opened your eyes, only to see the director still standing there, just as he had been a moment before. The cookies were still on his hand, and there was a look of puzzlement on his face. He looked up at the camera, at you. Then he looked back down at the hand in the cookies.
The director brought it up in front of himself, and then turned towards you. “Say, Alice. This doesn't hurt.”
“It… what?”
“Look.” He turned his hand so you could get a clear view. Sure enough, it was plain as day now that he wasn't flailing about so much. The director's hand was inside the cookie package, sure enough, but that's all it was. The plastic packaging kept trying to close around his wrist. It looked like a mouth taking bites. But if it was a mouth, it was a weak, toothless one.
The director grabbed the package with his free hand, and slid it off with relatively little effort. As soon as his fingers were clear, the cookies sealed themselves up. All of a sudden it was like they were freshly off the grocery store shelf. The director's hand was completely unmolested.
“Well.” He said. “I guess that was a whole lot of fuss for nothing!”
You hated him. You weren't programmed to hate him, but despite that setback, something about him could really make your blood boil. Maybe that was just what it took to keep a lemming of a human being like him alive. “I am glad to see that you are alright, Director.”
He smiled at you. “You're too good to me Alice.” And spun back towards the control panel. “Well then, since we're here, let the test commence!” The director hit the button. The bombs went off. Another Explosion Day test successfully completed.
Your name is Alice. Science Division V.I. #1. Your job is to keep Director Sken from getting himself killed. It is not an envious position, but you do it well. And you are the only one who can.