Disclaimer: balloony, inflatable themes herein - for mature audiences only.
*****
Through yet another set of swinging double doors and around a corner, Pam lead Sandra. She stopped at a door in the wall that had a small window in it, peeked through while elevating herself on the tips of her toes, and then partially opened the door with her clipboard bearing arm. As she poked her head through, her pneumatic chest pressed up against the frame, squeaking noticeably. "Gotta newbie with me - mind if we have a look-see?" she called in. From somewhere inside the room came an echoed and muffled response in the affirmative, accompanied with a sarcastic sounding comment and chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, you wish" came her reply. Withdrawing her head, she closed the door. "Whoops - forgot about this" she remembered out loud, absent mindedly glancing down at her ballooned cotton tee-shirt.
Sandra watched as Pam's swollen bazooms began shrinking beneath the shirt, squeaking and hissing as they rubbed up against each other. Funnily, they actually sounded like deflating balloons. Pam looked downward at her chest with determined concentrentration. When she had returned to normal, Pam looked up at Sandra, quipping "Easy come, easy go." The newbie nodded in wide eyed agreement.
Inside, the room was like a small, brightly illuminated gymnasium with an unusually high ceiling. Around the periphery on shelves and tables were various bits of technical-looking equipment. Milling about were several engineers and technicians of mixed gender and age in white lab coats. Each one held either a clipboard or a small computer and had a network voice comm link slung over an ear.
The white walls appeared to Sandra to be padded. "Loony bin?" she silently mused to herself.
"We call this 'The Loony Bin'" Pam quietly recounted as the two stepped toward the small group gathered in the middle of the room. "Not as in 'crazy', but more like in 'balloony'. We keep sharp objects out of here."
"Oh" replied Sandra. Then thinking about it for a moment, "Ohhhhhhh".
"There's no real danger, of course. Inflatee skin is actually quite difficult to puncture. But, still, no need taking chances." Sandra did not find the reassurance entirely comforting or even convincing, but she held her tongue.
In the center of the room stood two engineering technicians and a woman who looked to be a little older than Sandra. She wore a green hospital gown and near her feet was what looked like a flat board sitting on a short stand. It was angled upward and had a large bundle of cables running from its base over to a computer workstation at the foot of the wall. At about twenty feet from the small group, Pam stopped and put out an arm to indicate for Sandra to do the same. "Oh good, they're almost ready" Pam quietly said.
From under the hospital gown, the slightly nervous woman had several wires that gathered at her feet and also ran over to the workstation. "We need all the data we can get." Said Pam, pointing out the wires. Sandra quietly nodded.
A male technician dragged a hydraulic pallet truck from out behind a cabinet. It had on it a large block of concrete about eighteen inches high and a fabric bundle of some sort atop it. He pulled the heavy load over to the group, stopped, and then gently released the pressure valve foot control to lower the payload to the floor. The lift, now freed from its burden, noisily clanked as it was removed from beneath the load and pulled over to from whence it came.
One of the technicians grabbed her earpiece, obviously receiving a voice message from somewhere. She nodded to the disembodied voice then turned to face the woman in the hospital gown, obviously relaying the message. The woman, too, nodded and then quickly and unceremoniously removed her green gown, handing it to the other technician. Other than the probes attached to her skin, she was now stark naked. She turned to the just delivered concrete block and climbed atop it as the female tech bent down and grabbed the bundle, handing a corner of it up to her. The woman dutifully pulled it over her shoulders, being careful not to pull any of it over her head. It wasn't really a fabric, Sandra noted; it seemed more like a fishing net. The woman pulled more of it over herself until there was an equal amount of loose material cascading from each of her shoulders and down her back. It looked like a long flowing ball gown. Directly between her feet was a large steel eye bolt embedded in the block that had many small ropes attached to it.
The male technician walked over to the workstation and sat down as the female tech stepped well back from the woman and gave a "thumbs up sign". It was returned in kind. The woman atop the block then hunched over the eye bolt, spreading her arms apart and smiling nervously. The female tech then turned toward the workstation, pointed, and then gestured another thumbs up at the other tech while speaking to him through her comm link. She stepped back a few paces more. Meanwhile the rest of the team had gathered around the periphery, holding their clipboards and computers. One manned a video camera mounted on a tripod to record the scene.
The workstation tech tapped a few keys and a loud chime tone sounded twice as a small red light mounted above the entry door began flashing.
The woman stood in mute anticipation, hunched over on the block.
"This is her first heavy lift" remarked Pam. "She's gone through the whole series really well."
A moment later, the upwardly pointed surface of the mounted board glowed, bathing the woman in a bright green light. Across her face, a momentary look of surprise passed quickly. A slight smirk remained on her lips....