I was making the Universal Sign of Waiting For A Ride: standing on the roadside with a travel case and my phone held in front of me, watching an icon of my ride approaching on the map. A really laggy map, apparently. because the icon wasn’t lining up with streets at all, it was just heading straight toward me over what the map showed as canefields.
Then I felt my feet lifting off the ground. A blinding light shone from above. I looked up in alarm seeing, as I squinted to reduce the glare, a dark disc with an iris-like central opening.
I was drawn into the iris which closed. leaving me in a round room with a red sofa and a curved wallscreen showing the view out across the fields. There was a glass-doored bar fridge beside the sofa.
A disembodied voice with the telltale cadence of an autotranslator spoke.
“Hello, this is Vl’than your Uber Driver.
Feel free to sit down and help yourself to a beverage.”
“Uh, I ah. Wha-what. Is this an abduction?”
“Oh, no, just a rideshare. I was in the area doing some circle work when I saw your job come up. Heading into town, yes?”