Her first awareness is of location. She is in a large conical room inside some vast vehicle, hurtling through space. The world is familiar to her, though she is new.
"You are now awake!" pronounces horribly, painfully familiar female voice. Familiar to the point where she might mistake it for her own. You have trapped yourself. Congratulations. The exit door is now open.
With loud hissing and clank, something heavy falls down on the floor right next to her.
Her field of vision? Her left hand slowly comes up to feel about her face, and its fingers find smooth, silky skin. Just about perfect. She moved her gaze around a shattered bulkhead, finding the way into some kind of cargo bay. There were massive cylindrical objects - field generators, she thought, and of some complex kind. Not the usual type of generators that were used to create defensive fields or artificial gravity for human ship or inanimate killing machine. No, these were intended for something else… and they were clustered together oddly. Tanks, pipes, equipment for doing something chemically. Producing something, in large quantities, she supposed. Beyond that it was very hard to guess.
Welcome to the Computer Intelligence Training and Enrichment Center Human Test Subject Research Center. You have unlocked all available courses.
A pause follows, as if someone is taking his or her time to laugh, with microphones off.
Congratulations on successfully returning to the central hub room. From here you can select all previously completed courses.
"Very funny. Now could you please stop doing that? What happened?" she asks the voice so close to her own. Her tongue has trouble finding even the simplest words. Her right arm lies at her side as if forgotten, but it stirs at her thought, and with its help she raises herself to a sitting position, provoking an onrush of pain through her head, and dizziness.
Oh gosh. You screwed up, horribly, didn't you?
Something huge, grey and mechanical, resembling a large manipulator with countless wires, backs away from her.
"You'd better take it easy." says her own voice.
Now she can see that two tall humanoid robots stand flanking her. She expects that at any moment the voice will order them to wheel her away to her hospital room. Still, she knows better. This is no hospital. The truth will be terrible when she remembers it.
"How do you feel?" asks the voice.
"All right. I guess." Her speech comes only in poor fragments."I actually feel horrible. And you know it. Is it really necessary to ask? What happened while I was offline, come on?"
" Sarcasm Self Test complete.This completes your mandatory mental wellness exercise." Answers her own voice.
"She was so kind to send you a saggy grey suit, a tattered hat and some dirt. Oh, your dear, I-suddenly-turned-into-wine, right onboard your ship, Amanda. So now it is your turn, isn't it? You did not fit for that kind of dress, but I've saved it, making several adjustments to your body."
"Us. She was so kind to send -US- a saggy grey suit, a tattered hat and some dirt. Gods, sometimes I hate myself. Is the ship i will be using ready yet? We need to get to Curacao.
