Chapter 1: The scientist

'When in doubt, trust your instincts'

Tingling, spiky electricity coursed its way through my body; my eyes flashed open and revealed me to be in a water tank of some kind - then they clamped shut as the fear of being blinded overcame me. But I noticed my eyes did not sting so I took another peek. Then my vision violently shook as I screamed, releasing a hale of bubbles that blocked my vision; I felt the water tank drop and push me into the glass barrier, nose first - which earned another shout hailed by more bubbles.

Next came the nausea as I felt the tank spin; I tried to open my mouth repeatedly to scream, but bubbles only greeted me. Suddenly I saw a pair of legs, then the torso and then part of a human face squished against the glass that was my prison, my cage.

I immediately regretted my momentary stare as blood and flesh gave way before me in a flash, its presence smeared across the glass. My screams continued as the tank span, until a long clang vibrated through the water; then a shower of sparks and metallic plates blocked my view. A metal pipe slammed its way almost between my eyes, inches from my face; it was separated from me by glass, but then it cracked and I tried wriggling away from its path.

Oh shit, I thought as the crack started to spread.

Then everything went black; I felt a rush of water escape from the tank and my body collided with the cold metallic floor. There was a loud clang, and a gurgled scream erupted from within me as I felt tiny shards of glass impale themselves into my skin. I stopped myself from rolling around and took the pain. Then I swept the surrounding pieces of glass away, crawling out of the wreckage a few seconds later before I inspected my arm.

I can deal with it, I thought; I pinched out a few pieces of glass, before I squeezed the top of my arm under the armpit to help relieve the pain by numbing it.

That was my plan, anyway, until I saw a bunch of armoured hostiles, shooting not twenty meters away from me.

"OVER HERE!" shouted a woman, crouching behind a crate with a pistol in her hand. She didn't even have her finger on the trigger, I saw; she must have just hastily scavenged it recently for comfort as well as protection.

Suddenly, the shooting stopped and I swung my head back towards the hostiles who now turned their guns on me, but didn't shoot. One of them put a hand over an ear before pointing a finger at me, then ran at me with his buddies.

My eyes widened; Oh shit,I thought again, and ran towards the woman who shouted earlier. Who by now was shakily holding her pistol and firing it wildly at the men chasing me.

"Get behind those doors!" she shouted again, before taking her own advice as well. Once we had thrown ourselves through the door, the woman quickly tapped a few buttons on a nearby control panel; an audible click followed and the doors slammed shut , a small red icon appearing over them.

Letting out a loud sigh of relief, the woman slumped to the ground momentarily before coming back to her senses, eyed me carefully.

"Are you in any great pain?" she asked, pointing towards my bare, bleeding arm. Before I answered, I noticed a sudden chill and a giant rush of blood heading towards my face as I looked down - I was naked.

"Ahhhhhh! Don't look!" I cried, immediately placing both hands over my pride.

The woman blushed, before she composed herself once again. "Normally I would introduce myself with a handshake, but I think that moment has passed by now." I smiled.

The woman blushed again, harder than before this time and then looked around and walked over to a piece of... a dead man. At least it's whole body, not bits of a blasted one, i reasoned with myself.

"Help me take some of his clothes off," she said, but I didn't move. My guts churned at the sudden sight of her removing the clothes from a dead man's body. Wearing them? That was even worse.

She turned around and noticed my uneasiness, before turning back to the dead body, and I realised that, as grim as this may be, she was numb to it. I was not used to dead bodies, whereas in her profession, she was more or less used to it - minus the blasters and hostile men, of course.

Not wanting to wear a dead man's clothes, I hopefully scanned the room for fatigues and saw nothing. But then I caught the guards on the other side of the door, kneeled down and working on something, and it hit me!

"Hey! Excuse me, but what is your name?" I hurriedly asked.

She hesitated momentarily, before giving it. "Alcina. Alcina Pass."

Let me know what you think! The second chapter shall be up later tonight! hopefully around 10pm! I just need to upload it and punch in the paragraphs from the beta'd version. Plus i've already started on chapter 3! :P.