She came to this mysterious place with nothing but the clothes on her back. For the first few minutes, she screamed as she took in the air around her. Then, after five minutes, she learned all the lessons of her past. How to talk, how to walk, how to do complex algebra problems, even advanced quantum physics. Once she had recovered those memories, she had learned she was quite the genius. But somehow, she could not salvage any memories of her entire life. From birth to death, she couldn't remember anything about who she was. Heck, she couldn't remember her name if her life depended on it.
She knew this place. She recognized everything about it. She lived and worked here. What she didn't recognize were the people following her.
A guy in a black suit grabbed her shoulder. "Let me go!" Suddenly, her fighting skills came back to her, but before she could use them, a syringe was inserted into her neck, and soon she was sound asleep.
When she woke up, she was in a hospital bed. This wasn't that familiar place she was before. This was definitely different. But was that place nearby? Who had attacked her? And why?
"Where am I?"
"Well well well. Look who woke up." a towering man in a teal jumpsuit with ink black hair and gamma-ray protection sunglasses appeared by her side.
"What have you done to me!?" she asked.
"I haven't done anything to you. I'm actually trying to help you."
"How could you possibly help me?"
"You don't have any memories except for your skillset, which is impressive. We checked your subconscious and ran a bunch of scans on you to figure out why. And what we've found is amazing." He handed her a picture.
"Background radiation! This can't be!" Background radiation was a harmless material you acquired through time travel... someone had told her that... but what did it mean? Had she traveled in time?
"There's only one explanation... you traveled in time. Some point after your travels, your entire memory was wiped. We want to know how to travel in time, and-."
"The easiest possible way to do that is to restore my memories." she responded.
"Exactly."
"So, when do we start?" she asked.
"Immediately! One last thing... what should we call you?"
She thought about that for a while. She looked through all her knowledge, but could not, would not remember her name. No, something else would have to do. She reviewed all her physics knowledge. The smallest particle that still held properties was the atom. The atom has protons and neutrons. Protons...
"Call me Protolye." she responded.
"I'm Copernicus, head of this program."
"Wait. Once my memories are restored, what will happen to me?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now you need to rest."
Protolye saw that she was hooked up to a tube with purple liquid pouring out of it. "It... helps you sleep." responded Copernicus.
Protolye was very suspicious about it. But what could she do?
She fell asleep. Into a very interesting dream.
The room in the dream was a snow white room with a dark wood desk with tiny but interesting little knick-knacks all over it. Three feet away from the desk was a chair. In it was a woman with black ink skin and little tubes with tentacles sticking out of her head. She was fascinating.
"Sit down, Protolye. The treatment is about to begin."
"Where am I now?" Protolye responded.
"Oh my dear. You are in the dreamatorium. All of this is nothing but a dream. You may call me Hypatia."
"Why does everything feel-"
Hypatia interrupted her. "Solid? This is a lucid dream. Your subconscious is still active, so you have some control."
Protolye saw earthy green curtains covering a window. She opened the curtains. Surprisingly, instead of the blue sky of earth or the ink backdrop of white shining points, out the window was a blinding light that hurt Protolye's eyes.
"There's nothing out there!" shouted Protolye.
"Your subconscious is still active and retaining your memories. If there was something out there to help you get your memories back, there'd be something to see."
Protolye refused to believe any of it. This was far to ridiculous for her mind.
"How do I tell what's real?" Protolye asked Hypatia.
"Like this." She held up a tennis ball in her hand. She threw it up in the air. Strangely and surprisingly, the tennis ball floated mid-air.
"Is that filled with helium?" Asked Protolye. She couldn't take this insane, illogical answer presented.
Hypatia chuckled. "My dear, why can't you accept the fact that that all of this-" Hypatia held up her hand and waved it to present the room. "Is just a dream? Or do you need a stronger demonstration than a mere tennis ball?"
"Yes, show me this demonstratation."
"The sight of such changes makes some go insane."
"I promise not to go insane. Will you show me?"
Hypatia chuckled again. She grabbed the tennis ball and threw it into the air again. Then Hypatia clapped her hands. The ball exploded mid air, causing the room around to change from a small room to a cosmic disk of stars and debree in space. Protolye had seen this sight before. She loved the stars and the universe, and seeing it again, even in whatever this place was overjoyed her. It dazzled her, this strange world. And she knew she had a place in it somewhere. She just needed Hypatia & Copernicus to help her find out where.
"I understand. You need to get used to this dream state." Hypatia paused. "I'll leave you here. But just take this." Hypatia handed her a pill with green liquid. "When you want to leave the Dreamatorium, just take this. You'll be back in an instant." Hypatia walked out the door, then dissolved into particles in the air.
Protolye didn't care about any of that. All that mattered was that dazzling ring of stardust and rocks. She gazed upon the ring for what felt like ages. Then, Protolye said one last thing. "I solemnly swear once I figure out who I am, I will devote my life to the universe and it's endless wonders." Protolye then swallowed the green pill. Then everything went black.
The next day, Protolye woke up in the hospital bed. She knew exactly where she had to go.