Prologue

There was darkness.

She felt more than heard a low hum, reverberating through the air, the floor, through her. I feel something, she reflected. That must mean I'm not dead. That didn't quite answer the question of what exactly she was, though. While feeling alive was definitely preferable to the alternative, she wasn't sure she wanted to feel anything at all. As soon as she thought about it all she felt was pain, and possibly confusion.

Where am I?

She tried to take in her surroundings, but there was little to behold. She seemed to be cramped underneath some machinery; it was too dark to tell what kind it might be. She was becoming convinced that it was mechanical, since that reinforced the idea that the humming was coming from outside her head rather than in it.

It was good to focus on facts. It helped dull the ringing in her head.

Ah, that was it: her head was ringing. The ship was humming.

Wait a minute. Why was she on a ship?

How did she know what a ship sounded like?

And why was her head ringing?

Just what exactly was going on?

She tried to sit up, but hit her temple on a pipe and yelped loudly. Neither the impact nor the noise helped improve the state of her head. She tried to cradle it in her hands to dull the ringing, but discovered those were tied in front of her.

Am I a prisoner?

That would explain the dark, her hands, and the pain. But why was she a prisoner? What had she done? She wracked her brains for any clue, but the thinking just made her head hurt, and then she couldn't remember anything.

There was...a man? Maybe two. And...what else?

But try as she might, no memory surfaced.

Well, there was only one thing for it. She didn't know if it would be better to stay silent or not, but the sooner she saw her captors, the sooner she might remember what exactly was going on. She mentally prepared her head to hurt some more, filled her lungs, and yelled.