Rachel

Rachel Jones sat at her large mahogany desk, sipping a cup of strong black coffee while staring out the window of her second floor office. The day was bright, and warm which was unusual for a British summer. Most of the days that she got off work were wet and miserable, which suited her fine as it mirrored the state of her soul. However, today she longed to stand out in the sunshine and let the coldness that had pervaded her for so long drain away. Her green eyes slowly roamed over the distant landscape while her mind wandered and considered her life.

Rachel was only twenty-four yet she had already earned her doctorate in physics and was on a six figure salary from one of the world's top scientific research facilities. Although so many considered her successful, she was unhappy with the course her life had taken. At a very young age when she had began to exhibit her abilities, her parents decided that it would be best to push her along. "Pushed along" was perhaps too kind a phrase for what they had done, though. The space shuttle travels at a slower velocity than Rachel's education had done. There was a never ending parade of tutors, special classes and schools, summer "camps", and so on and so forth. Rachel understood why her parents had pushed her as hard as they had; they had struggled to get by on meagre wages and dead end jobs for so long and they had only wanted what was best for their daughter. Rachel had grown terribly bitter over the childhood that she had been denied. All the things that would normally go with growing up had never been hers.

She drank the last dregs of the bad coffee and put the cup down on her desk and ran her slender hands through her short purplish black hair and sighed. Really she needed to get back to work but couldn't tear her gaze from the skyline and her mind from her reveries. In an attempt to be normal, to feel alive, she had done some pretty crazy things. She had climbed mountains, rafted rivers, and hiked through deadly jungles. When that didn't work, she turned to more self-destructive behaviours and dabbled with drugs and drinking but got bored with it as well. Rachel then decided to work for an exclusive escort agency while in college. She found that she was remarkably good at it and enjoyed the control she had over the men, but the thrill of it soon wore off and she once again had become bored. Rachel continued to day dream when a soft knock was heard on her office door.

"Hmm? Oh, come in."

"Doctor Jones? They're just about ready for you." The young geeky looking lab assistant peered at her, excitedly. Rachel turned from the window to look at him, her green eyes flashing a warning.

"Do me a favour Jeff. Don't call me Doctor Jones. Just call me Rachel." Jeff was taken aback by this and didn't know how to respond. When he had been hired to work with Rachel he had been so excited. It wasn't every day you got to meet, much less work with, someone who was as brilliant as Doctor Jones was. Once he had accepted his position, he had heard all the rumours that surrounded her. How much of it was true he didn't know and had decided not to believe any of it. One thing had become apparent to him however, she did have a temper and if she asked you to do something, you did it, no questions asked.

"Uh, right, Rachel. Well, everything's set up and waiting for you."

"Thank you, I'll be there shortly."

Jeff gave her a weak smile and left her office. Rachel sighed. How tired she grew of the idol worshipping they did to her. Why couldn't they treat her like anyone else? She knew the answer to that already though, she wasn't like anyone else. With shoulders hunched and hands shoved into the pockets of her lab coat and trudged down the hall.

Rachel arrived in the laboratory ready to start the test. Today would be a defining moment in her career if everything went to plan. After many months of laborious research she was on the cusp of a breakthrough. A lot of the work Rachel did was for military contracts and this time they had handed her a difficult one. They had asked her to find a way to make a hand held electro-magnetic pulse weapon. She did relish the challenge that it brought to her, but at the same time she hated that it would inevitably be used for the wrong reasons. Finally after many sleepless nights she would prove it could be done.

"Right folks, get to your stations. Let's do this thing."

Everyone rushed to where they needed to be and manned various bits of equipment and monitors. Rachel started the experiment and hoped that they would soon have some results. One by one she checked with the others and asked for the data they had gathered so far. A cautious smile spread across her face.

"Right, let's let it run for a bit. Jeff, I want you to bring me updates hourly. I don't want to get my hopes up, but it looks like it's worked." Rachel ran her hand through her hair, as was her habit. She couldn't believe that it was working. Stunned, she went back to her office to start work on her findings. Time went by and Jeff had brought her a few reports, but she only half noticed him. Once again a gentle rap on her door grabbed her attention.

"Yes? Come in."

"Rachel? Here's the latest data. I can't believe it. I think you've actually pulled this off!" Jeff's soft brown eyes were shining with awe at her and he had a dopey grin on his face. In spite of what Jeff knew about her he couldn't help but being attracted to the unusually bright woman. He felt sorry for her a bit, she always seemed so lonely. Rachel looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

"Just all in the course of a day's work, Jeff, nothing more." She always undersold herself because she had very little faith in what she was capable of. For a moment, sadness crept into her eyes, but it was gone quickly. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Me? Oh, gosh, no. I should be asking you that question!" He could feel that he was turning red but decided to forge ahead, "Um, it's getting late and me and some of the others thought we'd go out and have a meal. You know, kind of celebrate today? I was, ah, just wondering if, um, you might want to come with me." He shifted uncomfortably and tried to read the expression on her face.

Rachel wasn't in the least surprised by his asking. She wasn't stupid and could tell that her assistant had a crush on her. She liked Jeff as well. He was kind and well mannered and although he held her in high esteem it didn't border on the worship that she received from some of the others in their academic circle.
She smiled gently at him. "I've got so much left to do tonight. I think I'll give it a miss, if you don't mind. I'm not much good in groups anyway." There was heaviness in her heart as she really did wish to go. She was sure that it showed on her face and quickly put her usual mask back on. She felt so guilty because Jeff looked so disappointed.

"Oh, right then. Ok. Well, maybe another night then." He bid her farewell and turned to leave.

"Jeff?" He turned to look into her sad green eyes, "Maybe if you ask me again in a few days I'll be able to say yes." He smiled back at her and shook his head in agreement and left.

Rachel sighed again and turned to look out the window at the black night. She could clearly see her reflection in the glass. Rachel considered herself for a moment. She kept her hair fairly short because it saved her time in the morning. It was dyed black with a hint of purple in it. She had done this mainly to irritate her mother who was forever saying that she should stay her natural blonde. She wasn't over tall, but made up for it by wearing high-heeled shoes. Her figure was fairly curvy and she had noticed men gaping at her quite often. She ran her hands over her hips and stared off into the distance again, lost in her thoughts.

Suddenly she was knocked off balance when a large explosion was heard. It was quickly followed by smaller blasts that made the building shake, setting off alarms were all around the complex. With her heart racing she wondered what was happening and started to run from her office to try and find out, but it was too late. There was a flash of hot, white light and an explosion; her office window shattered into a million pieces and tore through her clothes and flesh. The blast had blown her to the floor where she could see her mahogany desk in splinters and the gaping hole in the wall. Right before she faded into unconsciousness she saw some large figures outside what had once been the window, their features hidden in darkness except their glowing red eyes. Rachel couldn't believe what she was seeing and blinked to try and clear her vision. Were they... robots? She could hear a cold, heartless laugh and felt terrified. Rachel made a few feeble attempts to crawl through the rubble of what had once been her office but was too weak and frightened to move quickly enough. Her fear increased when she was suddenly picked up by the largest of them as if she were nothing but a rag doll.

She found herself looking into the blazing optics of the giant robot that had picked her up.

"Oh, God, please no..." she whispered. The robot only smirked at her.

Then there was nothing but darkness.