Chapter 1 – Life

She was nothing. She floated in the life-sustaining pre-birth fluid, not knowing she did. She was neither dead nor alive. She knew this with the part of her mind that also did not know this. She felt movement around her, then she moved as well. She felt the fluid drain away, then she felt it was gone. The air stabbed her as she fell faster, faster. She felt the cold stone floor slap her to a stop; felt splinters of glass stab at her, then melt and slither away. But she did not know this. She did not know of pain, or feeling, or life or death. She was not alive.

Something stabbed her back, then something cold and smooth pressed against he, latching on to her, destined to never let go. She still did not know this. But an electric shock jolted through her body and energy coursed through her veins. The thing on her back told her, made her, stand tall, no longer limp and broken on the floor. This she knew. She was now alive.

She heard a voice that emanated from the walls of the massive, unending room; walls made of test tubes holding…. She did not know what. The voice was claiming, but it demanded attention as it spoke. "Welcome to life, Irken smeet. Report for duty."

She did not know these words. What were they? The thing on her back knew, but wouldn't tell her. It piloted her body like she was a puppet. It made her whip her arm up in salute. It made her speak in her new, never-before-used voice.

"All systems fully functional. PAK is in place and all vital signs are normal." She did not say this. The thing on her back did. The words meant nothing to her. They were sounds the thing told her to make. Still, it was her high voice that pronounced the sou7nds in the end.

Before she could ponder how strange everything was, a long mechanical arm that extended down from the ceiling snaked towards her. The tendons and bones of shining metal clicked and clacked as the fingers flexed open and close. She did not move; the thing on her back would not permit it. The cold hand, much larger than she, surrounded her and delicately lifted her off the ground. It swung around and let go.

She did not yet know fear or excitement, so she did not know any emotion as the air slashed her tender skin once more as she fell. Instead of the cold floor slapping her, though, she fell through a hole in the ground. She did not touch the segmented metal walls of the chute until it turned and her body slammed into the metal walls. She rolled down the rest of the way, hitting the chute with every part of her body before finally landing on something soft that didn't sting her when she hit it.

This was completely new to her. She was now in a small, yellow room that seemed much nicer than the first room she was in. She had landed on a soft chair that appeared to have several holes in the back. She sat up and looked around her, taking everything in, wondering what everything was.

Suddenly, the deep, calming voice returned. It spoke from the walls of the room itself and seemed much more pleasant than before. "You are two minutes old, little smeet," the voice informed her. "Prepare to be filled with THE WHOLE OF IRKEN KNOWLEDGE!" The voice ended with a powerful, intimidating note that she did not prefer, but before she could respond, thick cables sprang out from the wall behind her to slide through the holes in the back of the chair and clamp onto the thing on her back.

A jolt of electricity made her shut down for a few moments. Information whirred through her mind and played out all of history for her very eyes. She witnesses the Irkens' rise to empirical status, wars, weapons, and victory. Everything great and powerful about her species jumped out at her while the mistakes and failures lay shrouded in darkness. Millennia passed before her eyes in mere seconds.

The knowledge retreated into the dark recesses of her PAK to come out when needed, and she woke up.

The deep voice spoke again. Its voice was now more energetic and authoritative than before. "Upload complete1" it announced. "You have been given a name. IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"

She blinked, confused. Name? Her PAK rushed at her with information and presented the answer to her unasked question. "My name is Mii!" she squeaked proudly. This time it was her who spoke, for she and her PAK, she now knew, were one and the same.

Mii sat tall, waiting for whatever would happen next. She did not expect two more clicking, clacking robot arms to erupt out of the wall beside her and knock her down a second chute. She tumbled through the narrow metal tube for several seconds, then was deposited in another small room, this one a cold metal chamber.

A small metal hoop descended from the ceiling and fell around her. As it rose back up, she noticed the inside was illuminated with a strange light. After it had risen back into the ceiling, she noticed that she now wore a simple black suit that all un-assigned smeets wore. She searched her PAK's knowledge to hind out what the hoop was, but it was difficult with all the different files of information she had. How had she found her name before?

Submerged in thought, she didn't notice the floor open up beneath her to plunge her down a third chute. As she tumbled down, the answer was presented to her. I asked. She thought for a moment. Yes, she thought. I asked for the in formation and my PAK presented the answer to me. She decided to test that theory. What was that hoop? Information flowed around her, files fluttered by her; she swam in an ocean of data. Finally, the snippet of information she had been searching for appeared before her. A Particle Assembler.

Of course! Mii thought It- she was yanked out of herself by a poke on her face. She opened her eyes to the sight of two giant ruby orbs staring at her.