The lights are on, but it is perfectly silent in the lab. Jack takes care to wander in silently, his hands innocently in his pockets and a smug smile on his face. He glances from the computer screen that displays a "test in progress – please wait" sign to Sam, sleeping with her head on her arms. He shakes his head – no doubt she's worked all night and then fallen asleep the moment she initiated the test.
The screen changes – "Successful" it flashes in green.
"I think it's just about time to get up," Jack sings softly to himself. Mischievously, he picks up a device – no doubt a delicate, breakable, important device – and turns it over in his hands. Then, in a louder voice, he says, "Ooh, I wonder what this doohickey does?"
Sam practically falls off her chair, only just managing to catch herself. Embarrassed, she rubs her eyes and runs a hand through her hair. "Good morning, sir," she says.
"I thought I told you," he says, not sounding unlike a father to his daughter after she's stayed out too late on a school night, "to get some rest."
Her face turns a darker shade of red as she averts her eyes. "Sorry, sir," she apologises.
Chapter Two
I notice in a semiconscious daze that two things are different. The first, a strange, electric feeling I didn't realise was missing has returned and is pulsing away in my veins. The second is that somebody's speaking to me. The next thing that goes through my mind is this: I hope they don't expect anything too intelligent from me and –
Who the hell are they?
I sit up abruptly; something clatters, doing nothing but contribute to my being startled. Eyes bleary, I look around in a panic. The man I met yesterday stands to my right, his arms folded and a small smile touching his lips. Embarrassed, I try to act calm and collected. "Good morning," I say.
He chuckles quietly to himself. "I'm sure the bed would have been much more comfortable," he says.
My heart still pounding with fright, I stumble to my feet a little more shakily than I would have liked. "Sorry, sir," I say automatically.
'Sorry sir'? It rolls off my tongue with such ease. Perhaps it means something? I look to the man – whose name, I realise, I still don't know – but those words don't seem to mean anything special to him. Why should they, I suppose? They're just two little words, after all.
Maybe two words mean more than I think they do.
He's speaking to me again, but I don't realise until he's halfway through his sentence. "..around here. Shall we?" He's moving towards the door; it probably means that I should probably follow him, so I do.
"Kitchens," the man says simply as we pass by a door.
We proceed further, then turn a corner. "Spare quarters." He indicates to three separate doors.
"Storage." He points. "Research and development."
I frown. "Research and development?" I ask. "What kinds of things are you researching?" Even though I know any answer to my question would go straight over my head, I'm intrigued.
"Ah, yes," the man says, nodding knowingly. "You used to be quite interested in research and development."
I want to suggest that we could go inside and see if anything jogs my memory, but we're already moving on. "Was I?" I want to know.
"Yes, quite," comes the short reply.
Although I'm sure we haven't seen this entire floor (there's still many a corridor we have passed unexplored), we enter a room – spectacularly ordinary, furnished with absolutely nothing, let alone something that might be of interest to show me.
I'm confused, but the man stands near a panel on the wall as though the room's being empty is somewhat important.
"What is this place?" I say, still standing in the doorway.
He chuckles. "The…" He pauses – for dramatic effect? Somehow it seems he too is having trouble remembering. "..elevator." He inclines his head towards the circle that is drawn on the floor. Hesitating only slightly, I step into it. Stupidity bears down on my pride as I stand in the middle of nowhere with my hands hanging limply at my sides and looking more than a little out of place. Regardless of how I feel or look, the man doesn't seem to notice and he enters a combination of symbols on the panel and joins me in the circle. My breaths speed up to match the beating of my heart as we are caught in a light that appears from apparently nowhere; four or five metal rings sweep down and there's a tingle in every particle in my existence as a bright light envelopes my vision. There's another tingle, and my vision returns to normal.
I can feel my mouth hanging open. I'd experienced that before, right after I'd woken up, but this time I'm a little more lucid and fully aware of everything (or so I'd like to think) around me.
Searching for words to describe this is futile, but luckily I have no need for them. "Never mind about them," the man says as he steps out. "They're quite the commonplace accessory, these days. We tend to refer to them as 'transportation rings' more than 'elevators', as well."
I would have babbled to him in awe that something as interesting as these 'transportation rings' could ever be considered commonplace and I would love to know how it worked, but I'm already being left behind. He spares me a glance to make sure I follow on what I've gathered to be the continuation of a tour. We proceed around the first bend and I can't help but notice that the scene I'm presented with so closely resembles that of the floor we just left that had I not already known they were different, I would not have known at all.
Along with its identical layout, one particular other likeness reaches out and stabs me in the eye. Like the other corridor – no, like every other corridor – this one is outstandingly void of people. The man's pointing around and explaining things to me, but I hear none of them through my thoughts. There may have well been just the two of us here, for emptiness reigns supreme and is protected by silence. Is the whole place like this? Could it be that this is perfectly normal, to be alone here? I would hardly know what 'normal' was even if it were labeled with a sign big enough to rival the surface area of my quarters; perhaps this is normal.
I collide softly with the man as he comes to what I suspect was gradual-made-sudden stop, made so only by my inattentiveness. Heartily embarrassed, I apologise profusely. He smiles thinly in dismissal and enters a room – the reason we stopped.
The surroundings are as familiar as anything I remember has ever been - distantly. A long box. Shelves. Bottles of liquids mounted on the walls. However, the feature that takes me with the most force is the chair sitting in the middle of the room.
We're in the room I first woke up in.
Seeing me shrink just slightly, the man places a hand on my arm. "I know this probably isn't the place you really want to be right now," he says, "but this device is capable of accessing memories." I look from the chair over his shoulder to the panel. It is equipped with a vast number of buttons and levers that give off an air of being makeshift and home-made; upon the chair opposite it sits some sort of helmet that converges with a mass of electrical cables; neither the panel nor the helmet instills me with much confidence.
But the chance to have my memories returned to me… He could have suggested that falling from the highest point of the world to the lowest would recall my memories and I'd still be filled with the same hope that I am at this very moment. "It can?" My breath has been stolen by what might be possible and my words are hardly audible.
The man nods. "It could be that your memories are simply suppressed. If that's the case…" He doesn't need to finish, waving a hand at the device.
"Let's try it!" I exclaim, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than I expected.
I take a seat in the chair and the man fixes the device to my head. Its metal frame is cold against my skin, not to mention heavy. I lean into the chair to relieve the new pressure placed on my neck.
The man takes his place behind the console and begins to adjust the settings, pushing buttons and turning knobs with a practiced hand. I wait in silence; it's several minutes at least before he lifts his head, a finger poised over a particularly large and red button.
"Are you ready?" he asks. I suddenly feel compelled to sit up straight and I do so, my confidence in this procedure encouraged by the optimism that bubbles excitedly inside. Swallowing hard, I nod, my fingers closing tightly around the arms of the chair. Despite my fear, I can't prevent the smile that appears on my lips.
To remember once more!
The man returns the smile, his managing to be wider than mine. He pushes the button and I hear the machine power up, surges of energy running through the device towards the apparatus on my head. I clench my teeth. Optimism aside, I'm scared. I look to the man for reassurance – this will return my memories, won't it? Please, may it return me who I was…
"The access of memories can sometimes be quite painful," says the man abruptly, "but the process is quick and the level of pain differs from person to person."
What?
Nobody said anything about being painful. I open my mouth, but words fail me as I feel a charge running through my head. Eyes wide, I watch the man as he looks down at the console once more to make adjustments to the device. He can't see me – maybe I don't need my memories this much anymore!
Stop! I want to say – but speech is impossible through the pain I'm already starting to feel.
My head…!
A jolt of electricity rams into my skull; a cry tears from my throat with the razor sharp pain that accompanies it – but one isn't enough and I try to scream again; this one is trapped before reaching my lips. The breath is robbed from my lungs and I can't breathe; the pain is getting worse blackness is clutching at the edges of my vision.
Finally, my fingers loosen around the arms of the chair as I am physically unable to fight the unable to fight the pain any longer. In the long moments before the pitch dark void swallows me, I have no other choice but to allow the white hot fire course through my brain unhindered – after that, there is nothing.
Well, there's chapter two! Thanks for reading. All feedback is welcome.
See you next time ^_^