Well I'm way too excited and am going to publish chapter one right away. Enjoy! Don't forget to consider writing me a review when you've finished reading.

Pearl

She awoke with a start for the first time without truly knowing if it was her first time awakening at all. She could hear before she could see. It sounded like machinery beeping, but she didn't know how she knew that. Voices were speaking as though they were directly in her ears. She tried to move but realized she couldn't, and resorted to waiting for her open eyes to begin to see.

Her vision transitioned from black to a blotchy attempt to fuzzy blobs to recognizable bodies and faces. There were bodies all around her, moving back and forth in and out of her line of sight. As she came to, she realized that the voices were directly in her ears, in a device designed to localize sound. They were a little uncomfortable. On second thought, she didn't actually know what uncomfortable meant.

She began to understand the words being spoken to her. "I… Meant for… Pearl… I am to... Pearl Unit B27A20." She realized this was her name. 'I am a Pearl,' She thought. The phrase was repeated often in her hearing device. "I am Pearl Unit B27A20. My purpose is data analysis and storage, and servitude. I am Pearl Unit B27A20. I am to be used exclusively as a servant. My identity is meaningless. I am Pearl Unit B27A20. My serial number is-" The messages were constant and swirled in her mind without comprehension.

Before she had time to process much of anything else, she repeated what she had latched onto verbally. Though she couldn't hear herself, her lips were moving and her vocal cords were vibrating. "I am Pearl." She said each time the recording said it, in sync. After several repetitions she began reciting the other phrases as well. The bodies began to take notice. She recognized that these were other creatures like her.

Quite suddenly the hearing device was pulled from her head and her ears were assaulted with a din that made her wish the voice was back. Another being was right in front of her and slightly above eye level. "What are you?" It asked in the same voice that was in her hearing device.

"I am Pearl." She said, and was surprised by her own voice. It was a sound she would have to get used to. It was different from the recording. The creature frowned.

"What are you?" It asked again, its eyes crossed in what she interpreted as irritation. Pearl was confused.

"...I am Pearl." She repeated, unsure of what she was doing wrong.

"What is your serial number?" She asked impatiently. She seemed almost uncomfortable.

Pearl suddenly lost control of her voice. It was a strange feeling. "My serial number is 4918853285-P." Her voice sounded different this time. It was flat. She thought she didn't like it. It sounded more like the voices in her hearing device.

She seemed to show relief at her response, though Pearl didn't know why. "Thank you," She said, which garnered sharp, cross looks from the other bodies around her. Apparently that was bad. Her neutral expression broke momentarily into nervousness before returning to a pallid stare deep into Pearl's eyes. "What are you?" She asked again.

"I am Pearl B27A20." Her voice was still monotone and she definitely didn't like it. It felt wrong. She blinked back to her senses. "Where am I?" She asked.

"You are in Synthesis Facility 467, in Faction 9 of the Homeworld. You were created here. You are being tested for later processing and refinement." Pearl didn't know what refinement meant, but it didn't sound pleasant.

"What is refinement?" She asked, curious.

"Stop asking questions," She snapped, her voice becoming hostile, "You follow orders. You do not ask questions. Am I clear?" She said.

"You are clear." Pearl repeated. It seemed like this was the best thing to say. Her curiosity was boundless, though. In her mind spun many thoughts about life, about where she was, about what she was doing here, what was going to happen here.

The other being sighed, clearly frustrated. She began speaking to what seemed to be no one and nothing. "The subject is answering questions correctly and speaking coherently, although exhibiting strange characteristics resembling individualism. I am flagging the case but will pass her onto the second stage. Any further deviations should warrant considerations for a Recall."

Before Pearl could ask what a Recall was or what her name was, a barrier fell down around her with a sound like a sheathing sword, encapsulating her. It looked like plastic and had a slight green tinge, much like the other's safety visor. She could have sworn she heard her say "good luck," before her capsule was vaulted into the air on a thick cable line. Pearl gasped and held her breath, filled with sudden exhilarating fear.

Colors and bright lights passed in front of her pod before she could conceive them. The line snapped to a stop and Pearl felt a huge lurch as the capsule steadied itself, suspended high above where she had started.

"I am Pearl," She whispered to herself, attempting to love the name, "Hello, I am Pearl." It wasn't really working, so she stopped.

The line jolted to a start again, but this time the movement was slow and uniform. Pearl's casing joined several others that looked identical to the one she was in—as far as she could tell, anyway. She was still unable to move, and couldn't really tell what her own case looked like aside from what was in her forward and peripheral vision.

The line moved slowly forward, a single-file thread of pods. Pearl wondered if there were more things like her in them. It seemed likely.

She was pulled into a hole almost like a suspended hallway away from the rest of the line. The light grew dimmer the further into the hallway she traveled, until all she could see was a thin outline of herself. She started in surprise- she could see herself! The lack of light seemed to give reflective qualities to the green shield in front of her.

She took a long time taking in what she looked like in the reflection of the pod. Her own eyes were a light blue and larger than the other lady she had talked to earlier, and her nose was so long! She noticed the reason she was unable to move was a combination of restraining clothing and chains that had no weight to them. The clothing looked a little disturbing, the way her limbs were twisted up to be nearly immobile. The chains were a light green and didn't look quite corporeal, but they held her limbs in place very rigidly. Pearl tried to look past her reflection again to see what was happening outside her pod. 'I look awful,' she thought. 'Is this normal?'

The pod suddenly dropped down in much the same way it zoomed up earlier, and landed with a thud onto a metallic ground that clinked loudly at impact. Pearl braced herself and felt her head jostled by the drop. Her vision seemed to swirl a little and her head hurt.

The visor slid itself up and Pearl was now able to see a dark and dingy room. It was grittier than the first one and somehow managed to be even less welcoming. Pearl looked around wildly when she realized she couldn't see anyone. "Hello?" She called out, nervous.

"Hush," a voice said from a dark corner. It was quiet but still forceful. Pearl started in surprise. "What are you?" It asked as its footsteps echoed off the walls.

"I am Pearl." She said, but quickly realized her mistake. "S-sorry, I am Pearl B27A20. My serial number is 4918-"

"That's enough." The voice said with a tinge of irritation. She stepped into the light. She looked remarkably similar to Pearl, with only a few variations in color and dress. "Hold steady. I'm about to remove you from the pod."

Pearl nodded. The capsule made hissing sounds as it deconstructed from the bottom up. It cracked like an egg and was pulled back up to the ceiling, leaving Pearl exposed save for a stiff length of metal that her chains were attached to on her back.

The other person walked up to her with a bored expression on her face, and Pearl was able to see that their eyes were the same color. "Blink," she said and Pearl obliged, and she continued to ask for other movements that Pearl assumed were to test her motor control. "Look left to right. Good, right to left. Good. Turn your head to the left." Pearl's neck was stiff, but she was able to turn her head just slightly with effort. "Good. To the right now." Pearl obeyed.

This person once again talked to nothing, though Pearl noticed she could have been talking to a device that was on her wrist. "B27A20 exhibits average basic motor skills of the eyes, head and neck."

The other person looked back into Pearl's eyes. They were intimidating but Pearl wasn't scared. "I am Pearl A11A20. You may call me A11 to avoid confusion, since we are of the same gem."

"Gem?" Pearl asked, confused.

A11 gave a questioning look before answering. "Yes, you are a gem. We are all gems. Do you not know this?"

Pearl shook her head. She sighed heavily. "They keep making my job even more difficult. Okay then, I'll start with the basics.

"You are what is called a gem. You are comprised of a pearl, which is a cheaply made gem used to make servants and occasionally production technicians, like me. Your arms are restrained but look on my forehead- all of our gems are located on our foreheads, and yours is there too. See if you can feel it without touching it."

She paused for a moment while Pearl closed her eyes and tried to sense her gem. Sure enough, her gem resonated with the strength of all of her thought and she was able to understand that all her being came from the gem. She opened her eyes. "I see," she said.

A11 nodded. "Your body is something that your gem creates not out of necessity but out of convenience. What I mean is that everything about you is inside of your pearl, and your body is just a projection to allow you to communicate with your surroundings. If your body is badly damaged or injured, you will simply return to being only a pearl, and regenerate your form. However, if your gem is cracked or damaged, it will cause your body to be unable to properly project itself into a body like mine or yours is now. Do you see?"

Pearl nodded more enthusiastically. She was enjoying learning. "Okay, uh, A11," she said, not sure how the assigned name felt on her tongue, "what else shall I do for you?"

A11 smirked a bit. "Good, already exhibiting signs of servitude." She turned away and whispered a similar statement into her wrist device. Pearl smiled. She was starting to feel a little more comfortable, despite the fact that she was still partially restrained. A11 was good at her job, she thought.

"Alright B27," Pearl had to take a moment to realize that was her, "Let's get on with the testing."

For what seemed like forever Pearl was asked to do mundane tasks like move her arms up and down and bend her knees, to show dexterity or some other jargon A11 seemed to make up as they went along. It became numbing to the brain, until A11 asked her to summon her weapon.

"A weapon?" Pearl asked. "I have one of those?"

"Technically speaking, yes," A11 said, "but it's not truly a weapon." She brought a hand to her forehead and from her pearl shot a bright light and a thin pole. She pulled a large flagpole from her gem and set it clacking onto the hard ground. It had a flag with a bright insignia of a large yellow diamond surrounded by several embellishments. "Now you, please."

Pearl was at a bit of a loss. "How?"

A11's face wrinkled in annoyance. "You're slow on the uptake hm?" She sighed harshly. "Bring your hand to eye level, and think about what you want to pull from your gem. It should be exactly the same, but the flag itself will be blank, as you have not sworn allegiance to an owner yet."

Pearl was becoming a bit off-put by the description of 'owner', implying that she was an object to own and control and nothing else. She thought back to the voices she first heard, however, and remembered that they told her that she was worthless. She nodded a bit in silent understanding.

Pearl brought her hand to her gem and concentrated on a flag exactly like A11's. She crossed her eyebrows from the strain, but soon a bright light shot forth from her pearl exactly as it had from A11's. A pole had stuck out from her gem. She felt a swell of excitement from the summoning, and gripped the pole. She pulled, and closed her eyes as she felt the long shoot leave her gem and make the same clicking sound as A11's flag as the bottom hit the ground. She held a wide, proud smile and opened her eyes, but A11's expression was not approving like she'd hoped but one of terror and confusion.

Pearl's smile vanished. "What's wrong?" She asked, but she found her answer very quickly. Looking to her side, she could clearly see that her weapon was not a flag at all. It was a long, sleek spear, with a swirled razor-sharp tip pointing toward the ceiling. Pearl gasped and dropped the spear immediately, and it broke into a cloud of smoke before it hit the ground. Pearl took a few instinctive steps back.

"I-I don't know what that is, A11? What should I do? A11? What did I do wrong, should I try again?" She asked, but received nothing but more of the mortified expression from before. She could feel hot tears prick at the corners of her eyes. "Should I try again?" Pearl repeated, and brought a hand to her forehead again.

"Stop!" A11 suddenly shouted, breaking Pearl's concentration and shutting out the light from her gem. Pearl covered her mouth and stumbled back another few steps. She felt very afraid.

"What is wrong with you?" A11 spat with a hint of fear in her tone. "Your weapon is supposed to be a flag! I've never seen such a horrid display in all my years working here!" A11's face was twisted into a form of hatred Pearl couldn't understand. The tears began to fall.

"What is so bad about it?" Pearl asked. Her voice was clearly pained as she strained her throat against the tears. "I can try to change it, if you've never seen it then I'm sure that it can be easily fixed. Let me try again, please-"

"NO!" Screeched A11. "That's enough!" Pearl went quickly silent and the quiet of the room was so thick she fought to stop her breath, for fear it would trigger another attack from her mentor.

Pearl was stopped abruptly when she realized she had backed herself all the way into the wall. She gripped at the wall's column in an attempt to find purchase before her shaking legs failed her.

A11 was panting. She threw her wrist to her mouth. "Unit B27A20 is severely defective and shall be sent to the Recall department immediately. See to it that she is Recalled as soon as possible." She gritted her teeth and pressed a few buttons on her wrist device, and before Pearl could blink her arms and legs were wrapped in green chains again. She let out a soft cry as she fell forward without any balance. She shook in fear with her gem pressed to the cool ground.

Pearl gasped as A11 took a fistful of her hair and yanked her up to eye level. She winced in pain. "You are lucky that you lived so long. Burn for your disgusting display. You are no pearl worth seeing." Pearl's eyes were wide in fear and confusion.

"Please, I don't know what I did wrong!" She pleaded, the tears leaving thick trails down her thin cheeks.

"You were different. That's what you did wrong." A11 said, now blank-faced. "Send down the containment pod."

A capsule fell around her and chained her even tighter to a new metallic board laid along her spine. It felt more oppressive and cruel than the first one and she struggled to breathe through a combination of crying and tightening cords around her neck. She choked and gave silent desperate looks to A11, but received no response. The last thing she saw before the capsule plunged her into complete darkness was the stoic, unfeeling face of A11 as she called in for a new pearl to test.