Rise.
"What?" Daria blinked into the darkness. "Who's there?"
Come to me. Obey me.
"Would you hold it down," came a voice. "I need my 12 hours, here."
You will obey.
"Would the two of you keep it quiet," a third voice ordered.
"Jodie," Daria took her glasses off of the small table next to the bed, "how many voices are you hearing?"
You will come to me.
"Who is that?" Jane sat up and looked around.
"Don't know," Jodie said from the top bunk across the room from Daria and Jane. Looking down at her, Jodie asked, "You hearing it, too?"
"Yeah." They listened for a few seconds. "I think it's gone," she amended.
"That," Jane slid her feet over the side, "was weird."
"Like nothing else has been this week," Daria commented as she frowned at Jane's feet.
The person in the other bunk sat up. "Are we having a meeting?" The girl was slightly heavy, with dark hair that was normally in a messier version of Jane's. She was without makeup, but still managed to look dark. "Cause if we are I vote we sacrifice someone tomorrow at midnight."
"No meeting," Jane said, cheerfully, "we're just hearing voices."
"Oh."
"Yeah," Jodie rolled over to look down at her, "go on back to sleep, Andrea."
"Sure." A few seconds later, she was out cold.
"Okay," Jane said, watching, "I'm jealous."
"Hmm," Daria grumbled as she put her glasses back on the table. The three lay down again, but did not sleep much.
XXXXXX
Rise.
"Like, huh?" In the darkened room, it was impossible to tell who had spoken.
Come to me. Obey me.
"Obey?" The sound of bare feet on a hard floor followed the still-drowsy voice. Then, the door opened, allowing a slim shape to slip out of the room. In the bright corridor, Quinn stopped and blinked as she tried to adjust to the light. "Why am I out here?" she asked herself.
You will obey.
A wave of dizziness caused the girl to reach out to the wall for support. For several seconds she gasped for air as she held her other hand to her head.
You will come to me.
"I must . . . go," she whispered. With unsteady steps, she began to walk down the corridor. She had gone for a few minutes before the voice appeared in her mind again.
Quinn.
"Yes?" she replied, stopping.
Come.
As if in a trance, she started moving again. Her eyes were slightly glazed as the voice in her head continued.
That's it. Come to me. Follow my thoughts. A chuckle sounded in her head, then the voice continued. From this point on, the life you knew is over. As of now, your life will belong to me.
"My life . . . belongs to you," she whispered. Rounding a corner, Quinn saw her destination. The door was unadorned, but what was beyond drew her with an overpowering force. As she neared, the door opened to admit her, then closed once she was inside. In the center of the room was a circle of light. On the far side of the light a figure waited.
He was hidden beneath a hooded cloak that cast an impenetrable shadow over all but the end of his jaw. Stretching out a hand, he gestured for the girl to approach. "Come, Quinn," he commanded. "Come face your destiny."
The dazed girl staggered to the center of the light, then stopped. "What," she struggled to ask, "what do you want with me?"
The hand clenched into a fist, and something drove Quinn to her knees with a gasp. "Hurts," she gasped.
"Disobedience is painful, my new apprentice," the figure told her. "We shall call that your first lesson."
"But I don't want to be a, uh, whatever you said," Quinn told him as something in her screamed a warning.
"Your preference in this matter is irrelevant," he told her. The hand reached out toward her, then what looked like silver lightning flew from his fingertips.
As the first wave of lightning struck, Quinn's world erupted into pain. For what seemed like an eternity she writhed on the floor. Finally, it stopped.
"Now," the figure pointed at his feet, "you will kneel before me and proclaim me to be your Master."
"N-no," Quinn shook her head as she tried to crawl away. Again, she was assaulted by the figure's power. This time, her face was wet with tears and she was trembling. "Please," she whispered, "don't do this to me."
"Surrender to your fate, my apprentice. Your destiny is with me."
Shaking her head again, Quinn began, "I can't -- AAHH!" This time, the pain lasted until she blacked out. When she awoke, she realized she was still lying in the circle of light. To her terror, the figure was also still where he had been. "Who are you?" she asked in a small voice. "Why me?"
"You have the power I require for my apprentice," he told her. "As for who I am, I am your Master. Now," he pointed again, "kneel before me." When she didn't immediately move, he raised the hand toward her again. "You have tried my patience. Now you will kneel or you will die."
With a whimper, Quinn tried to obey, only to find her legs were too weak to hold her. With her head down, she crawled to him. Once there, she pulled her knees beneath her, then leaned forward until her head almost touched the floor.
"Good," he whispered. "Very good. Now, pledge yourself to me, your Master."
"I," Quinn paused as she felt the tears running from her eyes and down to drip off of the end of her nose. "I pledge myself to you, my Master. My life is yours."
"Very good, Quinn," her Master said. "Very good indeed."
XXXXXX
They began to do evaluations of our education level. I guess they were bored with looking at two cosmic eating machines. After several days the tests began to annoy everyone. Especially when they started to repeat themselves.
XXXXXX
"I did this test already," Daria complained. "It's designed to evaluate my knowledge of how to operate computers."
"Oh," The technician grinned, "sorry about that. Well," he reached out to change the program, "how about --"
"I've done the one for piloting a speeder, too."
"How did you know that the one I was going to pull up?" the man asked, confused.
"Um," Daria blinked, "I didn't. Or, I don't think I did." She frowned as his hands began to move again, "I haven't done the test for household items."
He sat back like she'd tried to bite him. "You always been like this?"
"Like what?"
"Reading minds and stuff."
"Uh," Daria adjusted her glasses, "no. I've just seen some stuff since I've been here."
"Hmm. Well, take the evaluation, here, and I'll be back when you're done." Standing, he moved away from the computer cubicle.
Another technician was standing by the door, watching Jodie. "That's a weird one," he pointed out as the first technician reached him. "It's like she can read my mind sometimes."
"So can she," came the reply as he pointed to Daria. "You know, it kinda reminds me of my nephew."
"The pilot or the Jedi?"
"The Jedi. Tell you what, Phread, you watch these two for a minute. I'm gonna make a call."
