Mass Effect the Immortal Series part 1: Flight of the Normandy

by black dragon

A rewrite of one of my older stories: The Challenger Deep is the deepest part of the ocean, and for millions of years has kept its secrets for itself. In the year 1960 a team of scientists made the first dive to the Challenger Deep. What they discovered was something that would forever change the course of human history.

8. They Strike in the Dark

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MASS EFFECT ONLY MY SELF AND THE PLOT OF THIS FIC...I AM BROKE PEOPLE!

A/n: This is a reminder that this is an A.U. Fic that takes place in the year 2012 so no flames and just read the story to get why it was in the Mass Effect section. And a big shoutout to my awesome beta I could not have gotten this down without your help.

Mass Effect The Immortal Series pt 1.

Mass Effect: Flight of the Normandy

Chapter 7: They Strike in the dark

It had been nearly three months since Martha had last seen the light of dawn. Everyday it was the same thing: She would get up to do her morning routine and then she would go to the labs to do her stand, point, and activate this alien device or that alien gadget with Dr. Kimber. And since this place has no laundromat, everyone's clothes had to be sent to the surface to be cleaned. Now, Martha didn't mind the cleaning service, but she prefers to do her own laundry. In fact, she would not mind another pair of shirts about now.

It was days like this that she found herself writing to Aaron again on Facebook.

Hey Aaron,

I know you are probably in bed by now and probably thinking about me...or withering in misery you choose. Martha had to pause before writing further.

Look I know that three months is a long time since I was sent to this prison. I have met a few of the others besides Dr. Kimber. I finally have been able to meet them. Besides Hilary everything is rather rigorous. God how to I put this in words...I really miss you. I miss your accusations, your paranoia, your smile. Hell I miss you to death! I love you always. I just wish I could be with you again. Dr. Kimber is such a slave driver I swear! I feel so strange living in the dark for so long. At least they have some decent lighting in my room. The only thing I have from this ship is this stupid bracelet. Yeah you are probably thinking 'why do I have a stupid bracelet that isn't you' well it was the first thing I found when I gotten this little hole. So I had the scientists analyze it and found nothing on it. They said it was just a regular bracelet. I have yet to put it on because it was all shinny and such.

I don't know to feel right now at the moment I feel so lost.

And then there are the dreams. You know those dreams I've told you about? Yeah I still get them and this time they're worse then ever! It seems so vivid and out of focus at times that I took to drawing them in my sketch books. And as time past I looked at the drawings and saw that they are coming more in focus each time. It was always the same thing over and over again. I am tired of it!

I want to see the sun again. I want to see you again, I hate this prison! I want to go home!

Well I better go it is time for lights out.

Love always Mart

With that, Martha sent her email and felt tears began to leak down from her eyes. Her weekly meetings with the psychiatrist were of no help to her. All she wanted to do was curl up and die in this hellhole. She kept thinking that God wanted to punish her for not going to church or something. Getting up, she walked over to the wall nearest the entrance to her cave and began to cry. She had been doing so for three months and kept doing so for as long as she can. Misery sure as hell can be a friend in this time.

As she let the tears fall, she held on to the hope that the next cycle of shifting parties she would be able to go to the surface. She was suppose to go soon and she could not wait to see the sun again. She looked at her now-thin arms and body. All the excess fat was gone due to the strict diet that they have here under the surface. She was on an exercise regime also, to keep fit and not get any atrophy due to the increased pressure of the trench. It helped with building up the muscle she needs to stay fit, but the excess skin from her once large arms and broad shoulders could use a trim. Her now-long, dark curly hair hung down her face as she typed away at her computer. She'd hoped that everything would be better now that she worked for the government, but she was wrong. As she held her bracelet out, she wanted to see if she could try it on just this once. It was not very hard to try seeing as the bracelet looked to be stretchable.

Looking at it, Martha was curious to see what would happen, but she held back a bit, just staring at the way the thin bracelet shimmered under her hand.

"Hey there!" a cheerful voice said.

Martha jumped in her seat and turned to find Hilary standing there with another person. This was another one of the 'subjects' who was a friend of Hilary's named Ichigo. Ichigo was of Japanese/Korean descent and was picked up in Japan just days before Martha was recruited. The two had hit it off instantly and became friends, though Martha could see a budding relationship between him and Hilary, if the googly-eyed expression on their faces was anything to go by.

"Hi yourself," Martha said as she spun her chair to meet her new guests.

"I figured we could come up to your place and see for ourselves what changes you made to the old storage room." she said and Martha smirked, "Not much just made it look more like home," she said.

"Well it looks like a workshop of some sort," Hilary joked, noticing the stuff piled up around the area. Computer parts and tools were everywhere, and Martha gave a sheepish look at the mess that she had created.

"Sorry I just like fixing my own stuff; if you know what I mean," Martha replied rubbing the back of her head and giving herself a scratch.

"So what is up with you?" Ichigo asked curious as he sat down on one of the spare seats available.

"I just sent an e-mail off to my boyfriend back home," Martha replied.

"Really? I never knew you had one," Hilary joked as she too sat down. "I always thought you were the loner type,"

"I always had a boyfriend but Alexandria tried to take that away when she sent me here. I miss him and he misses me, so when I came here we would e-mail each other. I told him that he can always find another girl, but he won't listen," Martha said.

"How romantic! He loves you, girl, so don't lose him," Hilary said as she got up from the spot she sat at and laid down on Martha's sleeping bag.

"Hey I sleep there!" Martha protested.

"Yeah, well, it is my turn to hear your story so spill!" Hilary said sounding like a teenager.

"What is there to spill Ms. Marine Biologist?" Martha said smiling.

"Well where are you originally from? And what job you worked as? And what are your hobbies?" she said smiling.

"I thought you read my profile, like Alenkov did?" Martha replied.

"Oh no! I am not privy to that. Alenkov and the other higher ups are privy to that information. Me and Ichigo here, we are just grunts," Hilary replied, pointing to her friend who remained silent.

Smiling for the first time in months, Martha startled her two friends.

"What? Is there something wrong with my teeth?" she asked.

"Um wow, I did not know your teeth are so sharp!" Hilary said.

"Oh? It is common back home, I have never seen someone with teeth so flat before, other than Aaron." Martha replied sharply, but with amusement showing in her eyes.

"Aaron?" Ichigo asked.

"My boyfriend," Martha replied and pulled up a picture of them together.

"Ok, not so great in the looks, but I can see why you love him," Hilary said.

"Hey not everyone is a movie star; sometimes its the personality that makes them great," Martha replied, clearly offended.

"Sure I bet they just love that one," Hilary said jokingly, "Alright girl now spill we want to know our mystery girl here."

"Alright, you have to tell me about yourselves afterward," Martha replied.

They sat there, talking for quite a bit: the sounds of their laughter filled the room as they told stories about where they come from, their pasts and what was it like growing up where they come from. It was well after ten, when finally they decided to call it a night and started to get up from their stiff positions, backs hurting and legs gone numb from sitting on the hard floor. As they were about to leave, it was then that Ichigo noticed something on the desk.

"What is that Martha?" he asked pointing to the bracelet.

Martha turned her head from where she was preparing her sleeping bag to look at where he was pointing.

There, on the desk, was the bracelet hanging from her keyboard where she left it. Picking it up she held it out, "It is something I found when I got here," she said.

"A bracelet?" Hilary asked, picking it up and examining it.

Hilary was surprised by how thin and flimsy it felt.

"Yeah I found it when I first got this room," Martha said. "Hell, I even had Jenkins check it out to make sure it was not some alien tech that someone dropped."

Ichigo held it in his hand after Hilary gave it to him. He examined it and then put it back on the table. "It is very flimsy if I ever felt it, and it is not one someone would wear around here. I almost thought it was one of those that are for hospital patients, but it feels more like a cheap watch. My question is why is it up here?" he said confused.

"I don't know I figured you would know who left it here?" Martha asked.

"No one I would know," Hilary said.

"Maybe someone came up here to escape work?" Martha asked.

"I doubt it, Martha, everyone here is under careful watch, even you. So I doubt anyone would slip under the radar. And besides, if they had a bracelet like that, I would know. Everyone has to go up to the surface one way or another." Hilary replied.

Martha leaned back on her makeshift desk. She looked down at the bracelet in her hand, examining it. It was very thin to the touch, just like long-term patient bracelet but...

Ichigo smiled mischievously, "Why don't you put it on? Let's see what you look like with something girly for once."

Hilary smirked along with him, "Yeah why don't you?" she requested.

Martha raised an eyebrow, "You really want me to put it on? Doesn't it look out of place on me?"

"Why not? It's just a bracelet, come on, don't tell me it's too girly for you?" Hilary replied.

Martha took a hold of the bracelet, noting again how it was very thin and silky to the touch. It looked like any sort of rubber bracelet, but was as thin as a patient bracelet. It was shiny, with golden lines and small buds coming from it. It was something a little girl of about five would wear. Though the width of it was what gave it its appearance, Martha could only stare at it for so long. Taking a breath, she put the bracelet on, feeling the silky material against her skin. As soon as she put it on she turned back to Hilary and Ichigo. "There, happy? I have it o- What the fuck!" Martha called out in surprise, along with Ichigo and Hilary, as the bracelet disappeared from view.

It was then that Martha's arm began to glow and a 3D holographic form began to take shape over it. It seemed to float there and the sounds of something came to Martha's ears before disappearing.

"Oh shit!"

DR. ALENKOV'S OFFICE

"So you tell me that this device was in the shape of a bracelet?" she said, her eyebrow raised.

"Yes ma'am, we had it checked, and Jenkins said it was just a bracelet with no special alien tech on it. I guess he was wrong," Martha replied, looking rather sheepish.

"I did check it, ma'am; did the scans and everything, and found nothing out of the ordinary," Jenkins, who was asked to join them along with Dr. Kimber, replied.

Jenkins was a dark-skinned British man, who took pride in being able to detect alien tech. But his mistake led to this problem. Martha currently held up the device for him to examine and he found, to his shock, that the device is able to hide as part of Martha's arm. This did not go well for them all. "What if it was a bomb?" asked a panicked Ichigo.

"It is not a bomb, or else I would be dead," Martha glared at him.

"That is true, ma'am. I don't know what it is, and frankly, for some strange reason, it puts words up in English," Martha demonstrated when it started to give off readings.

"I think it taps into your brain to see what language the wearer speaks...or it uses audio recognition software," said Kimber in awe.

Martha waved it around, and then it lit up a holographic display of the laptop computer's insides. Martha's eyes lit up as she looked at all the parts that made up Dr. Alenkov's computer. She then waved it around to see what else she could see and found that it does not just computers but people's bodies as well.

"This is cool!" Martha said.

"It is some sort of analytical tool!" Kimber said amazed, "It allows us to see what the systems are made of and allows us to analyze what is going on with them. This could be big, ma'am! If we can find more of them lying around, maybe we can use them to find out how to repair some of these systems." She then frowned from the look on Martha's face.

"Is there something wrong Marty?" she asked.

"Yeah, I know my way around computers, but for some reason there is a strange device transmitting some sort of signal from Dr. Alenkov's computer." Martha then looked under the computer and then proceeded to get a nearby screw driver. Closing the laptop and taking out the power sources, she then proceeded to extract the device out. By taking out all the screws around the machine and opening the laptop up exposing the hard drive, motherboard, RAM and processor units. Going through Alenkov's desk, she then proceeded to gut the computer of the keyboard and inner shell to expose more of the circuitry inside. When she saw what she was looking for she gave a whistle.

"Now that is something you don't see everyday," Martha said.

"What is it?" Kimber asked.

"From what I understand this is a government issued relay device used mainly for listening in and hacking into someone's computer. A person uses it to relay personal information towards any third party. I had one when I first got here and quickly disabled it. I lied to Alexandria about my tech abilities. I figured it would come in handy someday," Martha said as she took a look at the device. Smirking, she placed her left hand over the device and watched the glove come to life again.

Once again it formed a three-dimensional shape like that of the floating device and from looking at it, Martha figured out pretty quickly how it worked. With the holographic keyboard, she managed to trace the signal. Using the strange device, she patched it through several different computers on the ship.

"Well, well, well," Martha said smirking.

"What?" said Kimber.

"It seems as if there are multiple signals throughout the ship. I have traced at least fifteen different signals, all from different parts of the ship. I'd say all the heads of department are bugged, and some of our fellow subjects. I can trace each frequency down and deal with it here and now. With this device, I can deactivate and remove the bugs to ensure that there are no more surprises." Martha said.

"Can you really do that?" Jenkins asked, this time in awe.

"Yeah, I sort of figured it out. It adapts to our languages and it's surprisingly easy to use. I can remove the device, it is not that hard. Since it is a standard device, there is no explosives on it. But I have to be careful, because it can fry the system." Martha replied.

Alenkov was furious when Martha explained how the device worked. All these years, she'd wondered how the governments found out about certain subjects without her knowledge. How information had gotten leaked about their research and how corporations had used them to better their own gains. She had wondered for years how this was going on and had gone through several system upgrades. Each time it happened, they planted new bugs and for how long? Her rage burned in her as she stared at Martha through half lidded eyes.

"Find all the devices and find out what information that they have leaked to the outside without our permission. Then, I want you to remove every single bug from our computers and get rid of them. Jenkins, Kimber, assemble your team and go with her. Find out everything you know about who's computers are being bugged, and whose is not. Martha, while you are at it, use that device of yours to scan other equipment for such bugs and report them directly to me, understood?" she said.

"Perfectly ma'am," Martha said, standing up straighter.

"You will start in the morning. For now, I want you to get some rest, it is late. And then I want you to start early; we have a house to clean." With that, they were dismissed back towards their separate quarters for a good night's sleep.

All, that is, except for Alenkov and Martha.

"You have something else you wish to say, Martha?" Alenkov asked curiously.

"You are royally pissed, I can tell," Martha said.

"Get some rest Marty, for tomorrow you will be our biggest asset to separating the weeds from the flowers." With that, Martha rose from her chair and gave her a salute before leaving.

Alenkov smiled, she was starting to like that girl.

When she saw Martha leave her area, she turned towards her gutted computer and the device that Martha retrieved. Taking out her own device, Alenkov did a scan and found to her burning anger that indeed Martha was right. The frequency that it gave off was a standard Russian transmission mixed in with some from China and South Korea. Though Martha's device was more sophisticated than most, she knew that hers would come in handy. Taking the device in her hand, she dropped it on the floor and proceeded to crush it under her foot.

No more, she thought.

APARA HARBOR, GUAM

One of the few port of calls for the sea vessel Ocean Odyssey was on the island of Guam; the closest port to the Marianas Trench. The ship would routinely come here every three months, to allow shore leave for its crew and to get fuel and supplies. Apara Harbor is the main port in Guam, and it houses hundreds of ships from all over the world. Some would say that it is the gateway to the Southeast Asian Continent and others to the Pacific. The Ocean Odyssey, at the moment, was being refueled and resupplied. Dock workers were busy getting things set for their voyage back out to sea.

What the crew of the Odyssey didn't know was that this is the same port that will forever burn into the minds of the people who came to call this vessel home. While the last of the supplies was being loaded, a small crew of dock workers set to work finishing the cast-off before departing. The ship then slowly made its way out of port towards open waters, the green tropical waters turning into the dark deep blue waters of the open ocean. Slowly but surely, the ship made its way out into the rough surf of the ocean swells. Turning towards the south, the ship began its trek around the island towards the Marianas Trench with fresh food and supplies.

The Ocean Odyssey was unknowingly being followed by another vessel, this one keeping itself well out of range of its radar. The ship following had no ship I.D. and to the crew of the Odyssey, it was simply one of the many shipping vessels heading towards the South Pacific. as with many other vessels in the area. This vessel, however, was waiting for the Odyssey from just south of Guam. The bridge of this ship was well shielded from being hit by bullet fire. It also was reinforced to make it able to sustain heavy damage from collisions and even artillery fire. It followed the Odyssey from a distance, hoping to catch it off guard, before it could radio for help. It was a pirate vessel, one that had frequented the area for some time, hoping to get a good score before disappearing out to sea. Many vessels had become victims to this band of pirates and many governments would want nothing more then to take them out once and for all.

The Ocean Odyssey would be one of its many victims. The buyer who paid for the raid wanted it intact and all its passengers alive. The research materials on this vessel are worth a large fortune and the knowledge the scientists have is worth even more. Some of the victims were subjects or people who volunteered to come to the vessel to be used as on and off switches. Waiting for the cover of darkness, the vessel kept its long range radar open. The radar was confiscated from a Russian ship and integrated into the pirates' systems. These systems were used to enhance their current radar and allowed them to keep up with potential victims. On board the vessel were smaller stealth boats; inflatables that are undetectable to the radar of victim vessels.

As the helmsman watched, the light of the sun started to dip in the sky. His captain, always diligent, watched from his chair. He was currently smoking a cigarette and smirking.

All he had to do was wait.

SEVERAL HOURS LATER

In the hours spent preparing his men to board the vessel, the captain of the pirate ship had ordered his men to do a hostage run. "Don't kill any of the passengers on the vessel. Make sure there are no weapons and make sure that the place is secure." That was the order given on the small boats.

In the cover of darkness, about 40 miles away from the ship, the pirate vessel made its run. Along the border of the radar of the Ocean Odyssey, it deployed its inflatable boats. Each had a double fuel tank and double engine motors to allow for greater distance from the larger ship.

Taking off from the ship, the inflatables made their run along the calm waters of the Pacific. Going at speeds of up to 50mph, they could race some average speed boats. Keeping quiet, they neared the vessel, and launched grappling hooks. The hooks latched on to the sides of the vessel, allowing the unwanted passengers to climb up onto the deck. They slowly crept up on the security detail, which was pretty light. Grabbing them and knocking them out, they dragged them to where someone would not see them, before splitting up into two teams. One headed towards the deck while the other headed towards the crew quarters and the lower engineering deck.

The unfortunate crew were caught unawares of the imminent danger. Being dragged out of bed by gun-toting men wearing masks and camouflage, they were led to the main mess hall. Among them was award-winning camera man Mark Cameron. They dragged them all into the mess hall. Everyone, from the captain to the engineers, including every one of the scientists, was thrown into the mess hall and held at gunpoint. The cooks, too, were thrown in there with them turning off whatever it was that they were cooking.

It was total chaos and despite the women kicking and screaming, there was nothing that they could do about it. And no hope of help getting to them any time soon.

MEANWHILE

Martha once again found herself in the same hallway as before. This time there was more clarity to it. It was indeed a ship of some sort. Slowly, she began to walk around the ship, seeing the shades of the beings that owned it walk past. Their faces and shapes were still unclear to her. She could not make out any faces.

"Hello?" Martha said out loud but got no response.

"Hello?" she called again, but received nothing.

She began to walk down the hallway, until she came to a flight of stairs. There was some sort of elevator there. Getting on, she waited till she gotten to her stop. The sight that greeted her as the doors opened was something out of a science fiction movie. In front of her was a very large model of a ship, which she had never seen before. Walking up to it, she could barely make it out anything but its basic shape. She then noticed two shapes unlike the others.

Walking closer she tried to call out, "Hello?" she said.

Nothing

Again she tried but there was only silence. The only thing greeting her was the glow of the monitor. The room itself was well-lit. In fact, it was very bright with all the bright red and blue lights. The raised platform that she had her hand on gave her pause. The bright light at the end had drawn her attention. The two bright blurs were gathered there.

Martha then walked around towards them trying to figure it out.

She saw some words on the wall, but could not read them. Walking to the wall, she ran her hand along its length but she still could not make it out. Turning away and losing interest, she was again greeted by the two bright blurs. They looked to have their backs to her. Slowly she came up behind them. The first seemed to be shifting raising one part of itself but Martha could not make it out.

Martha then walked behind the second one, trying to see what he or she was doing. They seemed to be doing something on some sort of console. Looking over the person's shoulder, Martha was surprised at the clarity of the image in front of her.

In fact it was very clear.

Password...

What the? Martha thought to herself.

The person seemed to be typing something and again the word Password appeared.

"I don't know the password," Martha said to the computer.

There was no response and Martha thought the blur had already typed it in.

That is until it said it again, Password!

Then she realized that it was talking to HER!

"I don't know the password! And Password to what?" Martha demanded.

Then there was nothing...till

Password to me...say my name...

SAY MY NAME! As it screamed this on the screen a sound could be heard this one loud and annoying.

Martha felt herself being pulled away from it. Away from the image.

END DREAM SEQUENCE

Gasping for air, Martha felt around for her blanket, and began to heave as the alarm on her now holographic glove went off. After the heaving, stopped Martha looked at her glove in awe and found that it also had the function of a cell phone. Setting it up at around 6 a.m. helped as she slowly gotten up and wiped her face with her hand. Getting dressed, she turned on her flashlight and reached for her sketch book. She always kept it on the side of her bed to keep a record of her dreams. She pulled the pencil from the spine and began to draw furiously, capturing the dream before it fades. This one was very clear and she wanted to capture every part of it.

When she finished she put the sketch book down and grabbed her toiletries and did her morning stretches. Putting on some decent clothes she made her way down to the mess hall for some food. She had a lot of work today.

When she got there, she was greeted by Dr. Alenkov, Dr. Kimber, Dr. Jenkins, Dr. Jackson, Hilary and Ichigo. They were also greeted by another person whom Martha briefly met, who was also one of the 'test subjects' - a guy named Nathan Mathews, who hailed from Australia. The guy barely noticed Martha, since he worked in another part of the ship. When the introductions were made, Alenkov then rose greeting all the scientists there.

"Greetings people!" she said

A bunch of good mornings followed and some grumbling. Alenkov smiled as she said it again, "I said GOOD MORNING!" she said and this time everyone repeated the greeting.

"Good, now that I have everybody's attention there is something that I have to say. Last night it has come to my attention that our computer systems have been bugged." she said and was immediately met with loud protests coming from all across the mess hall.

Alenkov held up her hand, "I know what most of you are thinking and that my friends is our research that is being stolen by some third party. I will have to say it ends here!" she said.

Everyone at the table has their attention on Alenkov now as she walked towards the front. Her blonde hair was tied up in a bun and her ghostly pale skin was illuminated by the many lights of the mess hall.

"Our newest member Martha has found a bug after doing a scan with an alien device that somehow ended up on her arm. We have found several others on different computers. This morning, Martha, along with Dr.'s Kimber, Jenkins, and Mathews, will be locating these devices and removing them from our systems." at this, one hand was raised and a man stood up.

He was rather thin with shallow features and a frail appearance, "How do you know that these devices won't explode?" he asked.

This time Martha stood up, "So far they are standardized government bugs, not bombs. If they are to be removed, the bugs will only try to fry your system. But I have dealt with this before, so I know how to remove them without damaging the systems." she said

"And how do you know that?" asked another, "From your profile you are just an ordinary civilian,"

"I learned my tech skills as a hobby, because back on Molokai, there are no techs to fix your computers; you have to learn on your own. So I learned on my own and now I am able to put those skills to use," Martha replied.

At this everyone started to whisper, "How do we know that it was not you who placed the devices?" at this people started to grumble.

Rolling her eyes, Martha pulled up the alien device, and that silenced the crowd. She typed a few keys in and a holographic image of the ship appeared. Then red signals began to show on the ship from all stations, and the warnings that followed also made themselves known.

"Ok, we see your point," the first man said as he sat back down.

"We will begin in the Marine Science Labs and make our way towards the Communications area. We will track down all the bugs till we find the central router. It is this router that sends the signals from the bugs to the surface. If we could find that..." Martha was interrupted by a man running in from the communications room, just in front of the mess hall.

"Dr. Alenkov! A message from the surface, they said it is urgent!" and with that, he was gone.

Alenkov excused herself making her way forwards towards where the communications room was.

Dr. Kimber stood up taking over where Martha left off, "After breakfast, we will start with the Marine Science Labs and then make our way to the Communications. There, we will check every single possibility to ensure that our research is safe. I would recommend that you start backing up your stuff and securing it in safe files. If there is a security breach then we will want to know about it. Major Lawoski, who is in charge of security, has been fully briefed earlier this morning by Dr. Alenkov and will also be joining us along with some of his men. That is all for now folks, so finish off your food and let's get to work." with that, Dr. Kimber sat back down.

Martha continued to eat her breakfast, fully aware of what was going to happen. As she finished her, food she looked at the tool that she has on her arm. She fiddled with it, having explored some of the possibilities of what it can do before she went to bed the night before. And it was after she had put it on that her dreams started to get more vivid, more real. Her daily sessions with the psychiatrist helped to sort that out and she continued to wonder about this ship. The others did not make sense of their dreams like Mart did. She often wondered about that, but right now, Martha could not think of anything more. But the more Martha thought about why her dreams were more vivid then the others, the more it started to make sense to her.

Most of the other Element Zero patients like her were engineers or plain workers and folks from the poorest parts of any nation. Those that do come from more wealthy nations or parts of those nations had children who were educated in Business or financial works. Even others who were fisherman or construction workers. Martha often wondered about the origins of some of the test subjects and they all made sense to her.

Out of all the test subjects, Martha is the only subject who had a side of creativity, meaning she is the only one with any sort of artistic ability. She also noticed that there was a lack of music or anything of any sort of entertainment value here. Usually, if anyone were to go anywhere, there was some sort of music.

There was none here. That would explain why there was such a thick atmosphere of foreboding here and that was probably why so many subjects are prone to mental instability. Maybe she could suggest to both Dr. Alenkov and the psychiatrist that they should have some form of music here. When she showed the psychiatrist her sketchbook she was the only one who draws out her dreams. Others would write them but Martha showed visual records of them.

She often felt like the only one to ever attempted to visually record their dreams. The others wrote it down in journals while she drew them on sketchbooks. As she pondered this, she looked to her left hand. Never in her lifetime has she ever dreamed of coming to this prison.

As much as she wants to stay, she would like to go home. She misses her family greatly and she misses Aaron. Sighing she stood up to begin getting to work.

This was going to be a long day.

TBC