Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Word Count: 3,318

Rachel gasped, coughing. She felt like she was swimming in jello. Moving her arms, she pounded on the thing she was inside of, repeating in her head 'Don't Panic, Don't Panic, Don't Panic.' It was like being in a slippery tube. Spitting out the stuff in her mouth, she shouted 'Open Please!'

The top slid open, and she found herself looking up at a wet looking Quinn.

"Come on Berry," Quinn said, holding out a hand. "Out you go." Rachel grabbed her hand and used it to pull herself up and out.

"I need a shower," Rachel said, flinging off some of the stuff coating her skin.

"Watch it!" Santana shouted.

"Sorry," Rachel said, looking across the room where Santana was leaning against Brittany.

"I agree," Quinn said. "A shower would be good."

"Your rooms have been prepared," a soft voice announced.

"Who's that?" Santana asked.

"The AI that runs this place," Brittany said, gesturing at the room.

"No name?" Rachel asked.

"She won't tell me," Brittany said.

"She?" Quinn asked, joining them at the now open door.

"All of the AI's are female. Hadn't you noticed?"

"No."

"No."

"No."

"Well, they are," Brittany said. "Let's get you all cleaned up." Grabbing Santana's hand, she headed out of the pod room. "And then you'll need something to eat. You can't starve in the pods but real food is much better. And important after time in the pods."

"What's that?" Rachel asked as they passed a series of closed doors.

"We can do a tour later," Brittany said. "If you don't get out of that," she said, poking Rachel in the material covering her shoulder, "before it dries, you'll lose some skin taking it off."

"She could strip now," Santana said, "though that would probably ruin our lunch."

"Please keep your clothes on, Berry," Quinn added. "Not something I want to see, you showing off your so-called assets."

"Don't worry Quinn, she has some very nice assets," Brittany said, causing Rachel to blush.

"How do you know?" Santana asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Brittany said, giggling, as she skipped down the corridor.

"Yes, I would," Santana said, frowning.

"I'd like to know also, Brittany," Rachel said.

"I have my ways," Brittany said mysteriously. "And here we are," she said, stopping in a small alcove with four doors, two on either side. "Put your hand on your symbol, and no one else can get in without your permission."

Quinn walked over to the door with her symbol on it and pressed her hand against it. It got flesh burning hot for a second before opening. Quinn didn't say anything, just looked down at her hand to see a red mark before walking into her room.

"Ouch!" Rachel shouted, her voice clearly carrying.

"Dammit!" Santana shouted seconds later.

Quinn just shook her head, looking around. It wasn't identical to her room in the pod, but it had a bed in a similar location. Walking around the room, she examined everything. Instead of a wardrobe, there was a large closet, with familiar looking clothes. She'd save checking those out until she'd taken a shower. Which she didn't appear to have.

But there was a door in its place. Opening it, she found herself in a large bathroom, like something she'd seen in magazines. While she was staring at the tub, wondering how it worked, a door on the other side opened.

"Quinn?" Rachel said. "What are you doing in my bathroom?"

"Your bathroom?" Quinn said. "It's our bathroom," she said, unhappily.

"Did you want to use it first?" Rachel asked.

"No, it's all yours," Quinn said, walking back to the door into her room. "Just let me know when you're done."

"Okay," Rachel said, watching her intently.

"I'm going," Quinn said, huffing. Stepping back into her room, she pulled the door closed behind her. She always felt like she was walking on pins and needles around Rachel, she wasn't sure why. She hadn't had a lot of contact with Rachel in school. And it felt so far away, even if Brittany was right and it'd been only six months. She had years worth of living by herself with only androids and simulations of real people for company.

She went back to poking around her room. One welcome surprise was a tablet sitting on a large desk next to her bed. Picking it up she started poking through is contents, happy to see that it contained all of her information from the pod, though it seemed to be a faster device, with a much better screen.

Stripping off her body suit, keeping Brittany's warning in mind, she left it on the floor, not seeing any place to dump it. Looking around for a mirror, she didn't see any reflective surface, except for her tablet. Quinn tried to get a good look at herself. She remembered all of the changes from the pod, and tried to see if they were still there. She didn't consider herself vain or narcissistic but her appearance was one of the few things she considered valuable.

She was definitely going to need a haircut, Quinn decided. In the pod that hadn't been an issue, now that she thought about it. She hadn't had a haircut in ages and it showed.

Before she could drive herself crazy, a voice that sounded like Rachel spoke in her ear, telling her that the bathroom was all hers. Grabbing her robe out of the closet, she opened the bathroom door and peeked in, sighing in relief when she found it clear of any and all Berrys.

She gratefully took off the robe, hanging it on a hook. The tub didn't seem to have a curtain, so she assumed it worked like the one in her pod room. Stepping over the side, she found the tub surrounded by the same kind of force field as her pod shower. "Water on," she said, hoping it would be the right temperature. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten it to the correct almost scalding but not quite temperature in the pod.

"Santana," Brittany shouted, as she was pulled into the bathroom by her girlfriend. "We don't have time for this."

"Says who?" she asked, quickly stripping and then helping Brittany out of her own bodysuit.

Brittany shrugged, then jumped into the tub, and turned the water on with a quick thought.

"How'd you do that?" Santana asked, joining her.

"I turned it on with my thoughts," Brittany said, puzzled. "How have you been doing it?"

"It reads minds?"

"Not exactly," Brittany told her. "It just picks up surface thoughts that you think at it. It can't get in your head. Why?"

"Because some things are private," Santana said, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and whispering in her ear.

"The AI doesn't care how often you think about sex," Brittany said, giggling. "It has other things it thinks are more important to worry about."

"Sex is important," Santana said in a husky voice, before licking Brittany's shoulder, her hands gently massaging her breasts. Brittany shuddered in delight. Knowing this was real, and not taking place in the learning pod, added to the intensity of the sensations Santana's fingers always caused when they touched her skin.

They played in the water, and became reacquainted with each other, until it turned freezing cold for several seconds and shut off.

"What was that!" Santana squeaked, as blasts of hot air dried them off.

"Time to get out," Brittany said, sighing. There was probably some important AI directed work or learning to do but she really hated her Santana time being interrupted.

"I'm not finished," Santana said, pouting before stepping out of the shower. "Think the bed is big enough?" she asked.

"It's the same size as the one in your learning pod," Brittany said, looking at it over Santana's shoulder as they left the bathroom.

"That was a bit cramped," Santana said, grimacing. "But it'll do until we can get a bigger one. Why don't we have a bigger one in our room?" she asked.

"Because we have our own rooms," Brittany said. She'd tried to explain that she needed a bigger room, and bed, for herself and Santana, but the AI hadn't gone for it. It had told her that if she wanted to share a room, then the other two would have to share a room, and she wasn't going to do that to Quinn. Or tell Santana. She'd want to do it just because it amused her. And that wouldn't go over well.

Brittany had learned years ago, during one of their rare sleep-overs, that Quinn was an extremely private person. She wasn't sure why. They'd all, well except Rachel, been taking showers together for years after Cheerios practice.

"We need to get dressed," Brittany said, skipping over to Santana's closet. "You'd look sexy in one of your pilot uniforms," she said, pulling one out. "The red goes great with your eyes."

"Do we hafta?" Santana grumbled, eyeing her bed longingly.

"We'll have plenty of time tonight," Brittany said. "They do let us sleep."

"Okay," Santana said. "Where's your room?"

"Right next to yours," Brittany said, "on the other side of the bathroom."

"So, if we share a bathroom, does that mean Quinn is stuck with the midget?" Santana asked, laughing.

"Be nice, San," Brittany said. "They're both our friends."

"Berry isn't a friend," Santana protested. "She's like one of those things that grabs on and won't let go."

"She's just been lonely," Brittany said, sighing. "She's nice once you get to know her, like Quinn."

"Q does get grumpy if we don't include her in things," Santana admitted. "But she complains about third-wheeling it. I don't know why she doesn't get just herself a boyfriend since what's his face dumped her after that Juno scare."

"He wasn't good for her," Brittany said, walking through the bathroom and into her own room. "All he wanted was sex. Which she doesn't like."

"I know, right! She's, like, the original Vestal virgin," Santana said, flopping down on Brittany's bed. "Where'd you get all of the pictures?" she asked pointing at the wall above Brittany's bed. It was covered with images.

"Part of my training," Brittany said. "I had to do a lot of sneaking around without being seen."

"And you didn't escape?" Santana said, pointing at pictures of Brittany's house, her parents, and several of Santana's parents, and brothers. There was even one of all of their parents together. At least she assumed it was, since she'd never met Berry's infamous 'two dads'.

"You were still here," Brittany said, sadly. "If I wanted to be with you, I couldn't."

"You have pictures of Glee!" Santana said. "I bet they fell apart without us. How long have we been gone?"

"Do you want the truth?" Brittany asked nervously. She'd told her so many different things.

"Yes!" Santana said. "You said we were in the learning pods for six months…"

"We've been gone five years," Brittany said, sniffling. "They think we're all dead." She didn't add that she'd actually been able to speak with her guardians, once they'd moved away from Lim after her disappearance, and explain what happened. That probably wouldn't go over well.

"Geez…" Santana said, pulling Brittany into a tight hug. "Seeing them and not being able to talk must have sucked."

"They named the choir room after Rachel," Brittany said, laughing.

"I bet she'd love that," Santana said. "What 'bout us?"

Reaching over, she tapped one of the images, expanding it. It was a plaque that said 'Fabray-Lopez-Pierce Athletic Scholarship' and had several rows of names.

"Shorty gets a whole room and we share a scholarship?"

Brittany shrugged. "They didn't name the room after her until Coach started the scholarship with the insurance money she got when we disappeared."

"So, the Schyster only did it to one up Coach?" Santana snorted. "That man is really something. How do you know all this?"

"I'm an awesome hacker now," Brittany said. "I found Coach's secret recordings that she uses to bribe people with."

"Can we listen to them?" Santana asked, grinning. "I bet they're a hoot! I wonder what she's got on the school board. They should have fired her years ago."

"Maybe later," Brittany said, as she finished adjusting her collar, on her awesome, if she said so herself, black spy uniform. "Let's go get Rachel and Quinn."

"No more sex?" Santana said, pouting as she followed her out of her room.

"Later," Brittany said, turning around and giving her a quick, thorough, toe curling kiss and a wink, before crossing the small alcove to Quinn's room. Pressing on Quinn's symbol, she said "Can we come in?" The door slid open and Brittany walked in, followed by Santana.

"Hey Q," Brittany said, to the other blonde sitting on her bed and reading something on her tablet. "We have a meeting."

"Formal uniform?" Quinn asked, eyeing the other two. She'd seen something similar to theirs in her closet earlier, in a dark blue, though she'd never worn it.

"Formal?" Brittany looked at herself and Santana. "No, this is the regular ship uniform. Kinda sexy, I think. They haven't given us the fancy ones. Yet."

"Okay," Quinn said, standing up and taking her uniform out of the closet. "What about Rachel?" she asked, standing in the bathroom doorway.

"Do Memories have regular uniforms?" Santana asked, frowning.

"I'm not sure," Brittany said.

"There weren't any Memories in any of my training simulations," Quinn said.

"Nor mine," Santana said. "I just recognized the symbol from an old story about the first space fleet."

"I'll get her," Brittany said. "Stay here," she said to Santana, pushing her down onto Quinn's bed. "And you go get dressed," she said, gesturing at Quinn. Quickly stepping out of Quinn's room, and ignoring Quinn's comment about her bossiness, she walked over to Rachel's door and pressed her door symbol, saying "Rachel? Can I come in?"

Rachel's door opened, and Brittany found herself engulfed in music. In the middle of her room, Rachel was dancing, singing along to the alien music, in a language Brittany didn't recognize. It wasn't the language she'd learned, though it seemed very familiar.

"Hey, Brittany, want to dance?" Rachel said.

"Always," Brittany said, smiling. She watched her for a moment to get an idea of the steps before joining in. Dancing with Rachel was always fun, though in a completely different way from dancing with Santana. With Santana it was about sex, and love, and togetherness. Rachel danced from her soul, like she sang. It was always so pure and innocent, even if it looked sexy to onlookers. Santana would still get jealous when she saw them dancing together.

"You need to dress up," Brittany said, during a brief pause in the dance. "We have a meeting to go to. That's a little too casual," she said waving at the almost transparent, rainbow colored shift Rachel was no wearing.

"I don't think I have anything like that," Rachel said, waving at Brittany's clothes.

"We can look," Brittany said, pulling her over to her closet and looking in it. "Huh. You have some pretty clothes, Rachel, but nothing like this. And Q and San said they've never seen a Memory in person."

"Which means?" Rachel asked, frowning, running her hand across the clothes in her closet.

"I think something simple? Some of these look very ceremonial or for fancy parties," she said. "I bet you would look sexy in this one," she murmured, pulling out something shiny.

"I don't think that's very meeting friendly," Rachel said, "unless the meeting was at a club." Brittany shook her head in disappointment.

"How about this one?" Rachel asked, pulling out a white, ankle length dress that seemed to shimmer, with rainbow trim and colorful buttons.

"That's good," Brittany said. "We can get you something more uniformish later if you want."

"I can get dressed by myself, if you want to go back to Santana," Rachel said.

"Awe," Brittany said, pouting. "Do I have to?"

"No, but I'm not putting on a show," Rachel said, blushing. "So, turn around." She wiggled her fingers, vaguely in a circle.

"Okay," Brittany said, turning around to face the door, only to discover that Santana and Quinn were outside peeking in. "Shh…" she whispered, holding a finger up to her lips.

"Looking hot there, Berry," Santana shouted into the room, causing Rachel to squeak and disappear into her bathroom.

"San, that wasn't very nice," Brittany said, glaring at her girlfriend and a blushing Quinn. "And Quinn, you should know better."

"She wants to be an actress," Santana said. "She can't be shy about changing in public."

"She's not us," Brittany said, shaking her hand at them. Turning around, she went up to the bathroom door and knocked. "Are you ready, Rachel?" she asked.

The door slid open, revealing Rachel in her new dress. "You look very nice, doesn't she guys?" Brittany said.

"Yup," Santana said, smirking.

"Yes," Quinn added, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "It's a pretty dress."

"Thank you, Quinn, Santana," she said.

"Great, now we can get to our meeting," Brittany said, ushering them into the hall.

"Brit? Who's this meeting with?" Santana asked.

"With a couple of the AI's," Brittany said.

"Why'd we get dressed up?" she asked.

"What's that saying," Brittany said, "about first impressions?"

"Okay," Santana said, "but haven't we already met them?"

"Our AI needs us to make a good impression on the others," Brittany said. "She didn't say why."

"So, don't talk, Berry," Santana said.

"We won't need to talk," Brittany said. "They've seen our training records."

"Is that a good thing?" Rachel asked.

"I hope so," Brittany said. "If they don't like us they'll cancel the project."

"And we can go home?" Rachel asked eagerly.

"No, they'll just ice us until they have another project for us," Brittany said.

"Ice us?" Rachel squeaked.

"Calm down. She means 'suspended animation'," Quinn said. "They do that a lot. It wouldn't hurt. They know how to do it without killing brain cells."

"Way to cheer her up, Q," Santana said, sighing. "Don't worry Berry. There's no way they won't want us for this project."

"You know what it is?" Rachel asked.

"Me? Not a clue. But Brit and I are hot stuff! Of course they'll want us," she said.

"I'm surprised you and that ego of yours can even fit through this hall," Quinn said sarcastically.

"It warps around it," Santana said, winking at Brittany.

"Something here is certainly warped," Quinn grumbled, causing Rachel to laugh.

"Guys, we can talk about this later," Brittany said. "They aren't just going to 'ice' us when we aren't looking. They aren't like that."

"They're aliens," Santana said. "They don't think like us. They could be evil and we would never know it."

"They were created by the people we've been learning about," Brittany said. "Were those people evil?"

"No," Rachel said firmly. "They had their problems, because they believed in free will, so they had their villains, but they are the good guys. Were the good guys?"

"Were and are," Brittany said. "There aren't any here, even on 'ice' but they're still out in the galaxy."

"Oh," Rachel said. "Is that why they need us? Because the real aliens are too busy?"

"I can't say," Brittany said. "I just know they aren't here, anywhere. They won't tell me anything until all four of us are ready."

"What about your new mad hacker skills," Santana said. "Couldn't you poke around and find out whats the what?"

"I tried," Brittany said. "But they taught me and know how to keep me out of their private things."

"Don't worry, Brit," Quinn said. "We'll impress them and get the job, and maybe then they'll let us go home."

"Yeah!" Santana said, though she didn't sound too sure of that.

Next: We find out what the aliens really want our ladies for.