Marlowe: STOP! DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T PLAN TO REVIEW! READERS WHO GIVE NO RESPONSE ARE WORTHLESS TO ME. That said, I'm just feeling out the water on this story. I’m especially fond of certain parts of it, and not so fond of others. If you like it and would like me to post some more, review and tell me so. I’m also looking for a Beta. This is just the prologue, and it is a bit different than the rest of the story, so at the bottom is an excerpt from the first chapter. Enjoy!

Prologue

“You there, Twitch?”

“Hm?” I glanced upwards, over the screen. “I’m sitting right here, Ro.”

“Just checking.” Ro wasn’t visible behind the monitors, but I heard him scrambling around. “Almost done now,” He sighed, standing up. “How’s it coming on your end?”

I tapped a few keys, just to make it seem like I was doing something important. “Just running through some tests,” I mumbled shyly.

“Okay.” Ro treaded across the cables. “Oops,” He muttered, tripping. “These things… they’re all so complicated.”

“It’s a Rez,” I reminded him. “Not just any old ship. This… This is my baby, Ro. Be careful.”

“I’m careful, hon.” Ro came around the computer desk to stare at the screen, wide-eyed. “You’re done,” he said, his voice accusatory. “You’re goddamn fast, Twitch.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t…”

“Want me to feel bad?”

I buried my face in the manual. “Let’s finish up.” Flipping through the pages, I scanned the information. “You’ve got everything plugged in?” I asked. “And we’re jacked to the PSL?”

“Jacked, double-jacked, and reverse-jacked,” Ro assured me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I think we’re ready to run ground-tests.”

“You think?” I looked up. Ro’s dark eyes rested on the screens. “I guess… It took longer than I thought.”

“It is a bit late,” Ro conceded, turning around and running his fingers over a passenger seat. “Shall we wait until tomorrow, then?”

I stood up and glanced out the windows. They were slightly blue-tinted, so the docks appeared wintry and dark, but even through the coloration, I could tell it was getting dark. “Yes,” I confirmed. “I’d rather run tests in the daylight than in the darkness. I’d be more able to make sure everything was running kitten.” I sat back down, swiveling in the pilot’s chair, then began to flick switches, turning the computers off. “If anything should go wrong with the engines, it could be disastrous.”

“Okay. Whatever you say, captain.” Ro hit the overhead switches. “Let’s just make sure we lock her up tight.”

I pushed the joysticks into the locked position and under the desk, then stood up. “I think that’s it,” I said. “But… should we leave her plugged into the PSL overnight? You don’t think she’ll get slashed, do you?”

“It’s a private dock,” Ro said, glancing at the door. “I don’t think it’ll hurt- besides, the manual said she’d need to charge for fifteen hours before her first flight-checks, so the more we can juice her up, the better, I think.” He opened the door and pulled it back to let me pass, then snapped the locks down, letting it fall back into place on the hooks.

We traipsed silently down the dock, Ro slipping his arm around my shoulder. I leaned on his chest, shutting my eyes and sighing. Turning around, I shot once backward glance at the ship. “She really is beautiful,” I said.

“And all yours.”

“With help from your parents,” I reminded him. “Thanks.”

“Sure thing.” He ruffled my short hair. “What do you plan to call her?”

I shrugged. “No decision yet,” I told him. “Figured I’d wait ‘till we’d had some sort of adventure with her.”

“Adventure…”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Mock me, would you?”

Ro grinned, brushing my bangs out of my face. “Who, me? I would never…”

We stopped at the gate. Ro let go of me momentarily and I pulled the triangular key from around my neck and slid it into the open slot on the lock. The mechanisms clanged as the grates opened, releasing us into the outside world.

Ro started for the street. “Come on, Twitch. Let’s get back. Your house will want to feed you, I suppose.”

He began to step into the street, turning to face me. Stupid, stupid! My mouth fell open. Lights fell on Ro’s face. He swiveled in horror, just in time to see the truck.

Excerpt of Chapter ONE:

Click.

“Machines don’t care. Don’t feel. Can’t see,” I muttered, toying with my braid.

“Machines help us,” He insisted. “We’re helpless on our own.”

“Machines kill.”

Click.

The lights shone in my face. “Erica Halfer. Age 18.”

“Yes?”

“Nothing. That’s who you are.”

“No.”

Click.

“No.”

“Erica.”

“I won’t.”

“If you want to function as a normal human being, you have to trust the machines. If we play our part correctly, we can live in harmony.” The doctor was playing with a pen between his hands.

“They rip everything apart,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. It was late. Too late.

Click.

The doctor’s coat was white. His hair was blond- like Ro - I thought. “We’re going to play a game.”

The air tasted like metal. No, that was my mouth. I licked my lips, frowning, as he put a needle to my arm, puncturing the skin and injecting me with a thin, clear liquid.

“What’s the game?”

“Truth or dare. But… we’re not going to do dare. Just truth.”

“So it’s not really a game, it’s an interrogation.”

Marlowe: So, do you like it? Reviews, please! IF YOU HAVE READ THIS, PLEASE REVIEW, even if it's just to say, "I'm not really interested," "This sucks," "You're a terrible writer, go crawl in a hole and die." Really. I just want to get some honest feedback