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Voyager: Chapter 11

I stood behind the gurney, butt naked and facing the doctor who had just walked into the room with a smile on his face. He watched me for a moment and then began to write down something on his clipboard. I didn't move from my position, trying to figure out what I should do.

He didn't look strong. Medium build, average height for a human on Earth, about 6 feet, I would be able to take him on easily. Though, his build may not be a determining factor at all in his strength, maybe he had back up or there was a security system. He wouldn't come in here alone unless he had a way to confidently control me. I wouldn't go into a room where there was potential danger unless I was confident in my ability to keep everything under control.

I looked around without moving my head to look for anything I could use as a weapon. The gurney was too big and when I moved myself behind it, the wheels didn't move. Like everything else worth noting, it was held down and wouldn't move. There was the pillow on the gurney though.

Using my hand to slowly nudge it while the doctor was still busy with his notes, I could tell that I would be able to pick it up. The cover of it felt like plastic, synthesized most likely. I didn't see or could even imagine collectors going into buildings to raid people's bedrooms of pillows.

The doctor was still writing. Good. I grabbed the pillow, deciding to commit. How was ii going to escape afterwards, I didn't know, but this was step one for now.

With a heave, I threw the pillow as fast and hard as I could, hoping to daze him long enough for me to hit him.

It soared through the air, slicing through the wind and... it went right through the doctor. Simply passed through him without any sign that contact was made and smacked into the wall behind him with a slap. The doctor froze and did nothing. He seemed to have just stopped all movement with his gaze down at the clip board and his hand holding the pen in mid stroke.

Cautiously, I walked over to the doctor until I was directly in front of him. I put out my paw and it went straight through his face. There was no distortion of any kind, it looked like my paw simply vanished into his head.

We had holograms, but nothing this perfect. Ours would always have a sort of shimmer or imperfection that would make it apparent that it wasn't real.

A sudden feeling of smallness crept over me. The presence that I had felt when I heard the two voices was back.

"Two hundred and twelve second." This voice was different than the other ones. It sounded like whatever was talking was trying to speak through a fan, giving it a whirring effect.

"It took the subject a shorter time before deciding to react. Running secondary diagnostics." This one was just deep and throaty.

Again, I tried to find the source of the voices, but couldn't find it. I heard them so clearly as if they were in front of me.

"Unlike the others, this one shows little interest in their nudity." The whirring voice spoke up.

"So what?" I yelled at the ceiling, feeling a bit red now that I was suddenly self-conscious and under scrutiny.

"It has become agitated and aware. Redacting statement from logs."

Although it didn't address me directly, I felt a bit of accomplishments since I got it to react to me. Whatever they were, they were listening to me, but it also seemed as if they were studying me as well.

"Secondary diagnostics complete." The throaty voice was back. "Subject shows higher thinking and is less prone to random violence. All actions were carried out with reason. Do not suggest termination at this stage."

"Acknowledged. Beginning pacification protocols."

"What?" I tried to say, but the walls seemed to start to leak. A green fluid began to seep out of every surface. I lifted my feet and tried to shake it off. The whole room was covered in it now and was evaporating into a green gas that burned my eyes and began to make me drowsy.

I held my breath and ran to the door and tried to open it by trying to find some sort of leverage to get it to open. There was nothing I could grab onto and I was running out of air.

After roughly thirty seconds, or was it just a few seconds, I couldn't really tell, my reflexes forced me to take in a breath. By now, the entire room was filled with the gas and liquid which was up to my ankles. The gas was so thick that I couldn't see my own hands between each teary blink.

I collapsed into the fluid onto my back. I fell at the feet of the fake doctor. The last thing I saw was his blue colored smocks.

"Wake up." The whisper stirred me and jogged my memory. I had heard this one before.

I came to back in the donut shaped room, inside my little container with the tubes hooked back up. There was just the slight presence of something around me, not foreboding and dark like all of the others, this one was more relaxed and was almost comforting. Almost. I was still some sort of prisoner that had apparently passed some sort of test or something. They were going to keep me around, which didn't make me all that excited.

"Good you are awake." A small spherical object which I failed to notice before floated from across the room. It was shiny like chrome and I couldn't see any ports or lights coming from its half meter body. The voice was definitely coming from it though, a normal sounding voice of an average guy.

I was at a loss of words> How was I supposed to respond to such a thing?

It hovered patiently for me, slowly going up a few inches and then back down. I could see my reflection clearly on its untarnished surface. I didn't feel dirty, but my fur was now dyed a shade of green from landing in the green liquid that had knocked me out. I could also see a mess of wires sprouting form the back of my head.

"You fail to respond." It chirped at me, getting me to refocus my attention on it instead of my poor state. "Why is that?"

I remained silent.

"Will I have to elicit a response from you?" It asked almost cheerfully and a small latch appeared on its side and opened up. A device on the end of metal rod slowly extended out. It looked like a prod with two little spikes that forked out.

"Don't stick me with that." I suddenly found myself shouting, overcome with a strange feeling. The feeling of fear. I was tensing up and straining against my restraints. I wouldn't be able to break free, but my mind which was running through various scenarios, each one worse than the last.

The sphere didn't make any move towards me which helped a bit, but it wasn't moving away either. I tried to think of what it wanted. It had asked me a question.

"I'm afraid." I admitted to the sphere that had managed to crack me like an egg in a few short moments. Anderson would not like to hear about this one.

"As I hypothesized." The prod slowly went back into its body and the latch closed, vanishing from sight. "Your kind is filled with fear. All six thousand two hundred and thirteen previous subjects responded in similar matters after limited physical encouragement." It seemed to be bragging almost. There were rises and falls in its tone as it spoke, creating the illusion of emotion. I say illusion because, I was getting the idea that this wasn't alive.

"What are you?" I asked it, hoping that it would continue to be more conversational that any of the others that I had somewhat encountered.

"Ahh." It exclaimed excitedly. "Thirty-seven percent asked that question second. I am Life."

"Life?"

"Yes."

There was a silence that followed. I was expecting more than some vague answer.

It seemed to pick up on my expectations. "I am what multiple subjects call an artificial intelligence. Life is my name, it represents my..." It stopped and a slight whirring noise began to come from it. "Accessing data... it represents my profession. I study life and its meaning."

"How does turning those that you catch onto monsters do that?" I asked accusingly and even growled a bit.

If I intimidated it, it didn't show it, how would it? "The processed subjects fall under the domain of Genetics and Labor." It said as if I was supposed to know that that meant. I merely shuddered at the word processed, it had a dark ring to it.

"What are you going to do with me?"

"I am studying you. Behavior, reaction, emotion, everything." It quickly listed. "The meaning of life eludes me."

"It's 42." I joked, but my humor seemed to just wash over it.

"Analyzing response. Eighty seven others offered this answer as well." The whirring from inside of it came back. "Unable to find significance. Must run additional tests and analysis." It suddenly flew off. The hatch didn't open fast enough and it ducked off to the side as soon as it was able to open enough for the sphere to squeeze through.

"Maybe I broke it." I laughed. Humor, it always gave me a bit of hope and I needed as much as I could. Sadly, the feeling didn't last long now that I was alone and unable to do anything. Talking had taken my mind off of the seriousness of the whole situation temporarily and now it was coming back.

Life had said that there were over six thousand others had come before me. It didn't specify if that was just on this ship or anything, but I didn't see anyone else. Were they "processed?" I just needed to do what I could to make sure that I didn't end up mashed into some green... I looked down and saw my green fur.

"Shit." Maybe I was jumping to conclusions, whatever they had done to me when I was out didn't seem to be having any effects on me. I wasn't experiencing any kinds of mutations and Life did say that stuff wasn't under his... I tried to remember the word... domain. Then again there were the two that were watching me back at the fake hospital room. They could have been Genetics and Labor, if Life was referring to other AIs when it said that.

AIs need to be created right? Then they had to have some kind of controllers somewhere running all of this. I just needed to play along and stay alive while hoping that my fate hadn't been sealed already. Even machines made mistakes since nothing was perfect. If I could stay alive, then perhaps I could get something useful out of this.

I began to plan out how I would do all of this. Life seemed eager to answer questions whatever insane reason. Perhaps it would just spill the beans and tell me everything. My answer to its question about the meaning of life made it leave in such a way that I got the feeling it would be back.

I didn't have to wait long. The hatch slid by and in came the sphere, bobbing along like an overly energetic child.

"You used humor." It wasn't a question. "I have located multiple references to the number forty-two in your history. It is fiction."

"Yeah." I admitted.

"Storing data." It whirred. "This intrigues me. Is humor common on this planet?"

"Wouldn't you have gotten the answer to that from the previous six thousand?"

"Six thousand two hundred and thirteen." It corrected. "All other subjects expired before reaching this point."

I gulped at that and answered it question now that I knew that I was actually extremely lucky to be alive now. "Humor is common on Earth."

"Fascinating." It beeped "Tell me more."