GalaxyBillies

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Betty Sue lay on her back, eyes closed. She tried to move but couldn't. She willed her eyes to open but they wouldn’t work either. There was something very odd going on here. Judging from the low hum around her, the chill of the floor, the smell of metal and a hundred other little things her mind couldn't identify, she knew she wasn't in her cabin any more.

A curious three-note, chiming tone sounded and an echoing, mechanical voice spoke (It sounded exactly like a can-opener would, assuming one ever had something to say). "Scanning subjects for sentience quotient to begin in five tics."

Sentience quotient? Five tics? The words sounded both familiar and strange at the same time. And what was with the weird voice? Betty Sue strained to open her eyes. It was like trying to unscrew the lid from an old rusted jar full of pickles. She strained and thought she was almost there, but her eyes simply refused to open.

The echoing voice spoke again. "Sentience quotient scan in four tics."

Betty Sue tried to open her mouth to shout at the voice to shut up but it did not respond any better then her eyes did.

"Sentience quotient scan in three tics."

It wasn't that the words were actually doing her any harm. It was just that the voice was so damned annoying. It sounded so unnatural and yet so uppity at the same time. Betty Sue vowed if she ever met the guy who talked like that she would give him a swift kick in the chestnuts.

"Sentience quotient scan in two tics."

She continued to wrestle with her inert body, cursing it for being so unresponsive. Cursing the voice for being so irritating and mostly wondering just where the hell she was. Nothing changed: the floor remained cold and her body stayed stiff as a board.

"Sentience quotient scan commencing in five, four, three, two, one, begin..."

A hum began and a light so bright she could she it through her eyelids flashed into life. A feeling like someone scraping the innards out of a pumpkin assaulted her brain. It hurt so badly she couldn't think, couldn't breathe. She screamed. Four other voices joined hers.

The pain lasted only a moment but it was enough to pull her body out of its paralysis. She felt an arm flop across her chest and she opened her eyes.

Her eyes took a few moments to focus and she saw Zeke lying beside her. His head lay in what she supposed was a giant pool of drool. He looked even more slack-jawed than usual.

The room grabbed her attention next as her eyes focused even more. Every wall was pristine white like the snow that fell in the wintertime. She'd always wanted her shack to be that colour but she had never been able to manage it. Things in the mountains just never stayed quite that clean.

Besides white on the walls, there was nothing. No doors, no windows. Nothing.

"Sentience quotient scan complete," the annoying voice cut in. "Scan results indicate subjects possess minimal sentience requirements to allow ship to function with full faculties."

Her eyes drifted along the white expanse and she tried to make out what was ceiling, what was wall and what was floor. The stark whiteness made that impossible.

Lying in a sort of heap across the room were three other people, all naked. One was a young boy she had only seen once or twice. A girl she knew named Carol Anne lay straight beside him looking incredibly groggy. And the third? Her breath caught in her chest. The third was Jim Bob, that handsome man.

Oh Lord! What would happen when Zeke and Jim Bob finally met? Then she remembered. Zeke didn't know about Jim Bob. She meant to keep it that way.

Just then the annoying voice cut in on her reverie. "Hello Earthlings and welcome aboard the ship. It is an honor to have you here."