A young boy slowly awakens inside what appears to be a capsule full of a pink colored liquid. His long golden hair floats freely within the chambered structure; his sapphire eyes desperately trying to take in information as they open for the first time. He begins to feel the liquid around him turn colder and colder.

The intense shivering causes the muscles across his body to exercise themselves rapidly. As his eyes slowly adjust to the input, the dark room around him seemingly comes to life; lights begin to brighten sections of the black emptiness revealing even more inactive light sources.

He begins to struggle within his cage, pushing his arms and hands against the large windows that hold him prisoner. His breathing intensifies as he tries to force the pod open As he does, purple streams of lights slither down the front of the shell. When it disperses, the liquid contained within begins to drain; emptying slowly at first, but quickly grows faster and faster. The liquid drains past his head giving way to a rush of oxygen. His eyes widen greatly as he starts to choke. The fluid he once breathed for so long pours from his lungs and descends down the front of the capsule. A suctioning sound in his ears becomes unbearable as they try to adapt to the sudden change in volume.

The Capsule door at last opens causing him to fall onto the metal grated floor below. The impact forces him to cough strongly and send the last of the liquid from his lungs. He uncontrollably grabs his arms as they begin to shiver even greater than before. As his senses slowly take hold, he strains as he peers up in front of him at a single blue pulsing light. The light, an almost eerie ball illuminates a box structure protruding from a wall by wires and a metal jointed beam.

In an instant it came to life with countless lights of all colors erupt inside. Several thin fiber straps soar out from the inner shell of the capsule, wrap around him, and quickly pull him back in. The box then stretches toward the capsule and carefully maneuvers into place parallel to his head. His heart seems to stop in that moment and his newly found breath escapes his lips.

He begins to struggle in an attempt to free himself, but his efforts lay in vain. With a last forward push, the box encapsulates his skull. Within moments the lights within combine and disperse in quick successive flashes. Countless images and sounds are sent into his brain: how to speak, how to read and write, knowledge that makes sense of his new world. As it finishes, the device shuts off and pulls away revealing streams of blood draining from his eyes and ears. The shock of it all causes him to fall through the now loosened straps back onto the floor.

As he lay there on the cold and uncomfortable grates, a voice erupts from no-where. "Hello Ethan." The female voice says. He remains silent as he peers around looking for the source. "Ethan?" She asks steadily. He sits up still looking for the voice. "Ethan, it's alright. I am Isis." The voice adds. Ethan contemplates what he just heard. "What... What do you mean?" He asks. There was a brief pause between the two. "I am the artificial intelligence built into the ship you are aboard in transit to Haven, the chosen destination of your mother and your new home." She replies.

Ethan attempts to stand though his muscles are under great strain. Neither his arms nor his legs seem to have the strength to hold him up at this point. "Mother… Mother..." He mutters to himself. “Well, figuratively speaking. You are her clone, albeit modified to take life as a man." Ethan continues to shake, "Why is it so cold?" He asks. "I was conserving energy while you were in the capsule."

Perseverance pays off and he at last takes a stand, carefully walking over to a section of wall that holds two lockers within by grasping anything in range that looks as though it can hold him. One of these locker doors has the name ‘Ethan’ imprinted in a thin slab of metal. He reaches over and opens the frigid frost-covered door; there before him hangs a black single piece suit dotted with blue and silver reflective star designs which is woven in a kind of spider-silk.

"Clone?" Ethan asks aloud after a lost attempt to define it himself and struggling to pull the suit on.

Isis responds with a semi-happy tone, "A duplicate; a copy of the original. You and your sister are copies of your mother." Ethan slows the act of dressing. "Sister? What sister?" he asks as he looks around the dark room. A second blue light suddenly illuminates another capsule holding a young girl inside, floating in the same liquid substance he had just left.

"Chloe, your genetic twin. Unlike you she is an unaltered clone. A perfect replica."

He pulls on the last of his suit and carefully makes his way over to the capsule, leaving it unzipped. He stares at her- her smooth light skin, her beautiful waist length golden hair. He looks at his own skin, feels the hair in his hands as he grasps and embraces it. Ethan returns his attention to his sister. "Is she awake? Can I talk to her?" He asks intently.

"One moment." Isis replies. The pod begins to undergo the same procedure Ethan had; the strange lights emerge, the liquid drains from inside the pod, and, as the door opens, Chloe's inactive body falls out. Ethan- having been standing there caught her drenched body, barely. Chloe opens her eyes, though they quickly grow wide. She coughs heavily as the liquid pours from her mouth and she gasps for air. As her breathing steadies she looks up at Ethan with a lost expression. She slowly lifts her hand and gently touches Ethan's face.

Isis speaks again, "She must be encoded. Help her back into the capsule." Ethan quickly looks back and points to the device. Chloe's eyes follow the length of his arm to his finger tip and finally at the capsule. After a moment she returns her gaze to him and he struggles to lift her to her feet, although she strains more than he does. He holds her up as best he can while he walks her to it after which she patiently and carefully steps inside. The box comes more slowly this time. Ethan tries to assure her as she looks to him. The device activates and after the input, withdraws showing the same effect it had on Ethan.

Chloe falls forward into Ethan whose' muscles just aren’t prepared. He holds onto her as best he can and together they fall to the floor. Chloe opens her mouth trying to form her first words. "It's... Cold..." She speaks. Ethan is quick to respond. "I know. There's some... Clothes... For you in the covered hole... Uh, locker." He helps her up and she steps towards the wall containing the lockers, but her legs begin to give. "Why can't I walk?" Chloe asks distressingly. Ethan looks up in hopes of a response. "Your emergence from the capsule was not self-induced. Your body is still trying to catch up." Isis answers.

"Catch up? What do you mean?" Chloe asks as she looks up in the same direction as Ethan.

“We're clones, copies of another; our mother." Ethan responds. "Clones... Copies..." Chloe mutters. Isis's speech accelerates but somehow continues sounding calm, "Yes Chloe. True forms of the human species." Chloe opens the locker fielding her name. She peers at the suit before her, and then at the similar one now worn by Ethan, her own being a white counterpart to his own.

"It's warm. Well, warmer than this place at least." Ethan assures her. Chloe looks back at the suit, reaches in and gently pulls it out. "Isis... Where is everyone else?" Ethan asks as he helps his sister into the suit, her muscles struggling to cope with the sudden use. "There is no one else." Isis responds carefully. Both Ethan and Chloe look at each other. "What do you mean there's no one else?" Chloe queries.

Isis remains quiet for a few moments longer. "A new life is waiting for you, for all of us on Haven." Both Ethan and Chloe try to understand what has just been said. "Ethan, you are to Chloe's Adam as she is to your Eve." Isis continues. "Adam?" Ethan asks.

"Eve?" Chloe adds as she looks at Ethan. "A biblical reference; Adam and Eve were the first of man. The top of the tree of human generations now withered and dead. Your mother was of the last of that tree. You began another tree; one we hope would flourish just as the first had so long ago." Chloe finishes sliding on her suit and zips it up along the entire left side, effectively sealing it.

The suit retains warmth quite well; her generated body heat circulating through its interior feels relieving on her once cold, goose bump riddled skin. "The others, what happened to them?" she asks. Isis doesn’t respond. "Isis?" Chloe asks softly. Isis continues the silence a moment longer.

"I apologize young ones, I cannot tell you." Isis finally replies. Ethan suddenly has a chill climb his spine. He doesn’t know what it means but he feels uneasy and that was something he was slowly learning and beginning to understand.

Chloe clutches her stomach as it begins to gurgle. "Something is happening to me!" She yells out in panic. Isis giggles, "It is nothing to worry yourself about young Chloe, you are merely hungry. Your bodies require food for energy and, seeing as you were surviving off of the fluid in the capsules which served as your sustenance as well as your oxygen, you are ready for a different kind of food.

I shall start you on liquid based food high in carbohydrates, fats, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and accelerators to get you through the liquid phase faster than normal standards require. Come, I will show you the way to the galley. Follow the blinking lights. I have already begun food preparation." Isis finishes.

Ethan holds Chloe's hand as they begin their journey through the unknown. As they walk along the path, both Ethan and Chloe point at and talk about various things they witness. Chloe stops Ethan as she slides her hand gently across a section of a large spinning metallic orb levitated by the flow of water beneath it. A smile of amazement comes across her face. She then takes Ethan's hand and puts it under hers as she touches the orb again.

"Wow..." Ethan says softly. Isis began humming to herself. It didn't mean much to the two as they began to touch everything in sight. The darkest parts of the ship became light as day as they follow Isis' path to nourishment. After what would have been a ten minute walk turned into an hours journey, they finally reach the galley.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

An aroma floods their noses as they inch their way to the tan colored mash on the circular table at the center of the room. "What is that wonderful smell?!" Chloe asks wildly. "That would be oats and brown sugar. I figured the addition would make the food bearable." Isis replies though her attention seems elsewhere. Chloe was the first to sit at the circular tin table, her chair directly across from Ethan's.

Ethan sits and stares at the semi-solid mixture of... Something that lay before him. Chloe however digs her fingers into hers, feeling the warmth as she presses further into it and tries to pick it up. Instead of remaining in her hand it falls between her thin fingers. She tilts her head as she works her mind around the dilemma.

Ethan watches her in fascination. Her bright hair continually falling in front of her beautiful face, her once clean hand now covered in her meal. Chloe looks at her hand and rotates it in various directions, then rolls her fingers. The answer hits her like the shock of the encoder and her face undoubtedly shows it. She closes her fingers forming a scoop with her hand.

Once again she digs into the mash but this time it remains as she lifts it from the plate. Her mouth opens wide with a smile as she feels this new sense of accomplishment. She takes a small nibble from it. In an instant her taste buds experience a flood of flavors, in particular the brown sugar which nearly causes her to collapse in ecstasy.

She reaches her hand into Ethan's face. He looks at it and then at her. "Eat? ... Eat! Eat it!" Chloe joyfully says as the correct words come to her mind. Ethan bends over and takes a bite from the mash in her hand. A sensation he never felt nor could explain with words over took him. They both dig in trying to eat more and more, continuing the flood of flavors.

"Careful little ones." Isis speaks. "If you eat too much too fast your stomachs will become upset, and my entries on food consumption say it is not a comfortable feeling." She finishes. They don’t listen however. They eat more and more, and soon even begin to playfully toss bits at each other. Chloe even goes so far as smearing some onto Ethan's face.

They laugh out so hard, their lungs working vigorously to keep going. After around a half hour of playful eating Isis' prediction comes true. They both place their hands over their stomachs as the pains set in. "Isis... I hurt." Chloe painfully says. "I hurt too." Ethan adds. "Oh dear. Maybe next time you will listen to me, hm?" Isis replies.

Both Ethan and Chloe reply simultaneously "yes" though it was said with discontent in their single word. A transparent tube lowers from the ceiling at the center of the table and opens a hatch on each side containing three peppermint leaves each. "Chew on these. Soon enough you will be feeling well again." Isis tells them.

Both reach in and carefully pull out the leaves, running their fingers and thumbs across the surfaces. Once again joy came to their faces as they did this over and over. "Oh, are your stomachs all better then?" Isis chuckles. Ethan and Chloe look at each other, once again aware of the pain they were experiencing.

They both bite small pieces from the leaves and gently chew on them. The taste of the leaves was far different from the mash they just engulfed. Ethan stands up and is undoubtedly covered in the mash. Chloe looks down at her own suit; it too was covered. "Isis? What do we do? It's all over us." Ethan asks.

A blue set of lights lit up along the floor leading out of the galley. "You will need to clean yourselves. Follow the lights to the bath." Isis conveys. Ethan reaches out his mash encrusted hand to Chloe. She looks down at both of hers and saw that they too were covered in crusting mash. She takes his hand and they follow the lights. Further and further into the ship they walk. Chloe slides her hand along the wall and notices the mash sticks to it.

Quickly she withdraws her hand and looks at the now dirty smear she had created so carelessly. They follow the lights into a large room. Two toilets sit in place near the door, and across from them along the adjacent wall rest a rather large sink and mirror. At the far end of the room is a large circular bathtub in the floor filled with steaming water.

Ethan inspects the toilets as Chloe goes for the sinks. "What are these Isis?" Ethan asks curiously. "Those Ethan are toilets. They are used when you need to release the buildup of waste from food and drink. For now your suits are doing the work of that particular device until you gain control." Isis replies. "It does?" Ethan asks, looking down at his suit.

"Yes, inside the fibers, the things which make up the suit are millions of tiny robots called nanites, and they break down the waste produce until it has almost nothing." Isis explains. Chloe waves her hand over the sink indecisively at where she wants to start. Water automatically begins to pour from the faucet causing Chloe to nearly trip over herself as she pulls away.

"It's alright Chloe; it's supposed to do that. It won't hurt you." Isis assures her. She reaches back to the sink and dabbed her finger into it. "Oh." Chloe says calmly. They both walk to the edge of the pool of warm steaming water. "Take off your suits and place them into the bin next to you and step in the water." Isis instructs.

Chloe begins to unzip her suit but it stops midway down. "Ethan, can you help me? I can't get it to move." Chloe asks, trying desperately to keep unzipping. Ethan takes the zipper in his fingers and tries pulling down, though it still won’t budge. Ethan tilts his head to the left. He pulls the zipper back up, and then back down. This time it keeps going all the way down to the bottom. Chloe considers what he just did. "Thank you." She says to him.

Ethan just smiles as he unzips his own suit. After placing them in the bin, they hold each other’s hands and step into the warm water. A sudden relaxation comes over them and they step further in. The water is only four feet deep, but is more than enough to excite both of them. They splash the water, sending it in all directions. Isis makes a small plastic tube rise from a section of the floor outside the tub; within it: liquid soap.

Ethan and Chloe stare at it. "Young ones, inside this canister is what is called soap. As you rub it against your skin it will cleans you." Isis speaks. Ethan moves to touch it. As he inches closer a smaller tube creeps out from the top of the larger one, and begins releasing its contents at a slow pace.

Chloe moves closer as Ethan scoops some in his hand. "Isis, what color is the soap?" Ethan asks. "The color would best be described as gold young Ethan." Isis replies. "Gold." Ethan thinks to himself. Chloe takes her hand and swabs a bit of soap from Ethan's hand. She rubs it along her fingertips. Its soft, slippery feeling on her skin makes her giggle a little. She begins to lather it against the skin of her arm, moving slowly at first. Ethan watches and soon follows her lead. Just as during the meal, they begin to play. They tease each other with the soap in their hands often playing a sort of game of tag.

"Children" Isis speaks again. Ethan and Chloe cease their playful activity. "Yes Isis?" Chloe asks in response. At an illuminated pedestal next to the bath, a small projected hologram of a glowing woman appears. She has rich mocha skin with sunrise golden eyes and ear length blood red hair held in a bun by two chopsticks. Her lips field a red-orange lipstick hue. A loose golden ring around her neck bears the weight of her silver silk dress which is held in place by the ring alone.

A single strip of fabric which clasps the ring drapes down her left collar bone and then joins the rest of the dress that wraps around her body. The bottom left half is cut short just past her hip while the right half flows down to the floor with fabric to spare. "Isis what is that?!" Chloe screams out as she dives behind Ethan.

"My dear child, it is me." Isis replies softly. "This is the avatar- the appearance your mother gave to me." Isis finishes. Chloe stands up and the water streams down her skin back into the bath. "Are you real? Can I touch you?" Chloe asks, moving closer. "I'm afraid not sweety. This form is nothing more than bent lights. Your hand will pass right through me." Isis affirms. Chloe reaches out her hand and in a quick motion pokes at her and then pulls back. Just as Isis had said, Chloe's finger passes harmlessly through her.

"Come young ones. It is time to dry off and leave for bed. You need your rest." She says pointing to a pile of neatly folded towels near the door. Chloe looks back at Ethan. In nearly a synchronous voice they both say "But I don't want to." Isis smiles and shakes her head. Her programming as a caregiver was nearly perfect for an artificial intelligence, but what she was experiencing with the two was more than that. She was effectively becoming the mother figure and this was definitely not in her program.

"Please Isis just a little longer." Ethan innocently requests. "Please!" Chloe adds. "I'm sorry dears but it is time for bed. You will take another bath tomorrow but for now you need to rest." Isis replies confidently. Sadness falls over their faces as they sulkily walk out of the water and grab the warm dry towels. "That's it, young ones. Rub them all over your skin to dry off. Make sure you dry your hair well, I don't want you to get sick." They both have a hard time drying their hair with them being so long. "Sick?" Chloe asks, fiddling with a group of strands of her hair.

"Viruses; living things so small you can't see them with your naked eyes, but can do so much damage to you." Isis replies. Both Ethan and Chloe suddenly begin drying faster. They were afraid of this 'virus' and what it might do. "Your extra suits are in your room. It is down the hall." Isis informs them. Ethan starts down the path of the lights. "Isis, do we have to wear the suits?" Chloe asks timidly. Isis' right eyebrow rises. "Why don't you want to wear them?" Isis asks in turn.

Chloe looks down at her bare skin, "I feel lighter... and free. I really like it." She replies. Isis folds her arms. "Chloe, those suits keep you warm. If I let you live on the ship naked I will have to turn up the ship's core temperature to make up for it. That will quickly drain our reserve power. Maybe I can let you when we are closer to Haven, but for now I must have you wear them. I'm sorry." Isis tells her.

Chloe lowers her head and throws the towel on the floor as she leaves the bathroom. Isis looks at the towel and shakes her head. "What am I going to do with you?" she asks quietly. Her hologram dissolved as the lights in the bathroom switched off. In the darkness, a small orange light near the floor turns on. On another pedestal in their room Isis emerges. Ethan is already dressed and laying on one of the foam mattresses. Chloe is just slipping into her own suit.

"When I turn the lights off I want both of you to go to sleep, you hear?" Isis says firmly but patiently. "Yes Isis." Ethan says as he turns towards the wall. Chloe remains quiet. Her smile is replaced with a frown. "Chloe? Is everything alright honey?" Isis asks, looking over to her.

"I just want to stay up and keep exploring." Chloe replies. Isis smiles. "Oh sweetie, there's always tomorrow. Now go on, into bed." Isis softly adds. Chloe climbs into her bed and pulls the warm blanket over her. Isis raises her hand up in front of her chest and then slowly lowers it causing the lights to dim slowly until they are gone altogether; and then, she vanishes.

AI ISIS> The young ones are a handful. Thank goodness I got them to bed.

SS CHEVRON> You should not become so attached. Once we reach Haven everything will change. We won't be needed.

AI ISIS> I know that. But my job is to care for and protect them until such time.

SS CHEVRON> That doesn't require you to become emotional for them. You're a Custodian-class AI. You will last far longer than they will and how do you think that will make you feel when they are dead and gone?

AI ISIS> Let me deal with them. Just get us to Haven safely will you.

SS CHEVRON> Touchy.