Earth, 2445

The thrumming resounded through the facility. Dust scattered from the floor of the pitch black corridors and halls. Long unused generators shuddered as energy flooded from them through the copper wires to revive the once dead bunker. For hundreds of years it dwelt beneath central Europe, isolated from the devastation that turned pastures, cities forests alike into barren expanses of waste. Now, once again it has been disturbed. The conscious occupants long dead and without them to maintain the base the Control mainframe slowly deactivate every system, eventually terminating the power and condemning the facility to silence.

Yet, within the darkness life continued. The returning power shot through, the lighting systems. Halogen roof lights lit, many sparking and dying from the wear of time. Yet more continued to sputter into life, holding a solid or flickering illumination against the cold concrete halls of Facility unnamed. Within one of these halls the halogen light revealed something more unusual. Dust covered cylinders lined the walls, more then a score of them. Beneath the coating a almost luminescent green fluid cloaked dark, fetal shapes. Next to several of these containers control panels flashed red neon, coating the shadows of the room in a blood glow. Errors brought about by time and maybe some other unknown damage worked through the system's programming. The emergency procedure activated.

Orion woke, that is to say consciousness entered his mind. He did not think, his neural pathways containing nothing but the basic life impulses. He breathed, the stale air drawn in through a mask adorning his nose and mouth. His heart beat, pumping his lifeblood around his veins and arteries. Signals from the computers system sparked a procedure. Electricity flowed through nodes attached to his head. Slight variations in current and voltage initiating synapses designed into the male's grey matter. Knowledge poured through him. A thought within his fresh mind commanded him to open what he now knew as eyes. His eyelids opened, letting dulled light sink into his cornea. Reflex caused his pupils to contract and in and instant he could see. However the only image available to him was green, the green of the liquid surrounding him. He moved his head, looking down at himself. He registered his hands, feet and body covered in some tight black suit. He felt the movement of the fluid against his skin and looked around, curious for the cause. The liquid was flowing down and so he turned his attention upwards. The refraction of light indicating the surface approached him. It drew down past his face, loosing his wet hair to drop against his body. The green fluid drained away, leaving Orion held in his position by mechanical clamps and medical sensors. A noise filled his ears, the sound of shifting metal on metal. The curved glass front of his prison drew away. At once the clamps released him, in surprise Orion's large body dropped to the ground, a weak flail caused hims to crash shoulder first. He struggled to raise himself, muscles unused to directives from his mind. With difficult he drew his neck up to look at this new world he had enter. The room was mostly bare, the floor expanse was empty. The walls on either side were lined with cylindrical dust covered shapes. He had no knowledge of this place, he recognised it as a large room but it had no purpose in his mind.

Conquering his muscles Orion heaved his torso upright, rubbing his sore shoulder. Taking a moment to gain his balance the bear of a man heaved himself to his feet. He shifted slightly, poising his centre of mass. Once he had grasped control of himself he turned to look upon the capsule that house him. However what drew his attention was the screen sitting next to it. He leaned closer and his eyes attempted to focus. It took a moment before the words hove in view. 'Subject: Orion" The first line read, the man spoke the words out loud finding the feel of them on his tongue. He repeated them, more sure this time. He liked the feel of 'Orion', it seemed to suit him. A name, he realised, it was his name. His thoughts turned to the other predominant words "Status: Error." He spoke these as well, taking in these meanings.
"I am a subject?" He quired himself "A text subject? Of what?" His audible musing were interrupted by the gurgling sound of moving fluid. He turned to see the source of the sound, one of the other containers in the room seemed to be draining. The dim green light visible through the obscuring dust descended down the surface of the glass. Curiosity and concern sent Orion towards the source. His gait was slow and unsure, trying to walk when he had never had any practice. It took him time to arrive, the fluid seemed to be all but but gone. A glance at the screen beside the tank indicated that contained within was Jade and whoever and whatever that was it was an 'Error' like himself. The sound of drain fluid began to sound from other parts of the room as other cylinders began to drain and others began to wake. Orion did not concern himself with the other sounds a prepared to catch whoever emerged from this chamber. He expected that they would fumble and fall like he did.

Meanwhile in another cylinder tank,a young woman awoke. Although still a bit drowsy she realized she had tubes stuck all over her and watched as the liquid she was surrounded in drain. 'Wha..What's going on?',she thought to herself, when suddenly loud noises pushed their way into her ear. She almost fell on her face,but luckily caught herself with her hands. She looked up squinting in the darkness and read,"Subject:Hope ". 'Subject: Hope? What did that mean,who's a subject of what?' As she thought about this more she wondered, 'Is that my name,Hope, who am I?' Then,she read "Status:Error." 'Error?',she thought,'What's wrong with me?' She took a good look at herself and realized she was wearing some sort of body suit. 'Well,it looks like I'm not missing an arm or anything',she thought as she wiggled her toes,realizing she wasn't missing any of them,either.

As she looked around she saw that the room was pretty much empty, except for some other tanks.She decided to stand by a flashing tank in case someone else was in there.

At first there was nothing, just the dark. It could have started 200 years ago, it could have been 3 minutes; nothing mattered in the dark.
Then a distant sound broke through, from afar.
She tried to ignore it, tried to slip back into blissful ignorance, but it kept coming closer. Then she realised that there was something awfully wrong, something was happening and there was no way she could stop it. She wouldn't even know where to start. Did she even know if she wanted to do something about it? Where was she anyway?
All these questions flashed through her mind in the same time it took her to realise she had a heartbeat. Another flash of time, and she knew that her heartbeat meant she was alive. Connections were made in an instant as knowledge drained into her brain at a much faster rate than the liquid surrounding her was draining out of the cylinder. She could feel it, the slight movement of the flow against her skin and the sudden change in temperature as, for the first time, she was surrounded by air.
A sudden fear overcame her as she realised something big was about to happen, a sensation mixed with something she recognised as... excitement. The clamps that had been holding her body in its position released her, and her eyes shot open in response. It took them only a few moments to adjust to the dim green and red light, but before she could do anything she felt herself falling, unable to hold herself up on her own.
The knowledge given to her told her what to expect: pain with a varying degree of intensity depending on the height of the fall and the angle at which she would hit the ground.
That pain never came as she suddenly felt two arms around her, but all she could compare them to were the clamps that had been supporting her only moments ago. This was completely different. She immediately shied away from the touch because she did not recognise it, and would have fallen if the cylinder hadn't been right behind her. From the corner of her eye, a flashing light caught her attention and she slowly turned. The fact that she was able to read and understand the words seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

"Subject: Jade
Status: Error".

Jade? No doubt it meant her. But what did it mean?

The fourth cylinder to open experienced a power malfunction, and the first thing it's occupant knew of anything was the painful impact of the floor as he collapsed from the drained capsule. His eyes flicked open as his mouth uttered a painful grunt, and a gasp as he took in air for the first time. Even the sparse light seemed blinding for a moment, and he lay there until the pain subsided.

Eventually, he clambered to his feet and looked around. Two other figures were silhouetted a short distance away. No...wait, three figures, he realised, as one person who was being held in the arms of another jumped back. He looked at the other figure, who was slightly nearer. As his eyes adjusted, he started to process it with knowledge acquired from an unknown source. He identified the being as female...human...physically fit and healthy. Indulging a curious impulse to find an overriding epithet for the woman, he followed here eyes to the marking on her capsule, and realised with her that her name was "Hope".

Using the information likewise, he turned and looked back at the module from which he himself had come, and saw that in a respective fashion his title was marked as "Eli".

Once again he turned back to the female.

"You are...Hope." he said, his voice somewhat gurgly as the last vestiges of the stasis fluid left his throat. "I am Eli. Who are...we?"

Hope looked at the man who called himself Eli,though he seemed very strong,he seemed just as confused and vulnerable as her. "I don't know",she said,"I was hoping you would,though". "I don't even know if I have a last name,or a family,or even a dog." "It's nice to meet you,but how did you know my name?" She suddenly had a thought,"Did you see it on the screen on my tank?" "Speaking of the tanks,why do they say 'Error"?

She looked around and saw something. She took a closer look and it was a person,no two people. She saw one was a young man, and the other a young woman. She hoped they knew what was going on. "Hello",she directed politely at the two.

Jade turned around and realised there were others who had been awakened. She felt a sudden rush of emotions, starting from mistrust, slight fear but also amazement, relief, and most of all curiosity.
"Hi" she replied, and though this was the first time she had ever spoken, she knew exactly what it was supposed to feel like. "I'm Jade. I'm not sure about what's going on here, either."
Suddenly, a strange thought struck her.
"Do you think there are more of us out there?" She didn't exactly know how to picture "out there", didn't know what it might look like. How much more was there than just the room they were standing in?
"I think we should take a look around."

Orion was slightly taken aback when Jade rejected his touch, scrambling back into the tank. He caught her look of uncertainty and backed away. Holding his hands out in front of him in a way he recognised as nonthreatening. He hoped the woman, as he classed the other, would see it in the same way. He quietly spoke to comfort her
"Hey. Its alright, are you okay?" Concern filtered through his voice, he hoped that again that the meaning would not be lost in translation. He had no way of knowing that she even spoke the same language was. He was about to introduce himself when other noises signaled voices from other parts of the room. He turned to see tow other cylinders open and the other members, a man and woman, acquainting themselves. The others approached and had initiated a conversation before Orion could speak more to the brunette. He responded to one of the new arrivals, the woman, with a simple 'hello' to mirror her own. Jade followed suit, although she continued speaking and posturing beyond simple introductions. Orion looked around at the unopened cylinders. They sunk into the wall, bleak and dust covered. Looking more like coffins then anything else, he had the feeling that there was not a thought going through the minds of the occupants. It was just a feeling, intuition. Worried about that feeling he decided it was time to speak,
"there may be." He announced
"But do any of you know what "us" is? We're all human, I can see that. I know that humans have to be born and grow to become as old as we are. I should have memories of my life. I don't. Do any of you?" He voiced the thought that he assumed would be going through their minds, they had emerged in the same way as he did.

"I don't know." Eli said, in answer to both Hope's question about the 'error' message, and Orion's statement about their memories. He shook his head. "Perhaps we...forgot. What is it. Anachro...amnesty.....amnesia? Is that a word? I feel so...confused?"

He stepped closer to the other two so they were all in a group together. It felt strange, being able to comprehend everything, put it all into words, and yet not really know what originated it all. Already he knew his own name, but that was about all he knew. He hadn't even seen what he himself looked like, so in a strange way he knew the other three better than he knew himself!

"What do we need to do?"

Hope thought hard,that was a good question. 'What do people really need to survive?'She wondered. People needed food and water,she knew that,but they also needed a place to...extricate that which has already been ate and drank. "I guess sooner rather than later,whatever we are,we will need to at least find a hole or something to well ...",she wondered how to say this,"...go,to relieve ourselves."
"Then we'll need to find food,make sure this place is safe,and look for more of us here." "After that, I don't know." She look at these people and realized they were her future,good thing they seem nice.

Jade sighed.
"Alright, I think it's enough with the talking." A new emotion had crept into her voice, a slight irritation and something she recognised as impatience. She hoped the others wouldn't take it the wrong way, but she felt as if she was wasting time standing around. All these issues could be discussed on the way. Jade took a deep breath that managed to calm her down a little, and tried not to seem too nervous about this. What would they find?
As she started walking, she turned to Orion to answer his question, also hoping it would motivate him and the others to follow her.
"I don't have any memories of my life, either. It's like I only know as much as I need to know, enough to be able to survive but nothing more. Everything else just... comes to me when I see something that might require that knowledge." Jade hesitated beforea asking the next question. "Does anyone else feel this way?"

For the first few minutes, nothing around them changed. It was just an endless labyrinth of cylindrical tanks, one next to the other, their contents in complete darkness. Then, unexpectedly, the small group came to a halt as they reached the end of the hall. Their way was blocked.

Jade caught Orion's attention. She was irritated and impatient. He just knew it without detecting the strain in her voice. However, as he looked at the others he felt the impression that they were no so enlightened. He puzzled this in his mind, if they did not experience what he took knew was part of him were they still the same as him? They looked as human as he did, how different could they be? He was drawn out of his thoughts when Jade started towards the exit to the room. He followed her, nodding appreciatively as she described a similar mental condition to himself. The other woman also seemed to exhibit this. The blond man, however, gave Orion pause. He struggled over his words and vocabulary more then the rest of them. While they all seemed at least slightly comfortable in thier state of awareness, he exclaimed his confusion at the situation.

Jade suddenly brought herself to a stop. The exit they had been targeting was well an truly closed. A heavy door fastened into the wall. "I agree, we do need to get out of here first." He said out loud, partly to himself and partly to answer the general questions of the others. He moved around Jade to peer closer at the portal. It was certainly solid, unmoving as he pushed he shoulder and weight against it. He searched around the edges, hoping to find some way through. He fingers brushed dust away from a access panel and he peered at it closer. There seemed to be a small screen and a 9 digit pad. Cautiously he pressed one of the buttons. A beep ensued from the device and Orion withheld from pressing another button for the small florescent display let and scrolled "ACTIVATION = FAI"

There was a moment of silence before the scrolling letters blanked, leaving a plain green screen. Orion thought of pressing another digit when the voice sounded. It was sweet and lilting, unable to be spoken by any human mouth. Its rough, oddly paced beat indicated a computer generated voice. "Greetings." The panel spoke, projecting its artificial voice so the others could hear and gather around. "I am F.A.I. Do you require assistance at this terminal? I was unaware of the presence of living biologicals in this faciltiy." Abruptly the voice ceased, as if awaiting an answer. Orion looked at the others questioningly, inviting them to offer their opinion whether he should respond to the strange turn of events. Whatever or whoever this FAI was, why didn't it know of their existence?

Hope was just as shocked as everyone else. Then she thought that maybe whoever F.A.I was,she/he/it could help them. Hope took a look at the huge screen,it was perhaps the most impressive thing she saw all day and that was saying something. Hope wondered if this being was as confused as the rest of them.She noticed the voice was more feminine than masculine. "Miss Fai",she said as though she was pronouncing the name "Fay","What is this place,all I know is that we all woke up in..in",how could she make sure F.A.I, or Fai knew what she was saying?

She gestured toward the tanks,"...Those things." she finally finished. Hope looked at the others,not knowing what she was looking for.Support? Help? Perhaps one old,yet enduring virtue,one they say can get someone through the worst of times,one stronger than fear. She didn't know much but she knew she would need this and lots of it,her name sake,hope.

Eli nodded at Hope's words, still somewhat bewildered at how he was able to comprehend not only the words themselves, but the concepts they denoted. He couldn't explain his own lucidity.

His thoughts were interrupted by the electronic voice of FAI. He joined the others in gathering around the panel. The voice represented a source of potential guidance, and perhaps even purpose. And yet the speaker was claiming to not have even been aware of the group's existence.

He decided to append Hope's questions with one of his own.

"What are we supposed to do?"

Orion looked at the others, deciding not to speak and wait until their questions were answered. There was a moment of pause, as if FAI was pondering the question. The voice reemerged, emotionless and uneven.
"This is Facility." The voice said, answering Hope's first question. There was no offer to name the facility which Orion felt as odd. Surely it needed a name to distinguish itself. Unless of course there was nothing to distinguish against. "You are present in the" there was a little blip "Mature subject storage chamber; restricted area." The machine dropped into silence and Orion looked to the others, as if he could find answers in their faces. They were all as unsure as he was. The voice clicked back on and FAI spoke again. This time in response to Eli "Your purpose is unknown, the plans of biologicals can not be comprehended by my programming. Please state your names so they can be referenced in my database."

This statement cause Orion to interrupt. "Wait." He exclaimed "You're a computer?" Without any sign of emotion he was answered. "Affirmative, I am FAI, Facility Artificial Intelligence." Orion puzzled his forehead, surely an AI would have known of them. He was thinking over the situation when the AI asked again "Please state your names." This time Orion did not intervene and gave his name, indicating for the others to do the same.

"FAI,I don't understand what is going on,but please help us." she said. "I am Hope",she then pointed towards the young,blond,blue-eyed man she recently met,"This is Eli." She pointed to Jade,"Finally,this is Jade." She looked at FAI,how could she make sure it understood,how much did it really know? Would FAI try to hurt them? She looked at the faces around the room,they all looked at least somewhat confused but very alive,she look at F.A.I,although faceless,it seemed cold and uncaring. It didn't seem to care about them,only it's job,whatever that may be. She knew she needed to trust FAI,she had no other option.She looked anxiously around the room and waited.

Eli sighed as FAI proved unenlightening. He turned to the others and tried to see if he could glean anything of what they were thinking.

"Eli." he said, giving his name dutifully. "Is there anything at all you can tell us?"