False Evolution

Chapter 1

A dark and distorted figure stood in the horizon, its feet dipped into the three inch thick snow. Rachel knew who it was, it was her father, she recognized his shape anywhere.

  She began to feel the icy winds blasting at her skin; the temperature was so cold it made her body forget what warmth was.

  Rachel’s eyes wandered away from the figure of her father and onto a large ice mountain behind him. Its icy surface was smooth and caught the sunlight, large patches of snow spread over the mountain like a glove with holes in. A number of ice caves were scattered all throughout the mountain, with only one entrance into the icy structure.

  Rachel noticed that her father was turning around to face the ice mountain; he then slowly began to march towards the entrance. “Father,” she cried, her voice echoed throughout the snowy landscape but he did not hear. Rachel then began to run, she had to reach him, instinct told her that she had to get to her father. But it was no use; her body seemed to be moving in slow motion, she called out again but the words did not did not sound, her voice had been put on mute. She then saw her father standing in the entrance to the ice mountain, his body then slowly faded away into the shadows.

  The next thing she knew, she was standing in the entrance to the mountain, she couldn’t see her father inside. She began to tremble with fear, her heartbeat was roaring like a stick hitting the skin of a drum. “Father,” she whispered, but she knew that no one would answer. But she was wrong, something responded and a large stream of liquid came shooting out of the shadows and hit against her cold hard skin. The moment it hit her body, her skin turned a light blue, icicles hung down from her fingers, nose and hair, unfortunately the chemical was known as liquid nitrogen. Slowly her entire body began to crumble and smash like a vase knocked off a shelf. It was then that Rachel woke up screaming with sweat on her face.            

Rachel could not forget the dream, it was the same dream she’d had the past few days. But now it would finally be put to rest, she going to solve the mystery that had befell her father.

  Rachel was only 13 when the colony had been set up, her mother had only just died, her father told her that she’d gone away and wasn’t coming back. But she was old enough to know the truth, she screamed and roared at him, she managed to make him see that she wasn’t a child anymore, she was growing up. He then admitted that she had died of lung cancer, it hit her like a cricket bat slammed to her spine.

  The relationship between her and her father slowly distanced and so he came to a decision that they should move to the colony, to start over. But things could only get worse; he became fascinated with the history of the planet where the colony was settled. It was a well known fact that an illegal science research base had been set up, it was performing genetic engineering. He spent months trying to find it; he eventually found that it must be inside the ice mountain.

  She remembered the day clearly; her father said he was just going out for a walk. But she knew, she had known for months that he had a secret snowmobile hidden away. He was going to try and find a way into the ice mountain, and she never heard from him again.

  But she was not alone, her DX5 service droid had indulged her in intellectual conversations, when she was a child she spent months downloading a character into the machine, she considered it a friend. But most friends don’t come in a box with the words: some assembly required, written on the side of it.

  The DX5 service droid was not a very complicated machine; it did simple chores such as cleaning the windows, making dinner and repairing electronic circuitry. Its appearance was cute in the eyes of Rachel, it moved around on what resembled 20^th century tank wheels, on top of that was a large thin metal torso that held the powerhouse or the brain of the machine. From that were two equal arms made of a shiny non corrodible metal and finally was the head, it had no human similarities, just a large pipe of machinery where two light bulb eyes stood. Rachel began to get sick of its mechanical toned voice and so gave it the gentle comforting voice of a twenty year old man. Unfortunately she could not get rid of the irritating noise it made whenever it moved a limb. But something was missing, she wanted to make the droid her best friend, but something was distancing her from that position. She then knew what it was, the service droid needed a name, a name that would live with her for the rest of her life; Andrew.

The day was January 14^th, it was this day that her life would take a different route. She just stepped out of her home onto the snowy streets, the cold began to freeze itself against her cheeks, she lifted the hood on her thick fur coat over her head. She looked up at the solid ice roof, icicles hung down pointing towards the houses. Everyone called it the indoor city, and it was, all the buildings and homes were in a gigantic underground ice cavern. The surface was too unsuitable for a colony; the only way in and out onto the surface was by a large metal lift at the edge of the city.

   She slowly began to trek through the three inch high snow, back on earth the snow was different, the pollution gave it a grey tint, but in the colony it was pure white. As a child she enjoyed lying in the streets and making snow angels, even now she would go out and make a snowman with Andrew. At the age of sixteen she began to wonder what it was like on the surface, how deep was the snow. Her father had forbidden her to go out onto the surface, it was too cold, he said that frost bites would cover your body the second you went out. But that didn’t stop him going out, it didn’t stop him trying to get into the ice mountain, and he ended up dead. The only people who went out onto the surface were those who liked to watch the sunrise, most of the people in the colony hadn’t seen the sun for years, but soon Rachel would.

  As she walked down the snow covered roads, she made her way towards The Icy Bottle, a small bar that she often visited while Andrew mopped the floors and vacuumed the carpets. It was a small quiet building with its name in neon lighting, small glass tables with shiny polished surfaces were scattered throughout the room as the bar stretched across the left wall, in the right corner was a large muscular black man named Guthrie who played soothing jazz music on an old and dusty piano.

  Rachel quickly seated herself on a smooth plastic stool at the bar, as soon as she sat down, a DX12 service droid hovered towards her, it looked the same as Andrew with a few minor improvements such as stronger arms with flexible fingers to carry trays with drinks on. “Good morning mistress, what snack or beverage do you require,” asked the service droid in its robotic voice. “Just a lemonade please,” said Rachel in a weary and tired tone. “Affirmative,” the droid then hovered off behind the bar and began to fill up a clear and clean glass with two cubes of ice.

  Rachel decided that after a few drinks she would visit her neighbor; Drast, but was unaware of a male and female walking towards her from behind, a hard hand covered in a black leather glove rested on her shoulder. “I’ll pay for that,” said a deep dark voice.