Prologue

I had a life before, you know. Before someone stuffed me in this pod to float out in nothingness for all of my life. How do I know? Because I can remember the grass under my feet, the summer sun (excuse me a summer sun) shining down on my head, the expansive and never-ending blue sky above me like the river that stretched out beyond. Yes, I know that there is something beyond these pristine white walls, this ship that caters to my every whim, this soul-killing sterility.

"Soul" is a funny word isn't it. I learned it a while ago, but how long ago was it now? Maybe a day? Week? Month? I couldn't be sure, the days bleed together. And while I'm on the topic, what a strange way to count days, 24 hours? Who came up with that? Yes, I know that you used to have a sun that kept you aware of the change in the time, but I do not have that luxury anymore.

And who is this "you" anyways? I guess I need a companion so I've created one out of myself. You are I, I am You. Maybe that holds some value, but how can I know up here alone?

But anyway back to "soul". I was taught the word the same way I was taught anything, by the large black monitor screen that stood impassively in the front of the ship at all times watching me. The lesson that day was Advanced English Vocabulary and the monitor had explained it thusly, "The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal".

Obviously, I had asked a follow-up question to this ambiguous definition,

"What is meant by that?"

"By what, Master Johnson?" the monitor replied in its polite, robotic dialect.

"By that word, 'soul'?"

"'The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal' I'm sorry if I was moving too quickly Master Johnson," the monitor tried to inject some remorse into its apology but it hit my ears as being inorganic. But then again what did I expect?

"No, what does it mean? I think I've seen the word in books or heard it before, and it seems like one of those big things I should know."

"I'm sorry Master Johnson, I was not uploaded with that information. Hopefully, I can be updated with this information soon."

I sighed and ceased my questioning. Whoever had set the monitor up had left out many important pieces of information like what I was doing on this ship or what a soul really was. All I knew is that I was traveling to some unknown location or more accurately away from my former planet. I didn't know the way, and more importantly, traveling in solitude on a small ship within this dark, endless universe, I didn't know myself.