Chapter One

In the near future...

Daisy drums hers fingers on the stainless steel worktop. Above the pressure sealed doors a large projection of a digital clock is counting down.

00.00.000.00.05.07....00.00.000.00.05.06....

Only five more minutes.

Only five more minutes.

In five minutes the experiment would be over and she would be free. Back in the real world. With real people. And chocolate. And alcohol that came in a glass with ice and a slice not in a sterile swab... yes she wasn't above admitting to sucking the odd swab in a moment of desperate, lonely madness... perhaps she'd delete that bit from her soon-to-be a best-seller diary. But free, to feel real sunshine on her skin, not the weekly Sun-U-Like lamp session. To feel the rain...

'We have a lot of protocol to finish before you go.' The voice brings Daisy back to the present.

'That ironing pile for a start. And you haven't compacted the toilet waste today.'

'Not ironing, not compacting, not today!' Daisy can feel her whole mood lift at the thought of change from the routine for the last five years. Glorious freedom!

'Well, I think it's a shame if you leave the place looking like this. They spent good money making you comfortable and this is how you repay them?'

'I've been in here for five years, without any interaction from the outside world of any kind, they are not going to care if I've compacted the toilet! Who put you in charge anyway, you are here to help me. You go compact it!'

'You know I can't, I'm a computer program designed to provide you with a sounding board for your inner voice.'

'Nag me to death more like.' Daisy whispers under her breath, not taking her eyes off the digital countdown.

'I heard that.'

'Good.'

'I heard that too.'

Daisy sighs deeply, wondering for the millionth time why she ever signed up for the experiment and then she remembers. On the successful completion of five years in the isolation capsule laboratory, under conditions that would resemble living off-world, she would be free. Free in the credit no problem, rich and famous for life kind of way.

00.00.00.00.03.45...

'Are you really going to go out dressed like that?'

'What?'

'Well, I'm guessing the world's press will be gathered to see if you are still alive or not along with your family and friends and, obviously, the SpaceLife Science Team running this experiment and you are going to meet them all wearing that?'

Daisy glances down at the once-pink fleecy onesie she is wearing. 'What's wrong with it?'

'You have been wearing it for the last 127 days. That's what.'

'Well, as you've already pointed out, nothing else is ironed so it'll just have to do and, as well you know, since I am an orphan and have no relatives out there waiting for me, which is half the reason I was chosen for this in the first place...'

'It must smell terribly...'

'Argghh! You are the most infuriating programme in the history of invented computer personalities... I don't care if I smell or how I look, I just want to be out of here and AWAY FROM YOU!'

'Just saying...'

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12. Ideas of a perfect date

take me to glastonbury and i'm yours. surfing would be nice too :)