Chapter I

Maria sighed as she gazed out the window of her bedroom. She wondered what other girls' window views was like. Her view was an endless sea of stars with a very blue planet suspended in space. The planet was earth, and that's all she'd ever seen; this planet, and outer space. Maria's dark blue eyes glanced down to the earth below. There must be so many people there, living lives she was completely unfamiliar with. She felt so lonely on this spacecraft; that is of course, with the exception of her grandfather and his team of fellow scientists. Her grandfather; Professor Gerald Robotnik, had taken her to this spacecraft when she was only 8 months old; he had learned she had this disease called NIDS. Her mother had died from giving childbirth to her, so Maria's only close family was the Professor. However, he was always locked away in his lab; trying to find a cure for her disease by unlocking the secrets to an ultimate life form.

Maria bowed her head as she thought about her grandfather; her stringy, blonde hair falling about her shoulders. She wished that he would sometimes spend more time with her, it felt like months would pass between the times she saw him. Sighing, she walked over to her small bed, and sat down, tired. Colony A.R.K.; as the spacecraft was called, was large, so Maria would usually walk down its halls looking out the giant windows. Today though, she felt too tired. She wondered if it was her sickness, she never knew what her grandfather meant when he told her she had NIDS, he never did explain quite clearly. Then again, how could he if he hardly ever talked to her. The other scientists weren't much better themselves, they never to spoke a word to her either. Many a times she wished she had someone to share her feelings and thoughts with. When she was little, she would try to have conversation with the other scientists on the A.R.K.; but they would always shoo her away, telling her that their business was not her business.

She then heard a beeping sound beside her door. She knew this meant dinner was ready. A couple of the engineers had created a communication system for use in the spacecraft. One would only have to press one of the buttons on the panel beside the door, and they could signal to another person in the corresponding area. At this time, Maria could see it was the dinner call. However, Maria never ate with everyone else; she would always eat at the table alone. She used to eat with them, until, she believed, she caused too much of a disturbance. She would ask questions and make observations that were neither wanted nor appreciated. Thus, her meals were now spent alone.

She got up and made her way to the large dining area. Walking past the others in the halls who had just finished eating, she wasn't surprised when they didn't stop to glance at her or acknowledge her. She opened the door of the dining area to find her dinner sitting on the long, recently messed, silver table. Some kitchen servers were cleaning the table as she nimbly sat down. In front of her, hot chicken soup steamed from a white glass bowl. She ate this same dish almost every supper, as her grandfather did not want her to indulge in foods that might make her ill. She wished sometimes for the taste of something new, but stayed thankful that she could eat this at the least. Besides, her grandfather apparently must care some as to make sure she stayed well. She placed a napkin over her pale blue gown, not wanting to stain it. It was the only gown she owned, since there was no one to make her a new dress. If perhaps there was a shop, in which she could buy a new one, but the presence of a store would be out of place on a spacecraft. In fact, the ship consisted mostly of long halls and large, open rooms. Most rooms were used as labs, some were bedrooms, and some were holding places for the Professor's experiments.

Maria shuddered when thinking of her grandfather's experiments. He would try to make the ultimate life form by using different animals and creatures until he found the one that best suited…well, ultimate-ness. He would mercilessly experiment on animals making them mutated, genetically altered, and sometimes dead. Maria never could stand what her grandfather did to them. Worse, sometimes in a rare occasion he would believe he had made a breakthrough, and would call for her to show his success. Maria would then witness the most horrifying, disgusting creatures to ever live. Later, his sickening creations would malfunction and he would fly into despair. Maria sadly ate her soup, wishing that he would give up on trying to "cure" her, and just love her as his granddaughter. She hoped that maybe when she got older, since she was only twelve now, he would come to a conclusion in his research and experiments. Maybe then he would take the time to see her.

Maria sipped up the last of dinner, placed her bowl on the table, and left to go to her room. In wasn't late, but it had been insisted that she sleep early. Thus once in her room, she slipped into a white hospital gown, for that's what she wore to bed. Just before she went underneath her old comforter, she looked out the window at the blue planet and whispered:

"I'll visit you someday; I'll get to see what you look like. I'll meet all the wonderful people there and I won't be lonely anymore. I will… I promise." She placed her hand on the glass longingly, then she softly rested her head on her pillow and fell asleep.