From some dark place deep underwater her consciousness fought its way up to the surface, and she remembered. She had accepted another lousy contract. But what to do if one had no money to purchase a new body and had yet another time died from stupid circumstances just to be taken and preserved by mind capture.

  She didn't want to remember the fire. Really not.

  Almost two centuries she had had to wait this time, till she had gotten an offer. A new body, if she was willing to do deep space mining work for ten years. Out there somewhere at the edge of the solar system where sun was nothing but a particularly bright dot among many. Thank the mercy of the mind control operators, she had not been awake all of the two hundred years, she'd have gone insane. But still, the world once again had moved on without her.

  She was laying on something cool, quite hard as well and she felt herself breathing, and her heart beating. Compared to the storm of pain and sensory confusion of her last awakening, this time the embodiment had gone much more smoothly. Apparently tech had advanced quite a bit. Or maybe it was just that the senses of this body matched her mind better.

  She opened her eyes and tried to get into a sitting position. She avoided to look at herself and instead took in the surrounding area. Left and right besides her, there were five more metal pedestals, probably like the one she had woken up upon. On two of them each a humanoid body was laying. Six places available, only three occupied, herself included. Either the company had only needed three more workers this time or they had not found willing minds to take the job and inhabit any of the offered bodies.

  Apparently she had been the first to wake up. But soon the others began to stir as well. She didn't want to see them get up, as little as she wanted to look at herself.

  After a brief look over plain metal walls and the light panels in the metal ceiling, she leaned forward and closed her eyes again. Blindly she got into a cross legged, sitting position. She still didn't want to look at herself, at least not yet.

  The only thing she could hear was the faint hum of electronics and a light hiss from the ventilation. The air had a metallic note to it and smelled dull. Probably recycled ten thousand times by the station's systems.

  Even without looking at them, her legs felt different, yet familiar, familiar in regard to much older memories. She had human legs again, no longer the digitgrade feet, which her former body had had. Maybe it was nice to be human again, but nevertheless she didn't want to open her eyes to see. She had been shown an image of this body while she had been in mind capture, she had even been allowed to style it within some limits, but despite all of this, she still didn't want to see the body she had woken up in this time.

  But there was no use to dwell in denial. With a breath of resolve she opened her eyes and looked at her legs. Lean, still muscular. With smooth, bronze colored skin which reminded her a bit of plastic. Hairless. Well, she welcomed this one fact. Her hands were the same, lean but not particularly delicate, made for working. Covered by the same plastic looking skin.

  Humanoid drones. All with the same, androgynous looking body, made to work efficiently, easy to clean and to maintain. All the same height and the same stature to make purchases of clothing and equipment simpler and cheaper due to numbers - one size fits all, and this time it was actually true.

  The only personalisation options had been to chose skin color, hair color, eye color and to some extend, facial features. Adjustments to mouth, eyes, chin and cheekbones. It had felt a bit like the character creation process in video games, just much more limited, because the only part she was allowed to design was her future face. Well, her face now. She had tried her best to give herself a female looking face, even if she had to accept an otherwise gender-neutral body.

  Someone coughed nearby and she looked up from her legs and hands. The drone to her right had sat up as well, and she immediately felt the sting. The same arms, the same legs, a paler skin than hers and a face with stronger cheekbones, darker eyes and they had chosen blonde hair which was a weird contrast to the dark brown eyes.

  "Good morning," she said but froze in surprise just after. This body had a properly working voice! Of course, how could she have expected otherwise. After so many years with a wrecked voice, she sounded like a human again. Almost against her will, she was sobbing and tears of relief began to run from her eyes. Quickly she tried to wipe them away with one hand. And not only she had a voice, she also could shed tears again.

  "Is everything alright?" she heard a voice from the right.

  She nodded, eyes still bleary as she turned towards the person. She cleared her throat, "Yes. Yes, it's just, I almost had forgotten how it is to have a proper voice."

  "Ah," the blonde person was sitting now as well, "and I thought I was a sad case."

  Now the third person spoke. They all had terribly similar voices, it was mostly their cadence which told them apart, "No one with hope for a proper life would accept this. We are those who could not even get a companion contract."

  She looked over the one who just had spoken. Another one with the same body, darker brown skin than hers, almost black hair and surprisingly green eyes. Maybe she should have chosen green eyes too? They looked cool now that she could see them, but she had preferred a light blue for her eyes and pale blonde hair.

  Before she could say something though a voice from a speaker sounded up, "Welcome drones. Clothing is supplied at the foot end of your cots. Get dressed and then line up in front of the airlock."

  She immediately missed the excellent hearing of her former body. It took her a while to spot the metal grid in the wall that hid the speaker, then her looks fell on a bundle of cloth at the food end of the pedestal she was still sitting upon.

  No time for chat. She sighed. Well she had signed up for work.

  She swung her legs from the pedestal upon which she had awoken and tried to stand up, just with the result to lose balance and fall the very same moment she put weight on her feet. She wanted to scream in frustration. Three weeks she had needed to master the digitgrade feet of her former body, three weeks she had been a cripple, and now that she had human legs again, she had forgotten how to use them.

  Someone came to help her up and she recognized the one with the blonde hair, "Are you alright?"

  She nodded and eventually managed to stand with the help of the fellow drone and her weight supported by her arms upon the pedestal, "Yes, just need a little time. Been a while that I had human legs."

  "You cried for having a voice and cannot stand on human legs? What have you been before?" they inquired.

  She gave a pained smile, "This is not the only shitty contract one can sign up for."

  "Probably been someones pet," that was the other person, "but not granting a voice is illegal I think."

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  She nodded, "I had a voice, just ruined in an accident."

  "Get dressed drones. Help each other as needed," the voice from the speaker reminded them.

  First she was confused not to find a bra among her clothes, but then realized she didn't need one anymore with this body, and got dressed. A workers overall in a neutral gray and the company logo on chest and back, a belt with utility pouches and hooks for tools, and a pair of rather solid boots.

  Even that she could see all colors again, she missed the brilliance of her former eyes and the hearing. Overall this body felt numb and clumsy, compared to her memories.

  "Do you two feel so numb too? Or is it just me?" She looked back and forth between them.

  The blonde one spoke up first, "Same here," and the dark haired one confirmed, "Yeah, I remember this differently too. Barely can feel the cloth on my skin."

  "Line up in front of the airlock, then leave one by one. Get ready to chose a name for yourselves if you want a new name in your new life. First names only, no family names."

  She was the second to enter the airlock, got sprayed with something that smelled like disinfection and vaporized swiftly from her and then the door into the station opened. A well lit corridor in front of her, metal likely but with a gray plastic coating to give it a more civilized look, about three meters wide and higher than she would be able to reach.

  To her shock a tall man with a strong build, an actual none-drone person was waiting outside, right besides the blonde haired drone, towering over them.

  "Come here," she was ordered and took a few quick steps.

  "How," she was was missing words.

  "Proper people get proper bodies. Use the time to think of a name for yourself," she was told.

  She huffed. A two class society again. Even out here where the company had claimed everyone was equal, working side by side. They had lied, because, of course they did. Hopefully this was the only part they had lied about.

  It didn't take long and the third drone emerged from the airlock, still with a faint smell of disinfectant on them.

  "Listen," the man in front of them spoke up, "I'm Operator Lopez. You'll address me as Operator Lopez. Or sir, if you you want to be brief. Understood?"

  "Yes, Operator Lopez," "Yes, Sir," a mixed chorus sounded up.

  "Alright, time for you to chose names. You first," Operator Lopez nodded at the one who had left the airlock first, the one with the dark hair.

  "James."

  Operator Lopez typed something on a data-pad, "God, why does everyone want to be called James? James Thirteen."

  He lifted a small device from his belt. The device whirred and produced a strip which Operator Lopez glued to the chest part of James' overall. "James Thirteen" it read.

  "Now you," she was addressed.

  "Vivian," she declared.

  He typed something on a data-pad, "Vivian Four, already got three registered."

  The device whirred again and produced a name strip just like the one James had received and it got glued to the chest part of her work overall as well, "Vivian Four"

  At least they got names and not only numbers like in some bad movies.

  "And you," Lopez nodded to the last of them.

  "Merle."

  "Merle Two," Operator Lopez declared after a short inquiry on the data-pad and Merle also received a name badge.

  "Hard enough to tell you folks apart, even with the numbers. Alright, follow me to the med-bay to see which of you are mind link capable," Operator Lopez ordered them.

  "Mind link?" She asked.

  "You'll see soon," she was informed as they followed Operator Lopez through clean and well lit corridors.

  James was the first to enter, but to her surprise she was called into the med-bay not even two minutes later.

  A woman in a white lab coat welcomed her, "Vivian Four?" and she nodded, "Yes."

  "Please follow me," she was instructed.

  She was led into a separate room from the med-bay. An examination chair with quite a lot of cables about it was set up in the center of the room and there was a desk with a number of displays in the back, most showing seemingly random lines, curves and patterns, "Take seat, Vivian."

  First she had thought Operator Lopez was a particularly tall man, but the woman in the lab coat also was quite a bit taller than her and the other drones. She got into the seat and asked, "Madam, I guess I forgot to ask before I signed up. How tall are our drone bodies?"

  "One meter and fifty-five," she was informed.

  "Why so short?" She felled compelled to ask.

  "You need less oxygen than the average human, less water, less food, take up less space and your clothing can be made using up fewer resources too. Resources are expensive this far out in the solar system," she was informed.

  She nodded a little, not quite happy about this, "I see."

  "The procedure won't hurt, but for safety reasons, I must restrain your arms and legs. Don't worry, it won't take long," the woman said.

  "Alright," she agreed a bit hesitantly and watched how the woman fixed her arms with rather wide tissue strips to the armrests of the chair, and then her legs likewise, "Is this really needed?"

  "Usually not, but some react very badly to a mind link connection. In your case we think though we have a very good match," the woman told her.

  "A match?" She felt confused.

  The woman parted her hair in some places to glue electrodes to her head, "Yep. Operator Andersen has almost your wavelength. Surprisingly close actually. Like naturally born to be linked up. So chances are that everything will be just fine."

  "My wavelength?" she asked.

  "Yep," was the only answer she got.

  Eventually the woman seemed pleased with the arrangement of the electrodes and took seat at the desk to turn on some of the devices and adjust settings on some more. She could only see parts of what the woman was doing from her position in the chair.

  "I'm going to activate the implant now, Vivian. Tell me what you are feeling, so I can make adjustments," the woman said.

  "I feel scared," she replied.

  The woman laughed, "That's not quite what I meant. Just relax. Try to think of something calm. A big lake, a sunny meadow or blue sky with clouds."

  She took a breath, "Blue sky sounds good."

  "Then close your eyes and imagine a nice blue sky with a few clouds. Watch how the clouds travel slowly," she was instructed.

  It wasn't too hard to think of blue sky with some fluffy clouds.

  "You are doing that very well, Vivian," she heard the woman say.

  Then her vision seemed to narrow, the blue sky area was shrinking and she frantically tried to see what was coming in there from the fringes, "Madam, what is happening?"

  "You must tell me, Vivian. It is your imagination."

  "The blue sky is shrinking. It's eaten by something!" She shouted.

  "Hang onto the blue sky. Don't lose it," she was instructed.

  Now she saw it, a violent maelstrom of darkness was approaching from the horizon all around and eating away her blue sky with swirling tentacles of pure night. She tried to focus on the shrinking blue with some tiny white specks in it which had been clouds in attempt to keep it safe from the darkness.

  "Hang on Vivian. Almost through. You can do it," she heard the woman while her blue sky became less and less.

  "Trying," she was breathing hard and clutched to the last bit of blue in her mind just to suddenly feel sucked like through a long and narrow tube, spat out at the other end just to have her blue sky again spanning from horizon to horizon.

  "Baseline established," she was informed while she tried to catch breath. What the fuck had just happened?

  "Synchronizing. Stick to the blue sky imagination, Vivian. Hold it up," the woman instructed her.

  "I have it," she confirmed.

  "Alright Vivian, don't get scared now. You'll hear a voice in your head."

  "What?" she was shouting and began to struggle against the restraints. What were they doing?

  "Stay calm, you've been doing so well so far," the woman told her.

  There was a presence in her head, thoughts which were not hers.

  "Tuning in," she heard the woman speaking.

  "Madam what is happening?" She felt like losing her mind.

  "I'm tuning the mind link. Can you understand Operator Andersen?" she was asked.

  The fuzzy foreign thoughts in her head cleared up and became a sensation, a greeting, a word and eventually two distinct words, "Hello Vivian."

  "Someone said 'hello' in my head!" she shouted and was fighting the restraints again, "What the hell are you doing?"

  "Finalizing the mind link," the woman told her.

  The foreign presence in her mind became even clearer and she felt some friendly emotions coming from it.

  "Hello?" she tried to think.

  "Hello Vivian. We two work together now," the presence in her mind formed thoughts for her to understand.

  The woman got up and began to remove the electrodes from her head, but the presence stayed, "You and Operator Andersen match exceptionally well. Rarely have seen a link this articulate before. You should even be able to share imaginations, not just words."

  She ignored the woman and thought back, "Work together?"

  "Of course. You have never worked in mining before but I can help. Whenever you face a problem you cannot solve by yourself, I'll be there. A new tool, a new machine, I can tell you how to use it, can tell you how things work," with the words came ideas and images, tools which she never had seen before and an understanding of them.

  The woman came to her chair, glued three star symbols onto the chest part of her overall, just above her name badge and eventually removed the restraints, which held had held her in the chair, "You can get up now, Vivian."