Aayat looked at the roof with half-sleepy eyes, wondering if the day had dawned. Sucking in a sharp breath, she traced the bed to find her mobile phone to check the time. She was not ready to wake up yet. Her fingers swept over the sheet; the fabric felt peculiar. Her skin sent an alien sensation to her brain. She had never touched something like that before. Aayat snatched her hand in repulsion; it banged against the frame of the bed.

She bolted upright; her bed didn't have a frame. Sleep vanished from her charcoal black eyes in an instant. The sudden rush of blood to her head made her dizzy. She blinked repeatedly to adjust her eyes to the prevailing semi-darkness and peered around.

It was a strange room, a wide cavity-like space with no windows. She couldn't tell what time of the day it was. Countless devices sat around her. Some of them beeped and blinked, their monitors displaying indecipherable content. The absence of proper light made it look like she was in an ill-maintained hospital. Aayat focused her concentration on listening to the noises in her vicinity, but there were none – no distant chatter, no click-clack of shoes, no sound of any movement whatsoever.

The air around her felt strange – listless – as if she was suspended in a vacuum.

Panic rose in her throat; where exactly was she?

Shaking the fear that had engulfed her being, Aayat gathered her wits. She had to get out of there. With trembling legs, she got up from the bed and leaped towards the entrance, but weak as she was, she stumbled and fell on the floor. Somewhere an alarm blared loudly and someone ran in.

Strong hands picked her up and placed her on the bed again. "Don't try to move," a robotic voice boomed across the room.

Aayat raised her head. A tall girlish looking creature with a slightly crooked nose and long cylindrical limbs smiled back at her.

"Hello, I am Feedaa."

It has a name?

"Are you alright? You look weird." the creature inquired. The concern underlying its robotic voice confused Aayat further.

"So do you." She replied, looking at the creature with narrowed eyes.

"You find me weird?"

"What are you?" Aayat moved to the edge of the bed.

"Who, the correct word is who." The robot corrected Aayat in the manner of a grammar teacher teaching her pupil different parts of speech.

"Huh?"

"You should ask who are you and not what... And I already told you I am Feedaa." The creature placed its hands on its hips and tilted its head.

"Not your name, I am asking what are you – a robot? A humanoid? Or a new invention by some crazy scientist?"

Aayat eyed the bizarre creature with suspicion. It was tall - about six feet, with turquoise-colored eyes, skin that resembled that of humans, and no hair on its head. It smiled at her with what looked like genuine affection. The scientist who developed it definitely had a peculiar taste.

"What's a humanoid?"

"Where am I?"

"In my cousin's lab."

"Why?"

"Because we brought you here." The robotic creature shrugged its broad shoulders.

"How can you have a cousin?"

"Why can't I?" Its words sounded more like banter than a response to someone's question.

The urge to hit that strange thing swelled in Aayat's mind. "I need to leave." She yelled.

"No, you can't."

"Why?" Aayat widened her eyes. Was she being held hostage without her knowledge? This cannot be. She was no one important – just a regular research scholar who had shifted to Dehradun a few weeks back. She hadn't completed any worthwhile project yet, neither was her mentor working on a secret project that she knew of. She can't be the target of any organization. She was no rich man's daughter either.

Absentmindedly Aayat lifted her hand to scratch her head, when the creature shouted, "Don't. There are detectors attached to your scalp. You cannot scratch your head, or else they will fall off. As it is, we had a lot of trouble attaching them because of the outgrowth."

"Outgrowth?"

"Those black strands coming out of your head."

"Hair. Don't you know these are hair?" Aayat began running her long fingers through her hair frantically, trying to dislodge the detectors. They cannot experiment on her without consent. She was not a lab rat.

"Hold, hold. What are you trying to do? I told you not to run your fingers through the head or hair or whatever it is." The creature grabbed her hands in one swift motion and tugged them away.

Aayat struggled to reclaim her hands, but she was no match to the creature's strength. The dimly lit room turned darker before her eyes. Feedaa's voice ceased to reach her. Her mouth went dry as she forgot to inhale for the next few seconds. What was going on? Where was she? Who was this creature? Who did it belong to? And, why was she here?

Gradually the creature loosened its grip and brought a chair near Aayat's bed.

"Breathe… Breathe... Why are you so scared? I am not going to harm you." It said, trying to soothe her.

"I don't understand any of it. What's happening? Where am I? Why am I here? Who are you? What do you want from me?"

An annoyed expression passed the creature's eyes. "I am Feedaa. This is my cousin's lab. He and I were hiking in the woods when we saw you lying unconscious near the stream. We tried waking you up, but you wouldn't budge. There was no identification card on you, so we were left with no other choice but to bring you here. Leaving you to become animal fodder didn't feel kind."

"Where is here? I mean, which place?"

"Faejenda, you are in Faejenda."

"Is this not Dehradun? Did the stream carry me somewhere far away?" Aayat's forehead developed numerous furrows. "I should get back, I need to get back. Can you please help me get back?" She pleaded in a soft voice.

"Where do you live?"

"National Centre for Research in Artificial Intelligence Campus."

"National Centre for Research in Artificial Intelligence?" Feedaa repeated the words and narrowed its eyes. It then blinked repeatedly as if trying to remember something.

"You can, right? You can help me get there. Just call them and ask if any Aayat Athar works there. They will tell you all about me. Please, just help me out."

"Why don't you rest a bit first? As soon as you can walk, we will take you there." Feedaa replied and stood up. As it neared the entrance of that cavity, Aayat called from behind,

"Electrodes, please remove these electrodes from my scalp."

"They are not there to harm you. Trust me. We placed them to monitor your vitals. You were in pretty bad shape when we found you. So we gave you primary aid and brought you here for further treatment."

"Why didn't you take me to a hospital then?"

"Rest up. We will talk more when you feel better." Feedaa walked out of the room, leaving Aayat to ponder over her words.

The place turned eerily quiet.

Aayat sat on the bed motionless, racking her brain, trying to recall the events of the day. One minute she was walking by the stream, the other, she was lying in this alien place. She tried hard to remember what happened in between, but nothing came to her mind.

Her body felt tired, dragged down by the weight of too much thinking. She lay back on the pillow and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.