Summary: Alex is a 17 year old girl who happens to have a helluva lot of luck and who manages to create a world-travelling machine.

Only thing is, when she tries it, thinking she'll be sent into The Chronicles of Riddick (her favourite film), she finds herself...in Pitch Black!

Enjoy! :P

Bla bla : Voice of Reason

Bla bla : Voice of Arrogance

Alex and the voices in her head

Chapter 1

“Alex! Time to eat! Get down here!”

Alex O’Connel’s tongue stuck out from the corner of her mouth as she adjusted the last screw on the machine she’d been working on for six months.

Living with her father wasn’t hard as many people would think. On the contrary, for Alex it was fun. Sure, he worked all day but when he came back around 6 in the evening, he would teach her new defense moves. You guessed it, Alex’s father was a cop.

His wife died giving birth to his only daughter 17 years ago and he found that nothing meant more to him than Alex.

These days however, he had been somewhat irritated and grumpy.

‘I think he should get laid…’ The voice of arrogance whispered at the back of her mind.

‘Don’t say such things. He’s your dad, he probably has a logical explanation. You know his cases sometimes render him grumpy…’ The voice of reason cut in.

Alex sighted, looked longingly at her now finished Universe Travel Machine, or UTM as she called it and then skipped down the stairs.

“How come you aren’t outside today? Playing with your friends or something. I don’t like seeing you in that room of yours all day.” Her father scolded, dishing the pasta onto her plate.

Alex didn’t have the heart to admit to him that the only reason she didn’t have friends was because she caused so much trouble at school and no kid had the guts to approach her.

Alex did things kids would only whisper about in the dark corners of the school.

This was a religious school and it seemed to her that she was the only one who didn’t have strong beliefs in God. It was actually safe to say that Alex may have had a Catholic mother, she didn’t practise any religion.

“These pasta are really good!” Alex said, more to change the subject than anything else.
She had perfected her already good born-with-lying-abilities to no one ever noticing when she lied or not but she never lied to her father if she could help it.

Her father, James, sent her a meaningful look before sticking his fork into his plate.

This was his day off and they had both planned to go somewhere together. Maybe the movies.

The phone rang and Alex ran to pick it up.

“Hello?” She answered, breathless.

“Mr.O’Connel please! It’s an emergency.”

A voice said hurriedly, strangled sounds in the background.

Alex’s face fell. ‘There goes another week-end’ She sighted mournfully.

“One moment please.” She said, her voice flat.
James came into her line of site, having heard her emotionless voice.

“It’s for you.” She said, handing him the receiver and walking back into the kitchen.

‘Next time. Next time I’ll cut the line and unplug his cell.’ Alex promised silently, finishing her plate before her father came back into the kitchen, looking miserably sorry and worried at the same time.

“Hon, I have to go to the station. Is it alright if I leave you here alone for the day?”

Alex nodded, hiding the obvious disappointment she was feeling behind a small smile.

“I can always call Miss.Headson if you…”

Alex cut him off in horror.

“No! It’s ok. Go save lives. I’ll finish my homework and maybe even ask Manon over.”

James smiled. If only he knew. Manon was a girl Alex had made up when her father became upset with her not having friends.

Each time he went away, she said she’d invite Manon to make him happy.

As soon as she heard the car roar away with the flash and siren blaring, Alex’s fake good mood fell and she heavily put the things away.

‘Come on! It’s not like he’s gone forever! Besides, you can go finish the UTM and pack a bag in case it does work.’ The voice of reason said reassuringly.

Mentally, Alex imagined the Voice of Reason sending the Voice of Arrogance a warning glance to shut its mouth.

Feeling already better, Alex ran up to her room and opened the door to her work space open almost reverently, voice hushed as she pretended to be guiding someone with her.

“This is THE Universe Travel Machine, created by Alex O’Connel, the best engineer in the world. She created this machine at the very young age of 15, her unbelievable genius leading her, later on, to a life of luxury surrounded by her most prized inventions…” She whispered.

‘The ones that work? Ha! Not too many I’m afraid…’ The Voice of Arrogance cooed.

Alex groaned and went back into her room to take out her bag from under her bed.
This bag was always ready in case she wanted to spend time somewhere or if in case one of her machines did work. Not that it ever happened but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Right?

‘Yeah right. You’ll be disintegrated into dust sooner than be transported into any fictive world.’ The Voice mocked again.

"Well for your information, my last invention worked fine and I don’t really give a shit what you say." Alex retorted, slinging the bag over her shoulder, grabbing some jewels and a few packets of cigarettes she’d won at card games in school.

She stuffed everything into her bag, flunked her father’s spare gun into the waist band of her jeans and climbed into the machine.

It was oval and had a small comfortable seat with all the commands in front.

Alex took a deep breath. “Cross your fingers ladies cos here goes nothing.”

An image of her good side and bad side looking horrified and crossing all their members made Alex laugh as she hit the ‘Activate’ button on her left.
The dome lit up and Alex typed in the date, time and story she wanted to enter. The Chronicles of Riddick!

It buzzed a little, processing the information then went silent.
Alex pulled the throttle up, hit a few keys then took a deep breath before pushing hard on the red button. The ‘DEPARTURE’ one.

Both voices inside her head screamed for her not to do it but too late.

There was a resounding beep before everything around her started glowing a fierce white.

A few minutes later, Alex opened her eyes to screams and strange noises of bending metal and shattering glass.

When she opened her eyes and had sense back into her body, she felt she was leaning forward against a sort of belt holding her waist and shoulders and she could see through a glass to people running around what looked like the interior of a ship.

Her eyes widened. “Omigod! It worked!” She yelped, eyes wide and amazed.

'Omigod...it worked!' Cut in both voices, sounding terrified.

Before she could register what happened however, the glass in front of her moved and the belts unbuckled themselves to let her fall onto the hard metallic and vibrating floor.

Everything was in chaos and Alex had the good reflex to grab her bag before scrambling to the first hand hold she saw.

The ship she was in was going to crash, she felt it and could feel the fear emanating from the whole ship.

It came faster than she expected. The whole side opposite her got ripped off and a man was desperately clinging to a rope, trying not to be squished by all the things flying by him.

Alex suddenly had a bad sense of Deja-vu and ran to the medical kit, grabbing what she could from inside before the rest of the left side of the ship got blown off.

Alex herself barely had time to jump back to her relatively safe space, gripping the hand hold tightly.

The crash seemed to take ages before she visibly felt the ship slacken its pace before stopping completely in bright yellow sand.

Alex weakly let go and stayed on the floor, panting a little, the last medicine clutched to her chest.

‘How the HELL did I get sent to Pitch Black?!’

There it is, the first chapter!

Should I continue??