Oh wow, I'm cringing here at just the thought of shackles on an exam table. Great plot, character introduction and you nailed the characters of course. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series and all of your stories and I hope you write many, many more!

Author's Response: Thank you for all your nice comments.  =)  I had to write the part about SL-27- to this day, 10+ years later, I remember absolutely jumping out of my skin when Broots turned that haz-mat suit around and the skeleton bumped agianst the faceplate!  =)  I'm in the process of writing more Madeline stories, as well as hopefully finishing up a couple more I started but never finished- "Practice Will Eventually Make Perfect" actually deals with those shackles on the exam table and what they potentially could have been used for.