Rebirth: An Automaton's Journey

Chapter 12

The damage was worse than he'd initially estimated. Without the wasps in his face, Auto could see the full extent of the problem: corroded connectors, cracked insulation, the remains of a rat's nest, chewed-up circuitry done by said rat, a dead squirrel, and rust. Rust, rust, and then more rust. The Axiom looked very much like it hadn't been serviced in 20 years.

It needed a thorough overhaul, which would be very difficult and time-consuming. With the clock ticking on the life support, Auto identified the least-damaged power cells and was able to use them to start up the core at 10% power by following the instructions in the book. He directed nearly all the electricity to the essentials in the control room and shut down almost everything else.

Much was still left to do, but both he and Lily were exhausted. After restoring power to the life support systems and the ship's controls, they headed back to the control room, stopping only for Lily to grab a serving of regenerator mush. She hadn't eaten anything since the fake oatmeal that morning.

With the ship operating in low-power mode, only a select few of the lights in the cabin were receiving power. Lily disappeared into a corner to eat; he mechanically headed to the control panel to verify that all buttons were working properly after the power loss and restoration. He started on the end closest to the door and began slowly walking across the room...

His foot unexpectedly caught on something, causing him to lose his balance and pitching him headfirst into the control panel with a rattle of mechanical parts.

"Are you OK?" Lily spoke up in the dim room.

"I am 63.25% ok," he grunted. "Something...is in...the floor...where it...does not...belong."

"Is it the hoverchair?" Lily asked. "I expect it stopped hovering once the ship lost power."

He crawled off the control panel and groped around in the floor, trying to locate the object that had tripped him. Lily's guess had been correct; it was the hoverchair.

Auto did not tolerate the presence of things that did not belong. (Even if it was just himself and Lily on board, he would run a proper operation.) Bracing himself against the control panel for leverage, Auto slung the hoverchair halfway across the room and well out of tripping range. Satisfied, he returned to his task.

He'd nearly finished his survey of the control panel when Lily spoke up again. "Is the ship ok?" she asked quietly. The pitch of her voice was a bit higher than normal, and Auto thought he detected a wavering.

She's nervous. Given the situation, this is not surprising.

"The Axiom will maintain functionality. Despite recent challenges, I intend to carry out my directive of keeping the ship livable for an indefinite period. Onboard the Axiom, you will survive."

"Auto?" she asked, still concerned. "Do you want to keep us in space forever?"

"I was not programmed with wants, only a directive."

"You keep saying that," Lily pointed out, "how you weren't programmed with this or that, but I don't think it's accurate anymore. I think you do feel, even if you weren't designed to do that."

"I...seem to be...doing...a great deal...of things...for which I was not programmed...lately."

"And truthfully...you're doing them quite well." Lily walked forward out of the shadows to face him directly. "I'm impressed. Now, back to my original question: you can keep the ship intact long enough to get us home safely, can't you?"