Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 37 - Blame

You open the door and go through it, only to groan in pain from the heat hitting you. Bernie and Zayn grab you and pull you back in. They close the door again.

"We'll fry out there. There's gotta be another way." Bernie says.

...

Ethan removes the panel to the sewage pipe. "Okay, there it is. We gotta clear it out." He tries to press the button but it won't work.

August takes a look. "We're gonna have to do this manually, increase pressure, add a fault to the far end." She tries pulling the lever. "I could use your help." She tells Oliver, who then tries to help.

Instead of helping Ethan just push them away and take it, put his foot up on the wall and he pulls on it hard, then push it up again, then down, pumping it manually.

"Unreliable piece of shit technically. And I'm not talking about the shit tube. I'm talking about William." Oliver then says.

"Isn't he programmed to be on our side?"

"Yeah, 'Trustworthy by design'. Had us all fooled."

Ethan frowns to himself.

"Okay, even if we do get him back, how will we ever trust him again?"

"He disobeyed orders before."

"Yeah, but that was to save my life." Ethan grunts as he pumps harder.

"Yeah, which is ironic, cause javier is lying on his death bed right now and William did nothing to stop it." Oliver complains.

"You wanna blame someone? Blame me, alright?" Ethan tells them and they look at him.

"What?"

"It's my fault." Ethan says, knowing he hasn't been treating William well recently and it seems to have hurt his feelings. Being a computer and not a human being, he's not great at dealing with those hurt feelings.

"Here it comes. Just one more pump." August tells him.

He pulls one last time hard and the sewage gets sucked down with a hissing sound, the tube now clear.

...

You hear gurgling and sloshing sound from somewhere.

"Wait. Hold on." Bernie says, then puts a hand in front of Zayn. "Stay here."

He gets closer to the wall and opens a panel.

"Wait!" Zayn say but it's too late.

He exclaims as he gets splashed by sewage. "Ugh. I can't breathe."

"That's sewage from Soma Chamber Seven. It routes back the nutrients recycling." Zayn tells him.

You hear a faint voice from the sewage pipe. "Yn? Bernie? Zayn?"

"Ethan?" Bernie asks.

"Bernie? You guys have hazmat suits down in the lab, right?"

"Yes, why?" Zayn asks him.

"Bernie, I need you to go to the particle accelerator and turn the cooling down system back on."

"Me?"

"If you can't do it, can Zayn?"

"I'll do it." You say.

"No!" Ethan says, but then pinch his eyes close. "I mean.."

"It's okay, I'll do it." Bernie says and Ethan sighs in relief.

"Great. Go. There's no time to waste."

Ethan then walks away.

"Wait. Where are you going?" Oliver asks him.

"Plan B. In case Bernie doesn't make it."

...

Ethan runs to a panel in the corridor and opens it to reveal a computer. William suddenly appears beside him, but faintly visible. "Commander Stone."

Ethan whips his head to him. "William. We need your help.. Wait, why do you look different than you normally do?"

"I'm experiencing a system critical error preventing my normal operation."

"Okay. Well, you have to be backed up somewhere, right? Your thoughts, your actions, your conversations. They've gotta be stored somewhere."

"Those files are no longer available."

"Uh, go back 12 hours."

William looks into nothing and then back at him. "The files are no longer available."

"Go back three days. Two weeks. Just search all directories, all systems."

"Searching all directories and all systems.."

"William.. You are still in there. You don't need permission to come back. Just.. will yourself out of wherever it is that you are."

"Those files are no longer available."

Ethan frowns in regret. "I'm sorry, William. I shouldn't have treated-"

William just disappears.

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