{ breathe }
unedited
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"There are eclipsing binaries, astrometric binaries, spectroscopic binaries. It's hard to tell which one we're in without a map of the star system." Maureen's voice trailed out, rambling in a scientific vocabulary.
"You're doing it again." John sighed.
"Doing what?" Maureen questioned her husband.
"Using astrophysics as a smokescreen. Just tell me the bad news." Penny walked down the hallways, hearing the conversation of her parents. Robot turned his face towards her, face full of purple dots, and she quietly put a finger up to her mouth—signaling him to be quiet; he obeyed.
"Okay, fine. If this is our planet," She pointed at a beer bottle, "and this is our sun," she held up a baseball and began rotating it around the bottle. "a typical orbit looks like this."
"Okay so I'm guessing our orbit isn't typical."
"The way the ecosphere is behaving alone and longer days and the increased temperatures I couldn't figure it out until I saw (y/n)'s notes and got up there and I saw this." She lifted the bottle to reveal a black mug.
"A coffee mug?"
"A black hole, hiding just off the shoulder of our sun. The gravitational pull is altering the orbit, pulling our planet closer and closer until when it makes this turn, nothing and I mean nothing on the surface will survive."
"How long do we have."
"Till the planet becomes uninhabitable? Weeks, maybe months. It's hard to know without more information. So, we have a decision to make, do we tell people?" Penny began to walk away from her parent's conversation, shocked at the realization that they would be running out of time on this planet very very soon.
"You're asking me."
"Yeah, I'm asking you."
"Honestly, I don't know. I mean god Maureen, you should have seen their faces out there tonight. Looking to me to answer question about that machine that I don't have. So, tomorrow I get to clean up that mess. This one-"
"It's okay. I'll figure it out."
"Whatever you decide, I'll support you." Maureen nervously smiled at the man in front of her, fiddling with the baseball in her hands.
-----
"Twenty seven people died crashing here. Husbands, wives, friends, parents. Dead because of what that thing did." One of the man argued in the control room. Most of the surviving adults were there to discuss the events that occurred the previous night.
"What about last night. It was protecting us." A man with ginger hair tried to defend the robot.
"It was defending itself."
"Who knows what would've happened."
"Maybe it can help us-"
"Please! Enough!" Victor yelled at the arguing men, stopping them from talking. "One at a time, let's not have this develop into chaos."
A man walked up to Victor, "Victor, if I could make up an suggestion. Maybe we should hear from someone who has seen firsthand, what this thing is capable of."
All eyes directed to the lady sitting on one of the booths, both hands on the cane in front of her.
"Angela, would you like to tell us anything?"
The women stands up and walks forewords. "My husband was the seventh musician chosen for relocation. He played cello. He loved football and hated the rain. He was the best part of my life, and that thing murdered him in front of me. So to be forced to sit here, listening to people wonder how they can use it, sickens me."
"I think the best course of action would be to threat this as we would at home. If a man had committed any of these crimes-" Victor began but was interrupted by John.
"But it's not a man. Isn't that the point? Angela, I'm truly sorry about what happened to your husband. There is nothing that we can do or say that can replace that loss, but I think that it's important that we understand that the robot has changed.
"Changed? John what are you-" One of the man started but quickly shut down by the ginger haired man.
"Let him speak."
"Okay. Think of it like a computer that's been rebooted or reprogrammed. Look, I don't know what the hell this thing was before or why it's here now, but what I do know id, that the only reason my daughter is alive today is because that machine saved her life. And it kept my family safe, when I couldn't. We're in a place where I think we'd all like to feel a little safer."
"Yeah and uh, what if it changes again? Who's going to keep us safe from it." The man from before said.
"You saw it for yourself. It listens to my son and his friend."
"So you'd put our safety in the hands of children." Victor questioned.
"It worked last night. Only difference is now you all know about it."
Though shocked, Vitor nodded at the man's words. "Okay everyone. I think we should try and reach a consensus here." Not daring to hear anything else, Angela began to limp away with someone close behind her.
-----
"(y/n) wake up!" The girl shot awake and looked around.
"What's wrong? Is there a fire-"
"Dad's back!" The girl went from panic to annoyed within a millisecond. "He has news about the robot!" The girl quickly got out of her mattress bed and joined Will to se John.
As the man climbed up, Will, (y/n) and Maureen went up to him with the kids standing in front of him with anticipation.
"How'd it go?"
"What'd they say?"
Joh nodded his head a little. "The robot stays."
The two kids celebrated. "Yes!"
"But there are conditions," The browned eyed boy and the (e/c) eyed girl nodded, "You keep it away from other people, you report any changes in behavior and registers its whereabouts at all times."
"Easy!" The girl declared.
"Yeah, no problem, we want to show you something." The two left to grab something while John talked with Maureen.
"They don't get it."
"Let them be happy for a minute." John nodded and glanced to where the kids left, making sure that they wouldn't hear their conversation.
"Victor's outside. Wants to talk. You gonna tell him?"
"About what?"
"The coffee mug."
The kids suddenly appeared before the two adults. "We made a list about all the stuff the robot could do to help people."
"And once people see him in action, they'll have to accept him!" The two were glowing and it almost made John regret what he was going to do next. Almost.
"Actually, I had something else in mind. Why don't you two help me today?"
"With what."
"One question." The looked at the young girl who had a skeptical look. "Does it require work?"
John was taken back. "Well yeah but-"
(y/n) winced and looked down at her imaginary watch on her wrist. "Oh would you look at the time, I actually have some plans to tend to you guys can have fun." She walked off, leaving the other three confused with her actions.
"What a strange kid." The man muttered.
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