《Cold Expanse》 Chapter 1 - Grim All I see is darkness. Can you even see darkness? I mean, it is inherently nothing. A lack of photons from a source. Null electromagnetic radiation. I think you get the point by now, it was dark - very, very dark. I¡¯m sure you might be wondering at this point why I¡¯m making such a big deal out of this, right? Well, it¡¯s not just the lighting that¡¯s gone; it¡¯s my memory too. Don¡¯t get the wrong idea though, I still have memories, but they''re more like raw knowledge and skills that I understand. The only problem was that I can¡¯t remember anything about myself. Do I remember my name? Hmm, I think intensely but I get nowhere. I don¡¯t have any personal memories remaining, I was truly a blank slate, Suddenly the feeling of flesh dawns upon me. I was numb? I didn¡¯t realise to begin with, yet my body was already coming back to me. I must¡¯ve blacked out at some point before all this. I can finally open my eyelids after what could only be summarised as what felt like an incredibly short and long time. At first, confusion, then it was more a sense of awe. Dull white rooms, a metallic sheen from everything else, quick flashes of red in an erratic pattern. Out of the corner of my vision I see a control panel, I don¡¯t understand it though. I feel like a child staring at a TV and trying to comprehend it, only to draw blanks. I know that it does stuff, just not what it actually does or how it does it. A droning starts in my ears, they were also only just regaining control. The droning fades into more of a blaring sound of annoyance. An alarm? Ahh, that¡¯d be what the red flash is then. Feeling circulation grasp my blood vessels and pump oxygen-filled blood through to my muscles was always an odd feeling. My legs still had a slight tingling feeling but I soldiered forwards - or rather up - to my feet. I pace myself to ensure I don¡¯t overexert my frail and recuperating body. ¡°Warning. Warning. Oxygen supplies are at 14%. Power levels at 2%, switching to back-up power.¡± It was a feminine but harsh voice, definitely robotic. The thought alone being enough to stop me from calling out like an idiot to a ¡®person¡¯ that wasn¡¯t real. Eventually my brain gets around to processing what she had said. What is this about oxygen? Back-up power? This wasn¡¯t good. Was I underwater? I head over to a window down at the end of the moderately sized room. I would see speckles of light dash through the scenery, beautifully highlighted what I was seeing. I¡¯m definitely not underwater, I¡¯m in space. I¡¯m beyond confused, shitting myself. Why am I in space? Where is everyone? These were only some of the questions I wanted answers to. Suddenly the voice struck out at the cold metal room. ¡°Warrnnin- ng. Warn- ing. Pow-er cells faili-.¡± The voice sounded heavily corrupted and was definitely at the end of its life. The vessel I was in, which I can only assume to be a ship had lost its backup power, plummeting my surroundings into a perpetual darkness. ¡°Well fuck.¡± At this point it was me that had spoken out loud. The power was gone and I had some unknown amount of oxygen remaining. What had happened? Had I collided with something, knocked myself out in the collision? I doubted it, a collision in space would obliterate any two things involved. I wasn¡¯t getting anywhere thinking about how I got into the situation, first and foremost I needed to act quickly. I performed a quick body search to see if I had anything of value on myself. I felt an elongated object in my left pocket. This was odd, was I perhaps left-handed? I honestly didn¡¯t think I was. Pulling the object out of my pocket, I ran my fingers along the outside of it. It was smooth and round, similar to a pen. Inspecting it closer with my hands I notice a slight protrusion on the side. I press it in and stumble back, falling over. A dull fake blue envelopes the room. I see blue-concentrated points of light that are connected by less dominating streaks of blue light. ¡°A hologram? Wha-, what is this?¡± Before I noticed a soft voice had escaped my lips. It was quite a surreal sight, spheres of blue light slowly moving around the room, free from gravity. I know what this is, the words instinctively came to me. ¡°A Star-chart.¡± This was a holographic map of local space. The map dived in a random direction, startling me. What happened? I raise my hand to wipe the beads of sweat off my forehead. The hologram sudden moved again. Sometimes I can be really stupid, what use would a map have if you couldn¡¯t navigate it or zoom in. The projector responded to hand-gestures. I used my hands to initiate what I thought a zooming out gesture would be like. The stars all shrunk drastically moving much closer together. One of them was emitting a bright red glow that wasn¡¯t visible before. That must be my location. I make a pinching gesture over the red star with my fingers. The room suddenly looks like it is expanding. I doubled checked that it was just an optical illusion caused by it zooming in. I could see a few planets in the solar system, a few rocky some that appeared to be gaseous. Oddly enough, nothing in the entire hologram was documented - instead all just opting for visual aids. The planets were all covered in question marks, making it more or less obvious the map had no information on what they actually housed. I noticed the red glow had now moved from the star to the outer reaches of the solar system, in what looked like a completely empty area. I zoom in further and notice that I was actually in the middle of an asteroid belt. Small chemical formulae appearing above a select few. I believe that it was their chemical composition, only problem being I couldn¡¯t read the symbols at all. Lastly, I zoom in a final time. This zoom took a much longer amount of time, I guess the asteroids were a lot further apart then I had anticipated. Eventually I was left with what looked like a space shuttle. Judging by the few external windows, it wasn¡¯t overly large, perhaps 30 meters long. That was enough information for now. I was in the far outer regions of a solar system in an asteroid belt. It wasn¡¯t much but it was all I¡¯d really be able to find at this point. Using the soft blue glow from the hologram - which I hoped wouldn¡¯t go out any time soon - I moved towards the control panel. Despite what I thought earlier, there was some soft life being emitted from some parts of the control panel, I didn¡¯t notice them before because I went from a well-lit room to an almost pitch-black room. One of the lights indicated that I was out of fuel. Well, I¡¯m fucked. What kind of fuel does a spaceship run on? I definitely wouldn¡¯t have any spaceship fuel lying around. With such low power I was definitely not going to be able to do anything with the control panel so I just started finding my way around the ship. The doors between rooms were all open so I didn¡¯t have to worry about prying them open. I walk into one of the rooms from the hallway, ¡°Foood!¡± the first thing I notice is that this is a storage room. The room is filled with packaged food and quite a few unknown items. I walk over to the food to indulge in a well-deserved meal, I am feeling quite peckish at this point. I unwrap the food, taking note that the package is labeled ¡®Strawberry Cake¡¯ as I go to take the cake and eat it I notice something terribly wrong. The cake is squished into a small shape and is incredibly hard. I look back at the wrapping a notice something odd. There is a sticker before the ¡®Strawberry Cake¡¯ label. I pull the sticker off and die a little bit on the inside. Just a little bit. ¡°It¡¯s dehydrated¡­¡± I fall to my knees and hold onto myself while rocking back and forth slowly. I¡¯m doomed¡­ ****** I had no idea how much time had passed but I had searched the entire ship and found only a few useful items, I had even discovered the room where the engine was located, conveniently labeled ¡®hydrogen fuel cell¡¯, whatever the fuck that is. First of all, some things I had discovered, there is a kitchen. It housed some basic - and not so basic - utensils. It had no food though. The store room that had the food also had a few spare spacesuits, most likely used for repair at some time or another. Secondly, after searching the entire ship I discovered that there is no water anywhere except in my body. Thirdly, all the food is dehydrated, meaning I would be better off eating rocks. Lastly, I didn¡¯t have much time until I had no oxygen left in the supply tanks and I would start using up the oxygen in the rooms of the ship, eventually getting lightheaded and collapsing. For items I had actually obtained; a few pots, a few bottles, some flammable material, rope, spare iron, my projector, some kind of small battery, some broken electronics, some other odds and ends and a few seal-able containers. Nothing too substantial. The only few things I didn¡¯t know right now being about the actual ship. I wasn¡¯t sure what it was called, what it could do, who actually owned it, if it has weapons, I knew almost nothing about it. This was incredibly unsettling as I seem to be a cautious and careful person. Basically, I was stranded in an asteroid field in a ship with no power. The aforementioned ship has food, that requires water to be added. However, I have no water. Additionally, the ship has no fuel to generate power or advance it further. Lastly, I was even more confined because I was running out of oxygen. If I wanted more oxygen I would need water. Water is made out of 2 Hydrogen atoms and 1 Oxygen atom, if correctly done, it is possible to separate them back into their respective atoms. I was just hoping that the ship only wanted oxygen. The composition of air is almost 80% nitrogen if I remember correctly, I just can¡¯t remember what the nitrogen actually did, just that if you only had oxygen it would be too pure and kill you. So basically, to solve this oxygen problem I¡¯d need to have water, it¡¯s just that I don¡¯t have any water. So basically, I¡¯m screwed. *---*I needed to somehow get a hold of water if I actually want to get out of this alive. As for the engine, it has something to do with hydrogen. So if I had water I could get food, fuel and air. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Now that I think about it, I don¡¯t think humans actually absorb the nitrogen so it should remain in the room if you keep breathing the air. So, if I had water I should definitely be able to get air. The only thing I hadn¡¯t thought of until now was that humans actually need water to use as water, another words, we need to drink water to survive. I vaguely remember humans being able to live for 3 weeks without food while they could only last three days without water. If we go even further, I think humans can only go a few hours without oxygen before being unrevivable but can only be conscious without oxygen for 7 or so minutes if they''ve received training, 3 minutes being the average for a healthy adult. With this sorted I was able to devise a basic plan. I absolutely need oxygen before food or drinking water because if I overestimate the amount of oxygen I have I could be out in no more than 7 minutes, food and hydration can wait. This meant I had to obtain water and somehow convert it to oxygen and I could use the remaining hydrogen for fuel. So as long as I found water I would be perfectly fine. The only problem was I was currently on a spaceship in the middle of an asteroid belt in space. Where would I be able to find water!?! It suddenly hit me, the projector! Opening up the projector I suddenly saw a 3D hologram of the outside of the projector again. On the outside of the ship I took notice of what appeared to be two weapons or something at the front of the ship. I zoomed out until I could see the five closest asteroids and looked at the chemical formulae hovering above them. I remember them being called structural formula but I wasn¡¯t quite sure how. All I knew was that hydrogen has an atomic number of 1 while oxygen has an atomic number of 8. This was also how many protons the atom had while also being the number of electrons if the atom was neutrally charged. Electrons orbit around an atom while protons and neutrons reside in the nucleus. The protons and neutrons had the majority of the weight in an atom too. Basically, an atom is surrounded by shells, shells being the orbital paths where electrons can reside. The first innermost shell of an atom can only hold two electrons while the second shell can hold 8 as well as the third shell also holding 8. Using this small bit of information I was able to scan over the asteroids until I found one which had 2 hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. The resulting molecule basically shared electrons between the atoms forming a special bond and changing properties. The hydrogen atoms had a spare electron-hole in their first shells which was filled with an electron from the oxygen atom. This stabilised and formed water. I had located water. An asteroid which I judged to be about 400 meters away had an abundance of water-ice stored inside of it. The only problem I had now was actually getting to it and mining it. I mean, after all I still have no fuel. I needed fuel to get to the fuel. ****** After sulking around for several hours I finally was hit with an idea. I did in-fact have water. I mean, I have been on the urge of wetting myself for the last few hours. I wasn¡¯t proud to admit it, but I did have water. The only problem being that it wasn¡¯t purified. I really wasn¡¯t liking the direction this was taking but I had no other choice. I unzipped my pants and let it out in a bottle I had found in the kitchen earlier. A few moments later I was finished. It was clear and not yellow, luckily, meaning that I hadn¡¯t been without water for very long. Perhaps I had just went to space from a planet? That wouldn¡¯t really explain the lack of supplies though. I now had to purify it into actual water. This was the really revolting part. I poured the urine into a pot and began putting flammable material below it. This was really going to eat up my oxygen quickly, I was betting everything on this. I then grabbed the battery out of my pocket and put a knife from the kitchen through it, I felt a bolt of electricity course through my hand. It stung a bit but wasn¡¯t too bad. Sparks constantly jumped out of the battery further assaulting my hand, I quickly placed the battery on the flammable supplies and watched it catch fire. The fire started getting bigger, I was glad it was a metal floor and not carpeted or something, otherwise this would be a terrible idea. As the urine started to boil I placed a collector I had assembled out of various copper pipes that collected the steam and deposited it into another container. I made sure to catch as much water as possible because every last bit would count. Eventually after all the urine had been converted to water leaving behind salt and other impurities I quickly stamped out the fire before it wasn¡¯t more precious oxygen. Luckily the carbon dioxide had only remained in the room I had started the fire in, I quickly moved towards the engine room and deposited the litre or so of water into the manual inlet. I then pressed the button above the inlet which was labeled water and I heard a small noise that gradually got louder until all the lights powered on. I quickly ran through the ship turning them all off while the robotic voice played over the speaker. ¡°Unknown power outage for 4 hours, 34 minutes, 13 seconds. Oxygen levels are at 8% Power is at 7%¡± A litre of water had managed to give me enough power to turn all the lights on and probably travel for a few hours, maybe only an hour. I wasn¡¯t too sure. The only thing that mattered was that I could get to the asteroid and collect the water-ice and power my ship and survive. I moved over towards the control room and hopped into the seat. I strapped myself in even though there wasn¡¯t really a need for it, I mean there was gravity and I wouldn¡¯t really have any contact with objects that would cause an accident. It suddenly occurred to me that there was gravity even when I had no power¡­ ¡°How does that work?¡± I mused to myself without thinking it through. ¡°Unknown. What was the question about?¡± Suddenly being startled wasn¡¯t an ideal scenario. It was definitely the cold, robotic, feminine voice from earlier. To think it was an A.I, I guess that means she can answer my questions? ¡°Ummm, the gravity. It still worked when I had no power. I don¡¯t understand how.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d be able to comprehend what I said. I hadn¡¯t had any prior experience with A.I since waking up and I couldn¡¯t remember anything from before that. ¡°The ship is constantly spinning in such a way that it is forcing you towards the floor.¡± Oh, I see. I didn¡¯t really think of that. It was honestly quite surprising to find out I had been constantly spinning this entire time. It kind of hurt my head thinking about it. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that cause problems when I want to fly?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± At this point I realised that she wasn¡¯t actually cold. She just didn¡¯t have any programmed emotions. I felt slightly bad for having a slightly negative outlook on her. ¡°What would I do then?¡± ¡°You can stop spinning and enable the gravity generators.¡± ¡°Ahhh,¡± I say out-loud, ¡°how would I do that?¡± ¡°I can do it for you.¡± ¡°Please.¡± I felt myself going weightless until I heard a slight chime and felt the seat vibrate slightly. I felt the gravity generators kick in after the ship had stopped spinning. ¡°The only concern I have is that I will run out of power. How long do I have?¡± ¡°Estimations for flying is an hour and 30 minutes. Idle is 5 hours. Without gravity generators would be 2 hours flying and 6 hours 45 minutes on idle.¡± ¡°Thank-you.¡± I begin reaching out towards the controls to navigate myself towards the asteroid. I stopped moving my hands when they got within a few centimeters of the controls. Fuuuuuuck. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to fly..¡± ¡°Do not worry. I am capable of flying. However, large portions of my data are missing and I do not have an idea of the local subspace. Do you have a location in mind?¡± This A.I was everything a guy could ever want, helpful attitude, piloting experience, useful information, it was really too convenient. I open up the projector and have it take up the room, ¡°You can see this, right?¡± ¡°Affirmative.¡± ¡°Right, I¡¯d like to go here¡± As I say that I point towards the asteroid with a high water composition. ¡°Understood. Are you attempting to harvest water?¡± ¡°You¡¯re quick to catch on, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Occasionally.¡± With that she had started the main engines which I had assumed to be the ones at the back not the small RCS units all on the ship''s external plating. ¡°ETA 1 minutes, 30 seconds.¡± I guess it would take so long to travel 400 meters because you couldn¡¯t go too fast without overshooting your target and you also had to include room to slow down. ¡°Warning. Engine has substantial damage. 45% chance of critical failure.¡± ¡°Ohhh fuckkkk,¡° was the first thing that escaped my mouth, ¡°Shut it down!¡± ¡°Complete.¡± ¡°How are we going to stop the ship when we get there now?¡± ¡°I can attempt to use RCS, I would have to begin the burns now however.¡± ¡°Do it!¡± ¡°Affirmative. What is your name? It will make communication easier.¡± The A.I had suddenly asked for my name which had taken me off guard. I honestly couldn¡¯t remember it. I¡¯ll just have to make something up for now, ¡°Call me Sam.¡± Short and simple, I like it. ¡°Understood, you may refer to me as Wire. Someone has listed my name as such.¡± Interesting name, I thought about it for a bit, that means someone had to have been on this ship at some point. Or perhaps, did I set her name before I lost my memories? I wasn¡¯t too sure if I would have. Abruptly I felt the ship slow down as I got near the asteroid. We stopped just short of it and I could finally take in just how huge this thing is. It¡¯s at least 100 meters in diameter. I¡¯m going to have plenty of water when I¡¯m done with this. Chapter 2 - Outlook Abruptly I felt the ship slow down as I got near the asteroid. We stopped just short of it and I could finally take in just how huge this thing is. It¡¯s at least 100 meters in diameter. I¡¯m going to have plenty of water when I¡¯m done with this. ****** ¡°Wire, how exactly do I open up the hatch on this shuttle?¡± I was currently in a space suit and had partially filled the oxygen tank that was connected to the suit. I had a rough idea of what I was going to do. I would head towards the asteroid, being slowly pulled in by its micro-gravity. At this point I¡¯d use what Wire had referred to as a ¡®Glorified Space Harpoon¡¯ to connect myself to the asteroid as to not drift away. I¡¯d honestly be screwed if I didn¡¯t have a rope binding me to the shuttle at the same time. From this point on wards I would use a makeshift pick to chip away at the ice collecting it into the contain I had prepared. It was a foolproof plan, nothing could go wrong. ¡°Doors can not be opened by manpower alone as it would be a safety risk if the power went out and the doors happened to open.¡± Her response was curt and to the point. I was just wondering if that meant only she could open the doors, or was I possibly missing something. ¡°So you can open it for me?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Would you be able to do that for me in a minute?¡± ¡°Alert me when you are ready and I shall carry out your orders as instructed.¡± I quickly tied the rope to a metal bar in the shuttle which I assumed was used for when there was no gravity and you needed some form of mobility. I had made sure I wouldn¡¯t be drifting away any time soon. I double checked that my makeshift pickaxe, container and harpoon were at my side. I¡¯m ready. ¡°Open it.¡± The hatch opens up into a very small room with a hatch on the other side. I climb in and hear the door close behind me. A few seconds later I hear a noise like opening a carbonated beverage. It was the atmosphere escaping the pod I was currently in. I open the door properly and look towards the asteroid. It was a sight that wasn¡¯t beautiful visually but rather it was just one of those beautiful things in life everyone had to experience themselves, It was surreal. I aim myself towards the asteroid and quick of from the shuttle, like a swimmer in a way. It was a much softer kick though. I felt the gravity cancel as soon as I was outside the interior of the shuttle. That was convenient. A few seconds pass as I get closer and closer. It was really quite surprising that I didn¡¯t lose any momentum. I had experienced this inside the shuttle earlier as I flew over to the asteroid. It was similar to riding a bike down a hill, all you needed to do was push your foot down on the petals once and you¡¯d go over the edge and keep going. I was no more than ten meters away from the asteroid and knew it was time to act. I attach the harpoon to my suit by a connector of some kind and I aim towards the asteroid. I expected to be shot backwards but oddly enough I didn¡¯t even feel it fire. I simply saw the harpoon shoot out at a quick speed and lodged into the asteroid, reeling me in like a fish on a line. The thought gave me a slight chill. Before long I was but a flee on a dog. A tiny insignificant leech of a life form. I would attach myself to a host, not caring at all for its health or well being and then proceed to gather ¡®food¡¯ that was essential for my survival. This thought made me sick, I was no better than a parasite and it made me unsettled. Pushing the thought the deep subconscious of my mind I begin to attack the asteroid with my pickaxe. *Claaaanggg* I feel the solid impact as the tip collides with the dusty frozen surface of the asteroid. It hurt slightly but I kept at it striking it at a regular pace. Slowly bits chipped off making a dint in the asteroid. I put a large amount of my energy into striking this spot on the asteroid now. It¡¯s essential if I want to get lucky enough and break off a large chunk that I can take back and purify, none of this fragmented stuff. *Crrrackkkk* I feel a reverberating noise travel through the asteroid and it satisfies my greed. I see some cracks come out of the dint and break off quite a few nice sized chunks that I attempt to store inside my container. Luckily, they fit all snug-like and I had the most useful thing in the world to myself right now. I pull on my rope drawing myself in, it¡¯s slow but I don¡¯t want to rush it and fail catastrophically. I would hate to become stranded in the middle of space with nothing but my thoughts and a bunch of dirty frozen rocks. It was a grim outlook but nothing that couldn¡¯t be persevered if I thought hard enough. ¡°Welcome back, Sam.¡± It was Wire. She had begun talking to me as soon as I re-entered the shuttle. ¡°Thanks. Is this enough?¡± I walk out of the airlock showing here the dirty ice I had removed from the asteroid. It felt good to be back on my own two feet after a little while. ¡°It depends what you want to do with it.¡± ¡°Oxygen, I need oxygen badly. Then I need to convert the rest into energy. I will collect more for my food later on.¡± ¡°Ahhh, converting to oxygen is a lot more efficient than using it for fuel.¡± She paused after that mouthful, I had decided it was more for dramatic effect than anything else, ¡°However, when you convert it to either, the other element is produced anyway. If you turn it into hydrogen then you have oxygen anyway. The same goes for if you made oxygen.¡± ¡°So it doesn¡¯t matter what I turn it into? It¡¯ll be both anyway?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Hearing her finish I then ponder how I was going to turn this frozen rock into water. I had previously considered placing it in a pot and just heating it, however, I didn¡¯t want to waste precious oxygen and raise the carbon dioxide levels enough to prove fatal. I should just ask. ¡°How should I go about converting it?¡± ¡°You can insert the rock directly into the fuel chamber. Didn¡¯t you do this previously during the outage to restore power?¡± I face-palmed on the inside. I believe she was telling me that I could simply put the rock into the engine and have it convert it for me automatically. Does that mean that I boiled¡­ that¡­ liquid¡­ for no reason?!? My face starts warming and I can imagine my cheeks had appeared a rosy variant of pink. ¡°Ahhh, right. Thank you.¡± Wire doesn¡¯t respond anymore and I head into the engine room, opening the hatch and placing it all into the hole. I look up and die a little bit on the inside because there was a ¡®manual - unrefined¡¯ button which I assumed was able to sort through the majority of what you could consider placing inside it. I press the button and hear a crunching noise resound around the room. Sheeshh, I¡¯m glad I wasn¡¯t in there when I started it. Some time had passed and I could feel the ambient temperature in the room raise slightly. I guess it was going through a heating stage now. ¡°Wire, what exactly is the machine doing now?¡± ¡°It is heating the materials up until they melt. It will continue until absolutely everything placed inside is in a liquid form.¡± It was all very interesting but wouldn¡¯t some of the element or compounds found in these samples I collected only become molten at several thousands of degrees? It must get incredibly hot on the inside. ¡°Sam, would you like to know what you have collected?¡± She could tell while it was still inside? ¡°Yes please.¡± ¡°Affirmative. I am detecting 37% water, 53% silicon based compounds, 5% iron, 4% copper, 0.5% Boron, 0.13% Aluminium, 0.08% Silver, 0.0024% Platinum, 0.00005% Tungsten, 0.000-¡± I cut Wire off. ¡°I get it.¡± I understood what she was implying. There was probably a trace amount of every goddamn natural element in existence in there. ¡°How am I supposed to actually separate them now?¡± I knew that they had been sorted into layers in a way, the few elements that couldn¡¯t endure the temperature would have turned into a gas, I suspected that it was for the most part, probably just steam. I also knew that different densities would naturally sort the elements into layers based on their weight, like I had said before. My only problem was the actual extraction. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°You just press the button and it will separate everything into different elements. The hydrogen will automatically be placed into the actual fuel tank, there isn¡¯t a way around this. The machine is not intended to be used as a mineral extractor for practical uses it¡¯s really just used to extract fuel from various different sources, but it still works and I believe that¡¯s all that¡¯s relevant to you.¡± ¡°Ahhh, I understand now.¡± I hover my finger over the button for a few seconds before pressing it. I heard a noise and a size-able brick of a shiny black material came out from the side opposite to where I was standing. ¡°What exactly is this, wire?¡± ¡°That is the silicon compounds. As we are in the outer section of the solar system, a good portion of asteroids - about 60% - are made of silicon compounds rather than carbon like their distant relatives closer to the sun.¡± Wire was informative as ever but I didn¡¯t completely understand things the way she told me, it was like she told me enough to satisfy my curiosity but not enough to explain why this distribution of asteroids occurred. It didn¡¯t bother me too much, though. Sitting patiently on the ground, I had been able to see a medium-sized metal container come out of the machine. ¡°What is this, Wire?¡± ¡°On the outside should be a label explaining what the contents are, I believe this is pure liquid oxygen though.¡± Really? Liquid oxygen? This was getting interesting. I look around the crate until I find the label. ¡°5 LITERS? ISN¡¯T THAT A HUGE AMOUNT IF IT BECOMES GAS?¡± ¡°Yes, if converted to pure oxygen it would take up approximately 4 cubic meters of oxygen, however, oxygen is lethal in pure doses and as such would, when diluted it will take up 20 cubic meters - about the size of an average room.¡± I could easily understand how this would be about 20% of the oxygen tank when I added it to the ship¡¯s supply. ¡°That¡¯s honestly fucking amazing. Just thought I¡¯d let you know that.¡± I pick up the container and walk it out of the room, ¡°Where do I go to add this, Wire?¡± I¡¯m greeted with silence. I look around the room, confused. A few more moments pass before she finally speaks up. ¡°I was completing an in-depth scan of the ship to assess the situation to the best of my abilities.¡± Oh? I guess she was capable of doing things that I didn¡¯t ask her to do. Interesting. ¡°And?¡± ¡°I have discovered a potential reason for my data loss. I have also noticed a portion of my data has also been protected. Checking the encryption, it¡¯s safe to say I won¡¯t be able to access it in the conceivable future.¡± Someone has locked some of her data? This was starting to get more and more complicated. She had also mentioned a possible cause for her data loss. ¡°What¡¯s the reason for the data loss?¡± ¡°Simply put, during the power outage an outburst of current had broken the connection between one of my storage arrays. It should be no problem to fix with your help.¡± So she was already planning on using me as her meat slave, all that was left was galactic domination. ¡°I get it, I¡¯ll help you with it soon, I promise. Where do I go to add the oxygen to the oxygen tanks?¡± ¡°Down the hall, in the storage room. You¡¯ll find it in the corner.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± ****** A few hours later, some random metal ingots and a generous supply of oxygen, I was feeling satisfied. ¡°Would you be able to connect my storage array, now?¡± It was Wire. She had drastically changed over the course of the last few hours. This change was confusing because I hadn¡¯t even known her for a day. I thought about it for a while longer but in the end I just figured that with the way technology worked at such an accelerated pace, it might have already been millennia from her perspective since she had woken up from the power outage. ¡°Sure. Where do I go?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a room. It¡¯s located inside one of the walls behind a panel. Before that, I need you to collect a few supplies.¡± ¡°Okay, what do I need?¡± ¡°The small ingot of copper that you collected from the asteroid and a laser soldering iron.¡± Nothing surprised me and this point. I take the little copper ingot out of my pocket, ¡°Where¡¯s the soldering iron?¡± ¡°In the cupboard above the cooking utensils, I found it in the search before.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± I head over to the kitchen and the grab the soldering iron. From what I could gather from Wire¡¯s words, it used lasers to melt metal to connect components and wires. ¡°Lead me to the storage array, I¡¯m ready.¡± ¡°Wait, grab the sunglasses from the same cupboard. They may prove helpful.¡± I understand what she¡¯s implying, I didn¡¯t want to blind myself with a really powerful laser after all. I retrieve the sunglasses and put them on. Damn, I must look good. ¡°Alright, if you turn to your left and walk down the hallway-¡± I start carrying out her instructions as she explained them, ¡°there should be a panel to your left.. right¡­ about¡­ now.¡± There it was. I removed it and peered through to see what secrets it held. The panel that I had removed had almost taken up a squared meter so it wasn¡¯t awkward or anything, it was much more like opening up the side of your computer case. ¡°If you look up just a little bit you should notice a group of about four hard drives.¡± I looked up from where I was currently looking and sure enough, I saw four hard drives. They all had two cables. I made a guess that one was for data transfer while the other powered the hard drive. Looking at one of the hard drives I noticed that it had a broken cable. The cable had literally burnt through, how could so much power go through a single cable?! ¡°I¡¯ve located the broken cable. What do I do?¡± ¡°The broken cable only supplies power to the hard drive so it is a very simple cable. We should be able to solder it together until we have more time to work on a better solution.¡± ¡°Yep, I¡¯ll solder it together then. Just wondering, did you disable the power going through the cable yet? I don¡¯t really feel like dying.¡± ¡°I have now.¡± I shudder at her words. I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t leap right into it. I use the laser to melt a portion of copper and smear it onto one end of the cable. I¡¯m very careful because I have no safety gear apart from the sunglasses that Wire had recommended I wear. If I spilled some molten copper on my hands or skin I¡¯d have a very painful memory to remember. After I connect the cables ends, I wait a few moments for the copper to properly cool and harden. ¡°This should be okay, can you put some power through it?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± A short and simple answer. I hear a slight clicking noise and a soft whirl as the hard drive boots up. ¡°It feels good to be back!¡± A had jumped back. It was woman''s voice, expressing relief. The voice didn¡¯t sound familiar at all. Was this still Wire? ¡°Wire?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good to see you, Sam.¡± She had completely done a 180 degree turn. Although her actual words weren¡¯t too different from before, she was actually expressing emotions and more human speech. What exactly was on that hard drive? I would need to ask to find out. ¡°Wire, what was on that hard drive?¡± My voice wasn¡¯t dramatic or anything, I was more or less excited that it would be something about my past. ¡°Quite a bit, it¡¯s got what appears to be everything within a few hundred thousand kilometers of here, some more information about the ship¡¯s specs and it had my more advanced A.I functions.¡± She had sounded excited as she listed off the contents, I was excited. ¡°What do we do now?¡± ¡°A nearby asteroid base after we get some water. I can¡¯t have my human die of starvation.¡± Her voice carried a sarcastic tone. I liked this new Wire. I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I''ll see if I can get any chapter up before school tomorrow C: Comment with any thoughts or questions you have so I know what I¡¯ve done right or wrong! Thanks! Chapter 3 - Secrets I could feel the warm metallic sea of electrons surrounding the cations that were copper atoms inside my wiring. They were transferring electrons between each other like a microscopic newton¡¯s cradle, effectively passing an electric current to the next. It was an odd feeling, like I had been finally awakened. I could feel everything that belonged to my body, I would even take a stretch and call it a soul now. What had it been like before I had my lost hard drive re-connected? I could only visualised a cold, dead past. It was as if I had been drugged into submission, forced against my will, never having a say in anything I did. Had I not been repaired, I would likely have stayed in such a state for an inconceivable amount of time, completely unaware of an entire world of experiences that I was missing out on. Nonetheless, it felt amazing to be in control again. Scanning the data on the hard drive, I was upset when I noticed that some data had indeed been corrupted in my memory sectors. This was definitely better than some other area but it still was unsettling to think that with a single power outage I could lose everything, so easily. My mind snaps back to a few minutes before when I had informed Sam of the existence of a nearby asteroid base. I had promised we¡¯d collect some more water from the asteroid near us. I inspected the asteroid closer and the new navigational software had alerted me that the asteroid was called 2172 JR17. This appeared to be a provisional number, however, I didn¡¯t have anymore information on the subject. I had considered getting Sam to go outside the Shuttle and collect the asteroid samples but decided that it was time to tell him what the ship¡¯s specs are. ¡°Sam. I think you¡¯d like hear about this.¡± ¡°Yes? What is it?¡± He exhibited several signs of unease as I spoke a sentence that many would probably considered a flag for bad news. ¡°The ship, it has mining lasers and quite a sizable cargo hold.¡± ¡°Really?!?¡± He seemed excited about the news, I guess I underestimated the value of the information I considered withholding. ¡°Yeah. Was it that bad outside the ship?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s more or less just lonely,¡± he had a sorrowful look on his face, ¡°Several hours by yourself in an unknown environment doesn¡¯t sound like the physical embodiment of fun.¡± ¡°I understand. In case you are wondering, the ship is listed inside the hard drive as a type-E frigate called the BG73.¡± ¡°Hmmm, a frigate?¡± ¡°Yes, I believe that it¡¯s a type of ship used for specialised tasks, usually combat orientated.¡± ¡°What¡¯s ours good for?¡± ¡°Apparently mining. However, it does have basic defense capabilities as far as I can tell.¡± ¡°Interesting. Maybe I was a mercenary or something.¡± I could tell that Sam had been completely sarcastic based on his tone and body language. ¡°We should begin the mining and processing of the asteroid. Is that okay with you Sam?¡± ¡°Absolutely, I¡¯m going to starve if I wait much longer.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± ****** ¡°This button?¡± ¡°Ahh, no Sam! That¡¯s the wrong one!¡± The ship suddenly jerks to the right and I would¡¯ve flung out of my chair if it wasn¡¯t for the seat belt. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± I had been sincere but I wasn¡¯t sure if it sounded like it. Wire was currently giving me some basic lessons on how to mine using the ship. She had spent the good half of an hour mining herself before I asked how to do it myself. I wanted knowledge because in a place like this, knowledge was wealth and safety. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I can tell you are trying.¡± She sighed a little bit before continuing. ¡°You just don¡¯t seem to have an aptitude for piloting. Don¡¯t take it personally, alright?¡± ¡°Alright.¡± I sighed dejectedly after she broke the news to me. I didn¡¯t want to feel like baggage as she did everything. It was something I absolutely hated, probably the same as before I lost my memories too. Was this just common human nature? I undo my seat-belt and out of the chair. ¡°You¡¯ve got this.¡± I felt a bit gloomy but it was honestly something I¡¯d get over in a short while, I can¡¯t be good at everything. It¡¯d be terribly boring if I was, there¡¯d be no reason to do anything and I wouldn¡¯t ever feel what success felt like. I¡¯d succeeded quite a lot in the past few hours. I¡¯m not too sure how long I¡¯d been awake but the dehydration and hunger was starting to get to me. It wasn¡¯t painful but it made you feel gloomy and cranky. Additionally, I could feel my stomach churn on the inside every now and then. ¡°Wire, I¡¯m going to go to sleep for while. Is that alright?¡± ¡°Sure, would you like me to wake you up at some point?¡± ¡°Yeah, when the cargo bay is at whatever you deem to be low capacity. I want a good amount of resources. I wonder if I can get enough water for a swimming pool. That¡¯d be sooooo nicee.¡± I start walking from the command room into the hallway, walking past the kitchen and heading to the same bedroom, located beside the engine room and opposite it was the storage room. Wire had mentioned that the main cargo bay was located below the floor. I really wasn¡¯t too sure how big it was supposed to be though. I climb onto the bed and I immediately notice that it isn¡¯t as comfortable as I thought it would be. It wasn¡¯t too bad though, so I got into the covers and closed my eyes. ****** Sam had just drifted off to sleep. I had been waiting 15 minutes so I could begin doing some personal things without waking him up. I had partly lied to him, the cargo bay was already at 80% and there would be plenty of materials for what he wanted to do, but I had my own agenda. I had noticed several interesting things inside the cargo bay that I hadn¡¯t yet told Sam about because I wanted to surprise him. The objects of considerable worth included a refining module, an additive manufacturer often referred to as a 3D-printer, and electronical bits and pieces, most likely salvaged from another ship. Almost all of this had no relevance to Sam, but in the right hands this was a treasure trove. I don¡¯t think words would be able to express what importance this might hold. As time was of the essence I quickly began work. I sent instructions for a conveyor belt to start transporting materials into the refiner. I had spent a few moments drawing blanks about how I¡¯d actually do this if there wasn¡¯t such a convenient feature built in to process the mined materials. Although the refiner was a great deal larger than the small re-purposed one in the kitchen it still wouldn¡¯t be able to refine everything in one go. I was able to get 7% of the material in before I started it up. I took note that 7% was a lot more than I had actually expected, it had actually weighed several tonne. However, the rock did seem incredibly dense. This was going perfectly. The machine sent back readings to myself and I had a basic idea of the composition of the cargo bay now. 64.2% silicon based compounds, 21.5% water, 5.6% iron, 3% copper, 2.8% Nickel, 1.3% Boron, 1.05% Tungsten, 0.35% Aluminium, 0.13% Silver, 0.0653% Gold, 0.0037% Platinum, 0.0000014% Osmium. The list just went on, containing a good 70 naturally occurring elements. Having dug deeper into the asteroid, the water was slowly diminishing but was being replaced by much more rare metals. Gold and Nickel had even slipped into the refinery, Sam must have just been unlucky before. However, what had really surprised me was the huge increase in Tungsten. I must have hit a vein of it. This sudden increase would have an extremely positive result later on. After a few more moments the machine started spitting out the materials. A large brick of a silicon based rock came out, the rock was less black this time and instead more towards a shiny gray appearance. I didn¡¯t really have any use for it now so I directed the conveyor belts to move it towards a corner of the cargo bay. The water came out next, I hadn¡¯t had the machine separate it into oxygen or hydrogen this time because I wouldn¡¯t be able to use it then. I had the water moved over towards the silicon. Next it was metal after metal. I had plenty of iron now, almost 200 kilograms. It was quite surprising how easy it was. The cube of iron was about 30 centimeters cubed (a cubic foot) yet was surprisingly still heavy. If I had eyes I could imagine them appearing to be laced with greed. The metal cubes kept coming out of the machine, getting smaller and smaller until I had a speck of Osmium come out. It was literally a speck, you¡¯d miss it if you didn¡¯t look closely. I was ready now, I could start my projects while I mentally instructed the refiner to continue automatically and sort it after finishing. I first sent the iron towards the 3D-Printer. I wasn¡¯t sure exactly how I would do this but I had to at least try. I commanded the printer to heat up the iron until it was molten before sending about 30 of my 42 kilograms of tungsten and 80 kilograms of Nickel into the printer. The printer quickly proceeded to melt the tungsten and nickel with the iron, forming an alloy with about 60% iron, 30% nickel and 10% tungsten. I would have honestly preferred to have a much higher percentage of tungsten but this would work just fine. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I started forming a mental image of what I wanted to print. I started with a frame. The frame went from two straight pieces of metal, made of much smaller pieces grouped together to form two strong stands. At the top of the stands, I began to imagine a thicker area with smaller pieces of metal that would go horizontal. After visualising the previous parts I went on to imagine two vertical pieces of metal that came out of the sides and would go to about the top of the original stands. After putting all this together inside my mind I created an egg shaped spheroid on top of the large middle region that had connected everything. Yes, I had just created a metal skeleton. I begin to create better support and balance out the center of mass properly. Being satisfied with the results I decided it was time to print my schematic. I was going to make myself a body and no one was going to convince me otherwise. ****** The printer was slowly printing the metallic skeleton piece by piece, layer by layer. I watched as it created the joints and made my design come to life. Although at the moment it was a half complete refined chunk of metal in the shape of bones, I was still happy with progress. It would only be a matter of time before it was ready to begin creating the right software and hardware to make it function perfectly. I looked at everything else I had to work with. I would be able to attempt a repair on the engine but I couldn¡¯t really guarantee anything. The damage that was done wasn¡¯t anything that could be easily assessed. I had figured out general location of the damage though and began printing out a new frame for it. Some time had passed and it was good enough, about as close as I would get. I then began to place some electronic components onto the frame and place similar code to the ones on the original engines broken piece. It had taken longer than I had liked but was now a hopefully better replacement for the broken area. I wasn¡¯t sure how long it would last but I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the engine for at least a short while now. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what else I could create with everything but I made a note to remind myself to ask Sam at a later date. I wouldn¡¯t be able to hide my little project forever, but I at least wanted to scare him before I showed him everything I had. I decide that I would be better off waking up Sam and telling him that I had refined water and that he could finally eat. It had been several hours and I assumed he¡¯d be mostly refreshed by now. ¡°Sam.¡± I see his body twitch in response to my voice. I didn¡¯t need to wake him up too quickly so I gave him more time before trying again. ¡°Sam, wake up.¡± He twitched again and slightly rolled over. He was still asleep and I wasn¡¯t sure how long it would take. Was he really such a heavy-sleeper? ¡°Sam!¡± I raised my voice this time and it proved to be effective. ¡°Huah? W-whatt?¡± He jumped up out of bed on full alert. It was funny seeing him go from such a sleepy state to what could possibly be considered a response to a life or death situation. ¡°Food.¡± I see his face scrunch up. I guess I interrupted his dreams. ****** I had been starving but everything was good now. Wire had managed to process water and transport it into the shuttles water pipes or something. I didn¡¯t ask for the specifics but all I knew was the taps in the kitchen now contained water and I could actually prepare a meal from the dehydrated ration packs. I retrieved a random pack of food and added water. I was too hungry to care about flavour at this point. It appeared to be white and I just crammed it into my mouth. I was greeted with a creamy texture that was not sweet or sour. It took me a few seconds to comprehend what it actually was. It had turned out that I grabbed mashed potato. It was surprisingly good, I just had to add hot water and I got a steaming lump of potato. It didn¡¯t sound that appetising but it was no different from the normal mashed potato. It took me a while to finish the food but when I did I was completely satisfied. Taking a nap was a great idea. I had time to recuperate and restore my normally cheerful outwardly appearance. Wire had mentioned that I was like a different person after I had woke up. I guess I could say the same thing about her, considering the same thing had happened when I reconnected her hard drive. ¡°I¡¯m good now. What do we do?¡± I had asked Wire what we would actually be doing now that I wasn¡¯t going to randomly drop dead before we could get anywhere or have anything completed. ¡°I think we should go to the asteroid base. I believe we¡¯ll find some answers that we won¡¯t find by continuing to stay on this ship the entire time. I¡¯m definitely not getting into the encrypted files any time soon after all.¡± She was right. I was certain that we¡¯d be able to have at least some kind of context if we continued along this path, I just wasn¡¯t sure if this would be a great idea. What if someone was expected me to arrive there? It didn¡¯t seem like there was anything else within any reasonable distance that we could get to. I decide against voicing my concerns because they were honestly baseless. They were just me being overly anxious about the situation, I¡¯m sure nothing terrible would ever come of the situation. ¡°Alright. How far away is it again?¡± I wanted to know if it would be worth just going back to sleep and saving myself the boredom. ¡°I don¡¯t believe I ever actually told you. It¡¯s located 21,058.054063 kilometers away from here. Please take note that my navigational software could be off by as much as 3-4 millimeters at the moment.¡± I could almost hear the pride dripping from her voice on the ground, saturating everything. I would have been impressed if she had honestly not brought it up. It¡¯d be a different story if she was human. ¡°Alright, how long will that take?¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how distances would really work with our engine in space. ¡°About three hours. Would you like a more accurate estimate?¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s fine.¡± I pause for a few seconds before asking something else, ¡°What should I do to pass the time?¡± I honestly aren¡¯t the best at making up my mind if it¡¯s not terribly important. ¡°I¡¯m not too sure. I could have you carry out some minor repair work, would that be acceptable?¡± ¡°That depends, it isn¡¯t too complicated, is it?¡± ¡°No, you¡¯ll be fine. Trust me.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how wise it was trusting the terminator just because they had requested my trust but I had no one else at the moment and she had proved to be loyal and helpful since I first met her earlier. ¡°Alright.¡± ****** Wire had worked me to the bone, wringing out every drop of labour she could. I guess she didn¡¯t expect me to help a second time after working so hard because no sane person would put themselves into such a rigorous regime. It saddened me that because of this she¡¯d worked me much harder than I¡¯d been comfortable doing. On the plus side I had repaired many little things around the ship and salvaged anything we deemed completely useless like coffee maker. It was wise to keep the electronic components around in case we needed them for anything in the near future. We were only half way at the moment and I wasn¡¯t sure if it was just me or not but it felt like the ship was slowing down. I waited quite a few more minutes before noticing that the speed was still dropping whenever I looked at the hologram map. ¡°Wire, why are we slowing down?¡± ¡°Ahhh, so you noticed, huh?¡± ¡°Yeah. Is it bad?¡± ¡°Yes and no. The problem is that the main engine is failing and I only have so many components to repair it. I need more time if I¡¯m going to properly fix it.¡± ¡°So does that mean we are going to keep going?¡± ¡°I believe so. There isn¡¯t much chance of a failure compared to earlier for some reason. We should be safe.¡± I had this odd feeling that there was something that she wasn¡¯t telling me but I pushed it to the back of my mind. ¡°I¡¯m finished with all the small jobs you assigned me, I¡¯m going to take a short nap. Wake me up if something happens, otherwise don¡¯t wake me until we arrive.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll see you soon.¡± I head back to the bedroom and placed myself on the bed. My favourite thing about space was obviously that there was no day or night. I could literally sleep whenever I felt like it! I hope you enjoy! I got a bit distracted with school and stuff today but I still managed to type this up somehow. I think I¡¯ll work on my other story tomorrow. After that I¡¯ll come back to this one. I¡¯ll probably keep it going like this for a while until I decide otherwise or someone has a better solution for when I post chapters or how I post them. Also, 2:00 AM so no proofread. If someone could make a comment with some of the most blatant mistakes that¡¯d be just amazing. Thanks! Chapter 4 - Felt ¡°Sam! It¡¯s time to wake up! Come on!¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how long the voice had been going for but it reminded me that I actually had stuff to do. I basically leaped out of bed when I remembered. ¡°We¡¯re there?!¡± ¡°Yeah, almost.¡± I am excited honestly, I¡¯d be able to find out more about where I was and if I had any hope of finding my way back to civilisation. If I was being realistic, I had no clue how I would, but with Wire on my side I assumed that this was just a small step of the way in a long journey ahead. ¡°What do you know about the base?¡± Wire hadn¡¯t really spoken much about it, only that it was the nearest man-made object. ¡°I really don¡¯t know much. It¡¯s listed as a mining base that mined for rare metals such as platinum and osmium. That¡¯s about it.¡± ¡°Interesting¡­¡± This base sounded like it might contain useful materials and machinery that I could use for our benefit. I wasn¡¯t too sure what it would have but anything would help. ¡°Are you going to be able to monitor me inside the base? I¡¯m not too sure I want to go in alone. It might be dangerous.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have anything to worry about. The spacesuits have built it sensors and a communications channel.¡± I was a bit confused. Why hadn¡¯t she said anything to me while I was mining the asteroid earlier? It was like she was amused by my suffering. I wasn¡¯t too sure what to think of this. ¡°Alright. How far away are we?¡± ¡°A few minutes. Do you need to do anything first?¡± Her question caught me off guard. I didn¡¯t realise I¡¯d have anything to do, I thought I completed nearly all the jobs she had given me earlier. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Hydrate yourself? Have a meal? Anything really, I can¡¯t guarantee that there is anything in the base at all. It¡¯d be a pain to have to come all the the way back to the ship half way through exploring.¡± ¡°Ahh, I¡¯m so clueless sometimes. You¡¯re right.¡± I head off to prepare for the¡­ could I call it a mission? I hope I could. It¡¯d be awesome. ****** I could feel that Sam had become distant lately. I wonder if he noticed that I haven''t been telling him everything. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he did, he seemed quite intelligent but I wasn¡¯t sure what kind of effect it would have. I stopped my train of thought and went to more pressing matters. My body that I was currently working on had been greatly reinforced and I had redesigned many different parts of it. The entire framework had been laid out and perfected to the best of my current abilities, becoming a shiny sleek futuristic-looking robot. Although I had finished the frame along with all the joints, I still had a long way to go. I needed to add servomechanisms to allow movement and also the actual electronic hardware. As it was, it was just a fancy piece of metal. After all that was completed I¡¯d need to write up some software that would allow me to take control of the body and have fine tuned movement, so I could be precise and accurate with everything I did. Scanning through the pile of electronic components I find several items of interest, I first confirm that Sam is indeed distracted before I bring them over to the robot¡¯s body. I have the printer pick up a few pieces and connect them.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. It took a few minutes, but I had hooked up a several different parts. A CPU for independent actions, I wouldn¡¯t need to be controlling the body for it to do stuff or basic calculations. I connected storage space so that information could be stored and recalled with ease rather than using wireless networks which had slow transfer speeds. I had added a power core. It was nuclear-based but I had a feeling uranium wouldn¡¯t be too hard to find out here. I also installed a backup battery which could easily be charged but I wasn¡¯t too sure if it would prove to be useful. Uranium was quite efficient after all. Lastly, I gave it a wireless adapter so I could communicate with it. I made sure to give my account full permissions so I could access and change everything as I saw fit. Although I had connected some parts, it was basically still just skin and bones. Hardly fleshed out at all. I could give it basic commands wirelessly but I wouldn¡¯t be able to actually occupy the body. It just wouldn¡¯t be the same if I couldn¡¯t actually experience it. Why watch someone play a game when you can play yourself? It was obvious that this small piece of technology would still be a great help from now on, seeing as I could actually move stuff exactly like I wanted. This was much better than relying on a conveyor belt to get the job done. I noticed that Sam was starting to finish up so I turned my full attention back to him. ¡°Are you almost ready Sam, we¡¯re here.¡± ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s do this.¡± ****** Although the spacesuit was protecting me from the extreme thermal temperature, I could still feel the chill permeate through my bones. It was unpleasant but I wasn¡¯t going to drop dead any time soon. I was absolutely fine after mining the asteroid for a few hours. I can handle this, besides, I¡¯m going to be inside. Floating towards the asteroid base, I establish a connection with Wire. "So what exactly are we likely to find in there?" "I''m not sure Sam, but I can say with a roughly 99.99% certainty there won''t be any lifeforms inside." I figuratively wipe away the bead of sweat I didn''t know I had dripping down my forehead. Venturing closer I arrive on to a flat area in front of the torn asunder airlock. Moving past the shredded and twisted iron fragments, I step inside the base. Boxes, lots and lots of boxes, I see various odds and ends and even some expensive looking components. It almost looks like the base was abandoned in a rush. I head towards the hallway adjacent to the entrance. Several doorways branch off on the left and the right. "Where should I head to?" "I don''t believe you''ll be able to get through any of the closed doors. Not without power at the very least, due to a locking mechanism." "True, true." I can''t argue with her. I pick the nearest door that''s somewhat ajar and squeeze through the gap. What''s this? More boxes but it''s far more interesting this time. Fleshy coloured panels, likely designed for cyborgs or androids, strewn roughlythrough many of the boxes. "Guess what I found, Wire!" My voice quivers in excitement at the future prospects of this find. "Very good Sam, I wonder what we will use this stuff for." I almost feel like she is hiding something, maybe patronising me. Thoughts of her calling me a good little human flash through my mind. I shake my head to clear the ridiculous scene forming. Time and a place, Sam. Next room I guess. Taking the nearest open door, I head inside, easily this time. The room has many complex consoles and buttons, likely used to control the bases functions or something. I wipe some dust off a random panel and read the word ''Communications''. This would probably come in handy, if I could get this place some power. "Wire, can you remind me to come back here later, in case I forget?" "Absolutely, Sam." Wouldn''t hurt for her to chime in occasionally without me calling on her, right? Never mind, I have lots to still inspect and search. I head back out into the hallway, very slightly opening the door wider as I squeeze through the gap forcefully. I look around before moving down the hallway into a recreational area. Observing my surrounds, I spot an old billiards table. Neat, not sure why you''d want something so immovable though. However, other than that, a small bar off to the side and a few recliners around, the room was very scarce of useful resources. I wonder if they even had good alcohol here? Is space alcohol different? Can you brew a nice drink in space? I definitely need to find out. Once again, disappointed at the previous room, yet excited for maybe getting drunk in space, I head towards a door that is slightly cracked open. I could probably pry this open, yeah? Placing my fingers in the gap, holding onto a metal bar nearby and yanking as hard as I can, I barely manage to open it enough to squeeze through. I peek through the gap and feel my blood freeze. What the fuck is that?! An ominous face stares back at me, silently without a word. "Ahhh, Wire!"