Beep

Chapter Two

"Seriously, how did you guys not know this?" Iris questioned. "I mean, Turner I can understand, but you Andy? Especially you Raymond, considering how paranoid you are."
"It doesn't matter if we knew, what matters is that we know now and we have someone that needs our help." I told her.
"Maybe we can establish a connection to the ship sending the signal and talk to whoever sent it." She suggested.
"That seems like the right next step. ISAC, get on that please." I instructed.
"Getting on that." We waited for a second as the screen displayed the message 'trying to secure a connection to server' and eventually turned to 'connection failed'. "Sorry, I couldn't establish a connection at this time."
"Then we keep trying." I declared.
"Listen, of course I want to help whoever is calling us, but I'm also about to pass out any second." Iris announced. "Are you okay with taking this one alone?"
"Sure, I'm way too invested in this to go to sleep now."
"I'll stay up with you." Raymond offered.
"That's fine, you don't need anymore stress right now."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine; I'm not going to blow up the ship or anything."
"That better not come back to bite you or I won't hold back with my 'I told you so'."  With that playful warning, all three of them left.

"Okay ISAC, let's try this thing again." I said, settling into the chair in front of the mainframe, preparing for the long haul. We spent the next while just trying to connect over and over and over again, my determination never faltering. Finally, at five o'clock in the morning, I was on my last attempt. I watched the little loading circle spin hopelessly, really just prolonging the inevitable. Then I dropped my head onto the table with a long yawn.
"Connection established." My eyes popped open at the words.
"Wait, f-for real?" I inquired, astonished.
"Uh yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm for real, at least." The voice wasn't ISAC's, it came from the man on the screen, the man who had sent the distress signal. He was surprisingly good looking actually, blonde, blue eyes, crooked smile, the only thing that bothered me was the bit of scruff on his chin (which I assumed was from being stuck in whatever situation that had caused him to send out the signal in the first place). But I had no time to judge his features, as he was obviously in need of some kind of urgent attention.
"Oh my god, are you all right?"
"Well, for a guy stuck in space alone on a ship with no course who has absolutely no flying experience, I'm doing pretty good." I chuckled lightly at that.
"How can I help you Mr. Inexperienced Space Man?" I inquired.
"Uh... you could start by giving me some directions."
"Where are you now and where are you heading to, captain?"
"No idea and Mars, I think."
"'No idea and you think'? That's not exactly the best footing to start off on."
"I just woke up okay? I've been out for... what day is it today?"
"Monday, or I guess technically Tuesday, the twenty sixth." Then I started to wonder if that was enough. "November, 2099."
"So, three days."
"And you're all alone?"
"Apparently."
"I assume that means you weren't always alone."
"No, definitely not. It wasn't anything big, just a fun little trip with some friends, obviously it didn't go according to plan."
"You sound pretty calm for all you've been through in such a short period of time."
"Shock helps. So does talking to you, though."
"Glad I could help, I guess."
"Well, I'm gonna need a lot more of that in the coming days, they could be rough."
"I'm here whenever you need me. But maybe you should just get some rest for now."
"I've been resting for three days, what I really need is some food. So I'll go hunt down some of that and you can get some rest because it is way past your bedtime young lady."
"Haha, aye, aye, captain."
"Hey, call me Evans."
"Evans? Not Evan?"
"It's a last name. Just... stick with that, okay?"
"Sure thing Evans. You can call me Andy."
"Great, I'll talk to you later, Andy."
"Good luck."
"Thanks, I'm probably going to need it." With that, the screen went dark. I sat back in my chair, soaking in everything that had just happened. I liked this Evans guy, which just made me even more committed to helping him. As I climbed into bed, my thoughts were all with him, a smile appearing along with them.

The next day it wasn't a beep that woke me up, but a banging at my door. Still half asleep and not feeling very rested, I got up and opened it. Iris was standing there, looking expectant. "Listen, we let you sleep in until noon, now we want to hear the news." She said. That's when the memories hit me and all of a sudden I'd never felt so awake.
"Oh my god, he's amazing."
"Hold on, come into the kitchen so you can tell the others too." She brought me into the kitchen and sat herself down while I stayed standing. "So you did talk to someone?" I could hear her excitement growing.
"Mhm, Evans."
"What did he need help with?" Raymond inquired.
"He's lost."
"Lost?"
"Yeah, he doesn't know where he is, barely knows where he's going and wasn't trained to fly a ship."
"So, he's basically screwed?" Turner concluded.
"I don't think so, it's just going to take some effort." I explained.
"I know that's something you're not used to giving, Turner." Iris teased.
"Shut up. Anyways, when do we get to meet this guy?"
"I'm not sure. I really don't want to overwhelm him right now, he's been through a lot."
"Pfft." Iris blurted.
"What?"
"Nothing." I chose to ignore that little out of nowhere outburst. The other two didn't argue, or 'pfft', so that was good.

After that I headed to the main room, eager to see how Evans was doing. The connection took no time at all today and the next thing I knew Evans smiling face was on the screen. "Well, our food supplies haven't been damaged at least." He told me, biting into an apple.
"That's good."
"I did find something interesting on my way though, it looks like a computer chip." He held up the small, square, black and green object.
"It sure does. But what was it doing on the floor?"
"I don't really know, there was nothing else on the floor, the area was completely clean."
"This must have something to do with the disappearance of your friends."
"Oh yeah, my shock faded last night. Now I probably shouldn't admit this, if only for the sake of my dignity, but I cried like a baby last night."
"Aww, well I'm truly sorry for you loss." I comforted.
"Thanks. Uh, anyways, just wanted to let you know that so you didn't think I was heartless or something."
"I never thought that, just so you know. But moving on, what do you think may have happened to them?"
"It could've just been an accident."
"That made them disappear and left you merely passed out?" I questioned, skeptical.
"So you're saying it was planned?"
"I'm not going to go jumping to any conclusions, but I'm just saying it'd have to be a pretty layered accident."
"It doesn't help that they're gone either. Like, where did they even go?"
"Well, there's a lot of space out there for them to get lost in."
"But how did they get out there? The airlock was closed when I woke up and there's no damage to the ship's exterior."
"How do you know the status of your ship's exterior."
"The magic of standard issue ISAC's." He replied.
"That's right, you do have an ISAC." I realized. "Can he tell you anything about the crash?"
"His artificial intelligence function is broken, he's only about as useful as those archaic search engines from the twenty ten's." 
"Can you access the airlock security footage?" That was about the only place a spaceship used for leisurely travel would have a camera and there was only one there for safety reasons.
"Probably, so I guess I'll try that. I will have to hang up to do that though, so this is goodbye for now."
"Bye Evans." As the screen went black I zoned out on it for a good two whole minutes. When I was finally shaken back to reality, I started to understand Iris's 'pfft'.