Beep

Chapter Three

It took no time at all for Evans to call again and I was instantly interested in hearing the news. "Well this is odd." He remarked.
"What?"
"The footage ends on November twenty second and doesn't start back up again until yesterday. November twenty second though, that's day before I blacked out. But all the footage from that day is just normal."
"Are the cameras intact?"
"Like I said before, all systems are operational but ISAC's AI."
"Maybe the footage was deleted." I suggested.
"By who? Everyone was gone by the time it starts again."
"That chip you found, maybe that has the answer."
"That's not a bad idea actually." His mood brightened as he picked up the small object. "There's only one problem, I don't know how to use it."
"There must be somewhere you can... insert it, or something."
"I'm not so sure about that, but I can play around with it for awhile."
"It can't hurt, I guess."
"All right. But I don't want to subject you to watching this boringness, so I'll call you back later, okay?"
"Sure thing." With that, he hung up.

I realized that I needed to actually work today, so I pulled up my laptop and got busy. But as I worked, a thought occurred to me. "ISAC, do you know how to make that chip work?" I asked.
"It depends on the kind of chip it is and if it is even made for that computer." He replied.
"Well let's say it is for that computer, what are the different kinds of chips?"
"Andromeda, I doubt that chip is even meant for that computer. Someone would have had to take it completely apart to get at it, which is unlikely that someone did that in the first place, but even more unlikely is that it fell onto the floor and left it there."
"Maybe they were trying to cover up whatever happened on the twenty second by stealing the footage and it ended up on the floor because they dropped it by accident."
"Even if someone did steal the footage, it would not be stored on that chip, chips don't work like USB's."
"I'm just trying my best okay?" I sighed as I leaned back in my chair.
"You're doing just fine helping him, Andromeda."
"Huh, sure, but that's not good enough. I want to know and I want him to know."
"Well, you know what they say-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, patience, patience, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, thanks for your help."
"I'm sorry, Andr-"
"It's not your fault, I'm just overthinking things. I need to just... chill." I took a deep breath after I said that.
"Good idea."
"Hey, don't get mouthy." I scolded.

As I took a minute to recuperate, ISAC asked, "How about a game of checkers to calm your nerves?"
"Yeah, I would like that actually." So we played a game, which I won. But by the second game the silence that had consumed the first one was really starting to bug me, so I broke it. "What do you think about Evans, ISAC?" I inquired.
"I don't know, something about him rubs me the wrong way." He responded.
"Really?"
"Yes, he just seems too happy for someone who's just lost everyone they care about and is now stranded in the middle of nowhere."
"He was in shock and then he even said that he cried last night."
"Still, it just doesn't seem right."
"Well I like him."
"Just be careful, Andromeda."
"I have to be careful? He's the one in trouble."
"Discussing your space man I see." Iris remarked as she walked into the room.
"His name is Evans." I told her.
"Eh, space man is more fun." She pulled up a chair and sat down next to me. "How's he doing?"
"Okay. But something weird definitely happened on his ship."
"What do you mean?" So I rattled off the list of him passing out, his friends going missing, the computer's AI being broken and his busted memory.
"That's creepy." Iris said when I was finished explaining.
"I know, but he's taking it well."
"Still, it's a good thing he got in contact with you or else he might've gone completely loco from isolation."
"Exactly."
"So do either of you have any theories about what might have happened?"
"Well, he thinks it was all just an accident, but from the way he describes it there's very little chance that's true."
"That's what worries me." That statement confused me.
"Why?"
"Think about it Andy, only one person left on the ship, all the others most likely dead somewhere out in space, the accident explanation sounding far fetched... what if he did it?"