Beep

Chapter Six

"What was I thinking?" Evans voice broke me from my grin fest. "You have to tell me what to do, I'm useless without you."
"What else is new?" I joked, the bliss still wearing off.
"Andy, seriously. You know I love to joke but I love to live more."
"Okay, how far away is the storm?" I asked, zoning in with laser focus.
"It's actually coming towards me just as much as I'm coming towards it; the ship nearly got hit by a rogue meteor just a second ago."
"Great, so we have an inexperienced pilot heading straight for a cluster of death rocks, hurray." I said sarcastically.
"That's the best response you've got?" He questioned.
"Hey, I know just as much about this as you do. But really, it can't be that much different than driving."
"Okay, then riddle me this, how do you change your car from autopilot to manual?"
"Fine, so were both useless."
"If I die here, I just want you to know that-"
"Hold on a second," I started, cutting him off. "oh I'm such an idiot. Turner!" On every ship there was one person trained to be able to fly it in case of emergency. Now, believe it or not, for us that person was Turner.
"What's up?" He asked, popping into the room in seconds.
"You need to tell Evans how to fly his ship, like, right now."
"But first, tell me how I turn off autopilot."
"Oh, oh god, okay." He seemed just as nervous as the two of us. "So, see that big red button there?"
"Yeah."
"Press that." As Evans moved off screen to do that, Turner changed his mind. "Wait! I think it's the green button actually."
"Are you sure?" Evans asked, looking more nervous than ever.
"I'm sure. Or was it the blue one?"
"Turner!" I scolded.
"I'm sorry, I never thought I'd actually have to do this!" He took a deep breath before speaking again. "Okay, the red one, definitely the red one."
"If this gets me ejected into space I swear to god..." I heard the button ding when he pressed it and we all took a collective breath of relief. "All right, that was one lucky guess, now you just need thirty two."
"That was not a lucky guess. Now do you want me to save your butt or not?" Turner questioned.
"Okay, okay, continue."
"At this point it pretty much is just like driving, except the car is much bigger, much heavier and much slower on turns."
"Woah!" As Evans yelped I heard a loud banging and gasped. "I'm hit! I'm hit!"
"Don't panic, these things are made to have some resistance. Just try not to-" As Turner rattled off his instructions another banging sounded. "Get... hit... again..."
"I guess it's a little late for that."
"All right, it's definitely time for me to stop talking and let you focus, that's the only way you're getting out of this."
"No, I need your help." He begged.
"I can't help you anymore, it's all up to you now. Just remember to stay vigilant and act fast, but also remember to think. I wouldn't want you swerving away from one meteor and straight into another."
"You can do this, Evans, I know you can." I encouraged.
"Let's hope you're right." For the next couple of minutes we could only go off of sounds to tell how it was going. The sounds helped though, most were 'woah''s and 'oh my god''s from Evans, and none were bangs. "I'm glad you can't see me right now, Andy; obviously a clump of meteors is no place for a coward."
"Focus." Turner reminded sternly.
"Woah! Thanks man, I almost got hit there." I had to admit, I was pretty impressed with how seriously and effectively Turner had dealt with the situation. "Wait, everybody hold their breath." Evans instructed. We actually did as told and waited in silence to find out what was going on. I learned in that moment that I was really bad at holding my breath, feeling starved for air after just a few seconds. Just as I was getting to the point where I couldn't hold it any longer, Evans spoke again.
"Woo! I made it!" He cheered. "I had to squeeze between two meteors back there and almost got crushed, but I didn't, so yay!" His face appeared on the screen again and he raised an eyebrow when he noticed what we were doing. "Did you guys actually hold your breath?" I finally let out my air in one huge puff, desperate to breath again.
"Why no, of course not." I joked, still puffing.
"You guys crack me up."
"So you're alive?" Turner asked.
"I'm alive." We all cheered together. "Thanks for your help, by the way. I would've been dead meat without you."
"I'm always here if you need me. Now, I'm hungry and ready for round two with that toaster, wish me luck."
"Good luck." As I said that Evans just raised an eyebrow, confused. "Don't ask." Once Turner was out of the room I looked into the screen and smiled. "You're not a coward, by the way; at least I don't think so." I told him.
"Well that makes one of us."

Then he just sat there silently for a moment and I knew he had something to say, he just wouldn't say it. "What is it?" I inquired after a moment.
"Well, I've been thinking."
"Uh oh." I joked and he flashed me the evil eye.
"Anyways, I've been thinking and I believe that this chip has all the answers to what happened on the day I was knocked out and what made my friends disappear. So I think I'm just gonna dedicated myself to figuring this thing out for the next couple days."
"That's not a bad idea."
"So, I'm not going to waste any time, I just want to jump right into this. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Okay. Try not to get hit by any meteoroids in the meantime, all right?"
"Well, I'll try." With a grin he hung up.
"Huh, I love you, Evans."

"Aw, come on!" I heard Turner cry out.
"Are you fighting with the toaster again?" I asked.
"Ugh, I wish." As he entered the room, I noticed that he was... wet?
"I'm scared to ask."
"I'll just say two words, the toilet." I cringed when he said that. "I think just about every appliance on this ship is out to get me."
"ISAC, are you up to your old tricks again?"
"Why must it always be my fault?" He snapped.
"Jeez, it was just a joke." I soothed, caught off guard. Then I turned back to Turner. "So, what did you do to aggravate the toilet and the toaster, huh?"
"I have no idea!"
"Oh, it's not just him. The toaster is fighting me now too." We both turned to see Iris standing in the doorway. "Not to mention that Raymond is having trouble with the lights in his room."
"Hmm... ISAC, can you run a diagnostic?" I asked.
"Of course." It took no time at all for him to start down the laundry list of problems. "The lighting, plumbing and cooking systems are all experiencing unexplained difficulties."
"Can you fix it?"
"How can I fix it when I don't know what's wrong?" His tone- though mostly robotic- was clearly a bit harsh.
"Jeez, do you need to take a nap or something? You're awfully grumpy today." I remarked.
"Sorry I can't tend to your every whim."
"Okay, that's it, I think you need to power down for awhile."
"No. I'm done, Andromeda."
"Power down!" I demanded, pressing the 'force power down' button. The mainframe screen went black and I took a deep breath. When I turned back to Turner and Iris, they both had puzzled expressions on their faces. "What?" I questioned. Neither of them responded, instead they just shook their heads and then slowly walked away. Sure, I got too angry too quickly, but it wasn't exactly unjustified. I took one last look at the mainframe computer and then walked out of the room, I needed to clear my head.

  ***

Although I was in bed until ten in the morning, I never really slept. At first it was just anger that kept me awake, but once that faded I only stayed up because then I needed to vent. But I couldn't vent because if I called Evans I would have to restart ISAC and then complain about ISAC when he could hear what I was saying about him, it would just end terribly for everyone. So I avoided leaving my room until there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find Iris standing in the doorway. "Listen, I  know what you need right now. So you go talk to your space man and we'll keep ISAC off your back, okay?" A smile took over my face as she said the words and I jumped into her arms.
"You really are the best." I told her.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." She released herself from the hug. "Just remember that you owe me one, a lot of ones actually." With that she walked away and I was left to do a little happy dance on my own. After I'd gotten myself looking absolutely impeccable, I raced out the door and into the main room.

The usual green smiley face was on the screen, but he didn't say anything when I walked in. That's when I heard laughter coming from what I assumed to be the kitchen and knew that Iris was fulfilling her end of the bargain. I grinned. "Perfect." I settled myself in front of the mainframe computer and sent a call to Evans. As I waited eagerly, the screen suddenly turned red and a message appeared, 'connection failed'. "What?" I asked aloud. My heart started pounding though I tried to control it. "ISAC, I need you to put our differences aside for a second and run a diagnostic."
"Running diagnostic." Was all he said. I watched the screen helplessly as it worked through the request. "In addition to the issues with the lighting, plumbing and cooking systems, the communications system is offline."
"No. No, no, no, no. You must know what's going on with it."
"Unfortunately, I do not." I was starting to think that he did know what was causing this. I was starting to think that he knew exactly what it was... because it was him.