Zorto-13

Chapter 3

We sat down in a spaceship, and I saw the tablet I used for seeing my file. It had been a long time since I held it and the material felt just like my tablet did. "You okay?" the guy asked and sat down next to me. I nodded and swiped up on the tablet so that the tablet screen was projected in the air and was floating in front of us. I saw the guy looking at the same button I did 3 years ago: 'passenger information'.

"You don't have to if you don't want to", I told him. He shook his head and pressed the button. A picture of him appeared and text began to write itself: 'Name: Caleb Rogers, date of birth: 21 May 2080, parents: Peter and Lena Rogers.' I saw Caleb swallowing and I handed him the tablet, I scrolled down on it, so it didn't projected in the air anymore and so he could have some privacy. 'Do you mind if I get some clothes from this ship? I wore this from the moment Abigail shut down." He nodded, knowing what Abigail was as I told him everyhting on the way to his ship. "Of course, if you can find some." I smiled and walked to the back.

It looked exactly like mine, but this time, the huge button on the floor didn't say 'Abigail', but 'John'. I stepped on it and saw a male version of the Abigail head appear. "Hello Lailah, I am John, an ultra-modern technology device designed to give Caleb everything he needs. But what can I do for you?" "Some fresh clothes, please", I said and the John head transformed into the clothing list. It felt like a long time I had scrolled through that list but I managed to select an outfit. I changed clothes and came back to the front of the ship. Caleb was poking around the steering wheel. "What are you doing?", I asked him, but John answered instead. "There are 3872 errors on the ship. Caleb is helping so the ship will be repaired faster." Three thousand eight hundred seventy-two. Where have I heard that before? "That's exactly how many errors my ship had!", I said and Caleb looked up. "That's odd", he said. "John, is that possible?" The John head appeared. "Of course, your ship, the CLBA12, and Lailah's, the AHTZ37, are both made from the same company. They installed the ship to go to this planet, Zorto-13, but both your ships are made for only one ride." I stepped forward: "John, why did Caleb arrive later than me? And where are all the other ships?" The John head transformed into Earth and zoomed out, all the way to what looked to be Earth again, but this time it said: 'Zorto-13'. "386032 ships from Smith Space Technology are on their way to Zorto-13. Sadly, I am not programmed to see how far their course to this planet it." I saw that Caleb realised something and grabbed the tablet. "John, what company did you say our ships are from?" Zorto-13 transformed back to the John-head as he answered. "Smith Space Technology", he answered and Caleb started typing. He handed me the tablet and I could see why the name sounded so familiar. "Oh, shit."