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.
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“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!