The captain awakens to the loud beeping of medical equipment whilst Merlo and Pavona sit next to him on his right and ARG-05 looks at him with a fearful expression. The captain touches his helmet to find that it's no longer cracked and by the looks of it, more of the green liquid was in it. The captain slowly sits up and ARG-05 notices him, making his fearful expression quickly change to surprised then happy as he says, "Oh thank god, don't scare me like that again, Captain, I thought you died". The captain nods as he says, "I'll try not to scare you again ARGOS". The captain looks around the room to find that it's the med bay on the spaceship, but it looked significantly more functional than the last time he was in this room.
He looks to his right to see both Bengino, with a bandage going across his chest, and Serafina. Bengino notices that the captain is awake and yells out " ne vous inquiétez pas pour moi Capitaine, votre copain robot a dit que le saignement était entièrement interne, c'est là où il est censé être, donc c'est une bonne chose (don't worry about me Captain, your robot buddy said the bleeding was all internal which is where it's supposed to be, so that's a good thing)" ARG-05 begins translating it to the captain by showing what Bengino is saying in English on his screen. Serafina facepalms whilst snickering which makes Bengino confused as he asks " Pourquoi ris-tu, mon amour? (Why are you laughing, my love?)". Serafina stops laughing and smiles at him whilst holding his head with her hand as she says " Oh ne t'inquiète pas pour toi, mignon adorable mannequin (Oh don't worry about you, cute loveable dummy)". Bengino chuckles and says " ok mon Amore (okay my Amore)" which makes Serafina's smile brighten as she kisses him on the forehead.
Meanwhile, Merlo and Pavona hug for a couple of seconds before Pavona lets go and says in a joking tone "So you're Squinty huh? How come you didn't invite me to join in on your rebellion, I'll have you know that I would make an excellent second in command and I wouldn't have even snitched on you to dad". Merlo lets out a loud cackle as they replied, "Yeah sure miss goody two shoes, as if!". Pavona lightly pushes Merlo, giggling, before yelling "I would have been a great second in command and you know it". The captain begins to zone out of their conversation as he looks around the med bay with only one thing on his mind.
'Where is Sophia?'
Confused, thinking that they left her to die, he asks "Where's Sophia ...and ARG-04?". ARG-05 switches to an idle expression as he says in a monotone voice "Well we didn't leave them to die like what I'm assuming you're thinking, we just removed the bullet in her shoulder, cauterised it and left her to rest before ARG-04 tried to kill you while you were unconscious so I threw them into one of our high-tech prison cells, near the trash compartment at the bottom of the ship along with that I also took the time to ensure that ARG-04's files on the main spaceship are properly quarantined this time so he can't sabotage the ship nor access it the ship at all, he's stuck in Sophia's helmet for the time being". The captain frowns slightly as he looks to the ground with a guilty expression, ARG-05, ignoring the captain’s slight sadness switches back to his happy expression as he asks, "are you ready to go back to Earth, Captain?"
The captain is taken back, completely confused as he asks, "Wait wait wait what about these guys, I mean like Bengino just got pardoned, Merlo didn't you want to stay to continue your rebellion and what about Pavona didn't you want to stay with your dad?"
"Eh bien, je suis presque sûr que ma sœur me déteste avant même qu'on fasse exploser une partie de sa chambre, alors qu'est-ce que c'est, non? Et en plus, Bengino est toujours en quête d'aventure et qui d'autre le protégerait lorsqu'il fonce tête baissée dans les lignes ennemies? (Well, I'm pretty sure my sister hates me even before we blew up a part of her room so what the hell, right? And besides Bengino is always wanting adventure and who else would protect him when he runs headfirst into enemy lines?)" said Serafina as she hugs Bengino from behind and ARG-05 quickly translates to English for the Captain. "Well, my point still stands what about Pavona and Merlo?" said the captain as he looked over to the two of them.
"Well, I already said goodbye to my parents, and I would much rather have fun with my little brother than stay there," said Pavona as they smiled at the captain.
"And as for me, I also said goodbye to my Mum and Dad already and my dad told me to give you a letter so here," Merlo says as they pull out a letter and hand it over to the captain. The Captain takes the letter and Merlo continues "Also, I hope you don't mind but one of my Loculator friends is going to be joining us on the flight and also a bunch of my goons are already on and they're now responding to your command Willi- Captain, as for the rest of my goons they'll continue with the rebellion plans, ensuring that my dad doesn't get caught in the crossfire". The captain shrugs as he opens the fancy envelope and pulls out the letter which reads 'Hello William, I'm sorry that I won't be able to say this in person but nevertheless I couldn't thank you enough for what you did. Although I'd love my kids to stay with me ultimately, it's not my decision to decide if they want to go and at least I know that they're not in bad hands. Please ensure that neither of my children die and they're able to write to me so we can remain in contact. Once again, I can't thank you enough. Yours Truly, Avvoltoio Corvino.'. The captain smiles as he reads the letter before he looks over to ARG-05 and says "Okay, let's go back to Earth then".
ARG-05 smiles before switching over to one of the monitors in the main control room as he turns on the autopilot. The captain quickly gets up and walks over to the room as Merlo and Pavona follow him while Serafina stays with Bengino. Once they get over to the main control room, they watch the view as they leave the planet's atmosphere before they're out of the atmosphere and far away. The captain stretches and yawns as he says, "Well that was a crazy week or two, y'know, one thing that sucks about my head tangling in this stuff is that I can't drink coffee anymore".
"Yes, that is true, but at least you're alive, maybe you should go take a nap, you look tired" said ARG-05 looking at him.
The captain looks at him for a second before saying "No it's fine I don't need to sleep."
ARG-05 switches to one of his side-eye expressions before quickly switching to his angry expression as he says "Captain, no, we are not having this talk again, go to sleep and don't you dare say that you don't need it because it helps you get faster results because I swear, I will personally go against my programming to throw you out of the airlock."
The captain gives up trying to avoid sleeping as he says "Alright alright fine I'm going to sleep right now" before the captain heads to his quarters. Whilst the spaceship is flying through space, Merlo looks out a window, watching the silent, dead and coldness of space. After a few minutes, Bengino walks over to them, holding some food and without a word, sits down next to Merlo, staring out the window as well, as he offers some food which Merlo takes as Bengino says " Donc cette chose spatiale est assez grande, hein? (So this space thing is pretty big huh?)"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"ouais je suppose que oui (yeah I guess so)" said Merlo smiling.
" Alors, quel travail le capitaine t'a-t-il donné, il m'a confié les communications et la sécurité parce qu'il pense que je serai bon pour ça, qu'est-ce qu'il t'a donné? (So, what job did Captain give you, he gave me communications and security because he thinks I'll be good at it, what did he give you?)" said Bengino looking over at Merlo, waiting for an answer.
"Il ne m'a pas carrément dit ce que je faisais mais je suppose d'après ce que m'a dit ARGOS, expert en armes à cause de la façon dont j'ai- euh... tiré sur Sophia avec mon arme et pratiquement sauvé la vie du capitaine (He didn't outright tell me what I was doing but I'm assuming from what ARGOS told me, weapons expert because of how I- uh... shot Sophia with my gun and practically saved the captain's life)"
"Oh, d'accord, mais comment lui avez-vous sauvé la vie? (Oh, okay but how did you save his life?)"
"Tu sais quand le capitaine a été jeté par la fenêtre et que la personne qui t'a poignardé a sauté par la fenêtre après lui, n'est-ce pas? (You know when the captain got thrown out of the window and that person who stabbed you jumped out the window after him, right?)" Merlo asked looking at Bengino who nods before Merlo continues "ouais alors après avoir sauté, le capitaine n'a pas pu se tenir debout parce qu'il était fondamentalement à l'agonie parce que ses côtes étaient cassées et tout, alors cette personne est allée le poignarder de la même manière qu'il l'a fait pour vous mais n'a pas pu parce que j'ai fini lui tirer dessus, le faire s'évanouir, c'est logique? (yeah so after he jumped out, the captain wasn't able to stand because he was basically in agony from his ribs being broken and all, so that person went to stab him the same way he did to you but couldn't because I ended up shooting him, making him pass out, make sense?)"
Bengino thinks about it for a few seconds before nodding. "Hey, je pense que ça pourrait être la planète ARG-05 et dont le capitaine parlait (Hey, I think this might be the planet ARG-05 and the captain were talking about)" said Merlo as they looked out the window and watch the spaceship go into Earth's orbit. They were both in shock as they landed on a runway of sorts, hovering just above the ground as they both heard a loud door opening. They both quickly rush over to it however the captain is already there with Pavona and Serafina as he yells "alright guys stay put, let me talk to him and explain the situation and I'll be back". The captain walks out of the ship walking down the small platform to the ground before walking towards a large building. As he's walking through the building, he gets more and more stares of shock and horror, making the captain feel nervous. After what felt like to him an eternity, he finally reached a room which was labelled 'The Chief of the Astronaut Office'. The captain took a nervous breath for a second before slowly knocking on the door as he heard a loud "you may come in" from a male voice inside.
The captain slowly opens the door and closes it behind him, revealing a fairly big office with a man sitting at a desk, sifting through paperwork. The man looks up as he says, "Oh well if it isn't Mr Mil- oh... what happened to you?". The captain sighs before saying "Well it's a long story Mr Nelson" which makes the man motion to a chair as he says, "I got time". The Captain sits on the chair which the man was motioning to before saying "Well how do I put this, so basically we were on the mission and everything was fine for a few weeks but then there was an attack and I may or may not have been critically injured so ARGOS quickly decided to fill my helmet with this green liquid which also may or may not have melted off my skin, I can't feel this of course but if I take off my helmet I can only assume I'll die but that's beside the point so a couple of days later, I'm about to just end the mission but ARGOS stops me from doing it and then our engine gets sabotage by- and I kid you not, ARG-04 and S-". Mr Nelson begins cackling as he says "ARG-04 yeah real funny story, is this like your other story about how ARG-02 mysteriously went missing, c'mon tell me the real story, I won't care even if it's as stupid as you accidentally splashed battery acid on your face".
"Mr Nelson, I swear to you I'm telling you the truth; I don't know how ARG-04 managed to do that but still I'm telling the truth,” said the Captain as he got up. Mr Nelson keeps laughing as he says "Look, William, I gave you a chance with the creation of the ARG robots but this is absurd, you gotta admit, I mean how can an AI with no limbs possibly hack a spaceship with a self-aware robot on board with view of everything on said spaceship, look how about you just go back on your spaceship and you can continue your ARG robot work, it's either that I'll fire you and you'll probably end up dead in the streets or something, I'll even be nice and said that you died on the mission so you can still keep your ARG-05 prototype, either way I don't care, it'll just take up less paperwork for me besides that spaceship would probably be unable to be reused because of the ship's AI anyways besides it has enough fuel to last for hundreds of years, it's your call"
The captain walks over to the door as he says, "I'll stay on the ship then, goodbye Roger". The captain walks out of the room, ensuring that he shuts the door before he storms out of the building. The captain walks over to his spaceship before he can reach the platform, he's stopped by a woman with short brown hair in an astronaut suit, running over as she yells "Mr Miller wait!". The Captain stops in his tracks, waiting for the woman to catch up to him, when she does, she doesn't say anything for a few seconds before quickly blurting out "Mr Miller, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Mr Nelson and I believe you Mr Miller, in fact, I look up to you, your advancements in robots, truly amazing, so I was wondering if I would be able to join you as one of your crew members?"
The captain smiles as he says, "Sure why not but just so you're aware besides me and ARGOS the rest of my crew are basically aliens". The woman nods as she says "Okay, that shouldn't be a problem". They both walk into the spaceship and head over to the main control room. Once they get there, the captain looks over to ARG-05 and says, "ARGOS, can you call a meeting before we set off? I want to introduce everyone to our newest crew member". ARG-05 switches to a smiling expression before saying "Okay Captain" as he calls a meeting. Everyone on the spaceship heads to the main control room before the Captain begins his speech "Okay guys so good news bad news, bad news, I have been told to basically never come back and on Earth I'm now considered to be dead but we are allowed to keep the spaceship so we can go on missions of our own in this for a long time anyways moving onto the good news, we have a new crewmate, who I have decided just now that, she'll be making sure that ARG-04 doesn't break out of his prison cell and bringing Sophia food and her name is uh-"
"Kioko Aiuchi, it's a pleasure to meet everyone and I can't wait to be in space with you all" said Kioko, smiling which looks more like a slight grimace for a second. The captain smiles as he says, "Great well now that's settled, it's about time we take off, right ARGOS?". ARG-05 switches to an idle expression as he replies, "Yes of course Captain". The spaceship begins to take off and everyone goes back to work however whilst Kioko is leaving the room, she side-eyes something above Merlo's head before she walks through the hallway and the door automatically closes behind her. After a couple of minutes, they're out of Earth's orbit and ARG-05 quickly turns on the 3D map and begins flying in a random direction, he switches to his smiling expression as he asks the captain "So where to next?"