Twelve hours had passed since Tom, Jessica's new android buddy, started charging. This seemed like a long time to her but she was unaware of how much time lapsed between her own charges. She had poked at his face, opened his eyelids, and examined his silver eyes out of curiosity of her new race. Charging left him in a deadlike state, so she pretended he was sleeping and quitely directed her drones toward finishing the Water and Waste additions to the vessel.
Unfortunately getting the drones to split their duties was like herding cats. Once the man had gone under, she had moved the carrier drones to the Materials Storage to help with the new construction. The trouble with this was that now no mined resources were being carried to the Storage. And production kept stopping because of these mistakes.
After 18 hours had passed, Jessica became concerned for Tom. By then she had already produced the new Farming Pod and had the ladder throughway extended to its entrance. Inside the room were walls of glass like drawers that provided optimal growth and size for its set plant seed. This was only Farming Pod I, too. The amount of foods they could grow was overwhelming. She could choose the seeds to plant, but with the millions of recorded seeds in the database she didnt know where to start. She wasnt even sure what to do with the food once they had it.
She looked over at Tom and persed her lips. At least Androids are handsome. She assumed he had bits just like she did too. She blushed and felt incredible guilt weigh on her at the thought. She went back into her depression spiral, throwing herself into this system. She decided she was glad he was asleep so long because she had needed time to adjust. Although, she was just kidding herself. Being alone in space was twice as overwhelming.
As the hours passed, she would calm her mind by convincing herself that she was still a normal human playing a game on a monitor. During these lapses she would finally be comfortable in her own skin. Then she would feel the zero gravity and know that this wasn't her skin at all. She debated as to whether or not this robot girl voyage constituted her afterlife. Shrugging she checked her progress.
Her next options were Machine Constructor, Cafeteria, and Laboratory. She had been trying to wait for Sleeping Beauty to wake up and keep her from making backwards choices but she was growing bored and anxious to click the buttons. In the meantime, she had her new little minions moving the growth gel and soil into the Farming Pod I so she could be ready for planting.
After 24 hours had lapsed the drones had connected the Machine Parts Printer to the Machine Constructor and they were halfway through building the Cafeteria. Food Processers and Food Assembly machines became available to be built and held in storage for the developing addition. What was the most exciting thing for Jessica was the Gravity Pads she could build for each room. Unfortunately they hadnt found the resources to make it yet, due to the liquid storage not being constructed until recently.
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As one day turned into three, and three turned into ten, Jessica sat alone constructing building after building, staring into space. She had to charge every 24 hours and she was only out for 8 after that. Tom never woke.
The place grew larger with each addition. The Medical Pod had state of the art Flux Exam pods that would examine and erase all traces of corrupt DNA. It even had a button that cured cancer. Treatment from one of these machines were only made available to the wealthiest on Earth and here one was at her fingertips, and her without a body it could even repair. The irony was not lost on her. What she would have done for her Nan to have had ten minutes with this machine.
The Neonatal Med Pod made her realize that she was going to be raising living children. The room had Flux Exam Lite pods that would do anything from correct birth defects to cure respiratory problems. "That will be convenient later," she thought as she looked at the Flux machine full of blueish goo. If the baby has colic, a quick FluxExamLite bath, and no more colic. These babies were going to be given every opportunity Earth had to spare to ensure their survival. And they were gonna be so cute.
She had thought when the animal farm pods were complete she could produce animals. The farms first needed grass, which needed soil blue goo and time. Then they also needed the gravity pads, which she was still low on materials for. She thought floating cows would be cool, but the best she could do was floating calves sent down from the DNA room. She squealed in delight.
The animal farms were a welcome respite from the Neon Screens of the control room. The selected stars harnessed from the solar system provided power enough for the fans to generate breeze, and the walls and ceilings to simulate sky or stars. Jessica would lay on her back in the dirt looking at the fake sky, knowing a true blue Earthen sky may be something these children never may see.
Once Animal Farm pods one through twelve were complete, the Vet pod was built, with a FluxExamFarm 2.0. The 1.0 was built for household pets only. There were four of those. Jessica hoped she could have a cool pet. She went into the DNA room once a day to look at names and occupations of the donars. She also checked out the drawers where amphibians would be hatching. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed. When all of the pods were in place, would she have to just try mixing them without the go ahead from the system? It didnt seem smart to her. She just kept building.
Weeks passed with no response from the Android 1.1. She had started talking to him like he was there and would make him paper hats to have parties with him. She went into Storage a lot to check on her little drone friends. She named the constructor bots Bob, the carrier bots Sparky, and the mining bots Digger and would call out praises to them as such. Sometimes shes would get a response, which made her think these drones could be capable of more.
The day finally came when Jessica unlocked the Family Pods. The moment she pushed the first Family Pod construction button, Tom's eyes finally opened.
1st Floor- Control room
2nd Floor- DNA room, Laboratory, Neonatal Med Pod
3rd Floor - Materials Storage [Expanded]
Expanded ladder for pod growth
4th Floor - Cafeteria, Med Pod, Farming Pods
5th Floor - Animal Farm Pods, Vet Pod
6th + floor - Family Pod Clusters