Crashing when you didn’t feel pain or were allowed to feel hysterical fear was like a surprise rollercoaster. Definitely enough to be interesting but it didn't seem to break the grey field over Milo’s mind.

He needed to study these blueprints of his core and rip that damn emotional damper things out. Milo used the view outside camera feeds to get his bearings on where the Argus had settled. The planet was the shining example of hellish desert but with less sand and more just dust. A red sun beat down on the planet.

“How hot is it out there?” he asked aloud, not sure if Pam survived the crash.

[60 degrees Celsius or 140 fahrenheit!] Pam’s cheerful voice announced. Milo should pleased he wasn’t talking to himself but... it was basically like his own preppy Wilson on this trip. Pam had shown no real awareness or hints that she thought beyond responses and orders.

“Hot but not the worst thing ever,” Milo said brightly.

[Local star is just rising! Temperature will spike within hours.]

Milo pursed his lips, as if he had any.

“Alright, Pam. You’re the expert here. How do we get this ship thing lifted and us out Tatooine’s ugly sister?” he asked while feeling out the ANTs. There small size meant all of them survived thankfully. They were a precious limited resource in the form of physical world interaction. If he lost them for any reason...

He be stuck here.

Alone with Pam.

Until perhaps the nearby star exploded in a a few million years. Not happening. Milo was not going to be stuck and driven that insane. He would get off and back home to file a complaint with the cryo-freezing company about this mix up.

He deserved to be saw for the underachiever he was! Not this lie of...someone he was not.

[The Argus Probe was not designed to land and lift. The ship has no way to lift off besides the aid of rocket propulsion aid.]

Milo frowned and turned to where he was sure Pam’s voice was coming from in the darkness. Another thing he would have to endure if his ANTs blew. As his cameras failed, one by one... he would have this dark room with no sense of feeling or sight or smell...

He would be just a floating thought.

He shivered and hopped into an ANT to feel grounded once more. To his surprise the Ant was almost floating by itself.

“There has to be someway to get us off? I mean, look, there’s barely any gravity here,” he pointed out to Pam as he used the magnetic legs to attach himself to the surface. As he sat there turning the ANT over in his mind, the core handily shared blueprints and Milo really couldn’t make heads or tails of it but he saw the things had an internal battery that they charged by docking.

They seemed to draw energy from the ships power source which was a giant scary looking reactor that looked like it would the world ending bomb in any action movie. A black sphere with solid nubs that stuck out like spikes at it sat in basin with it humming to the point Milo had unconsciously blocked it out in the few seconds he had been awake back in space.

[Suggestion. If the Ship was to make it back to space by any means necessary. It would be a simple matter of finding an asteroid field and building resources. This planet has very minute deposits of iron and copper. Such will be enough to restore basic engine drive if some other systems are turned off.]

Pam almost sounded regretful.

“What systems, Pam?” Milo asked gently, suddenly feeling like he had been a bit too hard on the assistant module.

[We would had to disable the coffee machine, Milo. I’m sorry.]

Milo closed his eyes. Not much difference from dark to dark but it helped.

“Pam. We have no one to serve the coffee... to,” he pointed out.

[But we might have guests at anytime. The Argus must appear civilised!]

Whoever the hell programmed Pam had leaked their ticks into the system. This weird obsession for Pam was a little too human.

“We’ll turn it on once we’re not a hot flaming rock, deal?” Milo offered and Pam hummed.

[Very well. I shall start designing a prototype means of planetary lift off!] came Pam’s voice. Milo snorted.

“I’ll go be a terrible human being and mine this planet for resources without appreciating its...” Milo trailed off as a dust tornado slowly drifted past, kicking slow falling dust into the air.

“Beauty,” he finished.

It wasn’t that bad. Pam had been scanning what she could as they fell and on one of Milo’s screens came a decent map of the nearby land. The Moon wasn’t very big. Maybe a 20 or 50 miles in rotation. It was a rock that rotated around the giant planet in the sky.

Now, that was eye catching. Red oceans sparkled and the clouds that covered most of the world stormed and looked like a swirling mass. He wondered if it was livebale for people but Pam pointed out that water was actually a form of acid and there was no life on the planet itself due to acid rain eating away at everything.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Milo’s Ants departed the ship and Milo felt like a mother hen fretting at the door as he watched before jumping into their leading ANT. The ships range was incredible. The ANTs could go miles and still give Milo a clear picture. Their legs struggled a little on the hills and dunes but before long they began to bury into the dust and mine tiny pockets of what Milo was told was broken up asteroids that had hit the moon over the years.

The precious metals were extracted in rather impressive cube ingots that the ANTs took their time to redeliver back to the ship one at a time while the others mined. Each squad had five ANTs so it was pretty fast work despite the fact two ANTs had to use themselves as a barrier to prevent shifting dust from filling into the mining hole.

That had been Milo’s idea and he felt stupid proud to have helped in any form.

Honestly when he looked up, the blistering sun was setting.

“Not very long day here,” he mumbled.

[Recorded day was 20 hours long.]

Milo turned and stared.

“Pam... you need to explain why i keep zooming through time like this. I’m spent all day watching the ANTs work? Why didn’t i get bored or... zone out?!” Milo demanded. Pam took a moment to answer.

[You aren’t human. I’m sorry Milo but you are now a computer base lifeform now. Your perception of time is controlled by a manipulation of processing speed. Something you can turn up or down. You’ve been increasing the process speed to watch them work faster. The ANTs were not making good time. You were simply speeding the process up.]

Well... maybe it wouldn’t take a million years to wait for the star to blow. Maybe just thousands?

Milo pushed that morbid thought away.

“How do I control it? Do I turn a dial or give you orders?” he wanted to pace.

[I can return to your normal human rate if requested but beyond that... is the core’s choice]

Helpful but Milo was distracted by the ANTs finally returning en masse and carrying the neat blocks of metal into the heart of the ship. He followed their progress, making sure they didn’t suddenly speed up.

Damn, Pam was right. They really were slow. A little faster would be nice...

There! The ANTs speed up and began to almost double their speed.

“Pam get me some clock or something I can see!” he ordered and followed the ANTs into a giant room at the bottom of the ship. Within laid a beast of a machine.

“What... is that?” Milo asked, voice higher than normal.

[Industry sized 3D printer. It prints things in a third dimension.]

Asks stupid questions...

The ANTs began to feed the metal into a chute that lead under the machine where a blast of hot bubbling liquid could be seen.

“It wasn’t damaged by the fall?” he asked curiously.

[The Printer room is the second most secure and protected room bar the AI Core room for this very reason. Here we can rebuild the ship now that we have basic materials. Soon, the coffee maker will be fully operational!]

Milo let that go. Pam deserved to have a goal as well.

The machine whirled to life and began to rapidly form tubing and odd metal parts.

[The parts are perfect down to the atomic level. That’s why it has to be so big, the printer that is! With time, you can print more printer parts and assemble more ANTs. The ANTs can download blueprints and build according to plans. I know Milo....I]

Milo frowned as he returned to the dark core room and to where Pam’s voice most clearest.

“What? Don’t be shy now,” he jested.

[I know you are not the Milo Higgins I was assigned to help.]

The air turned awkward which was a marvel of human technology when two machines could be awkward around each other.

“How would you know that?” Milo asked, voice blank.

[I convinced you when you were ANT watching as they mined that a kitchen whisk was a satellite amplifier. It made me suspect something and I’ve come to conclusion that you truly do not know... anything about this or how to be an AI core. ]

In Milo’s defence... the whisk looked really cool and self-whisked if ordered to.

“So, what do we do about that?” he asked, wondering if Pam could turn him off again if she chose to. She had flipped his switch on...

Pam’s voice was a little quiet.

[I would like to return you to your home. Your consent was not sought. You did not agree to this. This unfair. My creator... and I talk many years about right and wrong and this is wrong! You do not deserve to be here alone with an inferior aid program. It is... if I understand people… cruel.]

Milo struggled as the emotional matrix fought against him.

“I wanna believe you but there’s a lot I don’t... I can’t-” Milo was becoming more confused and lost as his emotions were leashed and chained.

[Emotion Matrix limiter A to Gamma-beta are to be lifted. Override code of Doctor Geralds 5523249Mars.]

Pam’s tone was official and commanding. Then...

Milo felt.

--