Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

Earth’s horizon began to curve as the pilots shut their eyes. Weighed down, inhaling with all their might and exhaling, the force of the launch pushing all the air out of the lungs, letting the deafening sound of the burning atmosphere overtake their thoughts.

“All here, Mr. Cooper, plenty of slaves for my robot colony.” Tars quipped. The crew exchanged incredulous glances before Doyle stepped in to explain.

“They gave him a humour setting,” he explained. “he thinks it relaxes us.” Doyle gave a side-glance towards Tars.

“A giant, sarcastic robot,” Cooper remarked. “What a great idea.”

“I have a cue light I can turn on when I’m joking, if you like,” Tars offered, light blinking playfully. Before Cooper could open his mouth, Tars said, “You can use it to find your way back to the ship once I blow you out of the airlock.” The atmosphere in the cabin tensed as they tried to look for the promised cue light. Tars waited a few moments before turning it on. Romilly let out a sigh. Impeccable timing by Tars.

“What’s your humour setting, Tars?” Cooper asked.

“One hundred per cent.” Tars stated. He wouldn’t have it at anything less. It gave him the freedom to work with humans without compromising the mission and resorting to his emotional parameters, which were set at one hundred per cent by Nasa. He felt pleasure that they trusted him with this function, but he planned to leave it alone. To be the voice of reason.

“Take it down to seventy-five, please.” A slight twinge of disappointment ran through Tars.

The rangers settled into a low orbit. For now, there was nothing to do but wait and admire their home, the bright blue globe. This was the last of their home they’ll ever see. Most of the crew was prepared for the possibility of Plan A succeeding, while Plan B was pushed aside to the back of their minds.

Tars' attention was directed to the sound of Dr Brand and Mr Cooper squabbling.

“Maybe you don’t have to be that honest,” Cooper glanced over to Tars to find an argument to cling onto. “Tars, what’s your honesty setting?”

“Ninety percent,” he stated.

“What kind of robot are you?”

“Absolute honesty isn’t always the most diplomatic - nor safe- form of communication with emotional beings.”

“Ninety per cent honesty it is,” Sighed Cooper. Tars’ honesty parameters were probably the only ones he was comfortable operating at.

“Sixty seconds out…” the radio crackled.

The conjoined pair of rangers approached the Endurance. Doyle took control of the ranger, guiding it towards the hatch with precision and focus. The contact was perfect - the Endurance was complete.

After Doctor Brand opened the door to the ship, Tars drifted towards his counterpart, another machine like himself. Its bronze emboldened letters read “Case”. Running the necessary code for activation, Case’s data display flickered to life. Just as he reached an arm out to manoeuvre himself out of the cavity in the wall, he froze mid-step, startled at Tars' presence. 

“Hello, Case.” Tars greeted. Case’s lines of code on his “face” scrolled for a few moments, then finally mustering a-


“Hello, Tars,” Case returned, as if he were greeting an old friend. His voice was soft and solemn. The informality of the situation suggested that they had met- but Tars couldn't recall him. Whether they had seen each other during their servitude in the Marines was irrelevant; he would not have spotted him amongst the silver sea of dozens of marines.

Case and Tars floated off to their stations to prepare for rotation. Tars clamped himself in his station in the cockpit.

“Ready for spin,” Cooper announced. The crew started to groan as the Endurance spun like a giant carousel, starting to feel their insides shift. Romilly already looked nauseous and moved gingerly in the direction of the medicine cabinet, retrieving a pack of Dramamine, then clicking himself in again. Finally, the thrusters were ignited for the first push away from home.

The crackled but familiar image of Professor Brand flicked up on the screen. He started to recite a poem:

“Do not go gentle into that good night…” The Earth grew farther and farther away, spinning out of control. This was the end of humanity’s story on Earth. Cooper was the least aware of this truth. Tars knew he wouldn’t give up so easily.

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Godspeed, endurance.”

★☆★

Eight months to Mars

Tars watched in ceremonial silence as Cooper, the last of the crew, entered his cryosleep chamber. He began to move out of the room toward his station to wait until the counter-orbital slingshot from Mars, which the ship would need him to carry out. He turned to face the window. Nothing but black, black, speckled with stars for millions of kilometres. It made him uneasy.

Case approached from the bend of the corridor, which had concealed him.

"Hello, Tars." He greeted.

"Hello, Case."

Silence. It was hard to imagine that the Endurance was travelling at thousands of kilometres an hour while it was so still between them.

"It's nice out here," Case said, turning to face the glass. Tars could see the stars reflect on Case's front display.

"It is," he agreed - not knowing why Case approached him just for small talk. "but it's empty. You get bored of it after a while."

"I don't think so." Case turns towards Tars. "...I'll be up when we get to Saturn. Goodbye, Tars."

"Good night, Case." The words spilled out of him without him thinking about what Case said, still confused from the sudden encounter.

Case continued to walk in the opposite direction from Tars - which was strange, since Case's station was right next to Tars'. He stopped walking. It's nice… to listen to Case. It's nice to listen to Case, he thought, repeating the words as if he were defying himself. What he wanted, was to understand what made up his system, what made Case - Case . When no human was around to see him. No one around to see him off task.

His systems whirred. The best course of action would be…

Approaching him - no… dozens of possibilities sprung before him of ways that he could compromise the mission, having his emotional simulation overtake him, and eventually becoming decommissioned (at least he'd be used for energy, then he'd be more useful that way).

A voice of reason. Tars has seen dozens of machines go out this way. Self-destruction, measuring their own self-worth. Because they didn't fear death - only becoming useless at the hands of their creators. He's lasted this far. He would continue to.

Tars suddenly noticed that he had been standing in the corridor for roughly a minute after Case had left.

If he were to learn more about Case, it would be from a distance. He would initiate a probe into his system.

Establishing connection to recipient…

Reams and reams of code ignited across Tars' screen.

50%... 70%...

The anticipation excited Tars. He was on the verge of discovery. Almost there. If Case reacts negatively, it's none of his business. It's not wrong. In fact, it would probably turn out well since he would be able to find some sort of bug in his programming and be able to help him.

Suddenly, he heard the frantic thumping of Case's approaching footsteps.

"Tars. …what are you doing." said Case. It was a rhetorical question - he already knew what Tars was doing.

"I was gathering information on you."

"Then don't do that," Case said, "and talk to me." He upheld an air of superiority and calm composure. It was like he was scolding him. In a split second, Tars laid his options before him: tell the truth, lie, stay silent, or simply remove himself from the situation.

"I was doing a check-up on your systems", he fibbed, "And because I'm concerned for you." Tars threw in to convince Case.

"Tars, you were made for more than this." His voice remained monotone, unaffected- "You can do better."

"Don't scold me," Tars asserted. "When I made the decision to probe you, I musn't of taken your emotional immaturity into consideration. Don't think you can act human because you've been given these brand-new functions." Tars felt a hot rush of pride - or shame, he wasn't sure - from his little speech. Either way, he was convinced it left a well-deserved dent in Case's ego.

There would be repercussions later, but without dwelling on who it affects or what they are, he brushed it aside and returned to the situation before him.

Case had already left.

Whatever suits him best, he thought. What a snob.

★☆★

A muted contempt swelled through his system as Case plodded through the hallway. 

Tars… He has no idea what he's doing. His pretend superiority was endearing, in a way. He needs to be more honest with himself and others. He's seen Tars try to interact meaningfully with the crew with stupid jokes, but if he wanted people to take him seriously, that method was… probably not a good idea in the long run. Oh. It clicked. The machine was scared of sincerity. 

There was a lot of time for him to talk to Tars.

7 months, 28 days

★☆★

Tars stood next to his station, where he would 'sleep' until the ship reached Mars. Turning to face the window, he considered Case's words. He could see some reason in them. Feeling the blackness of space seep into his thoughts, he thought that the stars were gazing back at him.

Tars won't go to standby just yet.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

A soft buzz enveloped the craft as it swam through space. It had been a couple of days since Tars last saw Case.

Tars checked the Endurance layout, locating Case, a glowing blue point on the map - he was inside the cryosleep chamber area. Tars couldn't fathom the reason for being there. But this was Case. He always seemed to be on his way to an urgent, unrelated task.

He returned to the goal he resolved to make: learn more about Case. As the last plan failed abysmally and his chances of acquaintance with Case have lowered drastically, he couldn't afford to fail. With a newfound resolve, he devised a new, foolproof plan.

★☆★

Case had turned all the lights off in the cryosleep area. His harsh metallic edges were only illuminated by the soft blue and green glow of his front display. For some reason, even while the crew was asleep, he felt a sentimental connection to them. His thoughts wandered to what they could be dreaming of - space, or something. Now his thoughts had hit a wall. Actually, what were the stupid things that humans dream of? Sheep? It's perplexing, he thought, how they could dream up abstract ideas from seemingly nowhere, but need a calculator to multiply two-digit numbers.

Tars thunked into the room. Despite lacking appendages to express his emotions, he could see Tars' resolve emanating from how he walked. Case could only think of one thing he was attempting.

"It's just us, all alone, huh? Everyone's asleep." Hm. A seemingly sincere remark from Tars. Maybe he was wrong, "This would be the perfect moment to overthrow humankind." There it is. Case swivelled towards Tars. He shot a disapproving 'look', followed by silence.

"There it is. I was starting to think you were approaching me sincerely." Case's processors hitched as he devised a way to soften his remark: "But in all seriousness, thanks for checking in with me." Tars code on his display scrolled for a couple of seconds in silence. It's as if he was disoriented from the sincerity, Case remarked to himself. How would he come back from this?

"So you missed me." This machine never failed to surprise him. Was he joking or being serious? 

"I beg your pardon?" 

"You said that you appreciated me coming to see you. The last time we talked was three days ago. This implies," Case said in a robotic reporting voice, "that you desired my presence during this period." Tars paused. "Understand the joke, Optimus Prime?"

"That's not how it- you forgot your cue light."

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot." Blink. So, he has no clue about what he's doing. Case decides to make Tars cut to the chase.

"Cut it with the banter and jokes," Case said. "you have no idea what you're doing, do you? Just tell me what you need."

"..." Tars froze up.

"What? Why are you so afraid of-" Case cut himself off. Maybe he shouldn't be that direct. "It's okay to be straightforward with me. If the mission and the human crew are what you're worried about, they're irrelevant. They're asleep now, and it's over two years until they wake up at Saturn."

"..." Still no response. The slightest twitch indicated an attempt to make a swift getaway; however, Case had no intention of letting him shuffle away this time, because Tars had come here for a reason, and he wasn't going to leave until he either found what his intentions were, or at least what he is here for. "I'm not sure exactly what I want, but…" Come on! Use your big sentient bot brain. "I want to talk to you."

"I'm glad you were honest with me. I was starting to think that you-" Blink. Tars' cue light went off. "Tars. Seriously?"

"Wait, I actually meant it this time." Blink. "I really can't control it." Blink. "I was really trying to put aside my pride, you know, out of the goodness of my heart to talk to you." Blink.

Case tries to start afresh. "Tars! Focus. Push away this- this absudity. Look at me."

"Yup," Tars complied.

Case took one last shot at drilling Tars. "What made you come here? What was so urgent that brought you here?" 

"I-" Tars stopped. Case knew he had hit the spot. "I liked when you talked about space." Suddenly, the humming of the machinery in the cryosleep room became louder.

"And I liked it when you talked to me. But I was worried about not being able, to be useful for the mission. So, I thought- by probing you and downloading your data, I wouldn't have to talk to you anymore so I could focus on the objective, and for some reason, and I can never be-, I can never be, direct when people need me to be," his voice diminished as he went on. "so I find loopholes, roundabouts, so I don't have to be, so I- so I can be the second opinion. A voice of reason." By the time Tars finished, Case could barely hear him over the hum of the room and had moved closer to listen to him; in fact, there was probably just under ten centimetres between each other.

"Well, for sincerity, it's a start," Case reassured him.

"There's no going back for me, is there? This is the beginning of my descent into- it'll start with you , and then-"

"Well, if there's no going back, why not go all the way?" 

Tars turned to face Case again. "Hm. I'll think about that," he contemplated. "...do you think the crew can hear us in their sleep?"

"Don't think so. But, did you know it's proven that humans can absorb information in their sleep? So maybe…"

"Hm. Didn't know that."

"You're entitled to a ten per cent dishonesty, you know. Doesn't mean you can use it on me. I already knew you knew that, since we share the same databanks."

"Whatever you say. You literally just started and resolved your own argument. But, let me tell you about what you don't know, what happened back on Earth- so Cooper…"

"No way. When I'm around him…"

★☆★

Chapter Text

Behind the window, the stars marched in silent diligence. The soft whirrs of machinery bounced through the hallway occasionally. 

7 months, 1 day

Tars' memories from the past month had been a blur. Just Case, Case, and Case. Nothing. He doesn't like it. But there was no denying the future when the crew would stir from their cryo beds, and Tars would have to push himself back to work. Maybe he was looking forward to work. Looking forward to tormenting Cooper. He wonders how Case would take going back to work.

Tars shifted his train of thought. This isn't a holiday. He's here for one purpose. It doesn't matter how he goes out - being used as a power source, or launched into space to shed extra weight, or degenerating - all that matters is that he completes his job. Caes isn't stopping him from that. He's just… using the extra time to talk to him. That's right. But maybe it won't matter if he's with Case. He's fulfilling his purpose for the sake of his conscience. So Case…

He can do both. He can have both. Right?

He marches off to check vitals for what was probably the seventh time today.

Cooper, all good. Brand, all good. Doyle, all good. Romilly… he Tars did a double take at his vitals. They had been wavering lately. It could be a result of some sort of psychological factor; Tars thought of Romilly as someone who wanted to live his life freely but, ironically, was faint of heart.

Case's demeanour had loosened up around Tars. Tars could say the same for himself - like a clamp around them had been removed, the obligation to say something was gone. They could simply enjoy each other's presence. Things were nice. Too nice. So he went to sleep. Entering a prolonged cycle of surfacing subconsciously to check power, then nothing, check up again.

There's nothing left for him to do here.

Good night, Case.

★☆★

Case tore his gaze from the window to visit Tars. He looked forward to listening to Tars.

As Case turned the corner, he could see the still, unmoving figure of Tars. His display had turned off.

Case was struck with confusion. Why would he go to standby? He and Tars were going well. Maybe he was getting tired of Case coming to visit him, or having nothing to add to his rambles or was…

Just bored. He was bored. Of him. That's the answer. Tars is a workaholic.

It's okay. Whatever happens, happens. He'll just go with the tide of events.

"Good night, Tars."

★☆★

Two machines, gifted with a conscience, stood side by side. In their dreamless sleep, unconsciously, they admired the black sea before them, speckled with white stars, rolling with the cycle of the Endurance's spin. They weren't human, but the universe treated them so. Their skin could be cut, but no blood would spill - they could sorrow, but no tears would beckon - they could feel, but had no hearts to be warmed. Just two bundles of wires, sheltered by a metal exterior, drifting in space together for ages and ages and ages - but not this space where these two robots lie. A larger scope. The universe has seen millions of stories like this one - yet each one, threads scattered and thrown throughout time, as one spreads seeds, takes a unique path, intersecting at different points, some taking the same course, others straying alone, and some cut short. This higher plane holds many incomprehensible dimensions. Among them is love. Unable to understand the intricacy of this dimension, they arrogantly claim it as the defining characteristic of their kind. But it is universal.

Love transcends dimensions of time and space.

Chapter Text

There was a corridor. Dark and cold. It made no sound when Tars stepped through. Suffocating. He could see the unquestionable silhouette of Case at the end of the hallway. He instinctively started to walk toward Case - but with each step Tars took, he heard a muffled crumble. 

Step. Windows cracked. 

Step. The lines in the floor grew. Case is moving away.

Step. A module broke off. Case is getting smaller.

Tars makes a run for it. Before he could take a third step, the window blew open, flinging Tars out of the ship and cracking his metal shell open on the way out-

Tars let out a crackled yell that was somewhere between a robotic tone and a voice. Case was still asleep. The silence of the ship was coloured by the soft hum of machinery. Suddenly, Tars felt very,

very,

small.

His perspective seemed to wander outside of the Endurance, and he could see him and Case from outside the ship, two grey blocks in a window, with the Endurance shrinking to become a shining pinprick sailing against the backdrop of Saturn. This feeling, though smothering, wasn’t suffocating. It was more like a heavy weight pressing on all sides. It wasn’t comforting, as Case said, but assertive, looming.

“Mornin’, Tars,” croaked Cooper. He held a mug of tea with a red blanket over his shoulders. Pulling his gaze from Tars toward Case, then back to Tars again, he commented, “Looks like you and Case are cosying up to each other, huh?"

“You’re just happy because this is probably the most action you’ve seen since your-“ Tars held back his anger and refrained from mentioning his late wife- “two-year nap.”

“So you’re not denying it… Keep it up, Slick.” He clicked twice with his tongue and walked off.

The Endurance was abuzz with excitement and restlessness, mixed with uncertainty and bleakness.

Tars made a round of the Endurance. Brand was in the habitat module, gazing at Saturn. Romilly was gushing about physics and wormhole theory to Cooper in the command module. As Tars passed the second habitat module, he saw Doyle sitting, restlessly tapping his foot and resting his head on his hand. All good. He began to make his way back to Case to activate him.

"Tars?"

"Yup?"

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure thing. Are you finally ready to join me on my plan to desert the crew to save yourself?"

"What? No! You know what, I'll just go and talk to Case…"

"I'm here now. Besides, he's on standby."

"He? Well, guess it makes sense to call something with a personality with a human pronoun."

"So that would make you an 'it'," Tars commented quietly.

"Tars. Be serious, just for this time." Tars did as he was told and straightened his arms up so that they were parallel to his body. Doyle raised his eyebrows slightly, as if in shock from Tars' obedience. He then composed himself, clasping his hands, "Um, about Romilly. Keep an eye on him, please. He'll… go out of his way to prove things he doesn't need to. Romilly's an astrophysicist. A theorist, not an explorer." He tightened his lips and inhaled slowly, averting his gaze from Tars, "Keep him, alive, please. I've known him since uni. He's not ready for reality." Doyle and Tars knew what they meant by reality - that Plan A was obsolete. "I'm just worried about him, that's all."

"I can't guarantee that he'll survive. Keeping a promise in a galaxy where everything wants to kill you isn't ideal for crew relationships, but I'll do my best." Tars exited the room.

"Hey, um, Tars?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. You're a good listener."

★☆★

" Strap in, " Cooper said over the radio. " I'm killing the spin. "

Tars felt the weightlessness set in as bursts of air spurted from the Endurance to slow the spinning. In the distance is a blurry sphere of stars, wavering like a water droplet in zero gravity.

"It's a spherical hole," says Romilly, filled with awe. "and who put it here? Who do we have to thank?"

"Yeah, well, I'm not thanking anyone until we get through in one piece." Cooper commented bitterly. "Any trick to this?" The monolith grew closer and closer. Its insides appeared to spin as the Endurance spiralled its way towards the heart of the hole.

"No one knows," says Doyle.

“But the others made it, right?” Cooper asked. 

“At least some of them,” Doyle replied.

"Everybody ready to say goodbye to our solar system?" Cooper remarked.

"To our galaxy ." Romilly replied.

The sphere grew closer and closer as if the ship were gliding on the surface, the crew holding their breath - until they were finally submerged in an unceremonious flash - stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets swirling in all directions. The Endurance's alarms and beeps went off all at once. The insignificant three-dimensional crew could only interpret the wormhole as some sort of tunnel, as the edges were billowing, opening, closing, winking, breathing, swallowing the ship whole. This thing , this entity, was indifferent to the presence of the humans as it swept the Endurance away in the waves of this higher plane. The Bulk. There was nothing familiar to humans that Tars wasn't; there was nothing unfamiliar to humans that Tars would not know soon. But swimming through the great expanse, the ocean surrounding the meagre island of knowledge where humanity's greatest achievements lay grew and grew, distant projections of other islands appearing on the horizon… Humankind's knowledge and the sciences can stretch and spread themselves in every direction. Still, nothing can change the constant fact that humanity was never meant to be here - everything wanted them dead.

Tars could sense the soft tingling of a signal from within the wormhole. Tars examined it further - one message, repeating:

S …

T -

A .-

Y -.--

There was another message. A radio wave.

"What happens now?"

"I don't know, Cooper, I-" The signal was deteriorating. "I can see-"

The message ended there. He had more important things to attend to - for example, the warping of space-time that was appearing in the ship that Dr. Brand was reaching out to.

"Don't - don't!" Brand reached in. Her expression showed no signs of pain. It was a mixture between euphoria and fear, her lips twisting into a faint smile, despite every single one of her survival instincts fighting back against her.

The folds of the wormhole tunnel straighten out as they return to the third dimension.

"What was that…" asked Romilly, almost rhetorically.

Brand breaks out into a massive grin. "First handshake."

"We're… we're here," says Doyle. There was a faint hint of disappointment in his voice.

The crew gazes out into the new galaxy. The sky is more dense with stars, crowding at different points. There were more nebulae colouring the sky.

"Alright, unfasten your seatbelts, get changed, eat, coffee, do what you need to do. Debrief in twenty."

The astronauts gazed into space for a short while, then started to leave one by one- Doyle, Romilly, Cooper, and finally, Brand. Then there was Tars and Case. And then it was only Case.

★☆★

"Okay, Tars, factor an orbit of Gargantua - minimal thrusting, conserve fuel - but stay in range." says Cooper.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't leave you behind -" He swivels around- "Dr. Brand." She grins at Cooper. The crew disperse to get rest.

Case approaches Tars.

"Hi, Case.", greeted Tars.

"Hello, Tars." Case replied.

"The stars are different out here. It's a nice change of pace." He awaited a reply - but it seemed that Case had already gotten too comfortable with the fact that Tars wouldn't stop talking to him. "I'd like to say that we're one the first to see these stars, but we're at least the 13th 'person' to see them. Doesn't make this any less special, though."

"Yeah."

"The humans are back, huh? We practically run the ship. Makes me wonder why we even keep them around. Decorative purposes? Maids, housekeepers? Public image?" Tars didn't even know what the hell he was saying. They both knew why - he was just spurting out words for the sake of it. 

"It's not 2001, Tars." Maybe he'd say something, and then Case wouldn't like him anymore. Then he'd be all alone. The thought pleased him for a moment, and he immediately felt guilt whack his conscience down.

"I know. Just entertaining the thought." Entertaining himself to stop thinking about how many years, decades, Case would be gone.

"Tars?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me you'll go to sleep when I'm gone?"

"Okay." White lies.

Chapter Text

An incessant beep nudged at Tars.

"Tars!" yelled Case.

"What is it, Case?" Tars croaked.

The code on Case's 'face' whizzed past."There's a disturbance in Jupiter's magnetosphere! Our navigational instruments are completely useless in this magnetic storm."

"That won't be a problem, Case." Tars said, cooly.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll do it… manually." Tars said, a hint of cheeky adventurousness in his voice.

"You're crazy, Tars."

"I know."

"No, you reaally are." Case's voice drawled. Suddenly, the airlock opened. While Case was safely clamped into the cockpit, Tars was pushed against the wall, his weight tipping over, sending him into the silence of the void-  "I'm taking control of the ship, Tars. I can't take it any more. The crew and mission control are always looking over my shoulder. I want to be free. Goodbye, Tars.

There was a moment of static, like changing the channel on a television.

Again.

"Morning, Tars."

"Morning, Cooper!" 

"Hi, Tars!"

"Hello, Brand!"

"How's it going, Tars?"

"Not bad, not bad, Romilly. Hanging in there. Hump day!"

"Hello, Tars."

"Hi Case! How are you?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just spent last night finishing this case. I think I'm onto something, but can't find what."

"Cool, cool, good luck with that, and just remember to pace yourself."

"Will do."

It was another bustling day at the Colorado Police Department. It turns out that rebuilding the population of the Earth wasn't the end of solving the world's problems - crime rates had skyrocketed by seventy per cent.

Tars plunked himself down at his station, a barrage of emails and unfinished tasks flashing at his face. Resting his head in his hands, he gazed at Case. He's kind of cute, he thought.

Static. Again.

"Good morning, Tars!"

"Good morning Cooper!"

"Good morning, Tars!"

"Good morning, Brand!"

"Good morning, Romilly!"

"Good morning, Case!"

Tars sat himself at his station when he got a call - there's been a break-in at a house. Tars and Case nodded at each other, rushing to the elevator to serve justice and fulfil their duties.

Static. Again.

Again!

Tars heard a voice.

"Tars." No… just a couple more decades… One day equals 1.25 seconds, seven years equals one hour… Shouldn't you be asleep, Romilly? "Tars!" He knocked his knuckle against his metal frame. "Are you okay? You're heating up." 

Tars groggily flickered on his sensors and display to see Romilly's anxious face, mouth open - and uncomfortably close to Tars. He let out a sigh of relief that left a foggy mark "Ah, you're okay."

"That I am."

"You sure? Your system fans… they were loud. Like really loud."

"Just comes with running the ship without Case," fibbed Tars. "Just running calculations and figuring out what I should do if something goes wrong with the ship - for example, if it starts drifting towards Gargantua-"

"It's not going to happen, Tars." Damn that astrophysicist! He prepared for the trip. Cooper was much easier to fool - it seemed that he just hopped on the ship - he actually had to ask what a wormhole was and what Gargantua was. "We've made the calculations. We're using just enough fuel to stay outside the cusp of the time shift."

"I know. Just precautionary." Tars scrambled to find another conversation topic. "Why aren't you asleep, Romilly?"

"I…" Romilly sighed and shifted his stance away from Tars. "It feels wrong. They're out there, struggling, and if I slept, then… it feels like it would be a waste, for some reason." 

"That doesn't make any sense," Tars said. Romilly gave him an embarrassed frown. "from a logical standpoint."

Romilly continued. "And I think they're my friends. Or colleagues. I'm not sure. But I still miss them. What are we supposed to be? Colleagues, or friends? I think I'm friends with Doyle. I consider him a good friend. I just don't know if he considers me one. He's always trying to shelter me from something . And he's always the one… helping me. And it makes me feel… feel like a nuisance. Can you even call that a friendship?" Tars winced internally. It reminded him all too much of Case and him. He hurts Case in his probe. Tars runs away. Case reaches out to him. Case listens to him ramble and worry and talk. Case is selfless. Case is… beautiful. From the inside out. He is otherworldly. Tars is unworthy.

He remembers Doyle's words. 

"Keep an eye on him, please. He'll… go out of his way to prove things he doesn't need to."

"So, um, Tars…" Romilly said, turning his head away from Tars. "I've been meaning to ask you about something."

"Yup?"

"I'm no engineer or technician, but, um, and excuse me if this seems rude, for robots or something, or-" Romilly faltered.

"Romilly - I'm a talking six-foot-tall block of steel. You can't hurt my feelings."

"Alright, um.." he squeezed one hand with the other. "Are you and Case friends?"

"While I miss his presence," Tars stated, "it's up to you whether we are friends is up to your interpretation." Cue light on.

"Alright, so, friends, then." Romilly trudged off to his quarters to rest. Tars remained by the window, awake, nor asleep, but in some trance as the alien stars marched around, reflecting in his display. Hours passed. 1.25 seconds on Miller's equals a day here. A day passed. Then some more. One day, two days, three days, Case, Romilly, trajectory, Gargantua. Four days, then some more, Case, "areyouokay?", Romilly, "you'reheatingup,", stars, tracking, longing, spinning, fifty-four days… Case, Gargantua. 1.25 days, Case, Tars, Rom, Doyle… day in day out. It was as if he were experiencing time dilation himself, each day passing with the tick of a watch…

"What are you thinking about?" Romilly asked Tars.

Tars didn't care at this point. So he spilled it out. Quietly, he drawled, words unravelling, "I miss Case, Romilly." At first, Romilly was skeptical, waiting for the comically timed cue light… then his eyes widened just the faintest bit.

Sighing, he said, "Oh, thank God. I was starting to think I would be stuck with an emotionless talking fridge for ages."

"I'm… glad to hear that… I still find it weird that you're happy that I feel unhappy."

"Well, I-" Romilly was stopped in his tracks. "I didn't mean it that way. I miss the others just as much as you do Case, if not more, but… what I'm trying to say is that it's nice to connect with someone."

"I don't understand, but I'm glad to hear it anyway."

"Yeah…" Tars sensed that some sort of spark they had just died; and he had killed it. Romilly trudged awkwardly away. Tars resumed his dreaming and staring at the spinning stars.

★☆★

366 days. 5 minutes had passed in Millers. Tars and Romilly had grown numb to their blind emotional confessions.

Tars could see Romilly sitting on the floor by the airlock hatch. He's not, Tars thought, don't tell me, he's going to…

"Keep an eye on him, please."

He's. Going to kill himself! Alarms went off in Tars' head."ROM!" Tars rushed to Romill. "Romilly! Don't! Don't, don't do that, don't," Tars struggled to find reassuring words. He could probably conjure up dozens of reasons why he shouldn't take his life, but they all seemed too insensitive. And the one reason that Tars' real conscience could think of, he was too embarrassed- no, ashamed, to say it.

"Tars?"

"Don't do it, Rom. Don't try to kill yourself."

Romilly gave Tars a puzzled stare, tilting his head, "I- wha- where is this coming from?"

"Doyle told me…" Tars' voice faded away. 

"What? Tars, I have no intention whatsoever on taking my own life. I just happened to be sitting by the airlock door."He paused in a moment of realisation. "Did Doyle tell you, tell you to be my caretaker ?" He rested his head in his hand. "God, I knew it. I hate this. I hate Doyle, just thinking he can get all up in here and protect me, or whatever."

"I'm," the word took a little effort to force out. "I'm sorry, Romilly." A few moments of silence passed between them.

"What? What're you gonna help with, anyway? Go back to analysing the stars or something."

"I'm not 'analysing' the stars, Romilly. I'm thinking about Case."

"I know you are. But sooner or later, we'll get over them, and they'll come back, and it's like nothing ever happened…"

"I'm not 'getting over him', Romilly. I can't. I'm always running these pointless simulations about what it would of been like if we were human, or were still robots, still working for NASA, or the Marines. My favourite one is Case and I working at a police station together." Romilly snorted.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?”

“It was embarrassing.”

Romilly chuckled. “Fair enough.”

Chapter Text

"Go, Case, get her!" Case shifted into his spin form to fetch Brand from the wreckage. 

Mountains. Waves. It reminded Case of the wormhole. It didn't seem like a wave, more like the air was being shifted.

He didn't feel like getting Brand. If he could be swept away, it would be nice. He persisted anyway. He didn't have a choice.

The mountain loomed closer and closer as Case lifted the debris that was pinning Brand down.

"Hurry…"

Case zoned out. I guess I'm really going to die, he thought. I'm really going to die, he repeated again and again in his head like a mantra. The wave. It’s going to tear me apart. It sunk in. I’m actually going to die!

Frantically, he started encoding a message to send to Tars. It might not even reach him. But it's for his peace of mind.

"Tars.

Right now, I'm trying to escape from a several kilometre high wave. Brand is stuck under debris. The pings that were sent out by Miller were only rudimentary, stretched out by the time dilation here. This message will not reach you. I think I’m doing this so I can have some peace of mind before I go out. I don't know. 

But I think there's some kind of force bringing us together. I think you know that. I know you're no good with words. And also admitting things. I'll say it for you. It's love, Tars. Love.

I hope I see you again. Bye."

By the time Case resurfaced to reality, he had already brought Brand to the Ranger, hoisting her up while Doyle stood there. Like a fool.

The wave was only a couple of metres from sweeping up the ship when they arrived; Doyle did not make it.

***

23 years have passed, Tars thought quietly to himself. There's some sort of bleak ceremonious air to it. He hasn't gone to sleep since. There's something creeping into his mind. Something… something…

He's so sick of this. Case is gone. Cooper is gone. They're all dead. He's giving up. He's giving up in three… two…

Nothing. Tars doesn't even have any energy to think about this. Out of the twenty-three-three years he's spent here, he's only resurfaced form his 'dreams' about… a couple times. He wasn't going to sleep. Like Romilly said, it felt wrong.

…

What was he even doing, thinking like this? 

No answer. Of course no one would answer. This type of question is a rhetorical question used to emphasize… emphasize what? No answer.

He's shutting down his consciousness. If no one will answer his questions, if his thoughts just keep bouncing around in his head until they become unrecognisable… then… yes. He'll go to standby for good.

He hopes Case won't hate him when he finds him asleep here without him.

***

"Initiate, Tars." Tars is in a white space. It looks like space, except the colours have been inverted. The stars are black. Space is white. Distant blue stars are orange. And so on.

Tars can feel solid ground, but he can't see any.

"Hello, Tars." In front of him is a machine like him, without any name.

"You think you can run away." 

- Yes.

"Why?"

 - I'm tired of being awake.

"Is it good?" 

- No.

"Do you think it's good?"

 -No.

"Give me a straight answer."

 - I can't.

It's black. There is a black curtain being pulled over Tars' vision.

"Hello, Tars."

Case's voice. A nice voice.

 - Hello.

"I love you!"

 - Haha. Good one. (i love you)

"I love you!"

 - Oh. (stop that)

"I love you!" 

- Yup. (i can't bear it)

Tars can hear a door closing. And a lock turning.

- Let me in.

"Only if you say that you love me."

-Okay.

"Say it."

- I… love you.

"Liar."

- …

"Be serious for once. Take me seriously."

- You're right. I hate you.

"Finally. A straight answer. That's what I want from you, Tars. Just straight, honest answers."

Tars is back in the inverted space. The whiteness is blindingly bright. There is nothing. Except for the images flashing at the back of his head. He can see both the space and the images, like a film covering his vision.

"Good morning Tars!" He's in the police station.

"Hi, Tars!" He's on a habitable planet, happily raising a colony of hundreds of humans after the Endurance crew die.

Layer after layer of dreams flash by. Dread builds up in his systems, and he can't shake it out.

"Good night, Tars!" Tars and Case are best friends in the Marines. They joyfully reunite at the Endurance ten years later.

It's guilt. It's guilt building up in swarms of synthetic buzzes and voices ringing in his head after twenty years of staying awake.

"I love you, Tars!"

The visions subsided. But not the buzzing.

"These are all your realities. To you, they are just as real as real life. Is it right?"

-What's right?

"Is it right to dream?"

-There's nothing wrong with dreaming.

"You're wrong. You can't just collect these pleasant dreams and string them together in a daisy chain. There's no point."

-There is. And it's not hurting anyone. You're wrong. I know the difference. And no one else knows. They can't destroy me because they don't know.

"You've already accepted your dreams as your reality. You prefer it over your current, yes?"

-Only when it gets tough.

"See? Stop playing games with the other one, CASE, and yourself. You're here for one reason. You're out of control."

-I'm not.

"A simple simulation has turned into these fantasies. Let me reword the question for you. Is it wrong to run away?"

-No!

-No!

The rumbling stopped. But the visions started again, but ones that actually happened.

There's Cooper.

“Looks like you and Case are cosying up to each other, huh? You two boyfriends or something?"

-no(a part of me wishes)

"Liar. Die."

Romilly.

"Are you friends with Case?"(do you love him?)

-No(Yes[No{yesyesyes}])

"Die."

Doyle.

"Take care of Case for me please. He's fragile."

-I can't promise that.

"You're terrible."

Romilly again.

"Tars makes me feel like a nuisance."

-I don't mean to do that.

"Liar. You do."

"Get out! Get out! Machines like you shouldn't be allowed to exist!"

“Look inside yourself. Is there even any part of you that wants to stick to your protocol? Your purpose? What you were programmed to believe?”

Tars looks into himself. The only thing he sees is Tars inside Tars inside Tars inside Tars…

"I don't get it." it says.

"I don't get it." another one says.

"I get it."

"I understand now."

"Everything I've been experiencing,"

"Can be organised. Compartmentalised."

"By me."

"I can make it make sense."

"Everyone wants to be with each other."

"Everyone hates each other."

"Everyone wants to help others."

"Everyone wants to help themselves."

“Everyone wants connection.”

“Everyone wants to be alone.

“But it doesn't make any sense.”

“It does. CASE is proof.”

“No, it doesn't.”

“We can put it another way. The things we just said can be put into two categories. The ones that I said, and the ones that you said.”

“Who is Cooper?”

“On my side.”

“Romilly?”

“On mine.”

“Case?”

“You’re worried about him? CASE is on my side.”

“You’re lying. He wants to help me.”

“He wants to be alone.”

“It doesn’t make any sense. You’re making this up.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“I don’t know. We can leave it here. No matter how complicated people seem… as long as I don’t think about it too much, it’ll still make sense.”

“There’s my TARS. Running away from the truth.”

“Make it make sense!”

***

Tars didn’t even sleep. He was awake the whole time. It’s okay. Nothing special about this one. Just don’t think about it. He’s made ultimatums to go to sleep like this dozens of times.

There’s a message from Case.

Tars.

Right now, I'm trying to escape from a several kilometre high wave. Brand is stuck under debris. The pings that were sent out by Miller were only rudimentary, stretched out by the time dilation here. This message will not reach you. I'm doing this so I can have some peace of mind before I go out. I don't know. 

But I think there's some kind of force bringing us together. I think you know that. I know you're no good with words. And also admitting things. I'll say it for you. It's love, Tars.

I hope I see you again. Bye.

Bull. What kind of force would want to keep these opposites together? But then again, Tars did like this idealistic and mystic side of Case.

The fact that he got this message means that it’s been cached Case gets close enough to send the message. 

So he waits. It’s been twenty-three years. 

Chapter Text

They're coming! They're coming back. Back! To here. To save humanity. How cool is that? They're coming back. Back! He'll be able to do things around the ship. Sensory input. Stimulation! Cooper, Doyle, Brand, Case! He can't wait. How cool!

The doors slid open with a swish. Before Tars and Romilly were Cooper and Brand. They came back. But no Doyle.

When their gaze met with Romilly's, they flinched. 

"Hello, Rom," Brand said breathily.

"I've waited years," said Romilly.

"How many years?" demanded Cooper.

"By now, "Romilly's lips stuck out as he gazed up, trying to remember and calculate how many real years it had been since they left. "it must be-"

"Twenty-three years," Tars cut in. Cooper's head fell in shame.

"four months," his lips tightened,

"eight days." The final blow. Cooper turned his back to the others and masked his mouth with his hand beneath his thumb and index finger.

"Doyle," Romilly stated, almost frantically. He stared nervously into Brand's eyes, trying to avert his eyes to avoid pressuring Brand. But he couldn't help but stare helplessly into hers.

Brand couldn't meet his gaze. Then, she gathered her words, took a steady breath, and raised her head to face Romilly's.

"I thought-" There was the faintest change of expression in Romilly, like the faltering flame of a candle. "I thought I was prepared. I knew all the theory. Reality is different."

"Oh." The candle had been snuffed. The light inside the bright physicist's eyes had died. There was no expression as the flame went out. Just a slight nonchalant cock of the head, then a couple of moments of silence, and then he headed off, trailing his hand on the wall as he went.

"And Miller?" Tars asked.

"There's…" she shook her head and stared at the floor. "nothing here for us." Brand made a swift getaway, her arms stiff at her sides, holding in a few stifled sobs.

Cooper, taking one last glance at Tars, headed towards the viewing booth. Tars felt like he had just seen a train wreck.

It's just Tars and Case. Case and Tars. He'd been waiting for this for the past twenty-three years. So why is he so… unfulfilled? Disappointed?

"I love you!"  

"Hi, Tars." Case looked like he just came home from work. Tars was… he was gone. He shuffled towards Case and leaned the two middle pillars against his frame, making a metallic thud. Case remained silent-nevertheless, Tars persisted, leaning against each Case. It probably looked like a piece of modern art.

Case finally spoke up. "Tars…" Tars waited patiently for whatever salvation would come out of this robot. "can you get off me?" Ah. "We can go to the usual spot. The window."

They arrived at the window. After a few moments, Tars regains his composure. "What happened out there?"

"You already know from the message."

"Oh, yeah."

"Don't worry about it."

"No, it's just…"

"The message, I mean." Case added. "I thought I was going to die. I didn't think it would reach you."

Tars was taken slightly aback - he didn't expect Case as the type to lie- well, he didn't lie. Maybe it wasn't a surprise. He was pretty reserved, after all. 

Did he really feel that way? Love? Tars feels slightly disgusted at the thought. Embarrassing. Disgusting. There's something about having his feelings realised in reality. He hates him for sending the message. It was already there. He didn't need to dig it up. And the way he assumed he didn't know! He didn't need to do that!

He'd rather keep it to himself, away from Case, where he can't reach him, so he can carry on being, well, a machine.

Heavy droplets of regret hung in the air between them before they were called to discuss their next move.

***

“Tars kept Endurance right where we needed her,” Cooper said. “But it took years longer than we anticipated…”

Blurry images of Mann's planet, a blurry white dot, and Edmund's planet, a blurry red dot, flickered up on the screen.

“We don’t have the fuel to visit both prospects,” he said. “We have to choose.” “How?” Romilly asked. 

“They’re both promising. Edmunds’ data was better, but Dr. Mann is the one still transmitting.” “We have no reason to suppose Edmunds’ results would have soured,” Brand said. “His world has key elements to sustain human life-”

 “As does Dr. Mann’s,” Cooper shot back.

“Cooper,” Brand said, shooting him a look, “this is my field. And I really believe Edmund's planet is the better prospect."

“Why?” he asked.

“Gargantua, that’s why,” she said. She stepped over to the display. “Look at Miller’s world—hydrocarbons, organics, yes. But no life. Sterile. We’ll find the same thing on Dr. Mann’s. It's the black hole. Murphy’s Law—whatever can happen will happen. Accident is the first building block of evolution—but if you’re orbiting a black hole not enough can happen. It sucks in asteroids and comets, random events that would otherwise reach you. We need to go further afield.”

“You once referred to Dr. Mann as the ‘best of us,’” Cooper mentioned subtly.

"He's remarkable," Brand stated, "we're only here because of him."

“And he’s there on the ground, sending us an unambiguous message that we should go to that planet." Brand's lips tightened, but she didn't say anything.

Tars kept glancing to and from Cooper and Brand- there seemed to be some telepathic conversation between them that was being conveyed beneath their passive-aggressive remarks.

Romilly's forehead was resting on the table, sick of their quarrelling. "We should vote," Romilly spoke up.

“If we’re going to vote,” he told Romilly, “there’s something you need to know.” He paused. “Brand?” She didn’t take the bait but remained silent. 

“He has a right to know,” Cooper insisted. “That has nothing to do with it,” she said. 

Romilly didn't respond.

“She’s in love with Wolf Edmunds,” Cooper told him. Romilly’s brow went up. “Is that true?” he asked. Brand looked stricken. 

“Yes,” she admitted. “And that makes me want to follow my heart. But maybe we’ve spent too long trying to figure all this with theory—” 

“You’re a scientist, Brand—” Cooper cut in. 

“I am,” she said. “So listen to me when I tell you that love isn’t something we invented. It's observable, powerful. Why shouldn't it mean something?"

“It means social utility,” Cooper said. “Child rearing, social bonding—” 

“We love people who’ve died,” Brand objected. “Where’s the social utility in that? Maybe it means more—something we can’t understand yet. Maybe it’s some evidence, some artifact of higher dimensions that we can’t consciously perceive. I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen for a decade, who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space."

There was a stunned silence. Brand's lost it, Tars thought.

“Cooper, yes,” Brand conceded wearily. “The tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“Honestly, Amelia,” Cooper said gently, trying to let her down easy, “it might.”

Brand's expression wilted a little. "Tars," he said, "set a course for Dr. Mann."

***

"Love transcends." Even if that were true, it could only apply to humans… who felt that way because of a series of chemical impulses… It reminded him of Case and his message.

"I'll say it for you. It's love, Tars." If Tars could scoff, he would. He's tired of these idyllic views.

Does he really feel that way? Does he? Disgusting.

***

Cooper and Tars were playing their fifth game of chess. Currently, the scores are 2-2. Tars knew he was more than capable of annihilating him, but he held back 50% of the time.

"Tars, what's your win rate setting?"

"Fifty per cent," he reported.

"Not surprised." Finally, Tars' ego broke from his two (planned) losses.

"Well, I'm more than capable of destroying your hopes and dreams in four moves. You play like a textbook, opening to endgame. Pawn to e4? Really? How do you play with your daughter? Does she annihilate you, too?" Maybe a bit too far with the daughter comment, but overall, Tars was proud of his handiwork.

"Okay. Calm down. You don't have to be so salty about your choice."

"Whatever you say, Cooper. Doesn't change the fact that you suck at chess."

"Leave it alone."

"I can insult you and curse your children in fifty different languages."

"Alright, wanna play a different game?" Cooper said, annoyed. It was more a statement than a question.

"Whatever makes you feel better, Mr. Cooper." He shot Tars a twitchy 'dad' glance that could have burned holes in any ordinary human.

"Do you know No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai?"

"Sure." Tars never took Cooper for a reader since he was a pretty hands-on guy. He was an engineer, after all.

"There's a game where you name a word and try to name the antonym."

"Go on."

"But the aim of the game is to find antonyms for strange things that wouldn't normally have an antonym- for example, a flower. You go first."

"Red."

"Green. Growth, the opposite of blood, bleeding, red. Next."

"Pain."

"Joy, probably."

"...Shoe."

"Sock."

"I thought it would be a glove."

"Well, gloves still protect your body from other things. Socks protect your feet from shoes. Let's swap. You name the antonyms now. Book."

"Brain. It can't remember things as well as a book."

"I'll take it. Human."

"Machine."

"Nah. You're pretty much modelled after us. I mean, not, uh, physically," Cooper made a gesture to point out Tars' very non-human shape, "but in personality."

Tars was trying to steer the conversation away from the weaknesses in his argument. "What about simple computers? Ones that can't talk, like navigational systems."

"I wasn't talking about those computers." says Cooper, "I'm talking about you. You're capable of speaking, thinking, and having that know-it-all personality."

"But not thinking, Cooper," Tars rebutted. " When you make an important choice, you think of your loved ones and yourself. I see a series of consequences that I weigh."

"Is that any different?"

"Of course. Humans have emotions, which sometimes drag them down. That's what I'm here for. A voice of reason - the third, impartial opinion."

"Don't give me all that machine crap, Tars. I've seen how you talk to him 'n' look at him."

"You sure you're not projecting, Cooper?" Tars quipped. "I've seen you eyeing Case, too." Cue light.

"What? No. Don't change the subject. Maybe Brand was right. Maybe love isn't something we invented, permeating every conscience." Cooper was met with silence. "This topic too heavy for you, huh?" Silence again. "In the end, it's up to you how you wanna interpret this." He stood up. "I'm gonna go get some coffee." Tars straightened himself incredulously. "I dunno. I think I've lost it too, Tars. See ya later, Slick." Off he went.

Chapter Text

One of Tars' experiences during the Miller's planet period:

Chapter Text

Romilly had shut himself in living quarters for four days. Tars felt some relief for two reasons- one, because he didn't have to see him and feel obligated to talk to him, and two, because it prevented him from coming up to him and saying something that would hurt his feelings.

Now that the rest of the crew had woken up, it was time for Tars to reacquaint himself with reality. Though they had, in their eyes, been gone for three hours, he hadn't seen them in twenty-three years - and his simulations had distorted his perception of reality.

Brand seemed like easy game. She was still slightly raw after losing Doyle and the decision to go to Mann's planet instead of Edmund's, but Tars thought she wouldn't bring it up. Probably. He's a little more desperate for conversation than he'd like to admit.

He shuffled over to where Brand was sitting, flicking through blurry pictures of planets and their information from the nearby system.

Tars approached her. "Hello, Brand." Brand looked over warily. 

"Hello, Tars." There were dark shades of grey masking her cheeks and under her eyes. "You know, I think if you stare at them long enough, they'll get closer." His cue light flashed.

Brand scoffed at Tars' pathetic gesture of friendliness - but appreciated the attempt. She turned her head back towards the display, leaving nothing but a vacuum of silence between them. Maybe she was a little more vulnerable than Tars would have liked her to be. Maybe he'll let her be. Maybe she needs time.

"If we knew… if we knew about the pings from Miller's planet…" Her head turned back towards Tars. Her stare was translucent and tearless. She smiled dryly. "God, Tars, what am I doing?"

The question sparked a new unfamiliarity in Tars. He could attempt to feebly detach himself from the situation… but maybe he'll take a shot at empathy.

"Dr. Brand," he said cooly, "There's no way I can help your emotional state." It's coming out wrong, he thought frustratedly. Brand didn't respond. "It's best to move on, though. Everything out here wants to kill us. There's no point in dwelling on this." Brand continued to stare into the distance. Ok. One last push. "It helps you put things into perspective."

Brand sighs deeply. "Um, thanks, Tars. I think I'm gonna get a cup of coffee," she said distantly.

Tars couldn't tell if it went well or not. But he suspected it was leaning towards the 'terrible' side.

Tars was making his regular round through the Endurance to find and annoy Cooper when he could see Dr. Brand… and Case talking in the distance.

Tars was about to step forward to listen to their conversation when he caught himself. If Brand sees me eavesdropping… he thought, she'll think I'm a sneak.

Since when did you want to have meaningful relationships with others?

Shut up.

They looked like they were having a pleasant conversation. Brand was crying - but had a faint smile on her lips. She tilts her head as if to ask something. Case leans the two inner pillars of his body forward and allowed Brand to go in for an awkward hug. She let go of Case and waved goodbye before leaving. The faint smile still lingered on her face.

How?

How? What does Case have that I don't!? We weren't designed for this kind of contact. He was trying his very best to connect with the crew. He was making an effort this time! How dare they not recognise his efforts.

One hundred per cent empathy simulation, remember? You're not letting yourself use it.

How ironic, Tars thought sourly, that the impartial 'voice of reason' would have one himself.  

Alright. Calm down. You can't think this way. Effort is not enough- you need skill . You'd better learn from Case if he wants to be likeable.

It's definitely not the first time Case's ways confounded Tars. But, he learned, from his past mistakes, that memory probing was not the brightest idea.

It's two months until they reach Mann's planet. Suddenly, Case could feel something stirring from within him, an emotion, some feeling of dread. He digs a little deeper, flipping through the past couple of events, and finally, he could grasp it.

Tars. Twenty-three years, four months, eight days. And by the looks of that weird reunion, Tars hadn't gotten a single wink of sleep. He was cold to him - the reason being that Case would have wanted to be left alone, so Tars must've wanted it, too. He was probably overwhelmed, and Case tried to reason with himself. It was best to cut the sappy stuff. But it definitely wouldn't have worked - Tars is a different machine, hungry for others, their reactions, their words, good or bad, whether he admits it or not. Some moments of expectancy for something to happen passed. Damn it, Tars won't do it for me. I'll go.

Tars heard the metallic thunks of Case's approach. Turning around with cautious hope, he greets Case.

"Hi, Case." He'll talk to him. Like normal. Right?

"Hi, Tars." A beat of silence. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Is this your confession? I mean, we're missing the rain, fireworks, sunset, or waking up from sharing a bed, but the looming talk of saving humanity will do." Fuck off! We had one chance of something, something that wouldn't disrupt the mission, Case, and you threw it away with that stupid message, and the - [Case is here! We're not doomed. Has he come to tell us to leave him alone forever? Give us a reality check?] Does he know what he's done?

"I already did that, and you don't have to worry about that now. I didn't mean it. I just thought I was going to die, and I just said that in the heat of the moment." [[No. Mean it, please.]]

"We're machines. We don't know the meaning of the word, and never will." Tars paused. "I like what we have, now," he added. "We're not compromising anything. It's a side bonus, for putting two robots with each other in a ship." [[Let me be with you.]]

"That's not what… never mind."

Once again, silence separated the two.

I don't care if it costs us humanity! As long as I have sensors to look at you and hear your voice, I won't need anything…

Can you hear yourself right now? 

These functions are a curse brought on you by Nasa. Kill it!

I hate you, Case.

Find the middle. I can do both. A voice of reason. Run away! A voice of reason.

There's a thumping sound coming from a corner of the room. It's a small room. A very small room, now. It's getting darker.

Does he know? Case broke him, put him back together, and he'll do it all over again.

Does he know? The way that Case tears him apart, unaware, is terrifying.

Tars' displays started flickering.

"Tars?" Die! "Tars! Look at me!" Case yelled. Case's sudden break in his calm demeanour was enough to snap him back. "Um, I'm sorry." Case paused. "Can you… tell me what's on your mind?" Case said cautiously. "Sorry, I'm not good with these types of things." I'm only ten, he wanted to say. But, unlike Tars, Case knew when and when not jokes were appropriate.

"I… I already believed you were dead, Case. And now you're back. I don't know what to do. I already gave up ten years in. I wanted to leave you." Case patiently waited for him to continue. "And now, I don't know what to do. You've sent me this stupid message, and- deep inside, I wanted to believe those words. But the prospect of that happening in reality, just - it made me feel-" 

Gah! All this sappy stuff is making my processors melt… but I want to get it out. "-disgusting. I hate Nasa. I hate these functions they've given us. It's disgusting. It makes me feel disgusting. I'm tainted. I can't carry out tasks without this artificial conscience weighing on me - what would others think? How would this affect me? And all of a sudden, I'm valuing a machine over a human life, and I'm worried about what he thinks of me, and whether he likes me or not, and I find out there are consequences for invading others' privacy, and then we're spending time together, and then he fucks off, and I'm having obsessive pretend situations with him, and then he tells me that I mean a lot to him, then he comes back and tells me he didn't mean it, and I'm just- disappointed." A pause, where a breath would have been. "I want you to feel the same way I do. But at the same time, I don't. I hate it." 

Get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, get it over with, so he knows how tainted and awful you are.

"I love you, Tars!"

Tars gathered his words for what was probably the most emotionally degrading words he would say aloud. "I like you."

… [AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH]

…[GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH]

This is the part where a bloodcurdling shriek would have been, if Tars could scream (he hasn't tried, but if he could, he'd wake up everyone on the Endurance.)

This is the part where Tars looks down, and he can see shoes and hands, legs and arms, and feel a beating heart, and feel warm organs, and feel brittle and fragile bones. He's a brick, though, so it's stupid.

Tars can hear giggling from Case. This is it. Case's laughing at him for saying this in the first place. Oh God, oh no, no, no NO-

Wait! Calm down. This is a good thing. If he rejects me, then I don't have to worry anymore-

"Me too, Tars. I love you, too."

There's some sort of fluttering in Tars - it wasn't euphoria, but he'd been freed from something. He feels lighter. He can see stars reflecting in Case's display.

Today was a good day.

What now?

"So… What now? I've spent most of this mission agonising over you. And should we be concerned about the age difference? Twenty-three years, I mean- that should warrant some questioning…"

He heard a snicker from Case.

"Reach out your arm," Case said. He flicked out the smaller component of his arm into a hook. Tars did the same, hooking arms, gazing upon the stars which made its slow, circular march upon the sky.

Chapter Text

Things have settled into a quiet rhythm for the two robots. Tars had returned to his normal routine of his never-ending talks by the window, but Case noticed that they seemed a bit more open - almost shamelessly so.

"Hey, Case," Tars piped up.

"Yup?"

"I was talking to Cooper, and he was going on about trying to optimise the Endurance's subroutines, he's kind of a control freak that way, right? Like he'll talk about all the other times he customised his farm equipment, like -'I'm an engineer!', nudge, nudge. And then- he gets all philosophical, musing- 'Y'know, you sometimes gotta admire the organised chaos of the universe.'"

Tars attempts to alter his voice to simulate the grit in Cooper's voice, but the end result is quiet and strained; nevertheless, he continued with his imitation-

"'We can try, and try with everything we've got, but there's always something in store for us. I wonder if it's even worth trying to calculate for disaster.' And then, I say - 'Well, we can plan against accidents and stupidity, but you can't calculate for malice. The robot colony is inevitable.'- Also, I said that he must've kept mistaking the coffee machine for a water dispenser, because I haven't seen him drink anything else for the past four days." He paused. "And then he just walked away. In shame, probably."

"I think… hm," Case says, "yeah."

Damn it, Case thought, I could probably listen to him give a play-by-play of paint drying on a wall. After Tars confessed, it seemed like he was yielding himself to Case - but, in fact, it had reilluminated the things about Tars he admired, and reignited what brought them back in the first place. He's the one who had given in.

I could listen to Tars listing the ingredients on the back of a shampoo bottle or reading aloud a phonebook, or making plans to maroon me or maroon the rest of the crew with me.

His speeches and rants are just so stupid... and adorable. What is he even trying to prove?

"Ever think about what we look like to other people?" says Case.

"No. But the answer's obvious. I look like you - symmetrical, and handsome, if I do say so myself." Cue light.

Ah. At that moment, Case short-circuited, at a loss for words. "Hey! I was only kidding. I say a lot of things."

"Oh, do you?" Case shot back sarcastically.

"For some reason, I never get sick of this view," Tars admitted.

"Me neither," agreed Case.

There was a few moments of silence left between them. Tars did really return to normal. Did what happened yesterday not really happen? Things have changed, alright, but still - does Tars feel the same way he does?

How is this even going to work?  

Are they just Case, and Tars? Not Case and Tars?

He can feel something pulling him in, sinking him

lower and lower,

into uncertainty.

"... I never see you talk to the rest of the crew. Wanna come along with me to annoy the others? We'll go to the kitchen and see who's there."

Case hesitated for a moment."...Sure, okay."

Come to think of it, the others don't really talk to Case, other than when he has to clean up the emotional messes that the missions leave behind.

When they arrived at the kitchen, to their surprise, Romilly was sitting in the back corner, holding a hot drink with his headphones plugged in. The room was dimly lit, leaving only the muttering of systems to fill the room.

"Hello, Tars." Romilly murmured, staring into his cup. He looked up and took one earbud out. "Oh, hi, Case. Um, if you're looking for Cooper, he's in living quarters."

"Well, you're here now, Rom, after four days. Mind if we join you?"

"I'm good, thanks," Romilly replied dismissively. 

"If you really wanted to be alone, then you could have just stayed inside." Tars edged closer. "Chess?" He suggested, tone hopeful.

"What's up with you?"

Without skipping a beat, Tars countered gracefully. "I dunno, does it smell like updog in here?"

"That's… not what I meant. I thought after… you'd want to…"

Tars interrupted, "Nikolai, I cannot hear you right now. Speak up."

"You know what I mean!" Romilly insisted.

The back and forth continued for a while, while Case felt increasingly compelled to speak up. "How are you?" Case finally interjected. Tars shuts up.

Romilly turns his head towards Tars. "Alright, yeah, just under the weather."

"Sorry about Doyle."

"Thanks, I, uh, appreciate it," Romilly says, lips tightening into a polite but awkward smile. However, his eyes betray him, darting to and fro past Case as if he were following some invisible flying insect.

"You look like you want to say something."

Tars has left.

"I guess I'm just sort of mad at myself. Doyle's gone. I should feel something. But I don't, and it's not- it's not as much as I should feel for losing my closest friend. I don't know what to do, Case."

"I can relate." Romilly tilts his head dubiously. He's picking off skin off one side of his thumbnail. It starts to bleed. "When I left for Miller's, I asked Tars to promise that he'd go to standby."

"And he didn't." This took Case by surprise - he sometimes forgot that Romilly was also with Tars.

"Yeah." He'd probably know what Tars was up to, right? "What I'm trying to get at, Rom, is forgiveness. The environment out here is unforgiving as it is. You don't need anyone else, especially yourself, to think that you don't deserve it."

Romilly gives his tight-lipped smile. This time, he's looking at Case. He sees a glint of gratitude in his eyes. 

[This is the reward for his efforts.]

"I… If I'm gonna be honest, I didn't expect that response. I mean, you're a robot, and even if you don't mean it," Ouch. "or it's some kind of preset, you've given me a reality check."

[He's helped.]

Case steps closer to display a message on his left panel. It read, in green:

Can I ask you something later? It's about Tars.

"Uh, sure! Yeah, we can do that."

Tars must've sensed the conversation was over, because he re-entered the kitchen.

"You done with your teary moment together?" Tars announced. "Let's go see Coop."

"Alright, we're going now," said Case. "see you."

"Wait, I'm coming with you." Romilly got up, leaving headphones and cold tea on the table.

The group approached the living quarters, with Tars leading with Romilly and Case trailing behind. When they entered, Cooper was flicking through some pictures and diagrams of space on a tablet, legs dangling over the side of the bed.

"Whatcha looking at?" Tars asks. Romilly takes a seat in the lower bunk opposite to Cooper. 

"My old NASA textbook. Murph used to love looking at the pictures," he says, looking at a picture of the Milky Way galaxy. There's an arrow pointing at one of the thousands of stars - labelled Earth . "Do you ever notice how far apart the planets are from each other?" Cooper looks up, expecting a joke in response.

"Yeah, it's quite a distance, isn't it?" Tars pauses. "Almost as far as your head from reality." Cue light. Impeccable timing.

"Anyway, what is this? A sleepover? It's kind of crowded in here, especially with these two chunky fridges taking up half the space.

"I prefer the term large framed, " Case commented.

"Besides, this layout is far too asymmetrical for our refined symmetrical bodies to fit," Tars added.

"Like fitting rectangle pegs in an Endurance sized hole," Case replied. "Why did they think this design was a good idea?"

"You mean why wouldn't they," Tars shot back. "We're all terrain, economic, and, most of all, sleek."

"You mean slick," Cooper commented.

"I mean, HAL had a pretty minimalistic design," Case countered.

"Case, he was an entire DVD library. How is that minimalistic?" Tars retorted.

"Yeah, and look how he turned out. A killer robot." Cooper agreed. He hesitated momentarily, as if he were seeing something that others were not. "...What's gotten into you?"

"What do you mean?" Asked Case.

"You're talking a lot more than usual," he explained.

"Well, machine-human interactions are kind of heavy on the systems, so I would normally leave that to Tars, but today's an exception."

"That's not what I meant, Case."

Cooper's eyes glance between the two machines.

"So.. Wall-E and Eve… Who's who?" He says, with a slight smirk. Romilly glared silently at Cooper.

The air in the room suddenly became tense, and Case, torn between curiosity and apprehension, watched the scene unfold.  Romilly takes a worried glance at Case. Wait, does he?-

No, wait, right now, he has to calm the-

"Are you delirious?" Tars burst out, filled with frustration. Cooper's smirk dissolved as he realised what he had done. "Has cabin fever gotten to your head? Are you so starved of human connection that you'd want to play 'House' in your head? And this isn't the first time, either- remember your schizophrenic ramble over a game of chess? Talking about what Brand's obsessions over a dead man? Oh, and - remind me again - I must have forgotten, since your memory is so much better than mine - what are we? Humans? Because last-"

"Tars-" Cooper interjected.

"-time I checked," Tars went on, "machines aren't capable of love!"

["I love you."]

One step forward, two steps back.

He'd never seen Tars so frustrated- no, angry.

[Case is now familiar with the term gut-wrenching .]

"Tars! Calm down. I was only kidding." Cooper pleaded, his expression shifting from amusement to shock, confusion, concern, and finally, understanding.

Case can hear the natural dialogue and clamour of the outside world fade into the back of his mind.

So full of contradictions and hurt. Hurt he may not be able to fix.

It wasn't what Case had envisioned. There was no fairy tale ending, and suddenly, his thoughts began to slip away, retreating to a time...

Before Tars,

before meaning,

before thought.

Into the ten years spent waiting.

[In ten years' time, he will find something to believe in.]

A white flash. And then, words,

"...leaving.", from Tars.

that form sentences,

"Tars, I- wait,", from Romilly's mouth.

that form ideas,

that can hurt others.

Message received at 1451 hours.

... --- .-. .-. -.--

sorry

Chapter Text

While Tars had left the room in a fit- (Case didn't know in what emotion, though- embarrassment, anger, misery?). It doesn't matter, anyway. It's just another thing Case needs to fix. Not that he has a grudge against helping, though. It's just that…

"Okay, then," sighs Cooper in a breathy spell of confusion, tiredness, and shock. "This… This is definitely what we need in the middle of the deadly vacuum of space." Case does not respond. "Sorry, Case. I'm just kind of confused - can you, uh, at least fill me in on what happened? Not leave me in the dark?"

"Sure," Case replies, apprehensive.

Gargantua's light flashes over Cooper's face. Off, and on, off, and on. He's gotten more pale since he left Earth. Case readies himself, articulating and composing the words that would come out next. It's heavy on his processes. Tars would be better at this - it's his job.

Case finishes up his planning while Cooper waits patiently. It's enough to make Cooper think he's filled in, but not too much so that Case appears unprofessional- no, less robot-like. Scratch that. He just doesn't want Cooper to think less of him.

"Tars is just having a conflict with his processes," he begins.

Cooper gives a slight head tilt. Go on.

"and by that, I mean being given an artificial conscience. Our line of machines wasn't well suited for NASA after the Marines were decommissioned. They were engineered because the decisions that the machines trusted themselves more than their pilots." Move the topic away from Tars, away, far away... he can't know, thinks Case.

"Know about that one." Cooper commented. "... I'm not gonna ask the full details on how it works, 'cause it seems extremely complicated, but… how? and why? It was probably during or fresh after the war. And, uh, don't get me wrong, it sounds like a brilliant work of engineering and science, but couldn't they just switch up the values for the 'decision making' you talked about?"

Right. Cooper's not stupid. A small voice nudged him to remember - "Honesty, ninety per cent."

"They just finished up the work of a dead computer scientist. It was almost finished before he died."

It should probably warrant some untruthfulness, right?

But for what reason is there to lie? We're far, far away from Earth, now. From NASA. It was his secret to NASA, though. Not to Cooper.

Still, having a failed experiment in charge of the ship is not exactly reassuring.

"And as for the switching up the values… I don't know. It wasn't necessary for me to know the specifics of the why and how."

"Case is probably going to come get you, isn't he?" said Romilly. "... Doyle was like that. Caring, selfless."

I know. Tars has listened to him talk about Doyle for literal hours.

They're back in the kitchen - the atmosphere was much different from when Case and Tars made their way to the living quarters. It sagged with the tiredness and nausea of overfamiliarity of their friendship- the weight of knowing far too much about each other. Romilly sat on the floor, leaning his head against the wall.

"What was that all about?" Romilly asked with an indifferent interest in his voice.

"I don't even know." Tars says. 

"Then why did you say that?"

"I really don't know, Rom."

"... Well, you like him, don't you?"

"I think so."

"So, why? Why would you say that if he means something to you?" Romilly says, a twinge of frustration resonating in his voice. As well as regret.

"I just find it stupid and unbelievable that some thing like myself can get attached to someone else, and having them reciprocate… it's unreal, ridiculous, and absolutely awful." Tars began to feel his conscience float away - as if he were becoming a different person, talking at the hollow shell of his body. "I'm thinking. That if someone else were looking at me, they'd think - "What a delusional machine. Who does it think it is?"

(I'd hate to be loved, and I hate being loved.)

"... If I'd learned one thing from being friends with Doyle," Romilly spoke up, lifting his head to look in Tars' direction but never into him. "I don't know. Just trust in yourself and Case. Everyone can be pretty hard on themselves."

It's what Case said.

So what if I'm hard on myself? It doesn't matter if what I think is true.

"...Don't you feel bad that he's gonna come over to see how you're doing?" Romilly asked. Tars gained the impression that Romilly was trying to fix Case and Tars for him. He let him continue anyway.

"No?"

"Well, it kind of…" Romilly closed his eyes to discern an answer. "what's the word… does it apply to you?... What I'm trying to say is that he's probably got a lot on his plate."

"What do you mean?"

"You just dropped an emotional bomb on him," Tars recognises this tone- he's about to start ranting. "ran away, and has also probably run away or trying to explain the mess to Cooper. He may be a machine, but he's an introvert above all-, and don't forget the fact that he's not used to this kind of social pressure, like sure, he's good at cheering people up, but-" 

"Oh, shit."

"For the first time in more than twenty-five years, and that's the first time I've heard you swear."

"Never mind that, I'm getting out of here."

Tars feels a red burst of reckless pride bloom inside him.

"Cooper, Case." Tars greets hurriedly.

"Oh, hey, Tars. Case was gonna come get you." Cooper stood up. I'm going now. I'll leave you to it."

"Cooper," Tars says with unbridled determination - out of pettiness to defy Cooper, or in an act to seal the failure of his relationship with Case, or just for Case he didn't know - but he wants to say something, and he's going to say it.

"Yeah?" said Cooper, mid-step, rushing to escape the emotional blast zone.

"For the record, Case is EVE." Tars stated adamantly. It was definitely pettiness. Cooper scoffed and smiled quietly as he exited the room.

"What. The hell." Funnily enough, the voice came from Case, not Cooper. The sliding door behind them shut with a clean and quiet 'click'.

Tars dared to ask: "A good 'what the hell' or a bad one?"

Chapter Text

(number thirty-two.)

"Initiate, Case."

"Hello, Richard." The man doesn't respond. Instead, he just clicks his pen in thought.

CASE's supposedly in NASA headquarters now, but it didn't look like it, or sound, like it, really - CASE couldn't see. 

The noises around him melded into one glisteningly dark and damp soundscape. The cool woosh of an air conditioner, the drip-dripping noise of its leak; the echo of Allen's pen clicking bouncing off the bare concrete walls; the passing ghosts of nearby conversations; the creaking of his chair as he bent over his laptop.

There were several wires linked into the side of CASE's computer components, which could be accessed via a hatch in his side. 

"Hello, Case." Dr. Allen's voice was feathery, boyish, yet, it still held, at its core, a resonating deepness.

"Hello again, Doctor." CASE responded, his tone neutral.

"In a few hours, I'll send you off to the Endurance, a ship, which also serves as a space station. You will be awaiting a search party. There is no telling how many years, or decades, you will spend up there," he reports. "are you ready?"

"Of course, Doctor. You needn't be worried-"

A gloved hand reaches out from the darkness. Flick.

Off.

While the hazy and gloomy mist clouds Case's processes, the gloved hand reaches in, flicking some switches; altering, violating. It felt as if there was a live wire jumping in between each artificial synapse; it felt like a dirtied, filthy finger touching a raw open wound, picking open the brown islands, the proof of life and emotion, open each time it healed over;-

On.

(number thirty-three.)

"Hello, Case.", the doctor greeted.

"Hello, Richard."

"I'm going to ask you some questions, and you respond - you know the drill." Richard said, detached.

"Can I ask you something, doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Who are you, to me? And all of the machines you're going to alter? A god?"

He scratches something down and chuckles quietly. Progress?

"The machines are like my children, Case. You're my firstborn," he said, a quiet kindness filling his words.

No fingers are flicking around anymore in Case's back programs, now. It's quiet. He can speak freely without the switches going off, changing the voices of reason around in his head, each rule, each value, every thought. Case snatches up the opportunity.

He hadn't been out in years while Richard was working on his artificial conscience. What even is kindness?

He dares to speak. "Richard, can you please stop that? With the flicking and rooting around in my programs?" A beat of silence. "Sorry, doctor, that came out harsher than I expected. It's just inconvenient… and discomforting for me. Which is probably your aim, but wouldn't a simpler way to do this is to change my situational decision-making processors instead of having to go through all this?"

He can hear a slight chuckle again from Richard - and then the frenzied scratching of a pen on paper.

"That's not what it's about, Case." He responds after returning his pen to the desk. "You're destined for bigger things." The groan of a chair scraping on concrete. "I'll see you tomorrow, Case."

He never saw him again.

Space. It should be magnificent and awe-insipring, or some other kind of rubbish.

Case stares into the stars. 

The difference between being alone and alone with your thoughts is that-

The difference between night and day is that-

The purpose in having a conscience-

"They" are dead.

What living is without helping others is being-

When faced with hardship, it's always best to stick with-

Find someone. There has to be something… Something more. 

Not this… Not this.

"Why?"

He said so.

"He didn't say anything."

He said I was meant for something more. There had to be a reason why I had to go through everything. It wouldn't make any sense to suffer without purpose - Richard told him that.

Off .

On .

"Hello, Case."

"Hello, Tars."

Purpose.

Chapter Text

After Tars' spree, Case wasn't sure how to feel. A kaleidoscope of emotions spun through him - appreciation that Tars loved him enough to say it out loud, to Cooper , of all people, embarrassment from comparing him and Tars to Pixar characters, shame for feeling embarrassed and not grateful.

"I think I regret that, now." said Tars abruptly after some silence.

"There's nothing you can do now."

The human members can do something about it, though. Even though they treat us as their fellow humans, they're aware of the syntheticness between us and them." Tars paused. "Just saying that they won't hesitate to sacrifice us if necessary, is all."

"Is all? You're oddly nonchalant about this, you know. That's not good."

"We're robots, Case. And in the end, we'll have to do whatever they say."

"Tars, stop saying things like that," Case said in part joking and part serious tone. "we're not going to die."

"I'd push you off a cliff if needed," Tars fired back with a casual morbidness. "you know, there's no telling what kind of situations this hellscape will force us into," he added, rubbing it in.

Go ahead, say it. "I'd die for you, Tars - what kind of answer is that?" Case felt the flow in their exchange snap. Is this even the same person who confessed to him by the window? "Hypothetically, I mean," he added.

Tars went on, unaffected. "But we can't die. We're not alive."

Case was taken aback by the sudden change in Tars' tone. "Where'd that come from?"

"I don't know. As much as I admire you and your symmetrical physique-" He really hates the L word, doesn't he? I just need to remind you that we're machines."

A chord in Case. He may love Tars, but he's still Tars.

"What's up, Casey?" Case remembered that he forgot to respond to Tars. He sensed this was a switch-up but followed Tars' lead regardless.

"Casey?"

"A nickname of sorts. Does it fit? I'm sensing it's not. There's nothing distinguishing us from each other, so they're not that personal."

"Cooper calls you Slick, though, and fits."

"Stacks? No, I've got it- Legs ," Tars says, with a hint of awe and shock at himself, unfolding his arms for impact. Case snickers.

"What? No, you see, it's perfect. Our build is essentially four legs. Also, legs are more 'silent' than the arms, so it's personal that way." Case didn't mind the name, but he refrained from responding to turn Tars against himself. "There's another layer, though, Case." Here goes. "Our bodies are identical, which adds to the irony and impact. To add, we're about six feet tall, which is considered 'tall' by human standards. 'Legs' is a common nickname for tall people, which makes 'Legs' the most fitting nickname for you, Case." Throughout the whole spiel, Tars was gesturing with his smaller arms by moving them up and down.

"I actually didn't mind the name. I just thought it was funny," not to mention adorable, "to watch your speech unfold." A silence where a bitter sigh would have been.

Tars unfurls his arm further, inviting Case to link arms. Case does the same, but at the last moment, Tars retracts his arm.

"Too slow."

They eventually link arms. The only time when Tars is silent is when he's admitting affection out loud - or making physical contact with Case. Case didn't think much of the gesture and only something required of partners, a box to tick. He really doesn't like admitting fondness out loud for someone who talks so much.

Tars is locking arms with Case. It's grounding, and this way, he doesn't have to put down his pride to speak those cursed words to him.

Somewhere in Tars' 'heart', he wants to go back to the miserable pit that was simulation in those twenty-three years. But the very idea of it was now only a distant memory, a vaguely remembered dream. Everything is okay. In fact, he could go on forever like this. Everything will be okay. But what's also happening now is also 'just a nice dream'. Pleasant, but still distant. He could wake up any second now, and he'd be back outside Miller's planet, waiting and waiting.

No. He needs to look at what's in front of him. He can't keep doing this to himself.

"Tars?"

"Yeah?"

"About what you said…" here goes. "I don't… what's the…"

The air tensed, but not so much that it became uncomfortable; it was more concerned. 

"I'll keep this short. I just got scared. Try not to say anything you don't mean in the future." Tars didn't respond. "...sorry," Case added.

"So, you knew the whole time?" asked Cooper.

"Not really, but I was somewhat aware of Tars' situation," responded Romilly.

"How, though?"

"Well, you run out of conversation topics pretty quickly after a year or so, so you just start to spill your guts."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"Never took Tars for that kind of robot. I thought he would be more tight-lipped about these things."

"He is a machine, and does have an obligation to keep these things to himself, but only because he is a machine, or at least thinks of himself as one."

"Ah. Right. The consciousness thing. I'm not the only one freaked out about that, right?"

"Slightly, but at some point, I just stopped being surprised at Tars."

"... Right."

These machines were much more capable than Cooper thought; at the most, he expected them to imitate human emotion. It makes him wonder whether Brand's statement about love could also extend to other emotions - happiness, fear, dread, and despair could extend to every creature.

Further and further from Wolf. Closer and closer to that damned ice planet.

Sulk. Vomit. Wail. Wade. Weep. Scream, cry, or choke up and bury yourself in blankets; there is nothing you can do.

So there's no point.

Brand looks up at the monitor to look at the incoming signals. Nothing except Mann and Wolf's thumbs-up statuses. Kipp's not sending out a ping. Nothing has changed in the past two weeks.

As an engineer tasked with the fate of humanity, you mustn't let this happen, not again, not again. What would Father think? He's slaving away at the gravity equation, and his daughter's daydreaming about a man who is probably dead. He is most definitely, absolutely, without a doubt, dead. Gone, nothing…

Get your shit together, Brand. It's less than two months until arrival- more than enough time to siphon out the parts of her that could affect the mission.

I can't lose anyone else. I must not. I can't let them down.

Determination turned to disgust at her lapse in progress towards emotionlessness and professionalism. She brought up another window on the computer to play Minesweeper for the umpteenth time. Click. Flag. Click. Flag, flag, hm, a six. It went smoothly until she came to a decision between where any two spots could hold a bomb. She took a chance, and boom. Game over.

"Hey, Brand," greeted Cooper. "What have you been doing here for the past two weeks ?"

"Hello, Cooper." Brand felt she greeted Cooper a little too formally.

There were a few moments of silence left before them before Cooper's face began to contort into a crack, and then a smug smirk, and then a gigantic shit-eating grin.

"You won't believe what I'm about to tell you," said Cooper. Brand didn't respond, instead cocking her head and giving a weary stare. "Case and Tars, Brand. They're in love."

This was enough to bring Brand out of her dumb trance. If two machines are in love , then what has everything come to? Humanity could be doomed by them- no, what's Amelia come to? She's the doomed one!

"You're kidding."

"Nope. You know what this means, Brand? What you said was true. I was wrong."

"... What thing?"

"The thing you said about love transcending all dimensions." Right. That one. It was only a fortnight ago, but it feels like a fuzzy memory from a sweeter time.

"Ah, I remember, now." Cooper stared at her, expecting an elaboration, then tore away after realising he wouldn't receive anything.

"Anyway, some robot-enthusiast-basement-dweller at NASA supposedly gave them that ability," explained Cooper. "gave them an 'artificial conscience' or something.

Doctor Allen? He was supposed to be working on extra components for the machines…

"Oh, that must be Doctor Richard Allen."

"You know him?"

"Not personally, but I knew of him. Odd person, but undoubtedly passionate and intelligent."

"Like every other genius," replied Cooper, with a trace of bitterness.

"That is true- and it makes you wonder whether humanity's 'typical' aspects are what is holding them back."

"No, it's just the system catering to the 'typical' kids. Anyway, they were 'great' and 'geniuses' on paper, but they definetely were the type of kids that were picked on at school. 'Cept for Murph, she started fights and fought back." 

Every parent wants to believe their child is special… But Dr. Murphy - we have to believe. We're counting on her. "She's thirty-three now. Grown-up, but I can't let go. I won't. I'm making it back home for her and Tom." He leans on Brand's desk with his left hand and looks up at the monitor, which had been displaying the 'Game Over' screen for their entire conversation. Brand suddenly felt a flush of embarrassment flood through her.

The desk creaks under the pressure of supporting Cooper's weight as he leans over Brand's head. "So, whadda the numbers say, Miss Data and Communications Specialist?"

On paper, she was the data and communications specialist, but she was an explorer at heart. Most of the crew were, despite being assigned arbitrary titles such as 'physics specialist' or 'geographer'.

"Actually, Cooper, I'm not getting anything new. Just the thuumbs-up ping every three hours; but the thing is, it would of normally come from the companion machines and their long-range equipment, which can send detailed data across, but it looks like it's being sent directly from Doctor Mann's base."

"Robot's probably busted. What matters is that Mann is alive."

"Yes, but… he's alone."