Chapter Text
You woke to the smell of ash and the sound of alarms blaring, begging to be heard. Your body hurt, your brain was tired and your eyes almost seemed to refuse to open, as if too scared to see what would await you.
When they did open, there were warm streaks of light. Groggily, you moved your body upwards. Only to be hit with glass. Your eyes focused and your assumption was proved correct. It was a large curved pane of glass encasing your body like a coffin.
Just where the hell were you?
You hit your fist against it, but it didn't budge. Then again. And again and again and again-
It still wouldn't open. The only thing you achieved from that was an even heavier feeling in your arms and a bigger sense of panic as your chest heaved and stole away the oxygen from the small box you were in.
Judging by the fact that it hadn't so much as cracked against the pressure of your fist, it was probably safe to assume the material was acrylic not glass. Not that the fact you could identify it would help you.
The space was getting hotter, there was condensation gathering at the surface of the acrylic and sweat was dripping down from your body onto the metal beneath you. The metal that was increasingly becoming hotter as the crackling sound around you grew louder.
Your chest was heaving even heavier now, your arms desperately searched for anything solid to hold onto inside this… strange box. There was nothing you could find. No eject buttons, or wiring you could rearrange or anything, just a few light burns you got from touching certain areas of the metal.
You screamed. You were losing your patience and if left any longer, probably your life. You were going to die. You were going to die in this box and nobody would find your body. You didn't even know where you were. Did you even have family that would miss and mourn you? Friends? Coworkers even-
“Hello?” A very posh and robotic voice called out. Was there a British person here? Could they help? Or would they be dangerous? Well, I guess being killed by a person would be better than in this hotbox. At least someone would know where your body was. Hesitantly, you replied back,
“H- hey” your voice was croaky and weak. Just how long have you been here? So many questions yet no answers.
“Ah! Hello” the voice was very enthusiastic yet still had this monotonous tone to it. If you weren't so dazed, you could've sworn you heard a whirring heading towards your direction.
“Are you inside this cryogenic pod?” they asked
Before you could reply, there was a knock at the acrylic surface above you. You gasped.
“Uh- yes. I'm in here.” You paused, “could you let me out? Please? I think I'm gonna boil in here”
Not another second was wasted, the acrylic covering separated itself from the metal with a hiss. The crackling sound of fire was even louder now, the outside heat hit your face like a truck.
Hot metal reached for your arm and you yelped in pain. There was a red burn left on you arm.
“My apologies!” the posh voice exclaimed.
You hissed, nursing the injury before moving out of the coffin- no- the voice said it was a… cryogenic chamber earlier?
“But we must hurry! The fire grows closer, worse, the ceiling could collapse!” Funny, it sounded like the voice was at your feet.
“What are you laughing about?! We are in a danger zone!” You didn't even know you were laughing. God, you were out of it.
Your legs moved forward, pushed by something small, no taller than the top of your shin. The mechanical whirring you thought you heard was back, the sound was louder than before.
“Evacuate… human…” it said between pants as whoever was pushing you began to slow down. Finally, you had a chance to look at the face of the person who saved you from the chamber. Below you was a small robot with tires for feet.
“...” How do you even respond to something like this.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, a pillar landed, interrupting whatever train of thought you had. The rumble it caused on the ship brought on your fight or flight. You began to run.
…
Then you turned back, picked up the robot and proceeded to run once again.
“What the hell is happening? What is this place- where am I? Who are you? Who am I?!” You shouted out as you ran further down the hallway.
“Uh- turn right” the voice responded. You listened to the instruction but looked down at the bot expectantly,
“I'll explain it all to you later, engineer.” it added with a passive tone.
Engineer? What.
“Ok… now left!” As soon as you rounded the corner, a piece of scrap metal fell right in front of you and impaled the floor. A few more seconds and that could've been you.
“Keep moving! The more we stall, the harder it will be to get out!” The voice of reason held in your arms shouted out, whirring slightly.
Your legs picked up the pace again. Jumping over the metal and racing through the structure. Already your legs were beginning to feel sore, they were ready to give out. You had no idea how much longer you would need to keep running for, it felt like you had passed the same area over and over again.
The only indicator that it had been different was the 4 different signs you've passed that showed different sectors of what you assumed was either a ship you were aboard or a facility.
Another piece of scrap metal stood in your way. Just like all the others you moved around it, but unlike the others, it scraped against your calf, drawing blood immediately. It stung, but not as much as the fire would if you didn't keep moving.
You kept moving. You wouldn't stop moving until you and this weird bot were out of here alive. You needed answers and you needed food and water and rest, lots of rest. You wanted to lay down so bad, to just take a small break. Clearly, the adrenaline was running low.
“It's just around this corner!” The robot called, despite being a machine, its voice sounded relieved. And you shared that thought. A large sigh exited your lungs before it had to inhale the burning ash and carbon dioxide again, scratching at your throat.
You rounded the corner, you wondered what the outside would look like. Warm, inviting sunlight dripping onto your body and soft grass that wouldn't make your every surface itch when you layer in it.
But there was a large, heavy, steel door. Unopened.
“What…” you said softly, panting, body halting at the front of the steel door that was doing a better job of being a wall than a door at the moment
“What?!” The fire behind you crackled even harsher behind you, almost like a sick laugh at your misery.
You knew for certain that you wouldn't be able to open this with just brute strength. The thought made your heart thump wildly. Your hope of living from earlier was diminishing again. You were trapped still.
“Engineer!” The robot had released itself from your hold and was now on the ground.
“Come here, engineer. Crouch down! If you stay up there, you're going to suffocate!” You heavily dropped to your knees as if accepting defeat.
“I thought you knew where the exit was.” You looked over at the small bot. You saw its body move slightly, its small hands fumbled with each other as it looked around.
“Scanning for possible exits” it announced, its voice now completely monotone.
You cough aggressively onto the floor, hands reaching out to stabilize yourself. The smoke is only getting thicker.
“A-anything?”
“I've scanned 2 possible exit strategies. We can attempt to manually reboot the door console to the left of that wall and open it.” it pointed at the small black box jutting from the side of the wall. Its wires were sparking but not completely broken.
“Or we can go through that vent and attempt to travel to another opening to the outside.”
You paused, thinking, before the ceiling collapsed itself again, closer to you.
“Vent! Vent!” You crawled towards it with great haste.
“What a great choice, engineer. It will keep us low from the carbon dioxide and has a greater probability of escape!” How comforting. Your hands fumbled against the screws of the vent. Maybe the console was a better idea-
“Allow me to assist.” The robot carried itself between you and the vent.
“Uh, yeah, sure. Knock yourself out.”
“...why would I want to do that?”
“Its a- its a saying. I'm just saying to go ahead.”
You looked back at the raging fires and listened to the crunching of metal, “and do it fast, please.”
The bot's hands seemed familiar with this line of work. Its fingers, although it only had three, worked fast on the screws, rapidly spinning its artificial wrists to release them.
It was open in less than a minute.
“Humans first!” Its face panel showed a small, cute and friendly smile.
“Thank you” you didn't really want to know the implications of that saying. That humans were above robots?
The two of you crawled through the vent. You with panic, the robot with a passive companionship.
The metal of the vent burned against your skin. You were forced to roll down the sleeves of whatever uniform you were wearing. You didn't really care about it at the moment, you felt like there were bigger fish to fry.
More sweat dripped down your body, you could feel a headache coming on.
“Hmm it should be around here. Approximately just a few more seconds” Thank god. That one sentence was enough to bring hope back to you.
“Ah, there it is.” The posh voice resonated through the compact space of the vent.
You moved your body around so the bot could access the vent and finally release the both of you from this place. Thoughts of fresh air against your skin began to fill your mind again.
A crash brought you back from your dreaming,
“I've got it off!”
“Yes!” Your arms carried you away, dragging you forward towards the now empty metallic frame.
Your hands made contact with warm soil, then cold soil, then grass.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” it felt so nice against your scorched skin.
“Thank you!” You looked over to the bot, finally taking in its appearance. It was small.
The body was just a metallic box, Its legs were two tire tracks on either side of its body, the arms were two cone-like shapes, thicker at the wrist. Speaking of which, there was a small, flat cylinder that made its wrist then three fingers attached to it. The head was a long rectangle panel with two bright glowing eyes.
“Just what are you, little guy?”
“I am Orion-215. I am the assigned helper of the engineer.” It looked at you with its large, hopeful eyes.
“I am among the lower class robots that were aboard the ship to ensure the humans were functioning properly in and out of cryostasis.”
You nodded, soaking in the information.
“possible hazard located: explosion. Evacuate.” The robot began to attempt to push you again. Hesitantly, you got to your feet. So far, this robot, Orion-215, has been leading you to safety so it would be a safe assumption that it would continue to do such.
As you got to your feet, you looked back at the burning structure behind you. You took in all the details before Orion-215 dragged you away.
—---
The two of you moved over to a forest that was a small walk from the ship, but far enough for you to be certain that there wouldn't be any forest fires happening any time soon.
You had found a small undercover area where the land dipped and at some point, a tree had fallen over the top. There were red and green vines surrounding the area. It wasn't much but it seemed safe enough to keep the two of you from being spotted by any wild animals.
Your legs ached from the cardio it's been subjected to, but were slowly beginning to relax. Your scratched leg has somewhat stopped bleeding. It’s slightly dried over but it's not like you had anything to patch it up with.
Orion-215 sat beside you, pulling out twigs and vegetation from in between its tire tracks. You were in the fetal position, questioning what had happened.
You had woken in a cryostasis chamber, surrounded by many others. But you didn't know why. Who were you? You knew your name, sure, but not this robot or what structure you were in. It couldn't be a building because when you left, you noticed it wasn't any taller than a shack. And infrastructure usually doesn't have cryostasis chambers, or thrusters on the side.
That must have been a ship. You were aboard a ship.
But why? What was your purpose there?
“You seem to have questions, human. Perhaps I can provide some answers”
“Wha- how-” you looked away bashfully, “that obvious, huh?”
Orion nodded its head.
You looked up at the sky, wondering where to start. You had a million questions. All of them with somewhat the same curiosity.
“Who am I?”
Orion paused, the eyes on the screen widened and it whirred back and forth a bit. Similarly to pacing.
“You're the engineer.” But you knew that.
“You would fix the ship and keep all the technology on the ship in tip-top shape. I was your robot helper. You made me yourself, you brought me aboard to help you.”
You didn't know that part.
“I created you?” You mumbled under your breath, “then why don't I remember you?”
“Ah. The cryostasis pod you and the rest of the crew were in were not the best the company could have bought. Some side effects that were listed include incomplete recovery, memory loss and potential death.”
“I'm sorry- other crew members- and potential death?!”
“That is what was listed on the cryostasis pods.”
You stared at the robot before you. Its eyes blinked a few times as you did. Your eyebrows were furrowed and your hands clutched at the soil beneath you.
“There were other crew members like me aboard that ship?”
“Correct.”
“Why aren't they here with us then?”
“When the ship began to crash, I was sent out from my charging quarters to release the crew members from their pods. However, they did not exit. Only you were awake.”
“So they're…”
“It is likely they were suffering from the other listed side effects, yes.”
“Like death?”
“-memory loss and incomplete recovery. They were unable to unfreeze in time or at all.”
Your mouth was on the floor, what were you hearing?
“I-if it's any comfort, there could be a chance that one of them escaped because I had opened all the pods before we left.”
Orion-215 began to awkwardly scratch its head. It's nervous about your silence. Despite its obviously robotic appearance and voice, it seemed to mimic humans quite well, it must have A.I.
“I suppose that is… comforting. Thank you, Orion.” It lit up at the praise.
You looked at the sky once again. It was dark now. A small part of yourself began to fear that something would happen under the covers of the night sky, but you pushed it aside for the time being. The area you were at was hidden enough to probably keep you both safe.
Although a part of you knew that you would have no means of defending yourself or that robot. You were leaving yourself completely vulnerable to the wildlife of the night, hoping to escape death on a whim whether it be to a sudden weather change or a wild beast, or worst of all, other people.
If you made a knife or a sword, that might help you. But if there was an animal like wolves or a large cat or a bear, you don't know how much it would help in the long run. You'd probably just die, leaving an injury for it to be killed and eaten by another predator.
You scuffled deeper into the makeshift cover, engulfing yourself with darkness. Orion followed hastily, although with less success as its eyes lit up the area and you, rendering the previous darkness useless.
—
You ended up making a spear. Using a large stick as the spear and rocks to sharpen the end. If you were going to be attacked, you'd go out fighting. Better yet, alive.
It was much darker now. If you were to guess, maybe around 8pm. You hadn't seen any animals but you did hear noises deeper into the forest. Maybe because you were closer to the edge of the lush greenery, you were less likely to meet any dangerous animals.
You were sitting, clutching the spear. Orion had put itself in sleep mode a few minutes ago. Your body seemed to want to follow suit, the physical exhaustion still catching up to you, but your brain told you to stay alert.
You kept awake for what felt like another 30 minutes.
It was only 10.
—---
When you awoke it was to the sound of a large bang accompanied by the visuals of trees thrashing and shaking. The ground beneath you seemed to tremble.
What the hell happened now?