Chapter Text
Sighing, Tommy made his way down through the Ship's halls, making turns and climbing ladders on auto-pilot, having made this journey everyday for almost two full Earth years. The white fluorescent lights could be heard humming as his footsteps echoed around the empty passageways; faintly, he could hear the engines on the lower floors grinding away as the ship continued to make its journey to its final destination.
As he neared the Bridge, he looked out the windows that lined the hall, and wondered if any of the stars he could see were constellations to other beings out there, hell, he wondered if he could create a few and document them, but if he did and moved out farther, would he ever see them again?
“Tubbo, I swear, either the people that built this place can’t programme doors correctly or you’re intentionally jamming doors.”
‘I do no such thing, it would go against my code of helping those on board.’
“You don’t even follow your code properly anymore! I wouldn't put it past you to do this. Just to cause a hassle in my life, but that’s okay, I’m a big man, and big men fix things.”
‘Big Man, yeah, but no, I didn’t jam them this time anyway.
You have now entered the Bridge, Welcome Thomas Valestraya.’
Chuckling lightly, Tommy made his way over to the ship's control panel and loaded up the screens, watching them flicker on and load up the logistics of the Ship’s log over the last couple of days (so what if he hasn’t been in for a bit, the Ship is huge and he has to make sure that practically everything is in working order). Sitting down, Tommy pulled over one of the screens and began reading off the reports, noting down any outliers and recording them in the planner next to the consoles, highlighting the ones that need his attention first; correcting bugs and incidents in the reports that both he and Tubbo had finished over the last couple of days, Tubbo helping him with some of the wording on the codes so the Ships’ system would accept the updates; eventually he got onto last nights and early this mornings’ updates and logs, finding one based on the ships integrity.
Clicking on to it, the ship’s layout flickered onto the screen and Tommy had to pull over a second monitor to look over the details of the incident while looking at the layout and how the Hull was damaged.
“Tubbo, when did this happen?”
'From what I can gather, during the early hours of the night cycle, I don’t recall getting an alert though- could be where I had to do a system update over the ship and myself.’ Tubbo’s form flickered onto the screen with the Ship’s layout and looked at Tommy, looking confused and a slight bit guilty.
“Hey, don’t look like that.” Tommy started, gently knocking the screen with his knuckle where Tubbo’s forehead was, “You had to do the update, those ones are important. Let’s be glad that the damage wasn’t bad enough to cause the ship to access its backup reserves.”
Stretching his arms, Tommy stood up from the console and started making his way back through the ship, feet leading him on autopilot to the Docking Station where he could grab his suit and repair kit, then head out one of the Maintenance Hatches to get the side that was damaged. The whole time his head was whirling, flicking through possible ways the Hull could’ve been damaged, from lost space debris to stray asteroids, something that he thought seemed less likely because the last asteroid belt he had seen was almost a week ago and from looking at the Ship’s programmed journey, there should’ve been no more belts for at least a couple more night cycles.
Finally making his way into the Station, Tommy made a beeline for his suit and began robotically putting it on, muttering the different locks and sections of his suit, checking for any damages from his last excursion outside of the Ship, seeing if he has enough oxygen in his tank before attaching it to his back and connecting it to the built in regulator on his helmet. Finally clicking everything into place, he felt the suit come alive so to speak, and watched as his oxygen meter and heart monitor appear on the left side of his visor, watched as Tubbo’s face appeared on the right, and grabbed his repair kit. He walked over to one of the Maintenance Hatches and stood just outside it, letting out a breath, Tommy squared his shoulders and spoke to Tubbo.
“Open up Maintenance Hatch Three, Hull, Portside.”
'Hatch opening. Door will close after you have gone through, prepare for decompression.’
Tommy stepped through and kept his head forward as he heard the hatch close behind him with a mechanical whoosh, feeling the air pressure change within the room as the Ship prepared for him to enter the void.
‘Artificial gravity has been switched off, make sure you are connected to the room before leaving.’ Tommy nodded, and clipped his suit onto one of the extension hooks before opening the door, wincing at the sudden coldness of Space before his suit kicked in and started warming up. Kicking off the floor, Tommy floated out of the door and grabbed onto one of the railings on the outside of the Ship, pulling himself along the walls, hand clutched onto his repair kit as he neared closer to the damage site. When he reached the damaged Hull, Tommy clipped his repair kit onto his belt before connecting himself to the railing and allowing himself to float backwards to inspect the damage of the Ship better.
“Holy fuck…”
‘That is a lot more damage than what I was thinking, yeah.’ Tubbo hummed carefully, watching as Tommy pulled himself closer and began bending bits of the Ships’ Hull back into shape and welding it together, focused intently on making sure no mistakes are made while joining the major holes together, before grabbing smaller parts of metal that were floating around him and re-joining them back onto the Ship.
“Tubbo, are there any issues with the mechanics here?”
‘No, whatever did this has missed the main lines, the only thing severed is a supporting cable. A spare incase something like this happens. What did this anyway?’
“Asteroids Tubso,” Tommy grunted out, forcing a stubborn bit of metal back into place. “We’re the only things out here, must of been a stray from that belt. Could’ve got caught up with the Ship as we passed through.” Tommy pushed back from the Ship for a last time as he looked over his work, nodding to himself at his handy work before working his way back to the railing and disconnecting himself from the railing, making his way back into the way he came out. Tubbo was quiet at what Tommy said, they both knew it wasn’t asteroids, the lines were too uniform, too planned to be a freak asteroid, they almost looked like claw marks, but like Tommy said, they were the only two out here… but what if they weren’t? Tubbo really didn’t like that train of thought and immediately dispelled it from his head as Tommy clambered his way back into the Decompression Room and let himself touch the floor again as the artificial gravity switched back on.
Tommy let out a soft sigh as he felt his feet touch something solid and listened to the hissing of the hatch reopening to allow him back into the Docking Station, he always disliked going out of the Ship, the jarring feeling of two different atmospheres wasn’t something that he think he would ever get used to, no matter how many times he left the Ship. Removing his suit and returning it back to its normal place seemed so monotonous but for him it was comforting, Space left him feeling floaty and not in his own body, so doing something that was routine was safe and left him feeling that bit more grounded. After connecting his tank back to the refuel station, he made his way back through the winding halls to the Bridge so he could log the report, this was the part he didn’t enjoy as much, having to log what happened and how he had fixed it to the best of his abilities. As he entered the Bridge though, a flashing light located on the central panel was beeping steadily, which it wasn’t doing when Tommy was there the first time.
“Tubbo, when did we receive a transmission?”
'We haven’t. Nothing has come through the alerts, an old transmission maybe… no-wait, not an old transmission, it’s not logged into the system. Would you like me to play the transmission?” Nodding his head ‘yes’, Tommy licked his suddenly dry licks and waited for the audio to play on the system. Where both AI and human were expecting talking, faint humming could be heard instead, a gentle tune that rang out over the Bridge that should’ve calmed those onboard but only served to send them on edge further.
“That- I… I was humming that while fixing the Hull. What the fuck?!”
‘Maybe it’s a feedback loop, you may have knocked your intercom function while moving around?’
“No, if I had, the suit would’ve made the clicking noise to signify that the line was on. Did I click the broadcast button instead? Could the Ship have picked that up and assumed that it was a transmission?”
‘Maybe, for now that seems the most sane and plausible idea.’ Tubbo agreed, now facing Tommy from the monitor that held the Ship’s reminders, watching the boy as he stared out of the Ship’s viewing window, a blank look drawn over his features, the faint humming still playing over the Bridge’s speakers. Just as he was about to break Tommy out of whatever trance that he was in, Tommy stood up straighter and walked over to the panel, letting out a breath as he clicked the transmission button next to the light. Tommy started humming the next part of the song, letting it go on for a bit before ending the transmission and sending it out. Maybe this was a stupid idea, it could just be a feedback loop from an accidental broadcast, but what if it wasn’t? What if someone was out there and heard him somehow, and this was how they could get his attention? What if Tommy didn’t have to be alone anymore? Sighing, Tommy sat down in his chair again and looked at the monitor that held Tubbo and the now awaiting report that had to be filled in. Cracking his knuckles, the two began to work, filling out the details with accurate descriptions and Tubbo uploading the few images he had taken from Tommy’s helmet- no one would see this report of course, but it was something that Tommy was trained to do when he first came onto the ship with the others, whenever you completed a task for the Ship, you had to fill out a report afterwards from the Senior Members to look over and authorise before sending it back off to Earth. But without any Senior Members or other Crewmates onboard, it was pointless to complete, yet it gave Tommy structure and allowed him to keep some sense of normalcy in his life.
Now all Tommy had to do was wait for whatever to return if someone was out there.
οОΟОο
As the day’s pass and each cycle starts again, Tommy receives no new transmissions, but that doesn’t stop him from sending out two transmissions everyday. At some point, he stopped humming and started speaking. When he first awoke, he would send out a transmission stating what cycle he was on, what he was planning to do, and anything he may have forgotten from the day before. Then before he ‘logged out’ for the night (“Tubbo, I am not you, I actually sleep, y’know like a live being.” ‘For me you’re logging out, so shut it.’ “Thank you Tubbo.”), he would send out another transmission saying what he had managed to accomplish that day, anything new that turned up, maybe something silly that he or Tubbo had said or done. He doesn’t care if the person/s have now moved on from the broadcast signals reach, but if there is a chance of someone responding, then he’s going to take it. He does adore Tubbo, the AI has been his only saving comfort aboard the Ship, but being able to hug another organic being, to feel someone else’s heartbeat, hear their breathing, being with something that is alive, that is something that Tommy misses most since his Crewmates left.
Sighing, Tommy laid down in his cot and pulled his blankets over his frame (the night cycles were always the colder than the day cycles to conserve energy, so after everyone had left, Tommy scavenged their rooms and took extra blankets and pillows, dragged them to his room and created what Tubbo calls ‘his nest’ that surrounded his cot.), staring out of the window in his room, he could see a faint gas cloud in the distance, the swirling pinks and greens creating an intricate pattern that he followed with his eyes over and over again before shutting them for the last time that cycle.
Unbeknownst to him, the humming had decided to come to pay a visit.