Beginning of Disaster

And I…

"Oh, not again! Seriously, man?" Ryan laughed at Aldi while looking at the seven-inch screen in his left hand. And in his right hand, he was carrying a clear glass filled with thick green liquid. "You're doing this again?"

"Pause!" Aldi smirked.

Beep!

Ryan snorted, and said, "Aren't you bored?"

Aldi shook his head.

"Who will find your tape? Who will see?"

Ryan's right hand is on his waist, and with his left hand still holding the Controlling Pad–C-Pad–the look in his eyes questioned his friend's strange hobby.

How long has it been, a year? No-no-no, three years.

"There's nothing left on Earth—"

Ryan took a sip of the liquid in the glass. For a moment his brow furrowed. After the liquid entered his stomach, the wrinkles on Ryan's forehead disappeared. He looked back at Aldi.

"—Not the people, nor anything else. Nothing! Why do you think anyone will ever find that tape you made?"

Aldi chuckled. Yes, he knows that. All humans who survived the disaster would know it. The biggest assumption is that all life on Earth has become extinct.

Well, maybe animals and plants too. If only they could talk, you'd know.

But not with that pair of Uncia uncia.

"Well, I know that. It's just… I still hope," although Aldi didn't turn his head, he could almost certainly see Ryan sneering at him, again. "We don't know for sure what we will find in this infinite space, do we?"

"What do you mean?"

Aldi returned Ryan's gaze. Half-assuredly he replied, "Wormhole."

"Wormholes?" Ryan's eyes widened behind the glasses.

Ryan shook his head, looking down. With the index finger of his right hand – which is still holding the glass – he shifted the position of his beryllium frame.

Aldi chuckled softly. He understood his partner's gesture. That's not a satire. More like, something very difficult or near impossible.

Well, so far, not a single person who has been heard of or is known to have seen the passage of time, instead of going through it.

Neither from the managers of SARO.

When Aldi looked back at Ryan's face, he could feel that his colleague was going to lecture him. Before that happened, Aldi said, "Intuition, man," the index finger of his right hand pointed to his temple. "Intuition," and the hand went to his chest.

Ryan wanted to confront Aldi with a myriad of arguments in his mind, but before that happened, the C-Pad in his left hand beeped softly.

Beep!

"Mr. Ryan."

Ryan looked at the C-Pad. On the thin and clear crystal screen appeared the avatar of a young girl.

"Captain needs you in the cockpit."

"Thanks, Aios. I'll be right there." Ryan turned to Aldi, and said, "Di, I'm out of here, Mr. Dharma needs me. Just carry on with your boring activities."

Ryan took another sip of the thick green liquid in the glass and turned around.

Aldi laughed. He didn't know exactly where Ryan's words were going. Pray for him or laugh at him?

"Don't drink that liquid too often! If the cells in your head are damaged, we'll all be in big trouble."

Ryan laughed out loud. "I need this liquid precisely so that we don't all die ridiculously. To stimulate my body to stay fit," he said without turning his head. And continued walking towards the automatic door at the end of the hall.

Aldi was still laughing almost silently.

Well, that athletic stature and 172 centimeters tall man earlier was an important person on their spaceship.

Ryan is the main and only Computer Programmer they have. He was the one who increased the warp ability of the plane from level 1 to level 3. Although not as fast as the Federation's planes but it was much better. Their plane was a cargo plane type.

Aldi is very understanding. The man with the sleek short hair was so important that he often consumed a thick green liquid containing alkaloids to reduce his sleep time.

Of course, not only Ryan alone. The thirty-four people in this huge spaceship were the same. They lack time to sleep.

"Aios?" Aldi looked up, his hands stretched out and bent into the pillow of his head. Sitting stretched out in his chair.

"Sir?"

Aios' voice was heard in response to Aldi's call. Not on the screen in front of the man as when Aios appeared on the C-Pad screen in Ryan's hand earlier. This time it was only the voice of a spoiled girl through the intercom embedded in the upper wall of the room.

"You want to make love to me?"

"Your request is very irrational, Mr. Aldi."

Aldi chuckled. It's not that Aldi doesn't know, he just wants to joke with that Artificial Intelligence. "Why? You don't like me, Aios?"

"Very human."

Aldi shook his head. Aios has many intelligent programs that are close to human capabilities, including satire.

Aldi shifted his chair and returned to face the twenty-one-inch screen on the table.

"But it's a shame, I'm just an AI that doesn't have a physical form."

Silence for a moment. Aldi just smiled silently. His eyeballs moved to follow the movement of something on the surface of his computer screen.

"Anything else you need, sir?"

"No. Thank you, Aios. You already want to joke with me," said Aldi with a faint smile. Again he faced the computer screen, "Play!"

"You're very welcome, sir."

A few seconds passed, Aios' spoiled voice was no longer heard. Aldi looked back at the screen that displayed some information on the right side of the screen.

"Recording!" Aldi ordered in front of the screen.

Beep!

"Hmm… where have I been?" Aldi scratched his head.

Because Ryan interrupted his fun, Aldi forgot where he had been recording. Aldi touched the screen, right in the upper right corner of the screen, the bar showing the last recording.

"…You may wish that this world would end. Equally, those who were cast out also hoped for the same. Like me… And I…"

***

TO BE CONTINUED ...