SWWAE Chapter 3: I just want to go home...

Now that she had fully commandeered this body, wouldn’t she feel a drain of battery? She went still for a moment and dug into the physical feelings of this new body. Once again, that strange new instinct inside of her told her that the battery levels were full and not depleting in any way. In fact, it was considered to be plugged into a power source.

I really don’t like that new feeling, but at least I’m not going to slowly die of battery drain. That does also mean I, as a regent, am providing my own power. That feels a little cheaty, but I’m not going to complain.

The real question to be asking was how much power was she outputting. Enough that she instinctively knew that she could run this android body indefinitely, which was a slightly scary thought. She also felt like she had the capability of powering so much more, but she still wasn’t sure of the scope. There was also no frame of reference for her to understand how big or small her power output was. For all she knew, this body could be so efficient that it could run off of a regular nine volt batter.

Since there was no port on the bracer, or even panels that might reveal a port, it had to be wireless. Did that mean if she commandeered it that she could charge it herself? There was only one way to find out. Thinking back to the feeling of taking control over this body, she did her best to push that intent into the bracer. For the second time since waking up, she felt that those cold roots of mercury running through metal and unlike her body this only took fifteen seconds to find the bacer fully under her control.

As she had suspected, being in physical contact with the bracer while having commandeered it did bring it to full charge in barely a nanosecond. It was so fast she worried about burning out the circuitry. How powerful was she?

Then, for barely a fraction of a nanosecond, she felt a pain wrack her mind. A force fighting against her before it died. That was the second time that had happened when connecting to an object. What was that about? It was most certainly a force that came from the electronics, and one that acted systematically against her, even if the fight was so quick she wasn’t even sure a regular human mind could perceive it. What could that force be?

Anti-virus. Has to be, right? I would imagine sci-fi tech like this all has some sort of anti-tampering or hacking feature. If it is, then it’s good to know that I’m more than capable of handling it. At least with the body and bracer.

Looking back at the bracer, she watched as a boot up screen loaded on the small display; Gazer’s Gizmo. The loading finished in just a second before it displayed a small, simple interface. Buttons allowed her to navigate the few panels, and she ignored the knowledge that she could probably interface with the bracer with no need to use the buttons. The first tab that caught her eye was Ship Status, but when she selected it all she got was an error message saying that there wasn’t any connection. She had a feeling that it wasn’t just a signal issue. Next that stood out to her was Captain’s Chronicles.

They must really like alliteration.

When selecting that tab brought her to a list of different audio logs. There were hundreds of them here. Some of them only spanned a minute or two, some were up to two hours long, and the last entry was…

Twenty-three weeks long?! How much storage does this thing have? How long was the battery life to be recording that long? Why would you need to be recording for that long?

There was no way to find out other than to listen to it. Given it was also the last, maybe it would give her a clue to what was going on here. Using the buttons to select, she started the audio and heard nothing. Absolutely nothing. Why was there no sound? Was the log just silence? Knowing it was probably a foolish idea, she gently banged the bracer on her arm. Nothing happened.

There’s no air here to conduct sound…

That was something she should have realized before. She paused and reset the audio file and then focused on the device. If she were in full control, could she just hear it in her inner monologue? With that in mind, she hit the start button again, and heard it in her mind.

Heavy sobbing filled the opening few seconds of audio, but quietly in the background there was a little, almost imperceptible continuous sound of air being sucked. “I fucked u-up… I fucked up so b-bad.” Another few seconds of sobbing along with the sounds of a few dull bangs of metal. “I-I don’t think any—” a few sobs broke up the word, “—one will e-ever find this. No one w-will e-ever find out wh-what happened to me.” Twenty seconds of more crying went by before more words were spoken. “I found a-an old ancient’s ruin. T-the pla-ce already looked ran-sacked, b-but I still found a lot of things hid-den away in a giant locked r-room. I took a few things and bro-brought them on board before s-sealing the en-entrance so no-one would find it befo-re I came back. I d-didn’t know if anything in t-there was of actual va-lue, so I just wanted to s-see if the few things I grabbed th-the rest.

“I met u-up with Sund to ha-ve him look at the stuff, and just as he finished d-docking I—fuck!” More banging. “I tried to plug in that gods damn sphere!” There were more bangs and thuds, though this time it didn’t sound like the thing being hit was metal. “All of a s-sudden it cut my hand then melded into the table and started dr-aining power like n-no tomorrow. The emergency l-lock down w-went off and closed all the doors. The power drain must have also hit Sund b-because he was so afraid he r-riped his ship off of the airlock w-with the h-hatch still open. The air left the hallway so fast…”

Sobs continued for a minute before the voice cut back in. “T-the drain must have really m-messed with Sund’s reactor b-because the next thing I knew I-I was feeling the shockwave. I don’t t-think he survived…” More loud bangs filled the audio. “All power i-is gone, or at l-least I can’t access it because that damn sphere is still taking all of it!” Even louder metal bangs. “I’ve been trying to break it off, but I can’t hurt this thing!”

There was silence, except for the light sucking of air, that laster a full minute.

“The worst part? It’s that there is a leak in seal between the cockpit and hall that I’ve been putting off fixing for a while.” The voice went really quiet, “I can’t seal it now…” They took a deep breath. “I don’t know how long I have left. Probably just an hour…” A sob could be heard. “I’m sorry, Mom. I-I’m so s-sorry… Please let me come home.” The sobbing grew to a level as of yet unheard. “I ju-st want t-to go home. I w-want to s-see my mo-m again. Ple—”

She turned it off. The hands that held the bracer was shaking as she let it go. The phantom body she felt told her that she was sobbing, but her metal form wasn’t capable of such a thing. Over her life, the Internet and TV had exposed her to some pretty gruesome and heart-wrenching stuff. Who hadn’t been? Yet there had always been a layer of removal from the situation that protected her. It was always behind a screen.

This hadn’t been though… This had been beamed directly into her mind while looking at the literal body. There was no level of removal here. This was all real… They had suffocated to death, sobbing and begging to go home. Begging to see their mom again…

I want to go home too…

Cold metal arms wrapped around her own midsection in a feeble attempt to comfort herself. She could barely feel herself even doing it. With her metal foot, she pushed herself back, floating through the dead ship and landing in the corner of the room. It wasn’t hard to find something to grab on to to settle herself while facing the corner. Robotic optic sensors turned off as she curled herself up into the smallest ball she could.

I just want to go home…

The voice of her internal monologue blended with the sound of the dead captain’s. Those five words repeating over and over again. It was the only thought she could make in her steep downward emotional spiral. Never before had she wanted something so badly as wanting to go home right now. It was the only thing she wanted right now. Hell, she would put up with this dsyphoric body for the rest of existence if she could just go home.

I just want to go home…

[Is it strange to enjoy writing sad things? If I can make myself cry while writing I feel like I've done a good job at writing. I also really like the idea of an isekai not being fun from the start. I hope you guys are enjoying this. Thank you all for reading!]