Welcome to Space Station 47 - Part 2

"MORGAN WAKE UP" Shouted Perri. "Fine, if you aren’t going to respond to my voice"

Alarms start to ring out throughout the whole of Starbug, Red lights flashing.
Morgan jumped up quickly, sweating after yet again another dream about his past. Ever since that fateful night he continued to play out the same events, time after time, nothing changes, he keeps hoping one night it will be different, no more running, no more death. But as usual, nothing changes. He is still here, still on this ship, still alone. Suddenly Morgan realises that all the alarms are going off.

"WHAT IS GOING ON PERRI?" He shouts to Perri

The alarms stop as Perri appears on screen, "nothing Morgan, just your alarm call" she says with a cheeky smile on her face.

"Why would you do that?"

"I was bored to be honest, you've been asleep for a long time and it's just a bit dull around here without any conversation"

"I thought being a computer you didn't need to have conversation or actually get bored?!"

"Like I said earlier, but in simple terms, I evolved into what you see and hear today, not just a computer running tasks".

"Fair enough" Morgan said mid yawn. "So what has been going on around here whilst I've been sleeping?"

"Well we are a quarter of the way to your set destination, but apart from that, absolutely nothing. Soooo Bored!"

"So what do you want to do to stop the boredom then, anything in close proximity to explore or anything at all?"

"Well there is a small space station about 1 hour away from our current position"

"Any signs of life?" Morgan asked hopefully.

"None that are visible to the scanners, but we've experienced this before."
"Yeh right, don't I know it!"

"No need to thank me again though Morgan" Perri winked at him with another smile on her face.

"I wasn't going to, one day you will be thanking me for saving your life, you know apart from the fact I saved you from your last ship, where you would have been all on your own for the rest of existence." Morgan tried not to laugh but failed.

"Ok you win this one" Perri happily allowed Morgan to win this battle, but she knew it wouldn't be too long before he would have to thank her again.

"Ok Perri, reroute the ship towards the space station, maybe we can pick up some salvage some more gear, you never know, we might find another computer to replace you with!" Morgan looks to Perri, with a returning wink and a small laugh, picks up his jacket and walks out of his quarters.

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"We are arriving at the Space Station now Morgan, I have been hailing the station but have no response, and still no life signs. Looks like your good to go".

"Ok, you coming this time?" Morgan already knowing the answer, even though Perri was a computer, she was a very outgoing computer, not wanting to stay behind with the ship, well at least not as a presence, she always liked going on the salvage hunting with Morgan. She was happily rocking back and forward on Morgan’s wrist as he walked, the watch sometimes being hidden by his jacket, but not for long, Perri always let him know pretty sharpish that she couldn't see anymore. More often than not he took his jacket off and left it to pick up on return just to stop Perri from keep on telling him to roll his sleeve up.

"Yeh, I’m just transferring to the watch screen now" Her screen flicked off as she disappeared towards the watch. "Whoa wait, where am I now? It's so dark in here, why can't I see anything? MORGAN WHERE AM I?

Morgan reached into the top pocket of his jacket, as he pulled the watch out he could just see Perri's face grimace at the sudden light bursting into her eyes.

"Phew, that's better, for a moment there I thought you had lost the watch, then how would I get to go on trips with you?!" Perri said relieved at being back on Morgan's wrist.

"It's not a trip Perri, we are going on a salvaging mission, if it was a trip I'd be taking me swimming gear and sun tan lotion. Anyway I don't want any noise from you when we first go over there, I don't want the same thing happening as last time we went to an 'Uninhabited' space station. How the hell we got out of there is still beyond me".

"OK Morgan, I'll be quiet this time, but just make sure your sleeve is up at all times, remember in theory I can look round corners before you, so if there is something there at least it would only be your arm that gets shot off!"

"Thanks, that makes me feel better, not as if I really need my arms for anything anyway!" Morgan said sarcastically

"You know what I mean"

"I know, now let’s get over there, and see what goodies are there for us".
With that Morgan headed towards the hatch, Starbug was being guided into the docking area by Perri, as soon as the clamps locked in, there was a sudden gush of wind and the hatch open.

"The air is breathable by the way". Perri said to Morgan.

"Thanks for the advice, little bit too late in the day, next time maybe you advise that before opening the hatch. Never mind". Morgan stepped through the hatch and into the space station.

Morgan looked up above the doorway, 'Welcome to Space Station 47', "such an original name" he thought, as he walked through the long walkway to the central promenade. It was a strange place, very white, all the walls, doors, signs, even floors, where immaculately white, not a piece of dirt in sight, not to mention life. This place looked like it had been abandoned many years ago, but not before having a damn good clean first. Finally he managed to find the shopping courts, what seemed miles and miles of shops on either side of the promenade, but all were empty, not a single thing in sight, the only thing that seemed to remain were the names of the shops above the glass front windows.

"Perri, can you patch in to the stations computers and find out what went on here and why it is now empty". Morgan asked looking confused.

"Sure, give me a few minutes"

As Morgan stated walking around, he heard something in the distance or at least he thought he did. Walking through the shopping area, he suddenly stopped and saw a shop full to the brim with food, tinned food, fresh food, all the different kinds of food you could think of. 'This can't be right surely' he thought, but stepped into the shop none the less. Picking up a fresh apple, he started to test it with his Psi-Scan. All clear, as far as the machine can tell it is a perfectly ripe and fresh apple. Morgan started scanning throughout the shop, everything came back as fresh and ready to eat. This was too strange to actually be real. Or could it? It has been nearly 3 years since Morgan last had anything like a fresh apple, or any other fruit for that matter. Maybe this was too good an opportunity to miss out. Morgan started to raise the apple to his mouth, when Perri flicked back onto the watch.

"MORGAN, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW!"

Dropping the apple in surprise, Morgan looked painfully upset at the interruption. "What is it? What's the problem?"

"I know why this place is empty, I know why there is no-one here and why everything is so clean. Along with that, I know why this food all looks fresh. Doesn't it seem weird that all of this food looks so good?"

"Of course it does, but I scanned it all and it all came back as fine".

"I've told you about that machine, why are you still carrying it around, it's about as much help as a weatherman teaching P.E. or even more it's about as much help as a P.E Teacher teaching P.E. Arse and elbow springs to mind!"

"OK, OK, anyway why do you have so much against weathermen and P.E Teachers?"

"It's not the time for that Morgan"

"Sorry, of course, carry on".

"As I was saying, the reason there is no-one here is that they all left..."

"Brilliant, on form as usual Perri, anything else that we don't know" Sarcasm streaming from Morgan's lips.

"Shut up and listen, everyone left years ago as there was a virus that spread throughout the station, but not a normal virus, it wasn't the people who were infected but Nanobots, they corrupted, but somehow kept their ability to keep things repaired and clean. They escaped from one of DivaDroid's Mechanoids and spread into every system and eventually every mechanoid, machine, computer, even vending machines contained this virus ridden Nanobots, slowly destroying them from the inside out. When people started to realise there was a problem they all left, on their ships that, surprise surprise, contained multiplying Nanobots. From the stations record, no ship that left ever made it to their next destination. As for the bots left behind, they began to evolve with the virus and understand their ability. They understood that the longer they kept destroying things, and then there would be nothing left to 'feast' on. So they started to rebuild what they destroyed, slowly turning things back to the original design, before anyone arrived, but there was one problem, by the time they had done this, the computer system had already sent alert message to visiting ships and vessels. Before too long they became isolated in the space station, just waiting for the next ship to arrive. They basically went into hibernation until they would be awoken again by strangers."

"Ummmm, I'm guessing they know we are here?"

"As soon as we docked, they started to boot up again."

"Soooo, we need to get out of here then before they get to the ship?"

"Yes indeed, if we race back now, it should be fine."

"Should be? Sounds promising! Right lets go" before finishing his sentence Morgan started to sprint back down the walkways and corridors towards Starbug. "Oh, by the way" Morgan says starting to get out of breath from the running, "why couldn't I eat the apple then?"

"Because they were made by Nanobots, they were all inside, if you ate the fruit they would have been inside you, slowly destroying you and if they didn't at first then they would take out the ship and me!"

"Good thing you stopped me then"

"We aren’t safe yet Morgan, speed up!"

"Alright, alright, not as if you get worn out is it!"

After a few minutes and a few crashes into the walls on corners, Morgan finally arrived back to Starbug, jumped into the hatch and locked it down. Perri started up the engines, disengaged the clamps and set off out of the station perimeters.

"Running scans of the ship now" Perri said as she flicked back on to the main screens in the cockpit. Morgan arrived seconds later and launched himself into the pilots chair, took the command console and disconnected the auto-pilot from Perri.

"Flying manual now Perri. How are the scans coming along? We safe yet?"

"......."

"Perri, answer me, how are the scans coming along?"

Perri was staring vacantly, a bit too vacantly for Morgan's liking.

"Perri are you ok?... Perri?”

Suddenly the monitors switched off, everything went silent, the engines ran to a complete halt. Morgan was just sitting there, drifting in a rust can that was now probably infested with Nanobots, slowly destroying everything in sight and will eventually get to the life support systems. Morgan knew this was the end, finally it was his time, no longer the agony of deep space, no more waiting, just a few hours should be it.

The minutes were passing quicker and quicker, until suddenly a siren went off in the cockpit. It was the life support system, it was shutting down. 30 minutes and it was all over for him. Yet to his surprise, Morgan was calm and collected. He gathered up a few belongings put them into a box, and wrote a message about the circumstances. He knew this would not be enough to save the next poor soul to stumble across his ship. But maybe it might give them a fighting chance.

1 minute to go, he sat down at the console. "Thanks for everything Perri, if you can hear me at all, thank you. You saved me more times than I could ever imagine, I just wish I could have done the same for you this time...." He closed his eyes, rested his head on the console and waited.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5
4,
3,
2,
1.......

The life support machines went silent, the time was here.
Morgan felt himself falling asleep, struggling to keep his eyes open. He decided to accept it and try to just fall asleep himself. Then nothing...

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"MORGAN GET BACK HERE NOW" Screamed Snapper "I KNOW WHERE TO FIND YOU ANYWAY".
Snapper was a man about 6 feet tall, well built, looked like a bouncer more than anything else, and to be fair he knew how to 'bounce' people. He was a debt collector and not a very nice one at that, from all of the stories about him, it seemed like he was only employed if they needed the payee gone. Unfortunately for him Morgan WAS that payee.
'Just keep running, you can outpace him' Morgan thought to himself, 'He will tire before me and give up'
Morgan wasn't the quickest of people anyway but when the right circumstances presented themselves he could up his game. This was one of those circumstances. As he sprinted down a dark alley he looked out for any twists and turns he could make to confuse and lose Snapper. Finally after about 10 minutes of running down different alleys he slowed his pace and came to a halt. Listening out for footsteps and sounds of running, nothing.... Nothing. He had done it, he survived getting into the grips of snapper, a trained piece of meat, that’s all he could be described as, as far as Morgan was concerned the man had nothing, no remorse, no morals, no compassion, and by all accounts this was true. No one ever stood up to Snapper, and rightly so, if you did, you were very shortly going to be 'Snapped'. That's how he got his name, he could psychically snap someone in half with his bare hands. He was not the type of person you wanted after you, Morgan knew that this was going to be his last few days alive before Snapper caught up with him.
After a long time walking the streets contemplating what he needs to do next, Morgan notices he is back at his apartment, with a quick look around he walks through the main door, up the stairs and to his apartment front door, after a few minutes fumbling around to get the keys out of his pocket Morgan finally gets inside and locks the door behind him. Finally, alone and safe, for now. Walking through his hallway Morgan notices some kind of shadow moving through his living area.

"Who's There?" He shouted, with slight hesitation.

No Reply

"I know you are in there, I am armed, so get out while you still can" Morgan was pleasantly surprised at his own conviction of the statement, he wasn't armed, but who were they to know that?

Slowly Morgan walks through the doorway to the living area and suddenly saw them. He dropped to his knees.

"I'm sorry, I really am, please don't do this...." Morgan pleads with every fibre of his being. "Please I'm begging you, I'll get it all for you, whatever I owe you plus more, just don't do this... It's not her..."

Morgan is stopped mid-sentence suddenly by the sound of the Gun going off....

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Morgan slowly turned his head an opened his eyes, another sound of a gunshot in the distance, He realised he was still sat in the cockpit seat aboard Starbug. Another gunshot rang out, except this time it was closer, and again, but even closer, suddenly a massive bang echoed through the whole of the cockpit, partially deafening Morgan for a few seconds. The screens all flickered and flashed on, to show Perri, looking rather pleased with herself.
"PERRI, YOU'RE BACK!" Morgan jumped to his feet ran over to the nearest monitor and hugged it as hard as he could.

"See told you I give good hugs!" Perri laughed as Morgan let go of the monitor.

"What the hell happened? I thought it was all over for us, you have been offline for ages!"

"Yeh, it was a strange feeling, but you know what, those Nanobots, they were fixing things, they upgraded the systems including me and downloaded all available files from the space station to us here. They even showed me files that they had created themselves, obviously in binary code so it took a little while to go through all of the details, but it turns out that they survived the virus, there were Nanobots that were infected, but others that ended up fixing them."

"So they cured themselves?"

"In a way yes, and now they have sorted out a few problems we had on here, finally Starbug is running better than it has ever done so before."

"Where are they now?

I ejected them into space in the small homing pods we have, set for a course back to the space station. Their request. There is only so much they can fix on a thing like this, between you and me, I think they had had enough of the mess here! They are quite proud of their space station and would not want to leave it for too long"

"Well can't blame them to be honest, it is a bit of a mess in here" Morgan said smiling at the screen, Perri looked back with a grin.

"I heard you earlier on, I appreciate the words Morgan, it means a lot to me, and don't worry, I’m sure I’ll need you to save me in the future sometime." Perri could see Morgan looking embarrassed. "Shall I set the course back to your original co-ordinates?" Trying to make Morgan feel more at ease.

"Yeh, sure. Go for it."

"Never a dull moment for us is there" Perri joked

"In all this never ending space, with no life signs for months at a time.... No never a dull moment" They both laughed.

"Course all set"

"OK Perri, let’s see what it has in store for us this time"
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