Chapter CHAPTER 2: THE TRUTH
Ben let the droid administer some medicine, he felt relaxed, his eyes became a bit blurry, “hey I like this stuff, well done to you and bring on the next dosage if you please” Ben slurred,
“just a low sedative Ben, ok I will begin” the robot said,
Ben led there and listened,
“So Ben, you had terminal cancer of the stomach”.
“you made the decision to go into hibernation, freeze your body so to speak, to be re-awoken in fifty years’ time when hopefully advanced future medicine could fix your problem”, “you paid a lot of money, half a million British pounds back then, would you like me to continue Ben” the robot announced,
Ben sat up and shook his head,
“can I have some more of that sedative before I start to believe what you are telling me, I preferred it when nothing made sense” Ben exclaimed,
The droid robot gave ben some more and checked the monitor,
“ok, ok, my brain is telling me I’m going to wake up soon and laugh about this whacko dream, so you said something went wrong, tell me again” Ben slurred,
“yes something did, has gone very wrong, I have been looking after you, keeping you alive, your Cryonic suspension malfunctioned and kept you frozen for a longer period, a very longer period, your pod was moved to another deep sleep station, no one I understand from the records realized the problem”,
Ben led there listening,
“you were kept in frozen suspended animation for a long time, two hundred years, passed from station to station, frozen in liquid nitrogen, hundred and ninety-six degrees below, your pod was brought to my station and I took over the duty from one of my colleagues”,
“everything seemed normal, the data was checked and you were to be frozen for another three hundred years” the robot exclaimed,
“very expensive, all paid for by you and your company, your pod was put into a shuttle and I was supposed to deliver you to another ship to be kept in another station
“five hundred years, this is so fecked up, keep talking, where are we now, I saw stars outside earlier on, or was I dreaming that too” Ben growled!
“no dream ben, the ship we were on was hit by space rubbish we call it, our pod was discharged from the mother ship by accident, we have been drifting around out here in lunar space for over three hundred years” the robot explained,
Ben closed his eyes and blinked a few times,
“I could murder a fag, a cup of tea with something stronger in it” Ben commented,
“I will continue to explain a few things to you Ben, you were woken from your frozen sleep whilst under my care”
” I fought with the system to keep you asleep as I thought it was not safe, the system overrode my commands”,
“I had no communication with the mother ship, we were lucky to have minor damage when we left the mother ship, I think she had difficulty and maybe something happened to her, so we are lucky, anyway you were still frozen safe in your pod and I was shut down for some reason that I still don’t understand, over a hundred years we floated about out here” the robot exclaimed,
Ben listened some more feeling very uncomfortable
“so then, I woke up and you woke up, I had to take you out of the hibernation pod or you would of died, been taking care of you for over two hundred years according to the flight record, we have half power, in the shuttle, the batteries got damaged when we got discharged from the main ship, I get a re-charge from the sun when I can”
“the shuttle is top of the range, I was so excited to take over it for your transportation, we don’t have enough power for the main thrusters”,
“no communication with anyone, I am skilled in many things but cannot fix this situation, just keep sending out sos signals twice in a eighteen-hour period as is stated in the survival manual” the robot announced,
“this is too much for me pal, what’s with this eighteen-hour period, why not twenty-four-hour period as normal, what is normal by the way” Ben announced,
“oh Ben, over the years’ time has changed, there is only eighteen hours in a hole revolution, a day I mean to you” the robot exclaimed,
“ben pulled himself up and went to get off his bed, he fell to the floor.
“Ben” the robot called out! He un-attached himself from his housing, a door opened below him and he attached himself to his set of legs that he didn’t like, the droid computer picked Ben up and put him back onto the bed, he checked him over and gave him the medication he needed and watched him for a while, a long while, two days passed, Ben had concussion.
Ben opened his eyes, he looked about with blurry vision,
“told you it was a dream, just in hospital after a wild bender, time to discharge myself and sort things out” Ben slurred,
He tried to move his arms but couldn’t,
Ben saw the robot standing next to him,
“oh no, this is not happening” Ben slurred.
“no dream Ben, you fell to the floor and banged your head, unconsous for over sixty hours, now please be good, calm down, I will give you another sedative so you can relax and let me talk to you again, just want to make sure you really understand what is going on here” the robot announced,
“ok mate, ok, must come up for a name for you” Ben exclaimed and nodded.
“my name you say, what I am recorded as is HUMANROBOTD221, I am a humanoid robotic droid, I speak all languages and many more dialects from other galaxies”
”I am skilled in engineering of many sorts, I am a pilot of many crafts, I am a medical doctor, I have many other skills recorded in my memory banks, I have periodic feelings and memories of my former life, I was once a human Ben” the robot said.
Ben led there and stared at him,
“do you want to lay that by me again amigo, just so I can get things straight in my head, another dose of the magic stuff would be nice” Ben announced,
The robot cursed, “I should not be giving you so much of this, but I will, considering what you have been through” the robot replied and injected the drug into Ben.
Ben led there and listened to the robot chat away about what he was skilled in and what happened again.
Ben drifted off to sleep feeling relaxed and still unclear what exactly was going on, he didn’t care as the relaxant drugs were working, Ben started to dream about his lost memories.
Whilst Ben slept the robot gave him another injection after he checked him out, the robot thought another sleep would be better and safer for him,
The robot carried on with his duties and Ben slept on,
The capsule rocked violently, it turned over and over, sparks shot from placed inside,
the robot tried to do what he could but was thrown around and hit the floor, he stayed still.
Ben was also thrown to the floor as his bed was shook unsecured from its housing, the pod came to a stop and stayed still in darkness.
Ben and the droid led on the floor in a mess.
Both were unconsous, Ben was anyway, the robot android took a bad bang to its head and it turned off to selfheal.
Ben opened his eyes, “here we go again, another fecked up dream” he said.
Ben looked around, the pod, capsule, whatever he was in was in a mess, sparks lit up the dark room,
he tried to move, the metal bed he was led on was on top of him,
Lights were flashing from different places that he noticed,
“oh boy, when I come out of this trip I’m going to pay for it, outstanding, so real, the pain, who is this possible” Ben said to himself.
Ben passed out and dreamt again.
Scaping noises from somewhere Ben could hear, he opened his eyes, things were blurry, there was something shiny in front of his eyes, Ben raised his arm up and went to touch his face, he realised he had some sort of helmet on,
Ben started to find it hard to breath, he tried to remember things,
he remembered lying on his bed and listening to the robot who was looking after him, he didn’t remember putting on the space suit he was in now,
Ben saw the droid leant against the side wall of the pod, he was staring at him,
“well that’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into mate” Ben announced,
The droid didn’t respond.
Ben led on the floor, it was freezing cold now, he found it hard to breath, he tried his hardest to push the metal bad off him, it was too heavy, he led there and cursed.
Ben closed his eyes he thought was for the last time, he was remembering things now and didn’t want to believe them,
Things started to get hazy, he could hear some weird noises from somewhere,
The sparks seemed to be getting brighter and stronger, Ben led there still thinking he was in some sort of a bad dream,
A part of the wall to the pod fell through and crashed to the floor, a bright beam shone in through the new hole that was just cut into the side of the capsule, there was a weary light mist,
Ben remembered some sci fi film he had watched.
the alien or something, he laughed to himself.
Ben led there and watched the hole where the bright light was and the strange mist, something came through, Ben saw a small droid looking around, there was a beam of red light flashing around the dark insides of the pod,
Ben led there and watched, still thinking of the alien’s film, “fecking hell, what now” he whispered.
The hovering droid looked around with a red beam of light, he scanned Ben and then the droid,
Another droid entered through the same cut hole and scanned everything again,
Ben saw a helmet looking in through the hole, a torch light lit him up, Ben lifted his arm as much as he could, he was nearly frozen,
“what’s this boss, another bug hunt” Ben heard someone call out!
“another lost pod, might have something of interest to us, let’s have a look see, cover me ok” a voice commanded,
Ben watched a space man looking shape climb in through the hole, “another ten minutes and this place will be just another frozen piece of junk” someone commented,
Ben coughed out!
“hey, we got a live one here” Ben heard, he closed his eyes and smiled.
“get that survival suit in here pronto, his suits got a leak, he’s freezing fast”