Darian and his two friends, Matt and Ali, spent around two months building the secret base inside the desert. During this time it was still summer, and as time passed by, the end of the season was finally here.
"Damn, it's always so hot…" Darian, together with Matt, was currently bringing the latest pipes to Ali. Soon even the well would be built, after the last pipes, only the purifier was missing.
"I know… but at least soon the summer is going to end, right? This means the air will become colder." Matt, next to him, brought other pipes too, their bodies sweating because of the hard work.
As they walked, Matt suddenly broke the silence again. "I must say that it was pretty funny, Darian. To be honest, I didn't think that it would actually become this perfect." As the two men walked, in front of them, the base was there in all its beauty.
The greenhouse, which was the latest building constructed, had been finished recently. The first thing they took care of was the house and all the stuff inside of it. They spent around three weeks only building the small house, and another week to bring all the furniture there.
Next to the house there was the warehouse, this one was extremely small, but there were enough crates to put many things inside of them, even though they were currently empty.
The greenhouse was currently empty, they only brought the soil and planted the seeds. Once the well was finished, they would bring some water to the greenhouse too, so that at least the seeds would not be left without any water.
"C'mon everyone, we don't have all day," said Ali playfully toward Darian and Matt, who had just stopped to see the beauty of the base.
"Yes, yes, we're coming," answered Darian, the two of them brought the last pipes to Ali, who immediately began to work again.
Darian sat down on the sand, tired. "Ahhh… I can't believe it's finally over," he said, looking up at the sky.
"We can only hope that no one finds it after it's finished…" said Matt, walking closer to his friend.
"Don't worry, they haven't seen us in these past two months. I have a feeling it will be alright," answered Ali while he attached the pipe to the others.
Some more hours passed, now the sun was about to set, and Ali had finally been able to finish building everything.
"Woah, finally." Ali lit up a cigarette after even the purifier was put there. Darian, who couldn't contain his excitement, immediately rushed to see inside the well, into it, the water was slowly arriving.
Darian remained like a child looking inside the well. Matt, who was sitting next to him, slowly got up. "Hey, don't lean out too much, you might fall," he joked playfully. Darian moved his glance, a bit annoyed.
"You know… I'll probably sleep here today," he said as he glanced around. He wanted to actually try his new house; it still didn't feel real to him.
"Guess we can remain here, it doesn't seem like a problem," said Matt. Ali suddenly brought something from the car.
"I thought about this, that is why I brought two sleeping bags." Darian and Matt were extremely happy. "Woah, thank you so much, Ali!"
The three men entered the new house and immediately tried to find a spot to put the sleeping bags… but the house was too small for these beds; it was impossible to stay there.
"Guess we'll have to sleep outside," said Matt. Ali, a bit annoyed, could only agree.
"We didn't think about the fact that someone else could come and sleep there…"
"Well, we still created this house only for me, so why should there be any space for someone else?" Ali and Matt both turned toward Darian and could only agree with him.
"Still, we don't have anything to eat, I guess I'll go buy something." Ali lit up another cigarette and went out toward his car.
It was currently 8:30 p.m. and they hadn't eaten yet, and now that Ali had mentioned it, they were actually hungry.
"Alright, we'll wait for you here." As Ali went away, Darian and Matt immediately began to prepare the beds for tonight.
"Guess it won't be a problem to put them here." Matt, together with Darian, laid the sleeping bags next to the front door of the house.
"Yeah, it won't be cold tonight," answered Darian, checking his phone to see what the temperature would be in a few hours.
"You see…" Matt sat down on the sleeping bags before starting to speak with Darian.
"I will actually miss you, my friend," he said, looking directly at Darian, who sat down next to him on the sleeping bags. On top of them, the sky slowly turned dark, multiple stars could already be seen.
"The same goes for me…" said Darian. Neither of them knew what to say; they had spent so many days together that it felt like they had returned to being children, back when they used to go to high school together.
"Soon you're about to go away, right?" asked Matt as he slowly got sad.
"Yeah… I want to return to my family too. Probably the day after tomorrow I'll leave you," answered Darian as he looked down, feeling sad that soon he would leave his friend.
"But we're going to meet again before you go to that planet… how was it called… CERKOK? XERKOK?" Matt, confused, tried to remember the name of the planet. Darian, a bit amused, answered with the correct name: "It's XERBAB-7… and yeah, don't worry, before the departure, I'll make sure to come and see you. And when I enter the rocket, they told me that my closest friends or relatives can come and have a beautiful view of me going there, so we will be able to see each other again there."
"Yeah… but do we really know this planet is safe, Darian? Are we sure something bad won't happen to you?" asked Matt, worried for his friend.
"You don't need to worry. XERBAB-7 has been studied from here, there shouldn't be any dangerous creatures that might hurt me."
"Mhm, yeah…" answered Matt, a bit unsure of the answer.
"Still, there are going to be some robots together with me; in case things get bad, they will definitely come and help me." Matt, hearing that, remained a bit surprised.
"Hey, you didn't tell that to me," he said jokingly, giving a small punch to Darian's shoulder.
Darian laughed too, amused by what was happening. "Hehe, yeah… I just recently received the email, they said that some other robots would come together with me," answered Darian as he slowly returned to being serious, the sadness took over his body again.
"Hey, but are you really sure you want to go there?" said Matt as he noticed the look on Darian's face.
"Yeah, yeah… it's just that I still need to process the fact that soon it will really happen." With that, Darian smiled again, looking up at the sky; multiple beautiful stars could be seen up there.
"Don't worry, Darian, even after these 50 years, I'll be here waiting for you… yeah, I might have a family, but I promise that I'll always be there for you once you come back." With that, Darian looked into the eyes of his friend who was sitting next to him. "Thank you," said Darian happily.
Suddenly they saw a light coming; Ali's car stopped by and he came out. "C'mon everyone, it's time to eat!" he said. Darian and Matt, who felt really hungry, immediately got up to eat.
"It took you a bit, Ali, it's almost 11 p.m.," pointed out Matt, noticing how late it was.
"I know… but trust me, the wait is going to repay you." With that, Ali grabbed something else from his car, it was his barbecue. "I brought the best meat in the city, everyone, let's have some fun!" With that, Ali immediately lit the barbecue and, together with the others, they began to grill the expensive meat.
"Dayum, it's so good!" Darian took the first bite, he currently had some grilled meat in his bread and it felt extremely good. He sipped the beer that Ali had brought for them.
"Eheh, and we still have so much of it!" Ali pointed to all the meat he had brought. They had barely eaten anything for lunch and they had almost skipped dinner; the three men could eat all night.
With that, the group remained outside the house, with a small light installed at the entrance of the door, grilling the meat and eating it together. Ali brought a lot of beer, too; all three men loved to drink. In these past few days, when they finished working, they would just go and drink something together.
The night passed; the group ate and drank together. It was now 1 a.m. and they were sitting on the sand, all drunk, looking up at the sky.
"Wo-Woah… I-I'll mi-ss you a-ll gu… guys!" Darian, extremely drunk, could barely speak anymore. Matt was drunk too, and he couldn't speak properly.
"But yo-but you are g-going to a new pla-" As drunk as Matt was, he didn't even finish the sentence and looked up at the sky, burping as hard as he could.
Ali knew how to handle his drinks, he was a heavyweight, so even if he drank around six bottles, he still didn't feel very drunk.
As the night passed by, the three men laughed together, and once it was time to go to sleep, Darian, in bed and still drunk, had an idea.
'Maybe once I come back, everything might be broken… Ali or Matt can't keep an eye on this base forever.' Darian tried to sleep, but because of all the alcohol and this thought, it was becoming almost impossible.
"ARGHH, fuck off," he said, getting up. He sat down at the table and immediately grabbed a paper and a pen.
"I-if no h-human can take care of this…" Darian began to sketch something on the paper. Still, because of too much beer, he couldn't stop burping while he drew, and he couldn't stop hearing the sound of Matt snoring.
Darian drew on the paper what seemed to be a sort of robot; it had a single eye and it didn't look very tall. It had very small legs and very large hands.
"I-if this thing is going to take care of the house… it needs other important stuff too." Darian drew that this robot would have the most powerful AI ever created. Inside its body, he drew something to analyze DNA. On the back of the paper, he started to draw even the electric circuits and how it had to work.
Darian, all high because of the alcohol, spent around two hours drawing how this robot should work. "Mhmm, I don't want to spend much money… the purifier already cost so much… guess I'll use already rusted metals." With that, Darian wrote about this robot, and after that, he fell asleep at the table, unable to keep working on this project anymore.