The following weeks were extremely tiring for Darian. He spent all of his days in the basement working on the creation of the robot. His parents were already used to waking up early, in fact, the moment they saw Darian waking up at the same time as them, around 6 a.m., they were surprised.
"Already awake, Darian?" asked his mother, surprised, while she was making breakfast. Darian's dad was in his chair, still a bit tired.
"Yeah… I can't lose time, I need to create the robot," said Darian, sitting down in a chair and patiently waiting for breakfast.
As soon as Darian finished breakfast, he immediately headed toward the basement, which in the following months would become his sanctuary. The air here smelled of dust and old metal.
Darian spent the first day analyzing how he needed to shape the metal. The pieces he had been able to gather were only big plates, they couldn't form a robot yet. Still, Darian had to be extremely cautious. He first got ready with all the protection and then began to shape the metal.
'I can't make a single mistake…' Darian knew that if the plates were ruined, he might lose his chance to make the robot. There weren't infinite plates, and as he realized that the sketch of the whole body he created during his flight to America wasn't enough, he spent the first day sketching all the individual parts of the body and how they needed to be shaped.
Darian then interrupted his work first to have lunch and then dinner too. As tiredness took over his body, even though it was only 10 p.m., he already had to go to sleep. On the first day, he had created all the sketches for the parts of Rusty's body; now he only had to shape the metal perfectly without making any mistakes.
As another three weeks passed by, Darian was able to shape all the robot's parts perfectly without any problems. He was currently taking a small break and was sitting on the bench in front of his house until his phone vibrated. As Darian checked it, he saw a text from Matt:
"Yo Darian, I've finally found all the memory we need. It's massive, around 50 petabytes of localized storage. This thing is going to hold every bit of history, science, and art humanity has ever created. I need you to ship it to Ali's house since I'm working there. By the way, I decided to remain here so it would be easier for us. After I'm done downloading, we only need to wait for you to finish the body. How much more time do you need?"
Darian gulped, scared seeing how much money he had to spend. It was over $100,000. He had to spend a lot of money, but he could take care of this; for him, it wasn't a problem yet. Then he answered Matt's text:
"Woah, it's so much! Then I'm going to buy it now! Right now, I have just been able to finish shaping all the metal for Rusty's body. Now I just need to put it all together. It might take around one or two months."
Right now, October had just begun, and Darian planned to finish this at the start of December.
As more weeks passed, Darian remained closed in the basement working, and he completely forgot about something really important to him.
It was currently October 23rd, and Darian, like usual, went to work on the project normally. Suddenly, his parents entered the basement with a big bag. "Happy birthday, Darian!!" Darian gasped in surprise as he was currently positioning everything together.
Seeing his parents and his grandmother reaching him with a cake made him realize what day it was. It was currently his 23rd birthday!
"Woah, everyone… thank you so much!" he said, really happy. The cake was extremely big and full of chocolate; it was exactly how he loved it.
"C'mon Darian, join us upstairs," said the grandmother as she remained at the top of the stairs, not coming down into the basement. As she grew older, it was hard for her to go down the stairs.
"Alright!!!" he said, deciding that he could take this day off. He had currently built the lower part of the robot, there wasn't much missing anymore. Half of the construction was finally done.
His parents sang happy birthday to Darian, and during the day, even other relatives arrived. His uncle and aunt, together with Darian's cousin, visited him during his birthday.
"Happy birthday, Darian!!" shouted his aunt the moment she entered the house. She had a big present.
"We heard that soon you won't be on this planet anymore. That is why we wanted to give you a really important gift, something that you could bring to the other planet too," said his uncle. Darian hugged his cousin; it had been over a year since they had seen each other, around last Christmas.
Darian then opened the gift, and what he saw made tears fall down his cheeks. It was a really big picture of the whole family. "We made this gift all together, Darian, so when you get to XERBAB-7, you will not forget about us," said his dad, positioning his hand over Darian's shoulder from behind.
"It's beautiful… thank you so much, everyone." Darian then spent this whole day together with his family. He was sure that once he went away to XERBAB-7, he wouldn't spend these types of days together with his family anymore; he wanted to enjoy it as much as he could.
The family joked and laughed happily. His other relatives went away only at night; they even had dinner together.
"Don't be sad, Darian. We will be coming during Christmas and the New Year; we will be able to see each other again." Darian hugged first his aunt, then his uncle, and lastly his younger cousin, who was only 17.
"Yeah… thank you so much for the gift again," said Darian, with tears flowing down his cheeks. His younger cousin gave a small punch to his shoulder.
"Don't be sad, man. We still have plenty of days to spend together." Darian looked over at his younger cousin and smiled.
"Right…" With that, Darian hugged everyone one last time before they left.
As another month and some more days passed by, Darian was finally able to complete the robot. Rusty was currently there, standing in front of Darian. The robot stood there in all its beauty; the metal was rusted and mismatched, and it looked quite strange with its single large eye and oversized hands, but it was exactly what Darian wanted. It was Rusty. The outside body was finally finished. Darian also put all the wires inside of it; now he only needed the AI inside of him and it would turn on.
Darian grabbed his phone and immediately took a picture of him and sent it to Matt. "Look, it's finally finished!"
Matt replied to him almost immediately with a surprised emoji, then typed: "That's great! I have recently finished downloading everything. When do you think we can meet again to finish everything?"
Darian thought a bit before answering his friend: "Let's meet again on January 2nd." Matt replied with a thumbs-up emoji, and with that, Darian returned to admire the robot.
Now that Darian was finally able to finish the robot, he decided to spend these days together with his family. Soon, the day of departure was getting closer.
In fact, the same day in which he finished building Rusty, Darian received an email:
FROM: Global Space Exploration Command
TO: Darian Thorne
SUBJECT: OFFICIAL LAUNCH PROTOCOL – XERBAB-7
Dear Mr. Thorne,
We are pleased to inform you that all systems for the XERBAB-7 mission are green. Your departure is officially scheduled for January 18, 2085, at 18:00 PM. > You are required to arrive at the launch facility three days prior for final physical examinations and suit fitting. Please be advised that you are allowed to invite up to four guests for the final viewing ceremony at the launch pad.
We thank you for your courage and your service to the future of humanity.
Ad Astra.
Darian stared at the screen for a long time. January 18 was not far; he needed to spend these last few days together with his family.
As Christmas arrived, his other relatives joined him, and he spent the whole period with everyone. During Christmas, he even took a picture with his parents and his grandmother that was later printed. "I'll bring this to XERBAB-7 too…" whispered Darian, looking at the picture and feeling happy.
"In the end, did they tell you when you have to go to XERBAB-7?" asked his aunt during Christmas lunch. Darian nodded.
"Yes, on January 18 I will finally depart from Earth… but they said that I will be able to bring only four guests with me to the launch pad…" Darian was a bit sad; he couldn't bring everyone else with him.
"Well, then obviously you will bring your parents and Lady Nanny… who will be the fourth?" asked his aunt.
"It's probably going to be my closest friend, Matt. You know, he has helped me so much during this last year," said Darian.
His relatives remained in the house until January 1st. Darian's younger cousin stayed in his room with him; they spent a lot of days playing video games like they used to do when they were younger.
Then January 1st arrived… "This is probably going to be our last goodbye, Darian." Darian's aunt and uncle were the same age as his parents; he knew that once he got back, he would not be able to see them anymore.
"Yeah… thank you so much for all these days together, everyone…" Darian hugged his aunt while she was crying really hard; even the uncle could barely hold back his tears anymore.
"It won't be our last meeting, Darian. I'm sure that in 50 years we're going to see each other again," said his younger cousin, thinking about all the time they spent together when they were younger.
"Yeah… again everyone… thank you so much." With that, Darian had another big hug with them before they had to go.
But for Darian, this wasn't the biggest problem. The following day, another hard goodbye was waiting. His mother was crying really hard and hugged him so tightly that Darian could barely breathe.
"Don't worry, Mom, we will see each other again before the departure," Darian tried to reassure her. His father even hugged them with some tears flowing down his cheeks.
"Bye, Granny…" Darian had many tears after the big hug with his family. Anny didn't want to see her grandson crying and remained with a serious expression. "Be happy, Darian. Finally, you're going to achieve your dream," said Anny, hugging Darian tightly.
After this painful goodbye, Darian headed toward the airport. He couldn't bring Rusty with him, so they had shipped him some days before the departure.
After he arrived in Cairo, Matt and Ali were already there waiting for him at the airport. "Hello everyone!!" shouted Darian happily. He hugged both of his friends.
"C'mon, we already brought Rusty to the base. We should not lose any time," said Matt. Darian immediately nodded and headed together with them toward the secret base.
As Darian arrived, he saw everything exactly as he had left it. The only difference was that in the greenhouse, the plants had finally grown.
"Trust me, Darian, this is going to be the best AI humanity has ever seen," said Matt, a bit proud of himself. The moment Darian entered the house, he saw Rusty with everything already installed; he only needed to be turned on.
Matt and Ali remained at the entrance of the door, watching Darian, who felt like a small child, activating the robot for the first time.
The moment Darian pressed the button, Rusty's eye immediately turned yellow and he started to move his head, as he was finally able to come to life.
"I am sure that you are my master… right, Sir Darian?" asked Rusty, looking directly at the man in front of him. The AI knew that the moment he came to life, the first man he would see would be called Darian, and he was going to be his master.
"Just call me Darian…" he said, with tears flowing down his cheeks. He felt extremely happy that he was finally able to see this creation taking life in front of him.
"IT WORKED, MATT!! IT WORKED!!!" shouted Darian happily to his friend standing behind him with a proud smile. "Eheh, I told you, Darian." Matt walked next to the robot and patted its metallic head.
"Rusty…" Darian sat down in front of him before speaking again. "I will need to stay away for many years. Are you able to take care of this house?" asked Darian as he slowly became serious.
"I understand, Master. Matt has already written in my database that you will be away for multiple years, but you don't have to worry. I will wait for your return."
Darian, hearing that, felt a sense of peace. He was leaving, but he wasn't leaving his home empty; he was going to have someone waiting for him.