As the days passed, Darian spent his last days on Earth with Rusty and seeing how beautiful the robot was.
"Good morning, master!" said Rusty to Darian, who had just come out of the house. Rusty was already working outside. "Morning, Rusty!" Darian couldn't remember how many days he had actually spent there anymore; he completely forgot when he had to go to the facility of the Global Space Exploration Command. He was taking it slow, and he walked slowly towards the warehouse to take some fruit.
"Master, maybe I need to tell you this but…" said Rusty, walking closer to Darian, who looked at him confused. "Remember that today is the day in which you have to take the flight towards Paris again."
Darian's eyes immediately opened in surprise. "Dammit, right! I need to call Matt and Ali to ask them to pick me up." Darian, without even being able to have breakfast, immediately rushed towards the house and grabbed his phone, in which there was a message from Matt that was sent about 20 minutes ago:
'Man, let us know whenever you need us to bring you to the airport.' Darian panicked and checked the time. It was still 10 a.m. and he had the flight at 2 p.m.; he couldn't lose any time. 'You can come, I'm ready,' typed Darian and immediately began to get ready. In less than an hour, Ali together with Matt arrived.
"Hello, Rusty!" said Matt, walking around the base to reach for the house. Rusty waved at him. "Good morning, Master Matt," said Rusty happily. Ali remained in the car, waiting for Matt to return with Darian.
"C'mon man, are you ready?" Matt knocked at the door. Darian immediately opened it with a small suitcase, his eyes burning red, finally ready to leave. "Yes," said Darian without any more fear or turning back. Matt sighed, relieved, thinking that he would find Darian crying on the bed like a child.
"Bye, master! See you in 50 years!" said Rusty, waving at him. Darian smiled happily before shouting to Rusty, only after he took ten steps and the robot was still in front of him: "BYE, RUSTYY! I'LL MISS YOUUU!!" Rusty kept waving at him.
Ali waited for them in the car, and once Darian got inside, they reached the city again. "So how did you spend these days, Darian? Was it nice to be with Rusty?" asked Matt. During these days he had barely heard from his friend, so he wanted to know how things really went with the AI he created.
"It was really great. I spent almost all day talking together with him to see if he really knew everything… and woah, Matt, you really were right when you said that he was the most powerful AI." Darian's eyes were burning with excitement as he remembered the last week he spent together with Rusty.
He had arrived at the secret base on January 3rd; right now it was January 10th. In eight days Darian would need to go to XERBAB-7, and he wanted to get ready.
"Still, I'm going to miss him so much… I wish I could bring him with me to XERBAB-7," said Darian, a bit annoyed, looking outside the window. Matt let out a small laugh.
"Well, you said you are going to have other robots helping you, right? I'm sure they will be equally good," answered Matt.
As another 40 minutes passed, Darian and the others were finally able to reach the airport. "Thank you so much for everything, guys!" said he, hugging both Matt and Ali. "I don't think we're ever going to be able to see each other again, Darian… good luck with your life," said Ali, looking directly into Darian's eyes and smiling. Darian, next to him, did the same and they shook hands.
"I hope everything goes well with your life too, Ali. It was a pleasure to meet you," answered Darian before Matt coughed as he wanted to join in the speech too.
"Darian, I'll reach you in some days. I just need to prepare everything I have left at Ali's house and I promise I'll come and see your departure," said Matt. Darian looked at him seriously.
"Yeah, thank you so much." With that, Darian waved at his friends and got away. He had only met Ali this summer, but it was all thanks to him that he was able to build the secret base. In these last months, Darian considered him as such a big friend; he was getting sad thinking that he would not be able to see him anymore.
Before getting on the plane, he received a text from his mom: 'Darian, is everything going well? We will reach you on the departure day; we will all be there!' Darian smiled at the sight of the text and answered with a picture of the plane and added: 'I'm finally returning to Paris. Soon the test days will begin; I can't contain my excitement anymore!' With that, Darian closed his phone and entered the plane.
The flight didn't last long; in the same day he was able to reach Paris and return to his home. It had been so long since he stayed in his house there; the whole house had remained closed for almost a year, as Darian didn't have any time to spend there anymore.
The moment he entered, he saw the small plant that was brought by satellite from XERBAB-7. Darian laid down on the bed with the plant in his hands and drifted away, his mind thinking about when he would finally be on XERBAB-7. Darian realized that in just a few days, it would really happen.
Darian thought about how beautiful XERBAB-7 would be: all the new plants he would find similar to the one he was currently studying, all the multiple caves he would explore, and all the stuff he would be able to find there, all the plants and all the animals.
Humanity had already proved that there wasn't any creature as smart as them; there were only animals like the ones they had on Earth. But Darian started to think about what would happen if he discovered a new society, something that humanity wouldn't be able to discover with only the satellite.
He thought about all the creatures he would find there, and he started imagining them in his mind: all their different shapes and how they would interact with him. Some would probably be dangerous, but the others would be curious to see someone totally different reaching their planet.
And even if there were dangerous creatures who could eat him, Darian still had the robots that the company sent with him; some of the robots were ready to fight no matter what, just to defend him.
As four days were remaining until the departure of the starship, the news about a "New Earth" and a scientist who would go there soon spread wider. All the newspapers were talking about this: the fact that soon a man would be sent towards a new planet and would return after 50 years.
The moment Darian was in front of the company, multiple journalists were in front of the building, and they were only waiting for Darian to come out of the car so they could ask him multiple questions.
"Please, Mr. Darian, tell us, how are you feeling?"
"Do you think that this planet, XERBAB-7, will be something that completely changes human life?"
"Will our children be able to go and live there? What do you think?"
Darian was being overwhelmed by the sudden questions. One of the guards came in front of Darian's car just to help him get inside the building safely. "C'mon, Mr. Darian, we won't have any more problems." The guard grabbed Darian's hand and brought him away from the journalists. "Soon you will get all the information; just don't put too much pressure on our workers!" shouted the guard. The moment they entered the building, the guard sighed in relief. "Thank you so much, Dibby… I don't know how I would've reached the building without your help." Darian positioned his hand on Dibby's shoulder, who was sitting on the ground breathing heavily. "Don't worry, it's just my job," answered Dibby, getting up. It was still really early in the morning; Darian expected that he would find multiple journalists waiting for him, but not this many.
He then reached the training room, in which there were other scientists, always acquaintances of Darian.
"Oh, you're finally here, Darian!" said one of the scientists, hugging him. "Yeah, I'm finally here… ready to start with everything."
The scientist nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, c'mon, we were waiting for you."
With that, Darian's three days of training had begun. They were really hard, especially for Darian who didn't have any experience in that; he wasn't an astronaut, so he had to learn everything from zero in these days.
Whenever he felt everything was too difficult, Darian thought about XERBAB-7 and how beautiful that place was going to be. He could not stop now.
As the three days passed, it was finally January 18, the day of Darian's departure. He didn't sleep at home that day because they still had to prepare things; he slept in the building. The company prepared a beautiful room for him. "I'm just sad that I wouldn't be able to pass my last night on Earth with someone important to me…" whispered Darian before drifting to sleep, although he was so excited that he was barely able to close his eyes for the whole night.
The following day everything was ready. The rocket was there waiting for him. He was about to put the suit on before he asked something to the scientist near him: "By the way… how will I know that the ten years are going to end?"
"It will be really simple. The starship has an alarm in it; once ten years on Earth have passed, this alarm will begin to ring, and the coordinates will appear on the monitor. You won't need to worry about checking them; in fact, the starship is connected to a battery directly in Ukraine, which will be your landing point after these years. You will leave the robot there and bring everything you've found on the planet… I'm just sad that I wouldn't be there to see the return of the starship." The scientist was really old; it was impossible for someone like him to survive another 50 years.
The moment Darian got to the launch pad, he found both Matt and his family there; they were there waiting for his arrival. "He's here!!" shouted Matt, seeing his friend in an astronaut suit. The moment he saw him, he began to clap his hands, followed by his mother, his dad, and Anny too.
"You're all here…" said Darian with tears almost falling down his cheeks. He hugged all of them for one last time. "Remember, Darian, we will always be together with you," said the mother.
"Don't worry, Darian. I'm sure that once you return, the Earth will be an even better place," reassured his dad.
"Remember that in 50 years I will still be there. I'm looking forward to our meeting, my friend," said his friend, trying to hold back his tears.
"I love you, my grandchild," said Anny before hugging Darian. Now she couldn't contain her tears anymore; she cried and kept crying; she didn't want to let him go.
"Don't worry, granny… I promise I will never forget about you." Anny and Darian gave each other one last hug before Darian had to go away. The fact that he wouldn't see them anymore was hurting him, but he had to look forward to his life.
"The robots are already in the starship," said a scientist next to Darian, who looked for one last moment behind and saw the faces of his parents for the last time before entering the starship. The memory of his parents watching him going away would never be forgotten.
The moment Darian stepped into the starship and sat down on the seat, all the robots behind him waved at him. "Hello, everyone!" said Darian happily, feeling that a new chapter of his life had started. While the rocket was about to sail, Darian positioned the picture taken during Christmas with his parents and his grandmother in front of him and looked at it while the rocket was about to leave the Earth.
His parents looked at the rocket proudly, happy that their son had become someone this important in life.
While Darian got away, in that exact moment the planet had started to slow down, and then it would have been completely stopped; but for now, no one had been able to notice it yet, because it was barely visible.