Darian looked outside the window next to him and saw the planet going away, he knew that now there was no turning back anymore. He could only go forward with his life. He looked again at the picture of his parents and sighed, realizing that it would be the last time he saw them.
While the starship was still moving through space, Darian stretched. No one needed to move anything, it was all automatic, so he could enjoy the ride and do something else instead.
"Sir Darian, if you need something you can let us know," said one of the robots walking next to Darian, who could finally have a better look at them.
There were exactly five different robots that were coming together with him. Each of them was a really powerful AI that knew how to handle situations without any problem; each of them had a role.
The one who just spoke to Darian was the one that had to help him whenever he was feeling alone. Everyone knows that for a human it's almost impossible to survive without any interaction, thanks to this robot, Darian had someone to speak with whenever he'd feel the need. This robot can recreate multiple expressions and acts exactly like a human. Each of the robots has a name, and this one is called Pax.
The other robot, who was sitting exactly behind Darian, was the one who would gather all the stuff in the wild, but not the plants, which was still Darian's work. This robot mainly took care of food or other resources, this one is called Ceres.
This robot was always together with the one that had the work to defend everyone from every dangerous creature on the planet, first by trying to tame it with some food and to make it understand that everything is alright, then if things would go bad, it has got other multiple weapons to use to attack the monsters; it is called Aegis.
Humanity discovered that the caves are full of important minerals; that is why they sent another robot together with them, called Sonar, who would work mainly alone, only focusing on discovering the importance of the minerals and of the rock. In case the rock here was extremely useful for humanity, Darian would return with some of it.
The last robot is called Mason and it is the one who will take care of the construction of the buildings. Thanks to all the materials he would receive from the others, he'd begin to build everything, but first a house for Darian, so at least he would have a roof over his head.
Darian analyzed all the squad coming with him before returning to reality, and he answered Pax, "Oh yeah, I've got one… do you know how long this travel will last? I think they told me before but I might have been focused only on my family…" said Darian almost awkwardly, but the robot spoke in a reassuring voice; it almost felt like he didn't want Darian to feel like that with him.
"There is no need to worry; this travel will last exactly nine Earth days. The scientists have already calculated the perfect trajectory, we will not find any turbulence," answered the robot before moving his seat next to Darian, who felt reassured to see how this robot was acting. Just from these movements, he could tell that he was acting exactly like a human, and that by talking with him, he would not get bored.
"Now, before we actually arrive at the planet, what would you like to do?" asked the robot sitting exactly in front of Darian.
"Mhmm, I'm sorry, but right now I just need to be alone for a moment." Darian, becoming suddenly sad, immediately went to his room. "Don't worry, remember that I'll be here to help you whenever you have time!" the robot spoke, trying to reassure Darian, but it wasn't working, he wasn't even listening to him. He simply entered his room.
In the room, there was a big bed and a really big desk near that, but for the rest, the room was empty. There was just a big window that had a beautiful view of space. Darian sat down on the bed and began to watch the Earth, which could still be seen, even if it was slowly becoming a small sphere.
The rocket was moving extremely fast; the Earth soon turned into a simple blue sphere, almost visible. As he kept watching over the distant planet, everything soon disappeared and the Earth slowly vanished in front of his eyes.
Darian then looked at the picture of his family again. 'Was I too selfish?' he thought, looking at the picture of his family and realizing how they might feel. But as soon as he thought about it, he remembered all the beautiful words he received from his mother, his father, and his grandmother, who all supported him and never walked away from him.
'I'm truly alone now…' With his eyes still locked on the Christmas picture, Darian slowly closed his eyes and began to sleep, all alone in space, with only some robots there on the same starship.
The following day, Darian's room door began knocking. Darian, surprised, immediately opened his eyes and, realizing he fell asleep with the same clothes as the day before, he immediately shouted for them to wait. "One moment, I'll be right back!" Darian didn't even know for how long he was asleep, right now he was still changing clothes.
In the starship there was an automatic clothes washer, he just needed to put them there, and the starship would wash and dry them, and it'd give the clothes back, already dried, to Darian.
The moment he came out of the room he saw Pax in front of the door patiently waiting for him. "Hello, Master Darian, are you feeling a bit better now?" asked Pax, worrying about the safety of Darian.
"Oh, don't worry, Pax, I'm doing alright; I'm feeling definitely better." It was obvious that Darian had a fake smile on his face; even Pax realized it, but he didn't hold back and kept talking with him.
"You know, I took something upon myself… with the help of the robots, we've done something that you might like," said Pax. Darian next to him gasped, surprised. "What do you mean?" Both of them were walking towards the main room; the moment Darian took a step into it, he felt a sensation of happiness all over his body.
After noticing that all the robots were waiting for him, he saw that on a part of the wall was attached the picture that Darian received from his aunt. He hadn't attached it yet, but seeing that the robots had done it by themselves made Darian's smile appear again on his lips.
"We realize how much you're missing your family, Darian; that is why we want to do everything we can to help you feel at home. Don't worry, you will never be alone, not even countless lightyears away from Earth," said Pax. With that, Darian felt some tears flowing down his cheeks but decided to hold back. 'I can't cry anymore; I need to hold my tears for when I will see my parents again,' he thought as he wiped back everything and returned with a serious expression.
"It is alright to feel nostalgia for your home, Darian…" The robot slowly moved his hand on Darian's shoulder. "Remember that we're here for you."
"Thank you so much, everyone…" said Darian, looking at each of the robots. After this day, he promised himself that he would not cry anymore, or at least until he saw the gravestones of his parents.
"By the way," said Darian, breaking the sudden silence in the room after he thanked everyone for what they'd done for him, "how long was I asleep?"
"It was exactly 11 hours, 28 minutes, and… 40 seconds," said Pax. Darian felt a bit reassured; the travel was going really fast. Now less than nine days remained.
"Still, it will take a lot of time until we reach XERBAB-7," said Darian, stretching himself out. Suddenly Pax reached for a drawer; Darian, curious, walked towards him just to see multiple games that could be played together.
"If you would like to spend some time, we can have a chess game," proposed Pax. Darian has always loved chess, but he barely had time to play it anymore with work. Now he had around nine days in which he could do everything he loves; it was perfect.
"Ohhh, c'mon! I promise the battle won't be easy," said Darian, getting all charged up. Pax smirked and spoke in a challenging tone: "I swear I will not make the game easy for you either."
With that, Darian and Pax sat down at the table, each of them on a side, and they were looking at each other directly in the eyes. Darian took the black, while Pax took the white, and the game started.
The other robots, curious, remained next to the table just to see who would win this game, which lasted around three hours. Darian hadn't had this much fun in a long time, and he even forgot that he was currently playing against a robot.
In the end, the robot was able to win, and you could see that Darian had gained all his strength back after he was defeated. "Dammit!! Let's do another one!" Darian immediately wanted another match; after a whole 3-hour match, he wasn't feeling tired at all.
"As you wish." With that, Pax started another game, still with all the other robots watching them.
Pax and Darian kept playing as multiple hours passed. Darian was currently on two wins while Pax had just won another match, so this was his fourth win. But as time passed, Darian's mind began to grow tired and he could barely keep up with his mind anymore; in fact, in the last round, Pax completely obliterated Darian.
"Guess we had many good rounds, Darian, don't you think?" said Pax, opening his hand, waiting for Darian to shake it. "I must say that it was extremely fun; let's do this again." With that, Darian shook Pax's hand, and after waving his hand at all the robots, he returned to his room. From what the robot told Darian, around 10 hours had passed, but Darian didn't feel it; he was having so much fun that he completely lost track of time.
Darian then threw himself on the bed; now he remembered to change his clothes and put his pajamas on, and immediately drifted into sleep, as his body was extremely tired.
After some hours, once Darian woke up, the robots weren't awake yet; they were still in their sleep mode to preserve energy. As Darian got closer to them, he noticed how beautiful the metal they were made of was.
Looking at this metal made him think about Rusty, and he felt a bit guilty about the fact that he built his body entirely of rusted metal. 'Well, but Rusty will constantly take care of his body…' Darian wasn't scared to find Rusty's body totally destroyed once he would get back; he knew that Rusty would give himself constant maintenance.
Darian then made himself some coffee; thanks to the starship supply, he was able to put it in his cup. The moment he sat down on the chair and began looking outside into space, sometimes he would see some planets, but most of all, the stars seen from there were beautiful. No light was stopping Darian from seeing them anymore.
As other days passed, Darian was able to spend them together with Pax and even the other robots. There were multiple games that could be played by six, and they spent these days having fun.
On day four he spent time together with Aegis to see all of his weapons… "Woah, what type of rifle is this?" asked Darian, surprised to see the rifle literally coming out of the robot's right arm.
"This is an H&K 416, an assault rifle, but it's not over yet." From Aegis's stomach a pump-action shotgun came out. "And now we have the best thing," said Aegis, almost proud of the body the humans gave him. From his left arm, a long katana came out. Darian couldn't believe his eyes.
"Dammit… it's so damn cool!!" Darian shouted so much that his voice could be heard from all over the starship. Pax, hearing that, laughed softly.
As more days passed, Darian noticed something strange for a moment. He was currently the only one awake and was looking out into space sipping his coffee, when suddenly there was a weird error in the communication with Earth. The people from the starship could not communicate with them, but the ones from Earth could see where they were.
The error appeared only for a fraction of a second, not even five, and it said: "Lost contact with Earth, coordinates not corresponding with those of the battery." But soon enough, this error was fixed automatically. Darian noticed it; at first he was worried, but the moment he noticed that everything returned to normal, he felt reassured and forgot to tell the others.
Darian could never know it, but this problem was because of the sudden stop in Earth's movement, which was slowing down.
Suddenly Darian was able to see something which he immediately recognized. In front of him there was a beautiful purple planet with green water. Darian knew what it was: XERBAB-7 was finally in front of them.