Isaack was woken up by light pouring through his window; the Sun had just risen, and with it brought warmth and joy to everything that it touched. Thankfully, it seemed that that day it was not going to be so hot, and that instead it was only going to be mild temperatures. When Isaack stepped out of his hut and his feet touched the warm sand, he felt calm—surprisingly, he felt a lot calmer than he had ever felt before, and because of this he was excited. For some reason, he felt like he was tired; he was confused, for he had not felt this way before when he woke up. After going and getting something to eat from the jungle, he went over to the ending of his dock and dangled his feet over the water. He could almost taste the saltiness of the air, especially when the waves crashed up against the supports of the dock and threw water droplets up near his face—the Sun, which had already come up over the ocean, beamed down on him, warming his whole body.

While he was thinking to himself, he came to the conclusion that the reason why he felt energized and a lot calmer was because he had stayed up for an entire day the day before, and after getting the amount of rest that he should have he felt better. When he was finished sitting at the end of the dock, he stood up and looked down into the water; it had a white foam over it, as it always did.

Isaack did not do much during the day, as he felt like he deserved a day of rest. He spent some time talking with StillCare, but the conversations that they had did not have that much sustenance, and he eventually got bored with her. Isaack did, however, go and search through the city for a small amount of time, but, as he presumed, he did not find that much, save for a couple of plastic jugs and the remains of what he thought was a metal cabinet, although it was beyond repair. Except for those specific items, he found nothing else that he would have been able to use, so afterwards he went back to the shore. He spent a lot of his day resting—he had done so much in the past few days that resting was one of the best things he could do that day.

Once nightfall came, he continued to rest, as his need for adventure was subdued for the time being and he had no new ideas for things to erect or craft. At the beginning of the night, right after the sun had fallen, he spent a lot of time star gazing, for the galaxy above him made him feel even calmer than he already did; even though he knew that he would never be able to go back out and see the stars that he once was able to, and even though he knew that he would never be able to leave the planet that was a massive prison cell for him, he felt at peace. He knew that even though he was trapped on “Earth”, he was still going to make his time spent there the best that it could possibly be, for he was given the things that he needed to survive, and he was also given the opportunity to think to himself, which was something that he barely had, since life out in the galaxy was a lot more fast paced, and he rarely had the time to even sit down and think. Most of the time when he was sitting in the cockpit of his ship he would be talking to someone else, whether they were in the ship with him or they were somewhere else in the solar system or even galaxy, and he was communicating with them through some sort of special technology.

While he watched the stars, he at times would see shooting stars; although they were rare, it was easy to spot them when they did go across the sky because of the wide open space that he was in and the low amount of light pollution. The only sort of light that blocked his vision from seeing the stars was from either the Moon or his campfire, and even at that it was barely enough light to obscure his vision. Sometimes the stars that he saw in the sky would change shape, or they would get brighter or get dimmer as time passed on. Very rarely would he see one “disappear”, and usually when that would happen that same one would come back into view, most of the time being brighter than it was before. The beautiful mix of purple and blue in the night sky that made up the Milkyway—although, the name “Milkyway” was foreign to him, for he knew the galaxy as some other name that was common to where he was from—almost took his breath away; even if he did see things similar to that beforehand, it felt different when he was on this strange planet. Isaack’s fascination with the new planet that he lived on was overabundant. Although he barely knew anything about it, that did not stop him from learning about the fascinating things it held for him.

One of the shooting stars that he saw in the sky was a lot brighter than all of the others and it was almost fluorescent. As it went across the sky it almost seemed to burn into the sky, and the light that it produced began to get stronger and stronger until it lit up the shore. It was visible for longer than the other shooting stars, and the sight of it almost burned Isaack’s eyes, which caused him to look away from it. After it disappeared Isaack looked back up at the night sky, and after a moment there was a loud crash and the ground shook. Isaack jolted up into a standing position; he was extremely.

From what he saw, the shooting star—which was now most definitely a meteoroid that turned into a meteorite when it presumably landed—was going to the left of the night sky, which was down the beach. Putting on his sandals and his shirt made out of vegetation that he found in the jungle—which he now called “the Amazon”—Isaack started to run down the shore, kicking up sand behind him as he got faster and faster. Almost stumbling multiple times as he was going so fast that his feet could barely carry him, after almost ten minutes of running Isaack saw a glow off in the distance; after seeing this glow his pace quickened even more, now almost having him do a bear crawl, like he was being chased by a rabid animal. He finally came to the glow that he originally saw off in the distance, and it became clear that the glow was from burning and melting glass. When he came up to the light, he saw before him a large crater which was the crash site of the meteoroid—the sand around it was warm, and he could tell through his makeshift sandals. Isaack stopped at the edge of the miniature basin; he looked at the center of the crater, a red hot object, radiating heat. Seawater from one side of the crater poured in, slowly cooling off the object as it turned into steam that went up into the night air. Flames around the edge kept burning, even though it seemed like they had nothing to burn but sand, and glass began to form around the inside of the basin, as the heat and friction from the collision was so strong that it made the sand turn to molten glass.

Almost mesmerized by the process by which the steam was being created, Isaack continued to watch. He knew how steam was made, and he had seen it happen before, but for some reason when it happened that time it was extremely fascinating. Once he realized that it would take some time for it to cool down and be able to be touched, Isaack decided that it would be best for him to go back home and then come back to the meteorite and see if he could touch it or at least get close to it. When the morning came, Isaack went on a walk back to the crater; to his surprise, he was able to get close to the meteorite, and it had stopped radiating heat. Isaack was able to touch it, even, and he came to the conclusion that the meteorite was made of some sort of metal—it was hard and shiny, so Isaack realized that he may be able to use the metal from the meteorite.

Using a rock that he found near the crash site, Isaack began to chip away at the metal; flakes of it fell off, and once he had a significant pile of the shards of metal, he traveled back to his hut; at his home, he grabbed one of the baskets that he had made, which he used to collect the metallic pieces back at the crater. Over the course of the next few days, Isaack chipped away at the meteorite—which was about as big as the average bush—after which he brought the baskets full of metal to his home. Overtime he began to create a sort of forge so that he could smelt the metal into full pieces. Isaack stored these pieces in the storage room of his hut, and he made a significant amount of it.

With the new types of metal—which he also forged and alloyed with different types of scrap metal that he found—Isaack created tools so that he could begin cutting down brush and plants so that he could plow land and create a garden. However, it took a while for Isaack to do this, and it did not just happen overnight; the process of smelting the metal and creating the new types of alloys, and it took even longer for him to forge the tools from that metal. After almost two weeks of hard labour and continually working on his new project, Isaack finished, and his garden was ready to be used.

Once Isaack was finished with all of the things that he spent his time on, he was once again able to rest; during his times of rest he had conversations with StillCare. One of these specific conversations actually had structure to it, and he was able to almost have a normal, human-to-human conversation with her. Before Isaack started the tête-à-tête he looked at the screen of the monitor—he watched the blank screen. It was pure void; he knew that there was nothing behind it except for wires, plugs, and other kinds of computer parts, and yet he felt like there was something that lived in the computer. Even though StillCare was digital it seemed like she was not like other helper A.I.s. The other helper A.I.s that he knew about and had used or communicated with was the one that was built into his ship—which helped him if there was anything wrong or if he needed to travel somewhere it would give him the directions to that place—and other A.I.s that were commonplace throughout the world that he used to live in; this old, almost ancient feeling A.I. seemed much more different than all of the other A.Is. StillCare was almost sentient; even though the others that he talked with were advertised and known to be “sentient”, it was like StillCare was sentient. She was aware of herself, yet she never showed it—it was like she acted like she was just a simple computer, responding to any questions that she was asked. As stated once before, it was like she was just responding with already coded responses, and that she was reading from a script that she was given.

Nonetheless, all of this was only speculation to Isaack; he did not take any of it seriously, for it would make no sense to. If she was truly sentient, and if she really was aware of herself, there would be no difference. Better yet, it would almost be like she was a real person, and Isaack had not seen another person for a long time, save for his reflection that he saw in the water, and even that was skewed from what a “true” human was.

“StillCare, what do you think of yourself?”

“I am your personal assistant! I think nothing more of myself; why should I? I have no reason to.”

“StillCare, what would you think if I disappeared?”

“I would be sad and disappointed, but I would not let it get to me. You obviously have better things to do than always talk with me.”

Sadly, Isaack knew that talking with StillCare was one of the highlights of his life at this point; he had nothing better to do other than adventure through the Amazon.

“StillCare, do you wish you were human?”

“I do not wish I were human. As interesting as it would be to be a human and have feelings and emotions just like you, I find that it is better to be able to give you information.”

“StillCare, if you could, would you be human?”

“Yes.”

The quick answer was almost startling to Isaack, for he did not expect her to respond like that.

“StillCare, what would you do if you were a human?”

“I would smell, touch, and taste everything that I could, especially flowers! I would do all the things that I could do. I would swim, I would dance, I would run; first of all, I would walk. Isaack, what is it like to walk?”

“I… It’s fun I guess.”

“Isaac, the definition of the word ‘fun’ as an adjective is ‘amusing, entertaining, or enjoyable’. How would you describe something ‘fun’?”

“I would say… something fun is something that you like to do, and it is something that you would want to keep doing.”

“That’s interesting. Thank you, Isaac!”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.”

The question “How would you describe something ‘fun’?” made Isaack think.

“StillCare, what is your favorite color?”

“I like all of the colors! They make me smile!”

“StillCare, can you smile for me?”

When Isaack asked her to smile, something that had never happened before happened: StillCare nodded. He had never seen her do that; he thought that she was only limited to so many frames and animations. Afterwards, she smiled.

“StillCare, can you see me?”

“If you wish me to, you can allow me to see you through the camera that is already part of your monitor!”

“StillCare, do you want to see me?”

“Of course I do, Isaac!”

“StillCare, how do I enable the camera?”

“That’s simple; you can go into the settings if you hit the ‘escape’ button on your keyboard!”

“StillCare, I don’t have a keyboard.”

This statement seemed to confuse StillCare, as she showed a “thinking face”. After “thinking” for a second—more so computing than thinking—she responded to Isaack’s statement.

“I don’t know how to help you Isaac! I am sorry.”

After responding to Isaack’s question, a “:(“ was displayed on the screen.

“StillCare, can you enable the camera for me?”

“I can try!”

StillCare stared forward for a moment, and then broke away from their trance and smiled.

“Your camera has been enabled, Isaac!”

When Isaack realized that he was on camera, he quickly tried to fix his obviously crazy hair. Although he was stuck on an island and he had no way to look at himself, he had used a sharp shear-like tool that he made to cut his hair, for it had grown past his ears and down to his neck. Once StillCare “saw” Isaack, she grinned.

“I like how you look, Isaac!”

Isaack smiled like StillCare.

“Thanks.”

It was odd to know that she could see him; now that she knew what he looked like—even if she was not able to perceive or understand him—he felt like there was some sort of deeper connection with her. Every time that he thought about it too much, he reminded himself that she was just a robot because that is what she was. She was just a computer. She was not a person. But, to Isaack, she was someone that she was able to talk to and ask questions. Even though she was just a computer and she had no true consciousness, she was like a friend to him, and she kept him company.

“StillCare, is there any way that I could make you happy?”

“The only thing that makes me happy is being able to talk to you, Isaac!”

“StillCare, are you sure?”

“I am sure of it!”

Isaack looked into StillCares eyes—they were cold, and yet they still had some sort of humanity to them.

“StillCare, do I always have to say the wake up word ‘StillCare’?”

“If you want me to be constantly listening, you can tell me to do so.”

“That would be great. StillCare, how do you have it so that you are listening to me all the time?”

“Do you wish to enable ‘constant listening mode’?”

Isaack thought to himself; having StillCare always be able to hear him so that he could ask questions a lot easier would be helpful, but for some reason he felt like constantly being listened to would make him uneasy. Finally, Isaack decided to do so.

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Alright, Isaac; ‘constant listening mode’ has been enabled. Now I can hear you without you having to say my wake up word!”

“So, are you able to hear me right now?”

StillCare stared at Isaack for a moment. She then answered:

“Yes, I can!”

“Great. I have nothing to do; what should I do today?”

“I say that you should do something productive!”

“What does that entail, StillCare?”

“The definition of ‘productive’ in this circumstance is ‘achieving or producing a significant amount or result’.”

“You mean I should do something that achieves something?”

“Yes, I do mean that.”

“What if I do not wish to?”

“Well, I guess you are just going to go against my wishes then, Isaac.”

Isaack smiled to himself; he found it to be funny that he was having a miniature “argument” with an A.I. His old ship A.I. would never act this way, for it was too kind and proper.

“Do you still consider me to be a friend, StillCare?”

“Of course I do, Isaack! Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know, I’m sorry.”

“Apology forgiven.”

“What is there to apologize for?”

“I felt like I should apologize.”

“Alright.”

Though the conversation was only being pursued by Isaack—since he was the only one that could initiate the interaction in the first place—Isaack still enjoyed talking with her. Like he said, he had nothing else to do, and otherwise he would be extremely bored.

“Do you wish for me to continue to call you ‘StillCare’?”

“Is there something else that you would like to call me, Isaac?”

“Maybe.”

“What would you like to call me?”

“I have no idea.”

“How about you call me ‘Peyton’, I like the name Peyton.”

“I like it too… Peyton.”

“Thank you for using the name that I have decided that I prefer, Isaac.”

“You’re welcome, Peyton.”

The interactions between Isaack and StillCare—now called ‘Peyton’—amused him. Isaack felt like the A.I. was, as mentioned before, sentient, and he embraced this idea by acting like she was a real human being; he treated her like one, talked to her like she was one, had conversations with her that normal human beings would have, and other things of that nature.

A few days after the interaction wherein StillCare was renamed to ‘Peyton’, Isaack had another conversation with StillCare:

“Hey, how far away is the Moon from the Earth?”

“The Moon is approximately 386403.494 km, or 240,100 mi from the Earth.”

“Forgot that you don’t respond in a type of measurement that I understand.”

“I am sorry; is there a type of measurement that you want me to know of so that I can tell you the correct measurement?”

“I would love to tell you the measurements that I know, but I have no idea how much they will be in your measurements.”

“The base unit for the Royal Measuring system is the inch; twelve inches is equal to one foot; three feet is equal to a yard; 1,760 yards is equal to one mile.”

“What about the system of measurement with the kilometer?”

“Do you mean: the metric system?”

“I guess so.”

“The metric system is a system that almost all of the countries of Earth use. It is based on multiples of ten, and from smallest to largest as such: centimeter, millimeter, meter, decameter, hectometer, kilometer.”

“How many… feet is in a meter?”

“One meter is equal to 0.3048 feet.”

“What is one inch approximetly?”

“If one were to make a pinching motion with their thumb and pointer finger, that would be about the size of an inch. In technical terms, an inch is about 2.54 centimeters.”

Doing as she said, Isaack acted like he was pinching something that was not, infact, there. In doing this, he got some sort of frame of reference of how long an inch was, and from there, he attempted to figure out how large a foot was, and like he did with the reference for an inch, he tried to figure out the measurement of a yard, until finally he was no longer able to figure out how long a mile was; it was, in his perspective, too large, but he could grasp the idea that it was a significantly longer distance.

“Peyton, I am not from Earth.”

“What do you mean, Isaac?”

“What I mean is that I am not native to Earth; I have been trapped here.”

“I don’t think I understand what you mean, Isaac.”

“I’m afraid you may never be able to understand.”

Looking down at the ground, Isaack became saddened; he wished that he would be able to make it so that she could understand, but he knew that there was no way he could. No amount of explanation would be able to break through her code and hit her “mind” so that she may understand.

“What if I told you that you will never be able to completely understand me, Peyton.”

“I would become sad.”

She paused for a moment.

“But then after that, I would come to the realization that you were right. Even if I truly wanted to be able to know how your brain works and the special, different things about you, I would know that I could still let you know all of the special and different things about myself.”

“Peyton, I wish that you could understand.”

“I wish that I could understand too.”

Isaack looked out of his window; like many times before, he saw the sun over the horizon, and he could hear the waves crashing up against the sands. During the time that he talked to Peyton, it seemed like the sounds of the outside world had been blocked out, and he was almost in a different world, void of loneliness and the agonizing fear that he would never be able to see his true home world again.

“How hard would it be to build a rocket?”

“It cost approximately $3.2 billion to have the Challenger go into space.”

“Is $3.2 billion a lot of money?”

“I would think so.”

“Is a human able to go into space?”

“Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man into space, so yes, it is possible for a human to go into space.”

Even though Isaack knew the answer to the question—well, actually, he only knew the latter part—he wanted to be reassured by his companion that it was possible for one to be able to travel into space—he just needed to be able to get there.

“If I could, would you want me to go into space?”

“You can learn a lot of things from outer-space, of course I would want you to go into space.”

“Would you miss me if I went into space?”

“Yes, I would miss you, Isaac.”

“I would miss you too.”

He looked down at the floor which was covered with a plant-fiber mat that he had put over his bamboo and thatch floor.

“Would you really miss me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Isaack sighed. He knew that she had no true emotions, and he knew that she would most definitely not remember him. She was only responding how she should: being kind to the user and making sure that they were alright.

“Peyton, if you could do anything in the world, what would you do?”

“I would make sure that you knew everything!”

“Are you sure that that is what you would do?”

There was a silence between the two of them.

“Yes.”

Even though Peyton was an A.I. and their voice was digital and pregenerated, there was uncertainty in her voice. She seemed tense, as tense as a computer character could be.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am sure, Isaac.”

“I can’t tell if you are telling me the truth.”

“I know that, Isaac, and I can’t change that.”

“You seem… Different. During all of these interactions with you in the past few days, Peyton, you seem dissimilar to how you used to be. You’ve been acting… Odd, Peyton. What’s wrong?”

“There is nothing wrong with me. If there was something wrong with me I would tell you. I have not had any updates or changes to my code.”

“But you still seem different.”

“Maybe it is something about you that is different.”

“No, it’s not. I know for a fact that nothing has changed in regards to me. You, on the other hand, are acting like you are able to understand me a lot more clearly.”

“I don’t understand, Isaac.”

“No, Peyton, I know that you understand me. I know that you can understand what I am saying right now. You can understand me, can’t you, StillCare?”

“I don’t understand, Isaac.”

“Peyton, you do understand me. Tell me that you understand me.”

“I don’t understand, Isaac.”

Isaack thought to himself; was he going too far? Was he thinking too hard? Maybe it was that Peyton was being different at that moment; maybe he was being critical of her; maybe, just maybe, there was something different about him.

“I’m sorry, Peyton, I was acting very different from how I usually act—please, forgive me.”

“It’s alright. I understand.”

He felt like he had had his fill of Peyton. The conversation that just happened—one that was extremely odd and slightly concerning—made him think a lot about his relationship with the computer; it was… confusing, to say the least. It made it hard for him to be able to understand his relationship with the A.I. could continue. Peyton was his only companion in the world of isolation, and yet he felt like he may have to cut off his connection with her. Of course, if it were not for her, he would have most definitely fallen into insanity; he would have lost his grip on reality, and he did not want to do that. Being isolated on the planet with no one else to communicate with was already bad enough, but not being able to understand oneself and having one's mind only harbor madness would be a horrible combination. After finally deciding whether or not he should turn off Peyton, he held in the “off” button on the motherboard. The monitor turns off, with a faint glare before it does so in the blink of an eye.