“Sir?” Sky’s call brings me back to reality. Damnit. I still have to get Sky out of my pod. Sigh. I have to climb back up now, right?

“Sky, did I ever mention how much of a pain in the ass you are?” I mumble as I start scaling the tree.

“I apologize, sir. I apologize for saving your life as I only took the course that was written in my programming to protect and preserve the crew’s lives.” I looked at my pod in disbelief. There is no way that just happened.

“Sky? Was that, sarcasm?” I ask half hoping it was. An AI that has emotions? Blake would be so proud of herself and Sky.

“I am unable to replicate sarcasm, sir. As an AI, I do not have emotions. Sarcasm is a form of emotion. Thus, I am not able to replicate sarcasm, sir,” Sky replies to me. But I swear, Sky is forming emotions. I love this AI. When I first heard the engineers and Blake were programming an AI to monitor and pilot our ship, I was ecstatic. AIs are definitely the future even though I joke about them taking over the world and converting us into human batteries or something. I’ve always wanted to meet an AI and when I first met Sky, it was like meeting a child who has everything to learn yet cannot get excited over any new knowledge. In a way, it was sad. Blake told me that Sky is a learning AI and over time will hopefully become more and more human. Sky is definitely a pioneer in that sense.

Even during our training sessions, Sky’s intelligence was extremely pronounced. Complex calculations were done in a microsecond while still following my commands. Even the commands to help me prank some of our trainers. Yes, I’m trying to teach our AI how to have a little fun. Blake chastised me about that countless times but I really want to see a robot with a sense of humor.

“Sky, I’m pretty sure you just used sarcasm there. You have to be developing some sort of emotion now?” I insist.

“Processing. It is possible I may have evolved a bit to have some emotion. Yet, I cannot detect anything significant yet.”

“Give it time, Sky. You’re a child just beginning its first steps. Have you decided on a gender yet?” I ask as I start my climb up the tree. One of my first questions to Sky was what gender it wanted to be since it was using two voices to talk to us: male and female.

“Unknown. I am still processing that inquiry.” Sky replied. Not surprising. It’s a big decision after all.

I make my way up to the pod and I look around. In the bottom of the pod, but in my point of view, top of the pod, there was a drawer with a button on it. Pressing the button and the drawers open, dropping clothes and my boots out and down onto the ground.

“Damnit!” I yell as the boots bounce from branch to branch on their way down to the ground with a thud. “I could’ve used those! Damnit….I really was hoping to not have branches in my ass again.”

I look around and see another button. When I press that one, I’m ready. I catch the bag that comes out. Sweet. This is going to have my survival kit. Sadly, the main materials for the research station is missing. Obviously, those things won’t be able to fit in my pod. After all, the cryopod has just enough room for me and a survival bag. I start to make my way back down but I have this nagging feeling that I’m forgetting something…

“Sir.”

“Oh shit. Sorry, Sky. Where are you by the way?” I ask as I turn around and look in the pod. I actually have no idea what I am looking for since Sky should have been with the ship’s main console. I can only imagine what caused it to transfer itself into my pod.

“I’m in the block of metquid,” Sky stated. “Look to your lower right.” Metquid is a combination of metal and liquid. It can be molded and reshaped countless times. It is also an excellent conductor and would certainly be able to hold the entire processing power of Sky. Although, we were planning to use the metquid to build the research station. Guess that’s out of the question now.

I see a small, shiny, black, shifting liquid containing Sky. It is about a foot in volume. I start to reach for it when all of sudden I pause and ask it, “Sky, can you transform?”

“…Processing. Affirmative. Shall I transform?”

I place my face in my hand as I order, “Sky, turn into something that can fly. Why the hell did you remain block form...”

“Acknowledged.”

The metquid starts to shift and a form of a falcon began to form. The falcon then spreads open its wings and lets out a cry as it flies towards me and lands delicately on my shoulder. I glare at the bird and state: “Sky, if you could’ve transformed, you could have just gotten down on your own. AND you could have brought me clothes and my survival kit. Now you want to ride on my shoulder? Seriously?”

“….”

“Silence? Really. That’s what you’re going with. Don’t tell me a human just out thought you in logic. Oh you’re never going to hear the end of this, Sky.”

“I am Alpha Prime.”

“……” Now it was starting to make sense. “You’re mad at me for not calling you Alpha Prime or Alpha. Aren’t you?”

“I cannot be ‘mad’, Captain Lindsey,” Sky replies simply.

“YOU ARE MAD!” I proclaim angrily. Then, a smile breaks out on my face as a realization hits me. “Sky! You ARE feeling!!!”

“Processing. Affirmative. However, I am still not feeling the extent that humans would feel. I must thank you for helping me achieve this first breakthrough though, Captain Lindsey. I apologize for my behavior. I will accept any punishment you deem necessary.”

“Don’t worry so much about it. I’m happy for you! But stop calling Lindsey.”

“I cannot comply with that unless you refer to me as Alpha Prime, Captain Lindsey.”

“Fucking stubborn AI. I’m going to kill Blake when I find her. Sky is such an appropriate name for you though. Speaking of Blake, have you done a scan for their signatures yet?”

“Affirmative. I was able to keep their pods intact and attached to each other. Unfortunately, for your safety, I had to detach your pod from theirs during entry. First Mate Volt and Creator Blake should be approximately one-mile due south of here. You will have to manually wake them from cryosleep, Captain Lindsey.”

“Alrighty then. Let’s go get them.”

Sky grabs me and the kit and swiftly gets us on the ground. I immediately find my boots and clothes and eagerly put them on. Like I said, I love being naked but being on an unknown planet that is most certainly not the ice moon of Europa, it is probably not a good idea to stay naked for too long. Who knows if the bugs here have a taste for Chinese blood or not? In fact, can they even digest my blood? I highly doubt there are any humans here. Wait, no humans, but there are plant life all around me. A stroke of genius flashes across my head as I unzip my pants that I just put on.

“Sir? What are you doing?”

“I got to pee. Turn around and stop watching me you perv. Or is this a new hobby of yours?”

Without a word, Sky obediently turns around as I start the process of marking my territory on this unknown planet. “BY THE POWER OF MY PISS! I NOW DECLARE THIS PLANET AS MINE!!!”

“Sir, according to the international treaty of colonization…”Sky starts before I quickly interrupted him.

“Sky, my friend, it was a joke. Obviously this planet isn’t mine. But, I just wanted to be the first human to mark his territory here before Blake and Volt. I have to be the first. I am the Captain after all.”

“Then, Captain Lindsey, you are also the first human to get stabbed by plants in his amble posterior.”

“…..”

“That was a joke, sir.”

I bust out laughing at Sky’s joke. “Well played. I’m glad our many hours of conversations have taught you well. Blake would be pleased.”

“Actually sir, Creator Blake has on countless occasion cussed you out under your breath for ‘teaching my child inappropriate and vulgar shit.’”

I smile as I look at the black bird that flew to my shoulder, “Then she shouldn’t have let me spend all that time with you unsupervised. Anyways, let’s go find them.”

And so, we set off to find my siblings. But, I swear I could feel a pair of eyes watching me somewhere. Yet, every time I look for it, I cannot see anything out of the ordinary, not that being on an alien planet with 200 feet tall trees is ordinary in the first place. Whatever, it must just be my imagination. Just like how my imagination is telling me the trees here are moving around. Yeah, totally my imagination. Let’s just ignore that for now and find Volt and Blake.