The sun rose slowly over the horizon.
Hugh peaked out the porthole, the space station was drifting along it's path as it was supposed to. The star it was being lit by was a bright blue
A dwarf star. The light pure and bright.
Hugh pushed against the window frame gently, letting newtons law do it's stuff he slowly floated along and found himself crawling along the rungs of the ladder heading from the crew quarters to the galley.
He was rather depressed. The only reason he had taken this job into orbit around the great dwarf was he wanted a steady job that he found rewarding. Or so he said to the camera's before launch.
He knew why he took it. He wanted to leave some sort of mark on history. Something that said he had existed. Or so he lied to himself. And so all alone on this space station he floated in 0g's.
Every day was the same: check the plants, check the animals, measure the distance between the space station and the nearest satellite, record the name and description of the nearest satellite.
It was repetitive but relatively safe. He also had to check life systems frequently. Every two hours, before he went into stasis, and when he felt ill or light headed.
Hugh was a rather skinny man. Not bone thin but not really able to be considered wiry either. Space had only lessened his diminutive weight.
Hugh was a cream colored man, about 5'9, and had soft red hair. His eyes were a soft brown and his hair was in a standard military cut as expected of the government. And he had bright green eyes.
Pushing off from the ladder he spun in midair before latching onto the railing of the bridge. The space station had several connecting ladder chutes running from top to bottom. There were plenty of routes to any where from anywhere.
Hugh was humanly alone in this place. The animals were safely dealt with by machines. His only real job was to be warden of his own floating prison.
Every now and then he would catch a report from home. Every now and again they would say something about him... But after not even a month he faded from their notice.
He had left no mark on history. And all he had done was escaped from home. Where he felt like a triviality to the other denizens of terra 5.
Terra 5 was a planet that had 3 others to back it up, allowing for someone like him to be allowed to live. An unremarkable specimen by any standards.
Terra 2-4 were in various semi hospitable solar systems. It had all started with the imminent destruction of the first terra... In the sol system. But that was taught in every history class.
And so Hugh, who had been sad and alone on Terra 5 had gone into space. With no gravity he was better able to do the tinkering he had done back home. He was a jack of all trades and master of none.
Hugh had been something of a minor repairman and IT guy around the space base. And it was this, plus his light weight, which had caused him to be chosen. All that had remained was his choice to do so. And so he had, leaving the only life he knew behind.
As he thought about what he left behind he started preparing food in the galley. Here he was, all alone on a space station meant to be crewed by some 20-30 people more qualified than him and he did everything on his own, granted he had been sent up with an artificial intelligence module to help monitor things. But mostly he did everything by himself.
He had been a primary participant on the ai project, the official title was Human Intellectual Nanocomputer Artifice. Or H.I.N.A for short. Hina had been programmed around Hugh's personality, he was an ideal person to have something designed around. He had flaws but he also had the proper knowledge. And together they had a sort of symbiotic relationship. They helped each other survive, learn, and grow in various ways.
Hugh had however given her something the boys at home hadn't, a voice modulator. Hina was technically no more than a program that could learn. The only inhibitors being that she couldn't kill without being directed to do so by certain authorized personnel.
Of course her program had no way of getting to the station at first, so they made several attempts at making a housing frame that could suit the purpose of her objectives.
Several remodels were made, streamlining the aerodynamics, thermal shielding, durable casting. Fiber optics to transmit data faster.
It all equated to a high tech android without a voice box. Complete with prehensile wiring so as to link up with various data ports. And even free wires for broken terminals.
In short, if Hugh were to describe Hina it would be of a white metal girl of about the age of 20, she was 5'6" making her shorter than Hugh at 5'8" but she did her job. Somehow during the entire frame building process the program had been running, allowing Hina to learn human culture and mannersisms.
Thankfully it had been more than the grease monkeys of the build team around, unfortunately Hina had only picked up on the humans who had interested her, such as the various daughters who had been visiting during the week of being built.
Hina had no casing and so had a limited reign on the bases controls, allowing Hina access to the cameras. The guards were baffled when they had over 100 hours of digital footage of what Hina considered 'tiny curiosities of the human world'.
And it had given Hina a... Well... A personality. "HUUUUUUUGH!" She whined as she floated through the air with her arms crossed. She wore a suit like Hugh did, for whatever reason she had picked up being clothed as a habit to follow as well.
Hugh sighed and looked at her, "Whats the status Hina?" He said with exasperation. He had one hand on the plate with his psuedo food, everything on the station had yet to come to fruition, and it would be another couple weeks until that point too.
Hina grabbed a stool and held on in order to stay seated, "why don't you smile more?" She said as concern etched her very human features.
Hugh looked down at his plate as he responded, "what reason have i to smile Hina? You're decent company but you have no real need for me up here." He said before taking a bite of the brownish protein paste he had tried to make better, it looked like refried beans, but it sure didn't taste like it, hugh thought with a grimace, "the food right now doesn't help either..."
Hina put one elbow on the counter and put her chin on it, "You know thats not true." She pouted as she ignored his distaste for the food paste.
He looked back up at her and then shifted his eyes away, why did she have boobs? She was a bot. He thought to himself, though he knew the answer obviously enough, data had to be stored somewhere and not all the banks could fit in her head, plus the guys in the shop were pretty wrong minded. They would do anything to screw around with Hugh.
Hina noticed where his eyes had gone and zipped her uniform up further, "sorry Hugh..." She said as a fake light blue blush colored her cheeks. She was designed to be able to act as human as possible, so long as she knew the precedent. And back home she had been given access to the only sources of human reaction possible, tv.
Various shows had been "watched" as a sort of way to teach human patterns to Hina. Unfortunately, or maybe not, one she seemed to find particularly interesting had been anime. And because of it, Hina had picked up some of the more common phrases in japan.
Out of the corner of his eye he studied her, as he had at least once a day, her upkeep was also a part of his problems but there was never an issue. Her skin was smooth white, with blue as an accent color. Almost like body paint if he had removed her suit he'd find stripes and outside fiber optics just set into the casting glowing as information traveled her dataways.
Coming back to reality he saw he pouting, he blue lower lip sticking out with the puppy dog eyes expression.
"What?" He said bluntly, unsure of what she wanted. He simply looked at her as a familiarity set in, nearly imperceptible except it was something you'd have to be dead to fail to notice. She had turned the gravity on.
He scowled before finishing his food paste, all the nutrients an astronaut could need, all in one convenient blech flavored paste.
Hina smiled let go of the stool, 3g's of gravity, just like on Terra 5. Now the lowest gravity planet in the group, but still 3 times the originals gravity.
Hugh huffed and turned his head as Hina's data drives settled lower in her suit, how the hell could those pervs give her liquid data storage. How wrong could they be?
Hina giggled and stood up. "Is there a problem Hugh?" She said with all the innocence she could muster.
Hugh put the plate in the sink and began washing it, his back turned to her he said gruffly, "you know damn well what it is Hina. Those dirty old mechanics gave you liquid storage breasts. BREASTS FOR NEO SAKE!" He said as he began scrubbing vigorously.
Hina walked behind him and hugged him from behind, "but they keep my storage drives cool Hugh, you know that. Whats wrong with that?" She said as they pressed against his back.
Hugh turned bright red as he finished washing his plate, he put it up to dry and unhooked her arms from around his waist, she had been true though, they were cooler than the extreme temperatures they could reach.
On an average day of computing her processors would reach over 110°, but her liquid storage would keep everything at 60° if they weren't running. So they balanced her out and kept her at a cool 79° and rarely went any higher than 85° even during a strenuos day.
"Don't you have some power to go drain Hina?" Hugh said as he walked out of the galley.
Hina sighed sadly, he seemed so distant... "You know i run on thermal energy Hugh. My own heat is too much and would nearly fry my circuits, and the coolant keeps it too low to power me forever! I need you... You're just right to keep me charging but not fry me."
Hugh threw his hands up in disgust, "so you could go get a heated blanket instead of me. See? I'm useless!" He said in anger before stomping off.
Hina sighed and ran after him, knowing him he'd hurt himself forgetting that the gravity was on so she lowered it to .5g's and soon enough she heard his curses drifting up from the ladderwell.
"Neo, son of a fucking hell..." He grumbled from the bottom floor, Hina jumped down the well and landed beside Hugh who was rubbing his head.
Hina sat on him and laid against him. "I need to recharge Hugh, and one, an electric blanket is stationery, and two, i enjoy your company." She said with a smile. Her eyes sparkled a little, the various bits of information being transferred visible behind her optic lenses, the guys had worked hard on her, her eyes looked almost human, the only difference was you could see through it a little bit to her racing thoughts and that they were electric blue and could provide light.
Slowly the lines that were visible on her poly carbon nano metal weave skin turned from blue to verdant green. She was charging from his body heat.
"Am i nothing but a plug in to you?" Hugh said grumpily, today was just a day he wanted to be left alone. And Hina could tell as she tried to cheer him up.
Hina frowned and rested her head against him, "you are Hugh, and i think if anyone thought anyone would be a plugin, it would be me who is the plugin." She said with more than a hint that it was innuendo.
Hugh turned a little red again and looked away, "look, just because i got the prong does not mean you're getting my prong. Those bastards down on the ground are already laughing their asses off at me. I am not giving them the satisfaction of finding out you have some secret sick design."
Hina got up and frowned at him. Slowly she moved away until Hugh was on the floor alone, "i... I see. Guess i'm just some machine made to torment you huh?" She said before walking off. A trail of phosphorescent light blue behind her.
Hugh growled and got up, "now wait a damn minute Hina. Thats not how i see you at all and you damn well know it!" He shouted.
Hina turned with tears in her eyes and shouted back, "Then why not!? What do you see me as Hugh!?" She said angrily.
Hugh crossed his arms and glared at her, "i'm not about to jeopardize your functions just so i can have some fun, cause if i broke you, then i really would be all alone. I'm not letting it happen dammit. No." He said stalwartly.
Hina slowly smiled through her tears, "i guess you do care then... In some way... Selfish bastard..." She muttered to herself before closing the gap and hugging Hugh again.
"You're gonna stain my uniform..." He said, though he didn't move from her embrace.
Hina looked up and smiled as she wiped her tears away. "I'll never understand why they gave me that functionality..." She said
Hugh raised an eyebrow in a grumpy, 'suuuure you won't. Not like a teary eyed fem can manipulate a guy at all...' He said with sarcasm.
Hina slowly turned from green to gold in her information veins, "i guess i'm good to go for another two or three weeks then..." She said wistfully.
"Bull fuckin' shit Hina. You're gonna do the same damn thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that too. Why the hell is the robot the touchy feely one here? The fuck is the logic at?" He said with a grumpy expression, but truth be told he wad glad. Contact was one of the littlest things he ever got up here. And each day he was happy that he was nearly attacked by her need to "recharge".
"We need to head to the cargo bay. We should be getting a shipment from home." Hugh said as he patted her hair. Each one was yet another sensor or energy storage filament. And because she could burn as much energy on it as she wanted, she could make it color itself, otherwise it was typically silvery in color, but right now it was pinkish yellow. Like a strawberry blonde from an anime.
"Yeah yeah. Lets go see what the shitheads built this time." Hugh said before disentangling himself from Hina.
As they walked into the airlock to the cargo bay Hugh grabbed a helmet and put it on, making sure it was airtight he hit the oxygen recycler on the back of his suit. Hina simply stood by the door waiting for him to be ready. She could still function in zero atmosphere.
Soon Hugh was ready and they sealed off the airlock. As soon as the door opened to the outside world Hugh took off to the nearest terminal. As soon as he got there he waved his hand to Hina who was at the other terminal. She turned the gravity off entirely as Hugh opened the bay doors.
Slowly without a sound in the vacuum of space the doors opened. If they could have made a sound it would have been a deep grating sound of metal angrily pressing and sliding over metal.
As soon as the bay doors got halfway open the terminal before Hugh crackled to life.
"Theortan rank Hugh do you copy?" Came the voice of a burly man through the suit coms device, as the door finished opening the screen cleared of static and a grizzly bearded orange one piece mechanics suit appeared.
"I copy Torag rank Thern. I have the bay doors open with the aid of Anthick rank Hina android module. To what do we owe this supply drop sir?" Hugh said with forced calm. He hated this man. This mechanic who tormented him with all his devices.
"Now that we have the formalities over with space boy tell me, have you figured out Hina's secondary objective?" He said with a grin.
Hugh's face was blank as he thought about it, "secondary objective?" He said in bewilderment.
"Hina has a DNA recombination device in her" he began.
"SHUDDUP! i don't wanna hear it. That is plenty enough information for me!" Hugh interrupted forcefully before turning to look at Hina.
With a bashful glance back she held her abdomin saying, "well... I was built for it... You're a one man colonization project Hugh."
She had direct access to the camera fees in his helmet and she saw the eyebrow twitch and spasm angrily. "YOU SON OF A FUCK!" He roared at the terminal.
Thern simply picked a piece of metal from his fingernails, "sorry what was that Hugh? I couldn't hear you over the sound of laughter coming from the boys. Now, what we are sending you is basically your new daughter." Thern said with a smile.
"What the fuck are you talking about...?" Hugh said with a blank stare as indeed, a small box floated through the cargo hatch and bumped lightly against the ground.
"She is a prototype unit designed around you and Hina. So she's completely untested as she was meant for you and her to raise. So to speak." Thern said before continuing to speak to the slack jawed Hugh.
"She has however watched the same programs as Hina. But she took a different character role model. In fact she may not be your daughter. She may have chosen another persona type." Thern said before wiping some grease from his knuckles.
"I just have to say, while she was on Quintos she was a hell raiser. Couldn't say a damn thing, but she sure as hell had something she wanted to say." Thern said before turning around in his chair.
"Now wait just a fucking minute asshole. I never signed up for this one man colonization bullshit, nor to have some psuedo family for you to fuck with my head with!" Hugh said vehemently.
"Is that what you think? We got the document right here boyo, and i quote, 'under the terms of this contract, i hereto agree that my body and my assets are the express permission of the space force for humanity, and that any such task as they set me is my mission to carry out, with or without my will and/or notification on the subject matter at hand. Signed, Hugh Bramble.' End quote. So you are in fact signed up for a one man colonization project." Thern said as Hugh turned pale.
"WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO!?" he shouted as he fell to his knees, clasping the terminal tightly.
Thern put two fingers in his mouth and gave a shrill whistle, nearly deafening Hugh in his disbelief shocked state. "Good luck, you can give her a voice like you did with Hina spaceboy." He said as the transmission cut.
Hina looked at Hugh with worry and began to close the bay doors, but something about that whistle seemed... Wrong...
Just as the bay closed the box bust into splinters and a white-electric blue blur blasted into Hugh, he gasped as the wind was knocked straight out of him, and he was knocked into a wall hard enough to leave a dent and his head ringing.
Through his helmet Hugh heard Hina, "oh my god Hugh are you alright!?" She said in panic as she rushed to his side to pry whatever it was off him.
Hugh grunted as tears formed in his eyes and slowly he began to black out, his last words... "Can't... Breathe..." And then he was lost to the darkness.