Author's Note: The following is an experiment. I've created this story to fill in the story of Romilly where the film left off. We will explore his 23 years of solitude, as well as his life before the events of the movie. I cannot promise you consistent updates or a word count, but I will be giving you my version of the life of Romilly, and why he chose to go live (and ultimately die) for the human race.

23 Years, 4 Months, 8 Days

By: BYIT

Chapter 1: 1 Year, 5 Days

Romilly's first conscious thought was immediate fear; fluid was filling up his lungs, and fast. His head jolted forward and upward, but was immediately caught by some sort of plastic. Romilly coughed and coughed; violently vomiting fluid. An outside force ripped the plastic away, and Romilly sat up. It only took him a moment to realize what what happening.

"Take it easy, Romilly," TARS said. His monolith shaped form 'stood' next to him, just outside the sleeping unit. "You're waking up, not dying,"

"Very funny, TARS."

Romilly rested his hands back down to the fluid, which was truly only a few feet deep. It was an odd experience, rising up out of the primordial waters that his ancient ancestors must have rose out of. The birth of all evolution lay in these waters Romilly sat in now. Even as a man of science, Romilly found no comfort of these facts.

"How long, was I under?" Romilly asked.

"Exactly how long you told me to keep you down; a year."

"Any contact with ranger? Coop?" Romilly asked. TARS started moving again, towards the side of the room.

"If I could shake my head, I would Rom." TARS said. He began to climb back up to the main chambers of the Endurance.

"And the tests?" Romilly asked.

"I need more time. Ask me again in another year."

"Wait," Romilly nearly shouted. TARS slid back down into the room wordlessly. We've waited how long?"

"One year, five days," Came TARS' response.

"Which puts the Ranger at how long?" Romilly asked. He felt the thick fluid beneath him ebb and flow.

"Somewhere around nine minutes," TARS said. "I told you to be under longer. That's only enough time for them to land, if that."

Romilly sighed. "I guess put me back down for a year," he said, as he laid back down.

TARS began moving back towards Romilly. "Are you sure you don't want to make it two? There's no point in waking up so often, and it's not like I'm going to get any older."

Romilly smiled at the metal form. "I'll tell you what; we'll split the difference. Put me down for 18 months, but after that I'm getting out of this box for a while. You can get some of that talking out of you then."

"I'll be looking forward to it. Happy Birthday."

Romilly sat up again, looking at TARS in confusion. "What?"

"Happy Birthday," TARS said again. "You missed it. I sang the birthday song by your unit in your honor."

Romilly rolled his eyes and laid back down. "Comforting thought, TARS. Good night."

"Night, Rom."

The waters flowed around Romilly once more as the plastic swung over his head. He was submerged and sleeping in seconds.

—

Romilly moved himself to the window; outside, Gargantua stood. A vast and powerful black hole, beautiful as it was dangerous.

"Are you getting this?" Cooper asked through the communications system. His voice crackled and clipped. Himself, Doyle, and Amelia were beginning to enter the cusp of the planet. Their time would soon decelerate at a speed no one could comprehend.

"Unbelievable," was all Romilly could get out. He watched as the Ranger grew further and further away from the Endurance.

"The literal heart of darkness," Doyle noted. Then came silence. Now, Romilly could no longer see his comrades from the small window he could access. His mind raced for something to latch onto; his eyes were drawn back to Gargantua.

"You can just see the collapsed star inside," Romilly said. They were just beginning to enter the cusp. "Singularity…it would solve gravity."

"I can't get anything from it," Cooper came in.

"Nothing escapes that horizon," Romilly answered. "Not even light. All the answers are there. Just no way to see it."

"There's millers planet," Amelia said. Their readings were beginning to slow down. This was the bridge.

"Goodbye Ranger," Romilly said quietly. Their readings slowed down into infinity, and cut off completely.

After he and TARS lost contact with the Ranger, they set to work immediately.

Romilly ran every test by Gargantua. He sent what probes they had by, researched the relativity difference between the two, and even made three spacewalks to study the black hole without being locked into a ship. For every observation they made, TARS quantified and cleared out the data. With each of the five days of research, Romilly would print out the data, launch it out of the airlock, and into the wormhole, where he could only hope NASA would someday pick it up. TARS always wondered about this process.

"There's no point in launching these out there," TARS said as Romilly prepared the third capsule. "No one's going to be flying past Saturn to check if there's a tube of paper."

"It's worth a shot," Romilly said. "It's always worth a shot."

TARS 'walked' away from Romilly. "This is why I'll be your robot overload one day."

"Whatever helps you pass the time," Romilly muttered as he launched the capsule. He watched it enter the wormhole and disappear entirely.

After the fifth straight day of studying and surveying, Romilly finally stopped. The gravity readings on Gargantua were interesting, but predictable. Each figure and each number Romilly could come up with were the exact numbers he knew Dr. Brand had back on earth. The only new information was that Brand's numbers were fact, not theory. Yet the key to gravity lifting an entire base off of Earth was just as far away as earth was to Romilly. The only thing to do now was wait and see if more information came at a later time.

So, Romilly spent the past few hours awake running laps around Endurance, and playing other mind games to occupy his time. TARS was busy ensuring the other aspects of the ship were running smoothly. By the time TARS finished, he had no idea where Romilly was. He roamed the large ship freely, until he found him.

Romilly sat on one of the extra beds; earbuds shoved into his ears.

"Romilly?" TARS asked. Romilly opened his eyes.

"What's up? Something wrong?"

"No," TARS said. "Not to my knowledge. What are you doing?"

"Listening," Romilly said. "Coop gave me his music player before he left, and I figured he wouldn't need it when he was spending years on another planet."

TARS fully entered the room. "What are you listening to?"

"Earth," Romilly said. He leaned back onto the bed and crossed his legs. TARS didn't move.

"I don't follow," he said.

"Just different sounds," Romilly said as he closed his eyes. "The rushing of the waters. Rainfall. Wind. Animals. Everything that makes Earth organic and real. Everything that we're looking for out here."

"I thought we were looking for a place to survive," TARS said.

"I don't want to survive, TARS," Romilly said. He took his headphones out and set them beside him. "I want to live."

"You're really not making sense right now," TARS said.

"Look at it like this; right now, I'm living, right? My heart's functioning fine, I've got all my nutrients—all of that. I can live on this ship in space for decades; maybe even the rest of my natural life. But, at the same time, I'm alone. The only people I know are moving at a relative time so slow I cannot comprehend, and my only company is a metal husk programmed to be relatable—no offense."

"None taken, meat sack." TARS spat back.

Romilly let out a slight chuckle. "My point is, TARS, is that we aren't built to survive. Studies prove to us that without you and without hyper-sleep, I would go insane and most likely kill myself after a decade in this box. I'd have a whole host of problems coping with the vacuum of space being so close, simulated gravity, lack of organics—"

"You're not living, then?" TARS asked.

Romilly paused for a moment. "No—at least not in my definition of the word. I'm only surviving. These earbuds, right here, they help me remember life back on earth. They help me 'live.'"

The man and the machine sat silently for a moment. Finally, TARS spoke up: "Play them for me."

"What?" Romilly asked.

"Your 'Earth sounds.' Play them out loud for me."

Romilly nodded, and unplugged the earbuds; letting the rainwater sounds fill the room from the player's speaker. Romilly and TARS sat and listened for a few hours.

—

"Only a year?" TARS asked as Romilly got into the sleeping unit. He felt the warm waters surround him.

"It's my first run, let me take it slow," Romilly said. "Besides, there could be more to learn from the black hole. Run every test I showed you every month or so until I wake up."

"Anything else, my master?" TARS asked.

"Find a way to entertain yourself," Romilly said.

"I think you need to say the same thing to yourself." TARS said.

Romilly slowly fell asleep, and dreamed. He remembered a time; before the launch, or the wormhole, or even NASA. In his pod, on this ship, and millions of miles from home, Romilly remembered…