[FACT: The average distance between the Earth and its only natural satellite, the Moon, is 385,000 km. It would take the world's fastest car (the Bugatti Veyron, which clocks in at 119 meters/second) approximately 37.45 days at top speed to go from ground level on Earth to the lunar surface.]
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"Ooh, hey! Ooh, hey! Purple ball! Look! Look! Look! Algorab!"
"Fact: Corvis was flung into the sky by Apollo for failing to fetch him water. Both Apollo and Corvis were fat and lazy from all the figs lying around, and even to this day, modern Greeks wonder how strong the sun chariot was to carry both of them and the sun around."
"I wouldn't need a chariot! I coulda carried the sun around by myself if they asked me."
"Fact: Adventure Sphere could not carry the sun and the moon back and forth across the sky because he is overestimating his strength and powers over gravitational pulls."
"Are you sayin' I can't, ya little purple idjit?"
"Alchiba! It's so bright…maybe it's gonna go nova! NOVA!"
"Fact: Novae are the universe's second greatest stealers of hydrogen and helium molecules. The first are balloons."
"Oh, oh, oh! Virgo's over there! The whole thing! Look, sleepy blue ball! Over there!"
"How can you even see that sort of thing out here with all these stars, you little yellow nutcase?"
The babbling sphere with the yellow optic – dubbed the Space Sphere by the Fact Sphere – spun his inner core about as he narrated its movements. "Ohhhhh…I'm the best at space. I know it ALL. Look. Look at Earth. Now look at the stars. Now look back at Earth. Now look back at the staaaaaaaaaaaaaars."
"And, go on, ya loon."
"The stars are back into the same place they had been when we were launched out here…that means a whole earth year has passed! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"
"Fact: Every Personality Core has an internal calendar in order marked with preset reminders to tell them the approximate time Aperture Science Laboratories will be destroyed, or how long their battery life would be at optimal power."
Has it been a year, Wheatley silently mused to himself. A whole year's time…
He checked his internal calendar. Yup, one year, on the dot. He wondered what had happened once he and the other spheres had been launched out into space though that portal…
I wonder how many times she's tried to escape without me since then? Has she even managed to get through a little crack in the wall, or has She locked her in tight this time?
"Ooh, ooh! Not a star! Not a star!"
Wheatley turned his optic back to stare collectively at Earth; he was almost there at about halfway between the moon and earth but still so far away. He missed her so much...he should've listened to that nagging voice that did nothing but call him stupid when he was truly wrong and told him to spare her...it remembered that her and him were friends, that she should've been spared and saved. That particular voice had been silent as of late, having diminished almost as quickly as his precise memory of her face not twisted in a 'determined to stop him from his own madness' expression.
"Hey! That's a space rock!"
Oh, Rick...he needed to shut it. They all needed to shut it. The only downside of being a Personality Core was that you never had to sleep...and so those three never slept. They just kept babbling with each other.
And they called him a moron.
He shut off his audio transceivers; couldn't he just lament his stupidity in peace for once?
...Had he known that all he needed to do was urn off the bloody things he would've done so ages ago.
Would've been nice to know last year, it would've.
"METEOR! !"
"Ooh, those're some steel girders, too! Looks like they're up for a fight! Let's give'em the old one-two, ya little yellow-eyed loon! You too, purple eye and blue eye!"
"Fact: Aperture Science Personality Cores do not have hands or feet capable of combat against steel girders or meteorites. They do, however, have extremely tough outer shells."
It's so beautiful up here, really…I bet she'd love to see it, ya know, without all the looming death and bomb injuries and me being a massive monster. Ooh, where would the lab be down there? I wonder if I could actually zoom in that far with my optic being damaged…
"C'mere and wrestle like a real steel beam! Put up your dukes, you and your rogue rock friend there!"
"Fact: We are going to collide with the meteorite and its orbiting space trash in 3…2…1…"
Unaware of the shouting, Wheatley continued trying to see if he could locate the Aperture Science building from orbit…not that he could, but it would at least give him some comfort that maybe he could see if the place was still active. Why it mattered…well, maybe he might catch a brief glimpse of that little jumpy mute in action, torturing Her…that…that would make-
WHAM!
A large, pointy…something…drove itself into his frame, sticking into him and knocking him forwards towards earth at breakneck speed.
"!"
WARNING: Core damage at 53 percent. Hull damage at 10 percent. For an unknown reason the Management Rail Dangerous Object Removal Claw cannot be reached. Please try to dislodge the foreign object by shaking it loose, manually moving to a local Management Rail Dangerous Object Removal Claw and signaling it again, or just killing yourself by dislodging from the Manangement Rail. You will be put into a new Personality Core shell to continue on with your work, and a team of nanobots will arrive at your destroyed location to move the unsightly mess of your disfigured Core to the Turret Redemption Line. Thank you.
"Space rock, come baaaack! TAKE ME WITH YOUUUUUU!" Space Core screamed and flailed about, causing enough momentum to make what would have been a grazing blow from a torn panel absolutely nil. "Hello space trash! Would you like to be friends?"
Wheatley spun his inner core about, only managing to lodge it deeper, and now underneath his right 'arm' and locking his inner core in place. He tried to push his optic back to knock the offending object out of alignment, but only managed to cut through the rubber insulation of several wires.
"NO! NONONONO! AHHH!"
WARNING: Core damage at 79 percent. Hull damage at 25 percent. It is advised that you leap from the rail to your death unless you have found a Management Rail Dangerous Object Removal Claw at this time.
"THAT'S IT, BLUE BOY! TAKE'EM DOWN! TAKE! HIM! DOWN! INTO THE ATMOSPHERE! BURN HIM TO A CRISP! WE GOT THAT ROCK'S POSSE FOR YA, DON'T YOU WORRY!"
He was cruising for the Earth, wasn't he? Wheatley edged what he could of his optic to the corner of his chassis, looking out from the corner not forced into his left 'arm'. Earth was getting much closer, and the speed was ramping up. He was hitting the edge of the Thermosphere, and the gravitational pull was kicking in, drawing him even closer.
Then came the Mesosphere.
WARNING: Hull temperature rising to a dangerously high level. If you are on the Turret Redemption Line, and you are not scheduled for redemption, we are sorry to hear that you are stuck on it. Assume the proper Turret Redemption Line position and when you are safely and securely deposited into the Turret Redemption Receptacle, all you have to do is sit and wait for your power to shut itself off and you will be placed into a substitute Core, provided this trip on the Turret Redemption Line was the result of a freak accident. Thank you for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience.
Wheatley clamped his optic guard shut; he didn't want his already damaged optic catching on fire or something worse. He could feel the fire dancing around his hull, burning away the intruding space rock. The rate at which he was falling was…slowing? Probably the meteor burning away left him with less speed…the burning heat was starting to melt the edges of his hull, too…that meteorite was completely burned away on the outside, and he could move again!
As he moved his inner core about, he made an effort to guard his little rock injury to keep the fire from creeping inside.
Whoosh!
As he dropped through the ozone layer, the small fires that had broken out on his hull began petering out, and he opened his upper optic guard and peaked through.
He was freefalling towards…towards North America! Something small danced within his damaged circuits; he was heading near about where he could remember Aperture Science being…
WARNING: Your height above the Aperture Science Testing Facility is too high. In the event that gravity has been reversed, then God help you. If your altitude is due to a test gone awry, then this warning should be neglected, as you are descending back towards the facility.
"I'M COMING! HOLD ON!" He screamed as loud as his speakers could transmit. Even if she couldn't hear him, he hoped she still desired to leave.