-Chapter 3: Different Angle - Dream Sequence/ Flashback

Up to this point, Brand had been on Edmund's planet for 6 months and 12 days, according to CASE. It's a little depressing when CASE says it. Even though he has a vocal variator, it still sounds very monotone. They did a better job on TARS, and obviously TARS was a newer version. The first few months were bearable. Setting up camp, cleaning up the damaged Endurance, taking the small explorations to see the planet they were going to live on.

Brand decided to go out and explore the patch of land to the east. She always had a hard time deciding whether to take CASE with her or leave him to guard the base. There had been no signs of life up to this point, but you can never be too safe.

"CASE, stay here and keep the base running. I'll relay some data to you, so stay on."

Brand was expecting CASE to argue back, saying that it was not the optimal setup, blah blah blah. To her surprise, he stayed silent.

"Affirmative." That's strange... Brand gathered her gear and got onto the ATV CASE had assembled from spare parts from the Endurance. CASE was good for many things. He didnt talk much at all, but he could engineer things well. She was slightly mad that Cooper choose TARS to drop into the bla- Amelia! Stop thinking like that. Cooper and TARS sacrificed themselves so that you could live. But she did wish that TARS was here. He talked more, and was a kinda like Cooper, in a way. Cooper... She had to stop thinking about him. There was nothing else she could do but live and keep the human race going. She had decided to not start the process until later, so she could survey the area and get her self together. Brand suddenly hit a rock and she flew off onto the ground, hitting her head. S-shit... She could feel herself slipping away. Just like Cooper had, into the never ending blackness of Gargantua. She couldn't fight it, and just let it take her, letting the gravity pull her away.

C-Cooper...

... "Doctor Brand. There is someone approaching the perimeter."

Brand stopped organising her papers and walked over to where TARS was "standing".

"How should I asses the situation, Dr. Brand?"

"TARS, go out there and wait. If they try anything, apprehend them. If they walk away, you know what to do."

How could anyone find this place? Literally anyone who knew of this place was here. She abruptly pulled a chair up and sat down. Who was this person, and how could they find us? Brand opened up her laptop and radioed to TARS.

"TARS, please share your live feed."

The screen displayed static, then a picture of a man with bolt cutters appeared. The man was tall and lanky. He had some scruff on his face, his hands had calluses, clearly from working. He seemed to know what he was doing, but slightly confused as to exactly why he was here. He walked over to the fence.

"Should I apprehend?"

Brand waited to see what the man was going to do. He looked like he was thinking about something, then he slowly lifted the bolt cutters and-

"Do it."

TARS turned on the spotlights.

"STEP AWAY FROM THE FENCE."

Brand did not think it was possible for a robot to yell, but then again, that robot was TARS...

The man, startled, dropped his cutters and puts his hands in the air. He suddenly has a face of fear, but not for himself.

"Don't shoot! My child is in the car-"

Brand saw the truck. It was a blue Dodge Ram truck, double wheels on the back. It had all kinds of dents and scratches, not to mention the layers of dust caked on. It looked like one of the tires was flat. What would make that truck so beaten and dusty? What was life like outside of the facility?

"-I'm unarmed! My daughter-"

TARS tased the man and clunked his way over to the truck.

"There is a child in the car, like the man said."

Brand stopped TARS.

"Do not hurt the child. I will be up there to help you."

"DO NOT BE AFRAID."

The child screamed.

Brand walked to the storage room the man was held in. She stopped just short of the door when she heard some arguing between TARS and the man. His voice sounded like he had had years of experience with the outside world.

"...How did you find us?"

The man grunted.

"But you don't look like a lawnmower to me... you, I'm gonna turn you into an overqualified vacuum cleaner-"

She had to hold her tongue to keep from laughing.

"No you are not." Brand took a step into the room, arms folded. The man turns to look at her.

"TARS, back down please."

The man, as Brand dubbed to be the cowboy, turned to her. "You're taking a risk using ex-military for security. They're old, their control units are unpredictable..."

His voice was scruffy, and sounded very, slowly, drawn out. She sighed. "Well, that's what the government could spare." The cowboy seemed to be familiar with machines like TARS. Military robots. Who was he?

"Who are you?" he asked, like he was reading her mind.

"Dr. Brand."

The cowboy stopped. "I knew a Dr. Brand once. But he was a professor-"

Brand was a bit offended by this. "What makes you think I'm not?"

He laughed a bit. "And nowhere near as cute."

She scoffed. "You think you can flirt your way out of this mess?"

The cowboy stopped and took a breath. "Dr. Brand, I have no idea what this mess is. I'm scared

for my little girl and I want her by my side."

He sounded genuinely honest and scared. Good man, cares for his family. "Then I'll tell you anything you want to know. Okay?"

Brand stopped and thought for a moment. She turned to TARS and quietly whispered to him. "Get the principals and the girl into the conference room."

She turned to the cowboy. "Your daughter's fine. Bright kid." She stopped.

"Must have had a very smart mother."

The man followed behind Brand, glancing back at TARS every few steps, like he was some kind of killer.

"Listen, it's pretty clear you don't want visitors. Why not just let us back up from your fence, and be on our way?"

She laughed. "It's not that simple."

"Sure it is. I don't know anything about you or this place."

"Yes you do."

She opened the door. An older man was crouched down next to his daughter. The girl looked up.

"Dad!" She ran to him as he picked her up and hugged her tight. The old man stood up. He was Amelia's father.

"Hello, Cooper."

So thats his name. Fitting.

"P-Professor Brand?"

Doyle spoke up. "Just take a seat, Mr. Cooper."

"Explain how you found this facility." Williams said. Williams was an older man, wearing glasses and had a bit of a beard growing.

"I stumbled across it. Looking for salvage and I saw the fence-"

"You're sitting in the world's best kept secret- you don't just stumble in. And you certainly don't just stumble out."

Cooper started to look apprehensive. He seemed to choose his next words like his life depended on it. "It's hard to explain, but we learned these coordinated from, from an anomaly..."

Doyle chips in. "What, sort of anomaly?"

"I don't want to term it 'supernatural' but..."

Brand could see that Cooper was holding something back. "You are going to have to be quick Mr. Cooper. Real quick."

"... Well, after the last storm, there was a pattern, in the dust..."

Murphy cut in.

"It was gravity."

"TEN"

Brands heart was racing.

"NINE."

She looked out the window, at the facility walls.

"EIGHT."

Breath in.

"SEVEN."

Breath out.

"SIX."

No going back.

"FIVE."

To save humanity.

"FOUR."

The rockets fired up.

"THREE."

They were really really loud, louder than she remembered.

"TWO."

She could feel the vibrations and the wind.

"ONE."

Wait. Something's not right-

"IGNITION."