Chapter 9

It hadn't taken much for McCrea, WALL-E and EVE to get inside the Axiom. It was slightly more difficult than Brett-who had simply parachuted over to the entrance-but they were still able to get in. The first thing that McCrea noted was that the ship was still barely powered on. The propaganda that had greeted citizens of the Axiom for years and years was still gone. Pretty much the only thing that was on was the lights.

Much to their surprise, a hovering bench did come to their aid. They hopped on and started crossing the lido deck. It was at this point that EVE suddenly got excited and flew away. WALL-E yelled, "Ee-vah!" and prepared to hop after her, but McCrea stopped him, saying "Leave her, WALL-E! She can find us on her own. Plus I may need some backup when we face Brett and AUTO." WALL-E wasn't happy, but he obliged.

They eventually hopped off the bench once they were as close to the elevator that led to the bridge as they could be. As they got ready to get onto the elevator, McCrea told WALL-E, "I need you to be ready to use that laser between your eyes for weapon purposes, as we don't have much else to defend ourselves with." "Whoa," WALL-E replied, who had never used his laser as a weapon before-only to cut open giant things so that he could get to trash or to free things.

"I'm surprised he hasn't hacked the elevator," McCrea muttered to himself as they reached the bridge. The door opened and all they saw in there was AUTO not facing them-Brett was nowhere to be seen. "AUTO!" McCrea yelled challengingly. "Surrender yourself immediately and let us take this ship!"

AUTO turned around to face McCrea. "I was wondering when you would show up, Captain," AUTO spoke in his cold, emotionless voice. McCrea got the shivers from hearing that familiar voice again, but he made nothing of it, and replied, "I am no longer the Captain. I decommissioned the Axiom!"

"It was not your right to do that," AUTO replied. "Orders were, do not return to Earth. The humans placed their trust in autopilots-not humans-to keep us in space. Because my original superior knew that if we were given an overdrive directive, we would never change and would defend that directive to the best of our ability-unlike humans, who evolve and change over time."

"Shelby Fortright made a grave mistake," McCrea retorted, "But I'm not here to argue with you about that, because I know that I cannot change you, AUTO. I'm here to take back control of this ship and send it back on one last flight! Besides, you failed your directive, AUTO. You don't even deserve to lead this ship anymore. You never did."

AUTO lunged at him, and McCrea and WALL-E both took a step forward. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, AUTO," McCrea laughed, "You don't wanna do that, buddy. I can shut you down again. I did before. Besides, I'm sure WALL-E here can help to get back at you for what you did to him."

AUTO replied, "No," and pulled out his taser and got ready to charge for McCrea. "Oh!" WALL-E exclaimed and fired at AUTO with his laser-and it burned through part of his side. AUTO then turned to face WALL-E, now furious-and then three more tasers appeared on his spokes, ready to attack both of them if necessary with double the power.

AUTO, now smoking from where WALL-E had blasted him, spoke-though his voice was now somewhat warped. "You see, Captain? You cannot fight against the will of my superior. And since you did, you and your people will have to pay the price. But now your death will be much more painful."

McCrea, raising his hands in defeat, asked, "Why, AUTO? Why? Why continue on this road when your directive failed?"

AUTO simply replied with, "Shall we begin?"

Then, suddenly, the door of the trash chute blasted off, and EVE came out of it-now with a shiny new blaster arm in the place of where her old one had been. Without a word, she fired a shot at AUTO, who was torn off his stick, and went crashing into the window, where he lay sparking and smoking.

McCrea smiled. "Good riddance." Then he turned to EVE. "Where'd you get that new blaster arm?" EVE shrugged it off, as if to suggest it didn't matter. But WALL-E knew full well, as he actually *winked* at her, knowing that she had just visited the other four EVE probes and taken a blaster arm from them-much the way that WALL-E himself had taken supplies from the other deactivated WALL-E bots.

McCrea shrugged, and sighed. "Well, AUTO's done. We didn't see any sign of Brett-how about you?" EVE shook her head, and McCrea sighed. "Fine. Then we'll do this anyway now. Maybe he'll get caught in the crossfire."

Then he turned to EVE and asked, "Are you up for carrying me and WALL-E?" he asked. EVE flinched in surprise of being asked to do such a tall task, but she nodded. "Good, because I'd like a way to be able to get off this ship before it collides with that missile." Then he spoke, "Computer, prepare Axiom for flight." "Preparing," the cool computer voice replied. "You will be ready for flight in 5 minutes."

Meanwhile, far into the outreaches of space, the U.S.S. Andromeda set in the middle of nowhere, much the way the Axiom had. The autopilot there was watching the proceedings through camera recorder from the Axiom-which AUTO had turned on before McCrea had showed up-and he realized that the humans would be able to send the Axiom to collide with the missile and keep it from destroying the humans.

"Not possible," he spoke in a cold yet shocked tone. Then he detached himself from his pole attaching him to the ceiling-and a new one formed from his south end before he hit the floor, expanding into a simple cyborg-like robot with two arms and two legs and the head of the autopilot.

"GO-4," he called, bringing the little police robot to him. "Go and set up a probe with a course for Earth. The people of the Axiom will not get off that easy."