Chapter Twenty, folks! We're a fifth of the way there!
Light
It wasn't space.
That had been his thought when they'd installed him in this new hard-drive, when he and the other cores had followed the lady to the city. It's not space. I want to go back to space. When do we go back to space, Lady? She just shook her head and kept walking. And he followed, taking some comfort in the fact that the other cores looked just as confused as he felt.
Comfort. That was new. Lots of things were new with this form. They told him there'd been a glitch in his programing, that he'd been corrupted, that he'd been obsessive, and they'd fixed him. He blinked big golden eyes up at them, and asked what was wrong with space, that they had to fix him for liking it? The lady had rolled her eyes, and She had glared, and nobody had answered his question. Though Space Buddy had given him a concerned glance, he'd stayed resolutely planted beside the lady, clutching her hand like it was the only thing keeping him on Earth.
The other cores had shot him various looks, but he'd determined the best method was to keep his head down, letting his mop of new hair hide his face, and stay at the back of the group. Trudging along, muttering about space meanies and meteors, he hadn't noticed her at first.
"Why're you mad?"
He'd glanced at her. They were roughly the same size. Her hair was pulled back, her optics an orange so pale as to be almost yellow. She tipped her head to the side, focusing that bright gaze on him, face begging for an answer.
So he told her.
"Not in space. Don't like Earth; miss space."
"What's wrong with Earth?" she'd asked, genuinely wanting to know; there wasn't a trace of hostility in her voice.
"Nothing wrong with Earth, it's just not space."
"Well, what's good about space?"
He'd stared at her. "Space is space! Space is me! I'm Space, and Dad is Space, and Mom is Science! Space is…" The words popped up out of nowhere. "…my primary function."
"Oooh! I'm Curry!" she giggled, "Cure-ee-ah-city, that's me! I ask questions! Lots of questions!"
The golden core felt his eyes light up. "You must know lots!"
Curry frowned. "No, no, nobody answers my questions. They get tired of them." She looked down, forlorn. "You will too, just wait and see."
Sympathy. That was new, too.
"…Nobody asks me about space. Nobody wants to know about space. They say they already know about space, they know too much about space, please shut up about space. But I know everything about space! Why doesn't anyone want to learn about space? Nebulae? Meteors?" The last two words slipped out as half-whispered expressions of confusion.
She looked up, her bright smile coming back. "I want to know about space! I'd love to know about space! What's in space? What's a 'nebulae'? Meteors? I know about comets, do you know about comets?"
. . .
Chell glanced over her shoulder, taking in the scene behind her. Wheatley was saying something about some job he'd almost gotten once. Anger and Morality had their heads together, whispering to eachother. Rick was breaking up a fight between Fact and Logic, who looked like they were coming close to blows. And, trailing behind them by a good ten feet, the two palest cores were deep in excited conversation, grinning from ear to ear. Space was gesturing with his free hand (the other tightly entwined with Curiosity's) while the orange core watched him with rapt attention.
The girl glanced down at her own hand, leading Wheatley through the grain, and smiled to herself. Perhaps his optimism was rubbing off on her, because she'd never in her memory felt more confident that everything would work out for the best. For everyone.
Spaciosity! Childish it may be, but it's so cute!
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