Chapter VI: Do Robots Dream of the Future
Getting closer to giant ship, Ushio spotted another smaller ship approaching it too. Taking a cue from it, the brunette piloted her own to that area of the ship. Finding where the docking bays were located, she steered into a separate hanger than the smaller ship.
Getting into the hanger, Ushio disembarked her Gummi Ship and observed her surroundings. The hanger was a wide open area, cleaned to perfection. Looking some more, she couldn't spot any crew inside. However, there seemed to be one figure in the room with her.
Across the room stood a grey humanoid. Thin with wispy movements, it seemed to ignore Ushio and more focused on the door. As the door opened, it wiggled out further into the ship. Having a bad feeling about whatever it was, Ushio gave chase.
Going through the door, she found herself in a long, busy hallway. She immediately stop as numerous robots moved up and down the long corridor. Above all the machines, the strange figure continued to move. Ushio tried to get a hang on things as she ducked and dodged through the busy traffic. As she moved forward, she quickly dodged out of the way as a line of robots all seemed to come to a sudden stop. Regaining her footing, she continued her chase.
Eventually, she found her way further down the long hallway into less crowded area. A few bots still moved about, but the area had not yet been filled. What drew her eye was a single, cubish robot in the center looking around.
"Um, hello?" Ushio said as she walked to the robot.
The robot seemed a bit shocked from her remark. It quickly spun around to face where the strange voice was coming from.
"You seem kinda lost. Are you okay?" Ushio asked.
"EVE." the robot pointed forward.
"EVE? I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. But if you're headed that way, I am too. So, what do you say? Tag along?" Ushio responded.
Getting a curt nod from the machine, Ushio knelt down.
"I'm Ushio."
"WALL-E."
"Nice to meet you, WALL-E." she nodded. "Now let's go."
The two walked forward a bit before arriving at a large intersection. Glancing forward, a great number of large people in hover chairs floated all around. Maneuvering through, the girl and robot continued onwards.
Ushio observed as the people seemed completely wrapped up the little pictures that appeared before their eyes as they chatted away. WALL-E seemed just as curious at the scene as she was.
Going through a tunnel, the pair found themselves in a large square in what appeared to a be more city inspired environment. All around the place, large holographic pictures flashed images, logos, and words. As Ushio moved forward, there seemed to be a commotion behind her. Turning around, she saw a scene where someone appeared to have fallen out of their chair as WALL-E stood on the sidelines. The scene continued to unfold as WALL-E appeared to help the man up.
Still, Ushio looked around the wide, open area, trying once more to spot the grey humanoid. To her luck, the figure wiggled it way passed what appeared to be an approaching shuttle. As she raced towards it, as fortune would have it, WALL-E seemed content to hop on the shuttle too.
Hopping onto the first car, while her robotic companion hopped on the second one, Ushio rode the shuttle along its track. Staring ahead, the figure continued to move forward, almost like it had a destination in mind. Taking the time, she stole a glance all around her. While she saw how huge the ship was outside, the inside only enforced the idea. Floor upon floor, deck upon deck, Ushio could tell that there was easily what could be an entire city inside. Looking back at the second car, she saw WALL-E saddling up to something.
The shuttle continued onward as it entered a large, circular section. Rooms seemed to line the walls as a giant pool sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by several smaller pools. As Ushio was looking around, the shuttle came to a stop in front of a large tower. As people got off, she spotted the figure slinking into the tower. Stepping off the shuttle, she spotted WALL-E getting off and following some floating dolly into the same place.
Ushio followed along silently as the figure seemed to speed up. Moving with the floating dolly and the robot, everyone entered a large room manned by another large machine. Looking around, Ushio was shocked to have lost sight of the strange humanoid she'd been tracking. With the target gone, she quickly made up her mind to follow where WALL-E was going. As an elevator before them opened up, she sprinted around the room and hopped on. Getting a small glance from her robot companion, she waited as the elevator sprung up to its destination.
The doors opened as a large, white wheel sat inside the darkened room. As everyone else filed out, she followed suit as the doors closed behind her. Now standing in the room, she saw the wheel begin to turn on as a red light glowed in its center. She quickly ducked behind the elevator shaft as the wheel appeared to observe a white object on the dolly. It finished its look as a hole opened in the ground and WALL-E fell through. The wheel joined him in going down the hole as Ushio could make out it that it seemed to be talking to someone down there.
She looked around the room as she continued to hide. While nothing read dangerous exactly, she recalled how the last time she followed something strange to a location, she wound up in an evil scientist's lair. It was shortly afterwards that an elevator opened up and a large man dressed in white and in a hover chair entered. With a clap, the lights came on as he went about his business. As he checked the status of the ship, Ushio observed the scene to make sure nothing wrong was happening. With his chair spinning around across the room, the brunette quickly dove around the elevator shaft to continued to hide her presence.
The man seemed to give a standard morning announcement until a blinking, beeping light drew his attention.
"Captain, Probe One has returned positive." the wheel spoke in a mechanical voice.
"Positive?" the man, who appeared to be the captain, asked. He floated over to the white object on the dolly as it powered on.
Seeing the white object turn on and begin to float, WALL-E, having come back up and hiding under a desk, began to move towards it.
"EVE."
"But no probe's ever come back positive before." the captain said slowly. He floated back to the console and observed the flashing green button.
As he pushed the button, an alarm blared as shuttered dropped over the windows. A jingle played as a holoscreen turned on behind Ushio. She shimmied slightly to maintain her cover.
"Greetings and congratulations, Captain." a message began to play. "If you are seeing this, that means your Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, or EVE probe, has returned from Earth with a confirmed specimen of ongoing photosynthesis. That's right. It means it's time to go back home."
"Home? We're going back?" the captain interjected.
"Now that Earth has been restored to a life-sustaining status, by golly, we can begin Operation Recolonize."
As the message stated this, a book popped out and into WALL-E's hands. He quickly ducked into himself and held up the book as the machine and captain looked over. Hovering over, the captain grabbed the book.
"Simply follow this manual's instructions to place the plant in your ship's holo-detector and the Axiom will immediately navigate your return to Earth. It's that easy. Now, due to the effects of microgravity, you and your passengers may have suffered some slight bone loss. But I'm sure…"
As the message played on, Ushio saw WALL-E begin to roll around towards the white probe. With the message ending, the captain seemed fascinated by the book he'd received. Glancing back at WALL-E, he tapped on the probe as it noticed who it was.
"EVE."
"WALL-E!"
EVE took note of the situation as she pushed WALL-E to the side. She motioned for him to keep out of sight as he stared at her in a loving manner.
"Well, let's open her up." the captain stated as he looked at the instructions. "Step one. Voice command, 'confirm acquisition.'"
"Confirm acquisition." a computer called out. Scanning the room, it landed on EVE. Taking hold of her, it received a voice sample from the captain as it opened up her chest compartment.
With anticipation, the compartment opened only to have nothing inside. The fact startled EVE as the captain looked on.
"Where's the thingy?" he stammered.
"Plant." the wheel corrected.
"Plant. Right. Right. Where is it? Maybe we missed a step."
Hovering across the room, he began to converse with the wheel as EVE frantically looked around.
"WALL-E." she said as she had a thought. Floating over to him, she opened his chest compartment as she looked around for the plant. Yet, she could not find it, so she began to scan nearby.
"EVE."
"Plant!"
As the captain seemed to be returning his attention to her, she quickly floated back into place.
"Contains no specimen. Probe's memory is faulty." The wheel spoke.
"So then, we're not going to Earth?" the captain asked.
"Negative." the wheel replied.
"I guess things go back to normal, huh?"
"Correct, Captain."
"Well, false alarm!"
Hearing his statement, the computer undid all it did, dropping the stutters and raising the claw.
"The probe must be defective." the captain stated. "GO-4, send her to the repair ward, and have them run diagnostics on her. Make sure she's not…Ah!"
Ushio jumped as she thought her cover might be blown. She began to step out only to notice it was WALL-E the captain had spotted.
WALL-E simply rolled over the captain as he shook his hand.
"WALL-E." he introduced himself.
Noticing some dirt on his hand from the shake, the captain spoke to the wheel beside him.
"Have, uh, WALL-E cleaned."
As the dolly began to take back off holding both robots, Ushio stealthily slipped onto the elevator without the others knowing. As much as she didn't want to leave this situation behind, she knew that the strange figure was still out there. As the elevator reached the bottom, she followed it outside before departing. Wherever the thing has gone, it still had to be around here. She quickly started running off to begin her search again.
—
Looking down at the large, circular plaza, a figure in a black cloak watched as everything went about their business. Spying a dolly carrying two robots and a pink clad girl run off in two separate directions, his curiosity was pique.
"So it appears someone else is investigating this place." came a polite, older voice. "I'll save her for later." Drawing his eyes to the pair of robots once again, he created a rectangle with his fingers as he viewed them. "Now then, shall I see what seems to draw my attention to these two machines?"