Robot tended to the plants as the weeks went by and paused the trip along the way on nearby planets to piece together a warp drive that would cut down the trip from years to mere weeks. With time and patience, the warp drive was assembled and the fuel for the warp drive was easily acquired. He switched the methane engine in for the warp drive with a simple switch.
When Debbie the Bloop whined, Robot went in for the tropical section of the planet and returned with a tall banana tree. It took some adjustment of the crew section to create a tower section with a dome section above the tree but it was well worth the action. Decorating the area in plants made it even the more homely regarding the status in the craft with weeds taken along and put into pods. The artificial lighting and the soil provided some motivation for the plant to easily adjust.
Debbie the Bloop and Debbie the chicken shared his lap together during the long trip to Alpha Centauri. Between his personal pit stops for the salvaging, Robot retrieved seeds and small insects for the hens and roosters to feed on. Robot watched as West regrew before his eyes starting from tree bark like material that took on the form of feet then wrapped around taking on the pattern of ankles then spread up into legs spreading on into the form of thighs, waist, torso, chest, arms, hands, and head. He watched as Will was growing back painfully slowly. Slower than everyone else.
Robot oversaw the growing of the bushes and the bees pollinating the open buds as it reached to maturity.
And the ship went for weeks at a time for Alpha Centauri in total silence.
All except except for moments of Robot accessing the computer library putting on a fabled movie in the crew quarters with the chimpanzee, the chickens, and the plants. It didn't feel so alone watching it with the regrowing humans. Robot missed them more than he missed home. It was a feeling that made him feel unwell and he checked his internal system finding no problems. A feeling, none the less, that was bothering him.
It was a feeling that haunted him in the last two years that he had been without home. Wanting to go home, except, home wasn't where he thought that it was. Home was a feeling. It wasn't a planet filled by people who were more alien compared to himself and the humans. It was filled of organisms that he liked the most. That much Robot was becoming sure of with each passing day and passing week and passing films and television shows that held on to the concept of family however functional, dysfunctional, and twisted as it could be.
He can simulate with his previous interaction with the young man regarding his attitude about the film with previous viewings.
Robot detected the raspberry bush shudder at the opening of the film that he had chosen.
Back to the Past.
Why?