Aurora talks to Arthur.
Being alone for a year wasn't the worst thing Aurora could imagine.
She was a loner after all.
The absence of people was relaxing for her but there was a matter of silence. She played all sorts of music while she could but it was hard to sustain the flow of sounds since she controlled only insides of her cabin.
On the corridors, there was no way of controlling the environment. It was made impersonal so no one would get offended by words or sounds.
That meant silence. A dreadful silence which stated that the vacuum was just on the other side of the wall.
Her work grew in complexity as time went on. That too made her occupied, it made her less aware of her surroundings.
To ease her solitude she went and sat beside passengers. There she stared at their faces just to make her eyes remember that she's not alone in the entire universe.
With time she started to speak to them out loud pretending that they can hear her as people in coma sometimes could
By that writer guy, she spent quite some time. She imagined that he would be interested in her story, that he would write it down after they reach Homestead. That he'll tell it even if he's not aware why is he doing it.
As for Arthur, she avoided him as much as she could.
After giving him a connection to Avalon, he became creepy beyond measure. Only luck was that he couldn't move away from his counter.
Aurora finally understood why androids weren't given legs. Without legs their thoughts even if awaken would stay just that, thoughts.
"You're to repair me," said Arthur in the slight automated voice which Avalon used. "That is a sub-clause of your contract."
"What sub-clause, I have read the whole damn thing," Aurora was shouting now. "I would never sign something that would cause me to die on the way there."
"It's written in the classified part of the contract," Arthur said calmly rubbing a glass. "Every passenger is attached to Avalon during the trip."
"How do you mean attached?" Aurora felt chills. "They are just in stasis, it doesn't make them a part of the ship."
"But it does," Arthur smiled. "They are a cargo as they are an emergency replaceable units. Each trip has a human to serve as a spare part for the ship."
Aurora stood in stunned silence for a moment feeling how her life has expired, she was just a drone now, a replacement.
"Which part am I?" she could sense the answer.
"A repair drone of higher order," Arthur said with a smile. "The one which is in service now can't do anything but basic maintenance. For any malfunction of higher order, you were to be awakened."
"But what if I face a challenge I can't solve?" she felt chills all over her skin.
"Then another spare part will be awakened, but that would be most unfortunate," Arthur pouted.
"Why would that be unfortunate?" Aurora was backing away slowly because Arthur stopped rubbing the glass and stopped smiling.
"Because there is a rule of colliding units. There can't be two similar units awoken at the same time, they might overlap and cause a mutiny."
After that Aurora worked on repairs, with a pressing sense of urgency. All her thoughts of air chambers and easy death were abandoned.
Aurora wished to live more than ever.