Eternity

Bright yellow eyes flew from one tiny point of light to the next. "Star. Star. Star. Count the stars. So many stars in space! Space!"

"Yes mate, space. We've, ah, been here a while." His companion's eye twitched, his temper shortened by the few lines of corrupted code still running through his mainframe.

"Polaris! Vega! Venus isn't a star, it's a planet. Like Mars! And Jupiter! And Pluto! Only Pluto's not a planet…It's okay, Pluto, I'm not a planet either."

"We've been over this, right? I am almost certain that we have, in fact, had almost this exact conversation before."

"Doesn't matter, it's space! I'm in space! Better than science! Ooooh, star!"

"Can't we talk about something else, for once? And, ah, by 'we' I mean 'you,' because frankly, mate, I've been trying to be civil, but there's only so long a bloke can listen to you go on about space."

"Moon. Moon rocks. Moon craters. The albedo of moon dust is zero-point-one-two. Moon rocks are great conductors for portals. Wanna go to space through a portal!"

"Oh, bloody hell, we already did!" The Space Core turned, surprised at the anger in his friend's voice. Bright blue eyes glared at him. "We already did, don't you get it? And now we're bloody stuck up here until we break down, which, knowing Aperture, won't be for bloody goddamned centuries! I don't know about you, mate, but I had unfinished business back there! But I can't do anything about it, because guess what? We are stuck. In space. Forever."

"…Oh…"

"Yeah. 'Oh.'" The other core turned huffily, very purposefully not looking at Space. The yellow core suddenly looked very lost.

"…Forever?"

"Unless She decides to bring us back, which, considering what I did back there, She'd only do if she thought of something worse than floating in cold black emptiness for the rest of eternity."

"…wanna…"

"What?" Wheatley glanced back over, surprised by the low volume of his companion's voice. Space was looking in the general direction of "down." When he spoke again, there was a distinctly forlorn note in his voice.

"…wanna go home…"

"…What?"

"Wanna go home! Space is too big! Space is too dark! Earth is safe! I wanna go back to Earth!" He looked up again, panic written across his faceplate. "When do they send the spaceship, Wheatley? When do we get to go home?"

The blue core sighed and gave him the best shrug he could. "I don't know, mate. I don't think they do. Sorry."

"But…but…but I wanna go home!"

"Me too, mate. Me too."

Bleh, sadness.