Washington checked over his shoulder to make sure none of the Reds had followed him (he had left Tucker in charge of Caboose, and he was certain Caboose couldn't sneak up on anyone. Especially when he prefaced his movements with an announcement that he was sneaking). No one was there. Good.
He bypassed the food storage, glancing in only momentarily for a hint of 'orange' that was really gold, before moving farther into the remnants of the ship. He had scouted it out before, and found a console that might work…but he needed time. He couldn't let any of them know what he was doing.
"Alright," he muttered to himself as he approached the console, toolbox in hand. "Let's see if we can wake you up."
He worked for hours. Hours, ensuring the console had power, pulling out debris and rewiring the components, trying to get past the security systems. It was never his specialty – Connie had always handled the most difficult hacking jobs – but as with lockpicking, he was Freelancer's tech secondary. So he did eventually get through most of the firewalls.
"Come on, come on. Tell me you're still in there."
Nothing.
"Dammit!" he hissed, pounding his fist into the wall. A ship this size had to have an AI. Even if it was just a navigational AI, a dumb AI, it would help. But what Wash really needed was another smart AI.
Just…not Epsilon.
Not that that mattered. Since Epsilon and Carolina had left the moment everyone cleared the wreckage.
"Focus, Wash. Focus." He shook his head a little and checked the wiring in the console again. Maybe he had missed something. Maybe…ah. There. One of the circuits was still sparking. He carefully repaired it and tried again. "Come on, little buddy. I know you're in there…"
Still nothing. Maybe…fuck, it was a long shot, but if it was a smart AI, so it would have access to and understand the news…
"Hey there," Wash said, as softly and friendly as he could manage. "Hey, you don't need to be scared of me, okay? I know there was that…uh…incident with Freelancer. But listen. I don't have anything against AI. Really! Look, I'll implant you, okay? That way you can stop me from doing anything you don't like. Just…please. Please, come out." Please.
But no AI appeared.
And that wasn't okay. Wash needed and AI; he needed help, he needed someone who could be his partner and get him and his team out of this mess and off this planet and needed someone to trust and who wouldn't leave him like fucking Carolina and that fucking piece of shit Epsilon who just kept abandoning him over and over and –
Wash. Focus.
Carolina didn't even ask. Neither did Epsilon. They just…just assumed he wouldn't want an AI in his implants again. They never considered how much it might help him, to have someone else there to fill in gaps, to put the pieces together. Dammit, he was a Freelancer, he was specifically trained to use an AI. Sure, he couldn't risk a Freelancer-controlled AI back when he was plotting to bring the Project down for obvious reasons, but now?
Washington sighed and rested his head against the console, visor clinking against it softly. Carolina and Epsilon had left him. There was no AI on the crashed ship to help him.
He was on his own.