Hailey ruffled his blue and brown hair, letting his bangs fall limply back into his eyes as he reclined in the pilot's chair. Through the cockpit's sand-encrusted windows, he could see the reboot and her lanky alien companion tramping away from the bijou. Apart from them, the rest of the landscape was sameish yellow sand. The stupid stuff was everywhere. He heaved a hefty sigh, tracing the buttons on the control panels idly.

Part of him wished he was back with the others in the ship hangars outside of Attica. Unfortunately, as much as he wished and prayed and pleaded, he was still stuck on the bijou for now, which was on autopilot. Sitting up, he cursed under his breath. At the moment, what he really needed to do was to fix whatever had caused the ship to come here. Ideally, he was supposed to be able to control it without worrying about it taking off and flying wherever the heck Cadmus wanted it to.

Hailey slumped forward, massaging his temples. It was no use procrastinating like this. He needed to figure out how to get the ship back in his control before the day was over. Hopefully, Ema - or whatever her name was - would be preoccupied with finding her O-pod long enough for him to actually get some work done. He had explained to her that she wouldn't be able to enter Attica without it, which wasn't totally a lie. Sure, she could get her O-pod replaced without much of a hassle once she arrived, but she didn't need to know that right now. The important thing now was that she was busy looking for her omnipod in a 'sand-sniper' or whatever, and that he had at least the afternoon to work on his ship.

As he stood up, stretching, Hailey wondered if his father had ever been in a situation like this during his days as a retriever. Of course, Hailey knew he'd never know. His dad had been dead for a long time. It was a fact that didn't bother him much anymore. He'd never had the chance to know Evan Seven very well, so he didn't feel too attached; though, he sometimes wished he had a better father-figure than the elderly Van Turner.

Brushing some sand off his flight suit, he stood up and plodded to a small compartment that contained the ship's personnel supplies. Once inside the room, the automated door slid shut smoothly behind him, and a few old lights flickered on.

"Hello, Captain Hailey. How can I assist you?" The ship greeted in its monotonous, mechanical voice. Hailey made a mental note to upgrade the ship's speech program.

"I need two flight suits, some hydration tablets, and Susti-Bars, please. We've got some unexpected guests." He informed the program, crossing his grease-stained arms and leaning against one of the off-white walls.

"Certainly. What size flight suits will you be requiring?" The ship asked with little inflection.

"Good question." He said, tilting his head in consideration. Chuckling to himself, he reasoned, "Well, definitely a large for the blue guy," But he found himself having to pause to recall the reboot's appearance. To be frank, Hailey hadn't given much thought to her looks until now. He was a little busy being distracted by his less-than-ideal situation. Now that he'd stopped to consider it, though, he supposed she was reasonably attractive - for someone who'd been wandering the wilderness. Unfortunately for her, she lacked certain features and had one heck of an attitude - one that was extremely off-putting. Plus, she had to be at least a year or two younger than him.

Anyway. The point was that she was short, probably no bigger than 5"3 or something. He told the ship, "And a small for the reboot."

Two pressed and folded flight suits slid out of a panel in the wall, and Hailey grabbed them, snatching up the hydration tablets and Susti-Bars as well. With all of these in hand, he sauntered to the ship's cabin, a cramped room with a simple bunk bed. Setting down his load on the lowest bunk, he noticed he'd left a box of his old holographic programs in the room. Automatically, he slid it under the bed. It would be out of sight, that way.

Dusting his grimy hands off with little effect, Hailey exited the compartment and headed back to the cockpit to fiddle with the ship's wires. Pulling on some goggles, he ordered,

"Ship, play track 14 at maximum volume." The bijou obliged. With his favorite music blaring over hidden speakers, he bent down to get to work.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small round object. With his gloved hands, he picked it up, remembering when the reboot had given it to him. What had she called it? A vocal transcoder? Whatever it was, apparently it was supposed to allow him to communicate with aliens, like her Caerulean buddy. Hailey huffed. Why was she so determined to take him along, anyway? He was an alien.

Hailey set the transcoder on the pilot's chair and bent down under the control panels. If having a creepy, weird alien as a companion was her thing, he wouldn't be the one to put a damper their happy relationship.

It took him most of the afternoon to work with the tangle of wires. Finally satisfied that he may have regained control, Hailey stood up, brushing himself off, and headed to the electrical panel across from the cockpit. He only needed to throw a few switches now, and the bijou would be back in business.

A muffled voice drifted up through the music. "Hailey! Hailey!" It was that Ella girl. Just in time, too. Removing the goggles from his head, Hailey looked down the open entryway ramp to see the reboot looking triumphantly back at him. "Ho there!" He greeted over the music, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. Clone me! It's hot out here.

Returning his attention to the cluster of wires he was navigating, he asked, "Did you find your omnipod?" The girl made her way up the ramp, "I did." She sounded smug. Hailey suppressed a smirk as she continued. "It was in the stomach of a baby sand-sniper, but I was able to persuade it to give it back to me."

"A sand-sniper, huh? And how were you able to do that?" He flipped one of the switches, disappointed to find no response from the ship.

"I asked it." She replied simply, causing Hailey to look back at her, grinning lopsidedly. This story just keeps getting better. "You...asked it?" He mused, shaking his head and returning to the wiry control panel. "Did you ask it for a new pair of sneak-boots while you were at it?"

"I'm being serious!" She sounded agitated now. "Do you know how scary those things are? Look at this bandage on my hand. I was wounded by a sand-sniper."

Does she actually think I'll buy this? Hailey wondered. She was probably just wanting attention, since he was the only other human she'd ever met. He decided to play along, chuckling despite himself. "O-kay. Yeah. Sure." He paused a nano, "We'll be leaving just after sunset. So you can hang out here in the galley or go up to the cabin if you want to catch some REM before we take off. Don't forget to tell your blue buddy."

Hailey didn't hear Eva depart, but he figured that was because of his booming music. Humming along, he tapped his fingers on his legs. WHACK! Hailey's head shot up like turnfin alerted by the click-clicking of a sand-sniper. He whirled around, trying to identify the source of the sound, and realized that Eva had slammed his omnipod onto the deck table, fuming. "Here's your junky old omnipod back. Not that it helped much."

Hailey switched off the music, confused. What had he done, now? Hadn't she been happy that she found her O-pod just a nano ago? "Were you out in the sun too long? What's wrong with you?"

She hesitated, as if searching for an answer. "You!" She spat, apparently decided that he was, indeed, the source of her problems. "You're what's wrong!"

"What did I do?" He asked, confused. Why was she taking out her emotional issues on him? He was the one who had found her in this alien landscape!

"You're not what...You're not like…Ugh!" Throwing up her hands, she gushed, "I've never even seen another human. I've dreamed all my life of finally meeting one, and he's...he's.."

Hailey crossed his arms, irked that this girl apparently already felt entitled to insult him. "What?" He asked, annoyed, yet a tiny bit curious to hear the answer.

"Just forget it." She snapped, whirling around and starting back down the ramp, but Hailey caught her by the arm before she could get any further. Yeah, she was tiresome and talked waaay too much, but she was right about one thing. He was the first human she'd encountered. Maybe he should've been a little nicer - just a little. "Look," He said, trying to keep his voice soothing. "I'm sorry you didn't get the warm welcome and all the attention you were expecting. But I need to finish some stuff on this ship so we can get you to New Attica as quickly and safely as possible. Okay?" He put on a straight face as he said this, but part of him wondered if he'd ever get this ship up and running. Ugh. Cadmus Pryde, you suck.

Eva regarded Hailey for a bit, making him feel slightly uncomfortable. It seemed like she knew something was up. Crossing his fingers behind his back, Hailey hoped that wasn't the case.

"Okay," She said finally, causing Hailey to let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I'll go tell Rovee to get our things." 'Atta girl.

She turned around and exited the ship via ramp, her braids bouncing with each step. As soon as she was out of view, Hailey was back at the control panel, leaning his head against it and pounding his fist on the wall with a groan.

"Music volume: high." He drawled, seriously exasperated with how long this was taking. Well, it's no use standing around doing nothing, He reminded himself, setting his jaw determinedly. Hailey blew a strand of blue hair out of his eyes, and returned to his work.

"Manual Control restored. Fly safely, Hailey Turner." The ship informed a few minutes later. Hailey fist-pumped. Maybe he could be a retriever like his dad.

oO0Oo

A/N

I've updated this slightly. It's been several months since I wrote it, so I went in and cleaned it up a bit. Please review, thanks!