Tim slammed the console with his fist. The robot’s LED eyes flickered and dimmed.

“Stupid, bot!” Tim shouted, “you were supposed to get us home.” Lorna put her hand on Tim’s shoulder. They alone had survived in the lifeboat. An accident they could only thank Tim’s misguided attempt to get Lorna alone for. The decompression happened too quick for anyone else to reach another lifeboat.

Lorna had done what she could to boost the lifeboat’s systems, but lifeboats weren’t meant to last a month, let alone three.

As a junior AI researcher, Tim was nearly useless. He’d been on board the ship to watch some new AI navigation tests. He’d tried to be useful in their current predicament, though, and re-program the standard issue robot probe to send a sub space signal, but it only seemed to contact the atmosphere-less ship. It would not or could not go beyond that. Tim was able to get data back from the ship, though, suggesting the systems were still intact even if the atmosphere wasn’t.

They would have tried to go back to the ship, but they had no space suits. Their only hope was a rescue.

“We’re gonna die out here,” Tim said to the robot.

The robot’s LEDs came alive again. “You were never meant to live.” The robot exploded, finishing what the navigation system started.