It, however, felt very empty. Very quiet. Eerily silent. I held my book closer.

I glanced down halls, turned around corners, looked into some empty classrooms.

"This is...weirdly lonely."

"Is anyone here?"

I whispered to myself to keep me company.

I managed to make it to the front lobby of the school.

"Nine?" I said a little bit louder.

I went down the path that took me to the library. I wondered if he was back there studying. The light was still on. I grabbed the handle and opened it carefully. Only a few satellites. I closed the door and went back to the lobby. He still wasn't there. I went down the hallways again, still some scattered satellites here and there, but still he wasn't there.

I made it to the back of the school again and took a peak outside. For a second, I thought it was another communications sat, but I noticed his specific one solar array that had been illuminated by the interior lighting. His figure from the back of him looked recognizeable enough for me to knew it was him.

"Nine?" I said.

He turned around, "Oh, hey Clipper! Haven't seen ya in a little."

Oh thank stars it was him! I stepped out of the building, "Oh, I was just outside. It was empty inside, so, I was wondering where you were at."

"Oh, yeah, I heard something about a graduation party, but, I don't know where it is. Figured I'd just stay out here." Ah, that explains it. I don't know what a party would be like, but I wasn't too interested.

I walked over to him, "Oh, uhm, here's your book." I handed it to him.

"Oh, thank you," He gently took it from my hands, "I hoped ya liked it."

I nodded, giving him a minute smile, "It was...it was very nice."

I looked up at the faint stars, "So, uh, what are you doing out here if it's so dark?"

"As long as the lights in the building are on, I can get some power. Just thought I'd try to stargaze for a little."

I sat down on the edge of the concrete stairs near the sidewalk, "I can barely see anything."

"Yeah," he was melancholic, "there's a lot of light pollution here." He looked over to the glowing streets and cars. "It wasn't this bad back in my cleanrooms. I kinda miss the view." He sat down with me.

"I'm sorry for that, Nine."

"It's alright. At least it's good to know I'll be up there some day." We were looking up halfway to our zenith.

"So that's...that's really space?" I asked, with my widened curious eyes.

"Yeah, and out there is everyone else."

To think that there were spacecraft of my kind somewhere in that large, empty sky. And somewhere out there was Jupiter.

"What do you think it's like up there?" I leaned towards him.

"I have no idea. I'd reckon that anyone who just launched would feel nothing but free, and that fresh, pure unfiltered solar energy would feel just right. But who knows? It's differen't for everyone, ain't it?"

"Yeah...I guess. I don't know."

"Just take it one Earth-day at a time, Clipper. Anyways, you should probably head back to your cleanroom. It's getting late and you ain't got any solar arrays at all."

I stood up while he was still sitting on the steps, "Alright." I extended my hand out for a shake, "Er, handshake?"

"Sure thing," he grasped it and shook it gently, "Goodnight, Clipper."

"Goodnight, Nine."

I let go of his robotic hand and turned my back against him, walking back into the building. I took one final look at him and thought about him. Such a sweet spacecraft. Either to have such a kind bot sort of guide you through your first days of being alive in this strange world, to slowly familiarize yourself, was a common thing, or the chances found me to be very lucky. Whatever it was, it made me smile when I left.

The school was still empty, and still quiet, with some faint pitter-patter of robotic feet and the echoing vents overhead on the ceiling. The lobby was still as empty as when I first came in the school. I could clearly see the reflection of the tile floor on the windows of the front doors. It was still as dark as it was when I came in, but luckily not too dark to look like it would be a risky idea to make it all the way to my cleanroom. I pushed the door open and went back along the path I took to get here in the first place. Only now was it empty and still. No birds, no sunlight, no visible clouds, no chirping. They had all gone to sleep, and this was their resting state.

I got to the facility that housed my cleanroom. There was just a numberpad next to a locked metal sliding door. I could still easily remember the code my engineers gave me just before I left. I put my face closer to the numpad to make out the numbers in the dim lighting from a nearby lamp. I pressed my finger on a button, then another, then a couple more, pressed enter, and heard the sliding doors unlock and open.

I stepped in and came back to the similarly isolated hall just outside my cleanroom. My cleanroom was the giant airlock door to my left. I put in the same code in the same model of numberpad to the left of the door, and this time there was only a ding from the speakerbox just over it. I grabbed a handle on the airlock and pushed it to my left, stepped in the cleanroom, and shut it tight. The second airlock door opened for me, and I was back to the same room in which I woke up. Not an object missplaced.

I walked back to the scaffolding I stood up from, and did the reverse of what my engineers taught me. I sat back in the space of the scaffolding, grabbed a nearby cable, and gently connected it to one of the batteries on my side. My software read that it was delivering power to me as intended, and after that little internal message, I stared at the wall in front of me.

Then I shut my eyes.