“Houston, we have a problem,” Aeri heard Jake say but as usual it took her couple of seconds to realise that they indeed had a problem. She never understood why Jake used figures of speech featuring places that didn’t exist.

“What is it, Jake?” She asked and checked again the watch. He had been in the space for 15 minutes now and she knew that the risks of him being out there were increasing exponentially.

“A few bolts came loose. I think I need a screwdriver to tighten them.” She could hear Jake say through the crackling in the intercom. He needed a spanner.

“OK, come in now. It’s been 17 minutes,” she was not going to explain to him the difference between the screwdriver and a spanner.

“Can I repair it?”

“Yes,” she said in order for him to come in. She would argue with him later. Aeri wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let him repair it since he truly had no idea which tool he needed.

It took Jake several minutes to come in.

“How are you feeling?” She greeted him when he finally joined her in the cockpit.

“Fine, you worry too much,” he dismissed her. He sat down in the co-pilot chair. He always felt it looked exactly like inside of a plane. Sometimes he wondered if Aeri didn’t model the cabin according to one movie he liked as a child. She had tendencies to make things look exactly the way she wanted.

“You humans are fragile. Just look at you.”

Jake looked at himself but all he could see was a young man. He mentally compared himself to some of the humans he met at the mining colonies and he had to admit he was fitter than most his age. And cleaner.

“We are not that fragile. We just grow and age and die,” he looked Aeri into her beautiful eyes. They were yellow, the same colour like the moon. She looked mainly human. She always looked beautiful to him, no matter what hair or eyes she wore. Most of the time, she had long blue hair. Today it was green to match her eyes. She didn’t look a day older than when she picked him up as a child in one of the countless mining colonies scattered on the other side of the galaxy. Now, she looked couple years his junior.

“So, where do we keep the screwdriver?” He asked casually.

“We don’t,” she shrugged her shoulders, watching the endless space in front of them.

“Why?” He asked, but immediately regretted his question. Instead of an answer, Aeri simply lifted her hand. He watched how her index finger slowly transformed into a screwdriver. Of course, she didn’t keep any tools around, she didn’t need them.

“But you will need a spanner, see?” Her index finger changed into a spanner, which was exactly what he needed. She started to chuckle when she saw his face.

“Don’t worry, I will get you some tools,” she said the same half-mocking way she always talked to him when he brooded as a child.

“I’m not five anymore, you know. It’s been 20 years now,” he spat, only to realise he was just proving her point. Aeri started to laugh openly.

Jake decided to keep quiet. He knew that to Aeri he would always be just a child. She didn’t see time the same way as humans did.

Then, after a while he said: “We humans, at least we have our creativity.”

Aeri stopped to laugh. In her existence, she never created anything — only copied the things she saw. Jake was immediately sorry, he could see the pain in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, that was too much,” he tried to apologise, but Aeri just dismissed him.

“There are some tools in the back, if you want to try,” she said absently. Jake knew he was being dismissed. He nodded and left her there. He would create something for her, something she would really love later on.

“You might be creative, but at least we didn’t destroy our own planet,” Aeri whispered into the empty cabin.