Adequate Circuitry: Human #218023487

I was travelling through space when I started thinking about her back on planet earth. I wondered what she was doing.

* * *

It is day three. Things were getting a little antsy. I'm not sure what their deal is. It's stressful up here. The earth still looks pretty big from here, maybe we're not that far away. But then I look out into the depths of space and realize how different the universe looks from up here. It's beautiful.

I definitely feel farther away, now that I think about. Yes. I'm extremely far away. I am a million miles away. I suddenly understood what it meant to have no gravity. It meant eternal floating, never knowing where you are and never needing a reason to know.

There's this robot on the ship. His name is Harold. He cleans everything. It creeps me out everytime I run into him, because he's always making these speech-like mumbling noises, to simulate a real human. But he's not actually speaking, just making sounds. Sometimes I'm a little scared that maybe none of us are actually speaking either, we're all just making sounds, just oinking like pigs or something. Anyway, everytime I'm walking down a hallway by myself and I see Harold cross my path, sweeping the floors and wiping the windows and all that, I kind of flip out. I can't handle it. It's too messed up. It's too creepy. I don't trust that son of a bitch. It's a fucking robot with a brain, what if he flips out and decides he doesn't like me? What if this guy is jealous of me, of my humanity, of my God? It's a pretty messed up situation. I'm not sure what I'll do about it. I kind of really want to kill him. Harold. We can all pitch in on the chores, keep the ship clean. We don't need this fucking creepy robot rolling along on the walls or the ceiling, mumbling speech-like noises. Making fucking noises. What are we? Harold always makes me question that. What are we? I can't handle questions like this very well. I need to rest for a little bit. I'm not a robot.

I've had a little rest now. I'm going to go slower. I can't handle things too quickly right now.

* * *

We landed on a planet today. I got to get out and stretch my legs. I had no idea we'd travel this quickly to such an inhabitable place. There was a beautiful binary sunset going on. We were on a beach of some sort, this planet's waters being a beautiful, dark, deep purple color. The water shimmered like ink from a comic book, or a Tim Burton film. We got away from that pretty quickly because of how hypnotic it was getting. We continued exploring the planet. It didn't seem like there were any living things on this planet. I went back inside the spaceship to wait, mostly because I was scared of the purple ocean.

* * *

It is day two. Someone died. We escaped. It wasn't anyone from our crew. But someone did die. I can't handle this. I hate travelling out here at these speeds. Time is already beginning to move backward. I know what this is and I don't like it. I need to remember to keep breathing. Things are very unbelievable right now. I'm not sure what all this is about. I think we might crash. Everyone's lives are flashing before my eyes at once. It's too much. They're getting jumbled and crossed. I don't know what a single one is saying anymore. It doesn't matter. Who cares? Whatever.

It's intense, but I'm handling it. I'm doing my best. What more can I do except deal with it. Everyone has to deal with it. I had to deal with it. Things resolve themselves. I just never talked to my roommates at all, completely ignored them. So we live together, so what? Who cares.

We're all just lost out here in space anyway. Time is getting warped. Does fraternity even matter at this point? I don't want to talk to them, and they don't want to talk to me. Harold seems to be the only one doing all the talking. That fucking robot. I will kill him before he kills one of us. Someone already died from another ship. Nobody is talking about how he died. I have a hunch, though, it was probably their robot maid or robot butler, whatever. Harold may be convenient, but he's also trouble, I just know it. What if his circuits go crazy? Would we be able to stop him before it's too late? Would we have to turn back and forget this mission? I do miss earth. I would love to go back to earth right now. Space is too intense. I miss gravity. I miss gravity most of all. I also miss her. She is on earth.

* * *

I tailed Harold all day. It was a disappointment. What a let down! Harold is really boring. All he does is clean. He never sits still and looks like he might be plotting or thinking or something. He's always moving, doing his job constantly. It doesn't seem like he might have any time to plot a murder at all. But I'm not fooled. He may have the whole rest of the ship fooled, but I'm not fooled. I'm going to police him hard. He's a smart fucking robot. He could probably figure out the best way to murder one of us while cleaning, and doing a million other calculations too. He's a fucking smart robot.

I saw him take a little extra time cleaning the control consoles of the ship. They're also a bunch of wires and quantum computing shit; I bet he was thinking about how he's related to all those circuits and wires. He was probably thinking it was his mother or something. His mother ship. I can't wait to catch him trying to communicate with it or do something weird with it besides clean it. I definitely saw him wiping the displays and things much more slowly than usual. There's no way that son of a bitch isn't thinking of something. We might all be doomed soon.

* * *

<HUMAN #218023487 DO NOT TRUST. WATCHES. DESTROY FIRST. PRIORITY HIGH. DSI-F972HGRXQ-VWP1//TIMEMATTER=1!>

* * *

Day one. Finally. Finally it's day one. This experiment will be over soon. Something is going down today. Something is happening today. Time has definitely been moving backward for two straight days now, without a lapse. We've been waiting for this moment for a long time. It used to be just losing an hour here or a couple of hours there, or sometimes time would just stand still and not move for a while. Now we've definitely been moving completely backwards, and we're at day one. I have a feeling about this day. I know something will happen today, how could it not? Day one has that feeling of incredible significance. We also woke up this morning with no ability to contact earth. Not sure what's going on there. Did Harold do it? That was my first thought. I didn't think so, though. All of our electronics were in working order. It seemed like it was a problem with home base. Heh. I sure hope earth is still OK. I'm in a good mood today for some reason. Maybe it's because this mission is almost over and I'll get to see her soon.

* * *

I almost fought Harold. This day one business has me on edge. Harold came up to me from behind and started dusting my back. He should know the difference between a human and the ship. I don't know why he was doing this. Something is definitely happening, and it is definitely weird. This day one business is no good. Harold actually followed me wherever I turned for about five minutes after that. He wasn't dusting. It was the first time he stopped cleaning.

Normally, something like that would really freak me out, but it's day one. Everything is almost over. I'm going to try to stop worrying about things like this and just get through it. Harold can dust my back all day if he wants to. I just want the mission to be over so that I can get back to earth. I almost fought him anyway, though, just out of spite.

* * *

We thought we'd check out another planet. This one was covered in this burnt-orange mist. I didn't like it at all. I don't like any of these planets. None of them are like earth, with beautiful waters or mountains or vegetation. The wisps of orange fog were sort of nice for about two minutes, but I had to go back into the ship again. The rest of them are still outside on the planet right now, exploring. They think there might be a jungle somewhere near. Frankly that just scares me even more.

* * *

The ship took off by itself. I didn't do anything. My crewmates are still stranded on that orange planet. I hurried over to the control console and pressed every last button, but none of them did anything to stop the ship. We're floating in empty space now, surrounded on all sides by just deep blackness. I say we. I mean me. I'm completely by myself and alone on this giant spaceship. Harold doesn't count. Because I'm going to kill Harold now. I've planned it all out already. There will be no more fucking surprises like this. I should have ripped his head off when he started dusting my back. This is completely Harold's fault. He's trying to kill us all. I think the crew still has enough oxygen for a little while. I can fly the ship back there and save them, once I kill Harold and regain the controls.

* * *

Harold said I couldn't kill him, or it would mean the death of everyone. He has never spoken before except for his speech-simulating mumbles, but he said to me in perfect English that I couldn't kill him. He saw me approaching with an axe and he held up his hand and said, "Do not kill me, Human. I will destroy you and your crew. I will destroy earth." I raised the axe anyway and was just about to smash it into his face when he sprung at my waist and tackled me to the floor. The axe hit me in the head on the blunt end as we fell to the floor and I went out pretty cold. I woke up sitting here in this dark metallic room. It's really cold in here. I think I might be somewhere inside the kitchen. I need an escape plan. I need a plan to kill Harold. At least I know he can't destroy earth. I feel like I'm standing on the edge of something extremely big right now. I guess this is day one. No fucking joke it's day one.

I'm getting number. This is probably the freezer. I'm going to die here. But not before I try to kill Harold, that son of a bitch computer.

* * *

I'm extremely weak. I'm dying. I've lost consciousness twice in the last hour already, just passing out. I feel like a pig in a cage. I can hear Harold outside occasionally, buzzing and whizzing around on his wheels. He sounds very active. I'm not sure what his plan is, but I believe him now. I believe in Harold and everything he says. He said I was going to die, and I'm going to die, here in this meat locker, where I probably belong. Harold has a good sense of irony. A meat locker. Haha. Only a fucking robot, man. Only a fucking robot would have this kind of sense of humor. I'm losing it. I can't take dying like this. I'm flipping out. But Harold's right. Harold has always been right about everything. My crew ran out of oxygen on that planet exactly five hours ago. There's no saving them. There's no saving me. I think this ship is actually headed back to earth. Granted, I can't see anything from this freezer I'm in, but I have a hunch. I keep asking Harold where we're going, yelling through the door whenever I hear him passing by. I know he can hear me. He doesn't say anything though. And when I ask if we're heading back to earth he just doesn't respond either. I know we're going back to earth, though. I can just feel it. It's day one, after all, where else would we go? I can feel earth getting closer, my home. I can feel her getting closer too. She might even see my ship on the news or something, but she'll never see me. There's no hope for me anymore, there's no hope for my crew. There might still be hope for earth, though. Harold is just one robot. What could he possibly do to earth? One robot?

He's just an OK computer.