[ WP ] You are the ( lone ? ) occupant of a colossal station drifting from star to star .

`` Systems check,'' I ordered through the crackling speaker, and a series of beeps confirmed my fears. 
 
 `` Do we have a seal?'' I asked tentatively, strangely hopeful. A whir as the robot considered the problem, then a low beep -- negative. 
 
 I took off the headset and leaned back in the orthopedic chair, hands going through my hair hypnotically. A questing boop issued from the headset and I put the mouthpiece back on, `` Yeah come on back Hell.'' I stopped and licked my lips, `` Great job buddy.'' 
 
 I cursed myself silently. Thanking a damn robot, was I that lonely already? It'd only been a year since Tantalus station. `` Wake up Asp while you're down there,'' I groused into the speaker, perhaps a tad harsher than I meant to. 
 
 Asp was the SSE for this mission, and I'd need him to assess the airlock. From my station I could tell everything from pressurization to solar consumption, but what I did n't have was a pair of eyes -- or even a damn space suit for walks. The chambers were meant to fail, one by one, until all that was left was my cockpit. One guy alone did n't require alot of space and the capsule needed to conserve energy until we reached Cerberus, where it would be reoutfitted and made hospitable enough for a sizable crew. 
 
 The problem with B-Side was even after I siphoned off all the air into my living space -- getting high off the extra oxygen cause hey why not, -- the compartment still occasionally flooded oxygen back in -- and ruined my high. This by itself would n't have been nearly so bad had C-Side not sprung a leak a fourth of the way through the mission. I was losing air, not enough to dent my reserves, but just enough to give me and Asp a headache. 
 
'Can robots get headaches?' I wondered, but all this thought served to do was immediately darken my mood.'Of course robots do n't get headaches, what the fuck is the matter with you?' 
 
 I tended to `` talk'' about myself in the second person alot lately. Maybe I'd ask Apo whether getting high off of oxygen could give you brain damage. 
 
 Beeping streamed from my headset. `` Hey Asphodel, did Hell let you in on the details?'' Asp's familiar high pitch lowered significantly. `` No, well that's alright. I'm going to walk you through the details, but first I need you to get to B-Side...'' I hesitated. `` Hey and Asp?'' I asked the robot politely, `` Could you take the long way around?'' Affirmative. 
 
 I opened the cockpits visor to the depths of space, that infinite void, and watched gleefully as Asp slid across the screen with sinuous metal arms on a magnetic track. I could have looked out into the nether as often as I wanted, but this was a real treat, you did n't always need an SSE for routine maintenance.
