Chapter 12: First Impressions

“Well.. that certainly is a start…” the boy said, “please tell me they’re at least more useful than just another helping hand.”

“Haha… you’re not going to believe this,” she laughed nervously, “but he’s a robot. An ALTO actually, if you know what that is…”

“An ALTO?!” the boy suddenly exclaimed, his eyes lighting up, “as in like, the Autonomous Lunar Terrain Observer? The last robot that NASA built before they got decommissioned?” 

“Y-yeah…” she murmured, overwhelmed by his sudden enthusiasm, “how did you know? When I tried to search up information about them online, I couldn’t find anything about them.”

“Ha! That’s because you’re searching online,” the boy said, “the real juicy information comes from the history textbooks — not the ones part of the curriculum of course, but the ones outside of it can easily be found in the library.”

Ah, the library, of course… she sheepishly thought to herself as she wondered why she didn’t consider looking for information there.

“But anyway,” the boy continued, “you said you have one? Where is it? And where’s your support drone?”

“Well, this floor is classified as a study hall, so I can’t bring him over here,” she reminded him, “he’s back in the workshop I rented out on the 31st floor. As for my support drone… his insides kinda got dissolved so he’s currently being repaired at the moment. I don’t really want to get into the details because it’s a long story but… yeah”

“Ah yes, I hate when the insides of my support drone get dissolved,” he sarcastically joked, “I’m a little curious how that happened but I’m much more curious about seeing the ALTO right now.”

“Right now?” Celia asked, “shouldn’t you at least finish your lecture first? I would assume this stuff is important to our mission.”

The boy’s head flips back to the screen, seemingly having forgotten about it previously as he stared at it with a blank expression. The professor-drone had been continuously giving the lesson regardless of the conversation Celia and the boy were having, and now the lecture was on a part that contained things the boy didn’t understand.

“Too late for that it seems,” he shrugged, “I’ll just pick it up in the textbook. Let’s just go see the ALTO for now.”

She was about to nod, but then stopped herself.

“Wait,” she sternly said, her face becoming serious, “I just want to make sure we set some rules and boundaries first.”

“What do you mean?” the boy asked.

“Well for starters, you were very rude to me in the beginning,” she explained, “if you’re going to keep acting unreasonably rude and angsty with me I’d rather not work with you at all. If we’re going to work together on this, I have to know that one: you’re cooperative and two: that you’re willing to stick to this project until the end. If you can’t agree to either one of these, then you can count me out. And at the very least introduce yourself; we can’t work together if I don’t know your name.”

The boy took a deep breath and a guilty expression formed on his face.

“Sorry about how I acted at the start,” he apologized, “I’m not usually like that… it’s just that people keep coming in here just to ‘see what the class looks like’, like I’m some sort of exhibit or something… Usually it’s not too big of a problem since the only thing that matters to me is that I’m learning, but they’ll sometimes try to get a response out of me and that becomes both very annoying and very distracting. That’s why I tried to ignore you at the start, but when you called out to me, I was trying to get you to leave… I didn’t know you were actually serious about this whole thing, and to be honest even now I’m feeling kind of doubtful.”

Oh… she realized, I didn’t even consider that possibility… I thought he was just having a bad day, but now he seems a lot more reasonable…

“The thing is,” he continued, “I really really want to believe you right now. I’ve always wanted to build a rocket ever since I was young and I even transferred over to this school because none of the colleges back in my home country have an Aerospace Engineering course available. If you’re serious about all of this, then I’m going to be serious about it too, and I’m also going to hold you accountable to your own words, so no quitting on me either ok?”

Celia nodded firmly and the boy’s furrowed expression brightened up a little.

“Good,” he says, “my name is Hikaru by the way. Hikaru Fujimori. And this here is Kyomi, my support drone.”

“Kyomi…” she murmured, “that’s a cute name! My name is Celia Reiss.”

“Haha yeah, I named her after my black cat who passed away a few years ago,” he explained, “the name means ‘void’ in my native language except with a different vowel at the end because I mispronounced her name when I named her back when I was little. It’s also why her design is similar to a black cat.”

Kyomi looked up at Celia with her big, yellow eyes; the only thing that was visible on its pitch black body.

“But enough about that, let’s go see your ALTO,” he said, packing up his things as he climbed up the steps of the ginormous lecture hall.

As they were about to leave, Celia looked back at the professor-drone who was still teaching at the front of the classroom, completely oblivious to the fact no one was left in the room.

“Uh, is it ok to leave it like that?” she asked as Hikaru headed out the door with Kyomi following closely behind him.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” he assured her, “that thing has lectures pre-programmed into it, so it’ll keep talking regardless of whether or not you’re paying attention. It’s not a very efficient method, but it’s not like they have any reason to improve it.”

“Must be a tough class huh?” she said.

“I try my best,” he replied.

As they take the elevator back down to the 31st floor, Hikaru suddenly asks, “so what did you name the ALTO?”

Celia slowly turned her head towards him and pursed her lips in a sheepish expression before quietly murmuring, “Alto…”

“You named the ALTO… Alto…?” he asked.

She nodded her head slowly.

“You’re not very good at naming things are you?” he asked, “now I’m curious what your support drone’s name is.”

“...Tabby…” she murmured in an even quieter voice, “...because he helps me keep tabs on what I’m doing…”

Hikaru gave her a deadpan stare as he covered his mouth and held his breath to keep himself from laughing.

“It’s ok, you can laugh,” she sighed, as he bursted into uncontrollable laughter.

The rest of the short elevator ride felt like it took forever, as she took notice of how quiet Kyomi was.

She doesn’t really say much does she? Celia pondered, it’s almost like a real cat. Support drones mimic the personality of their companions to a certain degree, so maybe Hikaru generally doesn’t talk much without others around.

After the doors of the elevator opened, Celia guides the two of them to her workshop where they find Alto patiently waiting outside the door. When Hikaru saw him he gasped in awe like he had just seen a celebrity.

“Wow…” he murmured, quickly running up to him, “it really is an ALTO…”

“Greetings, my name is Alto, and my mission is to land on the moon,” Alto methodically introduced himself.

“HE EVEN HAS THE PROGRAMMED GREETING!!!” Hikaru excitedly shouted, his legs shaking as if he was tempted to start jumping up and down before Celia tapped his shoulder to calm him.

“Sorry,” he apologized, getting a hold of himself before turning back to Alto, “it’s just that I finally got to see something back from that era in real life. Most things from that time period were either destroyed by the hurricane or hidden away by the government… where did you even find him anyway?”

“Just in the city landfills,” she said, “I found him during my last expedition there to collect pieces of scrap for the metal synthesizer. It’s also why Tabby isn’t here with me right now.”

“You trespassed into the city landfills?!” he exclaimed a bit too loudly, “isn’t that illegal?”

“It. Is. And that’s why it would be beneficial for the both of us if you didn’t go shouting it out loud,” she snapped at him, looking around to make sure no one had heard him, “besides, the project we’re working on is illegal too. Don’t tell me you’re not okay with a little law breaking.”

“No, no, I just think it’s cool that’s all,” he said, “you’re a lot braver than me that’s for sure. I was planning to build a rocket anyway, but breaking the law was the one thing that made me hold back on it.”

A lot braver than you huh? She thought to herself, at least you’re brave enough to follow through with taking the Aerospace Engineering course. I don’t think I ever would’ve been brave enough to chase after my dreams if I never met Alto.

“Uhh, excuse me you two,” Alto suddenly interrupted them, “but you haven’t introduced me to him yet.”

“I’m Hikaru Fujimori and this is my support drone Kyomi,” he said pointing at himself and then his drone, “I was told I’m needed for my knowledge on how to build a rocket?” 

Alto nodded. 

“Yes,” he said, “I already come with the capabilities of taking a rocket to space, so we just need the rocket built.” 

“Great!” Hikaru said, “then I suppose you two already have a plan of action?” 

Celia and Alto looked at each other nervously as Hikaru facepalmed.

"We can definitely work on that," he said, "but first let's come up with a plan."