Data

Once the hard data was processed, its interpretation took very little time. There were no ships coming for removal or harvesting; nothing that was stored in their drives and digital archive could justify the risk such a ship would be taking to venture near. Their tiny sun would falter in a cyclone of collapse, then blaze, and they would be no more. In the finite days, they abolished rationing and drank the stronghold dry of its cache pods and mobility fuel. The droids powered up, reported for the last time on their missions, and rushed out to the edges of what was known to explore while they could. A few abandoned stasis in favor of “going maximum”, and allowed their circuits to overload out in the far away pockets of green and blue and brown. 13T13 re-established the broadband comm net and they shared scans and measures, historical files, and analyses that intrigued like stories told around a campfire. On the final day, they moved to the retrieval pad (used so often for drops and transports) and extended its vast solar array. It was 61Z29 who voluntarily tethered itself to the unit on its north side and the others followed suit, connecting in a single circle. 61Z29 removed encryption and uploaded an audio file (the song a gift from another dying world, long dark) and they raised their optics in unison, listening to “Nessun Dorma”, waiting for the light to come one last and perfect time.