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“We have to go.” A firm voice said. “Now.” Three walked into the room to see one of the adult colonists arguing with one of the adolescent colonists.
“No! I won’t leave him.” The young colonist yelled, tears were starting to fall from their eyes. “He’s family,” they pleaded. The adult colonist sighed and Three could see tears forming in their eyes as well.
“I know, I’m sorry,” They said. “But we don’t have time to look for him. We have to go.” They grabbed the younger colonist by the arm and dragged them from the room. Both were crying.
“Friday!” The adolescent cried out. “Friday, come here boy! Here, kitty!” they hiccupped and continued to call for their cat as they were guided down the hallway towards the loading dock.
“There is a domesticated fauna that is unaccounted for.” Three pushed into the team feed along with a short video of the two colonist.
“We’ll keep an eye out Three, thank you.” Iris responded over the feed. “Peri, how far away is the storm.”
“The weather patterns indicate that the low pressure system will reach the colony site in under two hours.” Peri responded instantly.
“Thank you Peri.” Seth answered in the team feed. “We will look for the cat, but the priority is evacuating the colonists.” Three felt it’s insides do something funny. It continued patrolling the facility and helping colonists evacuate. Every so often it would stop and adjust the filters on it’s eyes to look for the cat.
“Update, the low pressure system has accelerated. We have 30 minutes to complete the evacuation.” Peri came over the colony speakers an hour later. All around Three, there was a flurry of activity. It did one final patrol of its designated area in the habitat and headed to the shuttle. As it rounded the corner, it could see there was a group of people huddled around the airlock.
“Please continue evacuating. All conversations can resume inside the shuttle.” Three said, attempting to disperse the crowd. As people moved out of the way, it could see 1.0 and what appeared to be a small domesticated fauna clutched to its head.
“Friday!” The young colonist Three had seen earlier cried out reaching for the fauna. It hissed at the child.
“Please continue evacuating.” 1.0 said dryly. It seemed to not even notice the cats claws sunk into its skull. It herded the last colonists as well as Three and the last of the humans onto the shuttle. As soon as the airlock cycled, Peri lifted off the ground and shot the vehicle into the atmosphere.
“I thought you didn’t care for fauna” Three said as it stood with 1.0 and the cat. It was very relieved that 1.0 found the cat. It had not wanted to leave it.
“I don’t.” 1.0 replied. It looked directly at Three and said, "but no one gets left behind."