Whistling lowly, the tune of which didn't really travel too far in the small room; darkened only save the lights which were coming from what screens were active, the Weyland-Yutani logo flash fading rather lifelessly on the otherwise black screen. There were no other sounds really, other than the whistling, and the quiet typing of keys. There weren't many keyboards present in the room, there was a main one, which was linked to the main system onboard.

"That's time wasting." Mother stated from overhead.

Walter stopped typing and stared at the screen before blinking and looking upwards. He leaned back in his seat, the leather creaked a little, and the seat itself tilted on an axis as his eyes stared at the dark ceiling above him. "I believe it's called background noise." He corrected the ever present AI. He crossed his hands across his stomach, the dark grey hoodie jumper he wore was soft under his hands as his legs stretched out under the desk. The computer system in front of him went into dark standby mode as it was now being ignored in favour of talking to the onboard system. "People tend to do it to pass the time, or get rid of an awkward atmosphere." Walter titled his head and looked around, the bridge was quiet then. The only noise was his whistling and typing fingers, now there was nothing. It was otherworldly really, ethereal even; the fact that he was the lone being awake and walking the corridors. It had been this way for just over a month now. Walter was used to it. It didn't affect him being alone, he liked being around people, sure, who didn't? But unlike people, loneliness didn't affect him.

"You have plenty to do, to pass the time."

Walter just continued to stare upwards, not moving and not blinking. "I suppose," he agreed, begrudgingly. He did, granted, programming in cycles for charging had just been finished, or rather that was what he was in the process of finishing now. The living quarters were already furnished, no point assigning rooms to the different crew members, they'd choose their own spaces when they got here. The hypersleep chambers, Walter had individually programmed with crew stats to the best of his ability from the records and files he was given. He had plotted in the time in which they were expected to go to sleep, and the automatic time in which they were meant to wake up. Everything, every little thing like that had been done in fine, close detail to the best of Walter's ability. Which basically meant that it was as good as done as possible.

In truth, though Mother said he had plenty to do to waste time, Walter actually didn't. Most of the equipment was already loaded, minor luggage hadn't been, some of the heavier machinery was still missing in action. But honestly, they were probably still prepping that. Every so often Walter would see someone in the hangar, the ship itself was being housed in a huge building. Impossibly huge, in fact, it would take an effort to get it out of here for its take off. But where there was a will there is a way. Walter never doubted human creativity and ingenuity for a moment. Whereas he got the ship ready internally, people who were busying this mission along got everything else ready. Official things, documentations, fuel, external maintenance checks. Sometimes Walter would admittedly stand near one of the large windows and watch them pottering around. They were all so focussed, and here Walter was losing focus.

Boredom, or what he presumed boredom was and could be would be this. Just sitting in silence, or just walking about looking over the ship, it was fantastic. Honestly, a little part of him did feel slightly privileged to be able to serve on here. He sometimes walked the corridors looking in each room he passed with a curious look sent around it before moving on. He swore there were more rooms here than needed, but then what did he know really? He knew the mission objectives, and he also knew there were going to be plenty of people on this ship soon enough.

With that thought in mind, Walter decided he better go and check over the room where they were going to be housed, that was perhaps the simplest term for it. The colonists were going to sleep elsewhere then being transported here. Though, yes, there were the means to put everyone into the induced sleep needed to travel, it was just easier to do it in one elsewhere, where there were more medical people present to make sure everything went okay, apart from just Walter.

Considering the amount of colonists which were going to be present, the room was perhaps the largest onboard. High ceilinged and long, there were positions for chambers to be stacked above each other, either single file or side by side. Either way, there was plenty of room for them all. Plus there was a small chest cabinet near the door which would be used to house the embryos which were frozen in a circular resin like material for preservation. Walter was under no illusion: some would perish. In fact, some of the colonists may too. Putting pressure, such pressure as sleeping for a long period of time, took a toll on the human body and mind. He didn't quite know how everyone would cope, if that happened. Cross that bridge if and when it appeared. Considering for the most part Walter would be on his own for most of the journey, he would probably be the one to sort this out, if it happened.

Hearing movement, he backtracked, hands tucked behind his back as he looked around with a confused expression. Seeing uniformed men, he tilted his head, "Hello." He said quietly, yet politely. They seemed a little startled from him suddenly appearing, yet they lowered the equipment they were carrying. Walter padded over and looked down at the sphere like item, it was small, in the sense of height; it only came to his knees, yet the width of it was wide. Within, and under the glass dome, was soil, and within this soil was greenery. He looked up, "I shall help you," he easily managed to lift the thing up while it took two men to do so. "Follow me." He presumed that more would follow suit and bring more on, and these two would hook this up to the things needed to keep the plant life within alive. Water, faux sunlight, oxygen, Walter would leave them to it while helping the others.

The room which was kept aside for the plants was smaller, slightly cosy really. Walter placed the dome down and side stepped to let the men in, once all were installed, it would be quite an interesting little garden. A garden in space. Walter blinked several times and looked to the side when one of the men seemed to step close to him, all the while rummaging through his pockets.

With no words exchange, he handed him an envelope. Walter looked at it, the white of the paper seemed rather bright in the darkened room. Considering there were no plants yet in here, the lighting had been stuck on low. He just nodded his silent thanks and turned to exit the room. They didn't need him standing over them, he passed a few other people carrying domes of different sizes. So, he may have said he would help, he would...until he was presented with something with his name scrawled on it.

He walked into the bridge, not actually having his own space. Why would a synthetic need a room? He sat down at one of the chairs and wheeled it over to the main table stretching the room. Placing the envelope down, he looked at it with a frown. He had never received anything before, sure, he knew he needed to open the envelope, but the not knowing of what was inside stopped him. The low light which was coming from the table, shone up and through the envelope. A letter. He could see a letter, and...something else.

Walter looked up when there was a bang and cursing, he leaned in his chair and tried to spy the corridor. Not seeing anything he stayed like that for a moment before sitting back again and picking the envelope up. He presumed one of the men had accidentally injured themselves. Not that anyone would want to purposely injure themselves when installing small biodomes, surely?

Tearing open the envelope, Walter pulled the paper out. His eyes skimmed over the neat writing before actually fully reading, and paying attention to the words written there;

'Walter,

Letters seem like such a lost form of communication. But I have no other way to contact you. By now we have been apart for what, a month? A month and a half? Not that I'm counting...(I might be counting), but by now, also, you should have some random people trying, and most likely failing, to install and take care of the domes - please, Walter, please make sure they do it right...Not that I'm paranoid or anything...

I need to ask you a favour, look after these. Knowing you, you're probably going to scrutinise. I want to grow flowers in space, it's probably ridiculous to you; but, think of it as an experiment. The plants already being installed are already on their way. This will be from seeds.

I will be extremely grateful, Walter!

...You're missed a lot, just so you know...And, well, see you soon, I guess?

Love,

Onora.'

Walter tipped the envelope to the side and gently tapped the paper to his palm. He watched the seeds fall out into his palm, he turned them over with a fingertip. They seemed so small, so fragile. His eyes flitted up and towards the plant room, yet from such little things great things could grow. Turning his hand, he placed the seeds back in. Folding and tucking the envelope up, he turned it in his hand before slipping it into his pocket. There was perhaps nowhere safer, where he could keep an eye on them, than on his person until Onora appeared to collect them from him.

----

(A/N: Sorry for super delay. Just, yeah, I was actually half tempted to just quit writing altogether really.)