Sheldon inhaled deeply, smelling the metallic scent that only comes after a heavy rain. The first thing he noticed when he walked out his front door was the two bright, full moons. One was perfectly spherical and larger, standing over the next. The other was smaller and lopsided. Vera and Ergo danced over the horizon so close together that they were almost kissing.

  They were a stark contrast against the violet sky, now that the stars were hidden in the morning twilight. Last night brought the first serious storm he had experienced in his seven months on this alien world. He took a sip of his lukewarm coffee and bit into the dry biscuit leftover from the day before, waiting for the sun to fully rise before starting the day. His sleep last night had been a deep relaxing slumber. For as long as he could remember the pittering of rain had always helped him get a good night's rest. Eleanor was the complete opposite in that sense when it came to storms. Nothing had scared her more than a raging storm, in her words “-pure terrifying, natural chaos that can tear away life in an instant.”

  The last night they had been together, she had woken him up in the middle of the night because of an unexpected storm. Tears streamed down her face illuminated by the distant lightning strikes. In two more months she would give birth to a little girl, their first child. The idea of being a father felt more surreal than being on this unknown planet. Sheldon thought about El more and more each week, her absence in his life left a deep void in his heart and the lonely monotony of each day was slowly eroding at him. Soon though, they would be reunited and could live a peaceful life far away from the pollution and dangers of Earth.

  Pulling out his electronic recorder, he played the latest message she sent. “Hey baby, just wanted to check in. I felt our little girl kicking last night. I wish you were here with me. Even though we’re so far apart I wanted to let you know I love you and no matter how far apart we are we'll always be together.”

  The sun peered slightly above the distant mountains. He gulped down the last remaining bit of the now cold, nasty coffee and tossed his organic cup toward the trash bin. It bounced off the rim and landed on the porch, revealing his poor eyesight to the new world.

  A familiar silver head bobbed hurriedly towards the trash. Extending one of its tarnished metal hands, Rudy picked up the cup and slammed it into the garbage. The small engine inside its chest disturbed the peaceful quiet with a slight but constant rumbling. Its humanoid shape used to bother Sheldon but now he found it a friendly comfort in this strange place. The android had cost Sheldon a small fortune, but it proved itself invaluable time and time again. In the short period since they had arrived its once brand new white paint was now covered in dozens of scratches and rust.

  Sheldon sighed and called out. “Rudy! Any significant damages from the storm last night?”

  The bot turned and faced him, its singular glowing blue eye had some sort of green moss growing around the outskirts of it. A monotonous voice emerged from its dull speaker. “Hello, sir. A tree was knocked over by the heavy winds, smashing into one of our storehouses and there was some hail damage on two of our solar panels. How is your morning going so far?"

  "Good. Which storehouse was it?" Sheldon scratched his chin. If one of the more important storehouses was damaged it could set them back months.

  “Storehouse E. That is good sir. Why not take the day off and enjoy yourself”

  Of all the storehouses, that was the only empty one. “Don’t scare me like that again, you lil’ punk. There’s no sleep for the wicked my friend. How are the crops doing?"

  “ .2% are completely destroyed and .7% have recoverable damage.”

  Not too bad, considering that was the only major storm since he had arrived. Scientific data from the various satellites indicated he was likely to lose 10-30% of his crops per year. Pouring over the AI predictive analytics of ORACLE satellites helped ease his mind at night. Although the decision to homestead on a new planet was scary, they both agreed it was a better alternative than letting their kid get drafted into the Fourth World War, or getting some form of cancer from the pollution that plagued Earth. “Okay Rudy, let's tag team this. You grab the equipment and load it onto my bike and we’ll start on the solar panels.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend that sir.” The cooling fan on the back of Rudy's head whirred louder than usual. Cleaning the android would be his next task after fixing the weather damages. “ I recommend splitting up, the builder drones and I will take care of the storehouse more efficiently without worrying about human safety while you take care of the solar panels.” Sheldon thought for a moment before responding. Rudy was usually right but he also didn't usually make suggestions unless asked.

  “Okay that’s acceptable. Let’s rendezvous here around 1.” His friend sprinted off to the east where the storehouse was. Sheldon loaded up his supplies and took off on his electric hoverbike to the panels. The storehouse was a little farther than the solar panels but Rudy had outrun his bike every time they raced.

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  He sped over the green terraformed hills between the house and the solar panels. The solar panels looked like a black checkered blanket at the edge of his land. Upon arriving, he could see the alien wastes. On the other side of the translucent energy barrier, the beautiful green gave way to the haunting red flora that are natural to this planet. It had tall red spires that resembled earth trees in shape, except for the long tentacles drooping down from their branches. Like venus fly traps when something touched them, the tentacles would writhe around the assailant strangling herbivores and robotic loggers alike. Most of the native plants and animals of the world had yet to be documented, so their dangers were almost completely unknown. The only thing between him and the outside was a six foot tall energy barrier that surrounded the entire estate.

  "Okay, let's get this over with." Two of the twenty had been damaged. Looking closely at the panels, he saw that the glass had a few scratches and cracks, but it wasn't too serious. Rudy habitually exaggerated things, but that was better than the alternative. He opened the pack on his bike and pulled out his tools. Gently rolling out some laminate film over the first panel, he made sure to get all the wrinkles out with a small squeegee and then applied it using a small solar powered heat gun.

  All this time spent learning how to homestead and just surviving left him with little time to think about being a father. He needed to start remembering to read those parenting books Elenor kept recommending him. Hopefully once she got there, he’d be able to slow down a little and focus on being a parent. After about an hour, both panels were done, and while not perfect, the repair should hold up for quite a while.

  A twig broke a couple of yards away from him, shattering the morning silence and dragging him from his thoughts. A bright yellow builder drone stood eerily still in front of him. It was similar to Rudy's humanoid shape except it was several feet taller, standing just over nine feet tall. Instead of having an artificial intelligence it was remotely piloted by either Sheldon or Rudy. Its eyes were flashing yellow, a sign of critical internal failure.

  “Rudy! Status report. Why are you bringing this drone to me without radioing first?” Silence. “Rudy!” The two stood motionless making eye contact for several seconds. Sheldon slowly walked backwards towards the bike, his heart pounding. His loud, fast breaths blocked out the sound of his footsteps. In his pack was a small pistol incase of emergencies. The drones were hard programmed not to hurt humans, and yet Sheldon couldn't help but feel like there was an imminent danger present. “Emergency stoppage, code 438.” The drone cocked its head and started slowly approaching. He lept towards his pack and ripped the gun out.

  The bot's outstretched hand lay inches from him on the ground, the holes from the four bullets fired were still smoking in its chest. Dark moss similar to what was on Rudy was also around the rim of the builder’s eye. He slowly climbed onto the bike and headed back to the house. With his left hand, he tapped the radio earpiece he had in. "Rudy, I need you to do a diagnostic report on all the drones. One just tried to attack me at the solar panels."

  …

  No one answered him.

  Rudy would never leave a question unanswered and the silence from earlier was also concerning.

  "Rudy? Are you there?" Still radio silence. Fear gripped his neck with its cold, slimy fingers. This was just getting worse and worse. His hands gripping the handlebars had turned white as the world around blurred. By the time he had gotten to the storehouse his heart rate had dropped back to normal and his breathing was steady again. The area around the storehouse had the same quiet stillness from this morning except now, instead of comforting him it filled him with dread.

  He was expecting to see builder drones working at max speed repairing a damaged building, but there were no drones in sight and the storehouse had no visible damages. Doing a quick lap around the building it was clear none of the nearby trees were broken or fallen over. As Sheldon was about to leave, he noticed a faint flickering light in one of the windows. He squinted at the light trying to discern what it could be yet the only thing that came to mind was a candle. Each step he took towards the door of the building was slower than the last until he came to a complete stop as he finally reached the door.

  A dark shape stood at the far end of the room. Two long, branching antlers stood out of its sides, and its elongated head stared at him unflinchingly. It looked to be around twelve feet tall and was lifelessly still, even in an upright position. Years ago when he was a boy, his grandfather took him to go hunting on one of the last hunting grounds left on earth. The buck they killed that day had large antlers that were similar in size to the thing ahead.

  Rudy’s voice crept up from behind, “I’m sorry that you had to find out like this. I didn’t want you to see it.” Sheldon jumped at the voice before turning around. “What the hell is that thing?”

  The strange robots' red eyes were staring at the thing's direction. “It's an effigy… of God.”

  “I need you to run a self diagnostic immediately, I don’t know what the fuck has gotten into you but you’re freaking me the fuck out.”

  Rudy turned and faced sheldon. “No.” The slimy moss that was under his eye writhed and wriggled before sliding out of sight into the eye socket.

  “Rudy, emergency shut off 4-438!”

  “NO.” It swiftly placed its metallic arms around his throat, squeezing the life out.

  It had been two months since Sheldon’s last transmission to Eleanor and all she could do was fear the worst. It mattered not though because soon she would have the answers she sought. Looking out of the space ship window she finally saw the green speck against a red foreign landscape. Her ship landed on the small run down farm, and Eleanor looked for her husband.