Andy the android

Andy the android found himself in an escape pod. The crew aboard the starship had said it was "time for Andy to strike out on his own" as they shoved him into an escape pod, whilst trying to contain their laughter. Andy checked his fuel supplies and set the navigation computer to find the nearest plant habitable by androids.     He didn't know what had prompted the crew to suggest he leave the ship. At the time they had decided, Andy had been halfway though his monthly vocal unit test, during which he checked all the different combined frequencies he could reproduce against the list of frequencies his manufacture had stipulated. Usually during this test the crew donned spacesuits and performed routine maintenance on the hull of the starship. But this time they had been unable to, as the ship had been passing through an asteroid belt at the time.     Andy had enjoyed his time with crew for the most part; although he never much liked the games of Android golf they played using his detached legs for golf clubs, despite Andy's warning that it would invalidate his warranty. He also disliked Android ping-pong, which involved his hands being used as bats (he often wished his limbs were not quite so easily detachable.) The ping-pong games came to a halt however, after the only ping-pong ball had gotten lost. One of the crewmembers did rather ingenious suggested using one of Andy's eyes as a ball, and despite Andy pointing out that his eye would be 97% less bouncy than the ping-pong ball, this was tried for a short time with limited success.     Andy wondered how the crew would fare without him. They never seem to appreciate his cooking much. His specialty dish Rehydrated stew which contained all the nutritional requirements needed by humans to survive in space, was compared to something out of the waste recycling unit. He also speculated on whether the crew would miss the huge amount of cleaning he did around the ship. He always kept the ship spotless. Although while he was polishing the controls of the starship he would sometimes accidentally move a lever or press a button he wasn't supposed to, which led to some confusion among the crew.     As the escape pod sped onwards Andy also wondered whether the crew realised he had been the only one onboard able to service the ship's oxygen recycling unit. As he wondered he noticed the long-range communications light was blinking. It's probably the crew wanting to wish me farewell and good luck with my new life before I go out of range, he thought. But it uses such a lot of the starship's power to transmit to this range; I'll save them the trouble and switch off the receiver. Flicking the switch and cancelling the transmission he noticed the navigation computer had found an android inhabitable planet within range. Andy set a course and thought to himself: it's time to strike out on my own.

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