Sara, as she had expected, didn't sleep very well that night. The next morning, there was a knock on their door.
"Someone's at the door," Maria said as if she didn't hear.
"Are you decent?"
"What?"
"Do you have clothes on?"
"Yes."
"Come in!" Sara shouted.
Tim was at the door. Sara could tell he didn't get much sleep. There were dark bags under his eyes.
"I have your ration card," Tim said to Maria. "They handed them out this morning."
"I like rations. Rations are good."
She climbed down and held her father's hand for a few seconds. He gave her the card.
"Don't lose it," he said.
"I won't."
"Do you want some breakfast?"
"Not now. I want to watch another episode of Glamour Girls then take a shower."
"Right. Your usual routine. Well, I'll be waiting in the mess hall," he said. "See you two soon."
He left. Sara watched Maria turn on the TV and start over the second episode. She sat in the desk chair almost right in front. Sara sat up and threw her legs over the bed. She felt groggy from the lack of proper sleep.
"I'm taking a shower first," Sara said.
She didn't know if Maria heard and didn't care. She knew she had half an hour. She used every minute to run under hot water. Her tense muscles relaxed. She almost wanted to get back in bed.
"I can't," she said to herself. "Can't just sleep all day like Nana used to."
Coming near the thirty-minute mark, she turned the hot water off. Splashed with cold water, she suddenly wasn't tired, anymore. She yelped from the sudden change in temperature and shut the water off. She grabbed a towel and wrapped her naked body to conserve warmth. The shock wouldn't do her body good, but she wanted to be awake. The Drax could come back. She had to be ready. Sleep would come after.
She put her uniform back on, with some new undergarments, and adjusted her comm. She looked in the mirror at the girl looking back. Her hair was wet. Her eyes were dark. She looked a little taller than normal. The girl looking back at her was someone else. It couldn't be her.
"It's my turn, now," Maria poked her head inside.
"Shower is all yours," Sara said.
They traded places.
"Hey, do you want me to—"
The door was shut.
"—wait for... never mind."
She went to breakfast, although she wasn't sure what for. She wasn't hungry. She didn't know if anyone would be feeling hungry today. Maybe a peek at what rations were available would be enough for the time being.
She went down the ladder to the base floor. It was a straight shot to the mess hall. It was only about eight in the morning, but people were already well on their way. Sara couldn't help but notice the solemn faces surrounding her. For a moment, she felt like she was walking in a funeral march. She wasn't the only dead person walking.
The mess hall wasn't huge. It was just big enough to fit all two-hundred-fifty occupants of the ship if they wanted. It wasn't likely to happen, so finding somewhere to sit wouldn't be difficult. She was suddenly reminded of school during lunchtime and felt a sharp pang of homesickness in her stomach. The emptiness was growing, and food wasn't going to help fill it.
Tim was flagging her down from his table. She didn't know anyone else on the ship, so who else was she going to talk to? She sat down in front of Tim. They were surrounded by a few people, but they were in their own worlds of conversation. She didn't really feel like talking to Tim, or anyone, but she hated the feeling of being alone more.
"I won't even ask how you slept," Tim said. "I can see them. Hanging like hammocks."
"You don't look so hot, yourself," Sara said. "How many? Two? Maybe three?"
"Color me stupid, but I was just worried last night. Did Maria sleep okay?"
"She slept fine. She snores in her sleep."
Tim smiled. "Yes, she got that from me. Although, she did get her mother's eyes and beautiful hair. The snoring... I missed it last night. It let me know she was still there. I didn't have it to remind me she was okay."
"She's doing okay. Autistic people tend to worry more about the smaller things than the big ones. As long as she had Glamour Girls, she was okay."
"The lights didn't bother her? Bed wasn't uncomfortable?"
"No, she didn't complain about anything today. She's taking this... surprisingly well."
"That's good to hear. Now that she's taken care of for now... how are you doing?"
"Me? I thought we were talking about Maria."
"She's doing well, you said. You were honest about her, so be honest about yourself for a minute. I know you lost some people. It's hard. The first day, it's like a big hole in your heart. The second, it gets a little bigger. Eventually, it turns into a paradox of sadness and regret. If you're not careful, you'll get yourself caught in the black hole, and it's very hard to get out."
This was suddenly getting too personal for her. She was about to make a smart comment back when her wrist beeped. She checked and saw it was a message from Mansell.
[Meeting in five at the bridge. Don't be late.]
"Did you get a message just now?" Sara pointed to his comm.
"No? Why?"
"Oh, no reason. Guess security is having a meeting this morning," she said. "It's a little exciting to be promoted. I feel like Mark's dad or James's... father..."
She was about to drone on when she remembered they were likely dead.
"Well, gotta go!" She said quickly.
She made her escape from the unwanted conversation. The bridge had twelve officers monitoring space, as well as six others in a security uniform. She was number seven, the oddball recruit. She was the last one to show up. Damien cleared his throat.
"Miss Whitfield," he said. "Please fall in line with your comrades."
She slid sideways next to a guy with hair tied into a ponytail. He gave her a quick glance but stayed facing forward.
"Now that everyone is here," he started, "Let's make it a routine for everyone to show up here, at eight, for a daily detail on what tasks need to be taken place. Is that clear?"
He asked everyone, but he was looking at Sara when he did. Everyone confirmed in unison.
"Good. Here's what's going to happen. We're looking at a potential panic, so we need to be on guard. Lots of people will be emotional. We've all been impacted by these... unforeseen circumstances, but there are very few of us to keep the population in control. Don't be afraid to use force if you have to."
"Next. Supplies are limited. The Drive is going to take a few days to be repaired. With our current rations, we won't last long enough. Now, I know what you're thinking. We're in space. What food is there? Well, our ship isn't the only one sitting out here. There is a lot of food being unused out there, packaged and unaffected. It's just a matter of finding it."
"I've been looking through your records, and it seems there is only one person here that is near qualified to operate in a Zero Gravity environment."
He waved a hand at Sara.
"That would be you, Miss Whitfield."
"Her? The kid?" Someone else said.
"Your father, Whitfield, worked outside of the colony, is that correct?" He asked her.
"Y-yes."
"It shows that your father attended some simulations that supported Zero Gravity, and it also shows that someone accompanied him. Am I correct to assume that was you?"
"Yes, it was me," she said.
It was illegal to perform under Zero-G unless authorized. She was definitely too young to have permission.
"I'm glad someone here is," he said, "because you're leading a team outside the ship."
"You mean..."
He smiled.
"Yes. You're going on a little spacewalk. Don't get lost!"
~~~
Judy checked Dominic's pulse again. It was going steady. His forehead felt a little feverish, but that was normal after trauma. It wasn't spiking above a hundred, which would be when she would consider him critical. She looked at the people scattered around, keeping busy with random tasks. A couple of girls were dragging in branches with leaves that they had snapped off of some nearby trees. Plants were being pulled out of the ground like they were weeds. It looked like someone had taken her advice and taken charge.
James was directing people, giving them a task to help pick up slack on one where another was jumping ahead. In his head, everything had a time limit on when it needed to be completed and a duration of how long it would take to have each project done. Outhouses were being constructed as some girls were starting to complain about not having a seat to sit on to go. He took care of it almost immediately. Using some scrap to scoop out dirt, two holes were dug out. They didn't have many tools, and scrap metal was in abundant supply, so someone was using rocks to bend, shape, and sharpen handheld tools that were once taken for granted on Pluto. She looked at the wolf whose name she learned to be Juno.
"Everything is coming along," she said to Juno. "That's good. That's really—"
A hand covered her mouth. She tried to scream, but she was yanked into the bushes out of sight. Juno followed his orders to stay put by Dominic. She struggled to fight off her kidnapper with no such luck. She could see three other guys standing close by. She recognized one of them as Aiden. She stopped fighting but jerked in the girl's grasp.
"Let her go," Aiden said. "I'd like to talk without her screaming rape."
She was released and balled her fists.
"What the hell was that for?"
"I needed to talk to you," he said. "It's not hard to tell you don't like me."
"What do you want?"
"I get that you like to fix people and all, but why him? He's a lost cause, and after he put all of us in—"
"You have no room to talk," she said. "You were locked up, too."
"Well, let's just say I have a grudge against the guy. I mean, he was unnecessarily rough, and he's a douche anyway. Why are you trying to save him?"
"We have no idea what we're supposed to be doing out here," she said. "What, we're just supposed to build some society out here in the forest with no form of training or medicine?"
"Just because he's an adult doesn't mean he has the answer to everything," he said. "We can figure it out ourselves. He's just going to get in the way of that."
"Are you seriously asking me to kill him?" She said.
"Well... I wasn't saying that, but I guess you would be, in a way."
"No."
"You might want to let me finish," Aiden said. "Saving him gives you what kind of benefit? He works for security. He'll try to control us just like they did at the colony. Is that what you want?"
No, of course, it wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to practice medicine like her mother, but she never got the chance.
"Let me guess," he started. "You smuggled medicine for some reason that I don't know about, and you got caught. Either that or you're some kind of addict."
"That's none of your damn business," she said. "What do you know, anyway? All you want to do is horse around, and you're still wasting time sitting on your ass."
"Isn't that what you were doing?"
"I'm trying to keep him alive," she said. "What have you done?"
"Nothing. Yet. Here."
He tossed her something small. She caught it, nearly cutting her hand. It was a knife edged out from a bolt. Cloth wrapped around the handle so it had a better grip.
"You can do whatever you want," Aiden said. "Figure out what it is soon before you get left behind like James."
She didn't like the sound of that.
"You can go, now."
She moved quickly away. The look of everyone working was suddenly a different scene. What was Aiden up to? What did he mean by left behind? Did James not have the charisma to keep everyone on his side as she thought? If he was planning some ulterior motive, which she was sure of, what was it?
She was full of questions with no answers and no evidence. Aiden would be watching her closely. She was expected to make a decision before Mark and the others got back with the medicine, she was sure of that. She looked at James for comfort, but he was too busy helping out around the camp. He wasn't even paying any attention to her or his father. She knew he was looking for the distraction, but she was feeling very vulnerable now. The hot, humid air was blanketed by a chill in her spine. She didn't know what Aiden was locked up for, but she surely didn't want to find out.
She looked at the knife Aiden had given her. It was sharp. She knew how to kill him as quick and painless as possible. She could make it look like the burns were too severe. Maybe she wouldn't have to kill him, just paralyze him. She could make it look like his spinal cord was damaged in the fall. That would have made a lot of sense.
Surprised at the thought, she shook it out of her head. She had time. She could think about it. The others wouldn't be back for a while. Her hands were meant for healing, not killing. The thought was making her sick.
"Not now," she said. "Don't worry about it now. Wait and see if he makes it first."
If he was going to die anyway, that would make her choice easier.
~~~
After his short encounter with Judy, Aiden decided to lay low and act like he was helping out of the good of the group. It wasn't exactly a lie; James was right when he said shit had to get done to survive. He helped gather the metal scrap and cloth, which was how he got the knife. No one was eager about going inside the ship. It was getting hot, and Vera didn't want anyone to disturb her when she was looking for tools and internal damage. Aiden made sure to be quiet when he entered the ship. He climbed up, slipping every now and then. The fall was at a slope that was barely a slide, so there was little risk of getting hurt.
He started looking in rooms, but there was nothing really useful in them. No food or tools that they could use. Clothes had to be stored somewhere else. He made it to the back where they were strapped during the fall. He was hoping to find something that someone had dropped. He was checking around the seats when he spotted something in-between the seats. There was some skin still stuck to the seat that James's father was in. He reached down and touched the cool metal of the pistol. He got a grip with his fingers and pulled it out.
He was surprised to see that the gun wasn't like the sonic blasters that the trainees were trained with. He slid the magazine out. It was a real pistol with bullets. He grinned with sinister thoughts filling his head. There was a clank, followed by a "damn it" and he stuffed the pistol in the waistband of his pants. Vera poked out, throwing a bag of tools above the ladder. She locked eyes with Aiden.
"What are you doing in here? I thought I said I didn't want to be bothered."
"Sorry. I was looking around the ship for some food. Didn't find any."
"That was expected. Now, get out. I can't have anyone in the ship right now."
"It's free real estate, princess. Anyone can come in as they please."
"Unless you want a concussion, I wouldn't suggest that. I think I found a way to get the ship leveled off. I need everyone at a safe distance."
"Why? It's not like the ship is gonna roll."
"If it works, we won't have to worry about it," she said. "If it doesn't... things might get hot. Really hot."