USD: Nine days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: 92 Pegasi, IND Iron Horse

Alex sat in the corner of the medbay, her arms wrapped around her knees as she stared at her sister Elis, as she lay in a coma. Another day had passed with no sign of improvement.

Locked away in an escape pod for over a day before being rescued, Alex had been forced to try and tend to Elis’s nearly fatal injury on her own. The advanced medkit had saved her life, but not before she had suffered extreme shock and blood loss.

If Nameless had been able to help she was sure she could have done better, and she blamed herself for everything. She had been so confident that they could defend the planet against the Corporate Fleet’s attack.

Instead, her ship, the Tears of Fire, had been destroyed. Most of the Corporate Fleet had been as well, but for what?

Nameless had been forced to compress himself and delete numerous processes that had been helping her so that their ShipCore could dedicate its remaining processing power to preventing her nanites from literally eating her alive. As it was her advanced Heads-Up-Display and Advanced-Nanite-Upgrade-Framework had essentially shut down.

It was like half the colors in her vision had disappeared, and the rapid healing, strength, and special abilities she had enjoyed turned into dangerous warnings that filled her vision with red.

But the worst thing was that Elis was not waking up. The ship’s doctor on the Iron Horse had gently told her that the longer Elis was in the coma the worse her chances were. Although there was always a chance that she could recover, eventually.

Uncurling from herself, Alex stood and went to Elis. Alex’s HUD still managed to display a time, and was slowly flashing orange as the alarm she had set went off. She stroked the other girl’s short vivid-red hair out of her face.

“Elis, it’s time to roll over again.” Alex wavered slightly but she did her best to keep her voice steady. She had devoured all the literature available on Elis’s state that she could find on Star-Wiki and she read that Coma patients could sometimes remember what they heard. Maintaining a positive vibe was important. She couldn’t quite manage to abort a few tears she wiped away.

One of the medbay personnel had shown her how to perform the maneuver safely, and Alex scooted Elis to the edge of the bed in preparation, making sure her limbs were adjusted properly. Then hands on Elis’s shoulder and hip she rolled her over.

Checking that she was safely positioned, Alex went and moved her things to the other side of the bed, so if Elis opened her eyes, she’d be able to see her right away.

Irrationally, she sat staring for a while expecting, hoping for just that to happen.

It didn’t.

Alex tugged her blanket around her shoulders and head tighter as she slowly fell asleep waiting.

USD: 16 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: 92 Pegasi, IND Iron Horse, Medbay

Alex poked her head out of the medbay, looking down the cramped corridor in both directions. She had been in a daze after they had been rescued and brought to the medbay, and other than the toilet directly adjacent to the space, she had not left Elis’ side.

A sailor had been bringing her a meal every so often. It was the only track of time she had other than the timer on her HUD. Two trays a day had been delivered and taken away at the same time.

Alex wasn’t sure how many days they had been on the ship, but she knew that they’d missed the last two meals and the third hadn’t arrived, either.

She didn’t want to leave Elis, but her stomach growled angrily. She normally ate much more than a normal person according to Elis, mainly because her nanite systems increased her metabolism.

The nurse in charge of the shift told her she should just go find the mess hall on her own.

Deciding she wouldn’t be a good caretaker for her sister if she starved to death she slid out of the medbay. The ship’s spaces were much more cramped than the Shrike’s. It reminded her of the Tears when she had first found it, damaged and mostly broken.

The Iron Horse wasn’t in quite as bad shape, but exposed panels showed familiar pipes and systems that were in dire need of replacement. Just by the vibration of one pipe joint she could tell it was about to break its seal. The synthetic collar was so old it had lost its elasticity.

It was a simple thing she had fixed a million times before. She reached out and touched the seam, a trail of nanites flowing off a finger and moving to infuse into the material. Red flashing warnings filled her vision harassing her and she felt dizzy as a bit of liquid dripped from her nose.

|WARNING: RAMPANCY DETECTED 101.6% OVERLOAD|

|TERMINATING RAMPANT UNITS IN PROGRESS|

She leaned on the bulkhead as she reached up to wipe away the blood mixed with dead nanites on her sleeve.

“What are you doing?”

Alex let out a small shriek and jumped away from the voice behind her. A large man wearing uniform stared at her with a mildly annoyed look. It took her a second to place the markings on his uniform. LT – DCA was on a golden nameplate above his last name: Ferguson.

He looked at her expectantly, “Well?”

“The pipe was about to burst so I fixed it.”

“What?”

Alex found herself stepping back as he bulled his way in to examine the pipe. He pulled a wrench from his belt and tapped it then looked angrily at her.

“Who gave you permission to touch our spare parts? You one of those rich refugee brats? What are you doing out of your hangar?”

Alex blinked at him her vision clearing as the warnings disappeared and her head cleared, “I didn’t touch any of your spare parts.”

“Don’t lie to me, girl. I can see that you replaced the fitting. You did a good job, but we don’t have many of those and unless that one was about to blow you wasted a limited resource. Even then this isn’t a critical pipe, so we could have bypassed it and saved the fitting for one more important.”

“It was about to blow. And again, I didn’t use one of your parts to repair it.”

“Then how did you repair it? That sealant collar is brand new.”

“I believe the line was stressed at some point because there was severe thermal degradation that looked recent. So, I secured the collar and then repolymerized it.”

He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the corridor.

“I know we don’t have any tool that can do that on board. I’m not sure it would even be portable. Care to cut the bullshit? Actually, lets get you back to where you—”

He reached out towards her and Alex jumped back, a sudden flash of defensiveness and anger coming out of her eyes.

Eyes that glowed a shimmering blue. “Don’t touch me.”

Ferguson’s hand dropped as if he’d been burned.

“Sorry, bad habit, that.”

He glanced away for a second to the pipe collar, then back to her.

“You’re one of the girls from the pod.”

“Yes,” Alex said, her voice tight.

“Did you use nanites to fix that?”

“Yes.”

“They’re just letting have your run around the ship?”

“No one brought me food for over a day, the nurse said I should find the mess hall.”

“Do you know where that is?”

“No,” Alex admitted.

Ferguson mulled it over for a second then made a decision.

“I’ll show you. Follow me.”

Alex hesitated for a moment, but he had already turned around and started walking down the corridor. Realizing that probably meant she had been going the wrong way she followed him.

As they passed through several bulkheads, she realized the ship was larger than the Shrike. The layout was also much more claustrophobic. Rather than the sharp, clean interior Nameless had kept, the Iron Horse had exposed wires, hanging flow lines, and all sorts of internals that would have likely been safer behind panels.

Except that they all appeared in need of repair or maintenance, which was likely why they were uncovered.

Not feeling diplomatic after the interrogation Alex ended up being blunt.

“Why is the ship so shoddily maintained? DCA, right? Aren’t you the officer in charge of fixing things? Looks like you don’t do shit.”

Ferguson froze and turned to look at her a look of surprise on his face. Alex wasn’t sure if he’d be angry at her accusation, but she didn’t back down.

He ended up letting out a chuckle.

“What’s your name?”

“Alex. You’re Ferguson?”

“Lieutenant Holt Ferguson, Damage Control Assistant.”

“So, Lieutenant Ferguson, why is the ship falling apart as soon as I step out of the medbay?”

"We don't have the parts to make proper repairs," he explained. "FedTech is expensive, and we don't have the budget for it. We have to make do with what we have. Probably how the Captain got us permission to float in the outer in the first place."

"Why don't you make the parts yourselves?" Alex asked. "I know the Iron Horse is large enough to have at least a small fabrication unit."

Ferguson looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. "We do have a basic fab for hull repairs but beyond that… we don’t have that kind of technology on board, and even if we did, it would be illegal. Unsanctioned FedTech production outside of the Core is a death sentence. Everyone knows that."

Alex was about to ask more questions, but Ferguson cut her off. "We're here," he said, gesturing to a door marked "Mess Hall".

Alex stepped inside first, where a group of sailors were sitting at tables and eating. They all stopped and stared at her as she entered. It made her feel a desire to run back to Elis and the medbay.

But Ferguson was standing behind her and began introducing her to everyone.

"This is Alex," Ferguson said, addressing the sailors. "She's one of the girls from the pod. She's hungry, so make sure she gets something to eat."

The sailors nodded and a couple of them got up and started to make a plate of food for Alex. She sat down at an empty table, feeling a mix of confusion and relief. It was nice to finally be able to eat something, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was out of place and didn't belong on the Iron Horse.

Two sailors sat down in front of her, one had an extra tray and slid it across to her.

“Than—“ Alex’s voice froze as she studied their faces. She knew them!

“I know you.”

Corporal Sawet and Rick shared a look.

“Well, yeah, we’ve been delivering your food to everyday for over two weeks now,” Rick answered.

“No. I mean, I know you. You’re the guards that were on watch duty when we moored at Ackman Station.”

Sawet nodded, “Is the reason the Captain picked us to tend to you.”

Rick grinned, “Thanks for all those kebabs by the way, wish we had those on the ship. Sorry we can’t really repay the favor.”

Alex looked down at her tray, it was a mix of weird pasta covered in what looked to be yellow sauce. Green vegetables were in their own little section, and a single slice of ham had some type of red fruit on top of it.

Alex felt a bit of confusion. “You didn’t bring me anything yesterday, weren’t going to today, either?”

“Sorry, Ma’am. Was orders. Captain said he wanted you to come out.”

“You were ordered to… starve me out?” Alex frowned.

Sawet looked a bit uncomfortable, “Well, how are you feeling now? From what I know other than the Doc you haven’t talked to anyone in two weeks.”

Alex froze, a wave of guilt and worry washing over her.

Rick elbowed Sawet who looked back at him. “What?”

Shaking his head, Rick looked back to Alex, “After lunch, anything you’d like to do?”

“I need to make sure Elis is okay.”

“After that then. This is a warship, but there is a rec room with vids, a small gym and exercise space, observation deck, hell just meet and greet at the watercooler if that’s your thing.”

Alex blinked, her first instinct to deny, reject, and run away back to the Medbay. She swallowed it down, and actually considered instead.

“I… does… anyone practice martial arts?”

Rick nodded, “Lots. After you eat and check on your sister, want us to show you the gym?”

Alex nodded, “Let’s do that.”

For the first time since being rescued she felt wasn’t stuck in a depressed loop. Questions about some things tugged at her, but just the thought of them felt like a raw poker of anxiety to her.

She didn’t know if she could handle the answers she’d get. Losing Beeper and Booper, Nameless being compressed. Elis. She wasn’t ready for asking.

But… maybe she would be eventually?