Cassie stared through the open doorway, unable to move from her seat on the floor. It felt like she wasn't breathing, despite the small, steady puffs encroaching on her field of vision. Cool air poured out of the dark generator, lowering the temperature of the shuttle bay even further, but she didn't notice. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the body in front of her.

Aqeel's frozen corpse lay face down just past the edge of the doorway, surrounded by a sea of tiny ice crystals, tinged red by the emergency lighting.

She couldn't move a muscle.

That was exactly where Danny found her when he entered the room, his heavy footsteps echoed on the metal floor, breaking the silence of the shuttle bay. Followed by the sound of him skidding to a stop as he reached the balcony.

"Cassie?" Danny's eyes darted to the open door. "Shit."

In a flash, he'd made his way to the door of the generator. He stepped inside carefully, his boots causing a small crunching noises. His dark clothes absorbed almost all the ruby-purple light from the generator, but gave his dark grey shirt a reddish tint matching the walls around him. Slowly, he crouched down beside Aqeel, taking care not to touch anything other than the body.

Cassie looked away as he flipped it over.

The next thing she knew, Danny was pushing the heavy door closed with his shoulder. There was a firm click as it slid into place, the wheel rotating slightly on it's own. It felt like the air temperature slipped up a degree from that alone.

Danny glanced at Cassie, then at the flashing computer screen.

He went to the computer.

It was on the same screen as before, the temperature regulation system, with it's complex piping network. Danny studied the display, looking confused and concerned at the red flashing boxes filled with large numbers. He tried pressing a few buttons cautiously.

Cassie pulled her knees closer to her chest. Her eyes stayed glued to the door. Even though it was shut now, it didn't change the fact that she could still see everything.

The image wouldn't fade from her mind.

"Cassie?" Danny called out. "What's going on here?"

She didn't respond.

Danny glared at her, scowling slightly, before starting to walk towards her. As he got closer, the purposefulness faded from his steps. Each one became slower, more hesitant.

The urgent atmosphere had ceded to an awkward tension as Danny hung about uncomfortably, almost two feet away from the young mechanic stuck inside her own troubled thoughts. The freezing metal floor creaked as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

Before he could say anything, Cassie spoke. "I... I didn't know what to do." Her voice wavered, small and strained. "He should never... He wasn't supposed to be in there."

"I know," Danny replied bluntly.

"That wasn't the protocol," Cassie mumbled into her arms, her knees pressed together tightly. "That wasn't the protocol."

Danny let out a long, heavy breath. "Cassie, you need to get up."

His voice was kinder than she expected from him.

It was filled with pity.

The knot in her stomach twisted even tighter, until it felt like it might choke her and force out the words on the tip of her tongue.

A loud blast rang out as a pipe blew itself open. A jet of pressurized gas came out, blasting dust off the stairs behind them. Faint specks of white stood out against Cassie's neat black hair as she twisted around on the floor to get a better look.

Danny recovered almost instantly. "Where's the shutoff?" he asked loudly, the hiss of escaping gas almost drowning out his words.

Cassie looked up at him, her eyes wide, her expression blank.

"Cassie!" Danny shouted urgently. "Snap out of it!"

Cassie blinked at him, her eyes drifted back to the closed door of the generator, only a few feet in front of her. She stayed there, on the cold, hard floor, like she was rooted in place.

Not moving an inch.

"Damn it," Danny muttered, as he grabbed her arm and impatiently yanked her to her feet. Cassie stumbled momentarily, but let him lead her over to the computer. He jabbed a finger at the screen. "Shut it off!"

Cassie nodded quickly, not trusting herself to speak. With the oversized gloves, it wasn't obvious how her hands were shaking. She pulled them off quickly, letting them drop to the floor as she rushed to put the command in. At least the plastic wasn't nearly as cold as the metal handle had been.

Danny didn't comment as it took her two tries to shut off the high pressure air line to the bay.

Cassie took her hands off the keys as the turbulent gush of compressed gas faded to a low whistle, then finally fell silent. Suddenly feeling the cold, she tucked her hands under her arms.

Her fingers weren't the only part of her that felt numb.

"Good." Danny leaned back against the generator casing, then let out an annoyed hiss of his own as he jumped forward when the cold metal brushed the bare skin of his neck. It took him a moment to notice that nothing had changed on the screen, everything that had been flashing, was still flashing.

"Now, what's the problem here?"

Cassie's gaze shifted from Danny to the screen and back as he looked at her expectantly.

It took Cassie a moment to process that the question had been meant for her. "Um, it's the heating fluid," she said hesitantly. "It's not flowing good, so... uh... the generator's too cold."

"I noticed," Danny commented dryly. "But can you fix it?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Cassie looked at the screen, really looked, for the first time since...

The pressure warnings were gone, leaving only a handful of temperature alerts. The loop between the generator and the heater was open, but there was still fluid being pumped out to cool the ship, and coming back almost as cold as it was when it had left. Closing off those pipes, only using the heater, that would bring the temperature up faster.

"I think I can," Cassie mumbled as she began typing.

"If we lose the generator..." Danny didn't need to finish his sentence.

"I think I can," Cassie repeated. "There's a lot of damage. Aqeel managed to..." She trailed off as her fingers stilled.

"Focus," Danny said firmly.

Cassie's fingers twitched in the air over the keys. "But—"

"Don't think about it. Focus," Danny ordered. "Just fix it. That's all that's important right now."

Cassie pressed her lips together as she kept her gaze fixed forwards. Sweat dripped from her face onto the keyboard. How she was sweating in this temperature was an absolute mystery, although having Danny literally watching over her shoulder certainly wasn't helping.

The temperature inside the bay hadn't changed, but the generator's system was already beginning to recover. She adjusted a few valves to redirect more flow to the heater. The internal temperature creeped upwards painfully slowly.

A few boxes stopped flashing red, and began flashing orange instead.

"I— I got it," Cassie said finally. "I think. Um, stuff is flowing."

"How's the generator?" Danny asked immediately.

"We—" Cassie swallowed nervously. "We maintained dark mode." She paused, scrolling through the logs quickly. "There were some power fluctuations but they weren't too big. I don't think we would have been spotted."

"Good," Danny said, in a tone that could almost be mistaken for praise. "What about the other damage?"

"There's... a lot of it. Most of the pipes are on the outside of the ship, a lot of them were broken," Cassie explained, with an obvious lack of confidence in her own words. "But it shouldn't matter, I think the fluid can cycle just between the generator and the heater."

"Double check," Danny ordered. "Be sure."

Cassie nodded slightly, watching as the temperature reading went up a degree. Then another. Then another. The red flashing lights on the generator turned themselves off, leaving only the usual eerie purple glow.

"That's it. It's working. It's not going to shut down," Cassie stated quietly. "He fixed it before..." She avoided looking at the door. "That one was the main issue."

Their heads both turned to look up at the entrance as Helen ran into the bay, almost running directly into the railing before successfully making the sharp turn.

"What's the problem?" Without waiting for an answer, Helen raced down the steps to their level, her short silvery hair bouncing wildly. "And why does it feel like a freezer in here?"

The sinking feeling in Cassie's stomach returned.

Thankfully, Danny jumped in first. "The generator was in trouble." He took a breath. "Aqeel got trapped inside. He didn't make it."

Helen slowed as she passed in front of the generator door. "Is there any chance..?"

Danny shook his head sadly.

Shock flickered across Helen's face momentarily, then her expression became hard. "I see." She took a deep breath before directing her all of her attention to Cassie. "Now tell me what happened with the generator."

Cassie cleared her throat nervously. "Um, some of the heating pipes were damaged," she explained. "From the debris." She gestured towards the generator. "But it's fine."

Helen shot a skeptical look towards Danny, who simply shrugged back.

"It is working now," Cassie repeated.

"That's it?" Helen asked Danny, her eyes shifting away from the screen filled with bright orange flashing warning signs.

"Short version," Danny answered bluntly.

Cassie twisted her hands nervously, feeling smaller than ever. "Um, I can write up a report..."

Danny snorted, as if she'd just made a particularly bad joke.

Cassie gave him a puzzled glance. "Uh..."

"We're not big on paperwork here," Helen explained. "But I will want to hear the details, later."

"Of course," Cassie mumbled.

"Then..." Helen started tentatively. "It sounds like the immediate crisis is over."

"Aren't you forgetting the massive amount of damage we just took?" Danny's tone crossed way over the line of sarcasm, way over the line of appropriate. "It'll be a miracle if something critical doesn't break in the next few seconds."

Helen gave Danny a very unamused look. "I was referring to the dark generator, I am aware this is still an emergency situation."

"I'm just pointing it out," Danny said dryly. "There are other vital systems, ones that we need to live, which are still in trouble."

"Noted," Helen replied tersely.

"Um..." Cassie attempted to interrupt. It worked. They both turned their attention to her and she forgot what she was going to say.

Helen's expression shifted through a series of emotions, too fast for Cassie to follow, before settling on troubled concern. Her dark, sharp eyes studied Cassie thoughtfully, as if they could see right through their youngest crew member. Cassie resisted the urge to squirm under her gaze.

"Danny, could you take the body to storage?" Helen's tone made it clear this wasn't a request.

Danny's demeanor abruptly changed. "Right," he mumbled, picking the thick work gloves up off the floor.

Cassie looked at the door nervously. "But... it'll take a few hours for the temperature in there to go back to normal," she said, sounding a lot more stressed than she intended. "It'll be better to wait."

Danny looked to Helen with a questioning eyebrow.

"Later then," Helen added.

"Then I'll go prep the freezer locker," Danny suggested, stuffing the heavy duty gloves into his pockets.

"That's a good idea," Helen agreed.

From the speed at which Danny left, Cassie got the impression he was glad to be out of there. She quickly found herself wishing that she'd followed him, even though leaving the generator at this moment would reflect badly on her. The last thing she needed right now was for everyone to think of her as negligent.

Even so, she did not want to be stuck in this room any longer than absolutely necessary.

Helen was still giving her that concerned look. Like she was made of glass. Except that was frighteningly close to how she was actually feeling. Like any single action could lead to complete disaster.

The crinkles around Helen's eyes relaxed. "Are you alright?" Her voice was unnecessarily low, but somehow also soft and authoritative at the same time.

Cassie noticed how her hands were still shaking a bit. She stuck them in her pockets, hoping it just looked like she was cold, rather than absolutely terrified. It was still hard for her to believe how quickly the plan had gone wrong.

"I'll be fine," Cassie said meekly.

Helen didn't look at all convinced. "So... you know that you're our mechanic now?"

Cassie nodded, looking towards the screen, but not at it. She didn't need to be reminded of that particular fact. A tiny sniffle escaped her nose.

"There will be time to mourn later," Helen added somberly. "I promise, but we need every hand on deck right now."

Cassie nodded again, still not looking at Helen, as she resisted the urge to rub her nose.

Helen cleared her throat. "You may be green, but this isn't your first ship."

Cassie nibbled her lower lip. "It wasn't like this, it was a different ship, it wasn't so..."

"Old?" Helen suggested, a hint of amusement in her tone.

"Um, yes," Cassie mumbled, lowering her head apologetically.

"You'll figure it out." Helen's tone was more order than suggestion. "We'll all pick up a toolbox, if that's what it takes."

Cassie nodded with false enthusiasm, as she wiped the sweat off her brow with her least dirty sleeve.

"Let's start with the basics, what's our status?" Helen asked seriously, tapping the top of the screen lightly.

"The dark generator will recover." Cassie tried to keep her voice steady and neutral. "Um... but there's a lot of other damage, we won't be able to fix everything out here." She took a hesitant pause. "Not while in dark mode," she added nervously.

"I'm not worried about that right now," Helen said calmly. "Just keep us flying."

Cassie nodded again, keeping her eyes on the screen in front of her.

"Get me a list of our top issues, and I'll get everyone organized," Helen added. "We'll do what we can."

"I'll do that right away, ma'am." Cassie's voice came out as almost a whisper, much lower than she'd intended.

"Don't forget to keep in touch." Helen tapped a finger to her earpiece. "And keep me updated," she said finally, before heading towards the exit.

Cassie switched through the screens aimlessly, more concerned with looking like she was working rather than actually working. She couldn't admit that she had absolutely no idea what to do now. There was no manual, no procedure, no protocol, for her current situation.

Improvisation had never been one of her strengths.

"Cassie?" Helen unexpectedly called out from the balcony.

Cassie, startled, stepped away from the computer. "Yes?"

Helen flashed her a reassuring smile. "Remember, you're not alone out here."

That's the problem.