Cautiously, No-El, one of the last children of Krypton as far as she knew, slowly looked around her damaged spacecraft, careful as to not agitate whatever was happening with her body while instinctively taking stock of her situation.

slowly turning her head over towards the holographic page to the left of the command chair, she couldn't help but grimace as a continuous onslaught of offline systems and subsystems piled onto the screen, barely sparing some of the more essential systems.

using the neural interface atop her head, she sluggishly added several filters and searched for systems she knew were critical at the moment

of the 16 life support systems, only two were left intact enough to function. however, only one of those would actually last throughout the day.

slowly going through numbers within her head while attempting to ignore the oncoming migraine, she realized there were roughly two weeks left before the refiltration system would fry itself, leaving way for the rest of the singular life support systems and subsystems to the same fate

though, No-El wasn't sure if she could survive past the day

with her left arm over her stomach and a groan of pain, she attempted to right herself in the command chair, only to realize that whatever had happened had affected her worse then she originally thought.

No-El closed her eyes and laid her head back onto the headrest of the sea, thankful for the comfortable material while trying to catch her breath. She couldn't help but feel tempted to drift off into a deep sleep but knew that if she did, her already low chances of survival would plummet further into the ground

finally prying one of her eyes open after a few minutes, she summoned up a hologram of her body in her line of sight, mentally going over the damage she sustained first and foremost on her list of objectives

ignoring the constant flickering and shifting due to the damaged projectors, she finally got a glimpse of the damage

nearly her whole body was covered in a shade of red, however, the darker shades focused more towards her left side and torso rather than her entire figure

a large, dark crimson color streaked down from the left and back sides of her neck down to her hip, before stopping briefly and continuing from her midthigh down to her toes. due to the size, hardly any part of her leg was spared from the color, and subsequently, the pain

the same crimson shade went over her shoulder and elbow, patches of a darker crimson color sprinkled around some of her joints in that area

a near black red streamed from a good portion of her stomach up to her upper chest, while branching off for a few inches in nearly every direction

mentally giving commands to go deeper into her body, she felt her breathing hitch as she went over the state of her internals

one wrong move could create a rupture, though how it hadn't already was a mystery

once again, the left side of her body held a dark crimson color. while her bones looked mostly okay compared to what she was expecting, the muscles and tissues in her arm were far from it. surprisingly, the only damage the internals of her left leg suffered leaned more towards fractured or broken bones. should she survive, she'll eventually regain control over her leg

her torso area was where she was worried about

her organs were a dark, almost purplish color, signaling that her insides were at a level where any wrong move could rupture them.

however, none of that mattered to her

at least, not compared to the damage her brain suffered

all across her prefrontal cortex, spreading slightly into the other regions of her brain, was a large, deep crimson color. something that worried her to no end

she tore her eyes away from the hologram and forced herself to finally breathe again. knowing the damage was essential, but...

No-El shook her head and relinquished control over the hologram, attempting to lighten the load off of her already strained mind.

glancing around the command center, she quickly took notice of all of the floating debris, drones, and other materials. Occasionally they would bump into each other, sending them into new trajectories

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finally unbuckling herself from the command chair, she gently pushed herself off with her right hand and slowly guided her sore body around to the back of the chair. glancing at a floor panel, she slipped her fingers underneath and lifted up, using the force from the pull to bring her closer and to open the lid

inside were three separate cases. grabbing the middle one, she pushed down with her right leg and struggled to lift it up, despite no artificial gravity being present

dragging the case to one of the windows that were facing the red giant in the distance for the light, she placed the case on the ground and opened it, wondering what was inside that made her instinctively know to grab it first

the contents were unexpected but welcomed. taking out one of the pill bottles, she held it against her chin as she opened it, and took one of the much needed pain medication.

unclicking some of the other supplies within the case, she let her body take over while she thought up a plan

'Life support won't last much longer. we're running on fumes, and even if I do get the life support fully operational, the main power core is down. all it'll do is buy another week's worth of time before I run out of power.'

looking down at her hand, she saw she was currently applying some type of paste onto several of the bandages. wrapping diagonally around her neck and left arm, she began the process of securing her body and creating a mini brace before she added the actual cast

'I can't do this...maybe if I was in a better condition and knew how to repair everything, but I'm not. and I don't.'

suddenly gained an idea, she snapped her head towards one of the many drones that floated lifelessly in the command center

'I don't have to...'

lending her eyes back to the 'autopilot' of her body, she quickly finished bandaging her entire body and putting casts on where needed

putting everything back neatly and closing the case, she gently flung herself in the direction of the drone that looked to be mostly intact.

prying open the back panel, she glanced inside and frowned

she couldn't be quite sure, but from her fragmented memories, she could have sworn there was supposed to be some type of crystal fitted in the middle

pushing away slightly, she went towards another of the drones. thankfully, this one did have its crystal, but it was missing a multitude of other essential parts that were made specifically for its model.

going around and prying the back off of each drone, she couldn't help but let out a small curse, which surprised her

'Since when did I curse?' she questioned herself before a loose strand of what seemed like hair floated up in front of her face

cautiously grabbing it and following it back, she quickly realized the hair strand belonged to her. along the way, she touched what felt like a hair tie, and unloosened it.

as if by some majestic command, black hair quickly floated free and obscured her vision

'Black hair? what?' she questioned while scooting all the hair out of her face. her hair seemed to be about waist level length, but the new change caused her to grab a nearby glass shard to look at her reflection

'...?!' almost instantly, her previous task was forgotten and she began to rapid fire question after question while inspecting her 'new' body.

questions ranging from 'Why are my eyes blue?' to 'Why is my body so short' sped through her mind. ultimately, however, she had to stop the onslaught of questions due to the loud, constant pounding in her head

wincing, she took a moment to calm down before carefully inspecting her body in further detail

'It's not that I'm short, but floating here with my legs curled up doesn't help with my perception of my own height.' she listed off, hoping she wasn't going crazy with all the inaccurate details she found herself with

she couldn't really blame the hologram either. not only was she not really in any state to view her own body at the time, but most of the projectors were fried.

leading her to the most important question she had to ask; 'why are my breasts so small?' with a frown, she complained to nobody in particular, however, despite it deeply annoying her, it was the least of her concerns in the grand scheme of things

resuming her search of a fixable drone with a sour mood, she ended up finally finding one with a few of its tentacles, tools, and easily replaceable wiring missing floating by its lonesome.

wrapping one of the tentacles around her, she began to slowly float back to the command chair, stopping at the closest table near it to untie herself and instead tie it down to the table

making the rest of the short journey to the back of the command chair, she found herself instinctively grabbing the first one before making her way back to the table with the drone on it

opening it up, she was pleasantly surprised to find different rations and drinking water within. taking some time to enjoy her fill, she closed the case and pushed herself off, floating with the debris

taking some time to think, she looked back at the anchored robot and began taking pieces out of the other adrift drones. bit by bit she brought them back, until she left to get the final case

inside, as she expected, were tools. simple tools, such as a screwdriver with a case of bits, to a hammer. nails and screws to other things like a flashlight, a knife, a hoe, a shovel, an ax, and even a chainsaw were in there.

how everything fit inside, she had no idea. all three cases were weird like that

going over the more advanced machinery she was sure she would need, such as laser cutters, personal scanners, several pairs of communicators, an excessive amount of spare wires, and even a mini fabricator.

No-El couldn't help the smile that appeared on her lips.

'this ship is gonna fly again' she thought and looked out at one of the nearby windows. 'though maybe not today.'

with a yawn, she finished tying the case and the materials down to the table along with the robot before she pushed herself over to the command seat

buckling herself in, she glanced at a flickering holographic panel to her right. With a thought, she attempted to access the data core of her ship, only to be disappointed that it wouldn't respond

it's not that it was damaged per say, more so it couldn't be accessed on reserved power

feeling her eyes grow heavy, she couldn't help but give in

she didn't know when the last time she actually rested was, but being in an almost comatose state certainly wasn't quality sleep in her eyes

she slowly drifted off to dreamland with bits and pieces of a plan slowly taking shape.