One of the biggest problems facing the group was figuring out how to travel safely to the village. Even with the temperature soon to be on the rise, it would still be below freezing for longer than they wanted to wait. So all the snow that had piled up during the deep freeze would take too long to melt for waiting it out to be an option. The other problem facing them was how to provide the energy required to charge the heating packs while they worked.

S'haar was looking at the snowshoes she'd used while getting to and from the worker's billet. "can we craft enough of these for everyone?"

Jack frowned. "We probably could, but those aren't great for long-distance travel. As you noticed, they are considerably slower than walking and more exhausting to use, so we'd have to take a lot more breaks. It would take us the better part of a week to make it to the village using those."

S'haar sighed, setting down the snowshoe. "You might be right, but it would be far better than pushing through the snow the whole way. At that rate, we might as well just wait for the snow to melt before leaving."

Jack had his chin propped up by his hands as he spoke. "True, but I think there's a better option. I'm thinking cross country skis. They are energy efficient, and once you get used to traveling with them, they should be quicker than walking."

Angela offered a counterpoint. "That's true, but you won't be able to haul as much due to the decreased friction making a heavier load impossible to move. You're going to have to haul food for yourselves so you don't use any resources the village can't spare, tools for gathering wood and hunting, and something to produce the power you'll need to charge the heating packs."

Jack stopped and thought a minute. "What if we split the load up? Rather than one large sled, we have each argu'n pull their own smaller sled."

Angela hesitantly nodded. "That might work, but we'll need to craft them all from scratch. It's still far too cold out for the workers to return to the woodworking hall. They won't even be able to get started until the freeze passes, and that'll take precious time."

Em'brel tilted her head to the side. "What if they worked in the cave right outside the ship? It's still cold there, but the heated coats should be enough protection this far in the cave."

S'haar nodded. "There's just enough lumber leftover that we should be able to make a few smaller sleds. I can retrieve the wood and tools they'll need with my suit."

Creating three-dimensional images of the skis and sleds, Angela turned to Fea'en, who'd stayed silent up until now. "How long would it take you to craft enough of these for everyone here?"

Fea'en squinted at the images for a moment. "What kind of dimensions are we talking about?"

Angela put up an image of S'haar in between the skis and sleds for scale. Fea'en sat back with crossed arms. "Well, it would be quicker in an actual workshop, but even with basic hand tools, we can probably put together at least a couple sets a day."

S'haar nodded, satisfied with the timeline. "We'll need six sets, so that should be less than three days. That'll work."

Jack looked a little surprised at that. "Six? Even if we're leaving Em'brel at the ship, we'll need seven sets by my count."

S'haar glared at Jack with narrowed eyes, her voice one small step away from a growl as she spoke. "You aren't coming either! You're still recovering, and you'd just be dead weight!"

Jack looked surprised a moment before shaking his head with a wry smile. "That's not a very nice way of saying you're worried about me and that you'd prefer if I'd stay here where it's safe. But I have to disagree with you. I'll only be dead weight if everything goes as planned. What you're forgetting is that regardless of how weak I am now, I'm still the only one here who can safely work in the cold. What if something goes wrong with the generator, what if another storm hits, what if, what if, what if? I hope I'm dead weight, that would mean everything went according to plan, but if things go wrong, I might be the difference between everyone getting there and back safely, or not at all."

S'haar glowered at Jack, wanting to refute him, but found herself unable to find a good reason. "Fine, but I expect you to spend every minute up until departure pushing yourself twice as hard to get yourself into shape! I won't have you slowing us down out there!"

Jack waved off her concern. "Yes, yes, I'm worried about your wellbeing too. What you're forgetting is that I'm literally built for this. Endurance strain is the one area I have an advantage over you argu'n. I may still be a ways away from full capacity, but I'm confident that by the time the freeze ends in a few days, I'll be able to keep up with you, if not outright outpace you!"

Lacking any further arguments to keep Jack back where it's safe, S'haar finally relented. "Alright, seven sets it is. I'll suit up and start hauling wood. Fea'en, have a list of tools you'll need by the time I get back with the first load, and I'll get those in the second."

Fea'en nodded. "Sure thing. Dragon, can you give me a more detailed image of what the skis and sleds will look like?"

As Fea'en and Angela started working on the diagrams, Jack helped S'haar suit up. "I know you're worried about me, but you can't just lock me in a tower and keep me safe. I'm no more a damsel in distress than you are. The world's a dangerous place, but I'm not about to let you take all the risk while I sit back and twiddle my thumbs. We're in this together."

S'haar paused in suiting up and looked thoughtful for a moment before grinning mischievously. "You're right. I should keep my eyes on you anyway. You'd probably find some way to get into trouble while I was gone, but you have to admit one thing. You're just a little bit more a damsel in distress than I am!"

It was Jack's turn to glare. "Remind me again, who found who tied to a stake, naked, and ready to be sacrificed?"

S'haar waved his point. "Oh please, you know I've saved you at least as many times as you've saved me, but I'm not the one who broke his foot kicking someone in the face!"

The whole room was watching the playful bickering by now. This was some of the best entertainment they'd had in weeks. Of course, Lon'thul had to join in the discussion. "Hah! Way to let a woman put you in your place, Jack!"

Jack felt his face grow warm, but S'haar merely developed a predatory grin. "You know, you could learn a thing or two from Jack. There's a reason he's the one I've chosen to share my bed, and it's not just because he keeps it so nice and warm!"

To emphasize her point, S'haar reached down and drew Jack into a rather intense kiss. For several long moments, Jack forgot all about his embarrassment. When S'haar pulled back, he was left pleasantly dazed.

The room erupted into a chorus of catcalls and cheers as S'haar put on the rest of her suit and took off to make the first supply run.

-

Jack and Angela were debating how to address their power needs while Jack used the bench again. This time Em'brel was spotting for Jack. Angela's jeans and t-shirt look was at odds with her serious expression. "We don't have enough resources to make more solar panels, but you could unhook and take one of our current sets with you."

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Jack shook his head. "Absolutely not! First off, I'm not going to deprive you of any more energy than is necessary. Second, their output isn't as reliable as we'll need. That's one thing when you've got them tied to massive batteries like we do on this ship, but it's a whole different problem when you depend on them for a direct charge. We need something that'll produce the power we need when we need it. To that end, I'm thinking something more along the lines of a high capacity battery."

It was Angela's turn to veto the idea. "There's no way I'm sending you all out there with something that has that limited a lifespan! It needs to be something that you can refill or recharge when needed!"

Jack finished a set and put the bar at rest before answering. "What about an old-style fuel generator of some kind?"

Angela looked thoughtful. "That could work. We don't have much access to fossil fuels, but I might be able to synthesize a biofuel using the excess fatty tissue of some of the meat and some of the oil we can leech out of our plant stores. It'll cut into our food supply, but we should have enough to fit our needs if Lon'thul can resume hunting again in a few days. The generator itself will be easy enough to craft. It doesn't require any rare minerals."

Em'brel was looking back and forth between the two, concern evident on her face. "What little I studied of fuel generators indicated the fuel was dangerous both in storage and in its exhaust. You even poisoned your cities to the point it harmed people's health. Is this a good idea?"

Angela addressed her concerns since Jack had started another set. "So long as everyone knows to store the fuel away from any fire, it should be stable enough that there is little to no risk to anyone. Although to be safe, we'll keep it on a sled rather than having someone carry it directly. The fumes should pose no problem as long as the generator is kept out in the open air. What few contaminants they'll be exposed to should be less dangerous than exposure to smoke from a campfire."

Em'brel still looked somewhat skeptical as Jack finished up his set and caught his breath before speaking. "I'm not saying this is a perfect solution, but our options are limited, and everything we can do has some risk involved. It's just that this is probably the lowest risk option available to us. With a bit of luck, we're just being paranoid and over planning. I'd prefer to err on the side of caution, that's all."

Angela nodded. "Especially with your track record. It seems like every time you go out, you come back with some new injury. Maybe if we plan things out thoroughly enough, you'll make it back in one piece this time!"

Jack looked offended. "Hey, what about the second time we went to the village? I came back in one piece that time. Also, I only got nearly gored to death once while out gathering recourses. I went out dozens of times without any near-fatal injuries!"

S'haar came walking up while pulling off her suit so she could warm up between trips. "You know you're not winning any arguments like that, right? Keep that up, and I might change my mind on your presence on the expedition!"

Jack was now facing three sets of eyes expressing varying degrees of annoyance at his joke. With a sigh, he relented. "Alright, alright, all joking aside, I am taking this seriously. Even if I wasn't motivated by self-interest, my safety is the group's safety. So you can believe that I'm checking and rechecking our plans in my mind.

Angela spoke on all their behalf. "See that you do, and give me another set while you work on that!"

With a sigh, Jack lifted the weights off the braces again. This was going to be a long few days.

-

Over the next several days, everyone's biggest surprise was that everything went more or less as planned. The woodworkers got the skis, sleds, and poles ready. Em'brel helped Lonthul prepare the food and camping supplies for travel. Jack showed Tel'ron how to care for and operate the generator. All the tools were given maintenance and sharpened to be ready for heavy use. Finally, Jack pushed himself as hard as he feasibly could in his recovery, with S'haar and Em'brel taking turns to encourage and support him as needed.

As Jack and Em'brel were finishing another set of exercises, Jack couldn't help but notice the girl seemed distracted again. It took a little bit of poking and prodding, but eventually, he got her to open up about what was bothering her. "I just... I just wish I was going with you!"

Jack looked at her with his arms crossed, and his head tilted as he tried to understand what she was getting at. "We've been over this. Because of the reason you were initially headed to the village, it's probably best you avoid allowing yourself to be in a situation where anyone from the village has direct control over you. That could result in a power struggle none of us needs at the moment."

Em'brel shook her head. "I know, and I agree, but I still wish I was going. The idea of staying here while you all go out and risk yourselves... It's almost too much! After losing my father, then almost losing you, then finding out I might still lose you, I don't think I could stand losing someone else again! Not right now! Not without doing everything in my power to help prevent that! I know you all are the ones taking risks, but weirdly, I feel like it's my life that's on the line..." After finishing her thought, she hung her head as if she was ashamed.

Now Jack understood. He put a hand on the young girl's shoulder, noting as he did so that she'd grown at least an inch since he'd met her. "That's a relatively common phenomenon back where we come from. It's called loss aversion. It can be challenging to understand, let alone deal with. A part of dealing with it is coming to realize that loss is inevitable. It's one thing to make your head understand it, I think we all logically accepted it back when we were kids, but it's something else altogether being able to come to really accept it."

Em'brel nodded but kept her gaze fixed on the floor while Jack pulled her into a hug. "I wish I could say there was an easy five-step process to accepting it, but ultimately everyone has to come to terms with it in their own way. It's not easy, but you're stronger than you realize. You've already grown so much since I first met you, and I have no doubt that you'll get through this a little stronger than you were before everything happened."

When Jack tilted her head up to look him in the eyes, Em'brel's eyes were brimming with tears. Jack gave her the largest, most comforting smile he could while he dried her tears with the sleeve of his shirt. "All that being said. Hopefully, you won't have to worry about it for a long time to come. I'm not planning on going anywhere any time soon, and neither is S'haar. We're covering all the contingencies we can think of, and between Angela, S'haar, and I, we're paranoid enough to think of quite a few!"

Em'brel finally smiled and laughed a little, making Jack's own grin grow a bit more around the edges. He leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. "Besides, you're not the only one with loss aversion here. Even if we take the headsets with us, Angela will need your help as much as you'll need hers."

Em'brel looked confused as Jack continued his explanation. "She puts on a brave face, but I worry about what will happen to my sister when I pass on, hopefully, many years from now. It's been a great relief to me that our family has grown to include you and S'haar. There will be someone there for her for many years to come. I can see it now, aunt Angela, being there to help raise your children, grandchildren, and so on. She'll be telling stories about her adventures with her crazy human brother and our adopted family for generations to come!"

Angela flew right up to the two of them as they spoke. "Hey, what's with all the depressing conversations over here? With everyone taking off tomorrow, we should celebrate tonight! We'll have more than enough time to worry about them after that!" Em'brel laughed at that, maybe a little half-heartedly, but it was still good to hear.

Sadly the steak was now gone, but Em'brel was able to whip up an extra-large batch of delicious stew that would store well for leftovers on their trip.

Everyone laughed and played games. Even S'haar joined in. Albeit, not until she'd checked, rechecked, and triple checked that they had all the gear they needed and it was all secured and ready to travel.

As the night wound to a close, Jack put on a movie. This time choosing one called "Dragonheart." At one point in the film, Lon'thul had to stop and ask Angela, "Why aren't you as impressive as the dragon in this movie?"

Angela didn't say anything. Instead, the dragon pulled itself out of the screen and took a snap at Lon'thul's nose. Unable to help himself, Lon'thul flinched back as the dragon faded and in its place floated Angela, with the dragon apparently returning to its position on the paused screen.

Angela's smile said it all, but she spoke up anyway. "Oh, I could be all big and scary, but I prefer lulling my prey into a false sense of security before I strike."

Lon'thul laughed as he stood up and dusted himself off. His ego was only as bruised as his rear. "You know, if you put your mind to it, you might just make one of the best hunters I've ever worked with!"

With a slightly flirtatious wink, Angela responded. "Oh, you have no idea, little man!"

Eventually, everyone's energy was spent, and they all dragged themselves to their various sleeping arrangements, spirits buoyed and ready to set out the following morning.