As the pair walked in to the common room of the dormitory, Seven sat down in an armchair, letting out a satisfied sigh. She was more tired than she had let on. Two instead walked through to the rooms, glancing into each until she ran into a closed room. And it was locked from the inside. “Three!” she knocked on the door “Come on, we could really use another pair of hands out here.”

“Go away.” Came a muffled voice from inside the room. She sounded upset “Let me just die with the rest of our species.”

“Look, I know it’s dire.” Two sighed and stood back from the door as she spoke loudly, trying her best to reassure the distraught Three “I know there’s… probably nothing we can do about it. But someone went through a lot of trouble for us to be alive right now. The least we can do is stay alive long enough to see if whatever they planned was a good idea or not.”

There was silence for a moment, and then the door slid open, revealing Three with a flushed face. It was obvious she’d been crying, but she had that same scary glare on her face that she had when she had scolded them before. “You seriously think that whatever person is making us go through this is worth our time?”

“I dunno.” Two reached in and pulled Three out of the room by her shoulder “Let’s find out. We found food, enough to last us awhile. And we’re close to getting water running. I think. So we’ll be able to survive for awhile, we just need to work a little longer. Five’s doing some necessary repairs to the station, and Seven looks like she’s gonna pass out, so that leaves you and me.”

Three turned and grabbed Two’s shoulder back, clenching her teeth and glaring right into Two’s eyes “Survive for what!? To eventually starve on a derelict in space? For this whole place to collapse around us so we can die in a vacuum? What’s the point, Two!?” her voice cracked as she yelled at Two. Her previously stoic expression was broken, and she stared at Two with tears starting to flow from her distraught face “Nothing we do is going to make a difference! We already lost!”

“We haven’t even learned the rules yet.” Two countered calmly, staring her down with a sympathetic frown. She could feel that hopelessness too. That call of the void to just give up and shut down, but something kept her going, just to keep moving forward. “And then we can play the game, and see if there’s something we can do to win anyway.” she finished the metaphor as Three began to sob, and with a moment of hesitation, she pulled the other girl in close. Two wrapped her arms around her, the medic holding back tight as she bawled her eyes out, weeping into Two’s shoulder as she let out her emotions. Three blubbered unintelligibly for several minutes until finally, she let go and just leaned against her gently, her sobs reduced to sad hiccups as she let out all her frustration.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Finally, Three spoke “How… How are you still going? It’s hopeless, but you’re still going like you’re going to change something.”

Two pondered this for a moment before she answered “I think they must have engineered me to be able to act calm in a crisis. Don’t get me wrong, I’m scared. I’m really scared right now. But… I know that if there’s something I can try to improve the situation, I have to try. It’s like back in the power room. The door shut and I wondered if the room might depressurize or if the doors would just be stuck. But I kept moving anyway, and I ended up finding a solution.”

“So what? I’m supposed to just have blind faith that this is somehow going to get better?” Three sniffed, still sobbing quietly between words.

“… I guess that’s what it is, isn’t it?” Two closed her eyes and sighed, a small smile growing on her face “But that’s all we’ve got at this point.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” Three finally took a step back from Two, holding her arms close to her chest. She felt vulnerable now. But she didn’t feel as defeated as she did a few minutes ago “What did you need my help with anyway?”

“I shouldn’t be alone when I’m exploring, right?” Two smiled at her, reminding her of her own rule “So… I need you to come with me so we can find the reservoir. We should be able to get to it through the physics lab. Then we can try and figure out what’s blocking the pipes and get something to drink.”

“… My throat does feel pretty dry.” Three sniffled, wiping her nose on her shirt sleeve. Since she’d been crying so much, she had probably dried herself out just like Seven had with the food gel “Okay… I’ll follow you. Just… don’t get injured, okay?”

“Deal.” Two leveled her smile gently to the other clone and took her hand to lead her.

—

Seven had fallen asleep in her chair by the time Two and Three made to leave for the labs again, and neither of them had the heart to wake her, so they were just a group of two for the time being. Two made sure to warn her about the noise Five was making, no doubt still working on welding the door shut, and not to look that direction down the hall as they slipped into the physics lab.

Two was happy to see signs that this room was actually oriented correctly, the odd machines of the lab strewn haphazardly throughout. Their purpose would no doubt be lost forever without Six’s expertise. Two instead led Three to one side of the room, where a hatch lay in the floor, conspicuously unobstructed by the large lab tables and machines littering the room.

Two pulled up on the hatch’s handle, and strained for a few moments before letting go “Jeez, might need Five for this after all.”

Three silently stepped forward and instead turned the handle, a hiss of slow pressurization happening beneath their feet. Then the hatch cracked open with a loud clunk.

“Oh hey.” Two smiled and tried to reassure her that she was being helpful “See? Two heads are better than one.”