— 56 Hours Remain —

Two felt sick. Five was still out there, and every moment of silence made her worry that something terrible had happened. She knew that Five was growing tired of her frequent check-ins though. It had been far longer than she said it was going to take, after all.

Two caved and pressed the radio button “Please tell me you’re almost done with that thing.”

It took a few moments for the radio to click on from the other end “You ever try rewiring something in mittens? Cause that’s what this is. And I’d be faster if I didn’t have to keep taking my hands away from it to hit this button!” Five complained, beginning to sound irritated. She sighed and tried to calm down “Look Two, I get you’re anxious for me, but I can handle this. I’m honestly kinda getting the hang of this being in space thing.”

“I just… yeah, I’m anxious.” Two admitted “I guess just… let me know if anything goes wrong or if you’re finishing up.”

“You’ll know when I finish up, the module will start flipping itself over. You’ll definitely hear it. I’m gonna keep working on this thing, okay?” the radio clicked off and Two sighed as she looked to the others. Three was sitting by the window now, and Seven had come to rest her head in the medic’s lap.

“I hate to say it before it’s done, but I think she’s actually going to pull this off.” Three said with uncharacteristic optimism “She really seems like she knows what she’s doing. She must have really studied up on the subject of working in zero gravity.”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m concerned over nothing.” Two tried to sound hopeful, standing up and stretching her arms out “It’s not like I have anything better to occupy my time with though. The only thing left to do is carry everything loose out of the physics lab, and I’m not gonna leave this room while she’s out there.”

Three gently patted Seven’s head “I don’t blame you for that. Even if I have confidence in her, I still want to be here if it turns out I can help somehow. After all, regardless of how I feel about it, this is still definitely the stupidest thing we’ve ever done”

“Yeah.” Two nodded before she heard the radio click back on.

“I think I’ve got everything in place now. Just need to solder a couple connections and it’s good to go.” Five reported. There was a short pause before the radio clicked back on “Aaaand… there. AH-!” the radio gave off static before it went silent again, followed by a distant mechanical rumbling noise.

Two leaned forward in her seat and slammed her hand down on the radio button “Five! What was that?!” she demanded. There was no response except the quiet rumbling that continued outside, no doubt the engineering bay beginning to right itself. She tried again “Five! Answer! N-Now!” she began to sound frantic. The radio remained silent.

Three was already moving Seven off of her lap and getting to her feet “Is something wrong with the radio?” she asked.

“Maybe? I-I don’t know!” Two hit the radio button again “Five, please!” she begged.

“I’ll… try to get up on the box at the airlock.” Three said with just as much concern in her voice, and ran for the hallway. They had placed something to climb on by the airlock to see through the high viewing window, and it looked like that was a good call.

Two turned back to the terminal, her hand still on the radio button “Five…” she called quietly, but was interrupted. A very loud mechanical tearing noise reverberated throughout the station, and the lights flickered momentarily. Two sat paralyzed in her seat, fearing what had just happened to the station. Jumping down, she walked to the station’s control terminal and looked at what the red screen was reporting.

The engineering bay was highlighted yellow and had the text ‘correcting’ next to it, confirming her suspicions that Five had fixed the computer, but there was also a small darker red box in the central module they hadn’t been able to reach. It showed a flashing red warning sign by it.

Two shook her head. They could deal with that later, what was important now was Five. She hurried back to the comms terminal and pushed her hand down onto the button again “Five! Please! This isn’t funny!” she called out, her hands shaking as she listened for any kind of response. Nothing came.

That’s when Two heard footsteps moving slowly down the hall. Three stood in the doorway, looking at Two with a haunted expression on her face. She looked significantly paler than she had before. Two stared at her for a moment, looking for her to say something. Anything. “Well?” Two asked with a shaking voice, not wanting to hear what she had to say after seeing how she looked, but she had to hear something.

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Three looked out the window and then down at the floor “She’s gone.” she said quietly.

Two stayed silent, eyes locked with Three’s as she tried to process what she just said. She shook her head slightly and let out a quiet “Huh?”

Three closed her eyes and looked irritated before she belted out loudly “She’s GONE!” she panted quietly, clearly trying to keep herself from bursting into tears.

Two opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn’t even comprehend what she just said. How could she just be gone? That made no sense. How could Three even know that just looking out a window. Two couldn’t accept it. Nothing about that made sense. She had to see for herself.

She stepped away from the comms terminal and walked past Three, who remained silent at the helm. Her thoughts rushed faster with each step. Surely Three couldn’t have just figured out what happened right there. There had to be more to this story, right? She couldn’t be gone just like that. Two refused to accept that.

Her steps got heavier as she strode past the loud churning of the engineering module still spinning back into place. She had accomplished her mission. She couldn’t be gone. She didn’t deserve to be gone. She deserved to live; to drop down to Earth with the rest of them and live. She had proven it, she was braver than all of them, and she couldn’t die now!

Two stared up at the window as she approached the airlock, pulling the box close to it in a rush and climbing up with just as much urgency. She looked out the window and let out a gasp at what she saw.

Outside, in the distance, was the cable Five had been attached to, its tip severed and floating in the vacuum.

—

— 54 Hours Remain —

Two didn’t know how long she had been staring out the window for. The background mechanical whirring had stopped some time ago, and Two just stayed on top of the boxes, staring out at the cable. It wasn’t right. Five was just… gone. And if she wasn’t tied to the station, where was she? She only had a matter of hours left in her atmosphere tank, If she wasn’t tethered to the ship, then she must have been floating freely in space. Two kept wondering if a worse fate might have befallen her. Crushed by the moving parts of the station. Perhaps the panel she had been working on exploded. That would explain why her transmission ended so quickly.

Two didn’t want to think about this, but she was stuck on it. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t accept the world where Five was just gone, and so she relived that moment of discovery again and again. She had to wake up from this. There had to be a world where Five was okay. Where she was just going to walk back through that door and berate her for worrying so much. And Two would hold her tight and never let go again. She had to wait there for her. She had to be ready when she came around the corner into the airlock again. She needed to see her the moment she was safe.

“Two…” came Three’s voice quietly from below. Turning, Two saw the exhausted girl, her eyes swollen from crying. She felt the loss too. “It’s been more than an hour.” she sniffled.

“So?” Two groaned quietly “I have to wait for her. She’s got to be holding onto the station. She needs me to be here when she climbs back in the door. I have to help her.”

There was a long stretch of silence between the two before Three finally spoke up “Life support’s been damaged.” she croaked out quietly “Something happened to it while the engineering bay was turning. It won’t produce anymore breathable atmosphere.”

Two turned to look at her with her own defeated expression “… Was all of this for nothing…?” she muttered “Are we all going to die anyway?” she sniffled, the tears finally starting to catch up to her.

Three went quiet again and leaned against the airlock door, refusing to answer her question until finally she said “We’re not leaking the air that’s still in the station. We’ll break atmosphere in 54 hours. We’ll be landed by 55. So the air we have will have to last us that long. For three people-”

Two sobbed the moment she said three, holding her good arm over her eyes and leaning into the airlock window as she started to cry.

“For… three of us,” Three continued with an even quieter tone “it should last around 30 hours before the air starts to get thin… dirty. We’ll probably suffocate around hour 40. I’ve already opened all the doors, except the containment airlock, so all the air we have can pool together.”

Two hit her head against her hand a few times “We’re going to die anyway.” she concluded, sobbing again. There was a long quiet silence between them as they both basked in hopelessness. But then Two spoke up again “How long could the air last for two of us?” she asked grimly.

“It would get us to ground.” Three said , having already thought of the same thing herself “Two of us would have enough air. Just two of us.” the room between them went back to uncomfortable silence “Don’t even think about it.” she finally said.

“Three, I’m crippled. You’ve got the most helpful knowledge to survive down there, and Seven’s confused, but she’s got One’s data. She’ll be more helpf-.”

“I’ll figure something out!” Three interrupted loudly. And the silence continued for several minutes again “I’m not losing anyone else.”

“How can you stand there and say that?! You were just talking about how you had confidence in Five, and…” she slammed her prosthetic hand against the wall in frustration.

Three took in a deep breath “Look, I know it’s dire. 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.”

Two sobbed loudly when she heard those words. “Shut up…” she couldn’t stop herself from letting out a sobbing chortle at the irony “That’s not fair.”

“Just something someone I respect told me once” Three smiled darkly up at Two.

“Fine.” Two sniffled “We’ll figure something out.”