“Well, she ate it.” Five leaned on her arm, just watching Seven smacking her lips.

“Seven, we’re not even sure if that’s safe yet!” Two reached over to try to take the tube, but the smaller girl pulled it away.

“Stop it. You’re not older than me or something. We both just woke up here. Please… don’t just coddle me through all this. I know I’m taking a risk. It’s not fair if I don’t take risks too.”

“She’s got a point. It is only fair.” Five said begrudgingly “So it doesn’t taste bad?”

“Yeah, it’s like… I thought it would be gross, but it’s sweet.” she squeezed out another small dollop of it and licked it off her finger again. “Hmm… how… much is enough?” she asked, uncertain how much was a meal.

Two sighed, not liking that the injured girl was the one taking the risk with something that could be hazardous “Hmm… well, I guess it is already done. We’ll just have to see how you react. And don’t eat a bunch of it, you might only need a little bit of it, and we need it to last as long as possible. If you’re still hungry in a little while, try some more.”

Seven nodded “I know… I got hurt waking up in the machine. I just hope you don’t see me as useless now.” She looked a little sad, like she was disappointed in herself for the accident she’d befallen.

“What? No, that’s not what it’s like at all.” Two was surprised that Seven was feeling so insecure about the situation “Seven, you’re probably more valuable than all the rest of us. I don’t know exactly what your role means yet, but for all we know, you might be the only one of us who actually can reproduce. We’re not trying to protect you because we don’t think you can be helpful, it’s because we’re… probably more expendable than you are.”

Seven shook her head and smiled at Two “That’s not right. You’re a hero. Everything hurt when I woke up, and I know you felt the same, but you came to check on me anyway.”

Two’s cheeks brightened a little bit “A-A hero? I wouldn’t say that, haha.” she smiled, appreciating the compliment despite her own words.

“Yeah, you’ve been doing a lot of the legwork around here, Two. Guess that’s kinda supposed to be your thing though.” Five smirked at her when she saw it was making Two uncomfortable.

“H-Hey come on, it was Three that really helped. I didn’t know what to do about that cut.” Two tried to push the adoration off onto someone else. She hadn’t expected the praise to make her feel so insecure.

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“You’re all doing good. I wanna do my part too.” Seven smiled and looked down at the tube again, turning it over to see if there might be any kind of indication on it “Umm… I feel alright. It isn’t making me feel sick. And it tasted like they were trying to make it taste good. So I think it’s food.”

“Wish it said how much to take.” Five looked the tube over herself again “Do people just not label stuff on space stations?”

“The ink on it probably wasn’t made to last this long.” Two grimaced, knowing that the lost information could be very important “Hang on, we have a database to connect to now, and I haven’t really explored it. Maybe it’ll have info on stuff like this.” she said as she pulled out her slate again.

“You sure do like that little computer.” Five mused as Two flicked through its menus.

She was searching for something about the station’s supplies. “Well yeah, but it’s not like any paper manuals survived this long. Provisioning supplies on station… take waste organic matter from the hydroponics unit and deposit into the recycler… makes a nutrient rich paste with synthesized minerals for nutrition… Is that what this stuff is? Recycled plants?” Two pondered, continuing to scroll down. “Uhh, a pea-sized extrusion, reconstituted with water, can sustain an adult human for approximately eight hours of light labor. It says you have to take it with water.” Two looked up at Seven, gesturing at the tablet as if to say ‘I told you so.’.

“Did… I do it wrong?” Seven looked a little worried.

“Your body has water in it, right? That should do it.” Five reassured her.

“Probably, but that means it’ll dehydrate her if it’s using that water. We need to find fresh water too.” she sighed “Don’t worry Seven, that’s something we needed to find anyway. Waste processing is on, so I imagine there’s recycled water, let’s see if the plumbing works.” Two stood up and walked back into the kitchen, making a beeline for the sink. Reaching up over the high counter, she was barely able to turn the knob for cold water, but nothing came out.

“Great…” Five muttered from behind, dripping with sarcasm “So we’re gonna thirst to death.”

“You’re so morbid, Five.” Two rolled her eyes “Something’s wrong, that’s all. We just have to fix it.”

“You know how to fix a space station’s plumbing? Cause I’ve only got a vague idea how it works.” Five leaned down under the sink herself to see if she could see where the pipes were going.

“I can try.” Two backed away from the sink and tried to do the same, but the pipes were quickly obscured by metal paneling.

“What if it’s just cold?” Seven suggested “If it’s been off this whole time, and we’re in space. Space is real cold. What if it’s just icy?”

“Could be. In which case, we just gotta wait for it to warm up. But who knows how long that’ll take?” Two put her hand to her chin and tried to think “Maybe there’s a blueprint?” she muttered as she flipped through the slate again.

Five nodded “Find the reservoir, see if there’s somewhere closer. I gotcha.” she finally stood up “We should probably go have a look around in the maintenance area anyway, see if there’s anything broken or worn we have to worry about.”

“Yeah… Yeah, looking for ourselves will be better.” Two muttered as she was having trouble finding anything that might be a map or layout of the station itself. They would just have to try and find it themselves.