— 71 HOURS REMAIN —
The three girls stared at the screen in stunned silence. It was hard to argue with what Five was saying. From the windows alone, it didn’t look like the station had taken a drastic turn to suddenly plummet out of orbit, but the diagram on the screen was obvious in its intent. The Last Stand was falling to Earth.
“Can you cancel it?” Three stammered out in alarm.
“I dunno if you’re seeing the same screen I am, but there are no buttons to press here.” Five said shakily as she tapped various keys to no effect. “We’re falling out of the sky in three days.”
“Why would this even be a thing?” Three sounded distraught “What does this accomplish? We’re just going to die now!”
“I doubt this station was built for reentry.” Five turned around and looked at Seven, who was still staring off into the distance past everyone “Seven… please tell me you know something we don’t.”
Seven acknowledged that she was being spoken to with a quiet grunt, and then said quietly, in that same flat tone of voice “I know… the fire won’t hurt us. They made sure the fire won’t hurt us. As long as it tells us we’re safe, we’re safe. And we’ll go to Earth. And we’ll rebuild. Repopulate. That’s my responsibility.” It was obvious the girl was still very confused, and it wasn’t clear whether she actually would get better at this rate.
“If it tells us we’re safe…” Two repeated, looking back to the screen and looked over the diagnostics “The sensors say everything’s okay… does that mean… it is outfitted for entry? Is that what you mean Seven?”
Seven nodded “It is. It’s heat shielded.”
Five furrowed her brow “Why would an orbital station have heat shielding?”
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Seven continued nodding “For us.”
“… You mean this was our progenitor’s plan?” Two asked.
Seven kept moving her head up and down “They were very smart.”
Three looked out the window and crossed her arms “Okay… I guess at this point, all we can do is trust them then.” she spoke unsteadily “And prepare as best as we can.”
“There has to be something in the database about the physics of reentry.” Two took a deep breath “I’m betting we can’t just stand around and wait for this to happen though. We should build something to soften our landing. Gather all the mattresses together or something. We’ve got three days.”
“I’m sure I can build something better than that.” Five also needed to take a moment to calm herself “But yeah, screw it. Let’s go to Earth.”
“It probably solves our supply time limit.” Three still sounded stunned by the gravity of what they had to do. “And potentially creates so many worse problems. What if the atmosphere isn’t breathable? What if there’s some sort of common virus that our bodies can’t handle?”
“One thing at a time, Three. Right now, we have to focus on surviving the drop.” Two let out another deep breath and then raised her voice “You need to be on research so we can help Five figure out how to make… whatever she’s going to make to cushion the fall. Focus on things related to physics, I guess. I’m going to run supplies. Whatever you need, Five, I’m gonna get it to your station so you can keep working, and in the meantime I’ll gather up as many other useful materials and supplies as I can so we can keep them safe through this too. Seven…” she turned to look at the addled girl, who was sitting on all fours, staring intensely at the floor “You… you just hang on, you’ve been through enough.” she knelt down and patted Seven on the head, trying to soothe her.
Five seemed surprised when Two started taking charge, but she smiled at her and nodded. It seemed like a sensible plan. “I’ll get right on making some kind of… soft cage I guess.”
Three was already scrolling through her slate when Two looked to her. “This is insane. But I guess we’re just insane now.” she muttered.
Two nodded to her. “Looks like. I’ll start with hauling any loose metal I can carry to the workshop. That’ll be our base of operations for now. If you don’t have anything to do, just report there.”
“I’ll keep an eye on Seven there too.” Five nodded as she knelt down to the crawling girl and got her attention, lifting her up slowly to her feet.
Two nodded in agreement. “Alright… we finally got our mission. Kinda. Let’s get to it.”