Trying her best to appear casual, Lissia tapped away at her communicator. She was too far out in the middle of nowhere to have any connection to the array, but ideally swiping through menus had the same effect to an onlooker. Gabriella should be there any minute. Soon she heard the sound of metal clanging against the floor and a couple of loud swears. That was definitely her. Lissia barely rained in her grin as Lissia stomped around the corner and pointed her rifle-mounted flashlight in her face.

Pretending to just now notice her, Lissia looked up with an annoyed expression and shielded her eyes. “Christ Gab could you not point that right in my face?” she said, trying to keep the giddiness she was feeling out of her voice. For a while Gabriella was stunned into silence, keeping the light where it was. Lissia was fairly certain she heard the safety of her rifle flick off. For a moment she thought Gabriella might shoot her just to avoid giving her the satisfaction, but instead she lowered the light to the floor.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me. What the hell Lissia?” She phrased it like a question, but Lissia was pretty sure Gabriella knew exactly why she was here. She gave a half-hearted shrug. “Just doing a bit of scavenging. Fancy meeting you here though, guess you are also after those power cells huh?”

Mentioning the salvage changed Gabriella’s expression. She regained control of her face and narrowed her eyes, raising her rifle slightly. As she put the pieces together she spoke through gritted teeth. “We agreed, you would stop taking tips from Saxton.” 

Slipping her communicator into the breast pocket of her denim jacket, Lissia held up her arms in an exaggerated gesture of surrender. “Swear on the colony Gab, I didn’t get this from Saxton. I heard about this place from some rock grinder who couldn’t hold his vodka.” 

Gabriella looked skeptical, but invoking the colony seemed to convince her. She flicked the safety of her gun back on, took the flashlight off, and swung the rifle over her shoulder.

“In that case I have a bone to pick with Saxton, not you.” She said before stalking down the corridor past Lissia, who jumped off the rumble she had been sitting on to follow her. She also made a mental note to swing by Saxton to apologize for the chewing out he would no doubt get. While technically she had not gotten the tip from him, he was involved. She had dropped him an anonymous tip, knowing it would get to Gabriella through him.

Lissia caught up with Gabriella. “So… how is Haven doing?” 

Gabriella let the question hang in the stale air of the super freighter for a while before answering. “Fine, considering the circumstances. The hydro farms have started giving some real harvests, so food is less of a concern. But more people keep showing up and…” She cut herself off, shooting Lissia a sideways stare. “What do you even care?” She finished with a renewed bitterness in her voice.

Lissia found herself sliding back into the same argument they had already had a hundred times. “I know you think I’m some heartless bastard who doesn’t care about the station, but it was my home too.” Lissia shot back. 

Even though she could not see it in the gloom of the decaying corridor, she knew that Gabriella was rolling her eyes. “Oh yeah, Lissia the exile with a heart of gold. You made it very clear who you cared about when you left.” 

Lissia made an insulted sound. “Left? They fucking kicked me out! What the hell did you want me to do about it?” 

Gabriella grinded her teeth before replying in a low voice. “They gave you a choice, same as everyone else. Stay and serve your sentence, or be banished.” 

“What kind of a fucking choice is that?” Lissia yelled. “You and I both know that sentence was bullshit. Staying would have been accepting that I was guilty.” 

Gabriella suddenly stopped and spun to face Lissia. “If you had just shut your mouth and served your time it would have been a done deal. But your ego couldn’t take that, so you picked exile.”

Lissia balled her fists until her knuckles were white. Gabriella knew that would sting. “What if it had been you Gab? Would you have just rolled over and…” 

Quick as lightning Gabriella flashed her hand from the shoulder strap of her rifle. She leveled a finger at Lissia, holding it inches from her face. For a tense moment they were both silent, wound up like springs. Gabriella’s face was no longer just annoyed, but furious. “I told you to stop calling me that. You don’t get to call me that anymore. Got it?” 

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Lissia was caught off guard at the intensity in Gabriella’s voice. She knew it had hurt Gabriella when she was exiled, but there was a hardness in her tone that Lissia had never been on the receiving end of before. She stared back at Gabriella, not wanting to break eye contact first, but she eventually did. After muttering a dismissive ‘whatever’ Lissia turned back down the hallway and pushed on the first door she found. With some effort she managed to get it open, and ducked inside.

The room was totally dark, except for the bit of light that spilled through the door. Lissia flipped a switch next to the door, and after some fluttering and the sound of several fluorescent lights popping, the room was illuminated by a couple of lamps. It was a communal living area with beds and footlockers, and on instinct Lissia started looking through them. The first she tried was unlocked, but had nothing of value. Just the scattered remains of some probably long dead crew member. A faded photograph of a young couple was taped on the inside of the lid. Lissia closed the footlocker and moved on to the next, trying not to think too much about what she was doing. Everyone scavenged now, and it was not like these people would mind. They had either left without these things or died, and either way she was not snooping through their personal effects for kicks. It was about survival.

The next footlocker was locked, so Lillia dug her hand-torch out of her satchel. She put on her respirator more for the eye protection the facemask offered and flicked the torch on. She carefully started cutting the lock, trying to avoid damaging anything inside. As she worked, Gabriella poked her head into the room. Wordlessly she took in the room like Lissia had, and methodically started checking the row of footlockers opposite to Lissia. They worked in silence, and for a while the only sound in the room was Lillia’s torch. 

Scavenging was a convenient excuse to abandon the argument. Lissia knew where it ended anyway, and she was not particularly keen on rehashing the conclusion. She gave the lid of the foot locker a tug, and the lock began to give way. She turned off the torch and used the bottom of its grip to give the lock a hard bash. With that the lid came free, and she swung it open.

There was not much in the footlocker, but compared to the rest of the room it was a treasure trove. An almost new shirt that only seemed a couple of sizes too big for her, a book she had never seen before, some small batteries that seemed brand new, some ration bars, and a bottle of water. There was also a faded folder filled with paperwork that Lillia held up for Gabriella to see. On instinct she said ‘paperwork’ and Gabriella got up and walked over to take the folder. She sat down on a dusty bed and began flicking through the papers. 

Before, whenever they had gone scavenging, she always insisted on slogging through shipping manifestos and flight reports. Lillia still thought it was a stupid waste of time, but she always saved any readable documents she found for her. While Gabriella read through the folder Lillia arranged the other contents of the footlocker on the floor. After taking off her respirator she gestured to the items. “Want first pick?” 

Gabriella was absorbed in the paperwork and gestured to Lillia “You found it, go ahead.” Lillia shrugged, but quickly scooped up the batteries. She had something special in mind for those.

“Food” Gabriella said absentmindedly, and Lissia nodded while sliding the rations towards her. Non-perishable food that was a blessing, and standard issue rations from the before times had practically no expiration date. Even if the labels on them disagreed. Lissia looked from the shirt to the book. From the cover art and the books title ‘A Knight to Remember: Murder at Camelot’ it seemed quite appealing, but her wardrobe was in desperate need of something new. The shirt she was wearing now was almost more holes than shirt at this point. Opting for the reasonable choice she folded up the shirt and began stuffing it into her satchel.

“Water” Gabriella countered, prompting a quizzical look from Lissia. Water was scarce, but the book was the obvious pick. Trading it she could easily get 6, maybe 7 liters of water for it, and the bottle held no more than half a liter. 

Even as Lissia fixed her gaze pointedly at her Gabriella kept reading the report. “I don’t need charity.” Lissia said, looking away. 

“What? I’m just thirsty.” Gabriella said nonchalantly, but they both knew what it was. “I pick the water, so you get the final item. Unless the scavengers code has changed that’s all there is to it.” 

She was right of course, and without any more discussion Lissia put the book in her satchel. She did not want to show it, but she was grateful. Times had been tough lately, and even if the power cells were a dud, this small haul would help make up for it. Gabriella closed the folder and picked up the water and rations. She cracked the bottle and took a sip. For a moment she looked like she was going to offer it to Lissia, but she seemed to think better of it. Lissia’s pride was grateful, even if she would not have minded some water. 

“We should find those power cells.” Gabriella said and got up. 

Lissia nodded in agreement. “Go on ahead, I’ll be right there.” When Gabriella had left Lissia knelt down by the first footlocker she had checked. Opening it back up, she carefully peeled the photo off and tucked it into her notebook. As she left the room she turned off the lights. It would feel weird to leave them burning, even in an abandoned husk of a huge transport ship.