The moment Anton entered the fabrication room, her eyes lit up in excitement, “Look at all the stuff!”

Becky followed in after her and surveyed the floor littered with tools and materials, “Looks like a typical bachelor's pad to me.”

Evan stopped just past the doorway, “Not quite. It is missing the discarded food packages and sink full of unwashed dishes.”

Becky laughed, “Yeah.”

Mayu stopped in the hall and a mix of emotions appeared on her face. She then lowered her head, closed her eyes tight, and clenched her fists before looking back up and moving into the room after the others.

Anton picked up a large tool that looked like a cross between an electric drill and a blowtorch and studied it, her eyes practically sparkling, “Where’s the power button… where’s the power button…”

Becky turned to the fabricator, “Ryan, what else can you make with this?”

Ryan hadn’t tried making too many things with it, “Uh, not much. I didn’t want to waste resources so mostly failed fabric experiments and sheets of metal.”

Evan picked up a metal plate that lay in front of what looked like a stack that had fallen over, “Looks like iron.”

Ryan hadn’t known what the metal was, “Oh, that was one of my guesses. I have the most of that, so that’s what I’ve been using. We have a bunch of holes that need patching, so I thought I’d go ahead and get some metal plates ready before you woke up.” 

Evan smiled and nodded, “Excellent foresight. Once Ms. Richards stops fooling around and finds a working welder, she can get to work. While we wait, perhaps you can show me our resources and I can help you label which element is which.”

Ryan only remembered a couple of elements, “Sure. It’s been a while since I’ve taken any chemistry classes, so I’ve forgotten most of them.”

Becky turned to Mayu, who was listening to Ryan’s conversation with Evan, “Want to help Anton look through the tools?”

Mayu gave Becky a polite smile, “Okay.”

After Becky and Mayu joined Anton, Ryan focused on Evan, “Alright, I can only compare how much we have compared to each other since I can’t tell the weight or volume or whatever.” Ryan brought up a chart with elements from smallest to biggest atomic number and how much he had of each compared to the most abundant element he had, “There could be more since the storage containers have damage.”

Evan studied the chart, “Hmm, it appears most of the noble gasses are missing. No iodine. No fluorine, though not surprising. Chlorine… Yes, it seems like we’re missing most of the gaseous and liquid elements, except hydrogen and helium.”

Ryan hadn’t thought about it, but they were lucky they still had breathable air, “Good thing life support still has air.”

Evan thought for a moment, “Yes, I would think a ship such as this would keep materials needed for crew survival in a safer place.”

Made sense, “Yeah, I can see that.”

Evan put her hand on her chin and furrowed her brows, “I would think that a ship as advanced as this would have a way to recycle or make new oxygen, but we should investigate this once we remedy the problem with losing air when we use the hallway.”

Ryan pinged the life support and got some numbers back, “I have enough air to leave the hallway pressurized for twenty more minutes. I’m not seeing the numbers go down after I vent the air from the hallway, so I’m guessing life support has a way to restock it.”

Evan nodded, “I see. That means we will not have to worry about suffocating as long as we do not have to use the hallway.”

Mayu stopped next to a raised metal plate at the far end of the room and set some tools on it as she picked through a pile under it. 

Ryan felt a power draw from the table, and the lights on the tools immediately started flashing.

Mayu noticed, then turned to the others, “Excuse me, I think something happened.”

Ryan had an inkling thanks to the power draw and flashing lights, “Mayu… I think you just accidentally found out why the tools aren’t working.”

Mayu turned back to the tools, and after a moment, her eyes flashed in understanding, “It gives the batteries power!”

Anton skidded to a stop next to Mayu, “A charging station!?” She then put another tool onto the metal plate, “I wonder how long it takes to charge them? If they’re using super capacitors… oooh, that would be awesome!”

Evan turned to see what the commotion was about, but stayed in her spot.

Becky stopped behind Mayu and Anton, “Good job, Mayu!”

Mayu turned to Becky and shook her head, “It was an accident. I do not deserve congratulations.”

Becky gave Mayu a smile, “Maybe, but you WERE the one that found it, accident or not.”

Mayu smiled, “Thank you, Ms. Becky.”

Several tools stopped drawing power, and their lights flashed a blue symbol.

Anton noticed immediately, “That was fast,” and picked up a long, thin tool, “Now, let’s see what this bad boy does!” 

Becky and Mayu turned and watched Anton hold what looked like the business end of the tool away from everyone.

Anton pushed a button and a scissor like tool came out, “A cutting tool for wiring?” Anton pushed a smaller button below the one he’d pushed to turn it on and a flashlight turned on, “Good to know, I guess.” She pushed a button above it,  and the scissors made a snipping motion, “Why’d we need to charge scissors? Flashlight, sure, but… why?”

Becky didn’t look like she cared, “Maybe they’re special scissors? Anyway,” she picked up the bulky tool Anton had gone for first, “this looks like it could weld something.”

Anton put the scissors down and took the tool Becky held out to him, “Yeah! I bet this big boy won’t disappoint me.”

A blue glow came from the end that looked like a blowtorch.

Anton frowned, “Huh.”

Becky shrugged, “Maybe there’s something more to it?”

Anton nodded, “Yeah. Maybe.” She turned off the tool in her hand and looked around the room. Her eyes stopped at the fallen stack of metal plates, “I wonder.”

Evan held out the plate she still held to Anton when she got close enough, “These iron plates should prove useful for experimentation.”

Anton took the plate from Evan, “Thanks,” then knelt on the floor and put it and another next to each other, “Let’s try this again.”

Anton placed the business end of the tool over the plates and turned it on.

The plates joined after only a moment at the spot Anton was pointing at, leaving no sign of a seam.

Anton whooped, “Yeah! Just what we wanted!”

Evan leaned over and inspected the metal plates as Anton finished welding them together, “Such a magnificent tool. If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed they were never two separate pieces of metal.”

Becky stood next to Anton and looked at the metal, “Wonderful!”

Evan picked up the metal and studied it, “I wonder how it works.”

Anton reached her hand out, “Gimme that. I think I found where the leak is when we were waiting for you to wake up, Blondie.”

Evan handed the metal to Anton, “Blondie?” She grabbed her hair and looked at it, “Ah, yes. I am still not accustomed to my new body.”

Anton took the metal, “Kinda jealous. My hair color is pretty much the same.”

Evan looked at the others, “It appears Mr. Campbell didn’t try exotic characteristics until Mrs. Iwata.”

Anton turned from Evan, scooped up a few more pieces of metal plates from the floor, and started walking to the door they’d entered through, “Says the one with two different eye colors.”

Ryan had regretted he hadn’t experimented more, “Well, I’d just died and found out I was a ship. I had other things on my mind.”

Becky started after Anton, “Let’s worry about this after we fix the air leaks, kay?”

Anton stopped at the door and waved her hand at Becky without turning to look at her, “Yeah.”

Ryan started pressurizing the hallway, “Pressurizing.”

Mayu joined the group at the door, “I will stay in here.”

Becky turned to Mayu and gave her a smile, “Okay.”

Evan turned back to the hologram Ryan still had up with the resources available, “I will continue with Mr. Campbell to label our resources.”

Becky nodded, “I want to take a walk down the hallway and look for more leaks.”

The door to the hallway opened.

Anton rushed into the hallway and stopped next to the blast door just on the port side of the ship, “Alright, door. I don’t know who hit you, but I’m gonna patch you right up.”

The blast door looked like the shutters one would see at a storefront, though slightly thicker.

As soon as Anton put a metal plate over the largest hole, about the size of a thumb, Ryan could tell the difference, “That one hole just bought us an hour of air.”

Anton nodded, but said nothing as she brought the tool up to weld the iron plate in place.

Becky smiled at the news before turning to look the other way, “What other rooms are there again?”

Ryan brought up a map of the hallway, “The two doors to the right you haven’t gone into are the supply rooms, but they both have leaks. The door on the left by Anton goes into the med bay. The door after the cylinder room is for the mess hall, and the last room is the small room with the containers and some keypads I don’t have access to.”

Becky looked to the door to the mess hall, “Mess hall. Good to know.” She looked at the door on the far left, “I’ll check the room with the containers and keypads. I bet there’s something interesting inside if you can’t control them.”

Anton finished patching the first hole and started on the next largest by the time Becky made it to the small room.

Becky opened the door, “Let’s see what we have here!”

The room appeared just as boring as Ryan remembered it, as the only thing in here were boxes and some empty shelves, “This is kinda like Christmas. I’ve been staring at those boxes and keypads for weeks but couldn’t do anything.”

Becky leaned over and picked up a box, “Feels empty.” She opened it and looked inside, “Nothing but dust.” 

She put the box down and went to the next, finding it much the same.

Ryan felt just as disappointed as Becky looked, “This is worse than opening a present and finding out it's another pair of socks.”

Becky shrugged and turned her gaze to a keypad on the back wall, “Ah, here’s the keypad!”

Ryan remembered something, “Oh yeah, all the bedrooms have one too.”

Becky leaned over and looked at the pad, “Let’s see. A blue button, an orange button, a red button, and a display screen with some buttons with writing on them.”

Ryan zoomed in on the writing, “Yeah, I’ve noticed that writing all over the ship.”

Becky nodded, “Yeah, the tools had some on them too.” She moved a finger to the pad before settling on the blue one, “I’m guessing blue means on.”

She pushed the button.

Ryan’s camera cut off, “Uh, that turned off the camera.”

Ryan heard some movement before Becky spoke, “I think I know…”

The sound of something gurgling, a splashing noise, a yelp, then another beep as Becky pushed another button.

Ryan’s camera turned back on only to find Becky covered in brown muck, and a curtain rising into the ceiling, “Is that…”

Becky shook her hair, “A shower?” She wiped some muck off her shoulder, “Might need to let it run for a minute first.” She turned to the boxes strewn on the floor, “And that is the soap?”

Becky pressed the blue button again and jumped out of the way.

Ryan’s camera turned off again, “Camera turned off again.”

Ryan heard some sputtering and gurgling before finally receiving an error message.

Becky raised her voice, “So the shower has a privacy switch when being used?”

Ryan thought the same thing. 

Ryan then realized he could see the shower now, but still couldn’t control it, “Looks like the pipes need fixing. I’m getting an error message.”

Becky turned off the shower, “Yeck, how am I going to clean myself now?”

Ryan wished he had an answer, “I… I don’t know. The other showers are in the bedrooms.”

Becky sighed, then laughed, “Oh well, at least it doesn’t stink.” She turned to the second control panel, “Maybe we’ll have better luck with that one.”

Ryan focused on the second panel, “If the other panel is for the shower, then that one might be for a toilet.”

Becky walked to the second panel, “I hope so. I don’t remember you mentioning anything about one.”

Becky pushed the blue button on the panel and Ryan’s camera turned off again.

A part of Ryan was glad it had that kind of function, “Looks like the toilet has a privacy thing too.”

Ryan heard Becky push another button and his camera turned back on, “I’m more worried about you hearing me.” 

The toilet retracted back into the floor.

She wiped some more muck off of her as she watched the toilet retract into the floor, “I think I’ll let Anton try it first.”

Ryan laughed, “Yeah. I’m not sure I even want to think about how a futuristic space toilet does its thing.”

Becky shivered, “Me too.” She looked around the room, “Whelp, I don’t see anything else.”

Ryan couldn’t think of anything else interesting in this room, “Yeah.”

Becky started walking to the door, “Guess I’ll look somewhere else.”

Becky left the room and looked to her left where the hallway ended in a ‘T,’ but blast doors blocked both paths so this was as far as she could go. She then turned back to Anton, who was now working on holes small enough the tool could patch them without needing to place a metal plate over them.

Becky began walking back, “I’ll look at the mess next.” 

Ryan felt he should report to the others, “I’ll let the others know where the bathroom is.” 

Becky nodded, “It’s always good to know where the bathroom is.”

Ryan had an idea, “I can get you water in the mess and those containers in the bathroom look like they can hold water.”

Becky brightened, “Yeah, that just might work! We can also see what happens if we mix water with the dust in the containers.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Becky turned around and walked back to the bathroom.

Ryan focused on the others, but Anton was still busy, so he focused on Mayu and Evan. He’d been focusing on Becky the whole time, but he’d also been working with Evan. Evan didn’t seem one for small talk, so Ryan only had to acknowledge he understood something or change something for her. She’d already finished labeling the elements and was now silently looking at the hologram.

Ryan made new holograms showing the hallway with the bathroom highlighted and an image of the bathroom itself, “FYI, Becky found the bathroom. Shower’s busted, though.”

Evan glanced over just long enough to see the highlighted room then turned back to the hologram, “Noted.”

Mayu jumped and nearly dropped the tool she held, “Ah!” She turned to the hologram, “Does it have a bathtub?”

Evan turned to look at the hologram again.

Ryan highlighted the shower area, “Not that I saw. Just a shower and a toilet.” He highlighted the shower’s control panel, “Blue button turns on the shower and the red button turns it off. Becky didn’t push the other buttons, so I’m not sure what they do. My camera turns off too, so you don’t have to worry about me spying on you.” He highlighted the toilet’s control panel, “Blue button raised the toilet from the floor and the red button turned it off.”

Evan nodded, “That liquid we had on our skin when we awoke dried quickly, but I can still feel some residue on my skin and hair, so a shower would be appreciated.”

Mayu nodded and rubbed her arm, “Yes.”

Anton stopped welding and poked her head into the room, “Someone found the bathroom?”

Ryan remembered how Becky got covered in muck, “Yep. Becky found out the hard way what happens when you turn on a shower that’s been sitting for who knows how long.”

Evan winced, “I can imagine.”

Anton turned from the fabrication room and looked down the hallway, “Yep! I see her! She’s dripping the stuff all over.”

Becky noticed Anton and her comment and ran her fingers through her hair, whipping it behind her, before turning to the mess hall and entering it.

Anton laughed, “I like her.”

Evan looked like she wondered what had happened, but turned back to the hologram after a moment.

Anton noticed Evan’s disinterest and turned back to the damaged blast door, “Just a few more holes to patch!”

Ryan noticed Mayu seemed distracted, “You okay, Mayu.”

Mayu nodded, “I am okay.”

Mayu put the tool down, which was a sensor, and picked up another. 

Ryan wanted to talk to her more, but felt he should wait until they had more privacy.

Becky entered the mess hall, so Ryan turned his attention back to her and the room.

The mess hall looked much like what one would find on a ship or cafeteria. There were three round metal tables, each attached to the floor, and twelve basic metal chairs scattered around the room. On the far wall was an alcove.

Becky stepped into the room, “Yup! This is definitely the mess hall.” 

Ryan turned on the station on the far wall, “That alcove is the food dispenser. Just put a container in it and I’ll fill it up.”

Becky nodded, “Got it!” She began walking through the mess of chairs, “Got anything good on the menu?”

Ryan didn’t want to say, “Uh… I’ve got something…”

He thought about telling her about the bad news about the food options, but didn’t feel like it with everything else happening.

Becky stopped in front of the dispenser and placed a container into the alcove, “I get the feeling I don’t want to know.”

Ryan turned on the water, and Becky rinsed it out before letting it fill up, “Well… I wouldn’t know since I can’t eat.”

Becky shrugged, “I’m not sure I want to feel bad for you or jealous,” she started taking off her clothes and glanced at the door, “Will you lock the door? I don’t mind you watching,” she let out a light laugh, “I mean you made our bodies. You probably know it better than I do.”

Ryan could pull up her cylinder to see her personage anytime he wanted, “Yeah, I’ve had three weeks on top of designing you. Anyway… Just say something if you need anything and I’ll make sure Anton stays out.”

Becky had her shirt over her head so Ryan could only hear a, “Mmhmm.”

Anton lowered her welding tool, “Done!”

Evan looked away from the hologram, “Ryan, are there any more leaks?”

Ryan checked the air pressure, “If there are, they’re not big enough for me to notice.”

Anton entered the room, “Good! This tool’s amazing, but I want to see what else we have.”

Mayu walked up to Anton and tugged on her sleeve, “Eto… Ms. Anton, could you fix the medical room?”

Anton looked at Mayu and gave her a grin, “Oh! Ryan, is that okay?”

Ryan began pressurizing the med bay, “Not a problem. The air leaks in the hallway were worse, so it shouldn’t take as long.”

Anton grabbed the last of the metal plates from the floor and jogged to the door to med bay.

Mayu followed her.

Evan raised her hand, “Wait.”

Anton stopped and looked at Evan. She looked slightly irritated, “Yeah?”

Mayu stopped and turned to Evan too.

Ryan stopped pressurizing med bay and vented what little he’d put in.

Evan looked at Ryan’s camera, “Mr. Campbell, can you let Ms. Lindhurst hear what I have to say too?”

Ryan hadn’t tried, “Let me see.” He thought about Becky hearing what he heard, “Try it.” He focused on Becky, who was now naked and had her hair dunked in the container, “Becky, Evan has something he wants everyone to hear. I’m gonna try putting him over the speaker, so let me know if you can hear him.”

Becky gave a thumbs up, “Sounds good!”

Ryan focused back on Evan, “Okay.”

Evan nodded, “Ms. Lindhurst, can you hear me?”

Becky gave a thumbs up when Evan started speaking, “I can hear him.”

Ryan relayed the information, “She can hear you.”

Evan nodded, “As I helped Ryan take inventory of our supplies, I came upon an idea. Now, we cannot access most of the ship because they do not hold pressure and we have limited air available. So, I noticed that we only have three sources of gases, the life support system, hydrogen fuel and one other.” She pointed to helium on the hologram, “some stores of helium in the reactor.”

Anton brightened, “The reactor is a fusion reactor!?”

Evan nodded, “Yes. That would be my guess, considering the hydrogen is slowly being used.”

Anton turned to the direction the reactor was, “My friends back home would be so jealous if they knew about this.”

Evan raised her hand, “Perhaps, but the helium is much more important for our needs right now.”

Anton turned back to Evan, “How? For coolant?”

Evan shook her head, “No. Now that you, Ms. Richards, have fixed the air leaks, I want to fill the hallway and any rooms we aren’t using with the waste helium from the reactor.”

Becky paused her washing.

Anton looked confused, “Why?”

Evan looked at Ryan’s camera, “Mr. Campbell, can you show us a diagram of this hallway and the one forward, including damage, and the locations of blast doors?”

Ryan did.

Evan pointed at the damage on the far right side of the forward hallway at the ‘T’ intersection, “I noticed the damage here was light,” she pointed to a blast door at the halfway point of the hallway, “and considering this blast door separates the hallway from the far worse damage on the left side, we can temporarily pressurize it by filling the hallway outside this room with helium and releasing it a once. I am hoping this will pressurize the area enough for us to enter.”

Anton whistled, “Nice thinking, Blondie!”

Becky nodded to herself, “If we continue pumping helium into the hallway, we might have long enough to plug the biggest holes.”

Anton pointed to the damage, “If I can get a big metal plate, that should stop most of the leak in one go.”

Becky looked worried, “Have we found anything we can use to breathe? We don’t want to waste our oxygen mixing it in the helium.”

Evan nodded, “Yes, that is the one major flaw with my plan.”

Anton traced her finger down the hallway to the damage, “I think I could hold my breath long enough.”

Evan shook her head, “Maybe to get there.”

Mayu stepped forward, “Maybe the medical room will have something?”

Evan thought for a moment, “I suppose that is the best place to look if there isn’t anything here.”

Anton turned to the door then to Mayu, “I’ll fix the leaks in med bay and Mayu can look.”

Mayu nodded, “Yes. I also like to find tools to help if anyone gets hurt doing this thing.”

Evan turned to the fabricator, “I will work with Ms. Campbell. I have a few ideas for materials that might help us if you two can’t find anything.”

Anton and Mayu left for med bay.

Becky nodded to herself, “I’ll help you, Evan. I’ve got a few ideas too.”

Ryan liked this plan. He just hoped reality wouldn’t show them otherwise.