Another Self Conversation : Life Threatening Priorities

Mind #1 : Blood or Lava is the very essence of the life force that is all over just underneath the tiny shell that's containing them. Why should we conceive them as if we're threatened when we see them?
Mind #2 : Because if you love them, you would want to cuddle those things. That's not very healthy for ya.
Mind #3 : I think our mind's got some messed up priorities here.
Mind #4 : So, we love how life looks like. But we don't wanna get into too much detail, huh?
Mind #1 : Thanks for ruining everything, assholes.
Mind #5 : Shut the f--- up! I'm trying to sleep here!

Autobiomythography : Bulkhead Apart

   The shower of metallic rocks hit the ship's hull and every bulkhead was quaking in emergency. Internal lights flickered dangerously and the hallway was echoing with the automated brace announcement.

   An idiot took the ship straight into the middle of an asteroid field.

   "But I can fix this! I… I can fix this!" Hank slurred desperately, while he was pushed through the hallway by a woman.

   "We are fixing this. Now shut up and keep walking!" The woman, Denny, shouted at him as she pushed him through the quake.

   Hank acted as if he had a few mental disorders and been repeating 'I can fix this' ever since he drove the ship into the asteroid field. And Denny was practically his nemesis. Nothing in this galaxy frightened him more than she did.

   And he's been trying to prove to her how he can stand up to his word. But the level of mess was only increasing every time he touches something in distress.

   "Hey! Hands off from the console!" Denny slapped his hands when he tried to reach a console on the wall. "Get inside!"

   "But I, I can fix this! Wh- where are we going?" Hank said in confusion.

   He realized he was standing in front of an escape pod hatch that was already primed. And Denny just threw him into it.

   "We are getting off of this asteroid field that you kept making it worse. And you are off the ship." Denny said in anger.

   She slapped the console and hatch was closed in between them.

   "No! Why are you doing this to me? Let me fix this! I can fix this!" Hank screamed over the hatch that muffled his voice.

   He tried to pull it open, but it wasn't working.

   "You've been saying that for an hour and I'm sick of it! You can't fix this! So we're fixing this and I'm not letting you interfere any further!"

   "I can fix this!" Hank desperately shouted again.

   "This conversation is pointless." Denny rolled up here eyes and told herself. Then she turned to Hank again. "Hey, shut up and listen! ("I can fix this!") Pod's set up to the nearest shuttle station! Find a way and go home! You are a liability and we can't keep you around here anymore!"

   Hank just stared at her with the saddest face. Shouting has stopped.

   Denny turned to console and reached for the eject button.

   "No! I-"

   A white flash popped through the window and the hull quaked again. Ice and metal particles from the pod scattered through the rain of rocks and dust further away from the window, and the escape pod zoomed away quickly.

   The Pod is built to take a few punishment like a rain of small metallic rocks. The kid's better off for it than on the ship.

   Then she saw an enormous rock appeared from the side of the window. It glided behind the speeding pod and the pod was headed straight toward the rock. She held her breath unconsciously. A moment later, the escape pod simply scattered on the surface of the rock with the flick of purple fire from the dying engine.

   Denny grabbed her head as her upset conscious cruelly rose from her chest to her head.

   The ship was docked at a major trading center on the orbit of a capital planet around for the star system . It's been almost a year without another incident. Ned has been overseeing a variety of upgrades while they were establishing other businesses on the system.

   The most recent communication networking system upgrade was a Levi's idea. He convinced the crew that he saw a major opportunity. A big leap, something that all the crew can settle in. And that required them to establish a connection from the outside of this star system.

   "Got it. Is it working?" Ned said while half of his body buried under the cockpit.

   Levi saw the consoles are rebooting.

   It took them some time to get this system work and running. Ned was skeptical about this new networking idea, and it was a very tricky business. But if Levi was right about it, this was going to make all the previous methods look like a medieval smoke signal.

   Impatient Ned grumbled next to Levi while he was making a connection. It worked at the end. Further range communication with improved quality and hardly any Ping at all.

   Some of the receivers were very alien to Levi and unfriendly. But after a couple of hours in the chair, he managed to get a contact with the destination that was mostly mythical to the crew.

   Planet Pleament, a place where all the dreams come true, Levi once said. The receiver was the Checkpoint for the star system around  Pleament. And they gave Levi the coordinates with welcoming sign. 

   The crew now has the destination to leave behind all of their unforgivable experiences on this system. But it will be a very long journey and the ship wasn't properly equipped for such distance. Most crews had confidence that they can make it, however. They have endured a lot of difficult situations. This one is just going to be like a road trip.

   The crew had the split opinion about how will they get there. The autopilot navigation system was directing the ship into one way, which was toward already charted space, pretty much a highway for the system to system travelers. Denny supported it as if it was an unquestionable matter.

   But every other crew member, Isaac, Ned, Levi, Frey, had another idea.

   Frey, one of the most experienced of the crew, said if they're going to take a long trip, they wanted the trip to be rich with possibilities and opportunities. Trading opportunities on the highway was almost non-existence of that matter, unless the ship was already tuned to high performances and advertised. Their ship was not one of it. Instead, Checkpoint has been suggesting the alternative routes between their systems. And that one sounded good to everyone when Levi explained what he heard.

   Ship's autopilot was coursed through the side road.

   All crew members were satisfied with the course they have taken for this journey. This certainly wasn't the easiest course to fly through, as the navigation hardly registered anything in the path. But where ship's computer failed, it was the Checkpoint that navigated them through the richest area. Levi was only focused on getting to the destination if not spending time communicating with the Checkpoint. But Ned was crazed with happiness for how much new marketing they were opening. Ned was a difficult creature to control.

   Denny has been keeping the crew making the smartest decisions possible. As far as the crew have experienced of her, she's never been wrong, however her methods were disagreeable sometimes.

   Isaac and Frey were the biggest moral supporter for both Levi and Ned, although Frey was a bit unknown and mythical to everyone. And somehow that made Ned to believe in her even more. Frey was someone Ned wanted to believe in.

   Isaac was keeping things under his watch in case anything goes wrong during the travel. That was one of the main part of his job and he's been saving the ship more than anyone can count while they were occupied in the star system they just left. But he has become less used lately. The tension from the outside became less and less ever since the incident with Hank happened.

   Hank was someone Isaac could never forget. He was supposed to look after Hank, and he critically failed him. He has learned. Denny said it was all justified. And the ship did survived better without Hank. And it was an accident that how he died.

   Now all he needed to keep an eye on was from within the ship. Especially with Ned, who had a brilliant mind but needed to be controlled when he gets too excited. Isaac's been doing a good job on that so far. He understood him well enough. And there's Levi. Isaac suspected he has a feeling for Denny. He should keep an eye on both of them in case Denny figures it out and wants to throw Levi out to the airlock. 

   Isaac spent the whole day organizing merchandise in the cargo. They were still light on the number and variety of material. But he was sure they can make more on the way there. He just lay down on his bed bunk and rechecked the number with his pad. 

   There was a light thunder somewhere behind the wall. It didn't sound like a big deal. This old piece of metal can hardly hold itself together. Then there was another louder thunder, then heavy grinding noise. Isaac looked around the ceiling as he tried to figure out what must have caused the noises. Then the whole room started to move slowly. Isaac jumped with a slight dizziness. The gravity was shifting toward the wall. Soon it stopped and returned to normal. But something was going wrong. He jumped out of the bed and headed to the cockpit. He was met with Denny who running toward the same direction in the hallway.

   "Denny, what's happening?" Isaac asked.

   "I don't know."

   Both of them reached the cockpit and everyone was already there. Ned and Levi was in the consoles and there were alert lights and beeping noises going on from all over the cockpit.

   "What's going on?" Denny asked soon as she walked in.

   "Navigation anomaly! We flew into a highway." Ned answered.

   "What? How did we come back to the highway track? I thought that was a completely different direction."

   "This is not our highway." Levi answered instead. "This is another one. Something that wasn't registered in our navigation."

   "We caught a giant traffic tunnel in the middle of fucking nowhere! I told you to fix the goddamn autopilot!" Ned shouted at Levi.

   Gravity shook again momentarily and more beeping noises came up around the cockpit.

   "Why are you telling me that? Fixing is your problem!" Levi argued Ned.

   "Do I gotta do everything around here? You live in the console every day! You can fix it!"

   Another giant hurtle weaved the whole ship and everyone who wasn't sitting down almost fell.

   "What's up with the nudge?" Denny asked, holding on to the door.

   "You see those ghostly flashes out there?" Ned pointed outside the cockpit window. There were lots of stars as usual. But there were also flashing glares once in a while all over the place. "Those are thousands of space ships in Faster Than Light speed flying right in front of us. And our autopilot and navigation network is the only thing that's keeping us shredded by one of those. But I don't trust it! It got us here in the first place when we tried to fly by, and now our FTL won't fire because our auto-pilot is keep saying 'Too many interferences'!"

   "Ned, solve this. I'm going to check the engine see if we can do this manually." Denny said and ran out the door.

   "I'll help." Isaac followed her.

   "What do you think I've been doing? I've been… Wait, I got it!"

   Ned flicked one of the switch over the ceiling and half of the warning lights went off. Isaac heard him, but Denny kept running toward the engine room entrance. If the drive was going to be used, Denny manipulating wouldn't be safe.

   "Denny!" Isaac shouted at her.

   Denny was already opening the hatch. Then next thing he heard was an explosive gushing air all over him strong enough to throw him toward the engine room. He realized there was a hull breach at the engine room and whatever it was it exploded a little after Denny opened the hatch. He managed to hold onto a pipe in the middle of the hallway. He vaguely heard the announcement 'Hull breach! All decks, mask on!'. But he couldn't hear anything beside the hurricane over his head. He could barely open his eyes either. He tried to see what happened to Denny, but he couldn't make a lot of sense of what he was looking at.

   Then something else appeared in front of him. It was masked figure, one of the crew. Soon a mask was put on over his head and he could finally breath and see clearly. It was Frey. She had another mask tied up to her shoulder beside the one she was wearing. And without another word, she jumped and flew toward the engine room. And Isaac could finally see that Denny was still there, but barely holding on to the hatch handle. Frey landed on the entrance as if she was standing almost horizontally, and reached out to Denny and pulled her out. Denny was pushed aside to the corner by the entrance, and Frey handed her the mask she was holding on her shoulder. The hatch was about to close automatically without anybody keeping it open. But Frey forced herself to the other side of the hatch and disappeared. 

   The hatch closed behind Frey. The gushing air stopped.

   The ship was out in the clear and most of the crew was safe, atmosphere stabilized. Frey wasn't there.

   Ned explained there was a small fracture in the engine room's hull when the autopilot made the ship gave all it got and even more to evade incoming traffics. It blew open when the hatch was accessed with another blow of air. The concussion fused the engine and it needed a manual restart. Frey went out there and repaired it, but without a proper suit for vacuum to get Denny and push the ship out of the danger in time. She brought an emergency stasis syringe with her and used it on herself just when she was finished. Otherwise she would have frozen like a broken glass in a few seconds.

   Isaac and Ned went to recover her. They found Frey strapped with an engine pipe and a needle deep into her heart. All of her was frozen. But her skin texture was almost normal beside some ice flakes all over her.

   Denny wasn't even sure how to express her feeling. Or rather, she seemed acceptance of the matter. It was Ned who was almost tearing out. Frey was like a mentor to him, and she sacrificed herself to save the ship and the crew. And although she managed to put herself into a stasis, it was an unstable environment that she put into the sleep. Thawing her now may endanger her life or leave permanent marks all over her bio system. She needed to put into a stasis pod until they could find a proper medical facility.

   Autopilot was gone into a mess. First it wanted to follow the highway traffic, and navigation seemed scrambled and it was hard to fly without some manual control. Engine room become off limit as well. The breach was too great that they couldn't repair it with what they have. Fortunately, the space station they were heading wasn't very far away. 

   Spaceport High Land, it was called. The place seemed bigger than how it was categorized. And all those illuminated decorations were advertising variety of things, especially with Pleament.

   Denny was highly suspicious of everything on the station, and she did not want to stay too long on board. But the ship needed help and this station had a few things that can repair the hull. Unfortunately they didn't have any medical facility. Instead they had a lot of things that drove the rest of the crew hazy. The black market.

   Levi was the one who was most excited about all this. He went raving all over the station with Ned. One time Ned disappeared for over a day and came back to the ship completely trashed. Denny was rather worried. Ned couldn't even remember what happened during the time he was missing. A couple hours later they figured out all of his money was gone. 

   Ned wasn't the only one who got himself into the trouble. A repo man showed up to the dock and claimed that the crew owed the station a few merchandises from the ship. It was true, and legal. All the advertisements in the name of Pleament were all tricks to steal stuff from the travelers.

   Denny forced others to leave the station as soon as possible. There was no more arguing allowed. Their destination was coming close and they cannot let any more of this bureaucratic mess manipulating their stuff.

   The traffic was increasing near Pleament's Checkpoint. Thankfully, that also meant making variety of networking transactions in the market within the range. It gained them some fortune, at least to recover from some of the cost they had to pay during their travel. But nobody was heisting anything out of it. Their destination was near.

   However, the procedure through the Checkpoint was the one that could take days. The Checkpoint was part of a giant spaceport. Most of the crew decided to take the shore leave while they're waiting for the process.

   Levi finally met the guy from the Checkpoint face to face. They've shared each other's stories and hanging out ever since. About how many people are passing through this station every day, how things are changing, how difficult but proud and important it is to work with the responsibility of the checkpoint. How their pay wasn't very great and economy around the star system was falling as well. Levi began to notice those phenomena as well. He wanted to help the work on the Checkpoint with his newly made friend, make new experience. It made him feel closer to the Pleament. But it was never his department. It may be the same area of expertise. But he never was properly authorized to be involved.

   Levi also shared his own story with the Checkpoint. It seemed the members of the Checkpoint admired how he and his crew traveled this far. He hasn't even realized how much effort they have been going through to get here. But now that it was mentioned, it sounded like something to be proud of. He enjoyed the attention for the moment.

   He was getting very excited about all this, in fact, that he decided he should be more part of the community in this star system. He believed if he trades well enough goods with the Checkpoint, he should even be able to get the residentship on the Pleament, Settle in forever, possibly even with Denny. He didn't tell the crew, but he arranged a possible deal to live on the Pleament in the exchange of the whole ship. It was a fair price for a place where all the dreams come true. And these friendly Checkpoint fellows must be where it's coming from. He was sure other crew will understand when the time comes.

   Ned was the most depressed one of all, and by far. It took both Isaac and Denny to calm him down. Ned really hated this waiting ever since High Land, especially while Frey was injured like that. They had things to do and Ned needed them to be done. There is nothing for him to do on this station without bumping into crazed random people, and he hated the lack of privacy while forced to be blended in.

   

   Process happened faster and smoothly later. And they were finally allowed to enter the system. Checkpoint suggested to first go to a moon near Pleament. The crew didn't see why not. Levi was just excited to be in the system.

   On the way out from the Checkpoint, however, the crew saw an explosion on the small portion of the station from near where their ship was docked. Some of the new friends Levi met were there, and there was nothing he could do about it.

   They approached the moon of Pleement, and it was a beautiful little planet. Billions of traffics were traveling around the moon and so many colorful experiences they've never seen before. At first they thought they could blend in just like anywhere else. But it was actually very difficult to catch up with everything that suddenly happened around them.

   Frey was still alive, but her condition was not stable. Their travel delayed them too long. The local hospital took over the stasis pod. Nobody else knew what happened to her afterward.

   Levi was still overjoyed about Pleement. But there has been many different rumors about the planet from the moon. Mostly said it is a planet where one must visit at least once in a lifetime, while others seems to have some trouble with what happened on the planet. And when they were asked exactly hat has happened, nobody answered directly. Denny did not like this phenomenon. Isaac didn't want to discourage Levi after all the trip they've made. So he supported him, although he has agreed with Denny. Ned was still on the rampage about the situation. And he started to get drunk constantly. The excitement of nearing their goal, all the waitings and loss of Frey were a lot of collisions in his mind. He pretty much believed Frey was gone forever.

   They did not stay over the moon for too long. Their goal was right ahead of them. Levi was already receiving the welcoming communication from the main planet.

   "This is it?" Ned asked.

   "This is it, I guess." Levi answered.

   "Is this fucking it?"

   Ned was drunk and usually the crazed one among the crew. He's also been in a bad mood for days. It wouldn't surprise any of the crew if he acted a bit rough on the edge. But that wasn't the rage speaking. He didn't shout. That was a pure darkness drawing within his mind, the disappointment. And nobody disagreed with him. Not even Isaac.

   They landed their ship and walked on the surface of the Pleament. Nobody spoke very much. They have been flying around the planet for two days looking for anywhere with the opportunities they've been listening. Instead, what they discovered was a planetary pleasure house that just didn't want anything the crew had to offer except for money.

   The whole planet was already overused and drained. With everything automated including transmission, services, advertisement which kept population to keep come and spend money and go again. Some may be regular visitors who's either having a good time or became addicted. But for the crew, it was their life that was depended on. And there was no business here. The planet was practically barren to them where they can't even walk outside the door without a full space suit.

   "Levi, what have you gotten us into?" Denny asked, holding her fury.

   "I… I thought…"

   Levi could not make any excuse for this. He was not expecting any of this.

   "This is where all the dreams come true? There's nothing here. After all we had to go through?"

   "But I was so sure! That's what I heard from everyone! You heard them too, didn't you?"

   "Yes, that's what we all heard. But what did you really know enough to get all of us over here? Didn't you learn nothing from High Land? Goddamnit, Levi. This was exactly what I was afraid of happening. You can't trust anybody telling you anything."

   "I thought we could settle on this planet. I really thought…" Levi wanted to express his enthusiasm, but hesitated.

   "What?" Denny asked.

   Levi didn't want to talk about it. Especially to her. Not this way. 

   "What have you done, Levi?"

   Denny noticed something and it was going to anger her even further if he doesn't explain.

   "I wanted to live here with you, together. I've already made the deal from the Checkpoint. I thought…"

   "Wait, what?" Ned interfered. "What deal?"

   "I told them if we like here enough eventually, we'd sell our ship to have the residency on the planet. All of us!"

   "That is a grand plan. And you were going to tell us that, when, exactly?" Denny frowned at Levi.

   "I'm sorry! But I was so sure this was it! I just wanted to…"

   "No. Levi, I will never live with you. Why, you think things would actually happen if you just simply wanted it enough? I can't care less about your fantasies, however unfortunately I knew about those. But this is my life as well. You can't just gamble it however you're excited about, or for any of us. And I certainly don't want to be a godforsaken whore on this stupid planet that you heard it was a good idea. But apparently you can't even think enough for yourself."

   Then Denny just stared at Levi. Her heartless soul was burning into the man, and he couldn't look at Denny in the eye anymore. Or any of the crew. Not even the ship. He betrayed everything he lived with for the goal that turned out to be a nothingness.

   Everyone was now paying attention to something else. Levi turned away from the crew. All he could look at was the barren desert and distant wasteland. That was it. The wasteland. That's what he was going for the whole time. He has been dreaming.

   "A place where all the dreams come true." Levi silently spoke to himself.

   Ned looked at him. But he couldn't hear what he was saying. He turned to Isaac.

   "Aren't you going to say anything?" Ned grumbled to Isaac.

   Isaac sighed deeply.

   "No. I…"

   Isaac was interrupted by a sound of loud thud behind them, a gunshot. Everyone quickly turned around. They saw pieces of clothes and glasses mixed with red liquid rising on the horizon, Levi's body falling underneath.

   "Ffff- Shit!"

   The ship and the crew were back at the moon. Civilization, where they can do what they've been doing before they started the journey, but with different materials. Fortunately, they began to learn the resources and skills they had was better suiting for this new environment. But they've also drained their resources too much that they won't be able to make another long journey for some time.

   New arrangements they met was very rich even it was just for a short time. And one of the neighboring market shared a lot of interest together, which cooperated together while they stayed. Then there were some shadier business deals also came by and crew's investment on them left them with nothing if they were unlucky. Nobody also stayed long enough to make any partnership solid for the long term. This was one of the new things about new environment the crew wasn't entirely ready for. Denny began to see the pattern in all this. And she did not enjoy any of it. She couldn't help feeling threatened by the losses they were sliding to the corrupted part of the marketing system on the moon.

   After a while, there was hardly anything left to hold the crew together anymore. They began to spread throughout the influence of the moon. Denny was the only one left sticking around the ship and trying to rebuild the economy they have lost to get out of this center of nowhere. But it was not possible to do it on her own however she tried. One day, Ned visited the ship to meet Denny. He found out she wasn't doing so well. That brought down his mood as well. Then Denny complained how nobody isn't doing anything in this situation except for her. Everyone knew the problem. Why can't anybody do anything about it?

   Ned was offended when she included him as the irresponsible ignorant individual. Ned needed to explain how he didn't like that. He shouted at her, but to tell her he's better than this. And they saw there was a problem with Isaac. He has done nothing to stop these disasters from happening recently. And he was too busy mingling with others who wouldn't even take him seriously, then he completely forgot about the ship and its responsibilities.

   Denny explained that he can't be the member of the crew anymore. He became weak, holding things back and being useless.

   Then something even Denny wasn't expecting happened. Ned outraged when she explained those about Isaac. He just ran out the ship. The last thing he said was "I'll take care of that bastard."

   Isaac was having a busy day of his own, and he just said goodbye to another departing traveler on the dock. When their ship took off, Iiron turned around and saw a metal bar that Ned hurled at his head. Then everything went black and spun around him.

   He tried to open his eyes. But he felt too tired to see around him. He tried to think what have happened. Then a searing pain seized through the side of his head. He opened his eyes and noticed he was covered in a blanket, laying on the bed, a bandage on his head. He wasn't in the dock anymore. This was much like the hospital.

   Isaac couldn't understand how this just happened. Why would Ned suddenly attack him? He knew Ned wasn't in the best shape lately, but he never thought he'd strike him like that.

   A nurse came by later. She said he's been out for 4 days. Ned nearly killed him if somebody from the partnering business member didn't caught the action and called the ambulance immediately. Isaac was distressed for how many days he was out, and how much he knew nothing about it. He wanted to solve the problem, talk to Ned, whatever it was.

   The nurse left telling him he was recovering quickly but still need another day or two on the bed. This was pointless. He needed to get out now. But his body was nearly paralyzed, he couldn't move very well. It must be the drug or the headache, or 4 days of laying on the bed. He understood there was nothing he could do for the moment. He just laid there while hundreds of thoughts flooded into his mind.

   He sensed another person walked into the room. He figured it was another nurse, and didn't bother by the presence. But that person just stood there by the door. Isaac turned his head to see who that was.

   It was another patient in the hospital. She was leaning next to the door, looking at Isaac with joy and worry on her face. And Isaac couldn't take her eyes off of her when they met their gaze. It was Frey.

   

   Frey explained everything about what has been happening while Isaac was hospitalized. Denny was now in charge of her own enterprise and she was moving in brutally, and rumors of her viciousness has been going around quickly. Other markets didn't like the method she was charging everyone with. The method she called 'Justice' was more about reconstructing the whole marketing system to the way she liked than making fair benefit for everyone. And she assaulted anything that gave her the disadvantage. Ned supported Denny with rage as well. If Denny had the idea, Ned was the voice. And he pretty much raved at everyone.

   They gradually lost most of the network. It wasn't long before they decided to drop out on everything, and just make things up on their own. Denny figured she could do better by herself. She even abandoned Ned.

   This shameful conflict needed a resolution. The crew needed to get things back together.

   The first thing Isaac did when he got out of the hospital was looking for Ned. He wasn't very hard to find.

   "YOU!"

   He heard a familiar voice shouting at him a second Isaac walked into their favorite pub. Ned strode straight toward Isaac with obvious brute intentions.

   "You indiscipline stubborn son of a bitch!" Ned charged, with a fist on Isaac's chin.

   Isaac collapsed on the floor, knocking a table. Ned jumped right on top of him and repeatedly assaulted his face with knuckles and vile languages. Isaac didn't fight back. He expected a bit of a rage from Ned, as usual. And Ned was completely drunk, slurring every single word and his swing was hardly consistent. Isaac did not want to fight this guy.

   "Fight back!" Ned shouted.

   The alcohol in his blood made him harder to breath. He was getting tired very quickly and he hardly saw where he was hitting anymore. Some of his fists just landed on the floor and the table Isaac was leaning on while mostly just scratching all over his head.

   "Fight back you coward!"

   Isaac still felt all of his face sore and dizzy. But Ned was completely weakened. And he knew he was winning the fight without fighting.

   Ned finally stopped swinging his arm around and looked straight at mugged Isaac's face. 

   "Fight back…"

   And the face Isaac saw from Ned wasn't rage anymore. Ned tried to catch up with his breath and he was almost crying. He fell away from Isaac, leaning on the floor. His anger stopped. Isaac sits up to face him.

   "Why are you here, you stupid bastard?" Ned swallowed his fatigue and sorrow and asked.

   Isaac explained how much he has been trying to get the crew and the ship together, and wanted to know why Ned was so angry.

   Ned thought Isaac was weak, never there when everyone needed him, and that Denny explained how useless he has become. He also explained he was mourning every death that happened on the trip. How Frey was sacrificed to save the ship, Levi blew himself up and Hank was thrown out the airlock. And now there's three of them left and Isaac's been doing nothing with them.

   "But, Ned." Isaac began to explain. "Frey's alive."

   The depressed look on Ned's face vanished. He looked at Isaac straight through his eyes as if he needed to see it to believe it.

   Isaac wasn't abandoning the crew, although clearly he did make some mistakes. But he was always away because he was trying to put their situation together with the given surrounding. Issac thought everyone was already too stressed to take any further pressure. So he took the matter by himself and establishing new connections. Isaac had no idea everyone would feel left out because of it.

   Ned struggled, but soon he understood. And in fact, he didn't care anymore. There was somebody he thought dead was still alive and it was Frey. Ned couldn't explain why he thought she was dead. He just needed an excuse to plummet himself into the anger somehow, Isaac thought.

   Ned got up, picked Isaac up, then he explained about Denny, how cruel she's turned into. And that was where Isaac was headed to.

   Isaac went into the ship where Denny was suppose to be. Denny was waiting for Ihim. But he never the easy one to panic. And they were both armed.

   The ship was dead and quiet. Isaac realized Denny was jumping around the ship luring him wherever she wanted. And Denny had a lot of things to say about everything. How much hard she was working to keep the ship most optimal, and it was always everyone that screwed things up all over again.

   "They should have listened to me since the beginning, and we wouldn't have gotten into this mess. And where were you the whole time?" Denny spoke in the darkness.

   Isaac didn't answer. He remained silent the whole time, listening to her argument. He was following the voice for a couple minutes. And he sensed a hint of fear from her.

   "Answer me!"

   Isaac knew she was right on top of her on the cargo dump. He unleashed the lock for the hatch above him and she fell a dozen feet down to the floor. She fell hard and cracked her ankle. The gun she held fell on the metal floor and slid to the corner of the room. Isaac jumped down and leveled with her.

   "I admit," Isaac began to explain. "I can't say that anything you said was wrong. You've always been the smartest one of us. And things may have gone much better if everyone listened to you from the beginning. But that is a long line of maybe."

   "And those are the maybes with at least a better outcome than this!" Denny grumbled with agony.

   "You're right. We've made a lot of mistakes on the way. And here we are."

   There wasn't a lot of argument left to talk about after everything Denny has been littering all over the ship. She was right. She's always been the right one. She just pushes it too far too often. And when she found problems around something she wanted to protect, she responded by disposing all the roots out of them, solving the problem permanently. And there's nothing without a problem that she wouldn't rip apart, even if that was something she valued dearly. She was going to lose everything around her.

   "So what, are you going to finish me off now? Let's forget about the mistakes, is that it?"

   "That's what you'd do, now, wouldn't it? No loose ends."

   Isaac still had the gun in his hand. Denny knew whatever she tells him wouldn't mean anything when he had all the upper hands. And she should die, if Issac was her.

   "But that's not how I do things."

   The weapon slid into the holster. And the hand that had the weapon reached down toward Denny without one.

   "We won't forget about our mistakes." Isaac explained. "Those are valuable lessons that came with the great cost. We shouldn't waste that by burying underground. And, well, we'll probably be kept making more mistakes. That's the way I like it. Not that you'd understand anything about taking chances." 

   "That sounds pretty stupid of you."

   "That's why we need you. To make the smarter decision. And I'm here to hold us together when things go south. But none of us can do that very well without you."

   Denny thought for a moment. Isaac couldn't read exactly what was in her mind. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know. What mattered was that Denny caught his hand, and she let him help her back on her feet.

   "I was away for too long, and I'm sorry." Isaac continued. "But I'm here now."

   They stared each other in the darkness as long as they can. Denny still had so many things to argue about. But this time she had chosen not to. She simply accepted how things seem to be starting to move up. She knew as long as Issac can keep his word, she'd be able to hold her thoughts together without overreactions. Witnessing his integrity he relied on her side, she can finally be not afraid of the failures.

   At the hospital, Frey finished her last treatment and settled in the new recovery room with a great view. It will take some time before she can walk outside of the hospital, and she may never even be the same. But whichever happens, she could enjoy some of this vacation for the time being.

   She wondered what had happened to the crew. Watching a crew who was like a family breaking apart worried her. Just then, she noticed a familiar filthy presence briskly walking into her room. It was a man, and he froze where he stood when his eyes met with hers.

   "Ned!" Frey gleefully welcomed him.

   "Frey!" Ned was going cry joy. "You lived!"