Isolation

Chapter 21

Vera smacked the water tank with her drill. She tried everything she could to fix it, but it wasn't going to work. There wasn't enough scrap to perfectly seal every rupture in the tank. All of the water had leaked out, leaving her to use the ship's small diagnostic panel. Every crack she sealed would just cause more to appear. She was giving up on ever fixing it again.

"Vera," someone said.

She jumped with an "Ah!" and rubbed her head.

"Rocco," she said. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"What's the matter?"

"I can't get this damn tank fixed," she said. "I think it's gone. Damn it, if I hadn't tied it into the hydraulic system!"

"Don't worry about it," he said. "We'll find water somewhere."

"We can forget about taking showers, too."

"That's okay."

He wrapped his arms around her.

"I like the way you smell."

Vera rolled her eyes and pushed Rocco off of her.

"I'm not in a flirty mood, right now."

"Come on, baby. It's been days since I've seen your beautiful body. You haven't really talked to me, either."

"I've been busy, Rocco. You know, trying to keep us alive?"

"Take a break," he said. "Let's go to our room and... relieve some stress."

She shook her head.

"Not happening. Too much shit is going on. No one in this shitty crew knows the first thing about first aid. I wish Judy was still here."

"You're not responsible for everyone here, Vera. You need to look out for yourself."

"If no one else can do anything about it, shouldn't I be?"

"No," he said. "We need to look out for ourselves if we're going to survive."

He wrapped his finger around one of her belt loops.

"I don't think I can survive much longer without having some fun."

She looked down at his hand.

"Sure. Tonight. Let go of my pants?"

He released her.

"What's up with those guys, anyway?" He asked.

"I don't know. I took their blood samples and put them in the ship's computer. Hopefully it can see what we can't."

"It sucks what happened to Mark and James," he said. "They seemed pretty cool."

"Yeah," she sniffed. "They were."

She picked her drill back up.

"I'm going to keep working on this."

"Okay. I'm gonna see if there's any food left. Want me to bring you anything?"

"I'm good. Thanks."

He went up the staircase. When he was gone, Vera took some deep breaths. She had to hope that Aiden was going to take care of everything. Even so, she had a troubling feeling in her gut that things were going to get worse before they got better.

Outside, a guy and a girl were fighting. They were in line to get some food being cooked in a pot. They had collected some of the dew, enough to fill a small pot but not enough for everyone. Aiden got between the two and told them to back off. They were hungry. Everyone was hungry.