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A deafening sound startles Ryann awake. She groans, turns on the bed, frowns when she can't feel Alexandria asleep next to her. With another groan, she sits up. The screen on the nightstand tells her there's still a couple more hours before her shift starts. She doesn't have time to be angry, though. The noise, which she can now identify as an alarm, has started up again. With a sigh, Ryann gets out of bed and moves through the halls of the ship to the cockpit.
Alexandria and Ahmed are there, sitting in front of the control panel. When Ryann reaches their side, she can clearly see the frown etched on Alexandria's face.
"Trouble?" she asks. Alexandria doesn't startle, even though Ryann is sure she didn't feel her coming in.
"Nothing we haven't dealt with before," Alexandria replies with a sigh. They've known each other for a long time, since before they started working for the ship, and so Ryann can catch the tiredness behind her words.
"Don't remind me," Ahmed mutters and stands to fiddle with some panels on the other side of the cockpit.
No one in the crew will say it out loud, but the ship is far from ideal. The trip is already several weeks behind schedule, and new problems arise everyday.
The alarm goes off again and Alexandria makes a noise of frustration as she moves dials and presses buttons in an attempt to fix whatever is going on. Ryann watches her with bleary eyes. She would love to help, but she's just one of the pilots. She knows enough to do minor repairs but, by the look of it, this isn't a minor repair.
The alarm makes one last attempt at blaring again before it stutters and quiet fills the cockpit. Alexandria lets herself fall against the back of her chair with a groan. Ryann puts a hand on her shoulder and does her best to give her a sincere smile. Ahmed lets out a whoop of victory and moves towards them with a tired smile.
"Looks like we've got it under control," he says as he sits in front of the main panel again.
"For now," Ryann mutters. Alexandria punches her arm, but there's no real strength behind it.
"We deserve a fucking raise after we get back to base," she says, making Ahmed laugh.
"Yeah, good luck with that." The silence that grows around them is grim. Chances are they will just be given a pat on the back for their patience, maybe a commendation, if they are lucky. SCOUT is not known for going out of their way to fix their mistakes or praise the mercenaries they hire under the table.
"Anyways," Ahmed says finally, forcing a smile back on his face. "Why don't you two go back to bed? I'll keep an eye on the panels in case anything else needs repairing."
Alexandria opens her mouth to retort, but Ryann puts a hand on her arm before any noise escapes her lips.
"Thanks, Ahmed," Ryann says and stands up. Alexandria glares at her, but she follows after a second. "Let us know if anything happens."
"Will do," Ahmed calls after them as they leave the cockpit.
They move through the halls in silence for a while before Alexandria speaks up.
"I can't go back to sleep." Ryann turns to look at her for a second before nodding. These kinds of events always make Alexandria restless. It doesn't take her long to make up her mind, to put a hand around Alexandria, pulling her close, and to steer them towards the common area.
“Come on,” she says. "I'll make you something warm to drink. That always helps, doesn't it?"
Alexandria gives her that tired smiles of her that means she's endeared but doesn't actually think Ryann's suggestion will bear any fruit. Ryann, as usual, tries not to take it to heart. She gets it. Alexandria is tired. They all are. They're all so, so done with the ship and the mission and the everything of this region of space they've ended up. Still, despite her apparent reluctance, Alexandria steers them towards the mess hall and plops down on one of the chairs next to the kitchenette.
Ryann keeps to herself the soft smile she feels coming at the sight of Alexandria slumping forward against the table with a tired groan. She knows it would not be appreciated.
“Chocolate?” she asks instead. Alexandria hums quietly, slightly muffled by the surface under her.
With a shake of her head, Ryann makes her way to the hot drinks' dispenser, one of the only parts of the ship that never gives them any trouble. Tomas once joked, when they first received the ship, that there would be a riot if it ever broke. And while that had been funny at the time, Ryann is starting to think that SCOUT took it to heart.
The machine dings an exact forty-five seconds later, a cup of hot chocolate smoking inside. Alexandria looks up when Ryann takes it to the table and sets it in front of her.
“Nothing else here works that fucking smoothly,” she bites before taking a sip.
“What can you do?” Ryann says with a shrug. She tries not to think about it too much, tries not to focus on cut corners and lowered costs and the values SCOUT has assigned to the lives on board. She tries not to think about the false promise that working for them has turned out to be. She's supposed to be in charge of morale. She's supposed to avoid these kinds of thoughts from forming around the rest of the ship. It'll help no one if she's the one spiraling with them. “Look on the bright side, at least we know for sure one piece of technology on board is reliable.”
Alexandria glares at her for a long moment before rolling her eyes with a fond chuckle. She knows why Ryann acts the way she does about a ship that is slowly falling apart. They had this discussion many times before deciding that there would be no benefit in fighting about it and that both of them had valid points.
“I was having the nicest dream before the alarm started blaring,” Alexandria says after a few more sips. She still looks just as stressed, but the lines of her shoulders have started to relax. Ryann will take that as a win and allow the change of topic.
“Yeah? Anything specific?” The way she wiggles her eyebrows as she asks makes Alexandria snort into her cup.
“You're the worst.” She lets Ryann laugh and savor in her smile for a moment before putting the cup down. Her face goes serious once more before she speaks. “I dreamt of us, all of us. Before.”
She doesn't have to finish that thought and Ryann feels her own expression become somewhat somber. There are a thousand things that rush through her mind that she could say in response, but none of them feels adequate.
“Were we happy?“ she finally settles on.
Alexandria hums, looking to the side.
“I think we were.”
They remain in silence until Alexandria finishes her cup and then for a little bit longer. There's still that lingering somberness that clings around the whole crew, that reminds them of the reality of their situation. With a sigh, Ryann takes Alexandria's hands and threads their fingers together.
“Hey,” she says, in a voice so soft she's almost surprised when Alexandria looks up at her. “We can still be happy. They don't get to take that from us as well.”
Alexandria holds her gaze for a long second and nods, squeezing her hand in turn.
“We are,” Alexandria says. Then again, with more conviction, “we are happy. And we'll be done soon, right? They can't keep sending us to the ends of the galaxy once we've finished the contract.”
Ryann smiles, drags their locked hands up to her face to leave a soft kiss against the back of Alexandria's.
“We'll be done soon,” she agrees. There's always James' stash of explosives if SCOUT keeps trying their patience, she thinks darkly to herself. “And it'll feel like even sooner if we sleep some of the time, don't you agree?”
Alexandria rolls her eyes but pulls her up nonetheless.
“Fine, you win,” she says, pulling Ryann towards their quarters. “But I'm telling Blake you left the dirty cup in the mess hall.”
“You'll make a beautiful widow,” Ryann replies and delights on the incredulous laugh that Alexandria can't quite contain.
The crew will be fine, she thinks, as the door to their room slides shut. They may not be in the best place right now, but they'll all be fine. They have each other, after all.