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**Sombs** · 04-30-2018, 07:10 PM,

Day 4 - Location unknown

It was the fourth day. Microvibrations caused by the engines were creating a familiar sound all over the ship. Remaining at the most outer edge of the black hole, the Apahanta used just enough engine power to counter the gravitational pull of the black hole.

Ezrael opened his eyes. It was time to wake up. "Apahanta, please turn the morning light on. And my music playlist." And a beep later, the room was illuminated in a sunrise-esque orange, the wall-monitors turned active and the Captain's music began to play. His head turned to the side, just to find Sombra laying next to him, sleeping like a rock. With a smirk on his face, he placed a peck on her cheek and then removed the blanket. The hot air of their bodies was leaving, allowing an uncomfortably less-warm breeze to caress their nude bodies. "Get up, Sombs!"

After an suspiciously long shower together, they dried and dressed up, putting on their Apahanta suits. When they both arrived at the canteen, they only found Sherry sitting there, with a PDA and a cup of coffee. Ezrael's glance over to her was ignored, as she seemed to be focused on her PDA. "Does she ever sleep?" Sombra asked as she followed his eyes. They stood at the buffet and took their trays, starting to gather the breakfast.

"I often wonder about that myself, but then again I guess she has some tricks. She was longer with the Core than me." About a minute later, they arrived at the table Sherry was sitting at and sat down on the opposite side, Sombra right next to Ezrael. "Good morning, Commander."

"Good morning, Captain. Miss Hookier." It was weird. Sherry usually prioritized greeting the Captain in a more respectful manner but this time she didn't even look up to see his charming smirk.

"Everything alright, Sherry?" Ezrael asked her after a few seconds of silence, taking his glass of milk while looking at the woman with the chestnut-colored hair.

She looked up, into his eyes. "Pardon, Captain. I am currently comparing the jump drive logs to check if I am right with my theory."

"Right about what specificly?" Ezrael asked, then took a good sip of the milk. Sombra was munching on a bowl of cereals in the meantime.

"Specificly everything. The better we understand the areal situation, the better we can find a solution. I was comparing our latest blind jump with other blind jumps we did. It appears the time the Apahanta was in hyperspace was five times longer than usual. We didn't notice it because we were busy with the combat situation and all the damage the ship took. However, this explains why we are out of jump drive batteries. It also creates new questions. What caused the jump drive to do that? The hyperspace itself or VS-0074? Or the damage our ship received? Or this black hole? I really wished Poole was still alive, Captain, because he knew such things." She sighed quietly, glancing at their trays.

"You should have breakfast with us, Commander. I need you to stay healthy, and coffee alone won't do the job." Once more he gave her his typical charming smirk while grabbing his apple.

"Captain, after the breakfast I need to talk to you privately," Sherry sounded, giving him a firm look. "I need to discuss a few worst-case-scenarios with you."

"I see. We will talk about that in your room, then. Now get yourself some food, that is an order." Sherry nodded at that and stood up, heading for the trays. She was followed by Lorena Hawkins, who just entered the canteen to have breakfast. Ezrael smiled over to her, just to have the line of view intercepted by Sombra's face. She gave him a suspiciously wide smirk. "W-what?" Ezrael sounded awkwardly as he faced Sombra.

"Why do you smile like that, Ez?" Sombra asked weirdly enthusiastic.

"I am a jovial person. You should know, you know me for many years. I like to smile." She grinned at him even more. "Oh please, you again."

"You know, Ez, I slowly begin to understand why you didn't want me to walk around freely here. I'm slowly discovering the interpersonal constructs here on the ship. And I believe Lorena to be one of the girls you convinced to join your crew with the power of your di-"

"You know, since we're extending the hydroponics, I need someone to mix the required soil. You know what that means? Buckets of dried poop need to be rehydrated and mixed with dirt, so we can grow more plants. I yet have to assign someone to that job."

They gave each other firm looks until Sombra faced her bowl of cereals again. Ezrael bit in his apple and chew it. "So I was right. I mean, she fits the scheme."

"You'll love the job, Sombs. You take the biomatter containers to the hydroponics and open them there and get a breeze of poop. No breathing masks, you'd do it with nose and mouth wide open. Some water to create moisture and then you add the dirt and fill it into the new plant beds."

"I'd probably vomit from that," Sombra sounded, frowning while smirking awkwardly at her cereals.

"Do it into the soil, though, so we get nice potatoes."

The mood during the breakfast was better than the days before. A certain level of normality was establishing, however the lack of stars felt awkward. Commander Aguilar did not have this feeling. Ezrael entered her room and was met with the bright light of Manhattan's skyline. The holographic windows next to Sherry's bed displayed it, as usual. Sherry herself sat at the edge of her bed and looked up as Ezrael entered her room. The door closed behind him and she stood up. "Captain."

"Sherry?" He smirked at her.

"Take a seat, please." She pointed with an open hand towards the seat on the opposite site of the room. Smiling, Ezrael took the invitation and sat down, followed by Sherry who sat down on his lap, just to get embraced from behind. She leaned her back against his upper body while he held her, placing her head on his shoulder while facing the skyline.

"How are you holding up, Sherry?" he asked her while his hands slid down to hers, cupping them.

She shifted slightly on his lap. Ezrael could feel her breathing as her chest moved up and down. "I knew managing a crew is not always fun. I like the crew, the ship, you of course as well, but this is the first time I do not know how to handle things." He heard her sighing. "I have doubts about us returning home, so I thought about how to increase our chances of survival and how we can minimize the resource consumption."

This was something Ezrael did not like. He was fully aware of himself not being the most suitable captain, given he bought himself into the Core and into the bridge of the Apahanta. Sherry on the other hand had had many years of training. Her being unsure about the situation was a bad sign. "Go on."

"I created plans for each available crew member on what they can do. The engineers are fully scheduled, others have only so much to do as they lack the skills to do other things in reliable ways. I mean, we can't even train them to do stuff they don't know anything about yet, because we have only so many people and those need to work already. It would be a waste of time. So I tried to figure out how we can use unemployed people. And then I remembered we have cryo capsules." The last sentence was spoken a bit more quiet.

"Good idea. We should ask whether they want to be around or just sleep in cryo until things change or they are specifically needed." Since she did not reply after his words, he added "Right?"

"Ezrael, we will be out here for a very long time, very likely. If we can reduce the resource consumption as early as possible, it will buy us precious time. With each consumed resource, quality of life will be reduced a little bit. It starts with things like your beloved fruit shampoo and milk, later it is medication and rations and in the end we will eat only potatoes in all kinds of variations. Another resource is energy itself. It starts with lights, sonic showers and all that, and in their spare time the crew wants to do things. Like, look at this. The skyline of Manhattan. It is soothing to me to have that, but we can be here longer if I turn it off at once and never turn it on again." She made a break for a moment, looking at the virtual sun of the New York system at the sky of Manhattan. "Apahanta, turn off the holographic window."

With that order, the picture disappeared, leaving a jet black wall behind. "So you suggest we start limiting ourselves to the bare minimum from now on already."

"I mean the cryo capsules shouldn't be an option but an order."

Ezrael's heart was beating a bit faster. He did not like the idea. "We're twelve people. Who to begin with?"

For a moment, Sherry remained quiet. Then she took a deep breath. "You won't like it, I can imagine that, but I believe Sombra is lacking the skills to be an effective resource right now. She is a pilot. There is nothing to pilot right now."

"I need her. She is good for the morale of the crew, Sherry. A funny person, always smiling and happy-"

He was interrupted by Sherry. "Ezrael, I know you like her and that you are used to have sex every single day, but we are currently experiencing an emergency situation. We need to set priorities here."

"Who else?" he asked her in a roughly quick manner. His grip on her hands was reflecting it.

"For now, nobody else. Isley, Toru, Reese, Tate, Hawkins, Powell and Hauser are all capable of doing necessary repairs or maintaining and programming KSRs. Dr. Carr should be available all the time, that should be self-explanatory, and as long as Wright is not fully recovered, we can't stick her into a cryo capsule. We also need her to oversee the hydroponics. While you lack technical understanding, you are the Captain, and the crew needs a captain. And I am our only science officer right now. When the time comes, we can reduce the engineering team to what is necessary, but I believe Isley and Reese are most likely to be the people to come up with a good idea to bring us back home." There was a moment of silence before she continued, feeling a certain anger from the body at her back. "It is for our own good, Ezrael."

"I know. The implications are just... unlucky. Imagine it. The next few hours could be her last moments of consciousness. Then we put her into a cryo capsule and she sleeps. Until we either wake her up, or until something destroys the ship or until we run out of energy, or until the cryostasis can't prevent her aging anymore." He let go of her hands. "She would die sleeping in there."

"If we don't return home, that will probably be the fate of us all. When we run out of resources, the whole crew will enter cryo and probably die when the Apahanta has no energy left. Or gets ripped apart from the black hole." There were several moments of silence. None of them said anything, as both were thinking about it. Then, Sherry added something. "Your orders, Captain?"

Considering the options in his head, Ezrael needed a few more seconds before he replied. "Continue as usual. In three days I will put her into cryo. Until then she will help me with the hydroponics while Tasha remains in medical to recover as fast as possible." One of his hands moved to her belly. "You will say no word to her about any of this. Don't even mention the cryo capsules infront of the crew until Sombra is in one. Leave this to me, do you understand?"

Her eyes were glancing at his hand at her belly. "Yes, Captain."

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