USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01

[#05] Orange Soda Cloud

Alien isolation ambient 6

Mana and Ka'eo were cruising in the storage rooms, looking at the many supplies a space station would carry. Mana looked around for a maintenance computer to get the logistics. "Ka'el, you think we would see all this shit pop up in the mainframe?"

"Honestly... uhhh, probably. But... we should hit the mainframe... no, we can ask Peter to help us with that."

"No, okay. I'm only asking because—it would make it a lot easier for us to... you know... manage."

"You don't like exploring?"

"I like exploring—I don't know, it would just be nice to not have our scanners... you know... blocked—? Yeah, fuck it. We can just find out when we break this sh$t open ourselves."

Ka'eo chuckled.

In the space station's main hub was Peter and Stavros after they had successfully logged into the computers but couldn't access the data logs. Everything in the Communications Array mainframe was heavily encrypted. It would've taken a specific keycard to get to what they wanted. The Byusinav brothers felt defeated, but they weren't weary. They were exhausted from the heat, but that didn't matter once they exited the Communications room. Entering the main hub especially, they were met with cold air.

Stavros was remembering something he told himself years before. He remembered thinking, Cancel all of this shit, I'm not going to space if I'm going to be stuck up there with Mana, Peter, and Ka'eo! Cancel going to space, space engineering, everything! Cancel space now! We don't need it! Who the fuck needs to leave planet Earth?!

Ka'eo walked into the station's hub cautiously, looking around for Peter and Stavros. He found them, reduced in their activities. Peter was reading from a printed journal that he had found in the Communications room, and Stavros was laying down on the metallic floor tiles of the hub, gazing at the ceiling.

Ka'eo and Mana finished up examining all of the supplies and storage facilities, except for what was in the laboratory modules area. They had also checked the engineering facility. They appeared more invigorated by their space station visit than Stavros and Peter.

Mana laid down his gear, unstrapping it from his shoulder. He whirled his arm around a few times, finding the action of maneuvering his shoulders challenging due to the heavier, plushier material of his exosuit. He crouched down next to his bag and unzipped it, looking at what he had recovered from the supply room. He quickly zipped the bag up again and stood with his backpack squeezed between him and the hub wall.

Ka'eo walked over to Peter. He imposed, "Peter. Mana and I got fuel cells. We couldn't fit all of them in there, but we got plenty."
"Yeah, we couldn't fit all of them in there. There were like... huge ones in there, too," Mana added.

"We can buy more time here if Mana welds the doors shut to the bio-lab... you know, just to make sure. We haven't collected food yet from the kitchen supply, and honestly, I'm hungry as fuck right now. We should do it now. We can go in there and grab all the food we need, stash it, and Mana can be welding the doors shut." He inhaled and exhaled controllably.