Hidden in the Depths

Chapter 2

"Shit!" Techno shook out his hand, blowing on the spot he burned himself with the wire. This was bullshit. Why were a handful of wires so difficult to work with? He will have more than a few blisters tomorrow. Cold air filtered in through the open latch as wind rushed by, carrying with it all kinds of sounds. Rumbles from the large ship, it's still burning metal screeching as it bend and broke. Cries of the weird avian creatures, looking more like flying stingrays than anything else. The sounds and feeling of the waves rocking against his pod. Somehow, all of it only made it harder to work on the wiring. More difficult to concentrate when you know your survival chances are basically zero anyways.

He grabbed the wires again, carefully twisting them together once he was certain they belonged together. The color coding was helping a little bit, but only a little. There were multiple sets that had the same color down to the fucking shade of it. His mind began to wander again as he worked, which was probably why he got burned so many times. He thinks of the crew, of the survivors in other pods, most likely going through the same thing he is. Maybe not the repairing, but the helplessness and panic. Thinks of the few acquaintances he might have called friends if they had spent a bit more time together, of Tubbo and Quackity and Fit. He even got along with some of the people that weren't native English speakers. He thought of the pair with the crushed leg that he had helped onto a pod, of the amusing french man he often shared the gym with when he wasn't caring for plants.

Just thinking about how many of them were probably dead made his stomach twist. So many lives, innocent people, lost to the fight between large companies wanting to be the first ones owning deep space phase gates. This wasn't the first ship to go missing, to crash somewhere and leave survivors stranded, if there were any to begin with. But these projects pay good money and did compensate for the risk, supplying the families left behind with monthly payments until their partners or children return.

Fuck, what will his family even think when they hear the news. It takes a week at least to realize that the ship was not transmitting anymore. Another week until they were deemed dead and gone, unless they receive distress signals.

The mental image of his little siblings, so young, being told their big brother will never come back, his parents hearing their oldest was gone... it broke something in him. His hands dropped from the wires, twisting in his hair instead as he tried not to sob. All he could see were their heartbroken faces. He'll never see them again, he'll... he needs fresh air. The small, confined space felt too tight, like it was closing in around him. Without a second thought he climbed up the ladder, pulling himself out of the open hatch. The air was still cold, salt settling on his tongue as he took desperate gulps of air.

It took a few moments for his head to stop spinning, trying his best to not start hyperventilating and fall over into the water. Was that even water? It could be acid. Or any other kind of liquid. Would it burn his skin if he touched it? Only more questions added to the whirlpool that was his mind right now. It took a while before he could think straight enough to try the breathing exercises they were taught, forcing his racing heart to calm down again.

He will get home.

He will see his family again.

He will never just sit by and let his family bury an empty casket. Not after he promised his siblings to take them ice skating as soon as he returns, an attempt at calming them down when he broke the news about his upcoming journey to them.

His hands clench at his side as he stared at the remains of the ship, fire still burning bright. "Get a grip Techno... you'll never get home like this. The pod won't repair itself." Yet it still took him several minutes of staring at the ship before he turned around and went back into the pod. And after fiddling with the cables a bit longer, he was finally confident enough that he sorted them correctly and connected them all.