Lalna let out a heavy sigh and slumped against the rock wall. Honeydew copied his actions, still panting, his hairy exposed chest rising and falling, fast and frantic. Lalna could barely make out the shapes of his friends in the darkness – only the faint cyan light from Xephos' eyes revealed the outlines of the three figures, and even then, whenever he blinked, the room was plunged into darkness once again – but the scientist could hear them clearly, breathing heavily, just loud enough to blot out the muffled moans of zombies through the stone wall.

"That…was…a fuck-ton…of mobs…" Honeydew panted.

Lalna nodded – though not a technical term, what Honeydew had said seemed an accurate description of the number of mobs that had chased them. "Must have accidentally broken into a dungeon or something." Lalna theorized, rooting through his pockets. He glanced up at Honeydew, concerned, when he came up empty. "You got a pickaxe with you?"

He saw the ghostly figure reach over his shoulder to reach the pickaxe that was usually slung across his bare back, but he shook his head, pulling his hand back thoughtfully. "Nah, it broke. Probably when breaking into aforementioned dungeon."

"You got another?"

"No. You?"

"No."

The two of them glanced at Xephos, who slid down the wall to sit with his legs pressed against his chest, his arms hugging them close. He shook his head as he felt the eyes of his two companions upon him – though he could barely see them in the dark void, the silence communicated well enough. Lalna sighed, scratching his head. "Okay, well…we could…make another one? We got plenty of resources on this little expedition."

"Yeah." Honeydew said, nodding as he began digging through his pack. "I've got a lot of iron…fuck, it's ore, though. Got a furnace on you?"

"No. Mine some stone and get one." Lalna said, pointing out the size of his labcoat pocket, which in itself showed how preposterous the idea was that he could somehow squeeze a furnace into it.

"No pickaxe, dumbass." Honeydew reminded him.

"Okay, well…wood?" Lalna suggested. "We could make a wooden pick…and make charcoal too."

Xephos nodded eagerly at this idea, clearly keen for some source of light. He looked at Honeydew expectantly. Lalna did the same. Honeydew suddenly became aware of this, feeling slightly cornered.

"Uh…well…sorry, chaps…but I don't think…I don't think I've actually got any wood."

"No wood?!" Lalna snorted disbelievingly. "Are you kidding me?"

"Well…sorry…but it must have…slipped my mind…"

"Slipped your mind?" Lalna growled. "Are you having a laugh?"

Honeydew clenched his fists in the darkness. "Yeah, my sides are splitting! Do you think I did this on purpose?!"

"I just don't understand how you could have been stupid enough to forget the one thing we need to do anything!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but you can't blame me for being caught up in other things!"

"What other things?"

"How about the stinking moon project we were collecting all this stuff for? I think that could make someone forget about something as boring and dumb as a few blocks of wood!"

"Well, boring and dumb as it is, we need wood to survive down here, idiot!"

"Look, if you like wood so much, why didn't you bring it yourself?"

Lalna scoffed and puffed himself up haughtily. "I'm chief engineer. I shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that – I expect you to do it!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Fancy-pants, but did you forget that I'm your boss? You can't talk to me like that!"

"Shut the fuck up, Honeydew! You might be my boss but you're not my fucking mother!" Lalna spat.

"That is it, Lalna! You're fired!"

"Good! See if I care! Remind me of a time I've even listened to a single word that's come out of your mouth. Why, if I did that, it'd take another fucking fifty years before we landed on the moon!"

"Well, if you're so fucking smart, remind me why you at least didn't have some wood on you when we came down here?"

"I could ask the same of you! You're supposed to be the fucking 'digging guru'!"

"Like I said – rockets, moon, techno-shit – kind of takes your mind off wood and shit, don't ya think?!"

"Since when have you been getting involved in those aspects of the project?! You're just – how did we put it? The space chimp?" He snickered. "Then again, even a bloody monkey would have remembered the importance of wood!"

"Say that again, motherfucker." Honeydew challenged, fuming.

Lalna narrowed his eyes in rage. "I said; even…a…bloody…monkey…would…"

"Stop it!" Xephos suddenly cried, looking from one to the other in fright. "Stop fighting!"

Lalna and Honeydew looked at him, both panting heavily, their eyes still hard and cross. In truth, they'd both forgotten Xephos was there at all – but now they saw how awful it must have been for him to watch his best friends turning on each other so quickly and so explosively.

"Please…stop…" Xephos mumbled, looking at the ground, raking his fingers through his brown hair therapeutically. "…you're…really…scaring me…"

Honeydew and Lalna's expression softened, their breathing slowed. They looked at each other guiltily. Honeydew was the first to offer his hand in apology.

"Hey, sorry, Lalna."

Lalna grabbed his hand and shook it keenly. "Yeah, me too. Just…a bit, uh…claustrophobic down here, y'know? I, uh, didn't mean any of that stuff I said."

"Nor me." Honeydew agreed, giving him a jovial thump on the back for good measure, nearly making the scientist topple to the ground. "I'm not going to fire you…yet."

Lalna chuckled nervously. Even if they had stopped their feuding – for now – tensions would surely run high again. Especially once everyone realized that through their bitter exchange of insults; nothing had been decided. There was no solution to this situation.

There was no way out.

But Lalna knew enough about survival to determine that he should try to keep morale up. Arguing and bickering like that never solved anything – in fact, it just made things worse. They had to work together.

Lalna shuffled over to Xephos and plonked himself down beside the Spaceman, who gave a small but appreciative smile in response. Honeydew sat down on the other side of Xephos, and for a quiet moment, the three of them just sat still, lost in their own thoughts, before Lalna cleared his throat to catch their attention.

"Okay, listen. I've read about what you're supposed to do in situations like this. You're supposed to just keep calm, keep your spirits up, and work out a plan. So, are we all calm?"

"Kinda, I guess." Honeydew shrugged.

"Not really." Xephos said. Lalna looked at him.

"What's up, Xeph?"

"I…I…I'm afraid. Of the dark." He said, in a small, embarrassed voice. Perhaps normally Honeydew or Lalna would have joked about it, but both of them could sense that now was not the time. Honeydew gave him a gentle pat on the back. Lalna thought hard. What did people say about conquering fears? They said talk about it, establish why it exists, and confront it. Lalna almost groaned internally – he was no psychiatrist, and hated dealing with emotions, whether they were his own or someone else's.

He shrugged in defeat. He really had nothing better to do at this point in time. At least he got to ask about something he had always been curious about.

"You know, Xeph, I've always wondered why you're scared of the dark. Does it come from a bad experience or something?"

"Yes. The stuff outside." Xephos said, warily looking at the wall, as though acknowledging the monsters' existence might make them burst through the stone wall separating them. "Monsters come in the dark. All the ghost stories and stuff I heard as a kid – it all happens at night, in the darkness; never in the day."

"Hmmm." Lalna frowned. That did sound plausible as a cause for this fear – but would something as simple as that; 'monsters coming out in the dark' – would that really be the cause for a fear so irrational and obsessive as Xephos'? Somehow, he doubted it. "Are you sure that's it? Nothing else could have caused it? Maybe it was something that happened before you arrived in Minecraftia?"

"I don't really…" Xephos began, but his eyes widened in fright as memories came flooding back, clearly memories of a frightening nature. "…wait…I remember…one time on the Enterprise, these…these…pirates or bandits or something, I don't know; just crazy people…they boarded us…all the lights went out…and I slipped and fell in the dark…and I was just laying there…I couldn't move or anything…I was just stuck there. Communications were down – I couldn't even talk to anyone. I must have laid there for ages – so when someone finally came in I thought I was saved, but it was a group of raiders…" he shuddered, and both Honeydew and Lalna could only have imagined what happened next, though neither of their ideas could have come close to describing it. Lalna patted Xephos on the shoulder sensitively. No wonder his nyctophobia was so deeply rooted, and no wonder Xephos had blotted those memories out of his mind.

"It's okay, Xeph. You don't have to say anymore." Honeydew said tenderly. Lalna was about to object, keen to probe for more information regarding the origin of this fear, but a stern look from Honeydew put him off. After all, the last thing they needed was another quarrel.

As interesting as it had been to gain some insight into Xephos' nyctophobia, it hadn't actually solved any of their problems. After a few moments of just listening fearfully to the muffled moans and snarls outside of their prison, Lalna sat up and crawled over to sit in front of Xephos and Honeydew, once again commanding their attention.

"Okay guys, we need to get through this. We can't let it all go to shit. We've just got to keep calm, and think straight. Right?"

"Right." Honeydew replied.

"Right." Xephos murmured.

"Cool. So, step one – find some source of light." Xephos gave him a thankful smile. "So, does anyone have any torches?"

"No." Honeydew said with some irritation, folding his arms across his hairy chest. "I already told you…"

"Just eliminating all the options." Lalna reminded him. "Any glowstone?"

Both of them shook their heads.

Lalna scratched his head. He knew about plenty of possible light sources, but all of them were obnoxious to build – and his knowledge of basic vanilla blocks wasn't the best. "What about…uh….um…oh, redstone lamps?"

Honeydew scoffed. "Look, Lalna, do you really expect us to…?"

"No, wait, I've got some redstone!" Xephos cried, pulling out handfuls of dust from his pocket. Honeydew snapped his fingers. "Well, that'll make a little bit of light, even if we can't make a lamp, right?"

Lalna sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, but we need to activate it somehow. Have you got a lever or a button?"

"No…" Xephos said, the hope in his eyes dimming.

Lalna suddenly pointed at Honeydew. "But…but you had a silk-touch pick, right?"

Honeydew nodded gleefully. "Oh, yeah!" he pulled out a block of redstone ore and plonked it down in the middle of their group, all eyes darting to it excitedly, like real progress was being made (though obviously putting down a block of redstone ore was nothing in comparison to building a rocket, which was their actual goal – but in this situation, it mattered a great deal more). The block on its own provided a feeble reddish glow, but when Honeydew traced his fingers over it, the block updated and emitted a much warmer red glow. In comparison to something like glowstone or a torch, the light really was pitiful, but for two pairs of eyes that were starved of any form of light and for one pair that was borderline dependent on it; the soft, warm glow was a welcome sight, as were the blurry but still distinguishable outlines of the three figures. Normally Lalna would have condemned Honeydew's act of mining the redstone ore with a silk touch pickaxe – not only did it waste the one tool blessed with such a sought-after enchantment, but redstone was such an important (not to mention fairly rare/laborious to get) ingredient for the rocket that harvesting it in such an inefficient way was not only irritating but downright detrimental to the success of the project – but honestly, right now, he couldn't care less about any of that – in fact, he was almost grateful for Honeydew's complete incompetence, which was a thought that he didn't think he'd ever had before, and most likely wouldn't have again.

All of them were thankful for the light – even if it was dim, it was better than the pitch black they'd had before. The three of them huddled round it – it was also a fairly adequate heat source in the cool cavern – and Xephos laid his palms on the top of it, so it wouldn't plunge them into the darkness again. He smiled, his eyes brightened – some of the red light twinkled in his gleeful eyes, like a spark was caught inside – as he glanced from Honeydew to Lalna. "Thank you." He said, beaming nervously. "Thank you so much for this." Lalna grinned and Honeydew gave him a firmly supportive thump on the back, noticing that the Spaceman's shakes and shivers had evaporated.

"Anything for you, friend."