Maggie was waiting for Alex to return with the ice cream she was promised, lying in bed thinking about how great the last several months had been with Alex. She was so much in love with her that she couldn't believe how lucky she was to have found her.

Even when she had decided to come on this trip, she never envisioned she would find the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She truly believed that person was Alex even if they were literally stuck together for the rest of their lives.

Ever since they had their talk, she felt like there was a shift in their relationship. She no longer felt the need to hold parts of her life back from Alex.

For once in her life, she felt true intimacy with another person.

Now if that person could just get back with her ice cream.

She was startled when the intercom went off.

"This is first mate J'onn J'onzz on the grand concourse, is there someone awake on this ship?"

As soon as she heard that it wasn't Alex speaking, she was off the bed and throwing on clothes. By the time she got down to the grand concourse, she saw Alex had of course beaten her there and was standing in front of a tall black man.

He was talking to Alex but when he saw her, his attention turned toward her and then back to Alex.

"How many people?" he asked.

"Just the two of us," Alex said. "Well three of us now."

"This shouldn't be possible."

"Tell us about it," Maggie said.

"How long have you two been awake?"

"Coming up on year two," Maggie said.

"Almost a year," Alex said.

"This shouldn't be possible," J'onn repeated. "There are failsafes built into the system to prevent this from happening."

"Yeah, well, they didn't work," Maggie said. "Both of our pods malfunctioned in different ways."

"How do you know that?"

"I examined both of them," Maggie said.

"She's a mechanical engineer," Alex explained. "She was able to fix both of our pods but without knowing how to put us back into hibernation they are useless. Unless you happen to know how we can do that."

J'onn shook his head. "There must be a reason for this," he said.

"No offense, seeing as your company has doomed us to death and all, but this ship, not in the best working order," Maggie said. "Your clean-up bots keep malfunctioning and I keep fixing them. Sometimes the elevators pause for a moment before starting up again. Oh and let's see, sometimes doors won't open. And sometimes when you order food it comes out wrong."

"To be fair, those last few things only started up in the last month or so," Alex said. "Up until then, everything else seemed to be in working order."

"Still, it shouldn't be happening at all," J'onn said. "This ship has backup systems for everything. It would take something catastrophic to affect multiple systems. I need to go back up to the command deck."

He started moving toward one of the lifts and Maggie glanced at Alex a moment before they both started to follow him. He gave them a questioning look as they joined him on the lift.

"The command deck is for authorized personnel only," he said.

"Consider us authorized," Maggie said. "This company has stolen our lives so if you think we aren't going to be a part of figuring out what is going on, you are wrong. Besides, unless you know how to fix everything on this ship on your own, you might need some assistance."

He didn't respond but gave the order to the lift to go up to the command deck. J'onn suddenly leaned against the wall.

"Are you ok?" Alex asked.

"Just a little tired," he answered.

"You sure?"

"Yes," he said. "When I woke up, I immediately saw that the other crew members hadn't been woken as well. I didn't take the recommended rest upon waking."

"You shouldn't have skipped that," Alex said. "It increases your chances of hibernation sickness. Did you at least drink some fluids?"

"Yes, I did. Did either of you experience hibernation sickness?"

"No," Alex said. "We are both healthy."

"She's a doctor," Maggie said.

"That's convenient," J'onn said.

"I'm not exactly a physician," Alex explained. "So, it's a good thing we have an autodoc on board."

"As long as it remains working," Maggie commented, and Alex gave her a look. She could tell that Maggie was not exactly welcoming to J'onn and she figured it was because she saw in J'onn someone that she could blame for their situation.

"There is another med station with autodoc on the command deck," J'onn said. "Like I said, a failsafe."

Alex gave Maggie a look to indicate that now was probably not the time for her to argue about that.

They reached the command deck and J'onn led the way. "I noticed some damage to the outer door," he said, leaving it open for one of them to comment and Maggie wasted no time being the one.

"That would be my attempt to break through that door," she said.

"And what were you going to do if you could have gotten through it?" he asked.

"I would have woken one of your asses up," Maggie said. "It is the company you work for that is responsible for this."

"You do realize you could have woken someone up that had nothing to do with your present circumstances?"

Maggie looked like she wanted to punch him, and Alex put a hand on her arm to stop her from doing anything rash.

"When you spend a year alone on this ship, I will let you lecture me about any morality you wish," Maggie said.

"I'm not trying to downplay what you – what the both of you have gone through," J'onn said. "Believe me, I want answers just as much you do. This is not my first long-distance trip. I have spent more time in hibernation than I have spent alive – or so it seems sometimes – and the fact the three of us are awake right now is very concerning. There are still a lot of years to go on this trip and I don't want anyone else ending up like us."

Maggie held her tongue this time, and Alex knew it was because if nothing else Maggie could agree with J'onn on this one matter – none of them wanted anyone else to be woken up.

J'onn opened the door and Maggie shook her head a little thinking of all the time she spent trying to get into the room.

"Don't touch anything," J'onn said as he led them in. He immediately went to one of the computer stations in the front and brought up the navigation.

"We are still on course so whatever is wrong with the ship isn't affecting navigation," he said.

"There is something wrong with the ship?" Alex asked.

"There has to be," he said. "Three pod failures just don't happen."

He moved to the center unit and brought up another display. It showed a schematic of the ship, but as Maggie and Alex took a look at it, they didn't see anything that was wrong.

"This isn't right," J'onn said. "This should be giving us real-time diagnostics for every part of the ship. We should be able to tell what is wrong just from this station but without the data …. I'm going to have to check each system manually."

He walked over to the sidewall and picked up a datapad, but as he did, he had to use the wall to brace himself. Alex rushed over to him.

"We're getting you to medbay," Alex said.

"We don't have time," J'onn said. "I need to get started on these system checks."

"I'll do it," Maggie said, coming forward and taking the datapad from him. "You go with her and get checked out."

"Hold up," he said, and he moved to another station. "You are going to need access to restricted sections to do this." He quickly punched in something and then stood back. "Each of you scan your bracelets there and it will give you full access."

Maggie went first and then Alex.

"Just let the datapad guide you from system to system," J'onn said. "Anything you find, anything that seems out of the norm, contact me. Hopefully, I will be able to join you soon though."

"You're not leaving medbay until I do a full set of scans," Alex said.

"Yeah, you do what she says," Maggie said. "I got this."

…..

Maggie checked off the next system on her list and moved on to the next. So far, the system check was going ok as she hadn't found any major issues, but so far she had only been dealing with the minor systems.

She thought about skipping ahead to some of the more major ones but decided against that. She didn't want to lose her place on the list or accidentally skip over a minor system that could be the cause of the problem.

As she worked, she wondered what it would be like moving forward with life now that Alex and she were not alone. Would J'onn as the only crewmember awake be intrusive? She and Alex had the run of the ship while alone and she had raided the cargo bay more than a few times. She had also made use of the various extra parts that the ship was transporting as well, but she justified that since she was using them mostly to fix the things on the ship that had broken.

And really, what she had gone through was only a fraction of what the ship was transporting. She knew that the ship was big and that they needed to ship like twice of everything they thought they needed, so her small bit of pilfering wouldn't be a big deal. Plus, when she first started doing it, she figured she would be dead long before anyone knew she had done it.

She moved on to the engine room – one of the big-ticket items. She would be lying if she didn't say that seeing the engine room was a dream for her. Something this big, propelling a ship through space –it would be an art form of technology.

But as the doors opened, she felt a rush of heat hit her.

"Shit," Maggie said.

…

Alex and J'onn didn't have to go far for an autodoc as there was a separate medbay on this level of the ship. It was a good thing to know in case they ever needed to use two autodocs at the same time.

After J'onn was in it, Alex began scanning him.

It had been a while since she had worked on a live patient. Despite her med school training she never felt 100 percent comfortable in that world. To her med school was more of a means to an end – to get into research. She was definitely her father's daughter when it came to work. He was always looking to the stars.

She often wondered what he would think of her now – crossing the universe to a new planet.

Would he be happy to know his daughter was carrying on work he once did? Would he be proud of her?

As soon as the first scan was done – Alex immediately saw the issue. Staying silent she used the autodoc to run a more in-depth scan.

"Are we about done? I should be out there helping Maggie," J'onn said.

"You aren't going anywhere," Alex said, as she walked over to the synthesizer to get some medicine prepped. "You have the beginning stages of hibernation sickness and if we don't get a handle on it now then in another hour your body is going start exhibiting symptoms more so than what you are already. I don't have to tell you how dangerous this is."

"What is that?" J'onn asked as she approached with one of the medicines in her hand.

"Sedative," Alex said. "I want to put you under sedation so I can program the autodoc to do what it needs to do to keep this at bay."

"We don't have time for this," J'onn said trying to sit up, but even as he did, he collapsed back in pain. Alex hurried to administer the sedative. It took a moment but the sedation kicked in but once it did, Alex started programming the autodoc, hoping she had caught this in time to reverse any damage. Hibernation sickness was dangerous not only for how swiftly it could consume people but also for the myriad of symptoms they could face.

She was concentrating on her work when Maggie came bursting in.

"We have a problem," she said, and then she noticed J'onn unconscious in the autodoc. "Wait, what's wrong with him?"

"Hibernation sickness," Alex said. "What did you mean by we have a problem?"

"I know what's wrong with the ship," Maggie said. "And it's not good."

"What is it?"

"The engine is on fire."

"What!"

"It explains why there have been system malfunctions. The engine is the heart of the ship – its power," Maggie said. "It must have been building up over time but now there is an actual fire in it and it won't vent. I was hoping J'onn may have an answer as to what we should do. Can you wake him up?"

"If I do, he will be dead within hours," Alex said. "He needs to be treated for this."

"Damn it," Maggie said. She moved away, and Alex could tell Maggie was trying to think through the problem. She sometimes did this – put a physical distance between herself and everything so she could concentrate on the issue. Alex tried to remain calm while watching her – fearing what all this meant.

Knowing she couldn't rush Maggie, she forced herself to turn and concentrate on her task.

"I'm going to need your help," Maggie said, after another couple of minutes.

"Hold on," Alex said, as she programmed the autodoc. "Almost done." As much as she wanted to hurry, for J'onn's sake she couldn't.

She finished and turned back to Maggie.

"What do we do?" Alex said.

"Come on," Maggie said and she left the room with Alex on her heels. "We need to go to check the panels for all the systems. One or more are malfunctioning making it impossible to vent the engine."

"Is venting the engine the only thing we need to do?"

"It's the major step," Maggie said. "Once it is vented, the main computer should work as J'onn tried to get it to do – thus being able to tell us if there are any other malfunctions that need fixed."

"And what happens if we can't get it vented?"

Maggie glanced at her. "The engine will overheat entirely and explode, killing everyone on board, which is why we need to hurry."

Once they reached the room, Alex got her first real feel for how much it took to keep this ship running. There were panels everywhere around this room.

"How do we even…"

Maggie went over to one of the walls and popped out one of the panels. "We have to go through all of these. If you see any damage to a panel, then I will need to replace it. Don't worry about that, the ship always has extras of everything just in case. Got it?"

Alex nodded and she went to the opposite wall from Maggie and they got started. Alex had only gotten through a handful of panels when she heard Maggie curse. Turning around she saw Maggie was a lot further along than she was, but even from there, she could see why Maggie had cursed. She had pulled out a panel that looked like something punched a hole through it. Not saying anything Maggie went to the next panel and found the same thing. There were three damaged panels in all.

Alex stopped looking on her side and approached.

"Can you fix those?" Alex asked.

"Don't need to," Maggie said. "Just need to get the replacement panels in and reboot these sections."

"And once you do that everything will be ok?"

Maggie looked at her. "No idea," she said. "Something did this, and if these panels are like this, I fear there could be more damage on the ship. But first thing first, let's get these panels replaced."

They had to go down to the cargo bay, but Maggie had spent enough time there to know where to look, and quickly enough they were back in the room where Maggie got to work. Alex couldn't do much beyond helping with the removal of the damaged panels and hand Maggie the occasional tool she needed.

But Maggie made quick work of it and soon enough, she was rebooting the panels and Alex saw green lights on each of the panels which she assumed was a good thing.

"Now what?"

"Back to the main computer," Maggie said. "I need to see if there is other damage."

"Shouldn't we get the engine vented first?"

"Not if there is some other system malfunction that we need to deal with first," Maggie said. "But yes we must hurry."

Back to the bridge Maggie activated the computer and a holographic representation of the ship came up and there were yellow lights blinking in various places.

"What are those?" Alex asked.

"Hold on," Maggie said, as her attention was on something else a -readout next to the ship. She made it bigger and then pressed a few buttons. Alex watched as the view changed and suddenly the ship appeared to be traveling through an asteroid field. Most of them bounced off the shielding but they watched as a giant one crashed into the ship and broke apart at the shield but those pieces got through the shielding.

Red lights came on the screen at different points on the ship due to the collisions.

It was then that Alex realized what she was looking at when she saw the date above the ship and saw the red light in the bay where their hibernation capsules were.

"This is how it happened," Alex said. "This is why you were woken up."

"Not just me," Maggie said and she advanced it to the date that Alex woke and there was another red light in the hibernation bay. "The damage from the initial hits from the asteroid caused systems problems all over. The problem with the engine has just built up over time and now time is running out."

"What do we do?"

"I'm going vent the fire, then we will see what we are left with," Maggie said and she worked for several moments on the computer – looking for a way to open the airlock to vent the fire. She brought up a live video of the room and for the first time Alex got to see what it was they were dealing with as she saw the flames whipping around the room. There was a barrier between it and the rest of the room, but Alex wondered how that was even holding firm.

After several moments passed, Maggie said, "there we are." But as she initiated the airlock opening but nothing happened.

"Damn it," Maggie said. "The system that controls the airlocks in the area is down, I can't vent it remotely. I'm going to have to do this manually."

Alex looked at her, "what do you mean manually?"

"I'm going to have to go outside the ship and open the airlock from out there," she said. "Then you will need to manually vent it from inside the engine room."

"What? I'm not an engineer, I wouldn't even know how to do something like that."

"It's not hard, I will show you," Maggie said. She zoomed in on the live video. "You see that control panel there with the lever on its left. That's it. Once the airlock is open, you pull that down and the fire will vent out into space."

"Seems simple enough," Alex said, although that was not really what she was thinking.

"You will do fine," Maggie said. "Now I need to get suited up."

They went down to where the spacesuits were stored even though as Alex thought more and more about this, the less certain she was that this was a good idea.

"Once I am in place, be ready to vent the fire once I get the door open and am clear," Maggie said handing her one of the com units so they could speak to each other.

"What will happen to you once that door is open?" Alex asked. "That fire will be coming right at you."

Maggie looked around and then picked up one of the tools she brought with her and welded off the door to one of the cabinets and grabbed it by its handle.

"Heat shield," she said to Alex.

"Will that work?"

"I don't know. Hopefully, it won't matter. The plan will be that I will be clear of the vent before you jettison the fire. I will get a safe distance from it as quickly as I can," she said. "Now help me get suited up."

Alex didn't make a move even as Maggie began to get the suit on. "This is too risky," Alex said. "There has to be another way."

"We don't have time to find another way," Maggie said. "I have to do this."

"But …"

"Alex, I know you're scared, so am I, but if we don't get this fire vented, then this ship is going to blow. All those people down in stasis – Kara, Lena – we have to do this."

Alex breathed out, knowing Maggie was right, so she helped her get the suit on. Once it was on, Alex put the helmet on her and fastened it.

"Come back to me," Alex said.

"Count on it," Maggie said.

They walked to the door and Maggie opened it and stepped inside. She turned back around to face Alex. "I will let you know when to pull the lever. It's possible we might lose coms for a moment afterward with all that heat," she said. "But don't worry, I'm coming back."

"You promise?"

"I do," Maggie smiled just before shutting the door.

Once Maggie was outside the ship Alex ran back to the room to be ready for when Maggie gave her the signal.

Maggie paused once she was outside to get her bearings. It was one thing to see a schematic of the ship from the outside and another to be outside ready to leap toward her destination. But she knew they didn't have a lot of time so once she was sure, she leapt, knowing the safety line would keep her secured.

…

Alex ran all the way to reach the engine room but once she opened the doors, she was blasted by the heat. The fire was still raging and the computer gave out a warning about the structural integrity.

She went over to the lever to wait for Maggie's signal, but as she touched it, it burned her hand and she had to pull back from it.

"Damn it," she said.

"Is something wrong?" Maggie asked over coms.

"No, the lever is just really hot. I'm going to have to find something to use so my hand doesn't have to directly touch it," she said looking around. She didn't see anything useful, so she instead took off her shirt – she had a tank top on underneath – and used it to wrap around the lever so she could still pull it down.

"All set whenever you are," Alex said.

Again, the computer gave a warning.

"I'm almost there," Maggie responded.

Another alert of the structural integrity went off and Alex hoped Maggie would get there quickly and safely. Alex was watching the barrier that was holding in the fire was again struck by the flames. A bolt went flying from the pressure and struck Alex in her upper arm and she cried out in pain.

"Alex," Maggie said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Alex said, trying to keep Maggie from worrying. "Are you there yet?"

"Almost."

Alex tore part of her tank top off and used it to grab ahold of the bolt and pull it out, all while gritting her teeth to keep from making any noise that would distract Maggie.

"I'm here," Maggie said finally.

Maggie entered the small corridor that led to the vent door. Using the tool she brought with her she opened the vent door, but as soon as she released her grip, it closed.

"Shit," she swore.

"What?" Alex said across the coms.

"Hold on," Maggie said, and again she tried it, but again the vent door closed. There had to be something wrong with the mechanism and she didn't have the time nor the tools to fix it. She tried it one more time, doing something she hadn't done in a long time – said a silent prayer – but again the door closed once she released it.

"Alex, um, the mechanism for the door, something is wrong. I'm going to have to stay here to hold the lever to keep the door open for the fire to vent," she said.

"No," Alex said immediately. "No. Get back in here. Now. We will just have to find another way."

"There is no time, you know it and I know it," Maggie said. "I have my shield, I won't have to hold it long for the fire to vent."

"No," Alex said.

"I have to," Maggie said. "And you have to."

Alex again looked at the raging fire and knew there was no time. There was another warning about structural integrity, but at this point, she didn't care if the fire broke through this barrier, her concern was Maggie out there.

"Alex, I know you are scared, but you have to do this," came Maggie's voice.

She was scared. The uncertainty of what was about to happen was making it nearly impossible for her to move.

"Take a breath," Maggie said.

Alex did as instructed.

"Now think about Kara," Maggie said. "You would do anything to help your sister. And right now, even though she doesn't know it, Kara needs your help. She needs you to do this Alex, so does Lena and everyone else on this ship."

"Ok, ok," Alex said. "But you promised you would come back to me and I'm going to hold you to that."

Maggie chuckled. "Nothing in the universe could keep me from coming back to you."

Maggie positioned herself and opened the door. "Do it now," she said.

Alex paused only a second before using the shirt she had placed around the level to pull it down. She watched as the fire that had been circling the room began to flow through an exit vent. She tried not to think of it coming out the other end, coming out right at Maggie.

Hurry, she thought, as she knew she couldn't release the lever until the fire was completely vented.

As soon as the last of the flames were gone, she released the lever and the computer immediately stopped its warning.

"Maggie!" she yelled. "It worked."

No answer.

"Maggie?"

No answer.

"Maggie!"

No answer.

"Maggie, please answer me," Alex said.

No answer.

"Please."

"Alex," Maggie said, and Alex could immediately tell something was wrong from the tone in her voice. "The fire, it knocked me out into space. My suit is damaged, my oxygen is getting lower, and … the tether broke."

"I'm coming to get you," Alex said as she began to run.

"Alex, I need you to listen," she said. "I need you to know that I felt like my life truly began the day I met you. All that other stuff that came before, it's nothing, nothing compared to my life with you. I love you, Alex."

"No, don't you dare give up on me," Alex said. "Don't you dare. You promised."

"I know," Maggie said, as she started to gasp for breath. "I'm sorry, I can't keep my promise."

"You stay with me," Alex said as she reached the room with the spacesuits. She began putting on one of the suits. As much as she wanted to hurry, she couldn't get the suit on that quickly and by the time she was ready to put on the helmet, she realized she hadn't heard Maggie even breathing for the past minute.

"Maggie?"

No answer.

Putting on the helmet, Alex made her way into the airlock and once her tether was fastened and her magnetic boots had her secure, she opened the door and stepped out. She began looking around but wasn't seeing Maggie.

"Locate Maggie Sawyer," she said and her heads-up display began showing her the search for her.

"Maggie Sawyer located," the computerized voice said. Alex saw she was floating farther out into space, so Alex leapt off the platform and used her thrusters to reach her. She felt like she was moving too slow even as she got closer and closer to Maggie.

Maggie's tether line was the first thing she reached so Alex grabbed it and began to pull Maggie in closer to her. Once she got ahold of her, she instructed the computer to pull her tether line back to the ship. She could see the crack in Maggie's suit and the face shield was already covered in frost.

Once inside, Alex removed her suit first knowing she couldn't work to resuscitate Maggie while she was wearing the bulky contraption, and then she got Maggie out of hers. She checked for a pulse – nothing. She began CPR right there, hoping she could revive her on her own, but she also knew she couldn't risk keeping it going long. When she couldn't revive her after a few tries, she knew she needed to get her to the autodoc.

Alex tried not to think of all the time that she was using up by getting Maggie to the autodoc – but as she got her into the machine, she used her ID to unlock the computer on it and began searching for resuscitation methods. She got oxygen and compressions started, but Maggie wasn't responding so she started electric shocks to hopefully jumpstart her heart.

As Maggie's body jerked from each shock, Alex kept her hands on the glass and her eyes on the heart monitor. "Please," Alex said, tears already coming down as the flat line continued. "Just one beat, one heartbeat, and then the next. Come on Maggie, come back to me. You promised."

The line stayed flat and Alex leaned her head against the glass. "You promised."

The sound of a beep had her head raising and she looked at the monitor. There was a heartbeat. A second passed by and then another. "That's it," she said. "Keep them coming. Come back to me." The heartbeat became more steady and finally stabilized while Alex checked Maggie's other vitals. She adjusted the autodoc settings to scan for any other damage and repair.

"You did it," Alex said. "You kept your promise."

She knew Maggie wouldn't wake immediately as her body would need the chance to rest, but Alex wasn't planning on leaving her side until she did.