"Ah ha!" Beka called out triumphantly and dove head first into the barrel. She and Dylan had found their way in the darkness to the canteen and had been searching for food. Everyone was positively ravenous with hunger now that roughly two or three full days had passed. Beka emerged with her arms full of freeze-dried packages. Dylan stumbled over (no one was too coordinated any more- the hunger no doubt).

"Food!" he cried. They both immediately dug in. After several minutes, Dylan stopped. "We should save some for the others, Beka."

"There's a whole barrel full," Beka said, mouth full. Dylan stood up.

"Come on. Let's get as much as we can carry and head back." Beka sighed and helped pour all of the barrel's content onto the floor. They stuffed it all into bags and munched on a few things as they made their way back to the command deck.

***************

Harper, Tyr, Trance, and Rommie were waiting in the command ward. Harper was on his back, inspecting wires and circuits, his head and shoulders hidden under the counter. Rommie too was trying to find the source of the problem. Tyr leaned against the wall inspecting the weapons that they had hoarded up to the deck. There was a wide verity of fire arms. Each crew mate carried a small hand gun with them at all times- just in case. Trance was still recuperating, so she sat relatively still in a corner on the opposite side of the room from Harper. Rommie wondered why there was suddenly so much tension between the two. Well, whatever it was, she had faith that they would work it out eventually.

Dylan and Beka came in, munching on freeze-dried snacks.

"Aw, share the wealth!" Harper dashed over and grabbed some packages out of Beka's knap sack. Tyr came over slowly and took his share too. Harper brought some food over to Trance and sat down next to her. Beka and Dylan stood eating while Rommie briefed the two on her and Harper's progress. Tyr hung back, but listened in.

"Harper thinks that he may know where the main source of the power outage is, but he'd have to find his way there in the dark," Rommie reported. "HE claims that he can find his own way there, but I didn't want to send him off without running it by you first." She acknowledged the two.

"Thank you," Dylan nodded. "I appreciate that."

"Well? Do you think he should go by himself?" Beka looked at Dylan. He thought for a moment.

"Maybe not alone, but we need Rommie up here," Dylan thought out loud.

"So we should send someone else with him?" Rommie glanced over at Harper sitting in silence with Trance as the two ate.

"Well I was planning on making another run to the weapon storage," Tyr cut in.

"Yes, well, that's in the opposite direction of where Harper's planning on going," Rommie said, still watching Harper and Trance over Dylan's shoulder.

"Trance?" Beka lowered her voice a bit. "But she's still recovering, Rommie."

"I know, but who else is there that would be willing to go?"

Dylan shrugged. "I can go with him. I might not be much help but I'll volunteer. And besides, Trance needs her rest. In these conditions, everyone needs to be in good health if they want to survive this."

"Alright then," Beka said. "So are you going to go tomorrow?"

"Most likely," Dylan said over his shoulder as he strode over to Harper and Trance. Since the two weren't speaking, he wasn't really interrupting anything.

"Hey Dylan! Good food!" Harper said, taking another bite of the freeze-dried contents in a wrapper.

Dylan nodded. "I'll come with you to where ever it is that you think you can find the problem. We should get an early start tomorrow." He turned to Trance. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm really ok..." Trance said slowly. "If I can help at all-"

Dylan shook his head sharply. "No, you wait until you have enough energy to stand up for more than three minutes. Then we'll give you something to do."

Trance sighed softly and nodded silently. She hated not being useful.

"Tomorrow then," Dylan looked back at Harper.

"A'ight, tomorrow."

**************

Trance woke up after Harper and Dylan had left. She sat up and looked around. Beka was the only one in the room besides herself. Her head didn't rush as much when she sat up this time, so she stood, supporting herself against the wall.

"Hey sleepy," Beka smiled warmly. "Feeling better then?"

"I'm fine," Trance took her hand away from the wall. She walked over to where Beka was sitting. "So what are you doing?"

"Waiting. That's really all I can do at this point."

"Where are Tyr and Rommie?"

"Oh," Beka waved her hand, "Tyr's down in the cargo bay I think. God only knows what he's up to. Rommie's just a few doors down, but she'll be back soon." She looked Trance over. "You wanna talk?"

Trance sat down. "Sure."

"Anything in particular?"

"No, well, yes... no..."

"Is it about Harper?" Beka asked after a moment of watching Trance argue with herself.

Trance looked up in alarm. "How did you-"

"I don't know anything. You two just seem a little different around each other. Ever since we crashed."

"It's nothing. I just... I'm just... I'm a little confused right now. That's all."

"Okay, well, did Harper tell you about Dylan's warning?"

"No...?"

"He said that on Earth, before Harper's time that is, people would climb mountains. He thinks that there IS air out there on this planet, there's just not a lot of it. He told us about 'mountain sickness'. It sounds pretty bad."

"Why?"

"Well," Beka thought for a moment, "Dylan said that when you're up at high altitudes, there's not as much oxygen. So in order to avoid mountain sickness, you have to acclimate yourself." Trance tried to take everything in. "That means that you slowly decrease your oxygen supply. You know, like not going from one extreme to the other."

"Well yes, I knew that, but what does mountain sickness DO?"

"Dylan said that you get headaches and you have trouble breathing even when you're sitting still. And you throw up a lot." Beka added.

"There's probably more to it than that," Trance thought out loud. There was a long pause.

"So," Beka said finally, "you wanna hear about my alien encounter?" She raised her eyebrow in mock-suspence.

"Sure," Trance smiled.

******************

Dylan beamed his flashlight down the dark corridor. "Are we getting there?" he asked. They'd been walking around the ship for at least half the day.

"Yeah, I think that's it right down there," Harper pointed to a door coming up on the left. The two squeezed through the tiny gap that the jammed door had left open, and stepped inside the room. Appliances sat still, tools were scattered about the floor. Harper stopped for a moment. Was this the right room? It felt so different without the familiar hum of a smoothly running ship engine. Now it was an alien quiet. It almost felt like a different place all together.

"Are you sure this is the right room?" Dylan asked cautiously, stepping over a metal contraption.

"Sure I'm sure," Harper began to scoop up tools and return them to their rightful places.

"Well, I'll be here if you need anything. Just holler," Dylan sat down by the door.

Harper nodded and got to work. He scanned the machinery and picked a circuit breaker door that was ajar. He began to whistle to himself as he worked away. He was thinking though. He wondered what he would tell Trance when they finally got around to talking about that "almost-kiss". He couldn't tell if he regretted it or not. But either way, it wasn't worth loosing a friendship over. He'd just tell her that he was sorry and that he hadn't meant to lead her on like that. He felt so ridiculous! He had almost kissed her when she was just trying to be sympathetic! And obviously she hadn't really wanted to kiss him. 'I mean, come on Harper! This is Trance we're talking about!' he thought to himself. 'She would never do something like that!'

*************

The lights flickered. "Power!" Beka cried.

"I can feel it!" Rommie, who had returned to the command deck, looked at her open palms.

Trance smiled widely. 'I knew you could do it Harper,' she thought happily to herself. But suddenly-

There was the sound of power draining from the ship. A high-pitched sound that rapidly falls until there's nothing but silence left. The lights flickered off again.

*************

"Damn!" Harper yelled. "I almost had it too!"

"It's ok Harper," Dylan sounded a tad disappointed. "Just keep trying. You almost had it for a second."

"Yeah..." Harper grumbled and slid back under the network of wires.