Disclaimer, scene of abuse coming up. It's short, but if it's not your cup ofcoffee,don't read it.

McArthy ran down a hallway, almost tripping up on the smooth tile underneath. His hand reached up and grabbed onto a door knob, then pushed the door open and ran into the room. He slammed the door shut behind him, quickly locking it. He stood in front of the door, his hands still latched to the knob, his body shaking. He turned around, leaning his back against the door, then lowered himself to the ground. He grabbed his knees and tucked them into his chest, laying his face against them as tears began running down his cheeks.

Not a second later, the sound of a sharp crack came from the hall, followed by stomping feet. Then, a violent voice yelled, "Where are you, shithead! What did I fucking say about failing!"

The yell was followed by another violent crack resonating from the belt in his hands. His loud footfalls slowly approached the door, then a woman walked in and said, "Jacob! He's your son!"

The crack came again, then he yelled, "And the dumbass failed his class again!"

Suddenly, the door knob on the door violently wiggled, shaking the door McArthy rested on. His body shook violently with more tears running down his face as his father began slamming on the door yelling, "Open up or I'll beat your ass!"

The woman ran forward, pushing against him, urging his father away from the door, saying, "Don't! Jesus Christ, Jacob, he's your son!"

Jacob grabbed his wife by the shoulders and slammed her into the wall, making her yell out in pain. He was almost frothing from his mouth, then he tightened his grip on her and said, "Maybe he gets his dumbass genes from you, bitch, because he definitely didn't get them from me!"

"Please, Jacob, it was just-" she was cut off as Jacob slapped her across the face, eliciting another yell of pain from her.

McArthy flinched as he heard the slap, shaking more and more. The slapping continued, slowly growing into punches as his mother yelled, "Jacob! Jacob, please!"

McArthy could hear every strike, each one making him wince. His mother called out with his father's name after every strike, begging and pleading. McArthy wanted to help, to do something, but he was frozen in fear and could only think of staying quiet enough to avoid any sort of retaliation himself.

#

McArthy woke in a cold sweat, staring forward into the control room. He blinked a few times, trying to readjust himself, then felt the strange feeling of being watched.

He spun his head around in a flash, only to see Mim's hand right in front of his face. She jumped backwards with a squawk of surprise, suddenly slipping on her own armor and falling onto the floor. McArthy watched as she writhed for a moment on her back, then she let out a sigh and simply let herself go limp.

He couldn't help but chuckle from the display, slowly getting up and said, "Mim, I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

He couldn't finish his sentence before he began chuckling again. Mim rose up and sat on the ground, huffing with amusement of her own. Though, she was eyeing him very closely, with a relieved look in her eyes.

It was easy to read, even for McArthy, and he titled his head and asked, "Hey, was something wrong?"

Mim stared at him silently, running her fingers through her feathers, a warbling sound coming from her throat, then she slowly said, "W...wrong?"

McArthy folded his legs into a more comfortable sitting position, then nodded and said, "Yeah, what was wrong? You were trying to touch me."

He watched her head slowly begin to nod, then she placed a claw under her eye, slowly dragging it downwards, then said, "Tears, shaking."

McArthy's face went red with embarrassment and he turned his head to avoid eye contact. He nervously tapped the floor, then said, "Yeah, that, that was just a… just a bad dream."

Mim tilted her head, then let out a short croon and asked, "D... dream?"

No way in Hell was he going to tell her what he saw, or more accurately, what he re-lived. He looked down at the ground and nervously said, 'Yeah, just a… real bad dream. B- but it wasn't real! Nothing to worry about, I'm fine."

The bird's head tilted again, her doubtful eyes staring daggers into McArthy's soul. After staring at her eyes for a few seconds, he waved them off with a sigh and stood up. As he stood up, his body let out a shiver to the cold in the room. McArthy began stretching his limbs, grunting in pain and avoiding stressing his shoulder wound.

After some stretching, the ODST took note of the cold, then turned to Mim. His own body was shaking a bit, and from what he saw last night, Mim wasn't handling the cold well herself. And she wasn't now either, a visible shake running through her.

He turned his head towards the lamp, seeing it glowing softly a little bit away. He grabbed the lamp, then pushed it next to Mim, gesturing to it with his head. Surprisingly, she squawked in disagreement, pushing it back towards him.

She wrapped her hands around her arms and said, "I am fine."

McArthy hung his head with a sigh, then shook it and pushed the lamp back next to her. He squatted next to her and said, "I'm not that cold, you use it. It's your lamp anyways."

Mim's hand hovered over the lamp, then she grabbed it and pulled it to her chest with a grumble. She turned the heat of the lamp up, then planted her chin on top and looked at McArthy, finding his eyes. McArthy stared back for a moment, his cheeks suddenly heating up, then he turned to the rest of the room with a sigh.

His eyes gazed around the room until they found what he was looking for. Sitting on the ground along the wall was a vent, a heating vent. McArthy remembered the first time he came here, he had a short surge of hope at the idea of getting the place back up and running, in some capacity. Now though…

His gaze turned from the vent to the bird cuddling with the lamp, her eyes still trained on him. As McArthy thought about it, that hope slowly began returning. Mim was smart, that lamp definitely seemed put together, and the amount of ease she had with dismantling weapons and using their power cells gave off the idea she's worked with tech a lot in her life.

McArthy slowly approached her, Mim's head turning to fully face him, then he asked, "Hey, would you be up for an idea?"

Her head tilted a little as he let out a short croon, "I...dea?"

With a nod of his head, he pointed at her armor and said, "Let's go outside for a bit. I wanna see if we can even fix this place."

Mim turned towards the armor, then back to her human companion and asked, "Fix?"

McArthy nodded his head again as he grabbed his armor and said, "Yup. Maybe we can fix this place. It's worth a look at least."

He began strapping on his armor as he waited for her to figure out what he said, then she jumped up with a squawk and grabbed her own armor. Once he finished strapping his on, he slipped his helmet over his head and noticed Mim was already waiting at the door, the lamp in her arms.

With a swift brush of his hand, he made sure his pistol was on his then, then made his way over to the door. He pressed the button, watching it slowly and loudly creak open. The two moved outside, McArthy quickly making his way to the base's end. Mim was following closely behind him as he moved around the base. Once they reached the backend, there was an obvious rectangular bulge on the back wall. It had to be some kind of generator.

The rectangular bulge was slightly frosted over, but the frost quickly began melting as Mim neared it with her lamp. McArthy ran his hand along the moist metal, trying to find a point to pry open. After some searching, his fingers found a hatch, and he grabbed onto it and began pulling. Unfortunately, the panel wouldn't budge, making McArthy grab onto it with both hands and pull with as much strength as he could muster. Suddenly, he lost his grip on the moist metal and flew backwards, crashing into the ground. As he struck the ground, he heard an amused cackle coming from Mim. McArthy blew out some air, then rolled his shoulder in stiff pain as he rose to is feet.

He gave the panel another light pry, then put his hands on his hips and asked, "How are we gonna-"

He was interrupted by the sound of an energy sword igniting, then spun around, reaching for his pistol. Before he could grab it, he caught sight of the sound's source, seeing Mim gripping the energy sword she had been carrying around with both her hands. With a sigh of relief, he moved his hand away from his pistol and watched her approach the panel.

McArthy carefully put his hand between the blade and the box and said, "Hey, how about I do it? We don't wanna-"

Once again, he was caught off as Mim cawed and raised the sword, making him jump away with a yelp. In a swift swing, she brought the sword down on the panel, cutting the metal covering clean off. McArthy stayed still for a moment, hand over his face as he looked at Mim standing with the blade still pointed downward. After a second, she deactivated the weapon, then turned to him excitedly and tilted her head, "Good?"

McArthy lowered his hand as he calmed himself down, then he doubtfully walked towards the box, expecting some it's more important components to be damaged. To his surprise, she had missed anything important and cut the panel clean off. He let out a deep sigh of relief, wiping the brow of his helmet, then nodded his head to her.

Her eyes lit up at the acknowledgement, then he turned back to the inside of the box. He switched on the flashlight on his helmet and looked into the box, seeing all the components before him.

His flashlight stayed trained on the inside as he gestured to Mim, then pointed inside and asked, "So, can you make any of this out?"

Mim clipped the energy sword to her waist, then softly crooned as she stepped forward and gazed into the lit up electronics. To his surprise, he watched her reach her arm in and fiddle around with something. After a few seconds, he heard a click, then watched her retract her hand with a piece of tech.

With a disgruntled smack of her beak, she tossed the device behind her and, "Can fix. Need resources."

He kept his flashlight trained inside as he inspected the inside again, then he asked, "Where are we gonna get compatible tech? The only other bases I know of are Covie."

MIm's clawed hands seemed to carefully fiddle with some more internal pieces, then she shook her head and slowly said, "Can… mix. Know a place."

Surprised, McArthy perked his head up and asked, "Oh, you know a place?"

For an odd reason, there was a slight wince on her face as he asked, then she slowly nodded her head and looked at him. She pointed upwards and asked, "You fall? Right?"

McArthy wasn't sure what she was talking about, but he nodded his head with his best guss and said, "Yeah, that's how I got stuck here, falling from my ship. Why?"

#

McArthy lowered the sniper scope from his eyes as he stood atop a hill. Now he knew exactly why she asked, and his stomach was turning on a whole other level. He felt her hand hesitantly but firmly grip his shoulder, giving it a small rub as she passed. She turned her head to face him and nodded it forward, prodding him to follow.

His legs felt like jelly as he trudged down the hill behind her, approaching the deathly sight before them. Not far ahead was a massive crashsite, the crashsite of his frigate, the one he almost died in. Along with all the bodies of his old friends.

It only took a few minutes before they entered the crash site. Though there were probably hundreds of pieces of scrap littered around the landscape, the ship itself seemed to have stayed in two more solid pieces, a massive gap of scrap between them. Mim seemed intent on scavenging the two pieces still held together, but McArthy feared he'd see certain things he wouldn't want to inside.

The pair carefully weaved around the debris, the glaring signs of a long passed inferno still present. McArthy had to watch his feet as he almost tripped over a couple pieces, and the last thing he wanted to do was fall into some kind of spiked scrap.

They neared one of the hulking pieces of the frigate when McArthy felt his foot smack into something, sending it flying forwards. His eyes darted down, the sound was similar to that of kicking a bucket. But as he locked onto th eobject he kicked, it was no bucket.

His body froze in place as he stared at the object. It was a scarred ODST helmet, the visor completely shattered and it's paint scorched. Despite the damage, there was still semblance of what it was before. A faint red stripe was still visible going across the top to bak of the helmet, then tracing the brim and visor all the way around.

McArthy slowly approached the helmet, basically falling to his knees as he grasped it, slowly lifting it and turning it to it's side. He didn't even need to see the nameplate to know who's helmet it was. It was Belle's, and the scorched but still visible nameplate cemented that fact.

His head turned to the rest of the debris around them. Was her armored body still around here? No wonder he didn't see her with Kenzie, she was somewhere else on the ship. Not like it mattered, she was dead with the rest of the crew.

Carefully, McArthy lowered the helmet and pressed it into the scorched ground, pushing it firmly into the soft dirt. He would come back for it, no doubt. But the sight made him stay knelt before the helm, feeling something stir in his stomach, almost like he was about to vomit.

His body tensed as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder, but he quickly relaxed without having to look. From the corner of his eye he watched Mim crouch next to him, eyeing the helmet. After a moment, she softly crooned, "Family."

McArthy nodded his head, lost for words at the moment. After a moment, Mim rose again, giving his shoulder a pat and pointing at the ship before them. With a long sigh, he rose next to her, once again scanning the wreckage around them,hoping for a glimpse of her corpse. Seeing Belle's body wasn't exactly something he wanted, but he needed to. She had dog tags, so did the rest of his team, at least if they survived the inferno.

There was a pause between the two as they stood right outside the torn apart opening in the ship. McArthy's gaze was stuck to it's hull, his mind filled with fear of what was to be found inside. Despite his helmet, Mim seemed to read his emotions quite easily.

She turned her body to him and softly said, "You stay."

She took a step towards the ship, then McArthy stuck his arm out and said, "No… no. I'm going in. I can't hide from these fears."

He turned to see a hint of concern wash over her face, but she nodded her head and began walking forward, albeit at a slow pace. The two slowly climbed into the ship, the empty and dark halls raising the hair on McArthy's neck.

At first he was expecting Mim to ask him for some kind of directions, but instead she simply walked forward, heading down the halls of the ship with confidence. McArthy watched her walk with surprise, then hurried to her side and followed her through the dark halls.

His flashlight lit up the halls, and he recognized the hall they were in, knowing exactly where they were heading. At the moment Mim was leading him past the mess hall, heading for some kind of control room. McArhty held his pistol up, his flashlight on his head activated as they walked through the ship.

Soon they reached a doorway, the door ripped out and lying across the ground. Mim stepped over the door and entered the room, McArthy spinning around to chekc their rear before continuing inside with her. The room they entered had long tables covered in electronics, but something was off. The ship may have been destroyed, but most of the internal systems should've been physically intact. But here, panel's had already been ripped out of certain areas, parts missing.

He watched as Mim strode into the dark part of the room, crouching next to an untouched table and began feeling it's side with her fingers. She obviously didn't need his light to see in the dark, which gave McArthy the chance to investigate the already open panels. The panels were all sitting on the ground near their openings, some with all the parts still intact, others taken out and improperly shoved back in, and then others were gone altogether.

The sound of metal clattering ripped his attention back to Mim, shining a light on her position. She had pried the panel off and was fishing her hand around the inside. A short time later, she pulled her hand back, an assortment of tech in her hand, none of it recognizable to McArthy.

But, with what he's seen from the rest of the room, along with her ease and familiarity of the ship, an idea popped in his head. McArthy walked towards her, then asked, "Hey, have you been here before?"

Mim pondered his words for a moment, figuring out exactly what he said, then nodded her head. She gestured to the openings he had just observed, then said, "Tried… create…."

Her beak moved open and closed, obviously looking for the right words, but she solty squawked with disappointment after a few seconds, then simply continued working. McArthy only huffed as he watched her. That was one question answered, but what she used those parts for, he was yet to find out.

McArthy would ask Mim many questions if she could answer properly, but as of now, she still couldn't hold a proper conversation in English. Despite his endless list of questions about her, he had to hold his tongue until his lessons with Mim made a bigger impact.

It was only a few minutes later when Mim chirped with light enthusiasm, then rose up with multiple parts cradled in her arms. McArthy turned to look at them, then asked, "Is that everything we'll need?"

Mim shook her head, then strode out of the room and said, "Only start."

McArthy slumped a little as he heard that, then carefully followed her out of the room. As they walked back the way they came, the ship groaned and creaked for a solid few seconds, freezing the two in place. They could hear the sounds of distant crashing, like parts had just fallen off the broken hull.

It was quiet after that, but as McArthy began moving forward again, he paused to see Mim was frozen in place. Her body was shivering, a little more than usual, and her head was staring forward at nothing. McArthy glanced down the hall multiple times, making sure the hallway was clear, then gently placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn't react to his touch at all, prompting him to add a gentle shake.

With his shake, he stepped partially in front of her and asked, "Hey, you alright?"

He watched as Mim's still eyes blinked once, then again, and finally she shook her head and turned to him. Despite her usual upfront nature, McArthy caught a glimpse of embarrassment in her eyes, as if he caught her in some kind of act.

Mim slowly began her trek forward again, then McArthy stayed next to her and asked, "What was that?"

Mim's beak chattered as she shook her head, then she let out a small whine and said, "Hate… ships."

That was all McArthy needed to understand. He could relate to the feeling himself. The idea of being in a massive can floating through a deathly vacuum didn't rest easy on his shoulder's, and being inside one only for it to suddenly shutter like it did would be terrifying. It must've brought back some kind of old memory for her, or maybe an old fear.

With a gentle smile under his helmet, he gave her shoulder a light pat and said, "Hey, I don't like ships either. Just keep your head forward, don't think about it."

Her head was angled slightly downward, and he doubted she understood everything he just said. But, she definitely understood the tone, then she softly crooned as her eyes floated up to look at him. McArthy could feel a tinge of heat swell in his cheeks, making him avert his gaze back forward to where they were walking.

Soon, the shine of sunlight glowed at the end of the hall, the outside slowly returning to sight. But McArthy wasn't done with this ship, not yet. He watched as Mim carefully jumped out of the hall, the parts still gathered in her arms. She gave her head a light shake to the cold, her feathers quivering for a moment, then she turned to McArthy. He hadn't left the ship yet, his head turned and looking down another hall. Mim tilted her head, then let out a questioning squawk.

McArhty glanced at her, then waved his hand and said, "I have something I need to do. You stay here, just a minute."

He waited as Mim tried to figure out what he said, then she nodded. McArthy returned the nod, then turned into another dark hallway, lit it with his flashlight, then began to walk.

His pistol was pointed at the ground, held with both hands as he roamed the halls. If his memory served him right, he was nearing the drop pods, where he hoped the bodies of his team were.

As he walked, he would come upon the occasional human body limp against the wall. Most appeared untouched since the crash, but as he neared the drop pods, his eyes came upon a ghastly sight. Leaning against the wall, next to the drop pod room's entrance, was an officer's corpse. It was torn apart, his arm's missing and his stomach ripped open. They looked gnawed on, like something's been eating him.

His observation was cut off when a sound from inside the room caught his attention. He lifted his pistol up as he heard it, turning his attention to the room. He put his back next to the entrance, lifting his pistol up, building himself up for an encounter. After a second, he heard another sound, some kind of shifting, then spun around and pointed his gun forward. A bright light lit the room up and revealed an ODST body lying on the middle table, with a jackal crouching over the body, gnawing on their neck.

The jackal shrieked as the sudden light shined in its eyes, before it recovered and turned toward McArthy with a cry. McArthy quickly opened fire, two suppressed shots striking the jackal's shoulders, staggering them, before one raced right through it's head. The jackal fell backwards off the table, then he heard the sound of more rustling coming from deeper within.

He pointed his pistol into the corner of the room, freezing up as he saw a dog pile of jackals all stirring from sleep. With a shake of his head, he began firing into the pile with his pistol, quickly killing the first few on top. Once the jackals realized what was going on, they all bound to life and jumped at McArthy. He fired his last shot, killing one before it could leap on him, quickly holstering his pistol as three more rounded the table.

McArthy unsheathed his knife as one leaped at him, making him dodge backwards and watch it ram itself into the wall. Another one lunged for him, but he sidestepped it and slashed at its flying body with his knife, cutting it across the throat as it flew out of the room.

The last one caught him after his slash and grabbed both his arms, trying to bite at his helmet as he pushed back. McArthy lifted his leg and kicked the jackal off him, then tackled it into the table. The jackal squawked with pain as it's back crashed into the table, then McArthy raised his knife and brought it down on the jackal's throat, blood squirting out of the wound.

He stepped away from the gurgling jackal, then heard a raspy snarl from behind him. He spun around to see the jackal that had run into the wall getting ready to leap at him. McArthy lunged at it with his blade, but the jackal swatted the blade from his hand and rammed its body into his. The two struggled with each other before the jackal opened its beak and bit down on his injured shoulder.

With a loud grunt of pain and anger, McArthy threw fist into their stomach, making itlet go of his shoulder and let out a squawk of pain. Before the jackal could retaliate, McArthy spun around the jackal, getting a firm grip on their head. The jackal tried to reach around with it's claws, trying to dig into McArthy, but they couldn't reach him before he snapped it's neck. The jackal went limp in his arms, leaving him to throw the body to the side with a deep breath.

Out of breath, McArthy leaned against the table, gazing at the new bodies across the room. The jackals barely had any garb on- no weapons, only one of them had armor on, and even then it wasn't a full set. They reminded him of the jackals that had chased him and Mim a few days ago.

Once he had caught his breath, he turned to the ODST body lying on the table. Their neck was ripped open and blood was still spilling from the wound. As his light spilled over their helmet, McArthy's breath caught in his throat and his muscles stiffened. The helmet had a painted pattern identical to Belle's, but it was purple instead.

It was his sergeant, Kenzie.

McArthy slowly raised his hand and brushed the side of the helmet, gently pushing the head to the side to see the nameplate on it. He brushed his thumb over Kenzie's name, then let out a shaky sigh as his body shook. He lowered his hand to her open neck, then further down until he felt the metal chain at the bottom. With a hard tug, he pulled the chain off her neck and lifted her dog tags up. With a sigh, he patted her purple painted shoulder pad and put the tags away in his armor.

With a sigh, he softly said, "I'm… sorry, Kenzie."

His eyes stayed locked to her helmet, as if he was hoping she would say something back. After a few seconds of silence, he let out a long breath and hung his head. His gaze slowly turned from the ground to the room's corner. The same corner he had watched Mark's body fly into.

As his light lit it up, it showed no body, but as his gaze turned, he saw it. The green armor had the same paint scheme as the rest of his team's, so he knew it was Mark. He crouched next to the body, feeling his eyes begin to grow moist. With a sniff, he held them back and ran his hand around Mark's neck. He felt the dog tags, then pulled them off and held them in front of his eyes. He rubbed the tags as he stared at the name, then put them away and stood up.

McArthy moved to his knife, swiping it off from the ground and looking at it's bloody blade. He wiped it off on his sleeve, then sheathed it and left the room. His eyes felt like they were burning as he left, making him remove his helmet and rub them, brushing away the tears.

He put his helmet back on as he neared the sunlight and turned his flashlight off as he stepped outside. Mim was waiting outside, sitting on a pile of scrap as she carefully observed each part in her arms. Her head whipped around to him as he neared her, then she approached him.

Something made her eyes light up, then he watched her shift the parts into one of her arms and outstretch her other hand to grab his shoulder. McArthy winced as she grabbed his injured shoulder, her fingers carefully tracing the bite mark on his clothing. Luckily, the jackal didn't penetrate his skin, but the clothing there was now slightly torn.

She stared at the wound, then her head turned to the new blood splattered across his chestplate. She looked up from his armor at his face, then tilted her head and asked, "What happen?"

McArthy let out a short sigh, then lightly chuckled and said, "A few half naked jackals were piled in there. I took care of them though, so it's not a problem."

He watched her shutter as her beak chattered, then she cradled the parts again and said, "Not alone again."

With that, she turned around and began walking off, heading out of the crash site. McArthy was confused by her words, but didn't dwell on it too much. If he really wanted to know, he could always ask her once she had a good grasp on English.

Though Mim was walking away, McArthy didn't follow. He was gazing around the wreckage, his eyes landing on an object of interest. He slowly moved across the wreckage towards the helmet sitting on the ground, crouching next to it to look once again. Mim had stopped moving away and was now curiously watching him from a distance.

McArthy slowly began his hunt across the field, lifting metal pieces off the ground and shifting sheets away. Mim was slowly walking around the field, matching McArthy's pace as he wandered around the wreckage. McArthy discovered a couple bodies, neither of which were Belle. He was close to giving up after a few minutes, then he pushed a sheet away and saw a red armored shoulder poking out.

With a burst of energy, he grabbed onto the scrap over the body and began pulling. It wasn't long until he cleared the metal from the body, then he got a clear view of Belle. He had to hold back vomit as he looked at her decaying face, which was crawling with bugs.

He angled his head away from her unrecognizable face as he reached his fingers around her neck. After some feeling around, his fingers hooked around a chain and he tugged. He pulled her dog tags off, then blindly put them away as he turned from her body. His head shifted to give her one last glance, then he turned back to Mim in the distance and began walking.

If he ever got off this damn planet, he'd be sure to get these tags to the right people. He was glad he found their bodies, despite their condition. As he approached Mim's side, she tilted her head and asked, "Pleased?"

McArthy nodded his head with a small smile, then gestured forward and said, "Now we can go."

#

The daylight began to slowly disappear as Mim continued working on the power systems. McArthy stood with his back turned to her, watching for anything that might come. The work was much slower than he expected, though he couldn't blame her. She was working with human tech, something she probably knew a lot less about than her own. Many of the parts were still piled on the ground next to her, only a few had been used at this point.

McArthy looked up to see the moon already in the sky as the last few rays of sun disappeared under the horizon, before turning to look back at Mim. She was leaning into the power source of the base, her arms both inside the casing, working away while her rear was on full display. His head immediately whipped away from the sight as he turned red, returning to watching the fenced away forest.

Soon enough it became hard for McArthy to see far into the forest, prompting him to begin walking backwards towards Mim. Once he was next to the working T'vaoan, he glanced at her and said, "Hey, it's getting dark, and it's getting colder. Plus, it looks like a snow storm is rolling in. Might wanna call it for tonight."

He watched her head slowly pull away, then she turned to him with sunken eyelids. She stared at him for a few seconds, then he chuckled and said, "Too many words, right. Uh, let's go inside."

He watched her look up into the sky, noting the growing darkness and moving clouds, then her body let out a shiver from the cold. She nodded her head, then picked the panel up and placed it back on the power source. She scooped up the rest of the parts, then gestured at the base. With a nod, McArthy began walking around the building, Mim following closely behind him.

The temperature felt like it was dropping as they made it to the entrance. The parts in her arms clattered against each other as she shivered, making McArthy quicken his pace as he helped pull the door open as it creaked open. He stepped aside as Mim entered the room, then followed in behind her and shut the door.

Mim dropped the parts on the cleared table, then grabbed onto the lamp and cranked the knob, bringing its glow to life. She began cuddling the lamp around her body, then she froze as her eyes darted to McArthy. She watched his movement like a hawk as he pulled his helmet off his head and sat against the wall.

He gave the hard floor a light pat, then chuckled and said, "You know, I'm sure that ship has a few cots or something that survived the inferno. Maybe we can go back and…"

He trailed off as he watched her eyes slowly begin to sink, then he chuckled more and said, "I mean, the ship had beds. We can get them later."

Her head nodded with understanding, then he continued to chuckle as he unclipped his chest and back armor. He laid them against the wall, feeling the cold bite his skin despite his thick clothing. This feeling wasn't going to end until they could fix the base's power, which hopefully shouldn't take anymore than a week given the pace Mim was working at today.

McArthy slowly lowered himself to his side and said, "If ya' get too cold, I'm here as a personal heater if ya' need it. I'm gonna go to sleep now, try not to stay up."

He watched her head nod, then he laid his head against his forearm and curled himself up to sleep. The nights were getting colder, of course he had to get stranded in the beginning of winter. But, it might not have been that bad. This might've been the perfect time to get stranded, seeing as he's been blessed with a companion, something he thought he'd go without for the rest of his life. Despite their communications problems and differences, he trusted her, and he was more than lucky to have her.