Chapter Three: A Solution
Bellamy rests his bare feet on the chilled floor beneath his bed. There's a thrumming in his veins, keeping him awake. He sets his head in his hands, running his fingers through his unruly hair. It's getting too long but he didn't much care.
He had moved what little he had into the comms room. Monty was the one that suggested it since Bellamy never seemed to leave. It afforded him the rare comfort of sleep when the radio refused to crackle.
All is silent now though. This room is becoming that small ray of hope they are all starving for. He knows that if they could find a way to communicate with Clarke, then they could find a way to communicate with the bunker as well.
The two people that mattered most to Bellamy in this world are trapped below, wrapped in the blaze. He hated being useless to their plight, he hated that he couldn't help protect them. He chose to leave them behind.
He left her behind.
Bellamy walks out into the quiet hallway. The gentle hum of the Ark is a strange comfort. He had never spent much time in The Ring when he originally lived here but times have changed. There's something cold and clinical about it. Factory station had its dings but that gave it character. This place was devoid of that. There's a large window up ahead which gives him a view of the stars beyond and the dark matter that surrounds them. He had spent too much time looking at stars and creating stories when there is none. He had told O all about those tiny blazing dots but that was for dreamers.
He knows the others are gathered in the make-shift mess hall. He can hear them faintly speaking to one another. It's dreamlike, like their echoes are imagined. They float around in his skull for a moment, before he works up the will to face them. He turns away from the window. Once inside the mess hall, all conversation ceases, as if someone turned off a switch. He doesn't look at them, he just grabs a bit of rations for himself before sitting down, alone.
It's Monty that joins him a moment later, "So…what's going on?"
"I'm eating." Bellamy supplies with a small tired smile. Monty tries to give him one back.
"I can see that. You doing okay?"
"I'm fine, Monty." Bellamy states as he chews. He looks over at the other table and catches Raven's eye.
He wasn't fine but he knows, more often than not, people only ask about your well being because they want the easy answer, not the truth. He can't blame them. It's just the way things are.
"I'd ask you to help me get the algae farm up and running but I never took you for a green thumb kind of guy." Monty says and fidgets before glancing back at the others.
"You'd be right. I'd do more harm than good." Bellamy finishes off another bite of food. He isn't hungry but he's on autopilot.
"We're worried about you, Bellamy." Monty says.
"Tell Raven I'll help her get the command center up and running if she needs me."
He's sweating. The others keep looking back at him and Monty is giving him that pitying expression. It's Bellamy who stands from the table and leaves the room. There's peace to be found back out in the silent hallway.
After everything they've been through, he can't lose it now. He can't afford to. Clarke is alive. He can't crack to pieces.
Five years though…five years too many. All that time, scattered.
He had his eyes closed when he hears, "Bellamy." His heart leaps into his throat. It sounded like…
When he opens his eyes, Raven is standing in front of him and he schools his face. "What's going on?" He blinks at her and the pit of growing dread doesn't lessen.
"I need you to do something. I'm trusting you can handle it." She says, slowly.
"What do you need?" The stoicism has never fooled Raven, not for a second.
"There's an auxiliary communications antenna that is damaged on the underside of the ring. If we were to get it working, we could communicate back to Earth. Maybe even to the bunker and to Clarke." She's looking at him, waiting for his reaction. This is really all that he needed to hear. He gives her a slow smile. "You think we can get it to work?" He asks and Raven gives him one back. Her confidence has never failed them.
"I'll talk you through it, if you're willing to go out there."
Bellamy shakes his head, "You don't even have to ask."
"On one condition. You sleep tonight. I can't have you passing out and floating away into space." Raven says and she has that intense way of looking straight into him. She could pluck apart his thoughts if she wanted to.
"You got it." Bellamy replies, "Am I going alone?"
"No. I'm going to send Murphy with you." She smirks and walks away towards the command center.
"Wonderful…" Bellamy exhales.
There is no daylight here. It's perpetually night. It's something Bellamy should be used to, since he grew up in space but Earth had a way of forcing a routine. They had to time themselves appropriately to feign Earth hours. It's one of the many reasons that sleep is often so fleeting.
The crackling of the radio begins before he even lies down. It had been silent for most of the 'day' and he was trying not to worry. He has to strain his ears to hear her but she's talking about finding shelter for the night. She seems winded, as if she's been running. Clarke doesn't spook easily though. It's always been hard to tell how bad the situation actually was with her.
He picks up the receiver and presses his lips together before saying, "We'll be able to talk soon. I promise."
Her voice breaks up into static for a few seconds before clearing again.
He falls to sleep in an uncomfortable position in the chair, listening to her chatter on about keeping a proper inventory of her rations.
Luckily, Monty found extra oxygen tanks for their suits but as with everything, they had to be used sparingly. Raven is demonstrating how they have to practice their breathing, in order to maintain minimal oxygen consumption. Slow, calm and steady.
"Wow, who'd a thought? Now I know how to breathe. Thank you." Murphy comments derisively and Raven shakes her head.
They slip their helmets on snugly, sucking all the sound out with it. Bellamy could go his whole life without wearing another spacesuit but nothing could keep him from doing this. Clarke needed to know she wasn't alone and that her fight meant something.
Raven and Monty check over their suits one more time before they enter the airlock. Bellamy stands silently facing the large door as Raven depressurizes the room.
"You both okay?" She asks through comms.
"No." Murphy says and Bellamy glances at him with a quirk of his brow.
Raven sighs with exasperation, "What, Murphy?"
"I think I've forgotten how to breathe already." Murphy adds and Bellamy tries to hide a small smile that forms on his face.
"This isn't funny. You both need to focus." Raven replies.
"We doing this or not?" Murphy comments, impatient.
She opens the large door abruptly out into space without much warning and it almost sends Bellamy off balance. Angering Raven was always a dangerous business.
"Shit…" Murphy breathes and grabs hold of the nearest protruding bar beside the open airlock door.
"Nice and slow you two." Raven says and Bellamy takes a calming breath before exiting the room out into that dark vacuum.
They both latch onto the side and begin their slow descent to the underside of the ring. Around them were infinite stars and the only sound their controlled breathing. This had to work.
It had to.