Remaining Hope

Chapter Two: A New Bond

~ o ~

Diary Log: Day 9- Ecopoint Antarctica

Figuring out our next course of action was difficult considering how limited our resources were.

After gathering up all we could salvage around the base, we set it in the storage room in order to figure out what we were going to do. Lee had the idea of fixing the communications dish so that we could get a distress signal to the outside world. Snowball suggested that we divide the resources evenly to keep our battery supply stable as well as to potentially fix the lone snowmobile we managed to dislodge from the ice just outside the base. I had no idea how it managed to survive almost a decade in the ice, but it was mostly intact and I was sure that either Lee or my robot companion could fix it.

However...the area continued to get colder and it was becoming more difficult to stay warm at night. Lee was more used to the cold than I was so he volunteered to give me his heat lamp on any night where the temperature fell below -90 degrees, because at that point even the base's internal heating wasn't enough to keep us warm throughout the night. I tried to protest, but he insisted because he could take it.

After spending a lot of time with Lee, I began to realize that I depended on him for so many things. He was the better cook of the two of us, so he often cooked on most days. He was handier with fixing things, though I seemed to be better at improvising from what we had on hand. He was stronger than me, so he did just about all of the heavy lifting which left me feeling sort of useless at times. Now that I think about it...

What purpose do I serve?

I wasn't as smart as him when it came to most of the technology here, I was weaker than him which always meant that I would drag him down...more and more I began to see that I really couldn't be of much use to our survival efforts. I was merely an extra pair of hands.

Oh how I wish the rest of our friends were here with us right now. If all of us were together, we'd be able to figure things out faster and more efficiently seeing as we would have six heads instead of just two.

The look of Dr. Oparas's face still haunts me to this day...and it was difficult for me to sleep most of the time, with Lee normally having to come to my side and hush me back to sleep. He didn't seem to mind though. He always looked at me with a smile on his face, even during the days when he exhausted himself so much that he needed to sleep during the day to have the energy to help me work on my newest design: a gun that could rapidly generate ice.

Yes, as crazy as that sounds, I believe I've drafted the plans necessary to improvise a gun that could use the cold to our advantage. I wasn't sure exactly how sturdy the ice would be once it forms, but the idea was to allow us to reach the communications dish if we could repair the damaged beams with it. Lee believed in my idea and he worked tirelessly to find all of the parts I needed to do it.

That would be the goal for the today: complete the gun and get the communications dish online.

We didn't have a shortage of food or drinkable water; we were rationing it very well and it's not like we had six mouths to feed. Our only concern was the worsening weather and the fact that no one on the planet knew that we were alive here in Antarctica.

Hopefully, things would change soon.

Time to get started...and perhaps I could start getting to know Lee a little better; he knew much more about me than I did him due to him reading all of my files before we went into cryo sleep.

Let's hope for the best!

- Mei

~ o ~

Later That Evening- Mei's Lab Space

"Here Mei. I made you something warm to drink."

She turned to me and smiled brightly before accepting the mug from me.

"Thank you Lee." she said with a grateful nod.

I took my seat next to her before examining what was on the desk.

"Any luck with your invention?" I asked.

She nodded eagerly and after taking a mouthful of the hot chocolate, she looked to Snowball.

"Yes. I believe I've finally managed to fuse the freezing catalyst with the micro generator. You're actually just in time to see the first test run!" she said.

I put my mug down before smiling.

"Fingers crossed then." I said.

She got to her feet before pressing a button, bringing what looked like an insane contraption to life. Tubes ran from two tanks on the left to one on the right which was small enough to fit the casing she built yesterday. Evidently, that would be both the gun's body as well as the chamber that holds the modified liquid.

She talked a lot about creating a generator that was capable of introducing some kind of freezing catalyst that upon contact with air, would cause it to freeze into very sturdy ice. Had I been pitched this idea about twenty years ago, I'd have thought her to be insane.

But that was the thing about Mei-Ling Zhou: she always had a process in her mind. Since she joined the research team, I knew she was destined for greatness due to the fact that it was her very mind that invented the climate changing technology that assisted most of Asia in combating the ever changing weather. That was the very reason Dr. Oparas asked her to be a part of the initiative, and also the reason why she was assigned to be my partner. Initially when she arrived, I saw her as just a happy-go-lucky woman who wanted to help the world, but as she spent more time with me, I got to see what she was really like.

She truly lives up to her namesake of Mei, or "beautiful" in Chinese.

I couldn't think of anyone else alive apart from Dr. Angela Ziggler who had such a golden heart. She always thought about others and the very reason she joined Overwatch in the first place was to make a difference for the world. Now...here we were over 15 years later, fighting to stay alive in the most unforgiving place on the planet.

Her goal was to miniaturize her climate changing tech into something as small as a gun and thus far, it seemed like she was actually onto something.

"Lee? Could you pass me that red switch on the desk please?" she asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts before doing as she asked. She smiled at me before attaching the switch to what looked like some kind of tap.

"Alright, hit it Snowball!" she said.

The little robot flew over to the leftmost part of the contraption before pressing a button. The entire machine sprung to life. I saw a large tank filled with water light up dark blue. The tubing then fed that water into another tank which glowed an almost aquamarine color. The tubing from that tank then led to what I presumed was the generator that she worked so hard to put together. The liquid fed into the canister and once it was filled, Mei pressed a button just below it, causing the generator to spring to life. It took a few seconds and after witnessing it release a visible shock, she smiled brightly.

"...What exactly did you do Mei?" I asked.

She pointed to the tap in front of her. She then raised it up, causing some of the modified liquid to drip from it. The moment it fell and hit the saucer below, it froze into a fixture of ice right before my eyes. I gasped loudly as she cheered.

"I did it!" she exclaimed.

The joy began to wash over me as well but before I could express it, Mei grabbed me in a hug.

"You believed in me Lee...and I did it. It took a lot longer than I was hoping for...but we now have the means to fix the communications dish." she said.
"What kind of partner would I be if I doubted you Mei?" I replied with a chuckle.

She leaned away from me, laughing softly and blushing visibly.

"Let's get going!" she said.

I shook my head firmly.

"Not so fast; it's already evening and it's far too cold to be out there. We can get to work on the dish in the morning." I said.

She looked astonished as she looked down at the clock on her desk.

"It's already 8 PM?!" she said in disbelief.
"And you still haven't eaten dinner. Come on. I'll fix us something." I offered.

Much to my surprise, she shook her head.

"You've been cooking for the last five days Lee. My turn to do it." she said.

Her tone was gentle and kind, but firm enough to let me know that she wasn't going to budge on her decision. I conceded, allowing her to brush past me towards the kitchen.

~ o ~

One Hour Later- The Sleeping Quarters

"Dr. Oparas had you do that?!" I yelped in disbelief.

Lee laughed nervously before nodding.

"As serious of a man as he was, even he had a sense of humor. After I fixed his snowmobile, he actually apologized." he replied.

I laughed loudly, bringing my knees up to my chest as I took another sip of Chamomile Tea.

"I should've come here much sooner than I did, maybe I could've become a bigger part of the family." I said.

Lee shook his head.

"You arrived precisely when you meant to. You helped us get through some of the most difficult roadblocks in our research. Heck, you were the one who suggested we expand our spectrum of knowledge when it came to the data we now have...you did a lot more than you think Mei." he said.

He sounded a little nervous, but he gave me a genuine smile.

"I wouldn't be here if you didn't join us when you did Mei; for all we know, you could've been reassigned somewhere else if you came sooner or maybe you'd have been assigned to another Ecopoint base somewhere else in the world if you came later. You can't look at the timing and assume...I prefer to keep everything rooted to the present." he continued.

I let out a sigh of relief, feeling very appreciative of his words before nodding.

"Thank you Lee." I said.

He nodded in turn.

"Anytime."

I then looked down towards the ground, suddenly feeling more sadness wash over my body as my thoughts drifted yet again to our friends.

"...I really wish they were here with us." I said.

Lee got up from his bed and joined me on mine before placing his hand in mine.

"I do too Mei...I do too."

I unconsciously found my way to his chest and my grip on his hand tightened. He responded by wrapping an arm around me, never letting go of my hand. He also rested his cheek on my head in an attempt to soothe my troubled mind. It seemed like a ritual at this point; every night before we went to sleep, he would hush me as my thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the research team. Oh how I wish things would've turned out differently...

But he didn't mind. He was always there for me...to comfort me, to cheer me up...to give me hope.

Even though I had worked with him for almost two years beforehand...we had never felt closer than we did now. I felt so comfortable around him...

And he with me; he was never this affectionate back in the old days. In fact, he was quite shy. Dr. Oparas used to tease us, saying that we'd make a good couple if we'd simply stop being naive and shy around each other...and now I was beginning to see the truth in his words.

I had grown to care about Lee so much that I didn't want anything to happen to him.

"I'll get up early and fix the dish myself...he deserves a full day's rest after all he's done for me."

After a few more moments, he let go of me before climbing into his bed. I bit my lower lip, now missing the warmth his body provided. Maybe I could get away with asking him to...

"Lee?...could we share the bed?...it's really cold..." I whispered.

I snickered to myself upon noticing the shade of red his face turned to, but he got up and joined me, albeit slowly. He scooted close to me, but didn't touch me at all. I imagined that his heart was fluttering just as rapidly as mine was right this moment.

"...Is it really that cold for you Mei?" he asked.

He sounded so flustered, it was adorable.

Not wanting to break his courage, I nodded, feigning feeling cold by shivering.

"...I'm sorry Lee. I don't mean to-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, I felt his arms wrap around my waist and his body meld with mine. He was so close, I could feel all of the heat his body was giving off.

If I didn't feel completely at ease before, I definitely did now. I let out a breath of relief before placing my hands over his and nodding.

"It's alright...thank you...I feel much better now."

It was difficult to hide how nervous I was feeling, but it was enough to fool him as he cleared his throat and rested his head just behind mine. He was so close, I could feel his breath against the back of my neck.

"Alright...I'll see you in the morning." he whispered.

Feeling bold, I scooted backwards into his body, allowing all of my back to meld with his chest as I hugged his arms to the front of my body. He flinched for a moment and I heard him suck in a sharp breath. After a few moments however, he relaxed.

Even though we were friends for two years prior to all of this...

This still felt like a new bond. One that was stronger than any other that I could think of.