Author's Notes: So it was suggested to me that I should provide a list of main characters and what they do, since my updates can be kind of far apart, and readers may not remember the characters as well as I do! So here's the list of all main characters:

-Christopher Angle: Captain

-Xerxes Lemieux: Second in Command

-Adam Trio: Science Officer

-Victor Borske: Chief Engineer

-Mack Adams: Security Officer

-Ebony Stone: Biologist

-Quinton Miskelly: Communications Officer

-Tyrone Megason: Navigations Officer

-Jett Washington: Chief Medical Officer

-Nicolas Clemens: Chemical Engineer

-Sonia Forge: Mechanic

-Pryce Trio: Adam's son

-Amal Gamous: just some random dude :) (who was also the stow away at the beginning of this story)

Not sure how often I'll put up a list like this, I don't think it'll be necessary for every update, but for now this can be a good reference point for anyone who can't remember who's who.

Also, something I forgot to mention in the last chapter, was that I think it's obvious I'm taking some… liberty in describing a certain glowy, liquidy substance found on this planet! Nova and I had tons of fun trying to explain what this… glowy liquid… is in scientific terms. We're trying to stay as close to canon as possible, but as far as we know, canon material doesn't provide a whole lot of information about this stuff is exactly, so we went crazy with it! ALL THE SCIENCE!

******* Personal Log *******

Crew Member: Dr. Adam Trío, Science Officer

Date: 25 March 2055

Time: 23:40

Entry #1123:

As the days go by, it seems like we are running out of options. Our path forward is hard to see, but our goals are clear. With our engine out of commission for the foreseeable future, we must find an alternative energy source, some way to generate electricity for our ship. We also need to find a way to grow or create food, since we don't have nearly enough for our return journey to Earth, once we embark on it. This seems to be the most daunting task; this planet we are marooned on seems to be made entirely of metal. At least that's how it seems on the surface.

Energy wise, we seem to be in slightly better shape. Nicolas and I have come to the tentative conclusion that this strange, alien substance we found is some form of liquid energy. Surely there is a way we can use this to our advantage.

On top of all of this, the clock is ticking. We have about 6 years of food left, but only about 6 months of reserved energy left, perhaps a year if we are very careful. We're racing against time, and I am very concerned about us solving our energy problem before we run out. However, I do have a radical idea to propose to the Captain. If we can pull it off, it may just give us years of time to find a way off this planet. Our Captain will not like the idea, I know that much, but it may be what we need to do to survive. I will propose this plan to him today, and we'll see how he takes it.

******* End Log Entry *******

Victor and Adam walked through the hallways together. They were on their way to the conference room to meet with the other officers for a meeting. There was a lot to discuss, and plans to be made.

"Do you think Christopher will consider our idea?" Adam asked Victor.

"Your idea," the other man corrected. "I'm not even sure if I can consider it. It's pretty unethical if you ask me."

Adam frowned. "I can't disagree with that. But it may be our only option."

"If we can find a way to generate electricity, it won't be."

"But what about food? What if we can't get any more? Then what?"

"We'll figure out another way then," Victor responded matter-of-factly.

Adam didn't respond after that, so the two walked and wheeled the rest of the way to the conference room in silence.

They were the last to arrive at the meeting, and took their places at the table among the other officers. Present were Christopher, Xerxes, Ebony, Jett, Mack, Quinton, and Tyrone.

As usual, Christopher started the meeting. "You should be aware already that yesterday, an experiment was performed on our engine core, in attempt to get it running again. The results were, unfortunately, not in our favor." Most of the officers around the table, all of whom were used to bad news at this point, merely sighed. "I'll let Victor explain the results," Christopher continued, giving the engineer his attention.

Victor sat up a little straighter. "Yes, unfortunately as you say, the outcome of the experiment was not favorable at all. Our engine core seemed to not react at all when we introduced it to our new energy source. No usable energy was produced, and no electricity was converted. And, I am regretful to say, our engine core appears to be completely offline now."

There were a few exclamations of dismay at that news. Jett leaned forward. "I thought our engine was always offline, since the accident?"

Victor nodded. "It was for a while, but we were able to bring it partially back online after some fixes. It was nowhere near ready for proper use, but it was enough for our experiment."

"And now it's not working at all?" Xerxes asked.

Victor nodded. "Unfortunately so."

"Sounds like you weren't being careful enough," Mack nearly growled, clearly upset.

Adam glared back defiantly. "We took every precautionary step; this outcome was unforeseeable."

"Well, thanks to you, we're even more stuck than we were before!" Mack retorted.

Christopher interrupted. "Mack, I sanctioned the experiment. It had been approved and tested. This outcome is unfortunate, but what's done is done."

The security officer sat back, looking unhappy. "These are the kinds of risks we cannot be taking," he said, not ready to give up the fight.

"These are exactly the kinds of risks we need to be taking," Xerxes replied, surprising the other officers with the bold statement. "What else are we going to do, sit around and do nothing?"

"We sit around and plan things before we do something," Mack continued, and looked like he was going to keep going if Christopher hadn't stopped him again.

"That's exactly what we're going to do now," the Captain reassured. "From this point onward, we need a structured plan to follow, every move we make needs to be carefully planned. Our experiment on the engine was our last hope at quickly fixing the engine, but that's clearly failed. Adam, you reported to me that we have 6 years of food left, but only one year of energy reserves?"

"One year if we are very careful with how we use it," the scientist corrected. "But yes, that's correct."

"Then we need a plan for conserving energy. Any thoughts?"

There was a moment of silence, then Adam cleared his throat and leaned forward. "I have… a radical idea to propose."

Christopher looked intrigued. "Oh? Please share."

"Back on Earth, there was a series of experiments that had been carried out, not so long before we left Earth. These experiments were… extremely controversial among the scientific community, and highly classified. Victor and I are the only ones here who would know about them. They were called the Autobot experiments."

The other officers looked slightly confused. "Autobot?" Quinton intoned.

"Stands for Autonomous Robotics," Victor picked up. "They were controversial, and classified, because they were an attempt to remove a person's life force from their body and place it in a robotic organism. They wanted to create a robot that was alive, beyond artificial life."

The others reacted in surprise. "Life force?" Jett questioned. "As in, your soul?"

Victor nodded, and the other officers gave each other looks of doubt and concern.

"The idea behind these experiments," Adam interrupted, "was to improve the life of humanity."

"Improve?!" Jett repeated, slight disgust in his voice.

Adam nodded. "A mechanical machine is easier to repair than an organic body. The idea was, if we can build robotic bodies for ourselves, then the quality of life would greatly improve. It would be easy to maintain, upgrade, and even replace if needed. Lifespans would greatly increase, the spread of disease may be greatly reduced if not eradicated, and we would no longer need to tax our planet of food and water if we only needed some sort of alternative fuel or energy to live on."

"Think of what you would be losing though," Jett interjected, clearly not happy with where this conversation was going.

Adam nodded in understanding. "I'm not sanctifying these experiments; they were controversial for a reason. But, we are in a desperate situation."

"Are you proposing we attempt these experiments… on ourselves?" Christopher asked.

Adam nodded, somewhat reluctantly. "They have yet to be completed, but we have all of the schematics and plans for the experiments that were carried out on Earth. If we can complete them, think of the resources that we could save and the amount of time we'd be giving ourselves if we could pull this off!"

"Meaning, if we could turn ourselves into robots," Christopher clarified, sounding like he wasn't too impressed with the proposal.

"Uh… yes," Adam admitted, fully knowing how absurd it sounded.

Christopher sighed and rubbed his neck. "How much work would it even be to pull this off?"

"What? You're not actually considering this, are you?" Mack burst, but was silenced by a hand from the Captain.

Victor spoke up. "The experiments weren't ever completed. There was never a successful life transfusion from a human to a robotic body."

"But," Adam interjected. "There was a rat that was successfully transferred into an Autobot, and it lived all the way up to the day we left Earth. The problem was replicating the human brain; such a complex organ is extremely hard to build as a machine. As I said, we have all of the scientific papers, schematics, and mathematics for these experiments, it may not be too much of a stretch to think we can finish them."

Christopher didn't respond right away, but instead glanced at Xerxes skeptically.

"I think it's worth a shot," Xerxes surprised them all by saying.

"What?" came a chorus of cries, Christopher among them.

The second in command nodded. "What do we have to lose?"

"Everything!" Jett countered. "First of all, the idea of turning ourselves into robots is completely absurd! Second of all, how likely is it that we can pull this off successfully within a year? And when the time's up and we have nothing to show for it, we're done for. Why not spend that time doing actual work in trying to find an alternate way to power our ship?"

"Think of the long term, though," Adam said. "I've told you the numbers before, need I remind you? It'll take millions of years to get back to Earth, as far as we know right now. The human race hasn't even been around for that long, what are the odds that our tiny community, even if we repopulate, can survive for that long? Shorter term, we don't know how long it'll take to repair our ship, it may need a complete overhaul, we may need to build a completely new engine! We have about 6 years of food left, which may not even be enough to last us until we can get off this planet. Then what? What if we can't find a way to create more food? If we can complete this experiment, and if these new robotic bodies can run solely off an alternative fuel source found on this planet, then we'll have a much greater chance of getting ourselves off this planet and safely home."

The other officers listened to Adam, some obviously wanting to interject their opinions. When the scientist was done though, there was silence in the room. Until Christopher spoke up several long seconds later. "Adam, I see the value in your argument. But this proposal just seems so… outlandish. I don't know if I can sanction these sort of experiments."

"But perhaps Adam and Victor can work on this, as a side project, if you will," Xerxes spoke up. "Adam makes a good point, we need a backup plan if all else fails. You said it yourself: from this point onward, every move we make needs to be planned carefully, and every possibility needs to be taken into account. What if we don't succeed in finding a new source of electricity in time? Or a way to grow food? By the time we realize we've failed in those endeavors, we won't have enough time left to put a new plan in motion."

Christopher took another moment to stare at the table, thinking. Then he looked up at the scientist and engineer. "Your number one priority is to find a way to generate electricity. Devote no more than ten percent of your time towards experimenting on… alternative solutions in case our main objective fails. I'll approve of this as a side project, any others that you may want to work on run by myself and Xerxes first."

Adam and Victor nodded at the ruling, while Mack and Jett grumbled.

Quinton spoke up. "Sir, I'm not sure how the crew will react to the idea of this. Like you said, this is… a bit of an outlandish idea. And I can imagine more than a few people thinking we're getting desperate if we're entertaining such… strange ideas."

"Don't tell them about it," Christopher said, although he frowned as he did so. "This is, after all, a last resort plan. Assure them that we are working hard on our main objectives, which we are."

Quinton nodded.

"I have a proposal," Ebony suddenly announced.

Christopher perked. "Please share."

"We do have the technology on board to build cryo-statis chambers for the crew. There are many non-essential crew members onboard that are eating food and using electricity that could otherwise be used by those who are, at the moment, needed more urgently for the mission."

Christopher rubbed his chin in thought. "I have several questions. How safe would it be for the crew to place them in stasis? How long can we keep them there? And how long would it take to prepare these chambers?"

"It's hard to say how long it'll be before they're ready, perhaps months. I have the equipment, but much of it is damaged and will need to be repaired. Cryo-sleep has been performed on humans on Earth, and if done correctly, it can be very safe. The longest human kept in cryo-sleep was several years, and they were only revived because the experiment had ended. In theory, humans can be kept in cryo-sleep for many more years."

"I like that idea, Xerxes?" Christopher said and turned to the man next to him.

Xerxes nodded. "I agree."

The Captain turned back to the biologist. "You'll have two tasks, Ebony. One is to research how we can grow food on our ship, and the other is to get enough cryo-stasis chambers built for all non-essential crew. You will have help assigned to you."

The woman nodded, accepting the tasks given to her.

"Quinton," Christopher turned to the next officer in the room. "As always, do all you can to keep the crew happy. Do you have anything new to report?"

Quinton shook his head. "As long as they don't know the state of our engine, everything should stay as is. I'll release an update on our goals and what's currently being worked on, and make sure everyone has something to do."

"That's good," Christopher acknowledged. "Tyrone," and he turned to the navigation's officer. "I know you've been taking readings and measurements of the space around us. Have you found anything noteworthy?"

The other man shook his head. "Only that this planet appears to have two moons."

"Very well," Christopher said and leaned back. "Anything else to report?"

There was a moment of silence as nobody replied, and he looked over the other officers. "Alright then. This goes without saying, but everything we do needs to be done as quickly and as efficiently as possible, and it needs to be done right. Keep up morale, don't let the crew feel like we are desperate, good spirit is key to success. We know our goals, however, our number one priority is to find an alternative energy source. That is our biggest threat at this time. Conserve energy. Quinton I also want you to ensure the crew is aware of this. Do not use any electricity unless it is absolutely necessary. We will be shutting down all of the elevators, except for one that Victor can use… sparingly, I might add." The engineer nodded in understanding. "Mack, it will be the job of your security force to ensure as little energy as possible is being used during the night hours." Mack grunted in acknowledgement. "I'll be expecting daily reports from each of you after today. Thank you, you may go."

Upon being dismissed, the officers all stood and hustled out of the room, most with very urgent business to attend to. Christopher stayed behind, and once the doors closed behind the last officer, he ran his hands over his face. It was getting more and more difficult to hide the worry and fear that was creeping over him. They were running out of time and options, and at this point, the fate of them all was resting squarely on the shoulders of their scientists. There really wasn't much he could do but stand by and watch and hope.

o~o~o

A week later, the officers were deeply engrossed in their tasks. Not just the officers though, other members of the crew had jobs to do, of various importance. Quinton had the non-essential crew members busy with light tasks, such as cleaning and maintaining the ship's equipment, assisting Jett in the medical bay, preparing meals, and monitoring simple data readouts. However, although they were being kept busy, the morale of the crew was beginning to take a dip. The excitement of the alien world was wearing off, since there wasn't much to see or do about it. All they had been told about the state of the engine was that it was in need of further testing and refinement. And finally, the stringent energy saving plan had been put into effect, with all elevators being shut down except for the one reserved for Victor, the ship's temperature being reduced by another 5 degrees to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and the rule being put into place that absolutely no electricity was to be used by the crew during night hours. Although the officers were careful to make things sound as hopeful as possible, it was clear that things were getting a bit desperate, and Quinton's job was getting harder by the week.

Other members of the crew had been assigned specialized jobs. Pryce had been reassigned as Ebony's assistant to help her with the cryo-stasis chambers. And Sonia was fully enjoying having full access to her forgery again, especially since she had some experiments of her own to perform. She was still mightily intrigued with the strange metal found on this planet, and now had the capacity to perform "proper" tests on it. She could be found in her forgery practically all day every day, and today was no different. She was busy tending a fire when the door to her forgery swung open and Nicolas stepped in. The woman glanced up and gave the man a friendly smile. "The tables have turned, it's your turn to visit me now!"

Nicolas merely gave the woman a grin as he approached her. "Well, you did call me. What's up?"

"Oh, I just wanted to show you something cool I discovered, although I have no idea what it means," Sonia replied.

The chemist looked intrigued as he stepped to her side. "You have my attention."

The woman stood up and beckoned the man to follow her. She strode up to a table near the back of the room, where she kept several piles of sample material, as well as several beakers of the pink liquid energy.

"Hey," Nicolas said. "That's some of my samples, isn't it?"

Sonia winked. "I took some while you weren't looking! You remember you were telling me about how you saw this metal acting weird around a stream of this liquid on the surface?"

Nicolas had to take a moment to recall. "Oh… yeah I do remember that." He had seen a strange reaction going on several visits to the surface ago. He had made a mental note to investigate further, but his priorities changed when the experiment on the engine failed and focus shifted to finding an alternative source of generating electricity, and he's been working closely with Adam on that ever since.

"Well, since it didn't seem like you'd be getting to that anytime soon, I decided to take matters into my own hands," the woman proclaimed. "I didn't have to do much before it was obvious you were onto something. Watch." She then placed a chunk of the alien metal on the surface of the table, and using a spoon, carefully took a small sample of the liquid energy and dribbled it onto the metal. Nicolas nearly gasped in surprise when suddenly, the surface of the piece of metal changed completely on its own; the texture became sharp and angular, and even formed hexagonal shapes that protruded from the surface.

"How did it do that?" the chemist asked.

Sonia shrugged. "Dunno, pretty neat though, huh? But that's not all. I got curious, and wondered if it'll react to any other kind of stimulus. Check this out!" She then grabbed an electrical cord that was lying nearby, that had been cut so that frayed wires stuck out of the end. She held it up for the other to see. "Live wire," she explained, before pressing the live end up against the metal. Nothing special appeared to happen, and in a moment she took the wire away. She then picked up the metal, held it up for the man to see again, and juggled it from hand to hand, clearly indicating that it was safe to touch. She put it down again, and then grabbed a second wire, one that was also cut and frayed, but one that was attached to a lamp. She pressed this wire against the metal as well, and this time, the light bulb in the lamp lit up almost immediately.

Nicolas seemed impressed again. "It can hold an electrical charge?"

"That's what it looks like," the woman replied. "This electricity thing only happens after I've exposed the metal to this liquid stuff. I haven't really discovered much else, nothing as interesting as this. But, I don't know what it means, I'm not a scientist."

"Hm," Nicolas thought. "This is more a question for Adam, and possibly Victor. Unfortunately, we're busy with the electricity generator. Although… I wonder if this can help us with our work… I'll bring it up with them. Thanks Sonia, this is really cool! Keep working on this, and let us know if you discover anything else!"

o~o~o

Sonia's discovery was one of the last exciting things to happen for a while. Slowly the weeks went by, and then months. The morale of everybody on board continued to decline as the strict electricity saving plan held firm and the scientists continued to struggle with their work. Life became stagnate, and desperation began to circulate.

Three months passed like this. It became hard to even get a smile or a cheery attitude out of anyone, and the atmosphere of the ship felt heavy as the threat of their situation loomed over them. They were racing against time; they were already fast approaching the time that Adam predicted they would run out of energy if they didn't conserve. Thanks to their plan though, Adam was confident they could last another nine months the way things were going.

Despite all this, a few of the scientists were making some progress. Down in the bio-lab, Pryce listlessly watched a cage full of rats, rats who had been grown from carefully preserved embryos and were now kept in an acrylic tank. They were necessary for the testing of the cryo-stasis chambers he and Ebony had been building. It had taken a while for them to get to the point where they were ready to test the chambers, it had only been the two of them, and a smattering of assistants that Quinton had assigned to help, working on the project. And although Ebony knew precisely how to build such chambers, acquiring the supplies and actually constructing them were a different story. They spent many hours and days waiting for Sonia to forge up the pieces they needed, as well as getting approval of their progress from Adam along the way.

"Pryce," Ebony called from the other end of the lab.

The teen glanced up from where he had been contemplating their situation.

"I'm ready," the woman explained.

Pryce nodded, then reached into the rat cage and carefully lifted one out. They were docile rats, bred to be handled and not bite. He cradled the creature as he made his way over to where Ebony waited.

Once he arrived, the woman took the rat and put it to sleep with an anesthesia. In a matter of minutes, the animal was still, and Ebony then injected its body with a liquid designed to keep the body alive while in a cryo-sleep state. Next she gently placed the rat into one of the chambers. It was a large one, designed to hold many humans, not just one small rodent. But this was an experiment. It took a few minutes to activate the chamber, and perform calibrations. Pryce watched wordlessly as the woman worked. Several minutes later, the rat had been chilled to a temperature around -202 degrees Fahrenheit. Ebony took some readings on the rat's vital systems, and everything appeared to check out. She turned to Pryce with a smile, "We're ready."

o~o~o

::Attention crew, this is your Captain speaking.:: The voice of Christopher could be heard ship wide as it was filtered through the comm-system. ::I know times have been hard, and we have all made sacrifices over the last few months for the sake of our survival. I want to personally thank you for making those sacrifices, for remaining hopeful and hard-working even as times got tougher and leaner. It fills me with pride to know I lead such a brave crew, and I know that with such a strong crew, we will surely overcome this hardship.

::I have good news, for you will not have to endure such lean times for much longer. Thanks to the work of our biologist Ebony Stone, and the many talented assistants she's had over the last several months, we now have functioning cryo-stasis chambers for the entire crew. If you are not aware of the technology, these chambers are designed to put a human into a deep sleep for as long as is necessary. This technology has been used for various situations on Earth, with an extremely high survival rate, and so I can assure you that this practice is very safe. All crew members, except for the officers and a select few others, will be placed into a cryo-sleep state. Those who remain awake will be working to solve our immediate problems, ones that, for lack of knowledge and experience, others cannot help with. The purpose of this plan is to give us as much time and resources as possible to find a solution to our predicament.

::This is a painless procedure, and when you are woken up it will feel as if no time has passed. There will always be somebody maintaining your cryo-chambers, and you will be awoken as soon as we are ready to leave this planet. Each of you who are to be put into cryo-sleep will be scheduled a time to undergo the procedure. If there are any questions, please refer to our communications officer, Quinton, and he will help you as best as he can.

::Here's to a bright future. You all have done so much to keep this mission alive, now let us, the officers, serve you. I know I will see each and every one of you again once you are woken from your sleep. Thank you.::

Christopher turned off the comm., and sighed. It was hard to sound cheerful when he knew the full extent of how desperate the situation was. Although doing this would give those staying awake much more time to find a way out of this mess. So there was hope.

He took the next few minutes to stare out his window, contemplating the situation at hand. After a while though, there came a knock on his door. He gave permission, and it was Adam who stepped through the door.

Christopher gave a nod in greeting. "Adam, what can I do for you?" he asked as he indicated the chair for the visitor to sit in.

Adam took the seat. "Christopher," he began. "Before you have the crew put into cryo-sleep, I believe it would first be wise to ask for… volunteers, in case we need some for experiments."

The Captain cocked his head slightly, looking wary. "Experiments? What kind of experiments?"

"The Autobot experiments," Adam explained.

Christopher frowned, clearly not happy to hear about that.

"I know how you feel about them, and I completely understand where you're coming from," the scientist was quick to add. "But you've seen my reports lately, we're not making much progress on building an electricity generator. If we wait for months to decide to abort that mission and start executing our backup plan, which is the Autobot experiments, we may not have enough time left!"

"We may not have enough time left as is, and do you really expect us to abandon our search for an alternative source of electricity to experiment on transferring human souls into robot bodies? Do you understand how foolish and ridiculous that sounds?"

Adam sighed wearily. "Yes. But I just don't see us finding a solution to our electricity problem anytime soon, not even in the nine months we have left. Finding an alternative source of electricity doesn't happen overnight! We don't have any solar power, no hydro power, nothing to burn, no nuclear power, and we haven't recorded any significant wind activity during the entire time we've been here."

"But if we build these robot bodies, then what will they run on? Machines need electricity too, don't they?" Christopher countered.

Adam nodded. "Yes, but, we have been making some interesting discoveries about the strange substances we've found on this planet. Sonia and Nicolas have been working together to research them. We're still not completely sure how or why, but it seems that the strange metal found on this planet has the ability to absorb energy, whether it's coming from electricity, or, even better, the liquid energy we've found here. I have a strong suspicion that we can harness this property and use it to build machines that run off of the liquid energy!"

Christopher leaned back, thinking hard. "If that's the case, then why not just build one of these such machines, that can harness this energy and create electricity?"

"We've considered that," Adam admitted. "And we've even tried this, but the truth is we're just not sure how to harness the energy. We can build the machine, and we can pump the liquid through it, but after that, we don't know. I'm sure there's a way, but we know so little about both of these substances, and even less about how they interact with each other, that it may takes months or years of studying to figure it out."

Christopher rubbed his face. "But you think you can do this with a robotic body?"

"Yes!" Adam responded. "I have hopes that with a life force driving the machine, we may be able to utilize this energy."

The Captain took some more time to think. Finally, he replied. "I value your opinions and advice, Adam. And you know a heck of a lot more about this sort of thing than I do. If you believe this is the right course of action, then I can only deny it for so long. But I do want to go over this with Xerxes first."

"Thank you," Adam stood up. "But, if we do go through with this plan, we will undoubtedly need volunteers."

Christopher nodded. "I understand."

o~o~o

The news that all non-essential crew members were going to be placed in cryo-sleep did not help soothe the tension that was building. Many crew members took this as an act of desperation by the officers, proof that their situation really was that bad. A few others conspired that they weren't being put into cryo-sleep, but were instead going to be killed off without being told. That they were just getting in the way and eating up resources, so the officers were getting rid of them.

When the time came that crew started receiving their scheduled appointments to undergo cryo-sleep, they were all surprised to find an attached questionnaire with only one question to answer: would they be willing to volunteer themselves as subjects for an experiment to better their chances of survival? This only fueled the fear and paranoia among the crew.

Quinton had his hands full trying to calm the crew. He would answer the same questions over and over again, assuring them that their suspicions were incorrect, that the officers only wished to ensure the safety of everyone on board. It was hard to convince anyone that he was telling the truth, though. Even after his reassurances, many crew members were skipping the physicals they had been assigned to ensure they were healthy for cryo-stasis. The communications officer was currently helping Jett hunt down patients to convince them to come.

"I'm sorry Jett, I'm doing everything I can. But if they're hard set on not doing this, I can't force them," Quinton was saying into his comm-link.

::It's your job to talk to them and keep up the morale, so start convincing them that we're not out to get them or something!:: Jett responded, sounding exasperated over dealing with irrational and difficult patients all day.

"I'm just one man, there's only so much I can do!" Quinton replied.

The medical officer sighed over the comm. ::I just wish the Captain hadn't included that question about experiment volunteers.::

Quinton couldn't help but silently agree, it was that one question that was really setting people on edge. Some people just couldn't be convinced that if they answered 'no' on the question, that they wouldn't be used as experimental subjects anyway. He had an equally hard time convincing people that the likelihood of them actually needed volunteers was very slim, although he wondered himself how much of that was the truth, and that made him nervous as well. It was hard to appear confident answering these questions while he wondered the same things.

Finally, he reached the living quarters of the crew member that had missed his appointment. It was mid-afternoon, and this particular person didn't have any assigned duties at this time. He had been unable to reach them over their communicators, and hadn't seen them around the ship all day. His best guess was that this person was in their quarters.

"Hang on, Jett," he said into his communication device, and then knocked on the door. "Hello?" He called. "This is Quinton, is there anyone there?" There came no response, but Quinton quickly noticed that, oddly, the door appeared to be cracked open slightly. He paused for a moment, but then decided that it was best if he investigated. After all, he didn't know where else to look for this person. So he grabbed the edge of the door and found that it was easy to slide it open the rest of the way. "Hello?" He called again, stepping inside. He was just about to decide that nobody was home, when he turned around the last corner and stopped dead in his tracks. He gasped, feeling like his stomach had plunged into an icy bath.

Jett arrived about ten minutes later. The medical officer found Quinton outside the room, sitting against the wall with his head in his hands. The man merely pointed towards the open doorway next to him, and Jett cautiously entered. A moment later, the doctor could be heard swearing loudly, before entering the hallway again, already calling for some assistants.

"He was like that when you found him?" Jett asked Quinton, in a much softer tone when he noticed the other man had hardly moved.

Quinton nodded, clearly not okay with what he had just discovered. "I had hoped it wouldn't come to this," he said shakily. "I was afraid… but I really hoped it wouldn't."

"This wasn't in any way your fault you know," said Jett.

Quinton took a moment to look down at his hands, before shaking his head. "I don't blame myself, although I should have seen the warning signs, or been more interactive with the crew, or… something." He put his head in his hands again. "It's my job after all."

"This isn't your fault," Jett pressed again.

Quinton just sighed and didn't respond. The two waited in silence for a good while longer, until Jett's assistants arrived. They swiftly removed the body from the room, and pretty soon Quinton was left on his own, silently wondering what he was supposed to do next.

o~o~o

News spreads fast, and as more and more people heard of the suicide, more and more people grew nervous about the cryo-sleep process. Quinton, Jett, and Ebony tried to hurry along the process, and it took quite some more convincing to get a few crew members to submit to it.

There were roughly 60 crew members aboard the ship at this point. Pryce and Ebony had built three large chambers to keep them all in, two of them holding ten to twenty people. The third and biggest was the seed vault that had been converted into a cryo-chamber, where internally it had been sectioned off into several smaller units, but in total having a capacity of around thirty. Slowly but surely though, the number of active people onboard dwindled, as the crew were put into cryo-sleep in batches. But as the awake population became sparse, to the dismay of everyone, several more cases of suicide occurred. Some just couldn't let go of the belief that this was the end, and decided to take matters into their own hands.

Christopher had been spending more time in the crew's lounge these days. The last thing he wanted during these times was his crew to think of him as aloof for staying holed up in his cabin, and he wanted to be as available as possible during these trying days. It was during one of these visits to the lounge, where there were only about 20 or so others in the room and the hushed conversations of them could be heard from where he was sitting, that Christopher was approached. He looked up to see a man standing in front of him, holding up a tablet with his scheduled cryo-sleep appointment up on the screen.

"I don't want to do this," Amal stated matter-of-factly as he jabbed a finger at the screen.

Christopher had to take a moment to find his words after so blunt of a statement. "Amal… Gamous is it?" he queried. "I'm sorry, but it's mandatory. I promise you it will be quick and you won't even notice that you were asleep once you're woken again."

"I don't care," the other man rebutted firmly. "I don't care how long or short it'll feel like, I don't like the idea of being forced to be still, asleep, and frozen for any length of time!"

"You won't feel a thing, Amal," Christopher tried to explain. "This is a tried and true method, there's nothing to be worried about."

"I won't do it." Amal stubbornly refused again.

The Captain glanced around to see that their conversation had garnered the attention of everyone else in the room. He sighed and stood up. "Come with me," he ordered and headed for the door.

Amal followed as they stepped into the hallway, and walked away from the lounge and down another passageway that was empty. Christopher turned back to the other man. "Listen, I understand how you feel, and I'm sorry this is being imposed on you. But there's nothing I can do."

"Sure you can do something, give me a free pass!" said Amal.

Christopher rubbed his neck, feeling weary. "I can't just do that. If I give you a free pass, just because you don't want to do this, then I would have to give everyone who doesn't want to do this a free pass, which would be a lot of people."

"Just have the doc make up some medical reason why I can't undergo the procedure, it'll be an easy white lie."

"You want me to lie to everyone?" The Captain asked sternly.

Amal shrugged. "Come on, I know you've told us all lies before, don't try to deny it. What's one more?"

Christopher didn't look pleased at all as he stared at the other man. "You do realize this is for the survival of every one of us onboard this ship?"

"But I can help out here!" Amal insisted. "I can do a lot of things, like maintenance, making meals, assisting with menial tasks, taking out the trash! I can be whatever you want me to be. And besides, you can't have everyone be super specialized and important. Sometimes you just need a jack-of-all-trades, and that's me!"

Christopher sighed. "It's not that easy. The less people awake the better, and less strain on our resources."

"Oh, I don't need much," Amal reassured. "And besides, I heard Adam's kid doesn't have to do this. If not him, why not me?"

"There are reasons for keeping awake those that we are."

"Well, I just gave you a bunch of reasons to keep me awake," Amal persisted. "And besides, I'm just getting on the good side of Mack, now how many people can say that?!"

The Captain stared off to the side for a good long time, thinking. Finally, he looked back at Amal. "I'll give it some thought, that's all I can say right now."

"Great!" the other man grinned. "And your answer had better be yes, because I'm not doing this thing." He tapped the screen of his tablet again, before turning to walk off.

Christopher rubbed his face. It wasn't noon yet and he was already feeling tired.

o~o~o

No matter how much the crew disliked it, two days later they were all safely in their cryo-chambers, deep in sleep. There had been no hiccups or malfunctions. Now the ship was empty and quiet, at least, emptier and quieter than it had been recently. It was especially eerie walking the hallways, as there was now a very low chance of passing anyone by. That is how Pryce felt as he and his father made their way to the conference room to meet with the others. The echoes of their footsteps seemed to resonate throughout the entire ship now, as they walked in relative silence, each one mulling over the situation.

Adam turned to look at his son. He had been worried about him lately, the teen had been quieter and more reserved, keeping to his tablet. He wondered if this was Pryce's way of coping with stress. He remembered back on Earth, when something such as school got him anxious, he tended to shut down. He questioned Christopher's decision to keep him out of cryo-sleep, although he couldn't help but agree that his son was definitely going to be a big help, not only was he trained, but he was in general very easy to work with and he caught onto new skills fast. But, although he was glad to have his son by his side, he wondered if he would prefer to have him in one of those cryo-chambers where he would be safe.

The two reached the conference room, and Adam stopped them short just before they entered. "Now you're not expected to say anything while we're in there, but is there anything you want to ask me before we go in?"

The teen thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "No."

"Okay," Adam nodded, then led the way into the room.

The room was already full, but there were two seats next to each other for the two arrivals, who quickly took their spots. Pryce glanced around the room, noting the familiar faces. Including himself there was Sonia, Nicolas, Amal, Ebony, Tyrone, Quinton, Mack, Jett, Xerxes, Christopher, Victor, and his father.

Once everyone was settled, Christopher stood up to address them. "All of you, we are all that remain awake aboard this ship. Our immediate goal is survival. Each one of you is here because you possess a skill that can help us achieve this goal. I know we have it in us to get through these dark times. We must, for I fear that darker times lie ahead. We must work together, trust each other, and utilize all of our strengths and skills to persevere. Courage, willpower, and teamwork are key to our survival, and we mustn't lose those traits. I know we can do this. Be strong, and don't lose faith. The survival of our race depends on us thirteen."