It had been some time since she sat her foot on Mars for the first time, and though the idea of it didn't loose its merit, Helen quickly became absorbed in the task at hand. She was among the crew that got the ground station up and running, and was no less proud to admit that her skills did as well in space as they did on Earth. Though you'd think she'd have proven that while they were still on the spaceship, she did put extra weight to the accomplishment when it was, aherm, accomplished on an alien planet.

She was hoping to send a message back to Earth soon, letting her family know how she was getting on. Her mother was sure to be excited– she might even try to have word sent to David, wherever that criminal bastard might be hiding at the moment. His... choices in life caused some definite strain within the family, but she wasn't about to write him off for that. Although saying it like that made it sound more like he was gay than, y'know, an arm's dealer.

It was time for a break when she found herself wandering the hallways on the space station, headed towards the canteen with the intention of grabbing a snack. Her stomach had been growling something fierce, despite her hearty breakfast not too many hours ago. She put it down to boredom, as the task she'd been stuck with that day was, in lack of a better phrase, mind-boggingly repetitive and boring.

"Commander! P-Piper! Some-some-",

Rounding a corner, she was dimly aware of Diana's voice in a nearby hallway, pausing as the distress in her voice registered properly. Though she and Diana wasn't the best of friends, she did like the woman and immediately turned so that she could find the source of the voice and see if she could be any help.

"What? Talk properly."

Helen sped up as she realised the recipient of Diana's distress was none other than the captain, who though efficient had the emotional spectrum of a diseased salmon. She came down the right hallway just in time to hear Diana's message:

"Rana is missing."

"What?" she said, walking up to her. "What makes you say that? What's happened?"

She looked at Piper, briefly trying to ascertain her reaction to the news, before looking back to Diana. "How long has she been gone?"

"Rana is missing."

Wait what? Piper suddenly had her full attention on Diana and what she had told her, almost not able to comprehend what she had just been told. Someone was missing? They had to be kidding right? How could someone go missing?! It was not like anyone would be able to just go outside and vanish? Right?

"What?" Oh, Helen, the sudden voice that came out of nowhere did startle Piper. She was embarrassed to admit it but she had jolted a little, therefor she avoided to make eye contact with the woman, "What makes you say that? What's happened? How long has she been gone?"

"Are you sure that she's not just in her room?" Perhaps it was a little rude, but it was a legitimate question.

"Well... no," Diana suddenly looked very uncomfortable, like she was wasting peoples time, "I've knocked on her door multiple times but she hasn't answered once. I have not seen her in two days. Yes, I know that it's not much! But this place is cramped, it's impossible not to run into the same person several times a day! At first I thought that perhaps she was sick and rested in her bed. But then... well, today I went to Kevin to ask him if Rana had reported her sickness to him and he told me no. He hadn't seen her at all either! I know something is wrong!"

"Oh," That sure did sound strange. But could someone really go missing? And what would the other's say? All these problems stocking up, if anyone would find out they would be so disappointed with her! This must stay quiet, for now. But Helen had already heard about it... Then Piper had to let her follow along so she can't tell anyone else! "Since you've checked the communal parts of station already I guess all that's left to do is look inside her room. She's probably there but if not three people are better than two, we have a greater chance of finding anything useful if we look together.

Diana nodded in agreement and they all went to Rana's room. The first thing Piper did was knocking on the door, no answer. She waited a bit longer before knocking again, this time a bit louder. There was still no answer and she glanced towards Diana who was looking like a nervous wreck, "Since she doesn't answer I guess I'll have to open the door?"

She didn't wait for an answer though, she just picked up her own keycard and typed her code before the door glide open revealing what was inside.

Nothing.

It was empty. Piper couldn't believe her eyes, it was actually empty. No Rana to be seen. Was this a joke? Such a cruel joke in that case. Diana walked past her and entered the room, searching for something. Or a clue. But somehow it seemed that she was searching after something specific. Piper observed her for a while before asking, "What are you looking after?"

"Rana's diary," Diana paused as she realized that she had told them something personal. But at the same time, if anything would tell them about Rana's disappearance it would be that book. "It's a small pink book. She told me that it was for documenting her research and such but I... accidently glanced over her shoulder when she was writing inside it and it was definitively a diary."

"Oh, okay... I'll help you," Piper didn't know why they would be looking after that book. But hey, Diana could be right. perhaps Rana had seen something and documented it. It surely peeked Piper's curiosity, it felt like perhaps they would reveal some huge secret. But there was nothing to be found, not even the smallest indication to what could have happened. This was giving Piper a headache.

What was she supposed to do now? Rana wasn't anywhere to be seen inside the space station nor in her room, there was only one thing left to do. Or at least that was the only thing Piper could think of. She had to assemble everyone again and ask them if they knew anything. If not... should she make everyone open their room so she could inspect it? Perhaps or perhaps not. It would probably make a lot of people angry.

But in any case, she had to make the announcement. So she picked up her intercom, "Gather in the control room, this applies to everyone."

Well, guess he hadn't been chosen for the first ship out afterall. It was to be expected, since Eric was merely a cook, but he still felt a little disappointment. Eh, there's always next time.

After the meeting was over, Eric hung back a little, chatting with his friends for a short time and reassuring each other that maybe, just maybe, they could go for it next time - although that only held true for Akira, who was a pilot and therefore useful on voyages. Then they split up - Eric walked briskly towards the kitchen, cracking his knuckles with a grin.

The away team were the first team into space for this voyage, heading out into the unknown for the first time after all was said and done. There wouldn't be a good chef on this ship if there wasn't a celebratory feast waiting for them when they came back. Eric was pretty sure that the head chef Marcus was already planning out the dishes with the other cooks.

Lets see what the head chef has to say...

---------------------------

"Oi, Zarzuela!"

"Hmm?" Eric hummed absently, shaking the wok over the fire expertedly. One, two, three, four, five - he added a bit more soya sauce to the fried rice before shaking the wok a couple more times, the smell of frying rice and eggs fragrantly wafting out of the pan and mixing with the other smells around him. "What is it, head chef?" He asked loudly, over the bustle.

"You're nearly done with the fried rice, right?" The head chef, a gloriously mustached middle-aged man with the muscles of a four-star wrestler in his prime, asked. When Eric nodded in affirmative, The head chef grinned and produced a tray of food - chicken soup noodles. "Once you're done give this to Rana. She's been sick in her room the past two days - we've been placing food outside her door, its your turn." He looked seriously at Eric, a worried look in his eyes. "Will you do it?"

"Sure." With a flick of his wrist, Eric plated the freshly fried rice onto a large plate and turned around, nodding his head. He shot a rare grin at Marcus. "You can count on me, Mr Flint."

"Excellent!" The man boomed, clapping a large hand on Eric's back with enough force to make an unaware man stagger. Eric, being an aware man, merely winced and hunched his shoulders a little, back stinging from the blow. "Oops, sorry." Marcus apologised, seeing the pained expression on Eric's face, rubbing a soothing hand down Eric's back in apology. "Now hurry up and wash your hands - hygeine! If she doesn't answer the door, just leave the tray outside!"

"Yes, sir!" hands washed, Eric clutched both sides of the tray and made his way towards the rooms. Within minutes he was at Rana's room, knocking on the door with a sharp rat-a-tat-tat. "Rana?" He called, waiting outside with the tray balanced on one hand. "You awake?"

No answer.

Eric knocked again. "Room service has arrived with an order of chicken noodle soup, please open the door!"

Still nothing.

After five minutes standing outside Eric shrugged and placed the tray down, a little way outside the door. She must have been asleep. "I've placed the tray down outside the door, make sure not to step on it," he said to the closed door, pulling out a pen and a small notebook. Quickly, he scribbled down a couple of instructions and ripped out the paper, placing it underneath the bowl to prevent it from flying away. "Not that you can here me anyway..." he muttered to himself, slipping the pen and notebook back in his pocket.

There, job done. Rana wasn't awake, and therefore she could take the food from outside once she woke up, since Eric wasn't able to enter the room and place it somewhere people weren't likely to step on. Back to cooking. Striding away with his hands in his pocket, Eric made his way back to the kitchen, unaware that the room inside had been empty for a long time.

(One hour later, the tray had been taken and placed back in the dish disposal area. By who - a passerby who had stepped on the soup, someone who thought they were doing a kind deed, Rana herself, or someone else - nobody knows.)

----------------------------------------

Finishing touches complete, Eric and the other chefs stood back to admire the feast spread out before them with pride in their eyes in the bowels of the kitchen. It was an epic banquet fit for conquerors - conquerors of space! Or at least one very tiny insignificant portion of space anyway. And just in time for the crew to come back. The group of people discretely high-fived each other with proud grins, then turned and waited for the main guests to arrive.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Eric shifted uncomfortably, crossing his arms. So.... he glanced around at the other chefs, who's cheer were also starting to wear off and be replaced in confusion, boredom and worry. Nobody really wanted to be the first to announce it. Should we... go-

"Gather in the control room." Piper's voice echoed through the speakers, sounding incredibly serious and not at all celebratory for someone who had just came back from their first trip in space. "This applies to everyone."

Well shit. Something went wrong after all.

Mass confusion broke out in the kitchen. "Wha-" "Are you serious we spent all this time cooking-" "Oh no did something go wrong-"

"SILENCE!" The deep baritone of the head chef rang around the kitchen, drawing everyone's attention to Marcus. He clapped his hands, mustache twitching as he spoke. "Alright, lets pack up the food. We can reheat it later." He said briskly. "Something must have gone wrong for the captain to ask us to head up. But that does not mean we have wasted our time - on the contrary, good food is necessary when times are bad, as they lift the soul. Nothing like a good bowl of hot soup when you are sick, am I right?"

The others made various noises of agreement.

"It is the same now. In bad times, good food can lift the spirits!" Marcus nodded gravely, mustache twitching in a way that meant he was smiling underneath all that facial hair. "Now, let us go. We must not keep the captain waiting. Am I clear?"

"YES, CHEF FLINT!"

-----------------------------

Eric was one of the last to enter the room. While the other chefs milled around the centre, spreading out and about, Eric chose to stay at the back as usual, keeping an eye on everyone who entered. Once Piper had arrived and took center stage, Eric crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, one eyebrow raised as he waited for her to speak, chewing nervously on the inside of his cheek.

Hope this meeting isn't to proclaim our voyage is over thanks to unforeseen circumstances....

“Blighted machine.”

A sneer, more a hiss, pierced the immovable flat screen riddled with snowy static. And just when she was about to contact some associates on several data she'd collected beforehand. Nothing worse than having to sit through some digital hiccup, hands tied because every other analysis had been run more times than protocol prescribed.

“Work.”

Another hiss, almost disinterested in nature as Matilda realised giving some unfeeling hunk of technology the death glare wouldn't progress anything but force more wrinkles on her face. Still... with the connection cut, it made one wonder who the hell was authorized to fix this problem. “I was done for the day anyway.” And defeated, the woman left the lab with a bitter after-taste. Never was one to leave business unfinished.

“Gather in the control room, this applies to everyone.”

And just like that, the grimace had grown even more depressing after the captain's command. Did this mean she wasn't the only one having connection problems? Still, that was nothing to call a general meeting for... Piper did sound distressed. Uncharacteristically so, even. Matilda made a sharp turn to the left in a split-second decision.

Despite her brain working over hours to find the underlying meaning behind the meeting, Matilda had managed to find her way through the ship fairly quickly. Perhaps familiarity kicking in after having toured the place several times now. That, and the control room wasn't exactly a rare place for her to start the day off in.

The woman took to a spot somewhere at the end of the room, genuinely curious about what Piper had to mention.

"Are you sure that she's not just in her room?"

Helen almost immediately rolled her eyes at that. Piper's lack of social know-how was grating at the best of times, but it was clear someone like Diana wouldn't just make something like this up. Hiding aboard this place was impossible, even in one's own room. That said, it begged the question as to where she could possibly be.

"I've knocked on her door multiple times but she hasn't answered once. I have not seen her in two days. Yes, I know that it's not much! But this place is cramped, it's impossible not to run into the same person several times a day! At first I thought that perhaps she was sick and rested in her bed. But then... well, today I went to Kevin to ask him if Rana had reported her sickness to him and he told me no. He hadn't seen her at all either! I know something is wrong!"

"I agree, that doesn't sound like her at all. She'd at the very least told Diana if she was sick," Helen said. Granted, she didn't know Rana very well, but she had made her observations in an innocent and not creepy way, and felt she had her personality pegged down pretty accurately.

"Since you've checked the communal parts of station already I guess all that's left to do is look inside her room. She's probably there but if not three people are better than two, we have a greater chance of finding anything useful if we look together."

Helen nodded and followed the other two to Rana's room, where they commenced the futile attempt at making contact with anyone inside. In the end she felt it was not only Piper's right, but her duty as commanding officer to have the door opened, and so didn't try to stop her from doing so. The empty room, however, felt a bit like a punch in the gut, as Helen felt the worry surface properly for the first time. She didn't even notice that Diana was searching furiously for something specific before Piper pointed it out.

"It's a small pink book. She told me that it was for documenting her research and such but I... accidently glanced over her shoulder when she was writing inside it and it was definitively a diary."

Making a conscious effort to pull herself together, Helen also helped in searching for the diary. It was indeed possible that it could have given them some insight into her whereabouts– even if it was just telling them that she'd been hiding out with some guy in a different cabin. "Accidentally glanced, yeah," she said. The joke made her feel a little more like herself again, even as she swallowed the disappointment of not finding the book.

In the end she agreed that consulting the rest of the crew could be the best course of action. As they walked to the control room, however, a thought occurred: "There's no way she could be on the surface, right?" She looked at the other two. "We couldn't have somehow... Left her there?"

---

"Gather in the control room, this applies to everyone."
Andreev looked up from his lab equipment and frowned– his hand paused mid-air holding a pipette. It had been a while since the last gathering– one which he still remembered vividly given the news Piper had delivered. He wondered what she could possibly want with them this time. Perhaps another base was to be established? It was hard to tell.

Without really meaning to, Andreev had spent a lot of time locked up in his lab and as such had missed out on a lot of socialisation with the rest of the crew. It wasn't like him, but one of the theories he had been reading about was too interesting too ignore, and now that they had actual soil to test, well, he was over the moon. Pun unintended. Still, he put the equipment aside as quickly as he could, making sure that it could be picked up again just as quickly when he came back.

Soon he was on his way to the control room, where he met the rest with a quiet smile. He could sense the tension from the moment he came in– quite certain that whatever Piper wanted to tell them, it wasn't good.

"We couldn't have somehow... Left her there?"

Piper suddenly felt a chill go down her spine, it was a justified question. But could it be true? Had they somehow forgotten about someone down on the surface? Just the thought made Piper's stress levels rise through the roof. If they, no if she had screwed up so badly she would surely be kicked of this mission. Well, at least she would be degraded. Perry would take her place instead. That would be disastrous for her career. She would never be able to get another job. Perhaps at a supermarket if she was lucky. But she would go down in history as the one leading the mission were they abandoned another crew member on Mars. Oh my God, the humiliation. She would never be able to show her face outside again.

"Lorenzo, you must know? Were you on the last trip miss Farran was on?"

Diana only shook her head before adding, "No, I wasn't assigned to that one."

Piper's heart sank even deeper, it felt like it had landed inside her stomach by now. The pulse was raising, she could hear the heart beats inside her ears. It was drumming so fast and so loudly it felt like everyone around her could hear it as well. Without saying anything more she hurried away towards the control room.

The scene that greeted her was however not what she was expecting, she had assigned Jerry to the communication problem but instead of working he was flirting with another technician instead. She couldn't do anything else than sigh in frustration.

"How about this, you and me, tomorrow night? I can ask one of my chef friends if he can make something a little nicer than usual? Doesn't that sound sweet?"

The woman named Mia leaned forward to show of her cleavage a little more while giggling, "Oh? Like a date?"

You could clearly see that the response was unexpected, but Jerry soon cracked up in a huge smile, "Y-Yeah!"

"Sure, why not? It could be fun."

Piper cleared her throat to make the two disgusting "love birds" notice her presence and stop with the nonsense. And they almost jumped out of their seats and if Piper wasn't mistaken she was almost certain that she could see a hint of a blush on their cheeks.

She walked up to them and looked down at the computer, "Have you fixed the problem?"

"No, not yet but we have almost pin pointed the reason why. Just a moment more and we will know." Mia nodded in agreement and Piper silently looked of in the distant with a frustrated face. She pressed her lips together to not let anything inappropriate come out. But this was so stressful, she just wanted to scream and shout at everyone at this point. But that wouldn't help anything.

It was pleasing to see everyone gather so quickly, at least something good happened today. But now when everyone was gathered Piper had to tell them about the disappearance of Rana even though she wanted to keep it a secret. She wanted to dig a huge hole and just burry the whole thing inside that. The deepest hole in history so no one ever would be able to figure it out. But that wasn't right, she had to ask them about clues. Or anything. She clutched at straws at this point.

"I have some bad news and I need your help..." She paused and her gaze was all over the room by now, it felt like she was about to pass out because of the situation, but she just had to swallow her pride and get it over with. So she took a couple of deep breathes and leaned against the table before continuing, "Something terrible has happened. One of us has gone missing, Rana Farran hasn't been seen the last couple of days. I've already looked inside her room and she's not there either. So... I need your help. Please, if you know anything help us figure out what has happened."

"I have some bad news and I need your help..."

A questioning look shot up at Piper, and Matilda couldn't help but feel as though bad news was but a mild understatement concerning the actual affair. The other option? Well, maybe Piper had decided doing everything herself wasn't such a great idea after all, but when Matilda spotted the gloom on her captain's face it was more than clear that this wasn't something brushed off with indifference.

A missing person rarely was deserving of such treatment, anyway.

Matilda, though, couldn't really think of anything progressive to add. In the time they've been at the station she'd only seen a handful of crew members, and even fewer she had spoken to. Unfortunately, Rana was one of them (not that the girl was especially talkative herself).

Her brain rattled through several possible outcomes. Some an inconvenient oversight, others... far less so. Although leaving someone out in space was a very implausible outcome, Matilda hadn't left it out. Other options were that Rana had been picked up by a transport, but that'd beg the question why nobody on the entire station had heard a single thing.

In the end, Matilda decided it wasn't worth speaking up, but stuck around in case anyone else could give some insight.

A silence fell over the three women after Helen had voiced her worry. While the thought itself was unspeakable (after all they were more careful than that– this wasn't like leaving a costumer behind in the store, it was an alien planet) it wasn't entirely unthinkable. Even a person not believing in the concept of Murphy's Law had to agree that mistakes could happen– lethal ones too. If, on the other hand, they had indeed left her down there, Helen would never forgive herself. Or the people responsible, for that matter.

"Lorenzo, you must know? Were you on the last trip miss Farran was on?"

"No, I wasn't assigned to that one."

"I don't think I was either. Christ, Helen shook her head. "What a mess."

She gave Diana a reassuring pat on the shoulder as they entered the control room, only barely noticing Piper's reprimand a pair of technicians that Helen had seen around, but didn't know very well personally. She was mid eye roll when the captain's words hit home. Something was wrong, other than Rana's disappearance. But before she could inquire what that was, the crew arrived. She kept her eyes on Piper though, even as attention turned to the room.

---

"Something terrible has happened. One of us has gone missing, Rana Farran hasn't been seen the last couple of days. I've already looked inside her room and she's not there either. So... I need your help. Please, if you know anything help us figure out what has happened."

Andreev frowned, but said little. He and Rana had little in common, and though he considered her enough of an acquaintance to say hello to her, their relationship didn't really go beyond that. Still, someone going missing was worrying to say the least.

"If I might ask," he put his hand up slightly, then lowered it. Sometimes he felt like he was still in school. "What was the last mission she was on? Perhaps someone here was with her, and so might remember something now that did not seem so important at the time?"

People were awfully quiet, apparently no one knew anything? This wasn't looking good for Piper. It wasn't looking good for anyone at this point. Everyone's in trouble if she has to tell these news to those back at earth. Oh, god what a mess... Piper was just about to sit down and bury her face behind her hands when someone finally spoke up, waking her up from her trance.

"If I might ask, what was the last mission she was on? Perhaps someone here was with her, and so might remember something now that did not seem so important at the time?"

"Oh, right, I can check that..." Piper turned around towards the computer and started checking the logs, "It was--"

She never had a chance to finish that sentence because Jerry suddenly interrupted her, "I've found the cause to the connection problem. It's rather important to do something about it immediately."

She was a bit offended by the interruption and the fact that he told the other ones about the connection failure, it was supposed to be a secret! But she ignored that and directed her attention towards him, "Alright, what's the reason behind the problem?"

"The antenna, it seems something has hit it or anything like that. It doesn't need to be something like that but I've located the problem to the antenna so it must be fixed from the outside. If we don't fix it soon we don't know if it will fall off and drift away. Something like that, yeah..."

Piper couldn't put her finger on it but Jerry seemed to be a bit distressed, but the reason he did tell her was distressing indeed. She could understand why he was a bit fragmented at the moment, "Alright, does anyone feel like taking a stroll outside with me and fix the antenna? I need someone who knows what they're doing."

More problems. Of course there were more problems. She wasn't entirely sure exactly what it was, but connectivity problems on a spaceship could hardly be a good thing. Luckily, Helen didn't have time to overthink it before a solution was suggested: she was on the verge of panic mode from stress and unable to shake the feeling that they had just seen the symptoms of the disease so far. She shook her head, forcing herself to take a step back from the situation while Piper talked to the technician. All this worrying wasn't like her, and it certainly wouldn't help anyone. She was brought back by Piper asking for a volunteer to fix the antenna.

"I'll do it," she said. "I've got some experience with the antennas, and I'm definitely used to working outside compared to a lot of the others."

She considered it, and added, "At least, I'm able to fix rudimentary damage. Worst case scenario, I'll get a closer look and come back with a report so someone else can whip up a replacement."

"Do we have the right equipment for that?" Andreev asked nervously from behind her. The poor guy knew even less about electrics than she did, but even he knew that the look on Piper's face bore ill news.

"Should do," Helen shrugged. "We're a good crew, kid. We'll improvise."

"It just seems like too much of a coincidence, do you not think?" Andreev looked around the room, his slight Russian accent more apparent now that he was nervous. "The disappearance of a crewmember, and now problems with connection? It seems, if you'll forgive the paranoia, premeditated."

Helen shook her head. "Captain, will you please tell him that sometimes shit just happens?" She didn't feel as though she was in the position to argue with another crewmember, even if it was someone she knew well. Piper was supposed to be in charge of them, she'd have to deal with the morale problems.

"I'll do it, I've got some experience with the antennas, and I'm definitely used to working outside compared to a lot of the others."

"Great! Let's get this done as soon as possible, put on the safety gear and your spacesuit. I will accompany you because safety protocols tells us that no one is allowed to fix things alone. And I believe I will be able to help you even though many here may disagree."

Piper wanted to get started right now, she wanted this thing fixed now. The sooner they fixed it the sooner they could figure out what had happened to Rana. Perhaps she had tried contacting them and because of the antenna troubles they hadn't been able to receive it? That was a horrifying thought. She needed to fix this as soon as possible. But apparently people still had questions, and Piper wasn't in the mood to answer them. The great thing was that she didn't have to Helen did that instead.

"It just seems like too much of a coincidence, do you not think? The disappearance of a crewmember, and now problems with connection? It seems, if you'll forgive the paranoia, premeditated."

True, but it couldn't be connected. Why would Rana mess with the antenna? Or was it someone else who had done it? No. That's just stupid. Of course, no one could have done that. They would be able to see that in the computer's records, that one of the air locks had been opened. No. That's crazy. It must have been some sort of space crap that hit it like Jerry said.

"Captain, will you please tell him that sometimes shit just happens?"

"That's correct, Liu. At the moment, it's too early to assume some sort of connection between the two Mister Nicanor. But once we've taken a look at the antenna we'll know for sure if this is sabotage or not. Even though it's too soon to jump to conclusions we can't rule out anything yet either. But things happen and they don't have to be related to each other. I don't believe this will reassure you but I hope it will help a little."

She gave Andreev a small nod in the end of her speech and let go of his eye contact, instead she gazed out towards everyone else and clapped her hands. "Alright, Liu and myself will head outside and check what's wrong. Everyone else can return to what you were doing before. Hopefully we'll be able to fix it and if I have any news to share with you I will let you know."

Before anyone else was able to ask anything else she hurried outside to prepare herself for the mission. She knew that it was a bad thing but she couldn't help but feel a little bit excited, it was not her first spacewalk. And she did always enjoy it, it was just an overwhelming thing to be able to do.

Once she was done dressing up for the mission she was waiting for Helen by the airlock.

Helen could understand that Piper was eager to get going. Things were piling up for the woman, in the worst way imaginable. No way to call for home, and a possible disaster at their hands in the form of Rana's disappearance. Though it was still hard to think of it as an administrative mistake and not as, you know, the possible death of a friend. She supposed that somewhere within all of Piper's panic there was still that: an ability too look at people more like numbers on a screen than actual people. It certainly seemed like that sometimes, anyway.

"That's correct, Liu. At the moment, it's too early to assume some sort of connection between the two Mister Nicanor. But once we've taken a look at the antenna we'll know for sure if this is sabotage or not. Even though it's too soon to jump to conclusions we can't rule out anything yet either. But things happen and they don't have to be related to each other. I don't believe this will reassure you but I hope it will help a little."

"Thank you," Helen said.

"Alright, Liu and myself will head outside and check what's wrong. Everyone else can return to what you were doing before. Hopefully we'll be able to fix it and if I have any news to share with you I will let you know."

She watched Piper leave and sauntered quickly over to Andreev to ruffle his hair. "Don't worry about it, kid. We'll figure it out."

"Stay safe," Andreev replied.

She winked at him and left to change into the right clothes before she found Piper by the airlock.

"All right," she said. "Let's put some minds to rest."

"All right, let's put some minds to rest."

Piper looked over at Helen and gave her a small nod, "Yeah, let's get ready."

Before she even put an effort into her own security she took one of the tethers and handed it over to Helen and after that she fastened the equipment they would bring out with them. Lastly, she fastened herself to the metal construction with her own tether. After that she stayed silent for a while thinking. Should they use SAFER's this time? Well, SAFER stands for Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. The SAFER is worn like a backpack and it uses small jet thrusters to let an astronaut move around in space. If they were to become untethered and float away, SAFER would help them fly back to the spacecraft. They can control SAFER with a small joystick, like on a video game.

Was it really necessary this time though? Maybe and as well maybe not. She trusted that Helen knew what she was doing but at the same time accidents happen. Rana is missing. That's a huge thing telling her that. Yeah, they should definitively use SAFER's this time.

"Put on a SAFER, we can't be too cautious this time."

Once they were done putting on all the safety gear Piper turned around towards Helen once more, "Are you ready? Of course you are."

Perhaps she was a bit too hasty this time, but in her opinion Helen looked ready. And she felt obligated to ask even though she didn’t wait for the answer before opening the first door in the airlock and stepping inside. Let's get started with this! She was ready. Extremely ready. She could feel how the blood was boiling, she was so freaking ready to actually do something now. Yes! This was what she had been studying for!

She closed the door behind them and once Jerry turned on the green light she opened the second door as well. She climbed out through the opening and waited for Helen before pointing out where they were heading, "The antenna is on that section of the space station right in front of us. We can't see it from here but we should see it once we've reached the top of it."

Hopefully that was everything she should've told Helen, she couldn't remember anything else of importance anyway. So she started to climb the space station but with every inch she moved upwards she felt more and more uneasy. It was like a stone formed inside her stomach and as she peaked up over the edge she couldn't help put freeze in fear. It was like time froze with her because what she saw was the most horrifying vision of her life.

The antenna was still there, it was a tiny bit crooked, that was all. But dangling from the antenna was the lifeless body of Rana Farran. She wasn't even wearing a spacesuit. She was just lying there in space, her clothes had gotten stuck in the antenna. She was the reason they had problem with the communication. And well, the missing crewmember had been found as well. But not the way Piper had anticipated.

Helen was familiar with the equipment, if not entirely comfortable with it. Two years in space didn't make up for decades on Earth– she still preferred to have both legs firmly on the ground while she worked. Still, the SAFER system made her feel a little bit like a little girl again: pressed beneath a low-car because the other people in the garage couldn't fit, dreaming of jet packs and hover cars. Mind you, hover cars would probably be a bitch to fix.

"Are you ready? Of course you are."

Helen just snorted. She had just finished putting on the safety gear. She could understand the woman's impatience, and couldn't bring herself to be annoyed by the cold professionalism for once. She and Piper had had their fair share of clashes, particularly in the claustrophobic space of the ship that brought them here. Following her captain into the air lock, she made a double check of their equipment just in time before the second door opened.

"All right, Tiger," she thought. "Chill."

And then they were out. In space. She took a moment to get used to things while Piper found the right direction for them to go. They climbed up the side of the station, Helen close behind. Then Piper stopped, unresponsive.

"What is it?" But, worried by the sudden stop in motion, she didn't stop for an answer. Instead she made the difficult task of getting up on Piper's right side, following her gaze ahead. "Oh my god."

Her first instinct was to rush forward and check if Rana was okay, but logic dictated– well. Otherwise. She felt something like pain in her chest as she looked at the lifeless body. "Okay," she said, even though it wasn't. "Okay, um."

She paused. Closed her eyes. They had to be rational about this. Panic later– consider what was best for the crew first. "The antennae looks like it can still be saved," she said. "We can bring Ra... the body. We can bring it inside. Maybe there's some way of telling what happened."

She took a few short breaths. Stayed calm. Then she started moving toward the antennae.

"Oh my god."

Yes, Piper couldn't help but think the same thing. Or anything else at the moment, she just stared at Rana where she floated in space. The view it was something... strange. Disturbing. She couldn't wrap her head around it. It was so strange. How did she end up here? Without a space suit on as well. This couldn't be an accident. She would need to check the log and see when this happened. Was it perhaps a suicide? It could be something like that.

"The antennae looks like it can still be saved," Oh right, Piper wasn't alone out here. She had gotten lost in her thoughts again while trying to wrap her head around it all. Was she rude now? Probably. She should probably say something back. Yeah.

"That's... good to hear." Now she just felt awkward, like it was something new. But no, she felt worse than usual. This situation made her tense and she couldn't think of anything good to say. Even though she knew that she should say something. Lighten up the mood? Probably not. But comfort Helen maybe?

"We can bring Ra... the body. We can bring it inside. Maybe there's some way of telling what happened."

"Yes," Piper started to move forward towards the antenna, she needed to gather herself now. Take a couple of deep breathes and just put everything aside. She needs to keep her cool now, she needs to be a leader. Yes, when everyone finds out they will need a leader not a wreck. And she must be that leader. She knows that she can be that leader. She just needs to calm down.

Once in front of the antenna she looked over at Helen, "I will move the body now, will you be able to fix the antenna before we head back? It's better to get it done now."

It was the shirt that had gotten stuck in the antenna, so it wasn't that hard to remove Rana from it. The disturbing thing was to hold her. It was not like Piper could feel how cold her skin was right now, but it still felt extremely weird to hold on to someone who wasn't responding. Someone who was just floating around, looking peaceful.

Once the antenna was fixed Piper dragged Rana back inside with the help of Helen. It wasn't the most entertaining thing she had ever done. It was probably the worst thing she had ever done. But hey, what else could she do? Leave Rana out there by herself? No. That was ridiculous.

Slowly she put Rana on the floor as the airlock did its thing and then it was just to hop out of the spacesuit and figure out what to do next. Yeah, she should probably contact Kevin... and everyone else. But first Kevin. He should probably look at Rana. Figure out what had happened. But would he be able to do it? Hopefully, he was a doctor, he was supposed to fix people not figure out why they had died. Or something. Piper wasn't sure, she wasn't sure of anything right now. Everything was a mess.

But after a couple of deep breathes she took out he com radio and dialled after him. Told him to hurry, but not what it was that they needed to do. After a while he showed up but halted once he saw what had happened. He didn't say anything. He just covered his mouth with the left hand and stared at them all.

"Yes, we have a problem... We should carry her to the infirmary."

Kevin nodded slowly, "Yes..."

Kevin lifted Rana up from the ground, Piper could clearly see that he was feeling uncomfortable. But there wasn’t anything else they could do. No one else could find out at the moment. They needed to see what had happened before. And clearly Piper had no idea who to trust. But yes, maybe this was a suicide. Kevin would hopefully declare that.

Once inside the infirmary Piper looked over at Kevin were he had sat down, "I trust that you will tell me what you find afterwards. I will go and take a look at the airlocks logs. I will return here afterwards."

Kevin only nodded in response, staring blankly at the body. That was the way Piper left him without saying anything else. What was there to say in a situation like this?

Nothing.

There were other things more important than comforting a grown man at the moment. Luckily the technicians had left the control room so she was all by herself. Good. People would found it suspicious that she looked at such things. She should probably look at the security footage as well. But for that she would need to ask Daryl for access. That would be... terrifying. But she couldn't jump to conclusions yet.

Once logged into the computer she started to make her way through it towards the space stations logs. Yeah, they did creep on everyone without them knowing. Watching which door opened when and who used their access card. But it was necessary in case of emergency, just like now.

Strange... She couldn't see anything from three days ago, nothing at all. It was like someone had erased it. The whole day was clean, like no one had moved or done anything at all. Red flags and everything was waving inside Pipers head. This wasn't right. Something was wrong. Someone had messed with the system. This couldn't have been an accident. It was the last day when Rana was alive.

There was only one thing she could do at this moment - return to Kevin and have him confirm that this was foul play. Murder. On board her space station!

The antenna was bent, although not beyond recognition. She had fixed like it before, albeit under less stressful circumstances– she couldn’t help but to throw glances at Rana’s body while she worked. Her fingers shook, even beneath the thick, protective material of her space suit. Helen worked slower than she would have liked, but eventually managed to get it right.

“Okay,” she said. “It should be working now.”

She helped Piper get the body back into the ship. Get Rana back into the ship. She’d pay thousands to know what was going through her head at that moment– she wasn’t sure she’d spent so long in Piper’s company without being ordered or patronised in one way or another. The real world seemed to come back with the push of the air through the vents, and she realised for the first time how quiet it had been outside– even when they were talking.

Piper broke the spell by calling Kevin, Helen leaned against one of the walls of the airlock and didn’t say anything when he arrived– stared at Rana’s lifeless form as orders were given, and the body was carried away. As they went she remained in the area, removing her spacesuit as if in a trance.

She’d already reached the same conclusion that Piper would later confirm. Andreev’s words had been playing around in her head for the past minute. The kid might be insane but he was also right– it had all been too much of a coincidence. Helen put the helmet in her place and headed to the infirmary where Kevin would be examining the body.

There was a body placed in his arms right now, a dead body. Kevin didn't know what to do. The only thing he could do was walking in a straight line. Staring right ahead. he didn't dare to look down on Rana's face. He couldn't do that. The only thing he cared about was getting back the infirmary.

Once he was back there he placed the body on the hospital gurney and turned his back towards his. The first thing Kevin did was wash his hands before staring into the reflection of his own face. He could see the panic painted all over his face. He tried to relax but he couldn't, his whole body was stiff. He felt ice cold.

After a while of just standing and staring blankly onto nothing he started to prepare himself for what has to be done. But in truth he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do. He was a doctor, he was supposed to help people get better, not examine them once they were dead. He had never worked at a morgue. He wasn't even sure if he would be able to discover anything of importance. But finally, he was done dressing up in the appropriate gear.

Suddenly Helen showed up in the door and he looked over at her, surprised by the sudden visit, "Helen? What are you doing here?"

Once he saw her he realized that he had forgotten something important, locking the door and switching on that little red light outside to show that he was busy at the moment. He turned away from her as soon as he had realized it and walked over to the computer and started tapping on it, soon the door closed behind Helen and he could turn towards her once more.

It was a good thing that she had been the first one to arrive, if it was someone else, someone who didn't know. What a disaster it could have turned into. And it would've been his fault! No, somewhere deep inside he felt thankful that it was Helen who had walked into the infirmary and not someone else.

She tried to give Kevin her trademark relaxed grin, but something wouldn't budge within here. "You know me,", she said, weakly. "Hate to let you have all the fun."

Pausing while he turned away to lock the door, Helen looking up at the machinery and for a moment feeling surprisingly relieved that there was still something on the ship that made sense. Machines wouldn't let her down. Wouldn't go around murdering crewmates, no matter how hard Kubrick and Clarke tried to convince her otherwise.

"In all honestly I've been worried," she admitted. "Obviously. I mean how could I not be? But you know, when Piper and I came back in with,"

Helen stopped and looked at the body, eyes closing for a moment. "Rana. I started thinking about what Andreev said before we went out. How it all seems like too much of a coincidence to not be premeditated. At the time I brushed it off, but when we found Rana..." she trailed off.

As she'd been talking she'd been moving around, but she finally came to a rest by a wall where she could lean against it– keeping some semblance of her chill personality while a storm roared inside her. "Sorry. I guess I got scared."

She managed to smile this time, wanting to keep apologising for bothering him, dumping her thoughts on him when he clearly had other things to worry about– not the least of which was on the table between them. She thought she was having a hard time with it, she couldn't imagine having to be the one to actually examine the body. What she did know, however, was that she wouldn't want to be alone with that either.

"Have you found anything yet?" She asked, though it was pretty clear even to her that he hadn't started.
"Do you want me to leave?"