Respite

JP with Omni, Jaxx, and redsword_7

Jensen breathed in some fresh air for the first time in a while, he placed an arm on Vera's shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "Thank you so much for finding that. I started to panic but you came through for me. I owe you my life!" Jensen had picked up a bit of the story while he was struggling to breath. "Cure? Sure as shit seems like the cure didn't work. This little bastard…" Jensen pointed at the parasite, "...didn't come from nowhere. That was growing inside of him. Maybe you're all infected. Maybe you all have things inside of you."

Kenny rubbed his chin and pondered a moment before he spoke up, "Before you get all ‘holier than thou’ Jensen… do keep in mind that it was your idea to ignore my suggestions for a proper investigation. So you could claim the Cronus and get a promotion. Sadly playing the blame game at this point is a moot point since we are all in danger now. We have about 20 crew accounted for, three unknown pings on the scanners, 2 visual confirmations of alien parasites and one confirmed dead young parasite. So by my estimations we can safely assume we are probably the only living crew members at this point. As for if some or all of you are infected, we will closely monitor you for any signs and keep you in quarantine as best we can. However due to your cryo sickness and the aliens parasites onboard, it may be wiser to purge them out and get the Cronus life support working again before returning. Roberts... Since it seems that only one parasite can use a human host and the number of crewmen missing I can guess we may have anywhere from 14 to 18 parasites onboard the Cronus including the ones that may be inside the Cronus crew staff. If Jensen gets out of line, feel free to use him as a shield next time and return the favor. Stay as a group and keep track of how many you kill."

Ogai frowned at the Captain's words and hissed, "Not helping." He then looked at the crew, "And let's not entirely jump to conclusions, cause that gets people killed. And we don't want blood on our hands, especially blood that doesn't belong there, Jensen."

“The Cronus crew has a steady air supply now but I don’t have enough time to wait around until we can get the scrubbers fixed before mine runs out.", Roku interjected.
"I would like to get back to the Montero to get air, preferably with Tsuki. I need to get her on IV. Otherwise, I’m going to have to take the chance and open her helmet to at least give her a shot of Endural.”, Roku said over the comms.

"Yes, yes. Let's try to save the kid at least. Ogai, I completely agree and apologize. I was a bit panicked, but I'm seeing clearer now. And Captain, you're also right, at least on some things. I'm just hoping we can all get off this ship again.", said Jensen.

"We all will get back to the Montero and hope for the best. We need to rest a little here before we make a run for the Montero. I have a bad feeling that all the bio signs in the air shaft are the other monsters. I would love to drop a few frags down that shaft. but we don't have any.", Robert said.

"I suppose quinitricetyline is off the table?", asked the British woman.
"Whoa, Clayton. Fire needs oxygen to burn and we need that oxygen if we want to recover the ship.", Johns responded. "She has a point though, maybe we could do something with it. Small scale."

"How do we know there are no more grenades?" Reyes questioned.

"What about building a bomb? I'm not a scientist, but I've seen TV shows. You can whip up a bomb out of regular chemicals right?" Jensen proposed.

“Y’all are losing air, right? What’s the immediate plan then, go to your ship and quarantine there? No offense but we probably got more room to move around here.” Johns inquired, sounding more awake.

“Yes.”, Clayton interjected. “I don’t fancy sitting round in a cramped airlock for 24 hours... and we’re going to need food, I’m sure I’m not the only one who is famished...", she paused. “73 bloody years...”

"I do not say with no support, but as much time as we are spending here we should know soon if anyone else is infected.", Roberts added.

After searching around the Examination Room, the Showers (which were growing the gray egg-shaped fungus), and the Locker Room, Vera returned to Cryo 3 with a duffel bag and a service pistol that she found under some clothes in Reyes’ locker. She handed the pistol to Reyes.

"Thank you... you're a synth... artificial person, I assume?" Reyes inquired.

"Yeah..." Vera replied, "Why? Got a problem with synths?"

"Oh no, I... you just weren't wearing an EVA suit. Sorry, stupid question on my part." Reyes said looking at Vera's body which was more athletic than her own.

Roku made a rough sketch in her journal of what remained of the dead alien as Roberts grabbed the duffle bag from Vera.

"Brrr-Meow?", came the faint familiar sound of a feline. A small, long haired, adorable grey and white cat blinked up at Roku looking quite sleepy and frazzled.