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The Marauder's engine whines. Three winces, the high-pitched noise and its ominous implications for the engine’s functionality making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He checks and double-checks the controls, but everything seems fine.
The Marauder disagrees: she suddenly lists sideways.
Three has just enough time to exchange a worried glance with Two before there's a loud bang from somewhere in the engine’s general direction.
“What the hell was that?” Two demands.
“Dunno.” Three checks the systems yet again. Shit. “But we're losing fuel, available power has been halved, and steering is… not great.”
Two curses. Three feels the same way. They’re still a few hours away from the rendezvous point with the Raza. Three doesn't relish trying to get there with a half-broken shuttle, especially given that heading to the rendezvous point also means heading into the middle of nowhere - no stations or planets to land at if the Marauder breaks the rest of the way.
Two leans forward to the scanner. “There's a planet not far from here.”
“Colonized?”
“No,” Two says. “It's an ice planet, uninhabitable. But we could sit on the surface for a few hours until the Raza comes to pick us up.”
Three nods. “I’ll set the course.”
As Three keys in the new course, Two hits the comms button.
“Raza? This is the Marauder. Come in.”
Silence.
“Raza? Anyone there?”
Still no response.
“They just not listening, or are our comms broken too?” Three asks.
Two wrenches the cover off the comms panel, exposing the wiring below. Three can’t make any sense of it, and Two pokes around for a minute before apparently deciding the same thing.
“I’m not sure, but either way, we’re not going to make it to the rendezvous point,” Two says. “We have to land.”
“All right, boss,” Three says. “Stranding us on the ice planet now.”
*
Landing on the ice planet is definitely the right choice, because the Marauder’s engine gives out completely shortly after they enter atmosphere.
Landing on the ice planet is definitely also not a good choice, because almost immediately after their crash landing, Three can feel the temperature dropping inside the shuttle.
An hour later, the shuttle’s temperature is well below freezing. Three’s shivering uncontrollably, despite his thick coat and lack of dignity. (Specifically, he pulled his arms out of the sleeves and into the torso of the coat, sticking his hands in his armpits to warm them up. Does he look like a turtle? Yeah. But is he a warm turtle? Well, no, but he’s warmer than he would’ve been otherwise.)
Two still hasn’t figured out what’s wrong with communications.
“I’m going to see if there’s something I can do from the outside,” she says. Completely nonsensically, she then shrugs off her coat.
She drapes it around Three’s legs, where his own coat doesn’t reach.
“You need that,” Three tells her, trying to shoo her away with freezing cold hands he sticks out of the neck of his jacket. His muscles are too stiff to properly move his arms, though, let alone his fingers.
Two doesn’t laugh at him even though he looks like a complete idiot. That’s encouraging.
“No, I don’t,” Two says, firmly tucking the coat around him. There’s nothing wrong with her hands – they’re as quick and capable as always, apparently completely unaffected by the cold.
She heads to the back of the Marauder and opens the door. Cold air rushes into the small shuttle, so frigid that Three draws in a sharp breath. His skin hurts and he’s getting brainfreeze just by existing, it’s so cold. He hastily wriggles his hands back into his coat, wondering if he should just give up dignity entirely and wrap a coat around his head, covering his face.
Two moves, and the sight over her shoulder makes him momentarily forget that idea.
On the planet outside, it’s night, but the sky’s streaked in colour. Bright greens fade into deep purples in transparent waves. Behind them are three small moons, each at a different height in the sky. Below, there’s snow as far as Three can see, throughout the valley they crashed in and on both of its walls. It looks eerie under the oddly coloured light and the alien sky.
“Wow,” Three says. “Creepy place to die.”
Two turns. For a moment, Three thinks she’s reflecting the strange light as well, and that’s why she looks odd - a network of lights crosses her skin, which is glowing nearly green, and her eyes look white and inhuman. But then he realizes it’s not a reflection at all. Those glowing lights are her nanites on the surface, covering her skin, and the white and black film on her eyes is inhuman.
And yet, somehow, still capable of expressing emotion.
“You’re not going to die!” Two says firmly. “Keep warm. I’ll be right back.”
Two slips outside and closes the door most of the way. Through the crack she leaves, Three can hear the wind blowing and the ice creaking, but nothing else. The snow was unblemished by any signs of life on the planet, aside from the deep tracks the Marauder left through it. They might be entirely alone here, the only living beings on this icy world. And Two’s nanites seem to think a normal human can’t survive here.
Three does not like this planet.
*
Three’s huddling in on himself by the time Two returns. While he hasn’t entirely covered his head with the coats, he’s pulled his hood down and brought his collar up so far that he only has a small slit to see through.
Two closes the door behind her. Three watches with some relief as the layer of her nanites rolls back under her skin. If even inside she needed the nanites to survive - well, it wouldn’t bode well for him, that’s for sure.
“I turned on the emergency beacon,” she says, which doesn’t really register with him for a moment.
Then –“Oh,” Three says. “Right. The emergency beacon. The one Android said never to use, because GA ships are required to respond to all emergency signals, and have an average response time of under two hours?”
“Yes, that one,” Two agrees. “If the Raza’s nearby – which it should be – they’ll know they’re on the clock, and they’ll get here as fast as they can. And if it’s not nearby …well, we’ve broken out of prison before.”
Three nods. It’s reasonable. Except for one thing. “You should leave,” he says. “Go hide out. The GA won’t think anybody could survive on the surface, so even if they get here first, you’ll be fine.”
“Uh huh,” Two says. “Sure. And you’re just gonna survive a couple more hours of slowly freezing to death, and then not get yourself killed in prison, right?”
Three immediately starts to object to her very offensive implications.
“Shut up,” Two says affectionately. “And unzip that coat.”
“Uh, absolutely not,” Three says.
“Don’t be a baby,” Two says. ”It’ll just be cold for a second.”
“You unzip it,” Three says. “I’m not taking my hands out.”
Two’s lips slip up into a bit of a smile. She unzips Three’s coat and sits unceremoniously on his lap. Three doesn’t even care about the heat escaping from his unzipped jacket, because Two’s a furnace.
“You’re warm,” he breathes, burying his face in her neck and wrapping his arms tight around her.
Two laughs softly. Three lets her manhandle him into a position where she can do up the coat again around both of them – it’s a tight fit, but it works. And it’s fantastic. Three’s still cold - and only going to get colder - but Two’s warmth makes it bearable.
“I love you,” Three says, because apparently the cold makes not only his muscles sluggish, but his verbal filter as well.
“Can you feel your feet?” Two asks, thankfully ignoring him.
“Yep,” Three says. “These are fancy-ass thermal boots. Boone made good life choices.”
“At least one of you wasn’t an idiot,” Two says. “All right. I don’t know much about hypothermia, but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to stay alert, so talk to me.”
“Sure. How about we start planning our second prison escape?” Three asks.
*
The Raza gets there before Three freezes to death. So does the GA.
Five and Six fly down in one of the stolen shuttles they’ve collected recently. Two and Three get onto the shuttle, while Five declares the Marauder dead, and rigs it to explode so the GA doesn’t get their hands on it.
Android calls them as they’re halfway back to the ship to report the appearance of the GA. A moment after that, the GA fire warning shots at both the Raza and the shuttle.
“Good thing we have that escape plan,” Three murmurs to Two, who doesn’t really acknowledge him because she’s busy examining him for signs of frostbite.
In other circumstances, Three would definitely enjoy Two frantically yanking off his clothes, but he is way too cold to be thinking sexy thoughts right now.
There’s a couple tense moments where it seems like the escape plan’ll become necessary, but Six weaves through the unfriendly fire toward the Raza shuttle bay and - despite a number of terrifying nearby explosions - they make it.
“The Raza is sustaining fire, but shields are holding,” Android reports. “I am ready to jump as soon you are.”
“Go!” Two says, as the shuttle bay doors crash closed behind them.
They jump to safety.
*
Android checks that none of Three’s appendages are going to fall off. She then prescribes hot fluids and blankets, and banishes him to his room. He’s huddling in his bed, still shivering, when his door slides open.
It’s Two.
“Hey. How are you doing?” she asks, coming inside.
“Still kinda cold,” Three says, waggling his eyebrows. “Wanna help me out with that again?”
Two looks like she’s going to scoff at him, but when he lifts the blankets up invitingly, the cold air makes his entire body shiver violently. Two doesn’t bother suppressing a smirk at his expense, but Three’s not complaining because she also takes pity on him. She kicks off her boots and climbs into the bed next to him, looping an arm snugly around his waist and cuddling up to him.
Three pulls her in close, taking in her smell (flowery, from all her fancy scented creams), the feel of her heartbeat (steady and reassuring), and her warmth (warm). Three hadn’t even realized how tense his muscles were from shivering, until Two’s warmth seeps into him and they start to relax. He squeezes Two tightly, and Two laughs softly in his ear, her breath puffing hot against his skin, as she squeezes back.
Three can hear the sappiness in his voice when he murmurs, “I didn’t get to enjoy this the first time.”
“Did you just admit you like to cuddle?” Two teases.
“Well, I like to cuddle you,” Three says.
Two lifts her head off of his chest, leaning back a little to meet his eyes. “Are you using hypothermia to try to get in my pants?”
Three doesn’t think she’s offended, because she’s still completely wrapped up in him. She’s resting her head on his pillow, her face just inches from his own, and she just looks amused. And gorgeous.
Still, he doesn’t want her to get the wrong idea, which is why he blurts, “No, I’m trying to get in your heart!”
Two makes a small, aborted noise that’s either surprise, or a choked-off laugh. Maybe both.
Probably both.
Three groans. “Okay, that sounded really dumb. Can I try that again?”
Two moves her face a little closer. “No,” she says, sounding very pleased. “No take-backs.”
“Yeah?” Three asks, because one-syllable words are all he can manage when Two’s lips are about an inch away from his own.
“Yeah,” Two says, and leans in the last inch.