4 Resolve

Kaylen looked at him with disbelief.

"Y-you!"

"Yes I did." Jumar closed his eyes in resignation.

"Jumar has been in and out of cryostasis to prepare for the implant, they only managed to reduce the potential complications by that extent." Eliza sighed. "He had been preparing for the past two centuries for this. Sugarplums, he's made up his mind. Don't try and convince him."

Kaylen looked at Eliza with conflicted eyes before clinging on to her while trying to sob silently.

"It's not fair!" Kaylen grit her teeth. "Everyone is just leaving me behind!"

"The universe was never fair, sugarplums. I'm sorry…" Eliza stroked her hair and kissed Kaylen's forehead. "Someday, you can surely-"

"No!" Kaylen wailed, her voice echoing along the stark white walls of the empty cafeteria. "I don't want anything to change! Why can't we just stay the way we are! Everyone's just gone! Only the two of you are left… Please… I just don't want anyone else to go… is that so much to ask for…?"

Jumar felt his chest tighten at Kaylen's words.

He remembered back then when everything was much simpler.

<Jumar, Kaylen, Sara, Xiu! Hurry up! The ship will soon leave us behind!>

<Xiu! Stop eating all the noodles!>

<But Jumar and Eliza cooked a lot anyway!>

<You're going to end up fat like Kaylen!>

<Wha-I'm not fat! You stupid fucking piece of sh…>

<What do you call those huge ass lumps of fat on your chest then?!>

<They're my boobs Sara! BOOBS!>

<That's enough Sara. Just eat your food, we have work on E4 later.>

<Damn it Johan, you just had to ruin the fun.>

<You should slack up a little, Johan.>

<I have a duty to uphold, I cannot be negligent of it. Plus, I don't want to hear that from you, Eliza.>

<Oooh, looks like someone is up for a fight.>

<Can't we all just calm down and eat in peace goddamnit?>

<Yeah, sure, and listen to a nerd like you? Huh, Jumar?>

<Shut up Kaylen.>

<This is so much fun.>

<What do you mean by fun, Xiu?>

<You're all like a family to me. Promise that we'll always be together, okay?>

<Sounds good to me.>

Jumar grit his teeth as the sweet memories soon turned sour very quickly.

<Jumar, tell the others I have failed my duty.>

<You fucking shit, Johan! Hang in there!>

<I'm sorry, the evac won't make it. Take my oxygen, its better if one of us survives.>

<Johan! You motherfucker! Stop!>

<Tell Eliza I love her.>

Johan died that day. His body couldn't even be recovered since it drifted off to an asteroid belt.

And so, five were left.

<Xiu! Do you copy! Xiu!>

<Ju-ar, br—en c---ecti-n. –an't hol- o--.>

<Xiu! Stay in there! The radiation storm will come in a few minutes!>

< --n't –py, sig--- fai—ure, att---ng t- ren—zvou- at ----- req—tin- assis--- ance.>

<No! Xiu! There's a radiation storm outside! Do not->

<*static*>

<Xiu? XIU! XIU, RESPOND!>

<*static*>

<XIU! PLEASE!>

<*static*>

<No… Xiu…>

<Ju—ar…>

<XIU?!>

<*static*>

<Xiu! Please respon->

<I love you.>

And so, four were left.

That was her final message, oddly clear for a transmission in the middle of a radiation storm.

Jumar wished he never heard those words. The three words still plagued him when he slept outside of stasis.

Same was for the fate of Sara.

Jumar wasn't even there. But he could see Sara die as if he was there by just reading the report.

She was caught up in a breach and was exposed to a radiation belt of a nearby planet.

She died extremely slowly, yet fast enough that neither Jumar, Kaylen and Eliza could wake up from stasis fast enough to say farewell.

She had the most famous last words out of all the personnel that had fallen.

[Tell Kaylen she's fat.]

It was short but typical of her, but it had a huge impact on their group.

And so, three were left.

Jumar could only struggle to breathe as his chest constricted in agony at the memories that left him in pain for so many years. The past five centuries, he had only been out of stasis for seven years total. It, however, seemed as though Jumar had only been out of stasis for seven years but carried a pain worth the five centuries he were alive for.

Jumar had thought about it and he had made up his mind.

He felt a deep hatred for himself that he was powerless in the face of forces beyond him. He condemned himself as the one who caused the deaths of his comrades for being so powerless.

'I won't let myself be as powerless as I had been when they died.' Jumar steeled his resolve.

He looked at the sobbing Kaylen wrapped in Eliza's arms and knew she had a point.

There were only so few of them left, it would be unbearably lonely in the sleep cycles if Jumar had… expired.

Jumar opened up his IRIS and sent a text message to Eliza.

Eliza's eyelids flickered in surprise as she received the message but replied nonetheless.

[i got it. ill handle sugarplums. go ahead and do what u need 2 do, im sure shell understnd.]

[tnx liza. 4 everything, without u I wouldnt know how 2 deal with kaylen.]

[lol. The way u sound is like a person whos going 2 di3.]

[im not planning 2. take care.]

Jumar closed his IRIS and smiled at Eliza before unstrapping himself from the bench and floating off into the corridors and into the bay area.