A or B

After many accusations and close calls, class Lupus had decided to put their hunt for the culprit on hold, at least until new information surfaces. They had gathered around their new captain, the ship was still drifting in the Rubin Asteroid belt, damaged and with no way to call for help. Ovis and Serpens were marooned on planet Hrkar if any of them had even survived the crash.

The first order of business was going over the files they took from Mok's quarters, each student was given a different part to examine so they could combine their knowledge and read through the material as quickly as possible.

Brigham moved everyone from the sterile infirmary to the bridge, the class formed a circle and went into a discussion. They had to go over several topics. Among those were their options, the status of supplies on the ship, what steps they had to take to ensure their survival, and what to do about their crash-landed comrades on Hrkar.

"We only have food on the ship for one supper." Lei Mei said. "There is more on NB011, we could ration out the food we have now to stretch it for a few days but our bigger problem is water. We are completely out of water, I used it all during cooking. We can't drink anymore, we will die of thirst if we don't acquire more."

Brigham tilted his head, "According to the files we took from Mok's quarters, there is a pumping station on NB011, there we were supposed to fill up our water tanks for the remainder of the mission. The station would also refill our fuel for propulsion for a way back."

"Why don't we just go to NB011," Emidio said raising his hand," get the fuel and food and wait for a week until someone from Nova Occasio comes to pick us up? With the warp engine out of commission, we are not returning to planet Spark on our own. With us gone for over a week, surely someone from Nova Occasio will realize something is wrong and come for us."

Brigham shook his head, "That's not possible. Reading over the files, there is a huge obstacle. While this mission is nominally supposed to last a week, instructors can extend the exam up to 2 months if they feel we require further tests. So Nova Occasio won't think anything is wrong for 2 months, looking at Mok's files we have only food for exactly one week in the supply chamber on NB011, even rationing it, most of us will die of starvation by the time they come for us."

"Wait," Lei Mei squinted her eyes, "That makes no sense. If the exam was supposed to last up to 2 months, surely they wouldn't leave us with not enough supplies. There must be a way to procure more food on NB011."

Brigham lowered his head, "That knowledge is now dead with Mok, it was something he would have probably taught us had he been still alive. We can only use the supply boxes that are left to us for the exam. Killing Kortonians, and cooking them is also off the table, their meat is poisonous to humans."

Hitomi raised her hand, "This wasn't a mission for just Lupus. Why can't we use the food supplies of Ovis and Serpens? I think if we combined all of that food we could survive the 2 months, it's not like they're going to need it now, with them being stranded on Hrkar."

Curro shook his head, "I am afraid we can't. Every supply box was prepared in advance and was locked with a unique passcode given to each of the instructors. We have Mok's code thanks to his files, but the other two are on Hrkar along with Ovis and Serpens. And before you ask 'Can you hack it Curro like you did the engine room door?'. No, I can't. These supply boxes have the highest military-level encryption. It is in place to stop enemies from stealing food supplies during wars. I don't have the skills to pull that off, the engine room door was far less secure."

"Speaking of Oviis and Serpens," Emidio raised his eyebrows in concern. "They are stranded on Hrkar. If any of them are still alive, they are facing the giant Kortonians. On NB011 the Kortonians are car-sized bug-like killer creatures, on Hrkar they are over 3 stories tall. Not to mention it is a cold, mostly desert planet. With temperatures from 15 degrees Celsius during the day, and to minus 100 during the night. Paradoxically it is actually much colder in the deserts of Hrkar, than on the snowy NB011 which stays at a consistent minus 40 degrees Celsius.

"With their ships crashed, I can't imagine if any of them are still alive. But if they are, they are going through hell. Imagine us in their situation! Keep in mind they are also out of water and have only the food they packed with themselves. We have to go to the crash site and save any survivors."

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," Curro said. "The big problem is the gravity on planet Hrkar. It is 4 times that of Earth's and Spark's. It takes an incredibly skilled and experienced crew to succeed in land and lift-off, it would take most of our fuel tank's capacity to break the atmosphere. If we managed to not crash during all of these fazes, our ship would be left to simply orbit Hrkar, until someone rescues us. If the long-range communication relay still worked we could instantly get help, but then we wouldn't be in this mess."

Brigham pointed his index finger, "Okay, what if we go to NB011, get the food crates, fill up our fuel tank, refill our water supply with everything we can to last as long as possible. After that, we check the crash site on Hrkar to see if there are any survivors and we wait out two months in orbit for help."

"That's incredibly risky, we could destroy the ship during our voyage to Hrkar from our inexperience and then have no chance of survival on the surface. I strongly advise against this course of action." Curro said resolutely.

"It is worth the risk," Emidio pointed out. "We could save the lives of our comrades from school, and even if no one is alive, we could retrieve the security codes of their supply boxes from the crash site and have enough food to weather the 2 months in orbit."

Curro countered, "What if everyone is alive? What if we have 20 more people we have to house on this ship? The three boxes of food would last us a week. We would then all die of starvation!"

"If all of them are alive, all the more reason we need to get to their crash site!" Emidio yelled out, he thought to himself, I can't help but imagine myself stranded in such an awful environment. Maybe kids like me who were forced to be in this academy, are now abandoned on this inhumane planet and left to die…

"Guys you might want to look at this," Ana showed them a map of this part of space. "Next to the Rubin asteroid belt is the Kufiri nebula, it's not that far from here. There at the nebula is the Yugoslav space station Lepoglava, if we refueled ourselves on NB011, we could reach this station and call for help in maybe 10 days. They could send a distress signal home or repair our warp drive."

Roy crossed his arms in disapproval, "Isn't Yugoslavia a communist country?" He said with disgust prompting a frown from Ana.

"Well yes," Curro stepped forward, "But they are not part of the Warsaw pact! They are non-aligned and neutral, our governments are on friendly terms, and they would surely help us! However, given our limited fuel tanks, we can't do both. If we go to Hrkar we would be stuck in its orbit, but if we skipped Hrkar after NB011 we could comfortably reach Lepoglava Space Station, with no one starving or dying of thirst!"

"That means abandoning our comrades on Hrkar, that's a terrible idea!" Emidio clenched his fists.

"I am with Emidio on this one," Lei Mei stood next to him. "We can't abandon people in need, they are kids like us who go to the same school as we do!"

Roy joined them, "It says in the school's rulebook to never abandon your own! It is a principle and rule the school gave us for a reason! We can't break it now that it's inconvenient."

On the other side, Ana pointed at her map, "You are all having an emotional outburst, what all of you are proposing is suicide. Yes, it is unfortunate that they are stranded on Hrkar, but we aren't! There is no reason we jump into death because we are more fortunate than they are."

"What happened to equality, communist?" Roy smirked.

"Oh shut up you American dog," Ana scoffed at Roy. "Was my treatment what you in the West call a 'fair trial'? Good job carrying out a medieval witch hunt."

Roy wanted to say I tried to defend you in the end but it felt like such a half-hearted thing to say.

"I think I made my opinion clear, I am with Ana," Curro said and walked up to her.

"In this world," Hitomi said condescendingly, "You've got to look out for yourself. Screw others, I don't care if they die horrible deaths in that desert freezing to death or getting eaten by Kortonians. We are here, they are there, sucks to suck." Hitomi walked up to Ana and Curro in support.

Ljubiša and Khalid backed away, they were unsure what was the right call here. They had decided to go along with whatever the final decision ended up being.

With a 3/3 split, heads turned to their new captain. The ship wasn't a direct democracy, even if all of the crew members were for option B the captain could overrule all. If Brigham says option A, all of them must obey his orders. His words were final. It just so happened that in this case, he had the ultimate authority and was the tie-braking vote.

What was Brigham going to choose?

A or B?