Hitomi's refusal

Hitomi crossed her arms and stubbornly refused Brigham's orders, "There is no way I am going out there in the cold while you three stay inside. Real interesting how you get to decide who goes where and place yourself away from the cold Brigham! Also, why can't I be in Curro's or Emidio's place or why won't you give up your position and switch with me?"

Brigham sighed, "First of all I have to be here and ensure everyone is doing their assignments correctly. Secondly, Curro needs to be on the ship, he is the best to work on these technical aspects such as the manual refueling. Emidio is the weakest person in the class when it comes to physical strength, he is not someone I would send to fight the Kortonians. And thirdly, you as the medic need to be on the outside to treat any potential wounds. I am not worried about Roy or Ana, they can handle themselves, but if your group gets attacked someone needs help and treatment for their injuries. For the sake of the team no matter how you divide the responsibilities, you have to be on the outside."

There were also more reasons for Brigham wanting to stay inside but he only thought them to himself, Khalid, Hitomi, and Lei Mei all don't have alibis. I am not going to leave them alone with the ship and Emidio who wouldn't be able to beat a dying old man in a fight. Ljubiša isn't the culprit but given how incompetent he has been so far I am not trusting him to lead me or anyone through a fog.

"Brigham I don't think you understood what I said," Hitomi clasped her hands together and gave a passive-aggressive smile, "You know you being British, I thought you had a decent understanding of the English language. I am not going out into that cold. End. Ende. Fine. Owari. Kraj. Do you want it maybe in some other language?"

"Hitomi, he is ordering you," Roy grabbed Hitomi's arm, "I don't like my assignment either, but those are the rules. Your team also depends on you being there."

Hitomi pulled her arm out of Roy's grasp and was ready to throw punches, "Listen here all of you. I don't care. You can all die. Find another way there is nothing in this world that would possess me to go on this march to some far-off pumping station in this snow and with those nasty bugs."

Brigham raised his arms in an attempt to lower the temperature and calm Hitomi down. Before he could do that, Lei Mei pushed him away gently and said: "Let me handle this captain." Brigham nodded and Lei Mei came face to face with the angry pink-haired girl.

"I am sick and tired of being nice and I have had it up to here with you," Lei Mei said yelling at Hitomi, whose eyes widened from the shock of having someone so gentle raise their voice. "If you don't go and do your job, you won't get to eat the food I prepared. You won't get to eat any of the rations we picked up from here. Not only that I think Brigham should deny you all the water we get from the station."

"Excuse me?" Hitomi grimaced and frowned, "Who do you think you are talking to me like that? I almost forgot you were here Lei Mei. I am pretty sure that doing something like that is against the rules or something, you have to give me your food."

"We don't need you to finish this, you can stay here locked up while we do the work." Lei Mei said refusing to back down. "If you aren't willing to contribute then you don't deserve to get the fruits of everyone else's work. We need to function like an organism, remember what Mok taught us if you aren't willing to pull your own weight, then maybe you should die."

"If I may," Roy raised his hand, "Just for clarification, since the rules were mentioned. The captain is within his right to deny crew members food or water, considering nowhere does it say that something like that isn't allowed. Brigham can punish any of us for disobedience in any way he sees fit. Including denying us food and water."

Brigham thought that this suggestion was unbelievably cruel. Would he really be prepared to starve Hitomi and deny her water to die of thirst if she continued to disobey? What other way could he make her if not with some kind of threat of punishment? Lei Mei also raised a good point. We wouldn't be able to make it as far as we did if all of us weren't doing our jobs. He would have to be ruthless in this case to preserve his authority and to see that they get the water needed for everyone's survival. Hopefully, the threat, if delivered seriously would force her to obey.

"You heard 'em Hitomi." Brigham came up to her, "I will go in your place but know that your food and water privileges will be revoked. So what's it going to be?" Brigham came up even closer to her to intimidate her. "Khalid! Get ready to use your signature slap if she starts to fight back."

Hitomi felt a tense stare down from the entire class. Lupus was in silent agreement and nobody wanted to defend her.

Hitomi flailed her arms in defeat, "Fine I will do your stupid orders! I hate all of you!" Despite her protests, Hitomi went and packed all of the necessary medicine. She knew she had no choice but to follow orders and so she did.

With that obstacle out of the way, the students who needed to go on the outside went to the ship's armory to prepare themselves for the Kortonians. Each of the kids was going to take with them a Makarov pistol and an AK-47 with plenty of ammo.

Roy and Ana were gearing up, Ana turned to Roy while loading her AK-47 and proudly boasted: "Ah the AK-47, the finest, most iconic rifle ever created. Oh and where was it created, won't you remind me? I will do it for you, Russia."

"Yeah sure," Roy smirked. "It's a good thing America lets you actually own it."

"Have either of you been to Russia or America?" Hitomi glared at them and the two shook their heads. "Then why do you both romanticize countries you've never been to?"

Roy and Ana ignored her and just moved on, neither of them wanting to accept the fact she made a good point.

With the two groups armed, Curro at the ship's main computer, Emidio and Brigham at navigation, Lupus was ready!