Chapter Text
Patton felt his eyes flutter open at the feeling of someone touching his arm. He had fallen asleep in the medbay, using it as a secluded and quiet place to take a nap after helping get the Skeld ready for travel. He glanced over his shoulder to see who had woken him up and smiled when he saw Logan's familiar blue spacesuit. Logan smiled back down at him, seeming unable to stop himself. Patton rubbed his eyes and sat up against the back of the bed, grabbing for his helmet to make sure it hadn't slid around anywhere. He pulled it up into his lap and stretched before looking at his boyfriend.
"What happened?" he asked, still feeling groggy from his nap. Logan nodded, ever so slightly, as if he had forgotten why he had woken Patton up, and for some reason, Morality found it adorable.
"Virgil and Roman want a meeting called, though I'm not entirely sure what it's about. They said they want everyone," he said. Patton frowned, furrowing his brows. What could make them want to call a meeting? Reaching out his hand - which looked massive due to the glove size - he intertwined his fingers with Logan's and stood up, walking to the center table in the cafeteria. He saw Remus being dragged by Janus up to the table at almost the same time, and the mere sight made him giggle. Virgil, Roman, and Thomas were already standing at the center table, talking about something that seemed rather serious.
Patton continued on, allowing Logan to pull him towards the table. Both of their helmets thudded against the table, causing Virgil to jump. Roman’s hand flew out to grab Virgil’s arm to help him keep calm and Patton felt the need to apologize. He opened his mouth to say he was sorry for startling them when an even louder crash sounded from the other side of the table. Remus had hopped up on top of it, his lime green space suit making Patton feel almost sick. He turned away just in time to see Roman roll his eyes at his brother but quickly pulled his attention back to the meeting.
“What’s up Little Bro?” Remus asked, his voice high pitched and curious. Roman’s face contorted slightly as he looked over at his brother, once again distracted from the purpose of the meeting.
“We’re twins…” he said, almost as if he was doubting himself. Patton smiled slightly. Ever since Janus and Remus’s introduction to Thomas, they’d all gotten pretty comfortable around each other. Roman and Remus still fought, but that was to be expected among siblings. But Janus and Remus no longer felt the need to sabotage every action and situation, and the rest of them had begun to feel less afraid of them. If anything, they were becoming more of a family.
“Roman-” Virgil started, cutting himself off from talking too much. Patton frowned slightly, fighting the desire to walk over and hug him. Something was definitely wrong.
“Right, sorry-” a quick apologetic glance at his boyfriend “-The ship has malfunctioned.” Roman declared. Patton felt his eyes widen as he glanced around at the rest of the crew members. They all looked just as shocked as he did. They’d done dozens of checks and tests before taking off. How could the ship have malfunctioned?
“By malfunctioned, you mean…” Logan started, a question in his tone. He was waiting for someone to finish his sentence. Unfortunately for the both of them, Roman and Virgil just continued to stare blankly at him. Patton whimpered slightly.
“You mean everything is broken?” he asked. That time, he got a response. A quick head nod from Roman.
“If this was any other time, I would’ve said it was just Robert Down ey over here feeling the anxiety flare up again. But I was right there with him in navigation when we got the alert.” Roman reached his hand back and Virgil quickly stepped up to grab it. Patton could feel himself start to worry. If Roman was scared…
“All systems are down,” Virgil said, looking around the table at them. “We’re stranded in space.” Patton shifted his weight between his feet, fear beginning to take hold of his stomach. This had never happened before. What were they going to do? Patton felt Logan tighten his grip on his hand, and he threw a glance towards his boyfriend. If he didn't know any better, he'd assume nothing had even phased him. The only thing was, he did know better. Logan's eyebrows were slightly furrowed and Patton knew he was forming a plan for what to do.
Patton glanced towards Thomas, who had his face buried in his hands. His focus shifted to Remus and Janus. Remus was still sitting on the table, legs crossed and his hands intertwined with Janus's in his lap as if nothing had happened. Janus, however, had his forehead on Remus's shoulder and Patton could faintly hear his scales scratching against his spacesuit.
Logan suddenly released Patton's hand and marched over to a small file cabinet on the other side of the cafeteria. Patton watched him as he retrieved 7 pocket-sized devices. He jogged back to the rest of the crew and started tossing them around, each of the crew members getting one. Patton looked down at his: a small black box, about the size of his hand, with a red button on the top right corner. It was covered in thin plastic, like a protective box around it. Below the button, taking up most of the space on the device, was a panel with a list of things written down.
"What's this, Logan?" Janus asked, flipping the box open with his finger hovering over the red button.
"Don't!" Logan shouted, flipping the box back over. "What we all have is a Technologically Enhanced Repair Manual, T.E.R.M. for short." Patton glanced back down at his device before looking around the table. He noticed Logan push up his glasses, his expression full of pride and excitement, most likely to finally show off his invention.
"Yeah..." Roman started. "That's cool and all, but why did you give us these?" Logan's shoulders slumped slightly and he huffed, causing Patton to chuckle. He bit his lip when he saw Logan send an annoyed look his way.
"I've constructed it so that the button is directly connected to the Skeld's mainframe. If something seems off or something happens, pressing the button will cause the Skeld's alarm to go off. The only way to turn it off is a button next to where I got the devices in the first place. I don't want to brag or anything, but it took a lot of work to put those together. Lots of time and effort and you all have to admit, they came out rather nicely." Patton smiled, pride for his boyfriend causing his chest to lighten a little, despite their bad situation.
"Okay, so what about the list of things underneath that?" Remus asked, following up on his brother's question.
"Those are tasks we each need to get done-" Remus grunted and flailed backward, Janus catching him with ease. "-to make sure the ship works smoothly again. They aren't difficult, like some may imagine it to be, and they're divided equally, so no one has to do more work than the others."
"Oh, I get it," Thomas said, getting a better look at the device. "Nice going, Logan!" Logan smiled again, puffing out his chest at the praise. Patton looked down at his list of tasks, feeling himself getting overwhelmed at the whole idea. Just one at a time , he thought, trying to calm himself down. Everyone else was going to be fine doing their assignments, the least he could do was help out. He looked at the first one on his list: Swipe ID card . He took a breath in and nodded softly to himself. He could do that.
Looking back up, he saw his friends looking at him.
"You okay, Pat?" Remus asked. He glanced at each of his friends and nodded, smiling. Remus chuckled, his high-pitched laugh causing a shiver to run down Patton's spine. Logan squeezed Patton's shoulder - a nicely comforting gesture - before turning back to the group.
"When you finish your jobs, find someone to stick with until the ship is back up. And only use the button for emergencies," Logan said, pausing. He moved his foot to leave, but stopped, looking at Remus. " Emergencies. " The sudden emphasis caused Patton to laugh, which seemed to calm everyone down, people's shoulders visibly dropping.
Patton gave Logan one final look before leaving through the southern exit of the cafeteria. Something about the ship being malfunctioned made the Skeld seem unusually eerie. Every step he took echoed as his boots hit metal, and it reverberated around him like some sort of sound bullet. It was like he could even hear something in the vents above him. Like a rat scuttling around the empty space.
He turned the corner and the sound of his footsteps became muffled as the metal floor became covered with carpet. He exhaled, feeling a weight lifted from his shoulders. He walked through the administrator's office, fumbling for his ID card in his suit pocket. Patton noticed his hand shaking as he brought it down to the card reader, and he paused, bringing his hand to his forehead and taking a deep breath. Then another. When he felt his hand steady, he brought it down and swiped it, the device chirping to notify him that he had succeeded.
He looked down at his T.E.R.M, and let out a surprised chuckle. The card task on his panel that had previously been written in black was now green, signifying that he had done it. Despite his situation, Patton found himself feeling an overwhelming sense of pride for his boyfriend. Logan created this? It was absolutely fantastic. He looked down to read his next task, feeling a bit better after having accomplished his first one. Calibrate Distributer . Patton furrowed his brows. He didn't trust himself with electrical tasks. He always passed those on to Logan.
Sighing, Patton made his way out of administration, his boots creating the echo he was quickly realizing he hated. This would be fine...