"Hush, you, he's awake. Hey! Are you okay, do you need anything? We were going to get an IV in you but our med officer kind of has their hands full and none of the rest of us know how to do it, how are you feeling...?"

He looks up at her, and then away, hugging his knees in even tighter.

"... Okay, well, here's some water if you want any."

She does in fact deposit a water bottle next to him.

"Oh yeah, sure, not like we need that ourselves on this hostile and waterless wasteland world. Let's just hand out water to everyone."

"Brad."

He rolls his eyes, irritated, but does in fact shut up.

"Keep it," he says. "I don't want it."

Brad looks like he absolutely wants to say 'Well, you heard the kid!' and snatch back the water bottle, but: he's still shutting up. Verbally, anyway. His face is nonetheless very expressive.

"Well it'll be here for you anyway, we've got several plants that are already specced towards water generation." And no plant engineer to safely change their output, because their plant engineer's cryopod failed in the crash. He woke up suffocating in his own cryofluid, and drowned. "Which ship were you on?"

The boy flinches at something, then looks away again and says, "Ship Five."

"Five...?" repeats Luida. Five is not one of the ships that got out particularly well in the crash, with 'particularly well' being 'over a quarter of all cryopods failed and killed their occupants.' That there are any survivors at all is... a surprise. "Okay, well, that's really good news! Um, do you know how many escape pods made it out, can you give us an idea of where they landed...?"

He shakes his head. "My m- Rem Saverem. One of the researchers. She... rushed me into a pod. And then I ran."

"Oh. Okay. Um. Well we'll send someone to look, okay? When we get the chance."

"Luida. Don't give the kid false hope. We're over our heads in trying to untangle this mess anyway, we don't have the time or the people to go gravedigging. Kid, Five didn't make it out well."

His face looks anguished for a moment before it returns to just looking sad. "Please? If, if she survived—" Oh and he's crying now, he did not mean to do that. "Please. She, she was the one who warned everyone. About the, the—"

But he can't finish that sentence, because if he does he'll think about Nai, and he can't, he can't think about Nai right now, he can't, he can't...

[why, Nai?] he sends out, desperately, pleadingly. [why?]

(And one of the plants of this ship hears him and replies: [?])

.... If Ship Five was the one that managed to get out the warning in time for everyone else, then it might have been the source of all of this nonsense. Which means there might be other reasons to dig through its wreckage than a doomed attempt to save people that are very definitely dead.

".... Fine," he sighs, "we'll prioritize it."

"Th-thank y-you," he sobs, burying his face in his knees and shutting his eyes tightly.

Rem should be alive. Not him.

"Okay. I'll get you set up in a room somewhere, all right?"

Technically speaking it'll be the brig, because Luida is nice but she isn't stupid, but. It'll have a bed and a bathroom.

He nods but doesn't say anything.

Brad gives Luida a bit of a look, but she returns it steadily, and will obviously lead the kid down the corridor that goes to the brig instead of the general quarters.

She'll take the water bottle for him, in case he changes his mind.

"Why'd you rescue me."

"Because you needed it, silly. Why wouldn't we?"

"...I wanted to die."

Oh boy. Tiny suicidal child. Uh, there have got to be regulations for suicide watch, somewhere, but she has no idea where to find them. Especially right now.

"... Well, I'm glad you're alive."

"Why."