When the crew splits up, Val follows her father. They cautiously make their way through the corridors. With his recent accident fresh in his mind, Alex moves a little more hesitantly than usual. Val doesn't seem to notice, or if she does she doesn't comment on it. 

Alex cautiously leads them into a room along the corridor. Shuffling and other noises make it evident there is another presence in the room. Without him even realizing it, Alex's mind goes blank though he continues to move and react on instinct. Val follows him, trusting her father completely. 

They slowly approach the source of the noise and find not one but two of the animals near a corner of the room. The animals grow anxious when they notice the two people. Alex and Val work together to try to herd them away from the corner. This has the opposite effect. the two creatures shuffle closer together and closer to the corner. 

Val seems to catch on to their growing skittish behavior before her father. Realizing they are essentially cornering a pair of scared wild animals, she backs off a little. Her father continues. 

Val's eyes widen as she sees what is about to happen. One of the animals snaps at her father, making an aggravated noise. Alex jumps back slightly in surprise. The larger of the two animals takes this opportunity to make a run for it. 

It brushes past Alex in a blue and whips Val with its tail as it passes her. Val gets thrown into the nearby wall with the force of the blow. She clutches her chest, the wind knocked out of her. She looks up just in time to see the second animals dash after the first. The room pants, catching her breath. Alex rushes over to his daughter, fear and guilt filling his chest. 

"Are you alight?" 

Val nods without even really knowing the answer herself. Alex helps her up carefully. She swallows the groan as pain spreads where she was hit with the tail. She doesn't want to worry him any more than he already it. 

Alex rushes from the room and closes the door  behind them. More and more animals are funneled into the main  corridor as the rooms are cleared and the doors are closed. 

They meet up with Artemis and Will near the very front of the ship. The four of them work together to move all the animals out towards the exit Val slides over to the panel that controls the door. She gets to work silently, doing her best to make it work. After a few moments of focused and hurried work, she managed to get it working. 

Val nods to her father, who takes the silent direction. He and the other two make sure to push them beyond the threshold. Val doesn't wait for them to tell her to close the door. She ties the broken wires together and pushes a button. The heavy door slides shut with a loud scraping and thunk. 

With the immediate threat out of the way, Val slides down the wall, the others visibly relax and some even let out a sigh of relief. After a few minutes Artemis turns on the intercom. 

We're all clear up here. What about you?" 

There is a beat of silence before they get a reply. We're good here too." 

Alex nods once to himself. "Let's meet back in the main room." 

"Copy that. We're on our way," Apollo's voice carries over to them through the intercom. 

One by one each of the four crew members start for the common room, though Val stays on the ground. When it is just Val and Artemis left in the corridor, the pilot looks down at her daughter. Sensing her mother's gaze, Val looks up to keep her eyes. 

"You did good," Artemis praises. She holds out a hand to help the young girl up. "Let's go." 

Val takes a deep breath before taking the offered hand. She groans and wraps her free arm around her ribs when she is pulled to her feet. Her mother looks at her concerned, but Val brushes off her concern and starts a determined march for the common room. 

Alex looks up when the two women enter. Being the last ones to arrive. Val takes a spot on one of the couches, sitting down gingerly. Taking charge, Alex takes a small step forwards from where he was previously leaning on the table. This small movement gains everyone's attention, which was his goal. 

"Alright, now that those things are gone, what do we take from this moving forward?" 

There is an uncomfortable silence. Val looks at her father before her eyes glance around the room. His question throwing her off. The way he presented it made it feel more like a teacher gently scolding his students than a senior crew member opening an important discussion to the crew. 

To almost everyone's surprise, Apollo is the one to break the quiet. "Clearly we have a security issue." He lets out a small, dry laugh as though he just said a half hearted joke. He turns serious almost instantly. "This isn't the first time wildlife has wandered into the perimeter. I think it's time we think about putting up deterrents." 

"We have the electric fence we can put up. It's supposed to be more effective than the general field given off by the ship's security." Artemis suggests. 

Apollo shakes his head. "That take power and we should be reserving the power for repairing the ship." The medic sighs as the realization of the only answer dawns on him. "I know we have to keep our footprint as small as possible. But I think the only solution is to go old school." 

Artemis scrunches her eyebrows in mild confusion. "You mean build a fence?" When silence is her answer she continues. "How is the more effective than an electric fence?" 

Apollo sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, the frustration giving him a slight headache. "Not necessarily. The larger ones would barely even notice the shock. And the shock could just make the smaller ones more dangerous. But they're all used to seeing physical barriers. So a physical fence could actually be more effective. At least against most of them." 

Another silence falls over them. Alex looks between all of the crew members. A part of him wishes there is another way. But he knows this is the best option. "So, we're all agreed them?" When the others nods in agreement he smiles with a decisive nod. "Then it's decided. We'll start on it first thing tomorrow." 

Feeling a little silly, Val raises her hand. Alex does his best to hide the smile that made its way onto his face at his action. "Yes, Val?" 

Val drops her hand, feeling even more ridiculous and embarrassed. "We're all going to work on the fence? Shouldn't Meg and I keep working on the repairs so we can get out of here faster?" 

Alex knows her points are valid. However, he also knows that they can't fix the ship if all their process keeps getting undone. He shakes his head with finality. "No, all of us will be working on the fence. Right now security is more important." 

Val sighs in defeat. He isn't looking forward to doing this work. She always feels more comfortable working with her computers than doing manual labor like that. 

With a sigh, Meg stand from her seat. "Well, I think this break is over. I'm going back to work. Call if you need me." She strikes out of the room ith purpose. 

The others seem to take this as a cue to leave as well. One by one they each leave to go back to whatever they were preciously working on. Val stays behind since she has been working from the monitors in the common room. 

Apollo also remains, leaning against the wall next to the door. He silently observes every crew member as they get up and exit the room. The medic in the wanting to make sure everyone is unharmed. 

Val doesn't notice her uncle. Thinking everyone has left the room, she carefully pets up. She hisses and gently puts a hand over her extremely sore ribs. She moves from the couch to take a seat at the table. 

Apollo narrows his eyes at his niece. Pushing off from the wall silently he takes a few steps towards her. "You alright, kiddo?" 

Val's head snaps up so fast she's sure she has whiplash. Her eyes widen when she sees him approaching. "Ye-yeah," she mutters a little. "I'm fine." 

Apollo raises an eyebrow at her. "Don't lie to me." He looks pointedly at the hand still cradling her ribs. "I can tell you're not fine. Let me take a look."

She shakes her head and flinches away from his outstretched hand. "I said I'm fine. It's no big deal.' "So there is something wrong.' 

Val's eyes widen at his words. "No there isn't." 

Apollo smirks slightly, knowing he's caught her. "Really? Then what's not a big deal?" Val remains frozen. Apollo sighs and takes another step closer. This time she doesn't flinch away from him. Taking this as a good sun, he starts to gently feel her ribs. His brow furrows in concentration. After a moment or two he pulls a handheld scanner from his belt and uses it to get a definitive diagnosis on her ribs. He looks at the screen carefully after he scans her ribs. 

"It looks like you broke a few ribs." He goes to help her up to lead her to the infirmary. 

This seems to snap her out of her frozen state. "What are you going?" She demands, pulling out of his grasp. 

"I can wrap them in the infirmary. And give you something for the pain and to help it heal faster." 

She shakes her head. Her face set in an expression of serious determination. "No." 

"No?" 

"No," she shakes her head again. "We might need that stuff later. We have to ration everything. Especially medical supplies." 

Apollo takes in her words. A small bubble of pride swells in his chest at her words. He examines her face carefully. "Are you sure?" 

Val nods, "Yes. I'll be fine." 

Apollo takes a moment to think on the situation. Finally he sighs. "Alright. But I'll still be keeping an eye on you. Especially tomorrow when we're all working on the fence." He pauses to make direct eye contact with her, his face serious. "You better listen to me." 

Val smiles faintly before nodding. "Agreed." 

Apollo nods in acceptance and starts for the door. He pauses before exiting. "Be careful, alright? Call be if you need anything." 

Val nods. "I will." She turns back to her work on the nearest monitor. 

Apollo smiles slightly at his niece. Pride swells in his chest and he exits. She has certainly grown up a lot. Her decision shows him just how mature she has become. He hums quietly to himself as he makes his way back to the infirmary. He spies Alex and Artemis in their room as he passes. Judging by their serious faces and what little be catches of their conversation he can tell they are discussing the plans for tomorrow. He doesn't want to get in the way, and it's not his forte anyway, so he continues on his way. 

When he enters the infirmary he sits down at his dest. He quickly adds his new information about Val into his notes. It's important that he keeps a record of any more injuries they may gain. Especially while they are stranded. Val is right that have to prioritize things now, to make sure they have supplies when they need it. 

He taps his pen as he thinks. He stops abruptly and turns. He has to get back to work assessing how much supplies they actually have in the infirmary.