The salve did seem to work just as the scans predicted. Over the next few days, they applied the salve every day, twice on the most severe wounds. While the healing would still take a long while, Tubbo felt a lot better, able to move around with something stable to hold on to by the third day. The scaring itself on the weaker burns and on his face developed fainter than they had assumed, so while it still will be a permanent scar, it won't look as terrible as it could have without any treatment.

During the whole healing process so far, the creature had not once returned. At least not that they had noticed. While Techno and Fit still remain on high alert whenever they entered the water, the general atmosphere in the pod was lighter than before. For a little while Techno even felt the pressing paranoia leave him, as the feeling of burning green watching him lessened, even vanished once.

It was odd, but he accepted the chance for a good sleep.

With Tubbo feeling better and able to move around, he sat down together with Fit and helped him repair the radio. They basically ripped apart every single connection, cable and some circuits, made twenty different organized piles and had Techno grab cables and plating from the crates down below. At least it helped Techno feel a little less useless, being the only one who had no idea what to do with all the different electrics.

Two people working on the repairs did speed up the process. By the end of the fifth day after applying the healing salve on Tubbo, the boy carefully screwed the metal casing back onto the radio, declaring it repaired. The different buttons and lights were lighting up again, so at least something as been successfully fixed. A little Radio message started playing as soon as Fit booted up the full radio system.

"Radio back online. Sending distress signal to all nearby receiving radios. Would you like to attach a message?"

The group shared a look, hesitating for a second. Eventually Techno just shrugged and took the lead. Pressing the blinking button to attach a message along their distress signal.

"This is Technoblade from lifepod 04. My pod is located on the south-west side of the crashed ship, maybe two miles out. I have crewmembers Fit and Toby with me, all of us in relatively good shape. Are there any functioning pods receiving us?"

He let go of the button, allowing the radio to process and send out their signal. "So now we wait?" "Yes. We can't really do much more than to send and receive messages. All we can do now is hope that there are other working pods out there that can hear us." Tubbo eyed the hatch that led out to the top of the pod. "Shouldn't we be able to pick up already existing messages?" "That depends on how far away the pods are. Our signals aren't exactly strong. Especially with an already damaged radio."

The youngest sat in the only functioning chair still mounted on the wall, staring at the slow blinking lights of the radio. "What if we never get any messages? If we are the only..." He trailed off, leaning his head onto his palm. "Some radios might be broken. You and Fit would not be able to contact anyone from your pod either. Doesn't mean you are dead. It's just another chance for us to find other survivors."

"Well, at least the three of us are together. We have some company to keep us distracted. And speaking of distracted, since we will be notified when we get radio messages, let's do something productive. I saw this fun little device called a habitat builder and I would like to experiment with it. Techno could help me grab some resources for it. Maybe you could come down into the water too, there should be a second oxygen mask in here somewhere."

Fit began to rummage through the storage and in the two little wall containers. "Did you just say 'habitat builder'?" Techno watched the other move around the pod, eventually making a little happy noise as he held up a functioning oxygen mask and tank for Tubbo, who instantly got up and grabbed it from Fit's hands. "I did! I have never used one before, but it seems like a useful thing. If we find more people, this or any pod will be way too small. We already have to squeeze together when we sleep."

He does have a point in that. This space will get too full way to quick.

"Do we have to take Tubbo outside?" Fit didn't even have time to respond before the teen in question made a offended noise. "I can swim! Moving around doesn't hurt anymore and the alien salve actually keeps my wounds closed and separated from the water!" "But you are still hurt! And who knows what is still out there, or the creature comes back, or-" "Techno!"

Fit grabbed him by the shoulders, turning Techno away from Toby. "Listen. We need all the help we can get. Tubbo can't stay locked in here until we are rescued, he'll go insane, like any other person that gets locked in a room, no matter if alone or with other people. We will keep an eye on him and stay close to the pod, okay? He's healthy enough to go outside now. We can defend each other, it will be fine."

Techno grumbled, looking back at Tubbo, who's burn marks will always make him worried for his wellbeing. Tubbo, who had already eagerly strapped on the new equipment and checking his tank. "He's been in here for over a week Techno." "I know, I know..." He glanced back at Tubbo, then sighed heavily. "If anything happens to him, I'll rip your head off." "I'm willing to take that risk."

Fit clapped him on the shoulder, smiling, before turning to the fabricator to check what materials they need. "Alright. One battery, one wiring kit, one computer chip. Hmm..." He began to take note of all the different requirements for each object, containing both metals and things that can be found in the environment.

"Okay so the scans have found some natural resources that we can use to make these things, we just have to find them. Some gold, pieces of coral, copper and acid mushrooms. That doesn't sound too difficult."

"We have no idea where any of that is."

"Still. It's only four things we need to find. And all of them should be relatively close by."

"Oh yeah, because I just find gold randomly lying around."

"Stop being so pessimistic. We'll find everything, we just won't know how long it will take."

"Can we go outside now?" Tubbo looked between the two, his arms crossed as he leaned with his back against the ladder. "We should use the daylight as much as we can." "Yes, I agree with Tubbo." Techno groaned, but grabbed his equipment anyways. "Fine. Let's go."

The trio soon enough climbed out of the bottom hatch, Fit taking the lead with his weapon. "We should also look for stuff to make you guys weapons. Any minerals should work for now." "Got it. There should be a little cave somewhere over there, maybe we can find some stuff in there." The two adults began to swim towards the potential cave, only after a few seconds realizing Tubbo hadn't said anything since going into the water.

"Tubbo?" Techno turned to look at the teen, seeing him frozen in place right underneath the hatch. The older immediately turned and swam back towards him. "What's wrong?" Tubbo blinked, shaking his head as Techno gently shook his shoulder. "Nothing. It's just... pretty? A bit scary, but pretty." He looked over the colourful coral reef in front of him, watching as the different fish swam about, minding their own business.

Fit joined the two, waiting for Tubbo to process everything. "How are your wounds feeling?" "Alright, don't even feel anything apart from cold." The oldest hummed, scanning their surroundings for any potential threat. Techno carefully squeezed the youngest's healthy shoulder. "You can go back inside if-" "No, I'm fine. I just needed a second." He smiled up at his friend, finally turning away from the new view. "Lead the way, let's find some resources."

---

Their little adventure turned out quite disappointing. They didn't find a single ingredient from their list, despite scanning corals and digging out small chunks of minerals. Most of it had been titanium, which was also useful, but not the material they had been looking for. Despite that, all three of them carried as much of it as they could back towards the pod, storing it inside a half full crate together with their other stuff.

"I told you."

"And I told you it could take us a few days to find everything. At least we were productive."

Toby sighed, dropping his equipment into the corner, carefully rolling his injured shoulder. "You two argue like a married couple."

"We do not!"

The youngest just rolled his eyes as he grabbed one of their water bottles to take a big sip. "We got some stuff and Fit caught a big fish for dinner. I think we did good." Techno didn't respond, instead deciding to check on the radio. It was still working, sending out their distress signal in hopes of contacting other people. But they hadn't received an answer or a separate message in return.

"Give it some time. Don't stress yourself too much over it."

Fit plopped down in his usual spot, nibbling on his part of the dinner. Techno wished he could be as relaxed as his friend seemed to be. Tubbo tugged on his arm, getting him to sit down and eat something as well. "Tomorrow's another day. We'll go out and get more stuff and maybe we get a message. Or we find a person without the radio. I don't know."

Techno hummed, staring down at his piece of cooked fish. "I hope so."

Time slowly slipped by, the sun slipping past the horizon and allowing the sky to glitter with millions of stars. The three survivors curl up in their usual spots, falling asleep one after the other, ending another day of survival.

A quiet crackling noise brought Techno back out of the mist that was a wistful sleep. Tubbo stirred slightly when Techno's hand came back from tired stillness and started to comb through some strands of his hair tiredly. Fit still snored under his jacket on the other side of the pod. As far as that could really be. A little cramped, but they all found their spot to sleep.

A frown grew on the kid's face as some quiet noise escaped his throat, annoyed from awakening again. It was far too early to get up, it was still dark outside. Tubbo's eyebrows scrunched together as the radio continued to make white noise. Techno's progress of slowly drifting off for the night was reset, now again nearly wide awake from the minimal movement and the static. He yawned slowly, trying not to wake Tubbo further, and glanced at the radio, before turning a bit more on his side to try and block out the noise.

Tubbo stayed in place, not leaning against Techno again, weary eyes blinking up to the corner. Techno just sighed and carded through the kid's hair again, tilting his head back towards himself. "Interference or something. Old signals from the main ship maybe, you can just ignore..."

A quiet, chapped voice crackled to life, emitting from the small and weak speakers.

"If there is anyone who can hear this, we... need help. We're here together, somewhere underwater. There's only one of those oxygen masks and my friend is badly injured, so we can't swim out. God... We don't even know how far underwater we are. Maybe a few meters? Ten maybe? We still get light down here, so who knows."

Static crinkled over the audio, interrupting it. Techno was sure Tubbo could hear very clearly in that moment how he swallowed a lump in his throat.

The static went again. The message continued.

"We are down to our last two rations and we'll try to make it last for as long as we can, but it won't be long. Maybe one or two days if we're lucky. I... I don't really know how long we can do this. If you're out there, I beg, please, we are on the left side of the-"

The message cut off sharply, only white noise playing over the speakers.

The duo sat in grave silence, as the tiny screen flashed up and displayed some words on its blue and white screen.

"Message sent out several days ago. Coordinates of origin attached."

Techno's heart felt heavy, or maybe not his heart? His lungs just felt awfully heavy and hollow, as if they should fall in to each other any second now. Or maybe it was his entire chest? No matter, something ached when just reading the words 'several days'. That could be two, that could also be seven. One was better than the other, but still the horror struck him, just hearing the words replay in his head, of only two rations left, not nearly enough for two people to survive for days. As well as one of the two carrying some severe injury, possibly bleeding out while sending the message.

Next to him, he could practically feel Tubbo's frozen in place posture, feel how his lungs only expanded so far, before breathing out again. The kid's head turned and in the dead of the night, with all the glimmering lights below and the night sky above, he saw terrified eyes, threatening to fall out of their sockets, mouth slightly agape as if desperately wanting to choke out a response to the call for help, as if the people on the other side could hear it.

Techno cursed beneath his breath. Unnecessary, as the silence (besides Fit's unaware snores) allowed for them to hear every single letter perfectly.

They were wide awake now.

And Techno felt sick to his stomach.

And he pulled Tubbo back into his arms, feeling him shake, on the verge of breaking out into sobs. And they rested there. Not moving, staring at the walls of their metal sanctuary, having no idea what to do now.

That might be a dead man's voice.

And they both were wide awake to hear it.