The old hauler stood dark and silent, its landing struts completely buried from years of dust storms. It was an autonomous craft that was not designed with life support in mind. Before any of the terraforming research crew came to Alderamin IV it arrived filled with equipment, vehicles, food and water. Now it was a huge, cavernous shell upon which all of Kenta's hope for survival rested. But those threads of hope were growing thin as her search for drinkable water turned up nothing.

"Damn this stagnant beast!" Kenta shouted, slamming her fist against the central control console. She started giggling at her own words. The dehydration was becoming severe enough that she noticed her behavior getting strange. She stopped and tried to pull her thoughts together to reevaluate her options, but it was hard to concentrate. At times she just blanked out for a moment and had to start the whole train of thought over from the beginning.

"I'm alone. I need water. Hab-4 is 15 clicks, too far. There's no water here... I'm tired." She muttered to herself. Then something awoke deep inside Kenta. A survival instinct. Something from her training that seemed so long ago. It welled up inside her and she grasped at the feeling, pushing all other thoughts from her mind.

"Positive space. What you have, not what you lack. What you can do, not what you can't." she recited, her voice growing louder. "I'm alive. I have the hauler." She looked down at the small pile of supplies gathered at her feet. "I have a scanner. Hab-4 is..." She closed her eyes tight and shook her head. "I'm wasting time here. I need to go now." She knew it was a hopeless venture, walking the 15 clicks to Hab-4 in her condition. She would not survive the trip. But she knew she was no more likely to survive standing still and if she were going to die on this desolate planet at least she would go out fighting. Mustering what determination she could she scooped up the scanner, utility knife, light and face mask and turned toward the hatch. She stopped for a moment and a slight grin crept onto her face. She turned back to the console and punched in the command to open the main cargo doors. "Might as well go out the big door."

Kenta walked into the massive cargo hold, squinting in the bright light that shone in the huge open doors. But she stopped suddenly a few steps into the room. Her eyes grew wide. In the far corner of the hold, just inside the open doors sat a light transport vehicle. She started walking, then running toward the wheeled vehicle, designed for transporting cargo to the nearby habitats. She felt giddy and laughed as she swung herself into the driver's seat and flicked the startup switches. The instruments lit up and Kenta's eyes searched frantically for the battery gauge. There it was, 64% charge. She threw her head back and shouted into the empty cargo hold, tears welling up in her eyes. Laughing, she chastised herself for wasting moisture like that.

The transport rolled down the loading ramp onto the soft ground and set off to the North-East. It would still take hours to get to Hab-4 and the thought of what she would do once she got there hadn't even entered her mind, but now there was hope. Kenta clung to that hope with fierce determination.