Dann smiled at her in spite of himself. Rose replied, “Yes. I was summoned to assist the awakening of Lt. Cobb in my physical form.”
“Lt. Cobb—you mean Fred Cobb? He survived?” Dann felt a bit of weight rise off his shoulders. He didn’t know the Lieutenant well, but had met the man on several occasions. Jackson looked mildly interested as well, more at Dann’s own tone than in the circumstances, he thought. “Where is his cryo-pod?”
“Hang on there,” Jackson said, “you’re not thinking of going after them are you? We’ve got an objective to reach already here.”
“One we don’t know how to find without Rose. I’m sure she intended to rejoin us anyway, didn’t she?”
“One moment, Dann.” The computer’s voice paused for a moment. “Yes, though Lt. Cobb suffered an extended wait and is very weak, I’m afraid. It will be some time before they can catch up to you.”
“I say we meet them half-way. We’re going to need Rose to navigate the rain forest anyway. We almost got eaten here, I can only imagine what’s waiting there.
Jackson scowled. “Fine, we do it your way. But we do it tomorrow. And I say we do it alone; leave the popsicles frozen for now.”
Dann returned her scowl and started to open his mouth to reply when Rose cut in. “I would advice against reviving any more people than is necessary, Dann. The larger the group, the slower we move.”
“Fine. Okay, fine. You’re right; you’re right. I just …”
“As long as you leave the door secured when you leave, the pod will be safe.”
Dann didn’t like that that, but privately admitted the sense of it to himself. They dug some of the unnecessary hospital gowns out of storage for use as blankets and settled in for the night.