Disclaimer: I don't know how space science works, all I know are YouTube videos.
One of the many reasons this particular Skeld trip was speculated to be dangerous was due to its longevity. To reach Polus from our home planet, we would need to cross between the edges of their two distinct galaxies. It's not easy to find a planet with an atmosphere that may one day support new life.
It was while crossing the abyss between the two galaxies when I was tossed out of the airlock and tumbled violently into the void. With nothing but the emptiness to stop me, I spun around like a white pebble rolling down a black, pavemented hill, until I forcibly stopped myself from turning. I continued to drift away in an unknown direction, however, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I turned back to look at the ship I once boarded. Of course, the ship itself was probably lightyears away by then, but if I squinted, I could still see an image formed by the light rays left behind. Its blazing engines grew smaller and fainter until all that was left in its place was its black-green afterimage. I blinked.
Even though I was surrounded by void, I could see the two galaxies located far away from my sides. For a moment I appreciated their bright yellow cores, and the shades of orange, blue and purple that spun out from the blur. For a moment I forgot about my dangerous predicament.
I travelled through space at a constant pace, but there was no hope for me to reach another planet, or another station before my oxygen runs out. It's getting hot in here; the body heat I produced had nowhere to escape to, raising the degrees inside my suit. It's hard to tell whether I would die of heat or asphyxiation first.
I was so close, so close to getting them out. I clenched my fists and swung them around, jabbing my dusty white boots at nothing. I screamed into the darkness, but there was no one around to hear me. The stars gleamed at me with devilish mirth. Calm down, I told myself, moderating my breathing, you're wasting precious resources. And It wasn't getting any cooler in here either.
I stayed still and let myself be drifted away. Where did it all go wrong? I couldn't help but think.
After uploading the data we've collected so far regarding the ship's well-being, remaining supplies, and my new reports on the impostor situation, I sat by the admin table and stared at its neon-green screen.
"Internal and external communications," MIRA had said, "it's more or less the captain role you asked for." The job memo had sounded nice: get to be the direct communication between the ship and the higher-ups, make sure everyone is finishing their assigned tasks, and write reports on the ship and the crew's performance. In application, information from the ship takes ages to travel back across space and reach headquarters, rendering communication back-and-forth useless. It's only for documentation purposes. My job was pretty much being the ship's coordinator, like a secretary.
Yellow icons were spread across a neon hologram of the ship's layout. One in Reactor, one in Security, two in Storage, one in Admin, two in Shields, one in O2, and one in Navigations. The numbers on the right side of the ship stayed more or less the same, with an occasional one or two travelling between those rooms. On the left side, the lone icon in Reactor travelled to Security, and stayed there with the other icon.
But it was what happened with the two icons at storage that startled me. One by one, they disappeared off the map, then reappeared in the room of Electricals. Why Electricals? I haven't redistributed Lime's tasks yet. Were they just curious? Meanwhile, an icon seemed to have disappeared off O2, and was instead at Weapons.
The even stranger thing about the two in Electricals was how one of them had disappeared, then reappeared immediately in Security. Three at Security. It's like they had completely disregarded the giant walls that separated the rooms. The one left in Security soon disappeared as well, and after enough time had passed for them to walk around through the hallways, reappeared in Security. Four in Security, what a strange sight.
And then one of them blinked. It flashed off, a brief pause, and then it flashed back on again, in the exact same spot. A plausible situation formed in my head: someone decided to leave, but then changed their minds and went back again. But it doesn't exactly explain how those that one icon walked through walls, does it.
When the fifth person arrived at Security, it was evident that something was definitely going on in there. I needed to go check.
On my way there, I met Blue and Purple in Storage. Something about installing new software on my tablet.
"Oh fucking hell White, don't go call a meeting yet. Look at her! She needs medical attention!" shouted Purple as she pulled out packets of disinfected pads and rolls of gauze out of her pockets. She tossed some to Blue, "For Red," and pressed a pad against the gash on the back of Yellow's arm, wrapping the gauze around it to stop the bleeding.
"RED!" Screamed Yellow as she pointed her finger shakily, "It was Red an-"
"Yellow killed! And, and she even tried to stab me! Look at this!" Red raised up his own bleeding arm, making the pad that Blue had put there fall off.
Yellow went aghast. "That was not there befo-"
"Shhhhhhh," Purple shushed Yellow's mouth with a piece of gauze, "Calm down. Both of you, save it for the meeting. Now, are there any other wounds I should know about?" She asked Yellow, removing the gauze.
"Yea, the other arm," said Yellow, "On the side, near the wrists here."
Feeling slightly out-of-place, I decided to deal with the corpse lying in the middle of the room. Gingerly, I picked up a bloodied knife up from the puddle of blood pooling around the body, and tossed it out of the room and into Reactor. Some of the blood got on my white gloves. I hoped it wouldn't stain. As the knife was thrown, Black, who had been sitting silently on the floor next to Cyan, lifted his head to look at me, as if judging my choices.
"I'll pick it up later ok? Just don't want to deal with it for now," I told him, shaking the last bit of blood off my gloves. "Now. You guys are free, does any one of you two want to help me with moving Orange to Medbay?" I regarded them for any sign of listening. Black looked back at me.
Cyan didn't even have the basic etiquette to do that. He just sat there staring blankly at the base of the wall, off in his own world and completely ignoring me and the scene around him. If it wasn't for the rise and fall of his chest, I'd have thought that he was dead. "Cyan?" I asked, "You there?" He didn't answer.
Instead, Black stood up, and offered to help with the corpse. Well, more like what is left of the corpse. The torso and up had been gnawed away by some monster, leaving only the lower half to bleed in pools. I silently acknowledged the kind of alien we were dealing with, and wrapped my hands around Orange's less-bloody ankles, while Black picked up the other end. We carried the corpse out the door and into the hallway. Blood dripped on the floor in little dots.
"What's up with Cyan?" I asked Black.
"I think he is shocked."
"Makes sense," I nodded, "Seeing a bleeding body does that to a person."
Black simply looked at the body and nodded as well, not being much of a conversationalist. Not wanting to simply end it there, I engaged once again.
"So, Black. Why aren't you in shock? I once helped a medic to deal with an amputation. Not as extreme, but I suppose it'd help. Nothing in your file says you've dealt with any accidental injuries, nor deaths."
He didn't make eye contact with me. "I am scared," He said.
"Scared of what?"
"...Why should I tell you?"
We placed Orange on one of the Medbay beds, and covered her from direct view with one of the clean, white sheets. After washing my hands, I decided to head to Caf and call a meeting. Black picked up an armful of blankets from one of the beds and headed back towards Security. Now that I think about it, I don't recall if Black had washed his hands. But he must have.
A meeting was called.
"RED!"
"YELLOW!"
"He literally stabbed me!"
"She killed Orange!"
"No I didn't you lying mother-"
"SHUT UP!" Purple interrupted Yellow and Red's bickering, "One at a time, please!" They shutted up. "Yellow, you go first. Tell us what happened."
Yellow took a breath in. "Ok, so. I was in Security with Orange, who came in after finishing her Simon Says; I was watching the cameras. Cyan, I saw you on there, you were last near Weapons."
"Were you?" I asked Cyan, who had a Medbay blanket wrapped around him."Did you see the cameras on?" Cyan nodded slowly.
"While I was focused on the monitor screens, completely out of the blue I heard Orange scream from behind me. Freaked out, I immediately snapped out of it and turned around, just to have Red stab me in the arm as I turned to see! Right here." She patted the bandages on her arm, and then showed us the ones right below her wrist.
"The other one here was when this motherfucker pulled out the knife and tried to stab me again, but on instinct I blocked it with the other arm to refrain it from reaching my gut. A deep cut for sure, but it beats having those important organs damaged. Dodging to the side, I avoided his next attack, and then kicked him ‐ somewhat like this ‐ throwing him off balance. And he fell. He actually fell. Like, what?" She took a moment to laugh a little. "And then I saw Black standing there ominously at the back of Security, all bloodied on top of what was left of Orange, and I realised how doomed I was. There's two of them. It's Red and Black. I thought for sure that I was going to die, until the door opened and Cyan came in. Thanks. I guess," She told the unblinking Cyan.
"Black wasn't bloody," Cyan blurted out.
"Huh?" Asked Yellow.
"When I came in, he wasn't bloody." He said again. And neither was he bloody when I turned to look at him. He sat at the table with barely a speck to be found.
"Well, that doesn't really matter, does it?" said Yellow, "The killers are Black and Red. I'd say we throw them off the ship and leave them to the universe's mercy. Two lives given to pay for the two lives taken."
"Two killers? But according to oxygen intake we only have one!" said Blue.
"Nop," Yellow replied, "There's two."
"Let it be one or two, I'm down to throw Red out." said Blue.
"Hold on hold on! I haven't even told my side yet!" Red exclaimed, "You guys are actually believing Yellow? She's lying!"
"Ok. Go on then Red. What happened?," said Purple.
Red took a breath. "First of all, I don't know how Yellow managed to make up such a graphic story, but it's completely untrue."
"I've been tagging along with Yellow and Orange for a while now even though Yellow has explicitly made it clear that I'm not welcome. But I've kept going at it not out of shamelessness, but because Orange had specifically requested me to do so. Whenever Yellow wasn't paying attention, she would tell me how scared she was, how worried she was, that the impostor was her closest friend Yello－"
"Orange did not!"
"－Shush Yellow, I didn't interrupt you when you were painting your gore show. I'd appreciate it if you could return the favor," Red continued, "Orange told me how Lime and Yellow had been so close the day before he died, and how quickly Yellow had gotten over her tears when the meeting was called. She said she didn't feel safe when she was alone with her, and urged me to accompany both of them. Makes you wonder why Yellow was so quick to voice her issue about it."
"The killing of Orange was no coincidence either," Red looked at us, "Both of them, Lime and Orange, had been Yellow's close friends. She knew them the best, which unfortunately makes them the easiest targets. No one would ever suspect the culprit to be the person purposefully brawling their eyes out, would they? That's what I had thought too, that Yellow was safe to be with, until today that is. I made a mistake by letting Yellow near Orange alone."
"When I arrived at Security with Black to check on them, we saw Yellow gruesomely committing the unspeakable deed. I would assume Yellow got those wounds of hers when Orange tried to defend herself, because she already had them when we arrived. She knew she was caught at that point, of course, but it didn't stop her from trying. She stabbed me in the arm, and I tried to dodge her, but fell instead. That's why I was on the floor when Cyan came in."
"I did not stab you in the arm!" Yellow objected.
"You say you didn't, I say you did," said Red.
After both Yellow and Red had given their two completely different stories, the table fell silent as we decided on which one to believe in.
"We…" said Yellow, "We all know it's Red right? Red and Black?"
"Yellow says Red and Black are the impostors. Red says it's Yellow. According to oxygen depletion there's only one impostor," Purple reasoned out loud, "But both Yellow and Red bleeds like a human, and they are accusing each other. One alien impostor for sure, detected by the software, and a traitor between Red and Yellow. How does that sound?"
I remembered the peculiar disrespect of walls I saw earlier on the admin table, and nodded in agreement. Perhaps the event had something to do with shapeshifting. I'll have to check back on it later.
Red, however, did not agree. "How do you know aliens can't shapeshift to bleed like a human? Yellow could still be an alien."
"If they can shapeshift to the point of completely changing their internal cells, I can't imagine why we are still alive." Purple argued.
"Let's not forget, Black is also being accused by Yellow here," I reminded everyone, and then decided to dive in for a crucial piece of information. "Black," I said, "Who do you think the impostor is?"
"I, I-" He stuttered.
I mentally placed myself in Black's position. If Black was an impostor… If I was Black, and was an impostor, then Yellow would be right. She did indeed witness Red and I commiting the crime. That meant Yellow needed to go. The logical play here would be to go along with my impostor partner's, Red's, story and accuse Yellow. It's what I would do. Two impostors, I thought, They'll be able to cover for each other. I waited for Black's response.
"I, it, it's Red." And it completely blew my mind.
"What!" said Red.
"Thanks Black," said Yellow, "The killers are Red and Black."
"I'm confused," Purple confessed, speaking my mind, "Black, according to what Yellow says, you and Red are a pair, but... ugh now none of their stories makes sense."
"Black," asked Blue, "Why is it Red?"
Red shook his head, "Oh man, I covered his eyes when we arrived at the body. To shield his innocent mind from it you know? That must be why he doesn't believe me."
Black's piece of information completely threw everything I had out of the window. But even removing what Black had said, it was still hard to tell who the impostor was; oddly enough both of their stories seemed possible. Twisted, yes, but plausible.
Regardless, it was appropriate to throw someone off the ship. Only three people were suspects this time. We had a good chance of ejecting an actual impostor.
"Why don't we vote?" I suggested, pulling out my pen and clipboard, "Vote for who you think the impostor is, and we can use Yellow's idea and eject them out through the airlock. The killers are between Red, Yellow, and Black. We can automate this later if Blue is willing."
"Well write down my vote for Red," said Yellow. One for Red.
"Mine for Yellow," said Red. One for Yellow.
"I believe Yellow's story, but between Red and Black I think Black is more suspicious, he's being suspected, but he doesn't say much at all," said Blue, "I'll vote for Black." One for Black.
"Dammit," said Purple, "Yellow, I feel bad, but Red's story actually explains why you killed them instead of how you killed them. It has more evidence than yours. I vote Yellow." Two for Yellow.
"How am I supposed to know why Red killed!" Yellow cried.
"Cyan?" I asked before adding on my own vote, "Who are you voting for?"
We were so close to getting someone out, but Green had to come and ruin everything.
"That is quite enough," Green stepped in, "We are not ejecting anyone yet."
"Why not?" I asked.
"We do not know for sure."
"But we have a good chance! The suspects are dwindled down to only three subjects!" Was she suggesting we just let the impostor get away with this?
"And if we get it wrong we will be committing the murder." She said, and reached out her hand to ask for the clipboard which I had held a firm grip on to. Eventually, I did pass it over to her. She's the captain.
I never liked Green. Before, I had convinced myself to take an indifferent stance towards her for the sake for cohesion on the ship. But the way she operates, the way she let us talk on as if we had an influence in her decision. It doesn't sit right with me. I had suggested for the whole crew to vote, but she just decided. All by herself, like a tyrant, as if she was above the rest of us.
I think that was where it all started to go wrong. The meeting had changed my mind about Green.