I changed a lot of things in the Skeld, such as adding a trap door in the bottom that led to the sleeping areas. I made it like that so it's more like a ship, instead of just a large building floating around in space. Apologies in advance for any Among Us lore I don't know about. Also, I don't have a crush on Olivia in real life, I just needed a love interest to spice things up. Also, to Amelia (from my class, who I know is reading) this is not as good as you're going to think. Don't bring this up at school.
"I have a mission for you two." said a deep, intimidating voice.
"What is it sir?" a woman asked.
"We will do anything you request." said a man.
"You two are my most loyal servants, always completing my missions, and never doing a single thing wrong. And although you two have never worked together, I believe you can make an amazing team. An alien, and a human.
The two looked at each other, with hesitant eyes.
"Will there be a problem?" the voice asked.
"Of course not sir!" said the woman.
"No problem at all." assured the man.
"Perfect. For this mission, you will need to disguise yourself as a human." the voice explained, looking at the man. Within seconds, he transformed to look exactly like a human male. "Excellent. The mission I give to you, is to disguise yourself as crewmates and infiltrate the Skeld, leaving no one alive."
"And we have lift off!"
The cheers of the crew could be heard as the Skeld, NASA's newest spacecraft, left the atmosphere. Although X-846k is past the solar system, it would only take 2 weeks to reach it, thanks to humanity's latest scientific discoveries.
This is the first time Alex, who wore a blue space suit, had seen Marko, who wore a brown space suit, smile in weeks. As the captain, Marko had been under a lot of stress, and had the most work to do, with the same amount of time to do it. Alex at everyone on the ship. Nova, who wore a purple suit, was celebrating very loudly. Matias, who wore red, was looking out the window, shouting like an excited child. Ava, who wore white, sat completely still in her chair, terrified by the depths of space. Sable, who wore cyan, was attempting to calm her down, to no avail. Zach, who wore black stared in awe, amazed while looking at Earth, which was shrinking behind them. Jasper, who wore green, was trying to seem cool, but if you looked closely, you could tell he was having a great time. Tanya, who wore orange, was clapping her hands excitedly and cheering "Woooooooo…" as the ship flew higher. Olivia, who wore lime, just sat there with her mouth wide open.
Alex himself felt like everyone did all at once.
"I can't believe this is happening!" he yelled. "Us! Random astronauts specially selected to be the first to go on a planet outside of our solar system!"
"I know, right!" yelled Matias. "SPACE IS AMAZING!"
"Can you guys quiet down?" asked Marko. "I'm trying to enjoy this."
"Marko, just because you're the captain, doesn't mean you're our parents." said Nova. Alex burst out laughing.
"Ehh, I've seen better." said Jasper.
"Isn't this your first time being an astronaut?" asked Tanya.
"Yup." replied Jasper.
"Yeah, you're lying." said Tanya. "I can tell by your eyes."
Jasper quickly looked away.
"Ava, it's okay." said Sable. "You should open your eyes!"
"No, no, no, no, no…" Ava kept muttering under her breath. "Why did I agree to this? We're going too fast!"
She squeezed Sable's hand so hard that Sable gritted her teeth. But she was still determined to help her friend.
The ship started slowing down. It went at a more reasonable speed than before. Ava opened one eye, then quickly shut it again.
"ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY: ENABLED. AUTOPILOT: ENABLED." said a robotic voice. They all undid their seat belts and got up, except for Ava, who was still slowly opening her eyes.
"Yo, Ava. It's okay to get up now." said Alex.
"I know, but if I don't do it slow, I'll get hurt." she said.
"How so?" asked Alex.
"Umm…"
"You go up ahead, Alex." said Sable. "I can help her."
"Alrighty, then."
He left the room, took off his space suit like everyone else did, revealing a blue tee-shirt, then went to the main room of the ship. The Cafeteria was enormous, with 4 tables with benches. It served food three times a day. He explored all corners of the ship, going to Reactor, where Nova, to Admin, where Matias and Jasper were, and to Comms, where he was alone.
The ship even had WI-FI, so the crew could text or call each other if they were on different sides of the ship, and if someone called a meeting, a loud notification would show up. There was also a way to call a meeting from your tablet, though the main purpose was to check the map of the ship.
"Attention fellow crewmates! In five minutes, report to the cafeteria! There, you will be given the tasks you must complete by the end of this week!" Marko said over the intercom.
Alex met up with Matias, who was watching the cameras in Security.
"I gotta say," said Matias. "The cams would be much more useful if there were more. I mean, only four?"
"Why do we even have cams?" asked Alex.
"No idea."
"Anyways, we should go to Cafeteria to get our tasks."
"Yup."
Matias got up from his chair and followed Alex to the Cafeteria. They were the first ones there, other than Marko. The rest of the crewmates soon followed, with Ava still hyperventilating. Alex noticed Sable blushing as she entered the room.
"Great, everyone's here." said Marko. "I will now hand everyone their list of tasks, each one is important to the ship."
He handed the pages to each crew member. Alex's read:
Alex, s Blue
-Calibrate Distributor (Electrical)
-Swipe Card (Admin)
-Divert Power (Electrical to Navigation)
-Fix Wiring (Electrical, Admin, Cafeteria)
-Empty Trash Chute (O2 to Storage)
-Unlock Manifolds (Reactor)
-Submit Scan (Medbay)
-Fuel Engines (Storage to Upper/Lower Engine)
"Three tasks in Electrical?" said Alex. "Why so many in one room?"
"I mean, you are the one with the most knowledge of wires and that sort of stuff." replied Marko. "I have two tasks in Navigation."
"I guess it makes sense. But what does the 'S Blue' mean?"
"The colour of your suit. Makes it easier to differentiate between all the crewmates."
"Easier than using our names?"
Marko didn't respond.
"Everyone should start their tasks now. Some take a long time. I recommend doing something like swiping your card last, to get the longer and harder ones out of the way. Dismissed."
Everyone split up to go do their tasks. Alex went to electrical to get all his tasks done. When he got there, Nova, who was also there, seemed to be doing a Download task.
"'Sup." he greeted.
"'Sup." said Nova back. "Which tasks do you have in here?"
"'Divert Power to Navigation,' 'Fix Wiring,' and 'Calibrate Distributor.' Is Download your only task here?"
"Yup, I have to wait an hour for this BS to download, then go to admin and wait another hour for the BS to upload."
Alex laughed. He did the wiring first. It took him only 5 minutes. He had done it a lot during training. Then, he diverted the power to Navigation, which took him about a minute.
"These tasks are so boring." said Alex. "Aren't you able to leave and come back later
when it's done downloading?"
"Nah, it downloads to my tablet, and Marko says we have to keep it on us at all times, soooo..." replied Nova.
"That sucks."
He started calibrating the distributor, but kept on failing the timing, resetting it.
"Damn it." he said. It took him almost 20 minutes to finally succeed, while Nova was laughing at his failure.
"Alright, I have to go." said Alex. "Captain'll kill me if I'm not doing a task, even though they're due by next week. Have fun downloading."
"See ya, Alex."
He left Electrical, checking the schedule on his tablet. They were soon going to have supper, then three hours after that, it was light's out. He decided to get Card Swipe done as his last task for the day.
He walked into admin to see Matias and Zach looking at the Admin Map.
"This thing is cool!" said Matias. "I can see where everyone is!"
"Very interesting." said Zach. He heard Alex's footsteps and turned around. "Hey."
"Hey. You guys messing around with the Admin Map?" Alex asked.
"Yup. We can spy on people using this!" exclaimed Matias.
"How does it work?" asked Alex.
"It tracks the amount of signals coming from our tablets in each room." explained Zach. "Unfortunately it can't track who's in each room."
"Cool. Anyways, I got a task in here, so I'll try not to be a bother." said Alex.
He walked around them to the other side of the table, where he was able to scan his I.D. card. He opened his wallet, pulling out his card, then swiping it.
"TOO FAST. TRY AGAIN." said the robotic voice, coming from the table.
"Damn it, lemme try again." He swiped it.
"BAD READ. TRY AGAIN."
"Are you kidding me?" He tried again.
"TOO FAST. TRY AGAIN."
"Alright, one more." Alex reassured himself.
"BAD READ. TRY AGAIN."
"TOO FAST. TRY AGAIN."
"BAD READ. TRY AGAIN.
"TOO FAST. TRY AGAIN."
"BAD READ."
"TOO FAST."
"BAD READ"
"TOO FAST."
"TRY AGAIN."
"TRY AGAIN."
"TRY AGAIN."
"TRY AGAIN."
"TRY AGAIN."
Alex was practically screaming at this point. But he would NOT let this scanner ruin him. He put it once more in the scanner and swiped.
"ACCEPTED. THANK YOU."
Alex stared in disbelief. A smile appeared on his face.
"YES YES YESSSSSS!" he celebrated. "FINALLY!"
He looked to the side. Matias and Zach were staring at him, wondering if his brain was okay. Alex quickly left, before he could embarrass himself further. He walked into the Cafe at the exact moment Marko called for supper.
Nova invited Olivia to sitl with her, Alex and Marko, because she knew that Alex liked her.
Everyone came into Cafeteria and sat with their friends, Matias, Zach and Jasper. Sable, Tanya and Ava. Alex, Nova, Marko and Olivia. Each table had a plate with a metal covering over it.
"So, Captain, what's for supper? Something freeze-dried, perhaps?" asked Alex.
"Nope, spaghetti." replied Marko.
"What?"
"Spaghetti."
Robotic hands that came from the ceiling lifted up the coverings, revealing large portions of spaghetti and garlic bread. Some pitchers full of beverages such as water and pop were brought down by the hands and placed on the tables.
"Wow!" exclaimed Alex and Nova. Even the usually quiet Olivia was expressing her amazement.
Alex was about to start shoveling food into his mouth, when he remembered Olivia was at the table. Nova noticed, and chuckled.
"So, what tasks did you guys do?" asked Alex, starting the conversation.
"I primed the shields." answered Olivia, quietly. Alex attempted to hide his red cheeks by eating some more.
"I inspected the sample in Medbay." said Marko.
"Aren't most of your tasks in Navigation?" asked Nova.
"Yeah, but they're the easiest for me, so I save 'em for last." said Marko.
"Downloading data and uploading data took up most of my time." said Nova.
Alex looked at Olivia in the corner of his eye. She was nibbling her garlic bread, occasionally looking up at him.
Crap, he thought, does she know I was looking at her?
"Most of the tasks we do are boring." said Alex.
"Well, we have to if we want to keep the ship in working order." said Marko. Alex looked at Olivia from the corner of his eye again. She looked beautiful with her dark brown hair, rosy-red cheeks, blue eyes and lime-coloured tee-shirt. Alex almost coughed up the piece of garlic bread that was in his mouth.
They finished supper, and the robotic hands cleaned up their dishes.
"LIGHTS OUT IN THREE HOURS, GUYS." Marko announced. Alex decided to look at what their beds looked like, so he opened the trap door that led to their sleeping area and climbed down the ladder. He saw a door straight ahead that said: SLEEPING AREA. He went through it.
There were 10 large beds placed very close to each other in a row, with names on the end of the bed in this order:
MARKO ALEX OLIVIA NOVA JASPER SABLE AVA TANYA MATIAS ZACH
Alex was excited that he would be sleeping close to Olivia, but he wasn't happy that he was sleeping next to Marko. He's heard about his monstrous snores.
There were two large bathrooms, one for men and one for women. They looked very similar, with many sinks, stalls and showers, outside that the men's restroom had urinals.
He climbed back up the ladder, trying to hide his excitement. He decided to do one last task before calling it a night. He looked on his list, and chose emptying garbage, because it seemed like it wouldn't take too long. He pulled down the lever in Cafeteria and waited until the sound of garbage falling stopped. He ran down to Storage and pulled the lever there. He looked out the window as he saw all the garbage fly out into the void of space. He then saw the refuel station and thought he might as well get that over with too. He heard the liquid fill into the gas tank. He yawned as it filled to the top. He quickly shut it off and put the lid on it.
As he walked through the hallway, he saw Olivia up ahead and tried to catch up with her, which was hard with a 30-pound gas tank in his arms.
"Hey, Olivia!" he shouted. She turned around and smiled.
"Hello, Alex." she said. He finally caught up with her, but he was almost out of breath. He hid it well though.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I need to align the engine output." she replied.
"Well, I have to refill the engines. Can I walk with you?"
"Sure."
YES! he thought. I'm getting closer to her! Now, what should I say?
"Is this your first time in space?" asked Alex.
What?! Why would you ask that?! Of course it's her first time!
"Yes, it is." she replied.
See, you idiot?
"But, I almost had a chance to be one of the youngest people to go in space."
Haha, get wrecked, thoughts.
"Really? That's interesting. What happened?"
"My dad was also an astronaut, so NASA asked him if him and I wanted to go to the ISS."
You better not be blushing, right now. She's looking directly at you.
"But, my dad declined, because I was only sixteen at the time."
"Wow," said Alex. "I wish I had a cool story like that."
"I'm sure you have something you could share." said Olivia.
"Hm…" Alex thought out loud. They arrived at the Lower Engine. "I mean, I'm the first person in my family who isn't a farmer. And I was the only one in my class to get one hundred percent on the final."
Alex started filling up the engine.
"That's pretty interesting, is it not?" said Olivia.
"I guess, but my life has been pretty boring up to this point." said Alex. The tank was empty and the Lower Engine was full. "I have to go fill up the tank. We should talk more."
"Yes, we really should. Goodbye." said Olivia.
"See ya." said Alex. As he turned around, a large smile appeared on his face. He had finally talked to her, 1-on-1! Usually, Nova was with her when they talked. He decided to save the rest of his task for tomorrow, because he was too distracted.
He opened the trap door to the sleeping area. He found his bed and collapsed in it, his heart filled with happiness.
"Yo, Alex." said Marko, who was apparently in the room. "We should get ready for bed."
He sent a text to everyone ordering them to get ready to sleep.
While Alex was showering, changing, brushing his teeth and lying in bed, his thoughts were still occupied by Olivia. Will he one day be able to confess his feelings? Only time shall tell. And it shall tell something, else as well.