The last evening had become pretty late for everyone (just except for Navy and Vienna's kids, that is, as they went to bed at their usual times), as nobody was used to one another and the whole new building yet. And this combined with the fact that the next exact day would be the first ever mission day wasn't quite the best combination, to be honest.

In the dorm room, Arnie was the first to wake up from the digital alarm clock that stood the closest to him. He jumped out of his bed and clapped his hands loudly.

"Rise and shine, fellow crewmates! Today's our first mission day!"

"Aw, do we have to?" Squee groaned in an obviously annoyed fashion.

"Yes, we sadly do" Choco yawned.

"No, Dad" Yikk lisped, still having their thumb in their mouth and being a three-quarter asleep at the same time, "jutht five mowe minuteth, pweathe…"

Arnie went towards Yikk's bed and poked at their feet in an attempt to wake them up for real.

"Waah!" In response, the childish youngster quickly shot up and immediately grabbed their covers with both of their hands, eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, Ahnie, pwease don't scawe me wike that!"

Billy quietly stretched before getting out of their bed and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.

About half an hour later, all of the crewmates were up and about, having eaten breakfast, brushed their teeth and being all prepared for the day.

"I kind of wonder what our first mission will all be about" Nori said.

"Oh, who even cares" Lava scoffed, as she idly flipped through the pages of a gossip magazine. "I only care if it goes well or not."

"Well, that doesn't sound too openly" Arnie said, as he shook his head.

"Sure doesn't" Navy added.

At the moment, the bright red-haired snob didn't even seem to care about the reactions to her statement, as she didn't bother to answer to them in her usual snappy way. Most likely because she still wasn't too used to this new place either.

"I wonder where the mission will even take place" Charlie said. "Hopefully somewhere good."

"I hope so too" Billy added.

A few seconds later, Mack entered the building, and he was carrying a large cardboard box.

"Good morning, crewmates" he said. "I forgot to mention accessories with your spacesuits yesterday! You all are now allowed to pick one from this box, and that'll be your primary accessory from then on." He put the box down, and slowly but surely, the group of twelve looked through the box to see if anything in there would strike their fancy.

"Perfect" Lava said, as she found a crown that was seemingly made out of real gold. "Suits my personality and status just as well."

Arnie softly chuckled at the statement as he found a military uniform with a fitting helmet, reminding him of his time in the army.

Squee was happy with the fact that they found a sprout hat.

"That way, I can look more like an orange than that it's my favourite kind of fruit!"

Yikk and Billy chuckled at the statement.

"That sounded so not cwevah" the former said, as they suddenly found a lime-coloured balloon-like accessory in the box. "Ooh, I wuv this one!"

Billy found a white party hat with yellow dots and smiled upon putting it on their head. Charlie was pleased with her new diving goggles, Choco loved his new do-rag bandanna to tie around his head, Navy was glad that he found a naval uniform, Nori was enthusiastic about his paper hat, Rice loved their black top hat, and Pop could only smile at her pink flower accessory.

As for Vienna, she was already pleased enough with her suit as it was, so she didn't really need any accessories for it.

"That's also fine" Mack said. "If you ever change your mind, I'll put the box in the storeroom for now." He picked the box back up and brought it to the aforementioned location, before standing back before the twelve crewmates. "Now, only a maximum of 10 people is allowed to go on missions, which means that two will be staying here during that time."

"Why, that's new for me" Arnie said.

"Same" Navy stated.

"Does that also apply to kids?" Vienna asked.

"That's a very good question, Missus Vienna. No, it doesn't apply to kids, as they count as part of their parent. You can take your children along as you please." The manager cleared his throat before continuing. "Now, the following of you will go to the main spaceship of the Skeld… Lava, Squee, Billy, Yikk, Arnie, Charlie, Navy, Vienna, Pop and Rice. Nori and Choco will stay in this building and perhaps do a chore or two. Nonetheless, you two should be good, alright?"

"Yes, sir" Nori and Choco said in unison.

"Alright then. Ten-some that I just called up, follow me to the ship!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" the ten current crewmates said as they followed Mack to the main spaceship of the Skeld. (Nika tagged along with Navy, and Neri and Yuri were with Vienna, too, of course.)


On the spaceship, Mack gave everyone instructions and explanations on the missions that the crewmates would go on, and he promised to give this explanation again once Nori and Choco would directly be involved in one of the next missions.

"First things first" he also said. "Spacesuits are mandatory to put on while already on the spaceship from this point on, so…"

Before he could finish, the crewmates frantically looked for their respective coloured and sized spacesuits in the nearest cabinet, and Navy and Vienna's children were also ensured of one in their size.

"Now" Billy started as they pointed at Yuri, "how will you be able to do work with your hands while also having to hold on to Yuri, Vienna?"

"That's a good question" Vienna replied, and she repeated Billy's question to Mack.

"We've got special helmets for that." The manager took the mother's helmet off and replaced it with one that had a special baby seat and handles on the back, the former in which Yuri appeared to fit perfectly.

The theyby smiled a little in approval, even if they still weren't too sure about their new spacesuit yet.

"Don't worry, little munchkin" Mack said to Yuri in a sweet tone, "you'll eventually get used to the suit." He 'tickled' the chin part of their helmet with his index finger.

"Tell me about how this suit is heavy as weights" Lava said, as she tried her best not to topple over due to the heavy weight of her oxygen tank.

"Now, Miss Lava, you're unnecessarily wasting your precious oxygen right now. Could you please turn the tank off and take it off of your back until you and your other crewmates are in space? Thank you."

"Well, alright, if you want so." The snob did as her manager said, and obviously felt better afterwards. "Wow, thanks, it actually works."

A few of the others who also had their oxygen tanks on their backs already, albeit not turned on, followed suit (pardon the pun) and also profited of that fact.

"Lastly, I want you all to have this." Mack handed out small, modern-looking pagers to the crewmates. "I have two more for Mister Nori and Mister Choco, and I'll give those to them once your ship has launched, as I'll stay at the common area and not go on a mission with you lot. Keep these safe with you, as they let you know your tasks and position before the mission starts."

"Yes, sir" the crewmates said.

"Oh, and not to mention it also wakes you lot up at 7 a.m. exactly, which is about one and a half hour before the next mission starts. Unless you all have a day off, that is, but that doesn't occur too often."

"Oh" Arnie replied, "so the alarm clock in the dorm room is in fact an unnecessary artifact now?"

"You can leave that one as it is, so it doubles as an extra alarm."

The two gentlemen were left laughing.

"Guess I weawy should head to bed eahwiah in owdah to pwopahwy wake up" Yikk said. "Guys, don't make it too wate again tonight, otay?"

"That's also a good statement that Individual Yikk just made. Since you lot are required to wake up at 7 a.m. every day before a mission, make sure to head to bed around 9 p.m. every night, too, because long lost sleep is a crewmate's worst enemy, and I speak from my own experience before even being your manager."

"Yes, sir" all of the crewmates replied.

"Now, I'll start up the spaceship, which'll stay in space for approximately 8 hours. In this amount of time, make sure to do your tasks quickly and carefully. Starting from now, I'll only be directly available via your leader if there's a more urgent emergency than the emergency meetings you'll have soon. Until we see one another again, good luck on your missions, and take the best of care."

"Thanks much, sir."

Mack left the ship to start it up from the outside.

"Now is most likely the time to carry our oxygen tanks again" Pop said, as she took her life-providing device back onto her back. "Oof, forgot how heavy this is… better sit down with it, I highly recommend it to you all."

Squee followed suit and turned the tank on already.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Charlie exclaimed as she turned the dumb blonde's tank back off. "Mack said not to waste any oxygen until we're in space itself!"

"He did? Well, he never looked at me while telling me that."

"So you expected that it only applied to me?" Lava scoffed. "You're so weird, man. Reeeaaally weird."

Squee simply laughed the comment off, because how else would a dumb blonde like them react?

"I slightly heard it, too" Arnie said, "and I want you all to remember it very well."

Lava nodded in approval with some sort of an evil-looking smile.


And before everyone knew it, the ship took off, and once they reached the stars and felt themselves float only a little, the oxygen tanks were all turned on to provide them with a whopping 9 hours of oxygen. Yes, even longer than the usual 8 hours of the ship being in outer space. Of course, the tanks would always be re-fuelled after each mission, because nobody wants to lack their good friend oxygen in outer space, right?

"So Mack mentioned tasks and such just now" Navy said. "When will we-"

Before he could finish his sentence, everyone's pagers went off and showed them their function and number of tasks.

Everyone was simply listed as 'crewmate', just except for Lava, who apparently was an impostor and had fake tasks and sabotage tactics instead. She did keep herself quiet about that, though, as she really hated it if anyone found out such a secret.

"Well" Yikk said, "guess we should staht ouh tasks on the ship, then." They took a brief glance at their pager to see what their first task was, and headed to the admin room to swipe their card. Wait… "Swipe cahd? We don't have cahds!"

"Does that mean we have to swipe our pagers instead?" Vienna asked.

"I think so" Arnie said. "Thanks for letting me know, I'll contact Mack about it now, as he never mentioned anything about special ID cards and such just now." He frantically typed a clear message on his pager and sent it.

"I wonder how we should have our mugshots taken for those cards" Rice said.

"Yeah" Lava added, "I don't want to look too shabby on there." She went out of the admin room.

Squee was seemingly very frustrated about the fact that they kept on swiping their pager too fast.

"Here" Billy said, "lemme help you with that." They briefly took Squee's pager and calmly swiped it through the scanner, which accepted it. "That oughta do it."

"Thanks, Billy."

All sorts of tasks were being done in the meantime. Arnie took care of the downloading of data from the cafeteria, Navy was busy shooting asteroids under Nika's watchful and curious eyes, Rice was activating the prime shields, and Yikk took their sweet time to fix the wiring at the navigation at first.

As for Lava, she pretended to unlock the manifolds at the reactor, but in reality, sabotaged the reactor, forcing the crewmates to head there swiftly to nullify the sabotage.

She chuckled evilly before Pop came, and subsequently knocked her out before hiding in the nearest vent(ilation shaft).

While Pop was unconscious, her ghost was still awake, and groaned loudly in disapproval of being knocked out just now.

"Man, that was really mean of her!"

Once Vienna, Neri, Yuri and Squee came to the reactor, the first reported the fact that Pop was knocked out, but no-one else was around. This was the start of the first ever emergency meeting at the cafeteria, the central part of the Skeld spaceship.

"Where did you find the body?" Navy asked.

"Reactor" was Vienna's reaction.

"I was there" Squee replied.

"That sounds suspicious, Squee" Arnie said.

"It was, in fact, Squee who did it" Lava lied with a straight face.

The dumb blonde squeaked upon hearing the undertone of the last said sentence, despite perhaps not quite understanding the concept.

"Oh my gosh" Yikk shouted, as they slapped their hand in front of the mouth spot of their helmet. "You wooked so much wike a twustwohthy pacifist, yet you dawe to do that? Squee, you should be ashamed of youhself."

"Indeed you should" Billy added.

On everyone's pagers, there were options to vote out the possible impostor, and, of course, most of the votes went to Squee, except for the dumb blonde themself, who voted Lava instead.

Squee was sent to work outside of the ship, letting the 8 remaining crewmates continue their tasks inside of it. However, they weren't the real impostor, as it eventually turned out on everyone's pagers.

"Huh" Lava said, stoically. "What a huge surprise."

"Guess I wectuwed them fo' nuffin'" Yikk said with a shrug, before heading for the wire box near the security room.

Arnie, in the meantime, just finished cleaning the oxygen filter in the oxygen room before heading to the admin room to upload the data he just downloaded in the cafeteria.


Throughout the next two hours, everyone's assigned tasks were done slowly but surely, and Lava was still a tad reluctant as the impostor, even if she loved her current function a lot. She sabotaged the ship's oxygen a little later, and headed for the admin room, as that one was the closest to the storage.

In the oxygen room, Rice and Charlie were the ones to solve the oxygen problem, whereas Arnie only just finished it in the admin room before getting punched unconscious by the sneaky snob before she disappeared again in the nearest vent.

"I feel a sense of dread nearby" Charlie said, as she headed for the navigation room to chart the course. "Better finish this task quickly before the dread gets the better of me…!" She deeply breathed in and did her task with the quickest of fingers before running off to the medical bay to submit a scan.

Navy was just done with his scan and kindly watched as the cyan crewmate did hers, to ensure that he and Nika were actually safe.

Rice, meanwhile, arrived in the electrical room with Yikk, where the latter just wanted to fix the wire box when they suddenly saw Billy lying unconscious in front of it.

"Oh nooo" Yikk said with an obvious fearful shudder in their voice, "what to do, what do we do?!"

"It's quite simple, really" Rice said, as they put their hand on the lime green crewmate's shoulder in a comforting fashion, calmly grabbed their pager and reported Billy's unconscious body for the very next emergency meeting.

"Now, where did you find the body?" Navy asked.

"Electrical, and Yikk was with me."

"I saw Arnie laying unconscious in the admin room!" Vienna sight with an obvious hint of panic in her voice.

"And I'm very sure that Yikk is also safe!"

The youngster in lime green was still shuddering and breathing swiftly in fear, really not wanting to be pointed out as an impostor.

"You know what" Charlie stated, "Lava was absent for quite some time. Isn't that suspicious?"

"Why, yes, it is" Navy said.

"What?!" Lava shouted at the top of her lungs. "No! I was doing my assigned tasks!"

"Big uncoloured lies." The moustachioed father grabbed his pager and voted Lava out. "I can hear it in your voice, young lady."

"Well, awight" Yikk said, as they also voted the snob out. "Man, I was afwaid just now…!"

"Because you should be, you low-IQ excuse of a crewmate!" Lava slammed her fist hard onto the surface of the table.

"No, you spoiled bwat!" Tears stood in the youngster's eyes, and they gritted their teeth out of anger. "You should be ashamed of youh howwible attitude!"

"Okay, it's obvious that it's Lava…" Vienna sighed, as she also voted the red crewmate out. "Yelling at Yikk like that. How very rude." She put her pager back into her pocket and took Neri and Yuri close to her. "You guys should really not be exposed to such loudness and rudeness. Lava should be ashamed of herself."

"She should…" Neri squeaked, also feeling threatened by hearing someone yell near him for the first time.

Soon, Lava was sent to do all of the tasks outside of the ship, because that's what the real impostors do after the crewmates have seen their true colours, and Squee was brought back inside to do their regular tasks again.

The remaining crewmates decided to take a break after having put Arnie, Pop and Billy to the beds in the medical bay so they could slowly regain their consciousness. (Of course their helmets were taken off in the process so they could lay comfortably!)

"That is one hell of a mission so far, man" Charlie sighed. "But now, I don't really have to feel dread anymore now that Lava is working outside and not permitted to go inside anymore."

"Will it really take 8 hours exactly for us to come back?" Navy wondered. "Not all of the tasks take that long, you know?"

Rice and Vienna nodded in agreement.

Yikk didn't speak a single word. Instead, they just sat there idly, and if one would look through their dark visor, it was obvious that they were silently crying, as the tears were now running down their cheeks in an average pace.

"Yikk, are you alright?" Vienna asked. "You seem so quiet…"

That being said (and seemingly being the 'berserk button' as well), the lime crewmate burst out in louder sobbing, and impulsively grabbed on to Vienna's torso in the style of a hug and wanting to cry out into her chest.

"That Wava is just so wude and sewfish, I hate hah! I no want to wohk wif hah evah again, whethah I wike it oh not!"

Neri and little Yuri looked at Yikk with obviously concerned eyes, with the latter most likely also being at the verge of weeping.

Navy took Yuri close to him and tried to comfort them with back rubs, and Vienna followed suit by doing this to Yikk.

"That's a valid reason" the mother said, "and right you are about it, too, because in all honesty, I think the exact same."

"An' it's not jus' because she be the impostah, but because she awso be pwain mean ovewall! Finding my name ugwy and such… it obviouswy isn't…"

"Hey, it's no biggie" Rice said. "I also think that what she did was awful!" They sighed in between. "If only punishments as they were known in the previous century were still allowed, I'd definitely spank her with the first carpet beater I'd find in the storage closet of our block…"

A tiny smile with one slightly crooked front tooth wanting to stick out could be seen from Yikk's mouth.

"What is that?" Neri softly asked, "a spank?"

"Oh, that's not important now" Vienna said, "but in any case, something negative." She slightly glared at the younger twin for having said something like that.

"I kinda know what it is" Nika said, "but I'm not telling." She flashed a wide and confident smile.

"Very well" Navy said, as he patted his daughter's head.

Charlie got up from the main table, breathed deeply and went on to download data nearby.

Yikk let Vienna go of their grasp, gently grabbed Rice's right hand and got up as well.

"I want you to wemain by my side fo' the time bein'" they said, "do you mind?"

"Of course not" the jade-green-eyed blonde said. "As long as you feel like it, I could always stick by you."

"Thank you…"

"Now, what tasks do you have left?"

"Uh, lessee…" The youngster grabbed their pager to check on their remaining tasks. "I hafta chaht the couwse at the navigation, fix the wiyahs at ewectwical, and do a scan at the medical bay."

"Ah, good one! We should go to electrical first, since I have to calibrate the power source there, too, what a coincidence."

The twosome took off to the electrical room, while Charlie finished her task of checking the samples at the medical bay, where she could also check on the unconscious crewmates in the meantime.

Their ghosts, however, were still awake and finishing their tasks the whole time.

"Now I know what Lava just loved to do to her maids and butlers" Arnie said.

"Seriously" Pop said, "I cannot bear how rotten she also behaved towards Yikk just now. Seeing the poor youngster weep just shattered my heart in a billion pieces…"

"I think we should protect poor Yikk from harm more often. They just seem so vulnerable."

"I agree" Billy said. "At first, I thought I was the most vulnerable by always crying myself to sleep before coming here, but boy, was I wrong." They sighed deeply.

"I hope they'll bring Squee back inside soon, too. That poor youngster must be quite hurt by all of Lava's insults by now, even if they're, like, so dumb." The girly girl crossed her arms in an attempt to relax.

"I hope I can try to regain my consciousness. Until you two are also awake, see you later." Arnie closed his eyes and tried to re-merge his ghost with his body. It took a few seconds before he slowly woke up.

Charlie thought she heard something and looked behind her to see that the former private's eyes were now slowly moving.

"Arnie, thank goodness, you're awake…!" She went from the inspecting computer towards her crewmate's bed. "Lava was the real impostor, by the way."

"I know. Believe it or not, but my ghost was still awake and living while my body was unconscious, and I experienced it all so vividly, as did Pop and Billy, whose ghosts are also still there."

"Wow, that sounds… supernatural, honestly. And a tad scary, too."

"Trust me, Charlie, it wasn't. To me, it was quite unique and also a bit thrilling somewhere. The only scary part is you as a ghost suddenly waking up after being knocked out hard. Man, that fist of hers felt like a whole megaton of stone…" He put his hand on his left temple that still throbbed quite hard.

The tomboy immediately rushed to the nearest cupboard to hastily grab a washcloth to soak underneath the sink and place on Arnie's sore temple.

"Thank you."

"Do you need anything else?"

"Perhaps a little water to drink."

No sooner said than done, Arnie was also provided with a plastic cup of water on the nightstand in between his and Billy's beds.

Since Charlie was already done with all of her tasks, she remained in the medical bay to check on Billy, Pop and Arnie, while sitting on a foldable chair herself.

Some time later, Yikk arrived to do a scan in the same room, when they suddenly noticed Arnie being awake and well.

"Ahnie, oh my gosh!" they said in a tone as soft as possible, "you still awive…!" They took their helmet off to rub their bare cheek against his uniformed chest and somewhat tried to hug him in a rather peculiar fashion.

"You thought I was dead?" Arnie softly chuckled. "You're a silly youngster, you know that?" He briefly lifted his head up to gently kiss his fellow crewmate's crown, but some strands of their hair got stuck into his long stubble in the process.

"I was jus' concehned, that's all." Yikk untangled the strands of their hair from Arnie's face before looking at the beds on which Pop and Billy laid. "I hope they awso wake back up soon…" They suddenly saw Charlie in the room as well. "Oh, hewwo, Chahwie. I actuawwy came fo' a scan until I saw Ahnie."

"That's alright" Charlie said, "take all of the time you need while doing your scan. I'm not an impostor, so you're fully ensured that I won't bite you."

Yikk giggled a little about the tomboy's statement before stepping on the scanning platform and letting the scan happen.


About six more hours had passed, and slowly but surely, the spaceship landed back into its exact spot from where it first lifted off.

"Whoa" Billy said, as they unbuckled their seatbelts and slowly got up from their seat, "I feel really weird now…" They teetered a little while trying to walk.

"Please take it easy, Billy" Arnie said, as he supported the Latinx and prevented them from toppling over. "You've been unconscious for quite some time and didn't wake up until about 2 hours ago, you know?"

"Well, guess I'm going to look really weird on my mugshot if they're scheduled for in a few minutes…"

Yikk yawned widely and also unbuckled before carefully putting their feet back onto the ground, and also teetering a little in the process.

"Good gwavy" they said, "what a change of gwavity could possibwy do to us…"

And before they toppled over as well, Rice swiftly grabbed them by their shoulders just in time.

"Phew! Thanks, Wice, you saved my bacon!"

"Anytime, my friend" the white-suited crewmate said.

Still teetering a little but surely, the ten crewmates eventually arrived in their living building.

"Hey, you lot!" Choco said. "How was your first mission?"

"Intense" Charlie replied, "but kind of worth it."

"Lame" Lava scoffed, before she headed to her own room, while all of the other crewmates headed to the main room.

"I'm still a bit dizzy from the change of gravity" Pop said, "but that could also be the fact that I've been knocked unconscious by the impostor and that my throbbing head makes it juuust a little more intense."

"Tell me about it" Billy said, as they literally crashed on the nearest sofa. "I've been unconscious for the longest time."

"Wava is a big meanie!" Yikk exclaimed angrily as they crossed their arms and puffed up their cheeks in a childish fashion. "She yewwed at me an' made me cwy…" Tears stood in their eyes again due to the mere thought of the snob being mean to them.

"She was a fake noodle" Squee said, "and she accused me of being one myself." They put a hand on their friend's shoulder.

"Fake noodle?"

"Im-pasta, was it?"

"I think you mean impostah."

"Yikk, I'm blonde, please give me a break."

"Lava seemingly loved to be the impostor" Navy said, "but we apparently smashed her berserk button hard when she was finally pointed out."

"But her tasks outside of the ship served her right" Nika said.

"How was it to be without me?" Nori asked his younger twin sibling.

"A tad peculiar" Rice replied, "but also okay. Yikk and I were by each other's side, and we did some of our last tasks together."

The youngest crewmate smiled in approval and even couldn't help but let out a slight giggle as well.

"What did the kids think of space, Navy and Vienna?" Choco asked.

"It was pretty nice" Nika replied. "Dad was shooting asteroids, like pew pew pew! And that was awesome!"

Navy chuckled and gently patted his daughter's head.

"It was beautiful" Neri softly said. "Mummy, Yuri and I were stargazing, and we both found it amazing."

"We, ourselves, liked it, too" Vienna said. "And Neri was also an amazing helper at tasks whenever he wanted to. Right, Neri?"

The little boy smiled and simply kissed his mother's cheek as an answer.

"The beds at the medical bay were also very comfy" Billy commented. "I was glad to not wake up on some sort of stone slab once I regained my consciousness."

Everyone else chuckled in response.

"And Charlie took very good care of me when I first woke back up" Arnie said. "She provided me of a cold cloth to ease the throbbing in my temple that Lava walloped hard, and of plenty of water to drink."

"The cupboards at the medical bay are also stocked very well" Charlie said, "with medicine, but also with washcloths, quite the variety of nappies, stethoscopes, IV-related stuff, several kinds of thermometers, barf pails, uh… in any case, enough to even last half a week with, I assess."

"Seriously, Charlie?" Pop chuckled, "'barf pails'? What a funny word. And I mean that in the positive way, of course."

"That's what one pair of foster parents of mine used to call them, and it really got stuck in my vocabulary ever since, so that's why."

"You know what?" Nori said. "Since the ten of you are most likely already tuckered out by the whole mission, I should most likely take the task of cooking on me. Choco, are you willing to help out?"

"Sure" Choco replied, as he and the older twin got up and wanted to head to the kitchen.

"But make suwe to cook the meat oh fish sepawatewy!" Yikk said. "Some of us cwewmates awe vegetawians, you know?" They briefly pointed at themself after saying the second sentence.

"And I'm not too fond of the taste of meat and fish at all" Vienna stated. "So I guess that also makes me kind of a vegetarian?"

"Why, I nevah thought such vegetawians awso existed. Me, I wet all of those animals wiv because it's jus' heawt-shattewing to eat them wif the mewe thought of a wiving cweatuwe."

"That's also okay." The mother rubbed the youngster's shoulder in a loving fashion.

Yuri had started wailing as they were very hungry after the long day as well.

"I know, Yuwi, I'm awso hungwy aftah them many houhs." Yikk carefully took the baby in their grasp and gently rubbed their back in an attempt to ease them. "Aw, you just the sweetest…!"

"I could possibly eat a whole crate of oranges" Squee said, "that's how much of a black hole my stomach is right now."

About half an hour after dinner, Mack came to visit the twelve crewmates, and he brought a camera and tripod with him this time.

"Hewwo, Mack!" Yikk greeted their manager.

"Finally" Billy said, "our mugshots are going to be made."

"Good evening, you lot" the manager said. "Mister Arnie already informed me on you guys not having ID cards and boarding passes yet, and I want to say my solemn apologies for that, really. Occasionally, I'm not that good of a manager."

"Hey" Arnie said, "don't just be hard on yourself like that, Mack. Being sent on a mission that quickly most likely occurs more often to the other groups of crewmates as well, you know?"

"Do Neri, Yuri and I also get such cards?" Nika asked.

"That's a good question, little miss Nika, but no. You and your siblings don't have the contracts and ages to legitimately be crewmates yet, but in quite some years, you eventually will, if you'd like." Mack ruffled the 5-year-old's hair before finally setting up his tripod and camera. "Now, Miss Lava, would you like to go first?"

"Does it matter if I have to take a seat or not?" Lava asked, already having grabbed a folding chair to idly sit on. Her face was covered in a thick layer of fiery-looking make-up that scared some of her fellow crewmates.

"Not at all, do as you wish."

"Good." The snob unfolded the chair, took a seat and focused her glance into the lens of the camera as seriously as possible.

The manager adjusted the camera a little before he quickly snapped the fiery redhead's ID photo.

"Why, that's a neat picture I've gotten of you." He showed it to Lava.

"I've seen better pictures of myself, but alright, I'll go with it. My passport mugshot looks just as ugly anyway." She got up.

"Individual Squee?"

Squee squeaked upon hearing their name at first, but then swiftly took a seat on the same chair. Once they saw the lens, they put on a wide-ish, toothy smile.

Focus, focus, and… click. There was the mugshot where the dumb blonde had a smile that was just as dumb.

Ten crewmates later, Mack was all done taking the mugshots that'd eventually be shown on all of the crewmates' ID cards and boarding passes.

"Thanks much for taking your time, Mack" Arnie said, "it was a pleasure."

"Anytime, my good sir. You lot, have a good night, and I'll see you tomorrow when I hand out the ID cards and boarding passes."

"Goodnight, Mack" Navy said with a formal bow.

"At last" Billy said, as they and a few of their crewmates headed to the dorm room, "I can take my well-deserved shower."

"Tell me about it" Pop said. "I feel like smudge."

"Me too" Rice said. "Been working way too hard today."

The Latinx grabbed a large yellow towel and some clean clothing, and headed towards the washroom, where they claimed one of the many shower stalls.

"I wonder how many showers there really are around here?" Charlie said, as they also held on to a stack of clean clothing and a cyan towel.

"Me too" Yikk said, also already having sorted their clothing out. "Dunno how wong we'll take, but we be back soon."

"Take your time" Arnie said when the two went off to check the washroom.

Once the tomboy and the childish youngster entered the washroom, they did stumble on Vienna who was currently bathing Yuri in one of the corners.

"Whoops, sowwy, Vienna, we didn't mean to distuhb ya."

"That's alright" the mother said, "plus, Yuri doesn't even seem to mind. In fact, they seem glad to see the two of you!"

Little Yuri smiled and enthusiastically splashed in the bath water with their hands.

"Easy now, you little scoundrel! You're obscuring my vision with all of that bath water!"

Charlie and Yikk chuckled at the sight before claiming one shower stall each.

Back in the dorm room, it was quite calm at the moment.

"Guess there are several showers in this building" Pop stated, "which most likely means that we can all have a good wash at the same time, albeit without seeing each other except for our feet, possibly."

"We should check out how many" Nori said, as they jumped off of the top bunk of the bed that he and Rice shared.

"I hope twelve" Rice added.

The twins also went to the washroom, but to count the showers that were present there.

"Ah, I see that a few are now occupied." The older twin chuckled a little. "Helloooo? Billy, Charlie and Yikk? You guys in there?"

"That's me, alright" Billy chuckled.

"Hewwo!" Yikk said.

"Hi, Rice!" Charlie replied.

"I'm Nori, you silly!"

"And a little bath for little Yuri, too, I see" Rice said, as they pointed at the corner, where Vienna was just done bathing her baby and drying them off, about to throw them into their sleepwear. "Neat."

"Hi, you guys" Vienna said, as she noticed the twins. "Yes, there are enough showers here, and if you'd like, you could also share a stall, since the two of you are twins, of course." She adjusted Yuri's nappy as well as possible in the meantime.

"Us? Sharing a shower stall? Well then…"

Nori and Rice chuckled simultaneously before going back to the dorm room to grab their leisurewear.


Around 9 p.m., it had become time for the twelve crewmates to go to bed early, because the subsequent day would most likely also have a mission involved. (Navy and Vienna's children were already in bed ever since one and a half hour ago.)

"Well, do we have a clear schedule now" Choco said. "Mack is the absolute best manager among every other manager I've experienced, and not just the one of my parents."

"G'night, y'all" Lava quickly said before heading to her own room with her nose stuck in the air.

"Mean butt" Squee softly said. "Hope she has bad dreams."

Charlie, Yikk and Rice heard the statement, and chuckled about it.

"Sleep well, you lot" Navy said. "Today was quite the day, huh?"

"Sure was" Arnie said. "Good night, Navy and Vienna."

Soon, everyone was in their respective room and bed.

"I hope tomowwow's mission will be wess intense" Yikk said. "But I guess that won't evah change." They rolled over onto their side, draped their comfort blanket over them and popped their thumb into their mouth.

"I hope I get to go on a mission tomorrow" Nori said, "but we'll just see about that."

"If I get to stay home again tomorrow" Choco said, "I promise to cook up another storm. Even if I'm not the best at it, practise makes perfect, right?"

"I hope I won't be the impostor" Billy said, "but then again, a mission is apparently not a mission without impostors, huh?"

"We'll thee about that, Biwwy." The childish youngster closed their eyes, as they already felt quite heavy. "Nighty night."

"Sleep well, Yikk." The Latinx curled up into a ball and also closed their eyes.

"I cannot sleep just yet" Squee softly said, "but it's a good thing that there's this huge hole in the ceiling that shows us the stars."

"That's a roof window, you silly" Pop said. "If there was a literal hole in here, bugs would've invaded us while we slept."

"Pop, no" Yikk lisped, "I no wan' bugth in the dohm woom."

"Neither do I." The girly girl practically covered herself all into her covers. "Sweet dreams, y'all."

Soon after everyone wished each other a good night once more, the entire dorm room was almost completely quiet. Some of the crewmates had their eyes closed, others didn't, and were instead either stargazing from the roof window, or just taking in the surroundings of the dorm room, even if it was bathed in nothing more but the shimmer of the stars and the dim nightlight that stood in between Yikk and Billy's beds.

Today surely was some mission, Arnie silently thought. I hope that tomorrow, someone other than Lava will be the impostor, and that they'll eventually admit it in all of their honesty.

The former private was also reminded of the fact that all of the crewmates' new pagers also served as alarm clocks, so he grabbed the alarm clock that stood near his bed, and slowly but surely turned its alarm time off due to sleep slowly taking over.

But Arnie definitely wasn't the only one in whose body sleep was slowly winning from him.

Only just a few minutes ago, Yikk and Choco were the first two to have fallen asleep for real, judging from the sound and decreased speed of their breathing.

About half an hour later, all of the twelve new crewmates in the most central living building were fast asleep for real.