The small ship arrived at the Polus, albeit less smoothly as quite the blizzard was currently going on there.
Nika, Neri and Yuri were quite excited about the massive amount of snow, whereas Squee, Billy, Yikk, Arnie, Bobby, Charlie, Navy, Vienna and Pop didn't know what to think of it at first.
"We'd better be careful soon" Vienna advised, "especially when getting out of the ship."
"An' keep ouh hewmets and suits on" Yikk added, "an' ouh oxygen tanks should be on, too. You'll nevah know."
Everyone made sure to follow Yikk's advice before the ship's door opened and everyone's pagers went off.
Squee and Navy were the impostors this time, and Navy wanted to help Squee since he knew that they weren't always the smartest.
"C'mon" the naval-looking 'crewmate' said, "let's chart the course for when we get home."
Squee replied with a brief nod.
"I wanna help, too" Nika said. "Can I?"
All of the other crewmates, in the meantime, left to do their tasks that were assigned at other places than the dropship.
Navy and Squee 'helped' Nika do the fake task, and the latter didn't understand why nothing happened.
"Daddy?" she said. "Why is nothing going on?"
"It's because we're pretending to do a task, silly!" Squee giggled, but they soon squeaked as they were cut off by Navy.
"Don't just say that out loud…! Otherwise we'll be ratted out soon. Once the next meeting is there, blame it on someone else."
"Like whom?"
"Well… Billy, for instance. Say that they were faking tasks instead."
"Well, alright."
"Now, come with me to see if any crewmates are alone."
The two impostors headed towards the electric room, where Vienna was present in the security part.
She and her two children were seemingly highly occupied by watching what happened on the cameras, and Squee decided to take advantage of that.
"Alistair, what are you doing?!" Navy yell-whispered, but the dumb blonde pretended to not hear it and mercilessly cold-clocked the distracted purple crewmate.
"Vent!" they yell-whispered back as they did a few swift backflips and jumped into the nearest vent hole with Nika.
The dark blue crewmate soon heard footsteps as well and also quickly went into the vent hole.
Yikk and Billy arrived, and were shocked upon hearing the sound of crying children come from the security room.
"Oh dear" Billy said, "this is not good…!"
Yikk swiftly shook their head and followed their moirail towards the source of the sound, and indeed was Vienna unconscious.
The yellow crewmate reported Vienna's unconscious body, and the sound of a meeting being called shocked Squee, who was still in the vent hole, quite hard.
"Oof!" they exclaimed as they bumped their head on the 'ceiling'. "Well, that was unexpected."
Soon, the 7 remaining crewmates sat at the table in the office for the meeting.
"It was Billy" Squee said. "They were faking tasks and self-reported."
Billy's eyes widened and their heart started pounding hard out of shock.
"How so?!" they exclaimed. "Yikk and I found Vienna together!"
"Yeah" Yikk added, "do you have any pwoof?"
"Well, I just said that they faked tasks and self-reported." The orange crewmate chuckled a little maliciously. "As far as I know, that's enough proof, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but descwibe how they did that!"
"By faking tasks and self-reporting."
Navy and all of the regular crewmates facepalmed at Squee's lack of common sense and basic intelligence. Even Nika and Bobby couldn't help but shake their heads as if saying: "okay, seriously, what the heck?"
"And you're sure that Billy's trustworthy?" Arnie asked Yikk.
The childish crewmate nodded hard, meaning it to the fullest.
"Yeah" Pop said, "I think Squee's more of a suspect here."
Navy stealthily skipped his vote on his pager, while Squee voted Billy.
"I kinda agree" Charlie said to Pop, as she voted Squee out.
"Okay, so Squee?" Billy asked. "I'm confused."
"Jus' vote someone out befowe time wuns out" Yikk said as they voted the dumb crewmate out as well.
Soon, all of the votes were cast, and Squee was sent out to do impostor tasks, while Navy was the only impostor left.
The mission resumed once Arnie, Yikk and Billy made sure that Vienna was put to rest in the medical bay, and that Neri and Yuri remained with the Latinx for the time being.
Back in the living building, it was quiet and fairly peaceful.
Choco, Nori and Rice were in the kitchen, baking a cake and biscuits for the missionary crewmates to surprise them when they'd come home in a few hours, while Lava watched the anime channel on TV.
"Now, what kind of cake would everyone like?" Choco asked. "I was thinking of adding chocolate chips and some orange zest."
"Ooh, chocolate and orange?" Nori asked. "Are you sure that those don't go better in a few biscuits?"
"Nah" Rice said, "I think it goes pretty well in a good, moist cake. Just imagine the texture and taste together…!"
"Hey, you're right. Choco, chocolate chips and orange zest all the way. Do you know how to make a good, moist cake?"
"I sure do." The chubster grabbed an orange from the nearby fruit basket, scraped its skin with a grate and also made sure to add some of its juice to the cake batter in the tin. "That should add some more flavour." Next up, he grabbed a bag of multi-coloured chocolate chips from one of the cupboards and added quite a few. "Sorry, but you know what my nickname says about me, right?"
The twins simply chuckled.
"Squee will love it, too" Nori said, "once they'll clearly taste that there's an entire orange processed in it."
Once the cake batter in the tin was all ready, Choco swiftly put it into the pre-heated oven and turned on a timer for it, too.
"Now for the biscuits" Rice said. "I was thinking to make something in the way of both sand biscuits and sugar biscuits. What do you guys think?"
It was eerily quiet in the kitchen for a while, save for the iconic 'to be continued' song that one could slightly hear from the TV in the main room.
The sudden hearing of the song made the three people in the kitchen laugh, as it was quite unexpected.
"Let's say that applied to the cake that's in the oven right now" Choco chuckled. "To be continued indeed, regarding its flavour."
The twins nodded, and then both seemed to have an idea.
"What about sandy sandwich biscuits with cream in between and frosting on top of one?" they exclaimed. "Oh my gosh, we're so in sync!"
"What kind of cream were you thinking of? Plain flavour, also known as vanilla? Chocolate? Anything fruity?"
"Well, how about all three of them?" Rice suggested. "Those with vanilla cream will have white frosting on top, those with chocolate cream will have brown frosting on top, and those with the fruity cream will have some fruit frosting on top."
"But what fruit would you like to be featured in the flavour?" Nori asked.
"Uh… strawberry? And if we don't have that, then lemon, as we already have orange processed in the cake."
"Well, guys, we have both." The chocoholic showed the twins the fruits that he just got from one of the other counters. "Do you want the biscuits to have separate flavours, or to have both those flavours?"
More silence fell, minus the ongoing episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure on the television in the main room, and Lava occasionally chuckling through it.
"How about the following?" the younger twin suggested. "A few with strawberry, a few with lemon, and a few with both? Those with both the fruits should have mixed frosting, also regarding the colours."
"That's actually a great idea" the older twin said. "Now, Choco, what do we need for the cream? I know that frosting's as simple as powdered sugar with water and a touch of vanilla, chocolate or fruit."
Choco went towards the fridge and some of the other cupboards to gather the ingredients for the cream, while Nori and Rice started on the biscuit dough, which, for sand biscuits, was quite easy to make.
"Now, keep in mind that the biscuits go first before we add the frosting and the cream" Rice said once the dough was done and ready to be formed into thick and flat biscuits. "And they must be extra thick, just like the layer of cream that should come in between."
"Do you want us all to grow fat?" Nori chuckled. "Well, we could actually use a tad more fat, as without our spacesuits, we do look a ton like skin and bones only…"
"That's because late teens like us are built like that very often, and especially when we still secretly grow."
"Yeah, that's right."
It was a good thing that there were two ovens in the kitchen, because the cake still wasn't done in one, but the biscuits could easily be prepared in the other in the meantime.
On the television, the commercials had rudely interrupted Lava's favourite anime show, and now she had an opportunity to take a brief break and get a little something to drink from the kitchen.
"Ooh, smells nice" she said once she entered the kitchen. "May I know what's in the ovens?"
"It's a secret" Choco and the twins said in unison. "It's not just for us, but for the rest of the crewmates, too."
"Neato." The snob grabbed a glass from one of the cupboards, went to the fridge and filled it up with ice cubes, apple juice and a little vodka. "Hey, it's my day off, so I'm allowed to have this."
"No-one is judging you on this, Val" Rice chuckled, "do whatever you wish."
"Please call me Lava, thank you very much. I only prefer to be referred to as my real name if it's serious."
"Alright, Lava."
As the red crewmate went back to the main room since the commercials on TV were almost over, Nori also grabbed some glasses and apple juice for himself and the others.
"Thanks" Choco said, "we could surely use that after working hard." He placed the bowl of frosting in the fridge, sat down at the table and grabbed himself a glass. "Time for a little break."
The twins nodded in agreement.
On the Polus, it had been a while since an impostor had been revealed once again.
Navy was more of the type that loved to sabotage everything, and he sabotaged the doors most of all, mainly since Nika really wanted that.
And if he didn't, he was chasing Pop and Yikk, who were all done with their tasks and otherwise didn't know what else to do than wandering around the snow-stormy area.
"I feel uneasy" Yikk huffed.
"Same" Pop said. "He's a tad suspicious, to be honest, but I don't know if he's really the impostor or not."
"Dammit, it be sabotaged again!"
The crewmates, impostor and 'mini-impostor' soon found themselves in front of a sabotage-influenced locked door, which was soon opened back up by Yikk's speedy fingers.
Once in the office, Pop immediately went the other way to unlock the other door, while Yikk immediately sped towards the meeting room, where they wanted to call up a meeting.
However, once the meeting was called up, Navy successfully cold-clocked the lime crewmate hard in their upper back.
"Whoa" Nika chuckled, "talk about a good timing!" She high-fived her father.
"We can't let the others find out, though…!" the father said, as he quickly rolled Yikk's unconscious body underneath the table.
"Okay, wow. Now let's hope they won't discover it soon…" The kindergartner quickly shoved Digit underneath the table as well.
Very soon, everyone was at the left side of the office for the meeting.
"Who called up the meeting?" Billy asked.
"Hey, where's Yikk?!" Pop asked with a gasp. "I thought they were here just now!"
"I don't know" Charlie said, "and I'm being completely honest here, I promise." She nervously fidgeted with her fingers as she was afraid to be voted out as the impostor.
"I think Navy called it up, by the way. He was here at first."
"We should probably skip on this one" Arnie said, as he skipped his vote on his pager.
"Be wary and keep your eyes on Navy, though" Billy said. "I've seen him act fairly suspicious on the cams." They also skipped their vote.
Once all of the votes were skipped, the mission continued as it was.
The spirits of Vienna and Yikk were clearly distraught about the situation.
"Why did Navy shove my body undahneath the table?!" Yikk said with a slight sob. "That way, nobody be able to find me an' Digit!"
"That indeed wasn't the most intelligent thing of him to do" Vienna calmly said, "as was warning Squee before they apparently knocked me out, even if the latter was most likely just a father instinct."
"I dun wanna wegain consciousness undahneath a damn table! I wanna go to the med-bay!" The childish crewmate started sobbing loudly in a gross fashion.
"There, there…" The mother wrapped her arms around her fellow crewmate and tried to console them. "Shh… some of the crewmates are now aware of your disappearance, you know?"
"But that not be a weason fo' Navy to just mehciwesswy shove me undah the table!"
The grip around Yikk became firmer, as this form of consolation was the most effective way for them, or so most of the others discovered throughout the months.
"At least Digit is still by your side…"
"I know, Mum, I know…"
Both of the crewmates gasped upon discovering that Yikk just referred to Vienna as their mother.
"Oh my gosh, I be so sowwy… I guess it be an automatism…"
"It's alright, sweet pea. It's occurred to me more often ever since becoming a crewmate and having to comfort my fellow crewmates."
In the meantime, Arnie and Bobby had come back to the office, and Bobby noticed something in the meetings room.
"What's the matter, Bobby?" Arnie asked.
The Brainslug squeaked and pointed his eye at the underside of the table.
"Did you just discover something there?"
Bobby nodded, and went underneath the table to push Digit towards Arnie.
"Hey, that's Digit, which means…" He quickly got onto his knees and discovered Yikk's unconscious body underneath the table as well. "Oh my gosh, you poor sweet thing! For how long have you been there?! And how dare the impostor to have done such a thing, too?!" He swiftly took the unconscious crewmate and their robot into his arms, bridal style, and got up. "C'mon, we should get you to the medical bay."
Yikk's spirit smiled through their tears upon discovering that their own unconscious body had finally been found by the former private and his seemingly very intelligent pet.
"I wuv Bobby" they mumbled. "He be so smaht."
Navy, who was just around the corner of the right side of the office, had heard the footsteps and the exclamations, and looked around him if the coast was clear, even if snow on the visor of his helmet often obscured his vision with the whole ongoing blizzard.
Little did he know that Billy and Pop were hiding behind the nearby boulder with Neri and Yuri to keep an eye on him in the meantime.
"Told you he's suspicious" the Latinx said.
"Yeah" the girly girl replied, "and he's most likely responsible for Yikk's disappearance, too."
And just as Arnie and Bobby went outside, Navy put his foot forward to let the former private trip, and subsequently delivered a kick in his left side, knocking him out.
"My spleen…!" the dark green crewmate's spirit groaned in an exaggeratingly high-pitched voice, feeling that one organ throb quite hard after the kick.
"Arn, are you alright?" Vienna gasped, having heard the presence of another spirit.
"That dreaded Navy did it…! Both knocking me out and apparently Yikk as well…!"
"Yeah, that wasn't too nice of him indeed, to not just leave them in sight for the others to bring them to the medical bay."
"But at least I'm glad that Bobby discovered them and their robot."
Meanwhile, the crewmates behind the boulder had rushed towards the situation and reported Arnie's unconscious body, calling up the very next meeting.
"It's Navy, isn't it?" Charlie said.
"Indeed it is" Billy and Pop said in unison.
"How did you discover that?"
"We hid behind a boulder" Neri said, "and only sometimes looked from behind there. And we were very quiet, too. Like ninjas."
"A very intelligent tactic indeed." The tomboy grabbed her pager and voted Navy out.
"Well, I did nothing at all" Navy said. "Nika's nearly as innocent as me. Trust me."
Nika nodded in agreement.
"I'm sorry" Billy said, "but you guys are obviously not. Why else would Arnie scream upon tripping and falling hard?" They also voted Navy out on their pager.
"Because he didn't pay attention? Plus, he was obviously the one to discover Yikk and make them unconscious. Why else would he carry their body? They were obviously hiding underneath the table because they were scared."
"Nonsense" Pop said, as she also voted Navy out. "I saw him look distressed when he rushed them towards the medical bay – or, rather quite, attempted to. Good luck on your next few tasks, sir."
And so, Navy was voted out, and the mission was won. His first task was to carry the unconscious bodies of both Arnie and Yikk towards the medical bay, while Nika made sure that Digit and Bobby would also arrive there safely.
Squee, in the meantime, was all done with their tasks, and already sat on a folding chair in the laboratory, sipping from a glass of orange juice.
"And you're sure you're all done, Squee?" Charlie asked in a strict tone. "In case you're not, stop mucking around."
"I am all done!" Squee gasped with a scared squeak, "I promise!" They showed their pager for proof.
"Very well then. Sorry for the inconvenience."
All three of the spirits were relieved upon seeing that the most recent bodies were now successfully put to rest at the medical bay, and that their children, robot and Brainslug were also in good hands.
All eight of the missionary crewmates were tuckered out to the max once they arrived at the living building again, even if it had only been past lunchtime.
"Hey, you guys!" Eggs shouted once they saw the group. "Did that mission of yours just wear you out?"
"You bet" Arnie replied.
"We're only just done with lunch and already headed for the Mira HQ. You should rest well!"
"With a group this small?"
"Yup!" The tiny crewmate did a little pirouette at each fellow crewmate of theirs, and today, they were Biscuits, Marny, Aeris, Alph and Beanie.
"The rest has a day off" Aeris said. "Too bad it also includes Tereza, though. Oh well."
"This mission will be both easy and difficult" Marny said, "as the missionary part of the building is pretty big, and yet we're with so few. Oh well, at least it's easy to access for everyone."
"Glad that you lot are not headed for the Polus today" Squee said.
"How so?"
"Thewe be this massive bwizzahd going on thewe wight now" Yikk said, "an' thick wayahs of snow pwus wheelchaihs do not equal a good combination!"
"Oh dear me, then it's indeed a good thing that we're headed for the Mira HQ instead! I've always hated to have to go through even one mere foot of Colorado snow with those lame common tyres."
"You guys should have a nice cup of tea or coffee once you're back home" Alph said, "you deserved that after all of that hard work!"
"We indeed did" Pop said. "Good luck on your mission!"
"Thanks much!" Biscuits said, as she and her fellow crewmates got into their own dropship, which was almost ready to depart.
Arnie and his seven other crewmates stepped inside of their living building, took their shoes off and immediately had a seat at the dining table, where Choco, Nori and Rice already sat.
"Mmm, it smells so nice here" Nika said.
"Yeah" Neri said, "like muffins, I think."
"Like chocolate for sure" Charlie said, as she raised her eyebrows twice while looking at her matesprit.
"Correct" Choco chuckled. "But we cannot reveal it until Lava's there. She's gone smoking."
"Then" Billy said, "for her, it most likely tastes so much different."
"Ew" Yikk said, "I cannot imagine the taste of cigawettes in any type of food… it just sounds so… so… gwoss!"
"I agree" Navy said. "As someone who only smoked briefly in the past, I can definitely confirm that."
At the same time, Lava came back downstairs and had her seat in between Arnie and Navy.
"Now to reveal it!" the twins exclaimed towards Choco.
"That's right" the chocoholic said. "While you guys were gone, we baked…" He removed the tea towel from one rubber cake 'tin' and a square bowl. "Chocolate and orange cake, and sandwich biscuits!"
"Oooh" was everyone else's reaction.
"We could surely use that after a scarce lunch and a long mission" Vienna said.
Soon, everyone was provided of a drink of their wish, at least one slice of cake and at least two biscuits, and both of the concoctions turned out to be a huge success among everyone, inspiring Choco, Nori and Rice to bake more often if the three of them together happened to have their very next day off.
