The seven of them stood around the table in the center of the Cafeteria, again. The mood was even more somber than before, because now everyone who had voted against blue in their previous meeting knew that they had been wrong, and that they had killed an innocent person. Scarlet was currently laying on one of the beds in the Medical Bay, her body ravaged by the Futa, her garments thoroughly ripped and her mind gone.
No one was looking to speak up. Esmeralda was still in shock, or so it seemed. Lavender was not saying anything. Pumpkin, Canary and Mocha were looking down at their feet, crushed by the realisation that they had taken part in the murder of an innocent woman, and that now, another one, had lost their life because of their mistake.
"We need to decide what to do." Announced the voluptuous woman, rubbing her arm. That made her large breasts jiggle slightly.
"Simple. Everyone says where they were, and what they did, then we figure out who is likely to have done it." Said Lavender, shrugging her shoulders.
"Well, okay.-" Mumbled Canary. "-I, ugh, I was in Electrical. Then the emergency happened, and I went to Admin to fix it, but I… I didn't know the code, so Onyx came and fixed it. I also saw Lavender. Then, the two left, and the doors closed." She explained.
"So, you were stuck in Admin for most of it?-" Asked Rosea, and the mechanic just nodded. She was not interested in talking all that much, it seemed. "-Alright, then. Esmeralda - tell us what you did." Urged the voluptuous woman, facing the lithe navigator.
"I was in Navigation with the cap. When the emergency took place, she told me to go take a look at O2, while she would go to Admin. I left and was almost at O2, when the thing was fixed. I saw Rosea and Mocha in there. Then the doors closed, and I ran over to Navigation. I…-" She quieted down. "-I think I heard the cap… Scarlet moaning. Then… Then the doors opened." Spoke Esmeralda. She had completely lost her quippy tone from the first meeting, and was now mostly droning on about what had transpired.
Onyx made a mental note of this. The only person with Scarlet had been Esmeralda. When the doors were closed, Esmeralda said she was locked outside of Navigation, but it could have been that she shut the door and did what she did to Scarlet. Then, she pretended to be hurt by it. But then, who would have done those things to Marble? It did not add up.
"Thank you. I suppose I am next…-" Rosea sighed. "-I did a download in Weapons, then I went to do a download in Shields, but the emergency occurred. I rushed over and typed in the code - that's when Mocha came over - after which the crisis was averted. But the doors closed shortly thereafter, sealing me and Mocha inside for around ten minutes." The voluptuous woman explained and turned to regard Pumpkin. The cook did not respond. She was still looking at her feet, head bowed down in shame.
"Pumpkin?" Voiced Canary, and the cook perked up.
"Oh? Oh!-" She seemed to connect the dots. "-I'm sorry. I was in here, most of the time. When the sirens started blaring, I started walking to O2, but remembered that there was a code involved, and I don't know the code, so I just went back to the Cafeteria. Then the doors closed." Mumbled Pumpkin and lowered her head again, as if a great shame was weighing down upon her.
"I see. Lavender, if you wi-"
"I fueled the Lower Engine because our engineer was no longer on board. I then went to unlock the Reactor manifolds in Reactor. Then I moved towards Admin to input the code, but Onyx got there before me. I saw her with Canary, then went back towards Reactor, to start it - lots of things are functioning at a lower efficiency, but I got locked in Lower Engine by the doors. Onyx was stuck between Reactor and Security, I think." Reported Lavender and nodded towards her crewmates, turning to regard Mocha.
"Yeah, I was in Communications. Was trying to contact a clean-up vessel, to come fix this up, figure out who the Futa was and get us out of here. Went to O2 to deal with the emergency, and then I got locked in with Rosea.-" Said Mocha. The short Communications specialist regarded each of the women for a few seconds, and then faced Onyx. "-And you?"
"I went to Security and watched the cameras. Ran over to Admin when the emergency hit, after which I rushed back to Security, but got locked out between Upper and Lower Engine. Lavender was in Lower Engine.-" She stopped for a moment. "-I took a look at the cameras and saw Esmeralda looking at Navigation. Canary was leaving Admin, Rosea and Mocha were leaving O2. Lavender went into Reactor."
"Wait, you mean to tell us you've been at cams all this time and you didn't see shit?" Asked Esmeralda, leaning on the table. Onyx nodded.
"Why were you looking at Navigation? Shouldn't you have gone in?" Drawled Lavender, cocking her head to the side.
"Are you saying it was me?" Inquired Esmeralda.
"No, but your actions are suspicious." Explained Lavender.
"What the- You bitch! I wouldn-"
"Ladies, please!-" Rosea raised her voice and the two stopped. Everyone looked at her. "-Look, I know this is beyond difficult. I, myself, am not having the best of times. But we must be civil! What do we know? We know everyone has some kind of alibi, except Esmeralda. I'm not saying we throw her out, but, just… Just consider it, okay?" Her words resonated with Onyx. The Security guard felt worried about it. That whole thing made no sense - how would Esmeralda be the Futa, when, clearly, she had been with Scarlet, in Navigation, back when Marble had gotten mentally murdered?
But, then, who could it have been? It seemed as though it was impossible. Unless there were two of them, rather than one, but that, too, was not in the realm of what was possible. After all, Marble had only found one sample that was inadequate.
"Lavender's got a point though. I mean, Esmeralda was really backtalking the cap last meeting." Pitched in Mocha, with her own observations.
"I wasn't-"
"Oh, I remember that!" Perked up Canary and raised her finger, as if to illustrate that she did, indeed, remember.
"Look, we're not going to just vote Esmeralda off, right?" Onyx asked, moving her visor from person to person. No one replied.
The voting began. Everyone cast their votes, Onyx included. Three votes to not throw anybody out. Onyx, Canary and Rosea. Three votes to throw Esmeralda out. Pumpkin, Lavender and Mocha. One vote to throw Lavender out. Esmeralda. The tie meant that no one would get ejected. That made Onyx feel less guilty. She had not killed another person.
"Well, I'll be off to keep trying to contact the cleanup crew. You folks make sure the ship don't fall apart, and that no one gets fucked to death." Mocha announced, looking at Esmeralda when she said the last part of her statement, and left, going down to Storage. Lavender moseyed off towards the Medical Bay.
"I'll follow her and I'll show you it isn't me! It's probably her, trying to frame me like that!" Growled Esmeralda as she did just that and walked after Lavender. Canary wobbled off down towards Storage, most likely intent on getting herself back in Electrical.
"I'll… I'll go after Lavender and Esmeralda. I trust you two, so… Don't… Don't get fucked!" Said Pumpkin and ran off towards the Medical Bay. That left Onyx in the Cafeteria with Rosea.
The two remained quiet for a while. Rosea was probably thinking of some kind of manoeuvre, something to do that would expose the Impostor, or maybe some way to prevent the villain from laying their hands on anyone else. Onyx, on the other hand, was feeling uncertain as to what to do. She had spent a while on the Security Cameras, looking at everything, trying to make sure nothing was going wrong, but, then something did go wrong, and she could not tell what had happened.
That tormented her greatly. Of course, the great Security Expert, a specialist in the art of keeping this secure! But not today, apparently. The ship was anything but secure, and it had not been such from the moment of its departure. She shook her head dejectedly and figured the best course of action would be to stick together with Rosea, so that the Impostor would be unable to openly attack them.
"Thanks for doing my tasks for me.-" Onyx spoke, and the voluptuous woman turned to regard her. "-I say we don't, you know, split up, otherwise bad stuff might happen. You're level headed, and, you know, seeing as both Scarlet and Marble were also quite capable of working under pressure, and they got… Taken out, I guess… You might be the next target." Reasoned the Security Expert.
"You make a convincing argument. Though, how do I know it was not you?-" Onyx felt her blood pressure drop, for a moment, and was about to object, but Rosea raised her hand. "-Just a hypothetical, of course. Let's stick together."
"You had me worried more than I was, for a moment.-" Muttered Onyx and shook her head. "-Well, I suppose we might need to check on Navigation. The ship won't drive itself, not unless we set it in that mode, and that'd mean I'd need to be present on Weapons to deal with any asteroids that might threaten to crash into us. Then-"
"I think we should first go to Electrical, divert some power to Shields - after all, you and me both saw that they're at fifty percent capacity." Interrupted Rosea and cocked her head to the side. Onyx nodded.
"I kinda forgot about that. What with all the bad stuff happening, I'm… I wasn't trained for this!" Complained the Security Expert and sighed heavily. Rosea gave a shrug of her shoulders and pointed towards the corridor connecting the Cafeteria and Storage.
"Neither was I. Let's do it, shall we?" Offered the voluptuous woman, and they started walking in that direction. Onyx was throwing glances all over, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary, anything that might indicate something had happened. Admin was empty, and they just passed by.
Then, everything went dark. The sound of the lights turning off, simultaneously, had the effect a knife would when pressed against a balloon. Onyx reached out, her hands grasping to find Rosea, and she did feel something soft between her fingers.
"Rosea, are you there?" She called out.
"Y-Yes, please- Let go…" The other woman pleaded, her voice sounding very, very unlike what it was just a moment ago. It was somewhere between a whine and a moan. Onyx retracted her limb and felt her cheeks grow flushed. She had probably touched something that she should not have.
"Sorry, I got worried for a moment.-" The Security Expert apologised and moved her right hand to touch the wall, so as to not lose her way and to avoid bumping into anything. "-It's only lights out, right?" Tentatively asked Onyx, and got a 'hmpf' in response.
"Sounds like it. Engines are operational, no sirens, nothing else. It's just the lights.-" Confirmed Rosea, giving another 'umph' afterwards. The Security Expert grew a tad worried - why was she making those sounds? "-Can I… Can I hold onto you? I can't see anything, and I almost fell over twice, already."
"Oh, of course!" Onyx was relieved that it was such a mundane issue. She reached out, carefully, slowly, and felt something soft with her fingers again. Then, her hand was taken hold of by another hand, Rosea's, and a sigh of relief came from next to her.
"That's better.-" Muttered the voluptuous woman, her voice slowly returning to its calmer state from a while ago. "-Still going to Electrical, though, right?" She asked, and Onyx nodded. Though, after that, she realized that her companion could not see her nodding.
"Yes, to Electrical. Lights ought to get fixed by the time we get there, since Canary is in there, but in case they aren't… Well, we could fix them ourselves, right?" Mused the Security Expert as she slowly started walking in the direction, closely followed by Rosea.
The hum of the engines was only made more eerie by the absence of light, and, with the situation they were currently in, Onyx felt as though this was far worse than it would have normally been. Because imagining what horrors lurked in the dark was frightening, but knowing that there was, truly, a horror lurking in the dark - that was terrifying. It made her feel as if her heart would burst from its rapid beating against her ribcage, made her feel as though there was a desert in her mouth, made her hear all kinds of evil things, even if there were none.
The same was probably true for Rosea, who was gasping faintly, and Onyx could hear that her breathing was uneven. She was squeezing her hand tightly, with almost too much force, and it was evident that the darkness had also truly frightened her.
Then, they heard a series of muffled banging against metal, approaching from somewhere to their right. That clanging grew louder as it moved, coming closer to them, the source of the sound positioning itself right ahead of them, somewhere in Storage. Onyx could not see anything, she could not tell what it was that was making these noises. She let go of Rosea's hand and put up her arms, like fists, and swung at the air in front of them.
She realized she had screamed when the sound became fainter, going to their Left, either towards Admin or the corridor between Storage and Shields. Onyx was shaking violently, there was a lump in her throat, her eyes were so widely opened they were probably bigger than her visor and she felt as though there were thorns under her feet.
"What the-" Onyx made to speak, but the clanging stopped, and suddenly there was silence, safe for the heavy gasping of Rosea from somewhere next to the Security Expert. Silence, of course, meant that the whirr of the engines was present, though she had abstracted herself from it. "-Rosea, are you okay?" Asked Onyx, reaching out with her left arm.
"Yes..." The other woman answered, but the manner of speech she utilized was unfitting for their current predicament. She almost moaned when she uttered it - in fact, her statement sounded more like a moan than a proper word.
"Come on, take my hand, we gotta get to Electrical ASAP!" Urged Onyx and was pleased when she felt Rosea manage to find her hand in the darkness. The pair set off, at a reasonable, for people who could not see, speed, towards their destination.
They bumped into some crates and barrels, but, other than startling them slightly and incentivizing them to let loose a couple of curses, that achieved little in the way of slowing them down. They made it to the corridor, and then they touched their way around until they made it to Electrical.
"Canary?" Called out Onyx. In here, the darkness was as prevalent as it had been before, but, even when the lights were on, it was quite dim in Electrical. That made the Security Expert think that Canary, who was, supposedly, in here, would have had no issue with turning the lights back on.
"Who's there?" Asked a voice identical to that of the Mechanic, making Onyx feel a bit of relief. Canary was present, and seemed to be unharmed.
"It's Onyx and Rosea. What's up with the lights?"
"What?" Canary retorted with a question of her own, as if she was unaware of the fact that they were, currently, in complete darkness.
"The lights - they're turned off." Informed Onyx and felt a tug at her hand - Rosea was headed somewhere, deeper into Electrical. She might have been planning on fixing the lights.
"Oh, they are? That explains why it got harder to see. I'll fix 'em in a moment, I gotta calibrate the distributor, it's messing with the-"
"You were doing something else? Canary, this is an emergency - there's a Futa, prowling through the ship, literally killing us. If we can't see, how can we protect ourselves?" Interrupted Onyx, berating the Mechanic.
"Sorry. It's just- It's always dark here, so- I couldn't tell-"
"That's… That's alright, Canary. The lights were on, and yet two of us got… Attacked." Interjected Rosea, and her statement was accompanied by the click of a button. A creak sounded, and a set of small green light bulbs was uncovered.
Onyx allowed Rosea to work in silence. Canary was also, presumably, doing whatever she was doing - calibrating the distributor - but that did not jive that well with the Security Expert. Was the Mechanic still unaware of how dire their current situation was?
It took the voluptuous woman a few minutes to deal with the lights, but, after getting done with that, the luminescence returned to 'the Skeld', and everything was visible again.
"Thank you, Rosea." Onyx said as she started walking deeper into Electrical. She had to divert power to Shields, and, seeing as things were only going to get worse, they had to do everything they could to keep the ship functional.
The Security Expert spotted Canary, buried in the machinery of the ship, her upper body almost entirely buried in the section dedicated to the distributor. A thought crossed Onyx' mind, a question as to whether the Mechanic had been calibrating that same distributor fifteen or so minutes ago, and had used it as her alibi. Would it not be finished by now?
She opted to keep that to herself, and waltzed over to the corner, took off the plate on the wall and found the gage that discerned where power was going. She pushed up the one corresponding to Shields and put the plate back on.
"Stay safe, Canary. We're off to Shields." Said Rosea as Onyx approached her, and the two left Electrical. They were silent on their way through Storage, but, as soon as they got to the corridor leading into Shields, the Security Guard perked up. She had remembered something..
"Remember that loud noise we heard?-" Asked Onyx, looking at Rosea and slowing down. The voluptuous woman nodded. "-It went off in this direction, didn't it?" That had almost completely escaped her mind, but now that they were headed towards Shields, they were bound to see if anything had happened.
"Mocha…" Whispered Rosea, and Onyx' eyes widened. She rushed towards the corridor, followed by the voluptuous woman, and rounded the corner, only to lay her eyes upon another horrible vision.
Mocha, sprawled on the floor, her suit ripped up, and her body quivering, covered in that horrible, white goop.
