In a flash, the whole crew had arrived in the meeting room. I stood next to Cyan and Rose, watching them come in, mentally taking notes of who was with who. Pink and Fortegreen came up from Admin; Lime, Olive, Red, and Tan all came in a huddle from the west side; and Yellow and Gray came from the east, alone and snowy.
Coral's absent…
Lime clipped his megaphone back onto his pad and announced he had reported the body.
"White's dead," he explained shakily, "he was shot through the forehead in Security, judging by the marks on his helmet." He wrung his hands together as he talked. I could tell he was sweating under the ceiling lights and our boiling stares, even with the cold.
Everybody began to mutter to each other. I most prominently heard the word "Imposter?"
Yes. Yes, there is an Imposter, and we gotta find out who.
Taking initiative, I stood up and addressed the crew. "As you all have probably heard, me, Cyan, and Pink, among others not working on this Polus base, were members of The Skeld. We dealt with several Imposters, and we know how to find them out. At least, where to start."
My crewmates started to cock their heads or squint their visors in intrigue, except for Lime. he stared me dead on.
"Alright, where was everybody? And what were you doing? I was with Rose and Cyan in the Laboratory, and I lost a thumb because the blast doors strangely closed on it. If you didn't know, Imposters apparently have some control over the doors, too. It happened on The Skeld."
"I can back that," says Cyan.
"So can I," Pink tells us. "I had to fix some of the doors on the different Quarters of The Skeld, but not on Blue and Cyan's Quarter."
I nod. I think Cyan did too.
The crew remained silent for a moment before Olive spoke up, clearing his throat. "I was in Weapons, Downloading Data. It's my last task for today, and as of now I just need to Upload the Data to Communications. The crewmates who came with me into the Office via the west side were in different places, I think."
I opened my mouth to ask what he meant by that, but then Fortegreen gave his input. "Pink and I finished all of our tasks, and we were watching the Admin Map." Pink nodded behind Fortegreen.
"Olive was Downloading Data," Red supported Olive's claim. "I was doing Clear Asteroids in Weapons and I saw him there."
Olive hesitated before saying "Red is cleared as well. The lasers were firing from the cannon."
"Of course they were, I wasn't faking the task or something," snorted Red with a raise of her chin.
"I was Outside, doing Open Waterways;" Yellow.
"Dropship, I-I-Insert K-Keys;" Tan.
"Outside, heading for O2 for Empty Garbage;" Gray.
"Electrical," finished Lime. "I completed Downloading Data, and then I thought I saw something in Security…so…so I went in there." All visors turned to him, and he suddenly appeared very shaken up. "White w-was there, dudes, 'k? He was already there!"
"This sounds like a self-report, Lime," I growled. "Y'know, killing someone and then reporting the body as if you just happened to stumble upon it!"
"Wha?" Lime put his hands out, his winter hat sliding off his head and onto the table. "N-no, I didn't do any self-report!"
"Just before you reported White's body, Lime, you and Blue had an argument, and Blue was stopped from following you because the blast doors shut on him," said Rose. "That is suspicious."
"I-I did NOT close the blast doors! You have to sabotage them on your pad with some Imposter stuff, or whatever."
"How would you possibly know that?" Olive sneered in Lime's face. "That's very suspicious. I'm voting him."
"W-well, I worked on Quarter 4 of The Skeld, and I saw it one time before Ejecting one of the Imposters there, and I sued it as prime evidence...er, um…where's Coral?"
"Yeah," echoed Cyan. "Where is she?"
Lime fit his hat back on his head.
"Dunno," Yellow boomed.
Right on cue, Coral burst into the room, holding her coral-colored megaphone and pad. She was covered helmet-to-boot in snow, making Coral appear as if someone had bled out into a snowman or something.
Cyan whirled to face Coral as the new crewmate sat down.
"Where on Polus have you been?" snapped Cyan, which was very out of character for him, to the point where I took a step away.
"Dropship, taking cover from da snow," she said coolly.
Everyone gave her a hard stare.
"Why didn't you come when the body was reported?" asked Gray. "That's suspicious."
"I thought it was a hoax. There ain't no Imposters, right?" she spread her arms out, hands turned up, as if beckoning for the crew to agree.
"There IS one, Coral," hissed Olive. "You have to have a better reason."
"Well, I didn't want to be caught in da snow or whatever. I also did the Chart Course task there. Yeah."
"That still isn't good enough," he responded.
"Why did you come here now, instead of before or after?" asked Pink, who was resting her head on her hands.
"I-I just decided I'd better," replied Coral.
"This doesn't add up," I said. "I think Lime and Coral are the Imposters."
"There could be just one, or three, or more or less…" Cyan added, though no one cared to listen.
"What?" mumbled Coral, slinking down into her chair. It was that one swivel with the wheels on the bottom.
"The voting session is open," announced Yellow. "Click on the icon of the crewmate you want to dispose of, or skip voting."
Most of the crew seemed very reluctant to do anything, but I was furious. I did not want to risk the lives of any crewmate here, and I wanted to be done with this terrible Imposter conundrum. I checked my pad to enter the voting session, and I clicked on Coral's icon.
Lime next. They have to be the two Imposters! Or, possibly, two OF the Imposters…
After a minute, Fortegreen and Yellow got up.
"The votes are in," said Fortegreen. "We shall Eject Coral."
"WHAT?" Coral screamed, jumping from her snow-stained seat. "What are you t-talking about? I ain't no of 'em any Imposters, you're foolish, I wasn't, no, I didn't—"
I checked my pad for the votes: Cyan, Rose, Pink, Fortegreen, Red, Yellow, Gray, and I had voted on Coral; Coral and Olive voted on Lime; and Lime and Tan skipped voting.
Why did Lime and Tan skip? It's obvious that Coral has to be an Imposter—well, maybe not, but Lime probably is, so why didn't he try to vote someone else out…like me?
Fortegreen and Yellow marched towards Coral, who had backed up into the wall. Everyone watched as Yellow clutched one of Coral's arms, and Fortegreen grabbed the other. Since they were larger and stronger than her, the duo was able to hoist Coral up into the air. Snow chunks crumbled off of the hapless crewmate.
I'm going to see another person die.
"Ey! Freaks! Put me down! Put me down! Put me DOWN!" she screamed at the top of the lungs as they carried her out of the Office and towards the outside thermometer. Wait…not just the thermometer.
There was the lava lake, too.
Rose, Cyan, Lime, Olive, Gray, and everyone else, including me, began to file outside to watch how they would Eject Coral. Speaking of which, Coral was still screaming.
"Fools! Morons! I am no Imposter! Stop! Drop me! Put me down! Stop, stop, stop…wait…why are you carrying me there wait, no stop, drop me off, I mean WAIT, NOT ON THE PILAST—"
Yellow and Fortegreen balanced themselves as they went down the metal pilaster overhanging the giant pit with the lava lake. The lava seemed to roar as it bubbled, as if opening up a molten mouth to…
Blue realized what was happening only moments before it really did. Coral kept ranting, accentuating in volume as Yellow and Fortegreen carried her closer to the edge. The duo stopped at the very tip and…began to lower Coral.
"Thank you?" Coral asked timidly as her boots touched the edge of the pilaster.
"What the crap?" shouted Olive before I had a chance to protest. Why were they putting—
Suddenly, Fortegreen and Yellow yanked Coral up and heaved her over and off the tip of the pilaster. She flailed her arms and her legs, screaming one last time before she disappeared into the lava with a splash. The molten rock bubbled and hissed, and then Coral came up again, splashing and screaming. Her helmet and suit were burnt, melting off along with other things. I saw her human face and felt a tinge of guilt as, in a flash, I didn't see it anymore. Her hand grasped the air before she sank down under again, never to resurface.
Not physically admitting any remorse, Yellow and Fortegreen walked away towards O2 on the other side of the base. I just stood, frozen with strange feelings coursing through my body. I watched Lime go to Communications, Tan to Storage, Olive and Red to Weapons, and Rose to the Laboratory. Pink had never come out of the Office, and Gray lingered near the lava pool.
Cyan showed up. "That was…"
"That was savage," I finished. "Well…I mean…if Coral was an Imposter…"
"I'm gonna be honest, Blue," said Cyan, "I don't think she was our Imposter. Or one of them. I mean, she didn't morph into a strange green aberration like Black, Purple, or Maroon…I mean, from The Skeld, you know…and maybe, if Coral was an Imposter, she would've, like, used her tongue to grab onto the rocks and not fall into the lava, y'know, r-right? I dunno...I just voted her because I didn't want t o skip, but also, I trust Lime."
I nodded slowly after a moment. "I guess you're right, Cyan," I said, "but then that does mean there is still at least one Imposter among us, and probably someone else will die before we find them out, right?"
"Maybe there are no Imposters," said a deep-ish voice. "Maybe it was just some homicide."
Cyan and I turned to see the speaker, Gray, right behind us.
"It's just a thought," he finished.
"But we barely have gotten to know each other!" Cyan protested. "Someone wouldn't be in the right mind if they just killed White after a little bit."
Instantly I thought of Tan. What is her problem? She's so apprehensive and is always stuttering. But…Cyan is sorta like that. He definitely was when I initially met him on The Skeld. I pushed the thought out of my mind, aiming to help Cyan, not compare him to a possible murderer.
"Maybe they knew White before? So I guess they had a reason?" I spoke.
"Well, okay, but how would they shoot White? We don't have any guns laying around, at least, that I know of," responded Cyan. "They'd have to smuggle one in."
"...and Imposters can smuggle and deceive and fake admission," I voiced my thoughts. "It HAS to be an Imposter or two."
It was only then that I noticed Gray was gone.
The next few days were cloudy and gloomy, especially after we buried White in a hole just outside of Electrical. Tasks seemed harder for me and Cyan, and everything would make me jump and everything took forever. The crew all seemed edgy to a degree, and everyone wanted to be away from one another. Everyone except for Rose and Olive, who were practically bound with chains, and Fortegreen, who trailed after the duo.
One especially snowy day, I was in the Office doing Swipe Card when Red came in and waved, the first time someone had done that for a while.
"Um, uh, hey, Red…" I said stupidly.
"Hi, Blue," she responded. "Is this your last task? I'm done with all of mine."
My visor bugged. "Already?"
She put her hands on her hips. "Yeah, already. Blue, it's late noon. What have you been doing all day?"
I facepalmed myself. "Oof…I had a rough night, and I was tired, so I tried to sleep in, but then I did, but Cyan woke me up and I had brunch and then I was tired again…" This was all true, but I knew how fake it sounded.
Red ignored my tone. "Hmm…well, you'd better get to work, then," and she left the Office through the east as briskly as she came.
Shaking my head, I finished my task before checking my pad. I still had Open Waterways, Boiler Room; Chart Course, Dropship; and Monitor Tree, O2. Throwing on my winter gear, I emerged from the west side of the Office, passing Pink as I entered O2.
O2 had several small rooms. The main one that branched to the others had a garbage disposal that dropped trash into a lava lake deep below. To my left was a blueish, wet room that dripped water everywhere—the Boiler Room. In front of me was a small room with a station for refilling oxygen tanks, and to the right of that room was a smaller, grassy room with a Download Data panel and a tree with strange tubes hooked up to it. Cautiously, I approached the room with the tree, for my pad said the Monitor Tree task was there.
As I got closer, I saw something like an iPad hooked up to the tree along with the tubes. I turned it on, and it showed that the tree, which produced all of our oxygen, was receiving the wrong amounts of nutrients and other fluids. The tree had an overdose of CO2, barely any water, and was missing a small amount of nutrients. I was able to drag some sliders on the pad, and the amounts were returned to normal. Who would set them to something like that? I thought as I returned to the main O2 room. Tan was now in there, tossing some garbage down the chute with a lever.
"Uh…um, hey, Tan," I said, recalling the conversation with Gray and Cyan a few days ago.
The timid crewmate instantly spun around, pressing herself against the chute as if trying to back away from me. "Oh, umm, hi, uh, Blue, yeah, hi."
"Are you scared about the Imposters, Tan?" I asked, moving a bit closer. I figured I could at least try to talk to her, btu ta the time I didn't think about how creepy I was looking.
She whimpered, her visor glistening as if she was shedding a tear of fear. "Y-y-yes, B-Blue. I-I just don't wanna die. I don't wanna be here. I, I just, ah, um…"
Instantly I was reminded of Black from The Skeld. Shy and not wanting to be on The Skeld. Maybe he didn't want to kill as well…but he killed the most…and he didn't just not kill, like Maroon…I don't know…
"I…I wanna just be some astro miner or somefin'," Tan said. "Not a crewmate working at Polus. 'Em Imposters want us all dead, I mean, no, I just want to get in the Dropship, an-and l-l-leave, I'm, well, so scared here, I…" Tan, as if in a daze, wandered over to a wiring panel. She stood there, looking around, then bolted down the hallway connecting O2 to Electrical.
"Tan, WAIT!" I called, running after her. She got out of my sight quickly, and I didn't know where she went. I looked into Security, but the only one I saw was Lime watching the camera positioned just outside the Office. Passing the hole blocked with danger signs in the corner, I left Electrical into Outside. There, I saw Tan, standing out against the purple rock. She ran inside the Dropship, passing Olive, who gave her a weird look, and me an even weirder one as I ran after her.
"Tan," I wheezed as I skidded to a stop, out of breath. "Are you…what the…"
Tan curled up in the corner of the dark metal Dropship, quietly sobbing to herself. I came over and crouched down to meet her level. "I know it's really scary, those stupid Imposters," I told her, patting her shoulder. "I understand your fear. Really, I do."
"That s-s-sounds just like some corny lie, Blue," she muttered, looking up at me.
"Well, it isn't, okay?" I replied.
Silence for a moment. Tan then spoke again: "Just, j-just leave me alone, please."
"But if I'm with you, then you don't have to feel so scared."
She tilted her head.
"What's your, um, your m-motivation, Blue?"
"I don't want people to feel alone." Like Maroon, you jerk. "I don't want to be a moron. I, I-I just, y'know, am mad that these Imposters care to kill us here and I want them gone!" I raised my voice, making it echo through the Dropship, before pressing my mouth shut.
Tan got up, and so did I. "A-Alright, Blue. But you better not stab me."
"I ain't, I ain't."
I dragged a little Dropship hologram on a screen to some different points to finish my Chart Course task, and then Tan and I went back to O2 and then the Boiler Room. Tan shambled over to a water jug and began emptying some of the water into a new one while I found a wooden wheel on top of a pipe—my Open Waterways task. As I turned the wheel, I heard bubbling and creaking within the pipe as water was transported. I waited a bit for Tan to fill her jug, and then we both left O2's east side. Tan went inside the Office while I found the second part of my task, which was the same action of me turning the wheel and letting water flow through a pipe. Inside the Office, I went up to the upper room to see Tan finish pouring her water jug's contents into the jug in the Office that dispensed our water. The two of us got some Dixie cups and filled them with water, then took some sips. We repeated this a few times before Fortegreen, Lime, and Cyan appeared. Waving to each other, we all got some water and snacks and chatted into the evening, all of us claiming our tasks to be complete.
It felt good to talk to them.
The next day, Cyan, Tan and I went around in our group doing tasks. We spotted a group of Rose, Olive, and Fortegreen doing tasks in the Laboratory; Rose was doing Record Temperature, Olive did Inspect Sample, and Fortegreen did Align Telescope. While in there, Cyan did Submit Scan, and his records matched with everyone else's that had had the task so far. We later saw Red and Gray doing tasks Outside as Tan finished her tasks. She decided to go to Medbay after that because she said she had a headache, so it was just Cyan and I out in the snow.
"I like snow," Cyan blurted randomly as we paced. We were in the middle of the snowy, rocky area that had no metal pods there. North was Storage, east was the lava lake, south was the Office, and west was Communications.
"I understand why," I agreed. "Snow's pretty cool."
"Blue, that's the worst joke ever," Cyan replied with a smile under his helmet.
"You mean, just kinda bad? Or really bad? Or DAD JOKE bad?"
Cyan looked down at the ground when I said "dad." Instantly I realized my mistake. Cyan never knew his parents. All of a sudden, a harsh memory slapped me up the face.
Cyan and I sat on the railing that bordered the main engine of Lower Engine, up in the stars on The Skeld. The engine hummed softly, for I had just refueled it as my last task. The two of us had been avoiding everyone at the time for fear of an Imposter, and we trusted each other. That's because we'd checked our Medbay records after doing the Submit Scan task. At the time, nobody had a different recording. But Maroon hadn't had the Submit Scan task before. We couldn't check his data with ours, or other members of the crew. Orange, Purple, and Black didn't have records of completing the task either yet, and I knew now that orange never would.
Bored, I asked Cyan, "did you ever know your family?" Impertinently not waiting for a response, I said, "my mother was a coral crewmate, and my father was a cyan one. My mother worked at MIRA HQ as a Health Officer, particularly for the design of nutrient blocks as sustenance for labor workers. And my dad is a uranium miner in the Deep Asteroid Belt…"
I realized Cyan was looking into the churning gears of the engine and not at me. I put a hand on his shoulder, but he pushed it away.
I swallowed. "Cyan, are you okay?"
It was almost a minute before he turned to me. "I didn't have parents."
I tried to suppress a chuckle at my incoming joke. "Of course you do. Unless…you were grown on a petri dish?"
Cyan gave me a blank stare of no emotion. "Heh…no, I did have parents. I guess. I just never knew them. I grew up with a bunch of other labor crewmates who always bullied me since I was small and had a bright, stand-out suit, but I spent time in the libraries. I read, and I worked hard. I think…I think that's why I was chosen for this voyage on The Skeld."
I felt a bit taken aback. I thought that most crewmates knew their parents, at least if only for a small time. I mean, I grew up in MIRA HQ, and my mother taught me all kinds of wondrous—and terrifying—things about life, space, and how things are changing. She practically held my hand…until one fateful day, she was checking a recently-landed Dropship for any damage when she accidentally cut an engine and it exploded, and she fell off of the launch pad and down to Polus far below. They never found her body, but over the years my dad visited me more, and then Commander White picked me for The Skeld., and I haven't heard from my dad since. He's probably dead somehow.
Yet at least I knew my parents. Cyan…
I heard stomping down the hall, and Cyan and I turned to see Maroon approaching. He jumped up onto the railing beside me and waved.
"Hey, guys, I was looking for you," he explained to us.
"Oh, sorry," Cyan mumbled.
"We were just chatting…about, um, those Imposters," I added. I didn't want him to overhear the personal stuff we were sharing.
If he was an Imposter…
Maroon raised his visor.
"Don't believe us?" Cyan said.
"No, no, I don't know…I argued with Yellow again."
"What?" we both said.
"Stop giving her a hard time, you know she…liked…Red," I reminded him. At the time, Red had just died, the first death of the ill-fated Skeld.
"I didn't start it!" Maroon raised his voice, which made it echo down the halls. "She hates me with every living fiber of her body, I'll tell you right now. Banana rushed past me, and then she was chatting with Green and Yellow, and I guess Green saw me and said I was spying on them; then Yellow claimed I was an Imposter again and tried to attack me. Y'know. And then Green and Yellow went to Medbay so Yellow could cool off, and I sorta just left Banana there in Weapons. Now I'm guilty. Sorry," I finished.
I nod at my acquaintance. "This shouldn't be this way, but I guess it is," I said.
"I miss the annoying Yellow," Cyan commented. "She was kind of funny at times, and Red was always there to encourage her. Now she's just down, mad, and sober."
Maroon shrugged. "She'll always be someone I would want not to try and be with me." He then jumped from the railing and headed to Admin.
Cyan tugged my suit-sleeve, yanking back into the present.
"You okay, Blue? You just s-sorta spaced out there…" he murmured.
"I'm fine," I replied happily, bouncing on my feet to seem more energetic and alive for Cyan.
"Oof!" Cyan grunted, falling over. A random snowball had beaned him. "Right in the nuts…"
"Wha—" I soon met a similar fate as something freezing hit me in the back of the helmet, and I stumbled forward. Turning, I saw Yellow taking cover behind the board that controlled the radio tower above Communications. He clutched three snowballs in his fat hands and his visor was squinting under his hard hat.
"Oh, we are soooooo ON," I growled playfully. I'd seen a video or two before about snowball fights. They looked real fun, and Yellow had just engaged one.
I leapt behind a large cluster of boulders and rapidly made four flimsy snowballs. Cyan joined me, and then we made eight more, adding up to twelve. I continued to make more as Cyan fired what we had at Yellow. Most hit the radio board, but one scored a hit on his boot. Yellow ran from behind the board and hurled his snowballs. They all hit their target, and Cyan collapsed behind me, scrubbing his visor free of snow. Licking my lips in thought, I grabbed as many snowballs as I could and peeked up from behind the purple boulders. Yellow was dancing mockingly out in the open, his finger and his thumb making an "L" on his forehead.
Summoning my strength and rage at Imposters, I fired my whole arsenal with pinpoint accuracy. Yellow took every hit and fell to his knees, snow clumps falling off of him as he shivered.
"L! L! L!" I screamed with Cyan. Take that, Yellow. Anything to protect my friend—
A huge wall of snow covered my back, pushing me forward into a boulder. I glanced over my shoulder to see Fortegreen clutching a big red shovel, the doors of Storage open ajar. He began to ready another snowy scoop to hit me with when Cyan shouted, "ATTACK 'EM!" and launched some more snowballs he readied.
Cyan and I, despite our best efforts, were losing the snowball fight to Yellow and Fortegreen due to their superior size, strength, and snowball making skills. Cyan and I were almost fully covered in snow when Red, Rose and Olive joined the fight on our side. Gray later came on Fortegreen and Yellow's side, and Lime joined us. Before long, it was just a flurry of snow and random threats, growls, and exclamations.
It was fun I'd never known before.
"Hey! Hey! Everyone, hey, cut it OUT!" ordered a crewmate.
We all stopped throwing our snowballs, but Olive threw the one in his hands at me a few seconds later and chuckled.
"You are all so immature," quipped Pink, who stood there, arms crossed, holding that tacky little pen and pad. "You should all be doing your, um, tasks, and not messing around in the snow."
"Karen!" hollered Yellow.
Pink glared at him before snorting and walking off. Red went after her, and they headed into Communications. Rose and Olive shrugged and began to take a walk around the base, chatting about space politics or something boring, and the rest of us went into the Office, had some snacks, and then went to bed; except for Yellow, who sat at that Swipe Card station for a while, trying over and over and over again to finish it.