"What time is it?" I mumbled, getting out of bed. I had woken up after a dream about The Skeld again, with this time me still being there with Maroon and Commander White when it exploded, and I couldn't go back to sleep, even though I tried for an hour or two. Making sure not to bump into any crewmates, I got out into the Office and deposited some hash browns from the food-dispensing-vending-machine-thing, mentally preparing myself for another day at work.

As I ate my breakfast under my helmet, I checked my tasks. Nothing. MIRA HQ must've not sent out the task list for today quite just yet, I thought as I checked the clock. 3:54 A.M.? Geez, I'm up EARLY.

As I took one last look at my hash browns before finishing them off, the color of them reminded me of Tan. Is she still resting in Medbay? If she is…

Quickly I threw on a winter coat and burst from the Office's east side. I knew it'd be quicker to go down to Admin, through Lower Decontamination, the Specimen Room, and then Upper Decontamination, but I didn't want to be in those tight, dark rooms full of disinfecting gasses any longer than I really needed. As I jogged, I noticed tiny little electronic lanterns glowing fluorescently on the sides of the paths—kinda like the dimmed lights during "sleep time" on The Skeld.

Nice touch, I thought.

When I got to the Laboratory, the blast doors were shut. Beginning to sweat from anxiety, I flicked all of the little red levers in the same direction as Cyan had done before, and the door opened. I strode in and heard a few strange beeping sounds. Passing the telescope, there was a blur at the edge of my vision. Turning, I saw that one of the purple shower-like curtains had been pulled, separating half of the hospital beds from the other. Not having time to open them and check on Tan, I ran down into the bathroom where I'd seen the blur. I looked down the hall just in time to see the darkish tip of a crewmate's helmet disappear down the hole in the third stall. I bolted towards the hole and skidded to a stop on the slippery floor. Peering down it, it looked like a bottomless void, but I knew there had to be a bottom for I heard frantic footsteps and noises like something stomping through dirt and mud. Too scared to go down it, I went back into Medbay. Not knowing what I'd see, I took a deep breath, grabbed the curtains, and yanked them open.

I saw Tan lying motionless on one of the hospital beds. Next to her was a clean silvery table with yet another Dixie cup filled with a drink on it. She was still in her suit, and her visor was cloudy. Panicking, I pulled off the blanket to see she had a heart rate monitor hooked up to her, beeping about twice a second. Smiling, I put the blanket back on and turned to leave. I heard a shuffling, and I turned to see Tan stirring in bed.

"Good morning?..." I asked, wondering if she still had that headache. Or something worse.

Tan sat up and leaned back against the wall. "Oh. Uh, g-g-good morning, B-Blue. I, uh, well…now I have a stomachache as well."

I winced. "Oh. Well, um, that's too bad. But, uh, are you hurting badly? Bleeding anywhere?" I thought of the time I was helping Maroon in The Skeld's Medbay, when Purple the Imposter had sliced his hand clean off with a strange knife and I studied the blood sample.

"Nah," Tan shook her head, pulling her blanket up to where her chin would be if she had her helmet off. "Just my headache and stomachache, like I said before, B-Blue."

"A-alright, then," I said. Tan reached for the cup as I closed the curtain and took out my pad. My tasks were now displayed. I had Repair Drill, Laboratory; Clear Asteroids, Weapons; Empty Garbage, O2; and Fuel Engines, Storage.

I started towards the west part of the Laboratory, where I'd come in, and the place that led to a smaller, outside area rimmed with barbed wire. The area had a large hole in the middle, presumably a mine. A trowel lay next to it, and in the upper-left corner of the exposed area was a wooden table with archeological and mining tools in a lopsided pile. The upper-right corner instead had a large, cobalt-plated cylinder with a drill made of crimson energy on the bottom. The drill vibrated and seemed to growl at me as I approached it for my task. I opened a panel on the drill and tapped four different icons repeatedly. The drill beeped and was now stabilized. It started to vibrate more passively now.

I began to leave the Laboratory when a thought occurred to me. Where did that drink come from? On Tan's table? And that crewmate that jumped down the hole…could they have been AN IMPOSTER? Wait, who was it…THAT DRINK MIGHT BE A DEADLY POISON!

"Tan!" I screamed, spinning on my heel. I ran right towards the curtain and shoved it aside so hard I tore a chunk off. I dove right at the Dixie cup, which Tan was just reaching for, and I took it—and the table—down in a loud crash.

"WHAT THE FRICK BLUE?!" Tan shot sat straight up as rigid as a lamppost, breathing heavily. Her heart rate monitor was beeping a bit more than three times a second.

I grabbed the hospital bed to pull myself up. I lifted the table from the floor and tried to put it back in place. Liquid, looking just like water, was pooling at my boots. Grunting, I smashed the Dixie cup in my hand, turned, and chucked it off the balcony with the telescope and into a lava river far below.

"S-sorry, Tan," I muttered, rubbing my helmet. "I thought the drink might be deadly because I saw a crewmate jump down the hole in the bathroom and I don't know who so they could be an Imposter and I thought they were trying to KILL YOU! Umm…did you know who got you that drink? Did you get it yourself?"

"No…" Tan replied with a frown, beginning to slump down into her bed again. "It wasn't there when I fell asleep, and it now was when I woke up to you tugging my blanket." She narrowed her visor on me. "Did you put it here?"

"Wha-what? No, no, of course not!" I slapped my visor. "I suck at that…no, Tan, I didn't put that drink there. I mean, why would I get rid of it then, eh?"

"To try and gain my trust," she snapped, pulling the blanket over her helmet. "Just l-l-leave me a-alone. Or kill me, if you're an Imposter."

I thought I heard her add "You m-might be doing me a f-favor, then."

I put my hand out for some reason. I guess my mind was thinking I should pull that blanket again and continue the conversation, or pat her on the shoulder, or something like that. Shaking my head, I dropped my hand and spun around. I found a cloth in a cupboard and cleaned up the liquid, whatever it was, before tossing the cloth over the balcony as well. I then got a different pair of blue gloves I had on hand while I put the others in the washing machine in Medbay. I then closed the curtain to try and let Tan rest before leaving the Laboratory for Weapons.

No snow fell as I maneuvered the path to the metal pod known as Weapons; east of O2, south of Communications, west of the Office and Admin. It was a dark little room with a Download Data panel and a chunky PC with a joystick. The machine was connected with a wire to a large engine-like thing, which was in turn connected to a large two-pronged cannon that fired extremely-high-velocity lasers way into outer space. Gripping the joystick, I watched the monitor for any asteroids far above. The monitor was connected via Wi-Fi to a camera on an artificial satellite, allowing me to see any asteroids too close to little-atmosphere Polus in real-time. After blowing up twenty asteroids using the screen's precise locations of the asteroids and the cannon's lasers to destroy them, my pad announced my task as done and I moved on to O2 through the south doorway.

As I dropped the last of the waste down the chute in O2 (finishing my tasks for today), I heard a muffled grunt that was followed by footsteps. I peeked my head around the chute to see Gray running out from the grassy tree room, where I'd done my Monitor Tree task yesterday.

"'Ey, Gray," I said with a casual wave.

"Hello, Blue," he said back with an edgy tone. I recalled the only time I'd really chatted with him, which was when he was suggesting White's death could've been a homicide after the Ejection of Coral. Instantly, I failed to find a reason to trust Gray.

"What were you doing in there?" I asked, gesturing to the room he'd just come from.

"I was doing Download Data," he said smoothly, "and I presume you're doing Empty Garbage?"

I nodded. "So, you're up early, too, huh?"

"Mmm," was all he said, coming over to the chute. I instinctively took a step back.

"What, you think I'm an Imposter? Because I'm not, Blue. This whole schtick with the Imposters is borderline stupid. Coral killed White and now she's ashes." He bent his knees a little to get to my level. He reached for something in his pocket, something bright. I took several steps back. "Here…"

"NO!" I yelled, panicking and reaching for my megaphone.

"What?" he asked, looking around. He finished pulling out what he was getting from his pocket: a few pinkish-white hand warmers! They seemed to glow under the harsh celing lights. "Just squeeze them and you'll warm up, Blue. You're shivering like a mouse in a cat's presence. Where is your hat? Your scarf?"

"I-I left them. In the Office. I was in a rush." Luckily, MIRA HQ had yet to program our crewmate helmet's visors to turn red when the wearer was blushing with embarrassment.

"To wake up really early and get your tasks done?" scoffed Gray.

I thought of telling him about Tan and her potentially dangerous condition, but the whole false anxiety I got from him didn't want me too. Instead, I nodded again. Lying's easy, I think.

"I see," he replied, standing to his full height again. "Well, you and I've got them done, so—"

"What're you two doin'?" asked Red, coming into O2 from behind us, through the south doorway I had used. Her sudden perky voice almost made me jump.

"Um…" my mind reeled. "Gray was given' me some hand warmers. Because…my hands were cold. Yeah."

Red rolled her visor. "Boys," she said, and then sashayed down the hall to Electrical.

Gray turned to me and shrugged. I shrugged back. He chuckled deeply and ended it with a cough, and then, after exchanging glances, I left through Electrical's east exit for Storage to get that fuel jerrycan for my Fuel Engines task, not looking back to see Gray enter Security and start flipping through the camera feeds.

A few days later, at about noon, I was walking down the path from the Office to Weapons again for my task, Download Data. I was in front of the metal pod when I heard some shouting. I turned around to see a small Dropship descending from the cloudless mauve-purple sky. I hustled over to where the Dropship was landing: right next to the one already here. The whole crew was there, excluding Pink, but including Tan, the latter of which had had seemed to be feeling better and was doing tasks again yesterday with ease.

The Dropship opened and a brown crewmate in white admiral clothing emerged.

"Hey, we know that guy," Cyan said to me. I hadn't realized he was right there until he talked.

"He introduced us to dis Polus base on our first day working 'ere, yeah?" Lime asked. He was standing in between Cyan and Rose.

"Yes, I think you are correct, Lime," I said with heavy sarcasm and a tilt of the head. Even after Gray had that…talk…with me, I still was suspicious of everyone, except Cyan, of course. Lime was my top suspect. I only hoped that there would be no reason for my "sleuthing," as Cyan had called my behavior lately.

Pink came out of the Office and trudged towards the Dropship, holding a heavy metal crate with who-knows-what inside. I guess I hadn't accounted for her strength in order to carry that heavy crate before now. Maybe she was more of a good crewmate besides being a goody two-shoes after all?

"Here, Brown," she said, dropping the crate at her feet, which made slush fly up and stain the crate and Pink's unusually grimy suit. She must have gotten Empty Garbage or a bucnh of Boiler Room tasks lately, judging by the stains on said suit. "All of the samples, specimens, papers, everything we've assessed through our tasks so far since starting is in there."

"Thanks, assistant crewmate. MIRA HQ will make good use of this," Brown said quickly and gruffly before picking up the crate, disappearing into the Dropship he came in.

"Wait, what?" exclaimed Yellow, stomping his foot on the ground. He turned to everyone. "Did any one of you guys know about this?"

All but Pink shook their heads.

Yellow came right up in front of Pink. "Why didn't you tell us? About this Brown guy coming and getting the stuff?"

She shrugged. "You boys are all too immature," she explained with a smirk, "and Rose, Red, and Tan wouldn't care, would they?" She turned to the ladies, who were now huddled in a trio to stay warm. "Am I right?"

"Yeah," said Rose, who was in the middle of the group.

Tan and Red nodded.

Yellow balled his fists and was about to complain again when there was a loud rumbling and the Dropship took off into the non-visible stars, fading into a dot, firing purple pebbles everywhere and releasing smoke as its exhaust flames scorched the violet earth.

"Dropships are so messy," complained Pink to no one in particular, except maybe the trio of girls, before leaving for the Office again.

In the day that followed, we were not assigned any tasks on our pads from MIRA HQ (I think it was some richie higher-upper's birthday there at the HQ), so we all took a break and talked with each other and joked around and had another snowball fight the whole tinme. At dinnertime, I sat down at the meeting table and scanned the room. Pink and Red were chatting in one corner about some new kind of crimson gemstone found in the Inner Astro Belt, while Gray and Olive conversed in the exact opposite one about how methane gas was becoming cheaper, allowing for better alternatives for manufacturing Dropship fuel, or something. Just a bunch of boring young-adult crap.

Where's Cyan? I thought to myself. I hadn't talked to him in a while, and I felt like he and Lime were spending more time together than they should—for Cyan's safety. I swear, Lime is an Imposter. At least, probably. The incident with White is still—

"Schluurpgch."

My stomach got infested with butterflies at that sound. Turning to my left, Yellow, sitting on a cheap folding chair, was shoving another handful of tomato sauce-covered spaghetti into his mouth. His helmet, which was on the table beside his plate, had sauce graffitied all over it on the bottom, making it look like it was the remains of him getting murdered or something.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GOSH, YELLOW…" I moaned. "Stop being so disgusting! Please!"

He dropped the remaining spaghetti onto the table. "What? Oh, uhh, sorry."

"Get yer helmet back on yer head!" called Lime, who was far to my right, on the other end of the table than the one Yellow was at. He was sitting down and playing with a stack of cards he found in Admin. "You're gonna die right then and there without it on!"

"Okay," Yellow muttered with a tilt of his blond-haired head, securing his helmet back on.

"Go to O2 and inhale a bunch of O2, while you're at it," Lime called sarcastically.

"While I'm at what?" Yellow asked himself as he left the Office.

I scooted over to Lime as non-suspiciously as possible, which wasn't very good, judging by his nervous side glances over at me.

"Hey, bro, have you seen Cyan lately? I mean, do you know where he is?" I question.

"Of course I do," he said. "We're best friends."

"No, you're not," I growled, gritting my teeth.

"Whaddya getting at?" He leaned towards me. "Oh, I forgot, you're jealous of me for being a better friend and not accusing people of murder. Makes sense." The voice he spoke in was, put simply, begging to cause an issue.

I wanted to teach him a lesson he'd remember, but I pinched myself under the table and instead just said, "Well…where is he?"

Lime turned away from me. "The room to the right, with the task stations. Scan Boarding Pass, Swipe Card…oh, and dat Vitals Monitor."

Vitals Monitor? I think. "Gotcha. I know what you're talking about, Lime."

"Just don't kill him!" he snapped. He was only partially joking, but I wasn't having it today.

As I passed Fortegreen, my thoughts went to times where Cyan was 100% confirmed to be my best friend, and I thus I remembered a particularly fond memory of Cyan and I screwing around on The Skeld.

I pressed the play button on the side of the century-old VHS. I took a few steps back and sat down on one of the comfy swivel chairs in Admin. Cyan sat in the one to my right. He wanted that seat because it was farther from the entrance, because he was scared one of the Imposters would come around the corner and stab him, or pop from the big air vent and snipe him with a laser rifle. I knew that technically put me in more danger, but I could care less. The whole Imposter thing was still a mixture of feelings for me back then, since Purple had just been Ejected off The Skeld at the current time.

I looked at one of the electronic clocks in Admin. It was late morning, which made me think the crew would be waking up sometime soon. I didn't hear anyone, though, so I looked back at the screen. Cyan had snatched a VHS tape from Security that morning, and we had put it into the player to see what it would hold.

Outrageous Outtakes Volume IV, read the screen with a static noise in the background. A collection of funnily strange, awkward, and very "cringe" things count on the cameras of Quarter 1 of The Skeld.

"That's a long title, huh?" Cyan commented just as the program began.

The first recorded segment focused on the camera next to the door to Reactor. There, we saw Green, a bossy crewmate that preferred to be called a "they" for some reason, come out of Security. They came close to the camera we were seeing from. Then they got closer, then very close, so that we could only see their visor. I saw their eyes inside—a sort of blue-hazel.

"IS THIS THING ON?" came the very loud voice of Green, who, at this distance, must have been speaking straight into the camera's audio recorder. He poked the camera, and it turned a little bit. Green stood way back, in the middle of the four-split area of The Skeld: north was Upper Engine, south was Lower Engine, east was Security, and west was the Reactor. They then began…break dancing, chuckling to themselves the whole time. It was funny to watch because Green absolutely SUCKED at it. Suddenly, Green did an unintentional full split, and there was a high-pitched "AAGH!" followed by some rude language, including "I think I just pissed my suit." Even though Cyan didn't think the language was funny, I found it hard not to laugh. Green then said, "Hopefully the camera wasn't actually on." The footage then abruptly stopped and switched to the next outtake with some static interlude.

The next one was in the hall that connected Cafeteria to Upper Engine, and that branched off to Medbay. There, we saw Red and Yellow, holding hands, emerge from Medbay into the main hallway. It was obviously "sleep time", because the lights were severely dimmed, and the hallway night lights were on.

"Goodnight, Ketchup," Yellow said in a tone I'd never heard her say before.

"Night, Mustard," Red replied. I gave a snort of laughter at that, but Cyan was acting like this was very cringey.

He wasn't wrong.

Red pulled Yellow close to him, but then they bonked their helmets together and fell back. Yellow landed flat on her rump, but Red slipped on something and completely crashed down onto the metal floor, which made a "CHSH-CHSH" sound like a meme of someone wiping out and dropping a bunch of stuff, all the while being recorded on a low-quality phone or something. It was hard to explain the humor, but if you know what I'm saying here, you'll get it. Otherwise, just ignore this.

Yellow helped Red get to his feet, and then red took off his helmet, revealing a handsome young face that gave Yellow's helmet a peck, and then put his helmet back on and waved bye. "I'll join you in a bit. I need to check something in Security, remember?"

"Yep! See you!" replied Yellow before skipping off towards Cafeteria and then the Dorms. Red then went down towards Upper Engine, which would lead to Security. As the footage cut to what would be the last outtake for the time being, I had the painful realization that Red would never join Yellow that night, because that night must've been when an Imposter put a knife through his air tank and out the other side in Security.

I suddenly felt kinda bad for Yellow. No, really bad. Even if her frozen corpse was still spiraling through deep space now.

This clip was taken from the camera outside of Navigation that captured the long hallway with the big air vent that connected Shields, Weapons, and O2 to each other. In it, Cyan and I saw Pink in the middle of the hallway when Maroon appeared from the top of the screen, which must've meant he came from Weapons.

"Hi, Pink. Didn't expect to see you here."

"Oh!" She exclaimed, noticing him leaning on a beam, visor glinting. "Hello, Maroon. Yes, Quarter 1, same ID…shouldn't you be in bed?"

"With Yellow's pad-flashing antics? I wanna wait until she cools down before I dare step into the Dorms. I was going to watch the stars from Navigation to pass the time…"

"Oh, am I in your way?" Pink sidled into O2, the closest room to her.

"No, you're not, it's fine. What're you doing down here, anyway?" he asked casually.

"Just checking on how things are going. Reviewing the data uploaded to Admin. Sanitary hall-cleaning welfare. Surprised that isn't a task, with cleaning vents and filters…oops. Sorry, a little off the charted course. That's just what us Pink assistants do for Commander White."

"Ah. I see. Well, I'll be going down to Navigation. See you around, I guess."

"Yeah. Okay." Pink quickly slipped away down the hall towards Shields, sharp shoes clacking with each stride.

The next outtake began, but Cyan and I heard commotion from the Cafeteria, Maroon's angry voice along with laughter that specifically reminded me of Yellow's giggles. I then decided to try and be kinder to Yellow from there on out.

After Green had shouted stuff about tasks, the commotion quieted down as the crew went their separate ways.

Maroon swung into Admin out of the blue, making Cyan jump in his seat. I turned off the monitor before he got a good look at it as Maroon said, "Hey guys, where were you?"

"Just chillin, kid," I said. Cyan nodded. "Trying to get our, uh, tasks done early. Yeah."

"You okay, Blue?" Maroon asked.

"Yeah, sure, kid, why?"

"Just wonderin'. You looked off."

"Trust me, we're more than fine," I said.

"He's right!" Cyan agreed, which calmed me down.

"Alright, just checking, sorry," Maroon shambled over to the wiring panel, which prompted me to leave Admin for Reactor, where Cyan and I could have more time alone. I heard Cyan coming after me wanting to get away from the potential Imposter.

Cyan stood with his hands on his hips, peering at a computer on a table, which was to the left off a Download Data panel. I came over to him and looked at the computer's monitor. The background consisted of blue tiles like the bottom of a water park's wading area, and there were 12 icons that showed the helmets of each of us crewmates—the same icons we used to vote on people during meetings. Next to ten of them were green heartbeat pulses and the words OK, and two had a gray static and the words D/C. The ones with that were Coral and White.

"This is the Vitals Monitor," Cyan explained to me when he realized I was confused. "It tracks which crewmates are alive or not. This could b-b-be useful."

"But, we hope that we won't have to use it, right?" I say.

"Y-Yeah, Blue. Yeah, you're right." His voice fades in and out as he speaks, and he reaches for a grape juice box he'd set on the computer's top.

A pause.

"Hey, Cyan, um…has Lime been suspicious at all lately?" I ask.

"What? Lime? No…Blue, I really don't think Lime is an Imposter." He shakes his head and breaks eye contact, then sips from the juice box under his helmet.

"But what about White dying in the place Lime went to?" I pipe up, hoping to catch him there. I fail too.

"Lime just discovered the dead body there. I think it was just an unfortunate coincidence," he took a good look at the Vitals Monitor, "but I don't think we found our Imposter yet. If it makes you feel better, I'll keep an extra eye on him, alright?"

"Thanks, Cyan. That sounds good."

I left Cyan to watch the Vitals Monitor as I returned to the meeting room, which was quieter now. Wondering where Rose, Fortegreen, and Tan were, I went into the southern Office room to see Tan standing there, looking at a painting and eating some nutrient bar thing.

"Oh, uh, hello Tan," I said.

She turned to me and waved. "H-hey, Blue. I'm feeling superb, I-if you want to know."

"Good," I nodded, "but you still sound worried. Sorry 'bout that."

"Thanks for caring, Blue. That's r-really nice of you."

I felt a little nervous just then, and then I saw Fortegreen chatting with Rose. I moved over to them to see Rose hug Fortegreen and then leave the main meeting room.

"Hello? Fortegreen?" I asked him suspiciously, seeing Tan leave the Office out of the corner of my eye. "Is Rose cheating on Olive or something? Is that why you're always following them? Trying to break their relationship?" My tone immediately sounds very confrontational.

"Uh, no," he grunted back, as if it was the most OBVIOUS thing in the world. Quickly I started for the meeting room, but then I felt a strong grip on my shoulder, and I was pulled into Admin.

"Gah!" I cried, running straight into the Admin Map. The holographic model of the Polus base flickered and then went off. Fortegreen came over and pressed a button, and the Admin Map came back on.

"Blue," he snapped matter-of-factly, adjusting his top hat stack, "are you suggesting Rose and Olive are in love?"

"What do you mean, Fortegreen?"

"The two are twins. They're just very close twins, and I'm even closer friends with Rose. They're not in love with each other. I'm in love with Rose. I mean, in that way, you know, alright?"

"Oh," I said. I shouldn't've just assumed that they weren't related at all… Again, I'm thankful for not having that blushing detection feature installed on our visors.

"Now that you've got that right, leave!" said Fortegreen, and he shoved me out of Admin with brute force.