Well, it's that time again. You all have waited patiently and I'm finally hitting ya with the next Chapter in this story. The buzz surrounding this story is unreal and it's an honor to be writing something that people are actually following. You guys have been awesome, so thank you.

Also, this chapter should be pretty similar to the last one in terms of pacing. Hopefully you like it.

Chapter 6: The Journey Part 2

Jeanette's POV

Of course, with my luck, my second shift happened to be at the same moment that everyone else decided to try to catch some shut eye.

The ship was almost totally silent, as we hurled towards Mars at an actually insanely fast pace. There were no boosters or thrusters active. The autopilot had to make some minor adjustments to our course every once in awhile, but the Caesar honestly seemed still.

I passed the time by tossing a crumpled up piece of paper between my hands, and by watching the camera feed from the sleeping quarters. All five of the others were strapped down into their beds. Brittany and Alvin were in opposite corners, as were Theo and Ellie. Simon was in the middle, across from the bed that I was going to be laying down on top of in just a short hour.

Simon's head was turned so that he was facing Alvin, while Alvin was on his side looking away from his brother. Every once in awhile, Simon would open just one eye, look Alvin up and down, and then close it. Alvin would also occasionally open his eyes and turn to make sure Simon was still where he was. At one point, they both opened their eyes at the same exact time, and Alvin turned to face Simon while Simon was still spying on him. As soon as they made eye contact, Simon shut his eye and Alvin snapped his head back around.

It broke my heart, the distrust they had for each other. And I didn't even know why. It made no sense. All I knew is they were both acting weird at dinner. The fact that things had gotten so bad between those two and I was so out of the loop made me want to cry.

Eleanor's POV

I forced my sleepy self out of our sleeping quarters. My hair was all over the place, my eyes barely open. But it was almost time for me to take the cockpit shift from Theodore. I calmly pulled myself through the hallways and up to the door to the cockpit. I put in the code "1958". The door slid open with a whoosh, allowing me to float into the flight control room.

Theodore was in the captain's seat, staring ahead. Mars was just becoming visible as a little red dot on the horizon. He barely even seemed to notice me entering the cockpit. He had his cheek resting on his fist as he seemed to have something deep on his mind.

I smiled slyly and floated over to where he was buckled down. I seemed to startle him as I grabbed onto his shoulders to stop myself and wrapped my legs around his chair to anchor me down.

"Oh it's you!" he breathed a sigh of relief.

I giggled and whispered into his ear, "yes, hun. It's me." I started to massage his shoulders as I could feel they were tense. He chuckled nervously as I rubbed the knots out of his traps. When I finished I leaned in closer to him and said, "feel better?"

He smiled up at me and replied, "mhm."

"Good," I said giggling. Our eyes locked for a split second, prompting me to go in for the kiss.

He went along, leaning his head back and returning the kiss, before he suddenly broke away and pointed at the cockpit camera staring down at us. "NASA's watching," he said.

"Well if they didn't want to see any making out," I said using my fingers to pull his chin back up towards me, "then they shouldn't have sent six teenagers into space alone."

He shrugged, trying to hold back laughter. "Good point," he whispered, pulling me in for another kiss.

We made out right in front of that camera for what felt like forever. Definitely past when Theodore was off of his shift.

He finally broke away. "There's something I need to tell you," he said. "Simon told me not to tell anyone, but you mean too much to me to keep you out of the loop."

"What is it?" I asked.

He put his hand over his mouth to keep the camera from reading his lips. "Alvin's been acting really strange lately," he muttered.

I looked up at the camera, then also cupped my hand around my mouth and said, "yeah I noticed. Simon too."

"Simon has a good reason though," Theodore said, keeping his mouth covered.

"Why?"

"We caught Alvin sneaking around on the camera feed," Theo whispered. "He was sneaking around like he was up to something."

"What did he do?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Opened some cabinet," Theodore said, shrugging. "We couldn't see what was inside, though. He hid the key somewhere. Who knows what he's up to."

"You don't think he'd put us in any real danger," I asked unsteadily, "do you? Theo?"

He rolled his eyes. "No of course not," he said sarcastically. "He's never done that."

I squinted at him, surprised that he'd make such a comment. "I mean on purpose. Like to just screw us over. This is space, anything goes wrong we could die."

"Just trust me Ellie," he said to me. "Alvin's hiding something from us. Whatever you do don't trust him."

I nodded, wanting to cry about the fact that this was where our group had stooped to. "Understood."

Simon's POV

We had all taken a few shifts each since catching some sleep. To my surprise, Alvin had actually taken up my offer on teaching him Chess. We sat buckled into seats on opposite side of the "kitchen" table as Eleanor was throwing rations together by herself (Theodore was on helm shift).

The magnetic Chessboard stuck to the metal table, and the pieces stuck to their desired squares.

I began by explaining to him the different pieces. "This is the king, and the queen goes next to him." I was expecting Alvin to have that bored look on his face by now that signalled to me that he wasn't paying attention, but he actually looked like he was interested and comprehending what I was saying. "These are the bishops, they go on both sides of the king and queen. And these are the knights," I said, placing the knights by both bishops. "And these are the rooks." I placed the rooks in the corners they belonged. I then placed eight smaller, plainer pieces in a row in front of my eight power pieces. "And these are the pawns."

Alvin nodded and began to set up his own pieces exactly as I had shown him. He was white, I was black. It was puzzling me exactly why Alvin suddenly had an interest in learning the complex but fascinating game of Chess. Perhaps extreme boredom had driven him to look for anything to do. Or perhaps he was playing with me, and maybe even trying to convince me he's innocent by spending some quality time with me. Either way, I thought it'd be a good time to let him know I had my eye on him.

"Good," I said as soon as he had finished setting up his pieces. "Now, the first thing to keep in mind with Chess is that the white player always, always, goes first."

Alvin looked down at his pieces. "What can I move?" he asked.

"Well, you have some options," I said, stroking my chin. "The most common first move is to simply move one of your pawns a space or two forward."

"Ok," he said. He looked closely at his pawns, chose the one right in front of his queen and moved it two spaces ahead.

"The purpose of this is to not be too aggressive," I said, making sure to pause so that Alvin would make eye contact with me. I raised my eyebrow and squinted at him as I said, "you start with just a chill, non-threatening move that won't alert your opponent of your strategy. You put something that is barely significant to you in harms way, while saving your more important pieces. But in reality you're just setting up for a deadly strike that is to come later."

I could tell Eleanor was paying attention to us because I could smell the potatoes burning.

Alvin gulped and looked back down at the board. "How do you win?" he said nervously.

I smiled, knowing I had him where I wanted him. "Well, let me set up an example." I rearranged the board so that a few more of our pieces had been brought out from their starting spots. "This is your queen, here, and it's your move. And you see that you can take my queen way over here." I pulled his queen piece over and replaced it with my queen, sticking the taken piece to the metallic table. "And you do, because you only see the short term benefits of that move. Unfortunately for you, that left your king wide open. So I take my bishop…" I moved my piece to a space from which it was threatening his king. "And wham! You're in check."

"What happens now?" he asked, clearly becoming annoyed with my obvious metaphors.

I grinned at him. "Well, in this position you can't move away from check, because you're trapped, you can't take the bishop, because you moved your queen away, and you can't block the check, because there's nothing left around to defend yourself. Therefore…" I took my bishop and violently whacked his king off of the board, sending it flying into the wall behind Alvin. "Checkmate."

Suddenly, Eleanor noticed the smell of the burning food and exclaimed, "ugh, dammit!" She turned back towards her job as the king piece was still floating around the kitchen.

"And all because you had to get greedy, Alvin," I emphasized in a harsh mutter.

Alvin had not stopped glaring at me this whole time. "Don't talk to me about getting greedy, Simon," he growled at me.

I was surprised at him. "Look, Alvie, I don't know what you're up to. I don't know if it's big or just a little prank. But I know you're up to no good. And it's only fair I let you know that I'm onto you."

"Don't try to spin this around onto me, Simon," Alvin snapped at me, looking me up and down suspiciously. "I'm the one who's onto you. I know for a fact that some shit is going to go down on this mission and if you're the one who starts that shit…" he unbuckled himself and pointed an accusing finger at me. "I'll be ready for you."

And with that he used his legs to push himself out of the kitchen and down the hallway.

I sighed out of frustration and slapped my palm with my forehead. What the hell had happened to my family. I suddenly noticed Eleanor, who had turned off the stove, staring at me with the king piece in her hands and tears welling up in her eyes. She slunk and let her eyes drop to stare at the floor as she tossed the piece to me. I could hear her begin to sob uncontrollably as I put the piece back on the board.

Without saying a word to her I unbuckled myself and floated off, knowing she needed some space.

Jeanette's POV

Of course, everyone had heard about the "Chess lesson" Simon had given Alvin a few sleep cycles ago. We had also heard about the threats they had thrown at each other. I still had absolutely no idea what any of it was about. I had hoped Simon would have filled me in at some point, but he never took the opportunity to.

Alvin and Simon had done pretty much everything they could to avoid each other, which was probably for the best. One more confrontation could have ended badly.

After the Chess incident, Simon had announced that Alvin was no longer allowed to take shifts in the cockpit. Alvin didn't complain, but that decision took a pretty big toll on the rest of us. Especially during the hours where we were supposed to be getting sleep. As a matter of fact, Alvin basically did nothing for those 96 hours.

When Theodore relieved me from my shift, I finally decided I was tired of being ignored. Knowing via NASA cameras that Simon was in the Cargo Bay, I wasted no time in flying through the ship, zipping by Alvin and Brittany as I made my way to meet him. I opened the door to the cargo bay and pulled myself in, looking around for Simon. "Simon?" I called into the giant bay.

"Over here!" he said.

I followed the direction of his voice over to where he was standing. When I caught up with him he was standing, staring intently at a large green cabinet in a corner. "What's in there?" I asked him.

"I haven't the faintest idea, Jeannie," he grumbled.

"Well… why don't you open it to find out?" I suggested, trying to be helpful.

He shrugged. "Would if I had the key."

"Where is it?"

"Look is there something I can help you with?" he snapped at me out of frustration. His look softened up as he saw the hurt in my eyes. "I'm sorry that was uncalled for. I've just been so… angry lately."

"You've been angry!" I laughed at him in a way that let him know he was about to get scolded. "You and Alvin have been tearing this ship apart the last five days. And you won't even tell me why. Your second in command, your girlfriend, and you won't even tell me what's going on!"

"It's Alvin," he tried to explain. "He's been snooping around. He has the key to this cabinet and won't let anyone else open it!"

"So? What part of that says to you that it's too deep for me? Or whatever lame ass excuse you're gonna use?"

"Look I'm sorry. I was trying to handle this internally. I didn't want you to feel unsafe."

"I'm not a toddler, Simon," I groaned. "I'm a big girl. I can handle drama."

"This isn't like the dumb shit we fought over in high school," Simon whispered. "Alvin could be putting us all in great danger."

"Well, I don't know what he's doing exactly, but-"

"But neither do I," Simon interrupted, "and that's what really worries me. Just promise me, whatever you do, don't trust him."

"Maybe I should talk to him?" I suggested.

"No!" Simon snapped. "It'd only make him more paranoid."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine."

"Also, don't trust Brittany. At least as far as Alvin goes."

"What?" I looked him up and down with a shocked expression on my face. "How could I not trust my own sister?

"Don't think for a moment that Brittany hasn't bought into whatever lies Alvin has fed her," he warned me. "As much as it pains me to say this, Brittany's just as dangerous as Alvin until she proves that she's on our side."

Brittany's POV

Alvin had warned me about the others, in a kind of condescending way I might add. I understood that he was only trying to protect me, but telling me to not listen to or go anywhere alone with Simon, Jeanette, Theodore or Eleanor was pretty ridiculous. At least, as far as my sisters were concerned.

I figured there was nothing wrong with helping them out in Medical, even though they didn't really need it. Simon was on helm shift, Alvin in sleeping quarters as usual. God knows where Theo was. It was just the three sisters, doing checks on the systems in the Medical room.

I wasn't really helping, because I had sort of invited myself. I just wanted to spend time with them.

"The mini-greenhouse hasn't shown any problems so far," Ellie said to Jeannette. "Let's try bringing the temperature down even more." She typed -63 into the temperature input. "This'll be the average temperature on Mars," she mumbled.

We could hear the machine rumbling, as it began to drop the temperature within itself to negative 63 celsius. When it finished it gave a little ring noise as if it was some kind of microwave.

"Awesome," Eleanor said, grinning from satisfaction. "Works like a charm."

"Anything else?" Jean asked her.

"Hmm," she said, thinking about it. "Just a certain cabinet that we gotta open in the Cargo Bay." She winked at me. "How do you think we could go about doing that, Brit?"

I chuckled nervously, a little bit offended. "I wouldn't know," I responded.

"Oh come on," Jeanette said in a fake joking tone. "Alvin has to have told you where he keeps the key, right?"

"N-no," I said, looking away.

"But he has told you what's inside, right?" Ellie pressed me.

I glared into her eyes, clearly annoyed. "Maybe, maybe not. That's my business."

"So you don't think he should show us what's in there? That seems like a pretty fair request to me." Jeanette was getting on my nerves.

I rolled my eyes. "Look, Alvin was given a very clear warning that he might need to protect himself."

Their eyes widened. "From what?" Jeanette said.

"He doesn't know," I said, regretting ever opening my mouth. "Maybe from Simon or Theo." They gasped. "Or maybe from one of you."

"Wait," Eleanor interrupted angrily. "You don't actually think we'd do anything to hurt you or Alvin… do you?"

"Of course not," I sighed. "I don't know what to think. I just know Alvin's not trying to cause trouble."

"Why do I have a tough time believing that?" Jeanette scorned sarcastically.

I glared at her. "You got something to say, Miss Second in Command?"

"Yes I do," she snapped. "Alvin has a serious history of bad decision-making. And if he's innocent then all he needs to do to prove it is to open up that cabinet." Jeanette looked at Eleanor and nodded towards the door to the medical room, signalling to her that it was time to leave. "Until then, he might as well be guilty."

As they floated through and out the door, all I had time to say before it shut behind them was, "guilty of what?"

But there was no answer. They had left me. And I felt so alone. It was like I didn't even know my sisters anymore. Or Alvin for that matter. Or myself. Oh God, I felt so alone.

Alvin's POV

After I had been dismissed from Helm Shift duties, I had spent almost all of my newly found free time in sleeping quarters. That doesn't mean I was always sleeping, because I wasn't. But it wasn't like there was anything to do anywhere else on this ship, especially since Simon clearly had no real interest in teaching me Chess. And besides, I was within reaching distance of the key to the cabinet in case of emergency.

I absolutely never left sleeping quarters when Brittany was on Cockpit Shift, which was the case at this time. I felt way too insecure. Because if push came to shove, I knew it would be four against one.

In all this time I had to myself in the sleeping quarters, I had taught myself some floating tricks. The last couple of hours I had been trying this weird creative backflip off of the ceiling… over and over again. I hadn't landed it quite the way I wanted to, until after what must have been the millionth time, when I finally managed to stick off of the ceiling, do a full double backflip, and land both feet on Simon's bed without a double step. "Woohoo! And the crowd goes wild!" I exclaimed, making fake crowd cheers with my breath.

"I'm hardly impressed."

Simon's threatening, cynical voice made me freeze. I turned towards the only door to the quarters, which was now blocked by not just Simon but Jeanette, Theo and Ellie floating there as well.

My heart sank as I knew in my gut that it was do or die time.

"H-hey guys," I said nervously. "What can I do for ya?"

"I'm going to make this real simple, Alvin," Simon threatened me. "You're going to tell me where you've hidden the key. And then you're going to wait here with Jeanette and Theodore while Eleanor and I go to open up that cabinet."

I scratched my head, pretending I was confused. "I don't recall what key you're talking about, Simon," I said.

"No more games, Alvin," Theodore growled at me. "You have the whole crew on edge. Just give Simon the key and we can take care of this the easy way."

I squinted at him. "Kiss my ass."

"That's it!" Simon exclaimed from frustration. "We're doing this the hard way." He turned to the others. "You all know what to do."

Theodore and Eleanor stayed put, guarding the door, while Simon and Jeanette began pulling themselves slowly towards me on opposite sides, looking ready to pounce at me at any second. Sweat dripped down my forehead as I tried desperately to think of a way out. Should I try to quickly grab the key and break through the wall of Theo and Ellie? There were a million things that could go wrong with that. Jean and Simon could get to me before I can even grab the key, and then they'd know where it was. And even if I made it past Simon and Jeanette, Theodore and Ellie wouldn't be easy to just blast through like a game of red rover.

Just as Simon and Jeanette were almost on top of me, Brittany's voice squeaked nervously over the ship's intercom: "Attention! All crew members report back up to the cockpit! We're about to enter Mars' gravitational pull."

Simon hesitated, before he groaned and said, "ok, everybody get to the cockpit, ASAP. And buckle in."

We all started to float towards the exit of the quarters. But just as I was about to pass Simon, he grabbed me by my shirt, looked me dead in the eye and muttered, "this isn't over. I will get that key."

And that's Chapter 6! I'm having so much fun writing this and I hope you're having fun reading it.

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More content coming soon! Peace out :P