Chapter Text
Gray and Orange were taken to the cafeteria, restrained by Purple, while Red set up the meeting. Soon, the rest of the crew arrived, taking a seat around the center table. Orange seemed anxious, Gray almost subconsciously held their hand, maybe trying to calm them down.
“We are here to decide the fate of two mates of crew, hereby accused of killing another crewmate, Green, in electrical this fine morning, or not so fine, as it had murder in it.” Red opened the meeting with the most ridiculous voice Gray had ever heard. Thankfully, Purple corrected them, or at least stopped them before the meeting got worse.
“Just, get to the point, Red. I saw Gray and Orange enter electrical along with Green, now Green is dead and these two were… who cares, they were right next to Green’s stuff but Green isn’t around.” Purple said. The rest of the crew nodded, but everyone looked disturbed, it was the third kill on three days.
“Anything to defend yourselves?” Red continued. “Speak now or silence forever.” Gray felt like they did mean it, silence forever, death.
“Well, Green killed Cyan, and they were planning on killing other people.” Gray said, probably about to start saying nonsense because of their growing panic. “I mean, no one else knew, and no one else would believe us, so do it yourself, right?” They did start saying nonsense, great, that’s just how you win a case.
“Sure, we’re just believing whatever you say, alien impostors.” Red didn’t believe them, and it seemed like the rest of the crew thought they were lying too, until Blue spoke up.
“If you allow me, I think they might be telling the truth, Green had been avoiding their mandatory scans, probably hiding the fact they were fully converted, like Gray said, but we can only be sure via scan.” Blue intervened, maybe they were saved.
“And why would we believe you?” Red said. “For all we know, all three of you might be aliens.”
Orange had probably lost all hope, sitting way too silently.
“I know it’s hard to trust each other in these circumstances but we need to make sure not to hurt those who are innocent, even if it seems like they aren’t. I assure you, if we make it through this, we’ll be a closer crew, because trust is the most important bond of them all.” Blue encouraged the crewmates, who clapped when they finished their discourse, even if it wasn’t intended as a discourse.
“Uh yeah, I also think that, I’m the captain so, I also think that. Anyways, now let’s scan the possibly murderous crewmates.” Red said, standing up. The rest of the crew also clapped, this time a bit weirded out.
Blue walked to medbay followed by Orange, Gray and Red. The rest of the crew also followed, this time Red didn’t say anything about it, they just let everyone follow along.
______
In medbay, Blue prepared the scanner while Orange kept spiraling, just a tiny little bit anxious, it’d pass soon, they kept overthinking their whole interaction with Gray, but maybe it wouldn’t matter anymore if they got ejected.
“Just jump out of the chute yourself, what, are you waiting for Red to push you down?” The parasite decided this was the best time to interrupt, Orange squished the trustball in their pocket. “You’re a killer, aren’t you? That’s what MIRA says must be done to killers.”
“The scan is ready.”Blue said.
“Alright then you heard the doctor, you know what to do.” Red gestured to the scanner, Orange went first. They felt a little watched, but that was expected, since the whole crew was around, including Lime, who poked their head through the vent. “And now what?” They looked confused.
“Please be patient, when we get the scan results we can make sure they’re not fully infected. In the meantime, I still need to work on the antidote in case they still need it.” Blue turned to look at one of their tables, full of different containers. “Gray, do you think you can ignore the thoughts for one more day? I only have one dose.”
“Thoughts? I’m not- I mean...” Gray, who had been distracted with the scan’s green shine, answered.
“Don’t worry, you can tell me, even if I’d prefer a more… private conversation.” Blue turned to look at the rest of the crew, who walked out of medbay. “Now, I need to make sure you’re telling me the truth, don’t be ashamed, it’s just part of the parasite’s affection.”
“But I’m not infected, I just helped Orange because Green threatened them.” Gray said.
“Well, if you say so, I’ll trust you, but we still need to scan you to show the rest of the crew.” Blue said, still wary, like when Orange had scanned for the second time. Orange finished scanning, they weren’t feeling as shaken as before, maybe their anxiety was starting to wear off, then Gray stepped on the scanning platform.
“Now, Orange, I finished your dose of antidote, but we still need to check the scan papers first, could you wait here while I finish printing them?” Blue started the scan sequence again, then started printing Orange’s results.
Orange sat in one of the beds and watched Blue work while Gray scanned. The voice had probably given up by now, but they felt it still alive, even if it wasn’t trying to kill them for now.
“And we’re done, thank you for your collaboration. “ Blue helped Gray walk off the scan and went back to the printer to check the results. Gray sat besides Orange in the bed while waiting for their own scan paper.
“Don’t worry, we survived.” Gray said, noticing Orange’s tense face, was it that obvious?
“Yeah, I guess.” Orange answered. They stayed side by side in comfortable silence until Blue finished reviewing the scans, then Blue got Orange their antidote and let them both go.
______
In the cafeteria, everyone was still waiting for the scans to finish, after some time, Blue came out of medbay along with Gray and Orange.
“The test results are negative, none of them are infected, so we can be certain there’s no danger to the rest of the crew.” Blue said.
“But… then why did they kill Green?” Red asked, confused.
“Simple enough, Green was the other infected, so we can thank our crewmates’ dedication, even if it made them look guilty, because their want to keep the crewmates safe was strong enough to outweigh it, and I think that’s inspiring.” Blue continued, involuntarily changing their body language as if it was a discourse. Of course everyone clapped, and then Gray remembered they had work to do.
They walked out of the cafeteria and went back to navigation, not even staying around to see what happened next. The control panel was okay, and the ship’s autopilot hadn’t failed like it tended to do, but Gray still sat in the center chair, turning it off so the mechanism didn’t overheat.
Unfortunately, one other thing did overheat, Gray, who was thinking about the kiss earlier and blushing like crazy, even if the only witness to that was the infinity of space that extended in front of them. Just then, Orange walked into navigation, Gray knew it was them from the ticking of their fancy shoes, so they turned the cair towards them.
“Gray… are you busy?” Orange said, pausing at the door.
“Not really.” Gray lied, they were supposed to be driving the ship but this was way more important, plus it had been in autopilot since the morning, a few minutes wouldn’t make the difference. “Did you want to tell me something?”
“It’s about what you said in elec…” Orange fidgeted with the trustball again, Gray always wondered where did it come from.
“Oh, sorry, was it too much? I know it was kinda cringe but- I mean, I was worried and-“ Gray tried to explain themselves, it seemed they were getting worse at it each time.
“No, it was fine.” Orange said. “So… are we in a… totally non-MIRA-approved by the way… uh… relationship?”
“I- well, if you want to.” Gray answered, trying to avoid looking at them in the visor.
Orange walked over to where they were still sitting in the chair.
“I do want to.” Now they were close, closer than they had been even in elec, Gray looked away again, but Orange’s hand in their cheek turned their head back. They were face to face, Gray finally noticed the way Orange’s visor reflected light, the reflection of the space outside made it look a bit as if it was covered in stars. They stared at each other for a while, then Gray broke the silence.
“Can I kiss you?” Gray said, now holding onto Orange, who nodded, moving their head closer to kiss them. Orange let themselves fall onto the chair, making it turn a bit, they held onto the armrest. Both of the crewmates were nervous, but eventually they eased into it, making the kiss deeper.
Then, the autopilot’s system failure alarm started sounding. Gray separated from Orange a bit, making sure the noise was real and not just the navigations busted stereo sound, then turned to look at the control panel. The damn autopilot had overheated, just as Gray feared it would happen; they cursed in their head and turned it off, going back to driving.
“I’m sorry for interrupting, I- got some stuff to do... in admin- yeah.” Orange fixed their clothes and prepared to walk out of navigation, back into admin to overthink in peace.
“You can stay if you want to, it’s nice to have company, and it’s kinda silent when Red isn’t yelling every two seconds about whatever game they’re playing” Gray said, hoping the other would stay. “Plus I’d like you to stay around.”
Orange stopped their walk and instead sat in one of the extra navigations chairs. They stayed the rest of the day talking about whatever in navigation while Gray waited for the autopilot to work again, Orange forgot whatever they had left to do in admin, or maybe they just didn’t care, this was way more important anyways.