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An 8 person mission: 1 year hibernating at hyperspeed, then 24 hours at 12% Lightspeed before arriving at MiraHQ. It was simple. What could go wrong?
Of course it was them. Just had to be them on this mission, didn’t it. While everyone was strapping in, getting ready for takeoff, Cyan could feel something pinch at the back of their neck, straight through the suit. Something not right. They felt it coarse through their veins, felt their palms get sweaty, mouth try, hungry, so very hungry. Everything went dark as the ship finally escaped the atmosphere. Time for a very, very long night.
— —
Once they reached cruising speed, everyone got out of their harnesses and bounced to the cafeteria. White stopped at the Admin’s office to enable the simulated gravity and Yellow brought up the rear with them. Cyan couldn’t really think too much more than simple observation. Something very hungry was taking up space in their mind.
Everyone gathered at the center table. Tasks were distributed, protocols reaffirmed, jokes had, and the emergency meeting button was turned on “just in case”. Cyan looked at their task list. It may as well have been written in sanskrit, or german. They crumpled it up as soon as they turned the corner. 1 Imposter Remains. It was time to hunt.
— —
Cyan’s first stop was the reactor. Sure it was uncommon enough of a task to have to start up that piece of shit, but it took long enough that no one would suspect you waiting for them. They idly messed with some of the buttons when Yellow came along.
“Hello Cyan!” The crackle of the short wave comm device made Cyan flinch (high pitched noise… it hurts) but they kept their composure. Deep breath.
“Hello.” They stammered out, taking a step back to let Yellow have space at the control panel.”
“Didn’t think they would assign two people to start up the same reactor, a bit dumb if you ask me.” Yellow started plinking away at the buttons, watching the patterns carefully. Cyan watched the door carefully, waiting for just the right moment to hit the button on their comms device to short-circuit the lights.
“Couldn’t agree more.” 3, 2, 1.
The lights went dark. Yellow looked up, face obscured but clearly aware of the situation. They turned around to look at Cyan, body language screaming horror from whatever was coming out of the helmet.
“Guess there’s only room for one operator in here.” Cyan lunged forward with inhuman speed and made swift work of Yellow, only letting a small yelp escape. They dropped the limp suit and dove into the vent, waiting for the lights to turn on. Only a little blood on the suit, the thing inside the helmet licked it off as they crawled along to the upper engine. Cyan peaked their head out, coast clear, and hopped out looking normal as ever. The lights still weren’t on so they started to head down to electrical (”I knew some of them were incompetent but I didn’t know it was this bad.”) By the time they reached around the bend at the lower engine they heard the telltale blaring of the emergency meeting. Across everyone’s HUD the bright red letters blared “DEAD BODY REPORTED”.
— —
“Where did you find them!?” White asked with no lack of urgency.
“I-In the reactor room!” Orange replied. “I came from a scan at the medbay I was confused why the lights were still out.”
“I can vouch.” Said Blue. The two greens nodded as well.
“Should we skip the vote then?” Purple offered. “It doesn’t seem like we have anything to go on.”
“Cyan?” Lime piped up, and a couple others turned to them.
“Hm? Oh, I agree to skip. I don’t really have anything to add.”
“Where were you?”
“Lower Engine, was coming to Electrical to see what was up.”
Lime looked at them a bit longer, clearly suspicious of them, but everyone else seemed to believe them and moved on. Votes were tallied: five to skip, one for White, and one for Cyan. No one was ejected. 1 Imposter remains.
With the meeting adjourned, a couple people went back to the electrical maintenance to fix up the lights, White and Purple went to the side to unload the cafeteria disposal. Lime stayed standing at the table, clearly staring at Cyan. Cyan looked back blankly, before moving on to the east wing.
“I don’t trust you.” They heard Lime mumble over comms.
“The feeling is mutual.”
— —
Lime trailed Cyan for a while as they passed the weapons bay and went into the O2 chamber. Cyan started pulling dead leaves out of the filter, Lime watched on with a growing tension. Hungry. Thoughts that weren’t their own squirmed around in their head, pounding against the helmet like it wanted to break out. Cyan hunched over, trying not to let it shatter the glass.
“Are you okay?” The tension obviously broke as Lime walked over to try to help them. Cyan was shaking. (”Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Come on man, cool down.”). Lime put a hand on their shoulder and without warning Cyan tackled them to the ground, knocking off their helmet. Quickly, Cyan hit the button on their comms, both locking the O2 chamber and sending the communications room into a frenzy. The look on Limes face was definitely something to behold. Fear mixed with confirmation. Knowing you’re right, and the consequences that came with. They didn’t even scream.
When the airlock opened back up, Cyan rushed out down to the communications room. The static bought them time but the high frequency ringing in their ears was torture. Purple and Dark Green were already in the room but couldn’t get the signal to stabilize. They were clearly trying to argue with each other, but without communications, it looked like a silent movie. Cyan almost laughed, then swallowed down the last of Lime before moving forward to help them out with the dials. Finally the signal leveled out and Purple’s ramblings finally got through unimpeded.
“You see this is why you just let one of us do the work instead of trying to flip all the switches at once!”
“I was helping out! You kept turning them off, we could’ve got the lights on so much quicker—“
“If you had just let me do it myself!!”
“Okay, okay, settle down.” Cyan piped in, putting themselves physically between the two. “The lights are on, and now the comms are back. No need to worry.”
Dark Green let out a stiff breath. “You’re right, you’re right, I’m gonna go back to scanning uploading my data.”
They took off and Purple and Cyan stood there for a moment.
“What do you have left to do?”
“Uh, get fuel the upper engine.”
That seemed to do. “Oh Okay, I need to stabilize the steering, see you.” The two of them wandered past the shields when the siren started up. Orange again, but no “Dead Body Reported” attached.
— —
“What happened?” Purple asked this time.
“It was at O2,” White started. “I thought I saw Orange leaving the scene so I chased after them.
“I thought you were going to kill me! I didn’t have time to report—“
“Why would you chase them, White?” Dark Green asked. “Why not just report the body?”
White paused. “I uh, wait—“
“That’s pretty suspicious, White.” Cyan chimed in, riding the momentum. Everyone seemed to agree, and White got more flustered.
“No wait, it’s not what it looks like! I swear!” But already, voting cards were put on the table. White tried once again, “But what about Cyan! They were suspicious last time!”
“They were with us in communications,” Purple defended “Green can vouch for me too! We were all there long enough for them to kill us if they are the imposter.”
More votes. White kept shouting, getting more and more desperate. Cyan was a little dumbstruck by Purple putting themselves on the line like that. It pretty much guaranteed they were safe, at least for a little while.
Voting ended and Dark Green and Blue grabbed White by the arms and dragged them screaming to the airlock. Without another word, White was ejected. But the HUD didn’t lie. 1 Imposter remains.
“Son of a-“ Blue kicked at one of the crates. The clattering made Orange jump. Cyan looked over at them, which seemed to give them enough comfort to keep going. They stood up from the table and headed south. Cyan headed west to the Med Bay.
— —
Lime and Yellow’s bodies were laid out on two gurneys covered over. Someone would have to do an autopsy when the ship docked at MiraHQ. They’d probably also spot the anomalies and weird marks on Cyan’s body. Their time was limited, no getting around it. They were hungry again. Deep breaths now. They took one last look at the bodies, then looked in the mirror on the far wall. There was a crack in the helmet, and a little tendril of something was coming out. Out of nowhere, the lights flickered and went out again, leaving Cyan in the dark (”Huh? I didn’t—“). They heard footsteps passing by them and decided to follow the crowd.
By the time they reached Electrical, the lights were back on. Evidently Purple and Dark Green were working more cohesively this time. Orange gave them a thumbs up and went back to the open hatch with fraying wires. Cyan stood in the doorway and waited for the rest to disperse. When the two were alone, they silently walked in.
They’d almost made it up to Orange when they accidentally kicked a spare screwdriver across the floor. Orange turned in surprise but appeared to relax when they saw who it was.
“Cyan! You finished all your tasks?”
“Yes. All of them.” Cyan sat down beside Orange as they continued to solder wires together.
They nodded in agreement. “I’ve just got this one left.” Cyan knelt down beside them, taking solace in the silence. As much as they could, with the thing worming around in their head.
“So…” Orange started again. “Whatcha come over here for?” Hungry.
Cyan swallowed, trying to loosen the collar around their helmet. “Well, I’ve been feeling… kinda… hungry…” They could feel it starting to slither out with purpose. Just a little closer…
Slam! “Done!” Orange shut the hatch on the wires with such a force it startled Cyan, the tendrils retreating back into their suit. Orange turned saying “So, you’re hung— Oh! Your helmet!”
SHIT. Cyan froze. The thing inside them was screaming to attack. But Orange was also looking right at them. Why was that stopping them?!
“Good think I have some tape on me!” Orange rummaged around in their pockets and pulled out a roll of silver duct tape. Cyan just sat there in disbelief as they ripped off a piece and placed it over the crack. “There we go!” Neither of them had even noticed the green light flashing in the hallway, along with a bell and a voice saying “Approaching MiraHQ in 30 minutes, communication request accepted.”
Orange stood up and offered a hand to Cyan. They hesitated (”I could just do it now. Quick. Painless. No one will see. I still have time.”) but took their hand anyway. Orange helped them up and they walked out of Electrical together. Orange never let go of their hand. Cyan and the thing inside them were too gobsmacked to do anything about it, though they could feel their cheeks blushing.
“C’mon! I think there’s pizza in the cafeteria” Orange said as they headed past storage.
(”This idiot. I could kill them right here and now. They’re… but they’re being so nice.”) Cyan just followed along, holding Orange’s hand firmly, not saying a word.
The two of them arrived back in the cafeteria where the rest of the crew was waiting. Sure enough the pantry did have pizza, and Orange wasted no time removing their helmet and diving in.
“Dude we’re 30 minutes out from HQ, can’t you wait?” Purple was laughing, but sat down to eat anyway. Cyan sat down at the table next to them, covered in paperwork. Dark Green joined them, taking the liberty to clean some of it up for filing at the lab at Mira.
“How’d the last leg go for you, buddy?” Dark Green asked, a bit amused by Cyan’s body language.
Cyan just let out a sigh of defeat. They looked over at an empty stack of post-it notes, picked up a pen, and wrote in big letters “D U M”, and slapped it against their forehead. Dark Green just laughed. “Cheer up, man, we made it through alive! It’s time for pay raises and exploration on Mira and Polus!”
Cyan let out a chuckle, more at the ridiculousness of it all. “I suppose so.” They looked around and stopped on Blue, standing by the door to the weapons bay. Cyan had to quint their eyes, but they could swear they saw something twitch beneath the helmet.
Was there… only one?