Chapter Text
They always started the day in the same spot. The cafeteria was the largest room on the ship and the easiest place to gather and await for their daily tasks. Out of the five round lunch tables though, the center one was never used for eating. Instead, it was home to the emergency button, and was used for the morning meetings. Celine had forbade food and beverages from being placed on that table out of fear of damaging the button. No one had had to press it yet, but she still worried.
Only 9 of the 12 crew members were in the cafeteria at 7 am. That wasn’t unusual. Celine was most likely getting everyone’s task lists ready for the day. Amy would be with her in the admin office, watching carefully. She wanted to be captain of her own ship one day, everyone knew that. She followed Celine around like a hawk, shadowing her in hopes of learning how to run a ship and crew successfully.
And then there was Charlie. They wouldn’t get to the cafeteria until Celine arrived and noticed their absence and sent Chris to wake them up. The crew had only been on the ship, The Skeld, for a week, but everyone already had a routine.
Ash was currently leaning up against the doorway that led into the weapons room. Being close buddies with Celine and Amy gave him a bit of an advantage when it came to getting daily tasks assigned, even if the two women swore he didn’t get special treatment. Ash knew though that he’d be sent off to weapons to keep an eye out for any asteroids and polish the arsenal aboard the ship.
Link, Morgan, and Sean were all at the table closest to the admin office on the right, eating breakfast together and talking loudly. Their noise level was clearly getting on Ash’s nerves, but neither party commented on the matter.
Lillie, Oliver, and Ethan were all eating quietly at the table furthest away from Ash. They were the youngest crew mates, so the three of them often stuck together and made it a goal to avoid pissing off the wrong people. A good group, intelligent group, but none of them had previous experience working on a crew.
Chris was attempting to strike up a conversation with Violet over by the door that led to the med bay, but it was clear to everyone who bothered to look over that Violet was not interested.
The hissing sound that came from the opening of the admin doors caught everyone’s attention. Chris and Violet immediately headed over to the center table. Lillie, Oliver, and Ethan hurried to dispose of their trash before heading over, while Link, Morgan, and Sean quickly shoveled the last of their breakfast into their mouths, trying to finish eating before Celine got there. Ash didn’t bother moving from his spot.
Celine made her way into the cafeteria right as the loudmouth group sat down at the center table. Amy followed shortly behind, a stack of color coded folders in her arms. Everyone had a color folder that matched their uniform. Amy passed around the folders, leaving Ash’s at an empty spot on the table, and Charlie’s and her own folder in her arms.
“Chris, would you please go and wake up Charlie?” Celine asked. Her voice was even, but everyone could see the twitch of annoyance in her eyes. “Ash, please take a seat.”
Chris got up, leaving his folder behind, while Ash slowly made his way over to the table. He didn’t bother opening his folder.
“Um, Captain,” Lillie said, raising her hand slightly. “I have a question about the changes on my daily tasks sheet.”
“We’ll go over the changes Amy and I made once Chris and Charlie come back,” Celine said, sitting down. There wasn’t a head to the round table, but Celine sat facing the opening to the glass case that covered the red emergency button.
Thankfully, it didn’t take too long for Chris to come back with an apologetic Charlie. Amy handed over the lime green folder to the late crew member before taking a seat on Celine’s right.
“Charlie, for the last week you have been late to the morning meeting five out of the seven days,” Celine said. “As punishment, you’re on garbage duty for today, and possibly the rest of next week too if this tardiness continues.”
“Ey, ey, Captain,” Charlie mumbled, flipping through their task folder. Sean left out a sigh of relief, happy to not be on trash again. Everyone had a main task assigned to them for the day, but there were other tasks on the list as well that could be completed if a crew member finished early.
“Lillie, in regards to the changes made, I wanted to move a few of you guys around in order to give you guys a chance to learn new tasks,” Celine explained. “If you have any questions about new tasks, you’re more than welcome to ask Amy or myself, or even a fellow crew member on how to successfully complete said task.”
“What do you not know how to do on your list, Lillie?” Chris asked.
“I’ve never done wiring before,” Lillie admitted. “I did all of the practice examples before launch, but I haven’t done it for real yet on this ship.”
Link grinned and set his own folder back down on the table, having finished looking through it. “If you need help with wiring just gimme a holler. I have an easy day over in security so feel free to come grab me!”
“Link, why don’t you go with Lillie to the first panel to show her before you go over to sincerity,” Amy suggested. Her eyes glanced over towards Celine to gage the Captain’s reaction in regards to her suggestion. Celine nodded.
“Good idea, Amy. Does anyone else have any concerns about their tasks for today?”
“I think I’ll be okay in electrical, but I would appreciate it if someone came and checked on me later on,” Oliver said.
“Uh, I have a question,” Ash said, sliding his folder over to Celine. “Why the fuck am I scheduled in the reactor room? I’m always in weapons! Who’s covering there now?”
“I have Chris in weapons today, Red crew mate,” Celine said, her voice stern. Everyone stared awkwardly between her and Ash. Celine only ever referred to them by their uniform color when she meant business. Her and Ash may be buddies, but it was clear that his tone of voice was unacceptable, especially at a crew meeting. “Like I said, I’m rotating people around so everyone can learn new tasks. If you’re concerned about being able to handle the reactor for today, I can switch you and Charlie and have you run trash instead.”
Charlie didn’t look thrilled at the idea of working in the reactor room, but Ash didn’t seem excited over the thought of running trash, so he kept his mouth shut and instead glared at Chris. Chris was one of those crew mates that could be put almost anywhere and do a decent enough job, but it was never perfect. Whoever was watching shields needed to be on it if Celine was planning on pulling Ash away from asteroids duty.
“Any more questions?” Celine asked. Everyone remained silent. “Good. Meeting dismissed. I’ll see you all back here for lunch and to review your morning progress.”
Ash stood up first and marched his way over towards the reactor room. Violet followed shortly behind. Celine hadn’t moved her from her normal spot in the med bay, and she wasn’t willing to stay behind to figure out if that had been a fluke. Charlie begrudgingly got up and went over to clear off the trash left behind by Link, Morgan, and Sean.
“You ready to get started, Lillie?” Link asked, tucking his own folder under his arm.
“Yes, thank you, Link,” Lillie said, smiling warmly. “I think one of the panels I have to check is in the admin room. Would you watch me do that one, please? I don’t want to mess up the wiring in Celine’s office if I can help it.”
Amy stood up and joined the dark green and pink clad crew mates. “I’m actually switching places with Celine for today, so I can swipe your ID cards once we all get to admin.”
Lillie’s eyes widened and Link scratched the back of his head.
“I’m so sorry,” Lillie started.
“I actually left my ID card in my room,” Link added. “I woke up late and hurried over. Didn’t want to wind up on trash duty like Charlie!”
“Oliver was knocking at my door this morning and I completely forgot to grab my ID card,” Lillie explained. “I am so sorry, it won’t happen again!”
Amy smiled and waved them off. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure to grab them before lunch and then we can swipe them afterwards.”
Crew mates were to swipe in before starting any tasks for the day. It was a way for Celine to keep track of everyone throughout the day. A swipe put them on the admin board, and could be used to track crew mates in The Skeld. This wasn’t the first time a crew mate left their ID behind though. Charlie often forgot to swipe in until lunch time. Ash, Chris, and Violet though almost always swiped in before the morning meeting.
A few other crew mates were lined up outside of the admin room, ID cards in hand. Amy opened the door and took a seat at the desk before accepting IDs. Link and Lillie started working on the panel at the front of the room, so Amy focused on checking people in.
Morgan- orange crew mate. Age 25. Scheduled to clean out the O2 filter.
Oliver- yellow crew mate. Age 17. Scheduled to clean out the electrical room and fix issues as they appeared.
Sean- brown crew mate. Age 30. Scheduled to organize the storage room and fuel the engines as needed.
Ethan- cyan crew mate. Age 21. Scheduled to watch the shields.
Crew members not accounted for were Link, Lillie, and Charlie, but Amy knew she’d check them in before lunch. Normally, Amy was in charge of navigation. It was one of the more challenging tasks on the ship, but Celine was more than capable of handling it, and she wanted to give Amy a chance to practice assigning tasks on her own.
Link and Lillie were already gone by the time Amy got everyone else checked in. The panel had been screwed back into place. They hadn’t spent long in the room, but Amy shrugged it off as there being nothing seriously wrong with that panel. Link did just fix it the other day, and he was an expert when it came to rewiring The Skeld.
Link wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of sitting in front of the security cams all day. He could understand why someone like Charlie preferred this task though. It was easy to zone out. After all, besides the slight possibility of Ash getting into a fight with someone else on the ship, or Violet scaring someone out of the med bay, there wasn’t much to keep an eye on. That, and the view from the cams was limited. They only had four installed so far. Link and Oliver were supposed to set up more, but Celine hadn’t assigned them the task yet. Link jotted down the thought on his list quickly before turning his attention back on the screens.
Morgan could be seen carrying the upper engine’s first round of fuel. Just across the hall, Link could hear Ash kicking the metal panel in the reactor room. The perfect excuse to get up! Link pushed back his chair and went across the hall. Sure enough, Ash was fuming over the nine button box.
“Having fun?” Link teased.
“Fuck off, Green.”
Link smirked and walked over to see what exactly was driving his fellow crew mate insane.
“I don’t understand how the kid manages to keep up with the bullshit flashy pattern,” Ash grumbled. “Kid can barely stay focused when Celine’s talking. I’m surprised the reactor hasn’t blown up with him in charge of this task.”
“It’s not too difficult,” Link admitted. “You just gotta take it slow. Although, I’m not the best at it either, so don’t go pointing fingers at me if you manage to overheat it!”
“I’m not gonna overheat it.”
Ash punched another button before the red emergency alarm began to go off. It wasn’t the meeting alarm though. It was the reactor overheating alarm.
“Fuck!” Ash cursed. “How do we fix it?”
“We?” Link asked, looking just as panicked. “I don’t know! Ethan’s the reactor expert!”
“Well where is the kid stationed today?” Ash asked.
“Fuck, shields maybe?”
“Kid better hurry over here then! Shields won’t help us if this explodes!”
Link and Ash turned around when they heard the dull thud of a plastic container hitting the floor. Morgan had run in and dropped the fuel container before hurrying over to a palm scan on the right side. “Ash, scan your palm over there! Link, type in the disable code when the screen lights up!”
For once, Ash didn’t argue. He ran over to the second palm scan and held his hand there while Link quickly typed in the disable code written in his folder. Celine changed the codes everyday as a safety pro caution and slipped them into the folders of crew mates who were scheduled near the reactor or O2 rooms in case of emergencies.
The three of them didn’t get to celebrate their victory long before Ethan came running in, looking terrified.
“I leave this room for one day and you bitches already almost get us killed!” He shouted. Link and Ash stared at him in shock. Ethan didn’t normally speak up like that, at least not to them.
Ash recovered from Ethan’s outburst first. “Blame dear old Captain. She’s the one who switched us all around.”
“I’d consider this a good learning experience if you ask me,” Link said.
“You can learn when our lives aren’t on the line!” Ethan snapped. “I don’t care what Celine said, Ash, go cover for me in shields! I don’t trust you here!”
“You don’t have any authority over me, kid-“
“I’m sorry, it wasn’t a fucking request! It was a demand! Go before you get us all blown up in space!”
Ash looked around the room before grabbing his folder and slipping out into the hallway. “If Celine chews me out for abandoning my post, I’m throwing you under the bus.”
Morgan and Link quietly left the reactor room, not wanting to get on Ethan’s bad side. Morgan picked up the empty fuel container they had dropped before waving bye to Link and heading back down towards storage. Lillie was outside of the security room, staring intensely at the wiring behind the panel.
“Need any help?” Link asked.
“I think I got it,” Lillie muttered, her voice low as she concentrated on her work.
“I can double check it when you’re done,” Link offered.
Lillie connected the last two wires and beamed. “No, I really think I got it! I went over and checked on Oliver like he asked and he showed me this neat trick of how to do it!” She started screwing the panel back into place. “Thanks you though, Link!” The pink clad crew member picked up her tool box and began making her way towards medical. Link smiled to himself and went back over to his chair in front of the four monitors.
On one screen he could see Sean and Morgan walking back up towards the first engine, fuel canister in hand. Link could’ve sworn he saw Morgan refuel the first engine already, but maybe he was imagining things.
Violet could be seen heading into the admin office. She normally brought Celine a cup of coffee while waiting for her lab results. Link had expected her to head over to navigation since Celine and Amy traded tasks for the day, but sure enough the purple clad crew member just walked right into admin, two cups of coffee in hand.
The hallway that connected shields and navigation was empty. Traffic wasn’t too heavy over there at this time of day anyway.
The camera over by med bay was empty too. If Link had gotten back to his position sooner, he would’ve seen Violet leaving her station and head over towards the cafeteria to get the two cups of coffee.
The job itself wasn’t exciting. Link loved checking the wiring, because it meant he was free to move around The Skeld and interact with other people. Here, he was all alone just watching the rest of his crew mates perform their daily tasks.
Link wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but after a while the cameras became more lively. Most of the crew was headed towards the cafeteria for lunch. Link instinctively got up to join them, only to remember that security takes their lunch in the office in order to keep an eye on things.
Charlie was the one who overslept, but Link felt like he was the one being punished. Thankfully, Chris eventually wandered in with an extra tray of food.
“Thanks man,” Link said, taking the second tray and placing it in his lap. Chris took a seat on the floor and leaned up against the wall.
“Figured you could use some company,” Chris explained. “That, and I wanted to ask about what happened in the reactor room? Ash said he’s down in shields now and begged me to switch with him.”
“You normally watch shields and Ash normally does the weapons checks,” Link shrugged. “Makes sense.”
“Yeah, but Ash was supposed to be in the reactor room.”
“You heard the alarm go off earlier, right?” Link asked. Chris nodded. “Ash couldn’t figure out one of the screens. The reactor overheated, and Morgan came running in to help sort it out. Once we got the alarm to shut off, Ethan came in, yelled at all of us, and demanded that Ash get out and cover shields so he could watch over the reactor.”
Chris let out a low whistle. “Doesn’t surprise me. Ethan only learned how to work the reactor to get over his fear of that thing blowing up while we’re in space. Makes sense that the boy has some anxiety about someone else watching over it.”
“I didn’t know that,” Link said.
Chris shrugged. “Most people don’t. I have random info on almost everyone on this ship.”
“Oh really?” Link asked, suddenly curious. “What dirt do you have on me?”
“Well I know you helped with the original wiring on the ship before launch,” Chris started. “I know you’ve worked on a handful of other ships, but never in space. You did a lot of the work on the ground, and this is your first mission in space.”
“Yeah, but do you know why I decided to join this mission?”
“That info I do not have. Care to share?” Chris asked.
Link smirked and took another bite of his lunch. “You’re mister random facts man. I think you’ll be able to figure it out soon enough.”
Chris laughed and stood up. “I hope you know I plan on bugging you every day now until I get an answer.”
Link laughed along and handed Chris back his tray. “Looking forward to it, pal!”
Chris took the two trays and walked them back over to the cafeteria. Sean was standing over by the dumpster talking to Charlie.
“I’ll be in storage if ye need help,” Sean said, dumping his own garbage down the shoot. “It’s not a hard task, it’s just an all day task, ye feel me?”
Chris handed Charlie the two trays and watched as the sluggish crew mate dumped the trash and stacked the trays off to the side.
“Charlie, if you want I can start knocking on your door when I get up in the morning,” Chris offered.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Charlie said. “I’m just gonna do a bad job today and hope Celine gets annoyed and puts me back in security tomorrow.”
“I’d suggest seeing if Link’s willing to trade, but Celine made it clear this is a punishment task,” Chris said.
“Yeah I don’t wanna get the other green crew mate in trouble for my bullshit,” Charlie laughed. “I’ll be fine for a day. Might take a nap under one of these tables when Celine and Amy leave.”
Chris didn’t bother arguing at that point. Charlie was one of the most uninspired people Chris had ever met. How he managed to become part of The Skeld’s crew, Chris would never understand. Most of the crew had left the cafeteria already, going back to their own tasks. Lillie had just finished her own lunch and was throwing what looked like a second lunch into a paper bag.
“Snack for later?” Chris asked, walking over to her.
“Oh no, this is for Oliver!” Lillie explained. “He told me earlier when I went to check on him that he was going to stay behind and finish up with whatever task he was doing. I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying honestly,” she laughed. “I’m not the best when it comes to technology.”
“Want me to come with you?” Chris asked. “Ash begged me to go back to shields for him so I’m heading down through storage anyway.”
“Sure!” Lillie said. She rolled up the paper bag and grabbed her pink folder off of the table and tucked it under her arm. “Hopefully Oliver likes what I packed for him. I felt back since he took time away from his tasks to help me with mine.”
“Wiring issues?”
“I said I’m bad at this technology stuff. I still don’t know how I got accepted as part of the crew.”
Chris nudged her with his elbow. “Hey, you’re an important part of this team. You’re also so cheerful and willing to look on the bright side. We need some of that, especially with certain crew mates around.”
Lillie giggled and shook her head. She looked like she wanted to respond, but both her and Chris paused once they got to electrical. For some reason the door was closed.
“Why would Oliver close the door?” Chris asked.
“He wouldn’t. He was nervous about working alone in electrical. That’s why he wanted someone to check on him,” Lillie said.
Chris frowned and knocked on the door. “Oliver? It’s Chris and Lillie!”
There was no response, but after a few seconds the door hissed and slid open. “After you,” Lillie said, stepping behind Chris. The blue clad crew mate took a deep breath and stepped inside.
“Oliver?” He called.
“I brought you lunch,” Lillie added.
The pair rounded the corner and froze. The sound of the bagged lunch hitting the ground was ignored. Chris covered his mouth in horror while Lillie let out a blood curdling scream. Face down on the floor lied Oliver. There were several wounds on his back, all bloody and all deep. His helmet was on the ground next to him, the lens cracked. There was a pool of blood on the floor and his eyes were glazed over, lifeless.
Someone had killed Oliver on this ship. Someone had killed a fellow crew mate and was currently still aboard the ship.
“Lillie,” Chris choked out. “We have to press the emergency meeting button.”
“No, I can’t leave him!” Lillie screamed. She had fallen to her knees at some point. Chris hadn’t noticed.
“Lillie, his killer is still on this ship, we have to report this.”
“I LEFT HIM ALONE IN HERE!” She screeched. “I can’t- I won’t, you can’t make me leave him! I can’t do that again!” She was sobbing at this point. Chris wanted to join her on the ground, crying over his dead crew mate, but now wasn’t the time. They were unarmed, and the rest of the crew was uninformed. Chris mentally tried to pull himself together as he bent down to pull Lillie back to her feet.
“We’re going to come back for him, but right now, we have to tell everyone else,” Chris said, trying to keep his voice stern.
Lillie didn’t fight back as Chris dragged her out of electrical. She continued crying as they made their way back towards the cafeteria. Somehow, they didn’t pass a single other crew member on the way to the button. Lillie collapsed onto the bench and buried her head in her arms as she sobbed while Chris lifted the glass and pushed the red button, setting off the alarm.
It didn’t take long for everyone to suddenly rush into the cafeteria. While no one had ever had to push the button while aboard The Skeld, they all were taught before what the alarm would sound like. Celine ran in and paused when she saw Lillie crying. Ethan and Morgan were trying to comfort her, but Celine’s attention was all on Chris.
“What happened?” She asked.
Chris looked around at all of the crew mates. Everyone looked confused. No one knew why he had pressed the button. Chris took a deep breath and looked back at Celine.
“We found Oliver in electrical. He was stabbed several times in the back. Someone killed him,” Chris explained.
Celine’s eyes widened in shock. Several crew mates gasped in horror.
“Who’s we?” Ash asked.
“Me and Lillie.”
“What do we do?” Violet asked. Her voice was much softer than normal, shakier.
“There’s a procedure we must follow,” Celine said, trying to stay calm. “Everyone take a seat. I’m going to grab the book-“
“We can’t just leave Oliver down there!” Lillie cried. “He’s in there all alone!”
“Once we follow this part of the procedure, we will move Oliver’s body, don’t worry,” Celine explained. “Everyone sit. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Everyone sat down at the large round table. Ethan and Morgan were crying with Lillie now. Link was tearing up, Charlie was staring off at nothing, Violet was slowly rubbing her temples in an attempt to calm down, and Ash looked ready to kill whoever was responsible.
“Amy, do you know what Celine is talking about?” Ash asked.
Amy shook her head. “No, I- I didn’t even know we had a plan in place for this. Death, sure, accidents happen, but this...”
No one said anything else after that. Celine came back into the room, a small binder in hand. She took out a pen and opened up to a page that clearly showed the ship’s roster. She put an X next to Oliver’s name and a star next to Chris’.
“What’s the star for?” Chris asked.
“You called the meeting,” Celine said. “There’s certain things I have to fill out.” She set down her pen and took a deep breath. “There’s no easy way for me to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Someone here, at this table, killed Oliver. I need everyone to go around and tell me what exactly they were doing today. If anyone wants to vouch for someone or if someone notices a lie, feel free to call it out.”
“What’s the point of doing all of this?” Ash asked. “Why not just interrogate us until someone cracks and you punish them?”
“The reason I cannot go around myself and interrogate you guys is actually for your own safety,” Celine explained. “What if it turns out that I was the murderer? Instead, it’s a voting system.”
“What, like we vote on who we think killed Oliver?” Sean asked.
“Precisely,” Celine nodded. “You may choose to forfeit your vote as well. If the majority skips, or there’s a tie, we go about our tasks and stay on guard. If someone gets voted out though, they are to be removed from the ship for crew safety.”
“Removed as in put in an escape pod?” Violet asked.
“No. Removed as in pushed out of the air lock and into space.”
Everyone was silent. Celine waited a moment to see if anyone would chime in, but no one did. What were they supposed to say? Why was this the policy put into place? What if they got the answer wrong? So many questions, but everyone was either too shocked or afraid to ask.
“Ethan, we’ll start with you and go around the table,” Celine said. “Tell us what you did today.”
Ethan wiped his face with his hands, trying to hide the fact that he had been crying. “I- I woke up, and I got breakfast. I ate with Lillie and Ol... Oliver,” he stuttered. “After the meeting, I went down to shields, but when the reactor alarm went off, I hurried over to the reactor room and switched tasks with Ash.”
“So you pasted the electrical room where Oliver was found?” Ash asked, glaring at Ethan.
“Ye-yeah, but I never went inside!” Ethan said. “Oliver is my... was my best friend on this ship. Whoever did this...” he shook his head and covered his face with his hands, crying again.
“Lillie?” Celine asked, looking at the crying girl next to Ethan.
“Oliver woke me up for breakfast today,” Lillie said, trying to calm down enough to tell her story. “I ate with him and Ethan. Link helped me out with some of the wiring in the admin office. I went down to storage next, then electrical to check on Oliver. He said he was gonna be late to lunch, showed me a trick to the wires, and then I left to fix the wires by security. I decided to help with meal prep afterwards, so I was in the cafeteria until lunch. Chris went with me to deliver a bagged lunch to Oliver, and that’s when we...”
Morgan patted Lillie on the back before looking around the table. “Oliver was alive at breakfast so I’m just gonna skip to after that. I swiped in with Amy and went down to storage to refuel the engines.”
“You weren’t scheduled to do engines today,” Amy said, cutting in.
“It’s a habit of mine,” Morgan argued. “I do engines everyday, so I went down there outta habit. Sean noticed there was a crack in the fuel container I normally use, so I went to go find a replacement. Ash set off the reactor, I helped shut it down, and then finished helping Sean with the fuel. Ate lunch, and then went over to do my actual task of cleaning out the O2 filter.”
Sean nodded. “Yeah, Morgan helped me out with fueling the engines. I stuck around in storage afterwards though. Saw Lillie messing with the wires at some point. Spent time with Charlie at lunch, talking about trash. Chris came over for a bit, and then I went back down to fuel the engines again.”
“I was helping Lillie out to start in admin,” Link said. “Went over to security, watched the cams for a bit, helped when Red overheated the reactor, went back to security, Chris brought me lunch, and now I’m here.”
Charlie didn’t notice they were up next. Link elbowed them in the arm to get their attention. The lime green clad crew mate jumped in surprise before looking around the table. “Imma be real, I did the trash in here and in the O2 room, but then I took a nap in the communications room until lunch, and then I took another nap under one of these tables.”
Violet fought back the urge to roll her eyes at her fellow crew mate. “After breakfast I went over to the med bay to get started on my test samples. Once they were all prepped, I brought Amy a coffee in admin and waited in there for my samples to be ready. I examined them before lunch, ate, and then returned to organize them.”
“I did a lot of moving around,” Ash said. “I was in the reactor room until the blue kid started yelling at me for overheating the reactor. I went to shields until lunch and then switched with Chris afterwards and went up to weapons. Only passed electrical once and that was on my way to shields, but I saw Lillie go in when I walked by, so Oliver was still alive at that time.”
“I stayed up in weapons until lunch,” Chris explained. “At lunchtime though, Ash asked to switch tasks with me, I brought Link his food, and ate in the security room. I brought the trays back, talked to Sean and Charlie for a bit, and offered to walk with Lillie over to electrical. The door was closed for some reason, but when it opened, that’s when we found Oliver...”
“I only left the admin room for lunch,” Amy said.
“And I was in the navigation room until lunch,” Celine said. “I took the same path past weapons there and back.”
Everyone had said their peace. Everyone had a place that wasn’t electrical. The security room had been empty for a moment, as well as the med bay. Morgan was pretty getting over to O2, and Ash switched tasks several times.
“Now what, Captain?” Amy asked, ending the silence.
“Now,” Celine said, picking her pen back up. “We vote.”