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Red stood before the group, reading the briefing from his tablet. “All right, your HUDs will display your tasks as soon as we touch down. The Skeld isn’t that big but it’s important we get it up and running.”
Red paused for a moment. He then lowered the tablet and addressed the group directly. “Uh. Look, we all know there’s been an uptick in the spread of the Imposters. All I’m asking is that we be vigilant and sensible.”
The drop ship shuddered as it touched down.
Green felt a small hand on his leg. He responded with a hand on the mini Crewmate’s head. “It’s okay, Pet,” he told the child, “You’ll be okay.”
“I know, Dad,” Pet nodded, “Can I help with some of your tasks?”
Green laughed good-naturedly, “Sure! Though I might have to hold you up to some of the panels. You’re still a bit short to reach them,” he rubbed the top of Pet’s helmet, making the boy squeak with annoyance, “Daaaaad, come on, I’m not that small!”
Another mini Crewmate called over at him, “Yer totally that small!”
Orange hissed at her daughter, “Slice, shush! That’s not nice!”
“But he is!” Slice gestured at Pet as if to prove a point, “He’s adorable!”
Pet blushed under his helmet.
Green took Pet’s hand as the doors slid open.
Red stepped in front, “All right, everyone ready? If anything happens, Imp’ activity or otherwise, report it or call a meeting. Understood?”
There was a unanimous “Yes, Sir!”
“Then let’s go.”
The Crewmates updated their HUDs in the cafeteria before scattering to get their tasks done. Several, including Green, went straight to Admin to swipe their cards. White asked Blue to accompany her to Medbay, to which Blue accepted.
Pet stuck close to his father, noticing he balked when he entered the hall to Electrical. “Dad? What’s wrong?”
Green breathed a sigh before entering the dim room full of cables and wires. “Electrical is a known hunting ground for Imposters,” he muttered.
“... Oh. We’ll be okay, though, right?”
“Of course, Pet,” Green assured, “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Pet still felt uneasy and clung to his dad’s leg as they went further into the electrical room. He tensed when he spotted a large, dark figure standing still by a wiring panel.
Green stopped as well. He recognized Black, shrouded as he was in the dim light. Green knew how Imposters worked. Specifically, how they didn’t. Imposters could never do real tasks, though they could be good at faking.
Green approached cautiously, “Black? What’s going on?”
Black started slightly, “Oh, uh, hey Green. And… green kid. Just… working on the wiring.”
Green stood still, staying out of potential kill range. “You’ve been staring at that panel for a good twenty seconds. I know for a fact that wiring takes no more than ten.”
Pet could feel his father’s pulse rise and felt the muscles in his leg tense, as if in preparation to run. Pet angled himself toward the door.
Black still hadn’t answered, nor had he started connecting wires. “Uh, well, I uh… it’s…” he sighed and hung his head, “I’m… I’m colorblind.”
Pet sensed his father’s suspicion turn into a wary curiosity. “Colorblind?”
“Y-yeah,” Black waved his hands up to the colored wires, “It’s the kind that means I can only see greyscale. I literally can’t tell which wire goes where.”
Green scoffed and stepped forward, “Wait, how did you pass the Crewmate test, then?”
Black threw his hands in the air, “Luck?”
“Haha! Move over, I can help you with that,” Green laughed and took Black’s place at the wire panel.
Pet glanced over to the distributor calibration dials. “Dad, can I do that one?”
“Sure! Though, I’ll warn you, that one can be a bit… uh…”
“Infuriating,” Black finished Green’s thought.
“Yes.”
Pet opened the panel and studied the spinning dials, “It’s okay, I think I can do this.”
Green chuckled.
Black looked between the father and son, lowering his voice to address Green. “You know how dangerous this work can be, what with Imposters and all. Why on the stars would you bring a kid on your missions?”
Green scoffed, not looking up from the wires, “You kidding? You make it sound like you’ve never lived on a colony. No way was I leaving him there.”
“Uh, Dad? This thing is infurry-ating me.”
Green shut the panel, “Heh, it’s ‘infuriating’, and I can help with that.” He picked up his son and held the little one on his hip. “There, now you can see it a bit better.”
Black hadn’t left yet. He stood behind the two, watching the wholesome interaction.
Pet rested his finger on the button. He aligned the first circuit correctly, then was too early on the second. The second time, he got to the third circuit, but accidentally missed the alignment. “Grr! This calibration is gonna need some serious fixing by the time I’m done with it!” Pet fumed, shaking his fist at the dials.
Green gently lowered his son’s clenched hand. “Then let’s try it together,” he suggested, resting his finger on the button. Pet laid his finger over the larger one.
“Ready?”
Pet nodded.
First dial.
Second.
Pet bounced with anticipation, “Almost…”
His father’s hand never clicked the final button. Green gasped a strangled cough. Something red splattered the panel. Pet felt an unnatural tremor shake his father’s body.
Green wheezed. His hand drifted toward the barb-like tongue stabbed through his chest.
The lethal attack sharply pulled back into the Imposter’s monstrous mouth.
Green groaned and dropped his son. Pet watched in disbelieving horror as his father clutched at the wound. His lifeblood poured between his fingers in an unstoppable torrent. Green staggered back and slid down a wall.
Black stepped between Green and Pet, cocking a gun. “Any last words?”
Pet couldn’t take his eyes off his blood-soaked father. The boy’s heart felt like it would pound right out of his helmet.
Green glanced to the boy, “S-... sp-a…”
Black tilted his head, “Yeees?”
Green’s voice rasped, obviously pained, but he needed to try to appeal to whatever honor the Imposter had. “S-spare… my son…”
“Ok,” Black shrugged.
Pet flinched at the gunshot. His father slumped to the ground and lay still.
The Imposter sneered and roughly kicked Pet toward the bloodied body before disappearing down the vents.
Several moments of nothing but electrical hums were broken by Pet’s anguished cry. “ DAD!!! ”
He fell over the body and hugged it tight as he sobbed uncontrollably, “Dad, please! No! No no no no no nooo-...!” Any more words drowned into his cries.
Click. Click. Click.
Pet looked up. The buttons in the calibrator had pressed themselves.
The boy felt a cold sort of presence surround him. Hugging him. He though he heard silent words of encouragement.
“... Dad?” Pet whispered.
The presence lingered for a few moments longer, then slowly pulled away, as if it had to go somewhere.
Pet glanced between the buttons and the body. “You’re still… you’re still working. So you can beat them!”
The boy curled close his father. This idea that the Crewmate was somehow still around and doing what he could to defeat the Imposters added a measure of comfort.
But… it didn’t help that he was still dead. Murdered. Right in front of his son.
Pet’s tears began anew as he clutched the stained fabric of his father’s suit.
His legs were beginning to fall asleep by the time he was found. He recognized Orange’s voice.
“Oh my! Pet! Pet, are you-! Oh no… Green.” She gently turned the body over, “First White, now him,” she whimpered, then her hand clenched. “Those Imposters will pay.”
Pet glanced over to Blue, who was a few paces behind Orange. Pet noticed something on Blue’s hands…
“Pet?”
He looked at Orange.
“Can you say who did this?”
Pet stayed quiet. He definitely saw something on Blue’s hands. And Blue was the last one seen with White.
The boy shook his head. No, he couldn’t say. Not directly. Though perhaps… he could give a hint. He leaned into Orange’s shoulder, “Check their gloves,” he whispered.
“What?” Orange pulled back and looked into Pet’s visor, but Pet wouldn’t look up at her anymore. His head turned back toward his father.
Orange let Pet go, letting him retake his place at his father’s side.
“Orange, come on,” Blue waved toward the door, “We need to meet in the cafeteria.”
“I… I know. I’m coming.”
Orange and Blue booked it to the cafeteria, where they met the rest of the Crewmates, sans two.
Red noted the diminished headcount. “Who’d we lose?”
Orange hung her head, gently hugging her daughter closer, “Green. He was in electrical. Pet couldn’t even say who did it.”
A somber mood settled over those gathered.
Black and Blue made eye contact.
Red spoke up again, “Do we have any leads at all? Anything on the cams? Anyone have clues?”
“I haven’t seen anything,” said Brown.
“Nor I,” said Cyan, “Those Imposters are slippery.”
Yellow thumped his fist on the table, “I know I heard a vent in Reactor close, I just couldn’t catch who went in.”
Red crossed his arms, “All right, who’s got alibis?”
“Purple and I stuck together,” said Pink.
Cyan nodded, “I saw them. Lime and I both did tasks in the Engines and Shields.”
“I know for a fact that Brown ejected the trash,” Yellow affirmed.
Red looked across the table, “What about you, Orange?”
“Blue and I went together for a while. He was with me when we found… found Green.”
Red then glanced to his right, “Black?”
Black remained silent. Then Blue spoke up, “I saw him do scan in medbay. He’s clear.”
Red sighed, “All right. That’s everyone except our dead. All valid and believable. It’s going to take a trick of another kind to catch these Imposters.”
Orange barely heard what the captain was saying. She was still looking at her hands.
“I think I know such a trick.”
All visors turned to her. She held out her hands, palms up. “Check the gloves. Whomever has bloodstains is an Imposter.”
Most of the Crewmates glanced at each other before holding their hands out. Some were clean, some had dust, some oil.
Blue didn’t lift his hands above the tabletop. He was staring at Black.
“Blue? Black?” Red asked, “Let’s see your hands.”
There were a few more seconds of tension before both of them moved in a blur.
Lime flopped to the ground, her throat slit.
Black had Yellow by the throat, backing away with a gun to his back. “Yeah, okay, guess you got clever. This won’t help you though. We’ll find a way to defeat you!” With that, Black shot his hostage.
Red gave chase to the Imposters, but the slippery killers vanished down the vents. The captain stomped down on one of the grates and shouted an expletive.
“Well, at least we know who they are now,” Pink offered.
Everyone glared at her.
“Sir?” Cyan asked Red, “What do we do now?”
Red was silent for a good while, thinking. Finally, he spoke in low tones to the Crewmates. “Get your tasks done. If we can’t catch and eject these cursed intruders, then finishing our jobs will be just as effective. Go to.”
The Crewmates snapped to attention and saluted a “Yes, Sir!” before running off.
Meanwhile, the Imposters popped up into the Reactor.
“That was probably the stupidest move ever,” Blue growled.
“Will you zip it?” Black snarled, “We’re almost halfway there and we just have to kill or outrun anyone who tries to eject us.”
Blue pulled up his HUD, “Okay, well, how about we sabotage a few things and force a few into one room. A good old stack kill?”
Black swatted him upside the head, “No! You fool! That won’t work.”
“Why not?”
“They’re too smart. If we sabotage something, all of them will go to fix it and we’ll be outnumbered. The only reason we got out of the cafeteria is because we had the element of surprise. This time they’ll be expecting us.”
“Especially Red,” muttered Blue. “Something about him scares me.”
“He’s the captain,” Black said, swatting Blue again, “He’s supposed to scare Imposters. He’s the only kind of Crewmate that can fight back. Effectively, anyway.”
“So what do we do?” Blue asked.
Black thought about this, pacing the length of the Reactor room. He then stopped and snapped his fingers, the mouth in his stomach stretching open with a sinister hiss. “What if… we had a little help? A little extra surprise?”
Blue’s head tilted, “You mean-“
Black ducked into the vents, “Let’s get the kid.”
The two Imposters maneuvered through the vents, popping up in Electrical and startling Purple.
Blue was quick to snap his neck. “Noob.”
The sound of a body hitting the floor startled Pet, who had dozed off beside his father. The boy scrabbled to his hands and feet when he found himself surrounded by both Imposters.
Black seized the mini green Crewmate by the throat and lifted him off the ground. “Hey, there. We need to talk, little snitch.”
Pet’s feet kicked in the air and he tried to pry away the vice-like grip. “W-Wait! You promised you-... wouldn’t!”
“No. I promised I wouldn’t kill you. That didn’t exclude what I’m about to do to you.” The Imposter’s alien mouth unstitched itself from his suit and a writhing tongue started slithering toward Pet’s helmet.
“There’s a thing about us Imposters,” Black sneered, “We’re parasites. We love to feed off you delicious Crewmates.”
The tongue prodded at the seam of Pet’s helmet, starting to wedge its way in.
“But there’s another thing we’re able to do,” Black continued, “And that’s infecting others.”
The slimy appendage broke into Pet’s helmet and started snaking around his head.
Black relished in the mini Crewmate’s panicked whimpers. “We need some help from you, some cannon fodder, if you will. You’ll be the edge we need to win this.”
“There’s a problem,” Pet gasped, “I’m pretty sure that ghost is about to finish the last task.”
Both Imposters turned toward a nearby panel.
A switch flipped.
A low drone sounded.
The tasks were done. The Crewmates won.
Black, still holding Pet, cursed.
Pet smirked.
Light blinded everything for a few moments, and all members were beamed away.
Everyone reappeared on the dropship.
Pet felt a hand on his head. He looked up, “Dad!” he cried, hugging the life out of his father.
“Ooh! Hey, kiddo. Pet, that’s… that’s kinda tight…”
“But you dieeeeeed!” Pet wailed dramatically.
Orange Slice planted her hands on her hips, “Dude, it’s just a game.”
“Yeah,” Red stood up, “but it was a good game.”
“GG boys,” White chimed, “Oh, and thanks for killing me first.”
Blue gave her a thumbs-up and an overenthusiastic “You’re welcome!”
Yellow raised his hand, “Can I make a motion to not let any more actors and fiction writers on the crew?” he asked sarcastically, “They take the roleplay a bit too far.”
“Dude, that’s part of the fun!” Purple laughed.
“Yeah okay, “fun”,” Yellow kept mocking, “But not when the Imposter is about to turn a kid into one of them! That’s not even part of the game mechanic!”
Black swatted him over the head, “That’s why we’ve got a private server, so we can do stuff like that. Besides,” he turned to the rest of the players, “the Crew won that round. I was monologuing so they could.”
“You threw the game?” Orange asked.
“No,” Black defended, “I added to the drama.”
“Eh, whatever.” Red shrugged, “Okay, who’s up for another-... uh, Pet? You might want to let Green breathe sometime?”
Pet still had his dad in a suffocating bear hug. “NooooooOOOOO!” he said, his voice rising with the latter part of the drawn-out word.
Green laughed, “I love you too, kiddo.”
Blue glanced over Red’s shoulder at the laptop, “Where to next?”
“I was thinking Polus,” Red answered, “We need to get more used to that map.”