Chapter Text
The Skeld was the fastest ship that was used to travel thousands of times across Earth's arm of the Milky Way and was widely recognized as the best way to get from our solar system to the Orion colony. But, like with what happened with the Bermuda Triangle, rumors spiraled. Because of how many thousands of times a year the Bermuda Triangle was traversed, all the stories of ships going missing in that area made it seem haunted or cursed. It turns out people are just bad at statistics. It's like saying that China has the highest murder rate because of the number of murders without looking at how many fucking people live there.
Anyways, the same thing happened to this particular ship. One traitor turned into two, then there was a murder, an unexplainable oxygen leak leading to the death of everyone on board, an empty ship showing up at the port, and the number of incidents kept rising. People became more and more scared to go on the amazing journey to colonize the Orion constellation. Well, all but that group of astronauts there who have all signed up for certain doom apparently. Standing on the launchpad were ten crewmates, each in the colours of cyan, black, red, yellow, pink, green, blue, purple, white, and orange. It was a smaller group of people than usual, but considering the circumstances, it made sense. It only meant that the crewmates would have to do more tasks than usual. No big deal.
Most people take the journey across the stars for fame and fortune. Everyone knew about the lucrative helium mining that was done on Orion II, the most habitable planet in the system. Not to mention the uranium that could be found close to the core. But Cyan wasn't interested in fame, or fortune, or making a name for herself in scientific discoveries. She fell in love with space the moment that she visited the moon for the first time. Just laying there, staring up at the Earth, made her realize that all she would ever want was to be able to travel the stars, to visit distant planets, to be able to be among the presence of the universe and feel just how small she really is compared to the trillions upon trillions of galaxies out there. Cyan was the first to sign up to the Skeld once space opened up. She didn't hesitate, even after her family begged her not to go, reciting countless horrifying stories about the murders and sabotage. Her resolve to be among the stars was too strong. She had to know what it felt like to be up there, her life in the hands of the universe.
She put her helmet on and got into the elevator. As she buckled her seatbelt, she took one last look through the open doors at the crowd before they shut. She looked around at the 9 other crewmates seated next to her. These would be the people she would spend the next 6 months with. They would be traveling over six hundred lightyears together. As Cyan looked from one person to the other, she was filled with confidence. They could do it. They would get to Betelgeuse without an incident. No matter what.
Cyan could already feel the change in gravity when they got to the top. It was a silent ride the whole time, and she could practically feel the anxiety in the room. While everyone else aboard was working up a sweat, Cyan could barely keep in her excitement. This was going to be a fun six months.
The mood changed immediately when all ten crewmates got up to enter the ship but pathetically stumbled and bounced into each other and into the walls trying to get to the door. One crewmate, Black, caught Cyan just as she was about to hit her helmet against his. He set her down and turned her gravity boots on for her, and gave her a wave. She blushed slightly and waved back. She heard a voice come on the radio.
Remember to turn on your gravity boots guys, it would probably be easier than just stumbling around like idiots.
There was an awkward laugh as they all turned their boots on and casually strolled into the launchpad. The first thing they all had to do was swipe their card into the admin table. It was their common task. As they all walked towards the admin room together, Cyan searched her backpack for her card. Her stomach dropped when she couldn't find it. One of the only things all of the murderers and saboteurs had in common was that they never did any tasks to help the ship get to its destination. If she didn't do the card swipe, the entire ship would think that she was an 'impostor'. She would have to fake the task.