Work Text:
One dead -- seven suspects. The classic whodunnit. The saying ‘no one can hear you scream in the emptiness of space’ applied all too well here; in a spaceship with a small research team heading to Polus, nobody had expected a murder. They certainly didn’t expect to entertain the thought that somebody on the ship was a murderer.
“I believe Kiku killed him.”
Everyone was seated around the center console, which held the emergency button. Technically, it was supposed to be used only in the direst of situations, but that didn’t stop other crewmates from pushing it to celebrate tasks being done. This was the first time there was a true emergency.
“How can you accuse him?” Feliciano gasped, eyes wide in disbelief. “Kiku is his friend! He’d never kill him!”
“ Was his friend,” Arthur snidely corrected. Out of the rest of them, he was the only one with his helmet on; his scowl was partially hidden from the others by the tinted glass dome. It matched his dark green astronaut suit. “Ludwig is dead now. The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can look at the facts.”
Feliciano sputtered and quailed. “What facts say Kiku killed Ludwig? That’s insane!”
Kiku, if he was the murderer, was hiding it quite well. He was never much of a crier, but currently, his bowed head was hiding flushed cheeks and misty eyes. Beside him, Yao rubbed his back.
“He’s the only one who was supposedly alone during the time of the kill. That’s suspicious, is it not?” Arthur pressed. “He’s the only one who could have done it. I hate to say this, but we should eject him to protect ourselves.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, eject? ” Alfred cut in. “Hold your fucking horses, Artie, are you saying you want to kick people out into the vacuum of fucking space? ”
“What else can we do? As long as this murderer walks free in this space ship, everyone is in danger.” Arthur shook his head. “We cannot risk it. Once we find the murderer, we must kick them out.”
Dead silence.
Matthew, opposite of Arthur, stood up. “I personally think there isn’t enough evidence to incriminate someone as the killer. We’re only running on high emotions and panic right now. I think... I think we should let this go for now.”
Arthur practically jumped out of his seat. “But if they strike again!--”
“We don’t even know if they’ll strike again,” Matthew shot back. “I don’t like it either, Arthur, but we can’t just go about throwing everyone out the spaceship. How about this: if someone else dies, we can put a vote on who we think the killer is. We can even make it anonymous if need be. Whoever receives the most votes will get thrown out, no questions asked. Is that okay?”
Arthur’s fists balled at his side. He took a deep breath, eyebrows furrowed down in deep, seated anger. “... Fine,” he spat. “We’ll regret this, all of us.”
“Hey, Kiku, we--”
Alfred stopped dead. His hands flew to the radio at his hip, but he was too late.
Right above the vent in the Electrical section, Kiku stood above a body. Francis’ purple suit was soaked to a near black with blood; a bowie knife stuck out of his back with the handle draped with fabric ripped into long strips. The kill was quick and efficient, as was Kiku’s personality, but Alfred certainly didn’t expect this.
Before Alfred could back out, Kiku turned his head. Alfred thought fast.
“Never liked Francis,” Alfred laughed, raising his hands in surrender. “Super nice on the outside, but kind of vapid too. I guess he was a good scientist too?”
Kiku scowled. “You will report me.”
“Oh, sure, I could,” Alfred shrugged. “You’re the most suspicious out of all of us, what with Arthur screaming up a storm last time. But I know you didn’t kill Ludwig.”
“How so.”
Alfred beamed up at Kiku. “Easy. I killed him.”
Kiku could only stare for a moment. Then, as fluid as water, he lifted the knife from Francis’ corpse and pointed it at Alfred. “And why would you kill him?” He asked, expression hard. “Ludwig didn’t do anything wrong.”
“And Francis did?”
His hackles rose. “I have personal business.”
“So what are you, a spy?” Alfred asked, a smirk on his face.
“A bounty hunter,” Kiku snapped. “Francis is just an accomplice. I’ve been sent to kill him and his leader.”
Alfred snorted. “How noble.”
“And you’re a psychopath.”
A low, hollow laugh left Alfred. “Sure, alright. Says the man who’s no better than me at this point; we both have blood on our hands. Here, let’s make a deal: I won’t rat you out if you help me kill everyone else on this ship.” He nodded to Kiku’s stained suit. “We protect each other from getting caught. I assume you have another suit that can replace this one? We’ll have to throw this one out.”
Kiku gritted his teeth. “And why do you want to kill everyone on this ship?”
“Right now, that’s none of your business. What is your business is whether I contact everyone on comms right this second or later when all the evidence is gone.”
Another few tense seconds. But of course, he didn’t have forever to decide; both of them turned when they heard metallic footsteps coming closer. Then, still with a scowl on his face, Kiku stuck his knife back on his belt and nodded.
“Good,” Alfred whispered, his smile growing. “See you with a clean suit.”
Arthur’s fists slammed down on the table. “This imposter is killing us faster than we can keep up. At this rate, we’ll all die.”
Five of them were left. Shortly after Alfred had reported Francis’ dead body, Feliciano’s limp body was found over the navigation console with his neck twisted. None of the alive crewmembers dared to sit close to each other.
“Imposters?” Yao repeated with a frown.
He nodded. “They don’t belong here. As such, imposters. A rudimentary term, I know, but...”
“We should just call them killers,” Kiku murmured under his breath.
Arthur’s nostrils flared. He whipped in Kiku’s direction, fire lit in his eyes. “You are not off the hook, Kiku. I still believe you are highly suspicious.”
“Arthur, lay off,” Alfred snapped. “You really think he’d kill both of his friends? Honestly, the fact that you keep pinning the blame onto Kiku is suspicious as hell!”
“Someone has to do it, Alfred. We need to kick the imposter now or risk dying.”
Matthew sighed, trying to keep his breath steady. Out of all of them, he appeared the calmest, though with one close look his hands shook. “Let’s... think this out logically. Alright. Who among us had tasks in electrical?”
Three people raised their hands: Matthew himself, Kiku, and Arthur. Alfred caught Kiku’s eye, who steadily looked downward. One wrong move and everything will be over.
“Who had tasks in navigation?”
Two people now, with Alfred and Yao.
“Alright, that lead nowhere,” Matthew sighed, shaking his head. “Who was last with--”
“I saw you enter navigation after me,” Alfred suddenly said.
All eyes turned to Matthew, who froze.
“What? What are you talking about?”
Alfred shrugged. “I saw you get into navigation. I had finished fixing the navigation course, and as I was leaving, I saw you coming in.”
Matthew sputtered indignantly. “I did not see you coming out--”
“Probably because you were busy on your tablet. You looked really bothered as you came in, then next thing I knew, I passed Feli in the hallway also going to nav.”
Yao stared at both Alfred and Matthew. “... Matthew?” He asked slowly. “Do you have anything to say?”
“I didn’t kill Feliciano!” Matthew shouted. “What the fuck, Al? Feliciano was still alive when I left the room!”
“So he magically died after you left?” Alfred pointed out, eyebrows raised. “Then, I assume, you went to electrical since you had a task there. Gives you the perfect opportunity to kill Fran too.”
Matthew was shaking with anger. He stared at Alfred with broken, betrayed eyes. “... You don’t believe this Arthur, do you?” He asked, still staring at Alfred. His voice was quiet, near pleading. “I wouldn’t kill them. I wouldn’t kill Ludwig either.”
Yao pursed his lips. “... The evidence is very damning, Matthew.”
“Let’s put it to a vote,” Arthur said quietly. “All in favor of throwing out Matthew, raise your hand. Keep your hand down if you are not in favor.”
Alfred and Kiku rose their hands -- then Yao. Yao couldn’t look Matthew in the eye.
“... No,” Matthew choked.
“This is what you decided we would do. Three to two. We have decided, Matthew.” Arthur rose to his feet. “... Let’s go.”
“No, please!” He flinched when Arthur took his arm, but he otherwise didn’t struggle as Arthur and Kiku brought him to the airlock. Alfred turned away when Matthew was pushed through the gates, which closed after him.
He heard the sucking noise of Matthew’s body shooting into the emptiness of space.
“This feels wrong,” Yao murmured. “I... I don’t think Matthew killed Ludwig and the others. His fear looked genuine.”
Arthur clicked his tongue. “You voted him out, Yao.”
“I know. But... I believe I made a hasty decision.”
“It will prove to be a life-saving one. I can’t believe it was him, either.” Arthur shook his head. “But we’re safe now. Nobody else will be killed on this ship.”
The bloody wrench dropped to the floor. The clang echoed through the empty halls, but it was quickly muffled by the blaring alarms. Red emergency lights washed over Arthur’s corpse, and for a moment it made his steadily paling skin look healthy.
The illusion quickly faded when more blood streamed down his face from the dent in his head.
Alfred stepped away from the body to walk to Admin. The console streamed a constant green glow, highlighting the dark stains on his blue suit. Ignoring it, he went straight to the O2 console and punched in the code. When he pressed the confirm button, the regular lights turned back on and everything was quiet once more.
He let out a long, drawn-out sigh. Everyone was dead. The ‘imposters’ won. Alfred and Kiku were finally free. He stepped out to walk to the cafeteria.
Kiku was already there sitting at one of the tables. His suit, despite being cleaned just hours ago, had a new bloody stain across his torso. He slid some rags to Alfred when he approached the table, and Alfred nodded in mute gratitude.
They sat together in silence.
“Well, that was riveting,” Alfred chuckled. He lifted the rag to see the maroon underside. “Felt nice.”
“We reach Polus’ airspace in three weeks’ time. They’ll know the moment we arrive that we’re the only ones alive,” Kiku whispered.
Alfred shrugged. “So? We know how to fix navigation. I hear Planet DX280 is nice this time of year.”
Kiku didn’t respond. Alfred kept wiping his suit, trying to reach the stubborn stains at the seams. The silence was deafening. Even after Alfred put the rag back on the table, no words passed between them. There was no point, after all, in wasting words on obvious things.
“Pretty sure there are other settlement planets we can go to,” Alfred said in a murmur, finally breaking the silence. “They won’t know about us, and they won’t search every rock in space just to find us--”
“You never told me your reasons,” Kiku interrupted. “I’ve told you mine. Before you decide to kill me, tell me why you hated everyone here.”
Alfred snorted. “I don’t hate everyone. And who said I’ll kill you?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Alfred Jones. I have an agenda. You have none. While a sense of duty makes me hesitant to kill a fellow helper, you had no such qualms with killing your brother. What would stop you from killing me?”
“Matthew’s not really my brother,” Alfred shrugged. “We just said that because, you know, we knew each other from training. Otherwise, I couldn't care less about him.”
Kiku stared coolly back at Alfred. Alfred stared back, eyebrows raised and a coy smile alighted on his lips.
“And nah, I couldn’t kill you. You’ve been super helpful to me, and I couldn’t kill ya.” Alfred sat up. “But I could kill you if you want. Really wouldn’t bother me.”
Kiku’s eyes narrowed. “I will not hesitate to defend myself.”
“Of course. That’s why it’s entirely your choice whether I put a bullet in your head. I promise I won’t let it hurt.”
Alfred didn’t move when Kiku reached into his hip strap. The tip of his bowie knife didn’t pierce Alfred’s suit, though it did stray dangerously towards one of his support tubes. Alfred merely raised an eyebrow. There was a scrap of pink fabric from Yao’s astronaut suit stuck on the knife’s handle, the only evidence of his death.
“Only one of us needs to navigate the ship,” Kiku whispered. “But, for both of our benefit, we should be in the navigation room together nonetheless. Neither of us can trust each other as far as we can throw.”
He cracked a grin. “I can throw pretty far, you know.”
“Good.” Kiku flicked the knife up, then sheathed it. “Planet DX280 sounds lovely.”
“Don’t you know it.”