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Life on the Skeld has been mundane for a very long time.
Days were spend finishing tasks and doing nothing. Occasionally they’d pass by other ships, visiting and trading supplies, until they’d separate their ways. It’s been years since humans left the earth, having killed off their home planet. Humans left in groups in self-build spaceships, bound to wander around in space in search of a new planet to live on.
Brian felt lucky to be with his friends, he wouldn’t want it any other way. Sure, they got on his nerves and he really wanted to eject them into space, but he loved them any other day. Besides his fellow Irishman was there to keep him calm. Whenever Delirious was being stupid again, Nogla would place a hand on his shoulder and drag him away from cafeterias to do their boring ass down to do their boring ass download and upload tasks.
He would always talk about something funny that happened and it would instantly lighten up Brian’s day. Nogla would often refer to them as the two space potatoes and he was just so dumb it made butterflies flutter in Brian’s stomach. Although often claimed otherwise, Brian loved Nogla.
Lately, they’ve been running into more and more spaceships. Nothing strange about that. The strange thing was the stories they told. Apparently, some weird space virus had been spreading among ships and it turned some of the crewmates into monsters. They said the monsters could transform, looking like their normal selves one moment and changing into a sharp teethed man-eating thing the next.
At first, they didn’t believe them, who could blame them? Monsters on a spaceship? That’s crazy talk. It did change however when they passed by a spaceship that had been sending out a S.O.S. signal for the past days. They send out a request for communication, which was left unanswered.
Cautiously, some of the crew forced their way onto the ship to see what was going on. Nogla was one of them. The others remained on the Skeld, finishing some of their tasks in the meantime. When they returned, Nogla and Marcel were covered in blood and Tyler’s shaking hands were still holding his gun. Smitty was as pale as a sheet and immediately ran towards the bathroom. Kryoz ran after him.
Vanoss, Moo and Delirious helped the others sit down as Brian stood frozen in place, staring at the blood stains on Nogla’s suit, hoping it wasn’t his. It was silent as Scotty checked the two for injuries. Then the silence was broken by Panda asking the ham question. “What happened?”
Tyler had finally stored away his gun, rubbing his face, looking tired. “Bodies,” he said solemnly,” All we found were... bodies.” Nogla nodded, staring at the floor. “No one was left alive,” Marcel muttered. “Or so we thought,” Nogla said. Brian finally moved, sitting down beside Nogla.
“What do you mean?” Vanoss asked and Brian was sure he never heard as much fright in his voice before. “There was... something...” Nogla said,” It didn’t look like a normal human... it just stood there watching us.” Marcel shook his head. “When we tried to talk to him, it twisted half its body towards us and bared its teeth,” he shivered,” Its horrible, sharp teeth...”
Silence fell upon the group once more and Brian took Nogla’s hand in his. “It attacked us,” Tyler said,” I had to shoot it, it would’ve e-eaten Marcel.” Marcel gave him a thankful pat on the back. It wasn’t long until Scotty cleared the two blood covered men and everyone went separate ways.
Scotty and Moo went to medbay, meeting up with Kryoz and Smitty to check up on the latter. Vanoss and Delirious went to work on their tasks and Tyler left for his room, wanting to be alone. “Are you okay?” Brian asked softly, squeezing the hand in his. “To be honest, no,” Nogla answered. Brian looked at Nogla’s face, at the serious expression and the anxiety in his eyes.
Something in that expression told Brian that there may have been more truth in what all those crews had told them about the virus than he would’ve wanted. He could feel an unspeakable fear creeping up on him.
It’s been two weeks since then.
“God damnit,” Brian muttered as he connected the yellow wires together, followed by the red wires. How come the wires kept getting fucked up all the time?
Lately, the crew of Skeld had been busy with different tasks than normally. Sweeping the floors had been replaced by fixing electrical wires and wiping their windows had been replaced by keeping the reactor in check. Some tasks had not been replaced, but gotten more important. Like removing the leaves from the O2 filters and emptying out the garbage chute.
A couple of days ago, other strange things started happening. With the stories told by the space crews they met, Vanoss decided to install emergency buttons. Whenever someone thought they saw something suspicious, they were to push one of the nearby buttons. Lights would start flashing and the words ‘emergency meeting’ would repeat over the intercom. As soon as that happened, everyone had to run to the cafeteria where they would have a meeting.
Some thought it was paranoia and others thought it was a good idea, but all agreed to install the buttons. It took a couple of days to install them, but nothing happened for some days afterwards, which heightened some people’s anxiety. Then, emergencies happened.
“All done,” Brian muttered, closing the panel. From the corner of his eyes, he saw someone walk into storage and he tensed up. He developed some trust issues along the way. The virus could turn anyone into a monster, and no one would notice. He couldn’t trust anyone.
“Hey Brian,” Nogla said, waving slightly. Brian let out the breath he had been holding. “You fixing wires?” the green suited man asked,” I saw Delirious do the same in Nav.” Brian took a moment to calm his racing heart. Apparently, staying silent for too long had Nogla’s smile get replaced by an expression of worry. “Hey,” he said, placing a hand on Brian’s shoulder,” Are you oka-”
Suddenly, red lights started flashing and an alarm sounded. The words ‘emergency meeting’ repeated through the intercom. “Well, time to go I guess,” Nogla said calmly, though he seemed nervous all of a sudden. Brian shrugged, the alarm probably meant bad things had happened and that would make anyone nervous.
They both made their way to the cafeteria. Vanoss, Delirious and Scotty were already there. Moo and Kryoz came from the right hallway and Panda came from the left. “What’s going on?” Moo asked, panic in his voice. “I saw a vent-,” Scotty began, but got interrupted by Kryoz.
“Where’s Smitty?!”
They looked at all the hallways, but nobody came through. Until footsteps sounded on the left. But instead of Smitty, it was Marcel and Tyler that came running. “Sorry we’re late, only needed one more to jumpstart the reactor,” Tyler said out of breath. Marcel only nodded. They joined the others at the table.
Brian sniffed the air when Marcel came to stand beside him. What was that smell? It somehow reminded him of cleaning. “Have you seen Smitty?” Kryoz asked Tyler, who shook his head. “He wasn’t at lower engine,” Marcel said. Kryoz frowned, before sprinting towards the hallway leading to weapons. “Kryoz, wait-!” Vanoss yelled, but the other was already gone.
It was silent for a moment, a heavy sense of dread filling the air. “So, who called the meeting and why?” Nogla asked. Scotty seemed to remember what they were doing and frantically yelled ‘Me!’. All eyes were on him. “I think I saw a vent move.”
“What do you mean with a vent move?”
“Like, those big grate one’s? That blow the fresh air into several rooms?” Everyone nodded. “Well, I am pretty sure one was open in medical bay when I walked in to check on my samples,” Scotty explained,” But then I heard it fall close. And I swear I had seen someone run out of medbay- I swear!”
Vanoss frowned,” But how could that be?” Delirious nodded. “and who did you see?” Moo asked. Scotty seemed panicked. “I don’t know!” he shouted,” But something weird is going on!” Panda placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Scott,” Nogla said,” I think we should just focus on our tasks for now.”
Scotty wanted to object, but Tyler spoke up. “I agree with Nogla,” he said,” Let’s focus on our tasks and keep our eyes open for suspicious behaviour.” Everyone nodded and went separate ways. Scotty remained at the centre table, seemingly lost in thought.
Brian waited until most of the people had left, he didn’t like to hang around others while working on his tasks. Slowly, he made his way over to navigation to direct the power. Just when he was about to flip the switch, red lights started flashing and a warning of decreasing oxygen levels sounded.
That has happened a lot lately, almost as if someone was messing with it. Sabotaging it. He was close by the O2 room, where multiple filters were located, so he made his way over there. He quickly typed in the security reset code and made his way over to admin, where the second panel was located. When he walked in, the lights suddenly turned off, making him yelp.
“Brian?” a voice called out in the dark. “Panda, is that you?” he asked. The alarm ceased to exist, suggesting Panda had typed in the code. “Why did the lights turn off?” Panda asked, sounding closer by. “I have no idea, I can’t see a thing,” Brian answered. He stumbled around in the dark, in search of the admin table where he still needed to swipe his ID-card to unlock the security.
His feet got stuck on something and with a pained yelp he hit the floor. Right in that moment, the lights turned back on. “Are you okay?” Panda asked, reaching a hand out to help Brian up,” I guess someone fixed the powe-”
Brian had been rubbing his head where he bumped it against the table, whining, when he noticed Panda frozen in place. His head turned towards the corner of the room, eyes wide, mouth agape and face incredibly pale. Brian slowly got up, ignoring Panda’s still outstretched hand and glanced around Panda’s body. What he saw made his blood run cold and shivers down his back.
He wished he never had seen it.
There in the corner lay two bodies. Smitty was hardly recognisable, his entire body covered in red and full of gashes and bite marks. Kryoz on the other hand, seemed to still be whole, eyes open and glassy and dried tear streaks on his cheeks. A hole was where his heart used to be. He seemed to be holding Smitty in his arms, one hand clenched around Smitty’s.
Brian made a choking sound as he grabbed Panda’s hand and pushed the nearest emergency button. He shut the door of admin behind him and pushed Panda towards cafeteria. Most of the others were there, they must’ve been close by. Everyone except Scotty. There was no time to wait for him.
“I- we- Panda- I-” Brian stuttered. Nogla took his hands in his. “Shh, calm down, it’s okay,” he said trying to calm the clearly upset man. The others shared nervous looks. “They’re gone,” Panda said, barely above a whisper,” Dead.”
A loud gasped sounded. “What- who?!” Delirious shouted. “Smitty,” Panda said, choking on tears,” K-Kryoz.” A soft ‘no’ could be heard from Vanoss who immediately hugged a distressed Delirious close. Brian nodded and buried his face in Nogla’s chest, who wrapped his arms around him. Tyler, Moo and Marcel stared solemnly at the table. Panda dropped to the ground, sobbing his heart out.
“Where,” Moo started, before scarping his throat,” Where are they?” Brian pulled back from the hug and turned towards Moo. “Admin, he said,” I’ll help wrap them up.” Moo nodded and left to the medbay to get the supplies. “Did anybody see anything?” Tyler asked. Multiple people shook their heads. “Someone has to have seen something!” Tyler shouted. “I couldn’t see anything! The lights were off!” Marcel shouted back.
“I fixed that,” Vanoss said, a lot less loud. Delirious kept hiding his tear-streaked face in the man’s shoulder. Panda slowly got up from the floor, after his tears ran dry. “Me and Brian fixed O2,” he said, wiping his cheeks. Moo returned with body bags and stretchers, his face an indifferent mask. Everyone knew he was hurting from the inside, he just made himself look strong to help the others.
Brian led the way to admin. They worked quickly and silently, bagging the bodies and rolling them towards the airlock. The others followed them in silence. Just as Brian laid one of the bags down, he couldn’t remember who it was, in the airlock to eject it into space, Delirious tore away from Vanoss.
“No!” he shouted,” Don’t separate them! You can’t separate them!” Nogla held the desperate man back as he broke down in tears. “We won’t,” Nogla said softly,” I promise.” Moo grabbed some robe that lay close by as Brian laid the other body bag besides the first one. They bounded them together, then stepped back outside the airlock. As Moo said a final goodbye, he pressed the buttons. The door to the ship closed up and the door to outer space opened after a moment. The vacuum disappeared and dragged the bodies out of the ship.
When the door closed again and the inner door opened, airlock ready for the next use, Nogla let go of Delirious. “Now they will be together forever,” he whispered. Delirious let out a sob and Vanoss pulled him close. They stood together, silently crying. The others left towards cafeteria, leaving the two alone.
“What do we do now?” Panda asked. “Wait!” Moo shouted all of a sudden,” Where is Scotty?!” Everyone got an expression mixed of fear and shock on their faces. “You two, go left,” Tyler said, pointing at Nogla and Brian,” Moo, Panda, go right. Marcel and I will go to lower engine.”
As they all sprinted in different directions, Brian felt Nogla take his hand in his. His heart was racing as they checked upper engine first. Nobody was at reactor either. But the moment they ran into security, Nogla yanked him back, turning him around and pulling him against his chest to shield him. But it was too late.
Brian had seen Scotty’s body in a flash. Or rather, Scotty’s severed lower body. He presumed Scotty’s upper body was somewhere in the room as well. “N-Nogla,” he whispered. He felt himself start to shake. Not again, not Scotty of all people. Nogla silently took him out of the room, closing the door behind them. He pulled back a bit, staring into Brian’s eyes.
“What do we do?” Brian asked softly. “We sound the alarm,” Nogla said seriously,” There is a monster among us and we need to figure out who it is.” Brian nodded and grabbed Nogla’s hand. They slammed the emergency button and ran to cafeteria.
Brian silently wondered who could’ve killed, not just their crewmates, but their friends. Who would do something like that? Then again, who’s to say that person is still their friend? Who says they're not mindless creatures created by the virus? Who’s to say that they’d still be human?
Then suddenly, something came to mind. Who’s to say the virus didn’t spread? As they got back to cafeteria, the others were already there. At their questioning look, Nogla shook his head. “No, not Scotty,” Moo muttered and immediately turned around. Once again, he made his way over to the medical bay to gather supplies.
“I hate to say this, but there has to be an impostor among us,” Nogla said, sighing. He met everyone’s guarded eyes as they kept their expressions neutral. “But who?” Vanoss asked. “We’re all here, we’re all friends,” Delirious added softly. “Is that so, Delirious?” Marcel asked harshly.
“W-what?” Delirious stammered. “Who’s to say it’s not you,” Marcel said, pointing at the man accusatory,” I haven’t seen you at all, it could easily be you!” Delirious gasped and his face got very pale. Vanoss stepped in front of him, shielding him from Marcels’ fiery gaze.
“I haven’t seen you either,” Vanoss said calmly,” Who’s to say it’s not you?” The air was getting thick with tension and Panda excused himself from the group, saying something about helping out Moo. He quickly left cafeteria “Are you suggesting I’m sus, Vanoss?” Marcel growled,” You’re awfully quick to defend Delirious.”
Vanoss’ expression was murderous as he took a step towards the other. Before Marcel could provoke him more, Tyler stepped in. “It could as well be me, as it could be you,” he said to Marcel,” It was after all you, me, Nogla and... Smitty... on that ship.”
Brian gasped softly, he hadn’t even thought about the strange event happening weeks before. He felt doubt spread through him as he looked at Nogla who stood beside him. Could it be? Surely not his sweet and caring Nogla? No, it couldn’t be, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Nogla just gave him a small smile.
“Unless anybody has any real evidence, we can’t do nothing,” Tyler said defeated. Vanoss and Nogla nodded. “Fine, then I’ll be doing my tasks in storage,” Marcel said,” If anybody wants to come and kill me.” He shot one last glare towards Vanoss and Delirious, who slightly ducked down, before marching past Brian and Nogla towards storage. Brian barely acknowledged the smell of chlorine that followed the angry man.
Vanoss wordlessly led Delirious away, leaving to the right of cafeteria. Brian, Nogla and Tyler remained, the largest two having a silent stare down. “It better not be you,” Tyler muttered then left towards Admin. That room still needed to be cleaned.
Brian has never felt more lost in his life.
There was a monster among the crewmates and he had no idea who it was, or who he could still trust. He hated that feeling. “I still have some tasks in navigation,” Nogla spoke up,” if you want to stay together?” Brian nodded. He didn’t want to be left alone, he much rather stayed close to Nogla, so he could keep the tall man save.
“I can do my scan in medbay on our way there,” he said. They made their way to medbay, lost in thoughts. Neither Nogla, nor Brian, said much as Brian stepped off of the scanner. It was so different from their normal being. Normally, they would chat and laugh together, not be lost in thought and wondering who was murdering their friends.
When they went towards navigation, they saw Marcel at O2, probably cleaning out the leaves. Nogla silently worked on charting their course as Brian fixed more wires. Hadn’t Delirious just fixed these ones? He was pretty sure Nogla had mentioned such a thing before. Oh well, he wasn’t so sure anyway, he was still kind of in shock.
He got out of his daze when Nogla tapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go,” he said softly. Brian nodded and followed him out of navigation. Suddenly, there was a high-pitched beep coming out of the intercom speakers, and it didn’t end. “Hmm, strange,” Nogla pondered out loud,” Let’s go and fix that. Wouldn’t want to not be able to hear the alarms.” Brian gave him a look and he chuckled awkwardly. He rolled his eyes. Fixing comms didn’t take all that long.
Suddenly, they heard a loud shrieking sound, almost as if someone got possessed by the devil. “No! Vanoss, no! No, no, no!” Brian looked shocked at Nogla. That was Delirious who had cried out. They made their way over to where the loud screams came from. When they entered storage, they found Delirious violently slamming his fists against the window.
“This can’t be happening! This can’t be happening!” he screamed. Nogla sprinted over to him, grabbing him from behind to prevent him from damaging his hands more. They were already covered in blood, suggesting how hard he had been slamming them against the glass.
As Nogla held the screaming man, Brian tried to ask what happened. But as both men looked out of the blood-streaked window, staring into space, all words died on their tongues. It suddenly became very clear why Delirious was hysterically screaming and crying.
Out there, in the cold dark space, was Vanoss’ body floating around. Delirious didn’t stop screaming, as he tried to free himself from Nogla’s grip. Brian looked from Vanoss’ body, bended in all the wrong ways, to the garbage chute which was only a couple of feet away. He could guess what happened and he felt bile rise up in his throat.
But before he could empty his stomach on the floor of the Skeld, Nogla called out to him. “Brian! Call an emergency!” Brian was to shocked to instantly react. He didn’t know how. “Brian!” Nogla shouted as he lost his grip on Delirious, who buried his teeth in the Irish man’s arm. With a pained shout, he let go and Delirious booked it.
Within seconds, the two Irish men ran after Delirious, who quickly made his way through lower engine. Nogla slammed the emergency button when they passed it. As they saw Tyler and Moo rush out of reactor, Marcel came out of security. Nogla screamed for them to stop Delirious. Sadly, they were to stunned to react fast enough.
Before they could catch up to him, Delirious ran into the open door of the airlock and slammed the manual closing button on the inside of the room. As the door closed, Moo tried to stop it, rushing forward. “No, Delirious! Please,” he yelled and slammed his fist against the closed door. Tyler was trying to pull the door open as Nogla tried to override the safety code, desperate to save the man locked inside.
“Don’t do this, Delirious, please!” Moo pleaded, tears forming in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Moo,” Delirious said,” I can’t live without him. I just can’t.” A smile on his face with the thought of being reunited with Vanoss, Delirious pushed the button to open the outer door of the airlock. He placed his hand on the glass of the door, right where Moo’s hand was, smiled and closed his eyes. A few tears slipped from his eyelids as the door fully opened up.
Delirious was ejected.
As the door closed again, an eerie silence fell upon the left-over crew. Brian couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t comprehend what was happening. He always knew Delirious was a crazy bastard, but he never thought he was capable of doing this. But as he looked at the others, thoughts like ‘Who is the monster?’, ‘Who did this?’ and ‘Who is still my friend?’ popped into his head.
As Moo slipped to the floor, crying his heart out once he realised what Delirious meant, Brian walked away. He couldn’t face them anymore. They were no longer his friends. He couldn’t trust anybody, he was left all alone. Mindlessly, he made his way over to electrical. He still needed to calibrate the distributor. Even diverting the power and fixing the wiring in there was done without a second thought.
He started to aimlessly walk around the Skeld, noticing how big and yet how small it was. Moo was no longer crying against the airlock door, Tyler was nowhere to be seen and Marcel passed him without a word or glance in upper engine. He seemed to be running around doing more tasks.
Suddenly, the lights turned off as he was about to go into security, making it pitch dark. Luckily for him, the cameras were still working, the screens giving off an almost blinding light. He could make his way over to the desk without stumbling. Just as he was about to change the perspective of the camera, he heard a loud noise. He spun around, spotting Nogla standing right behind him.
“Hey Bri, how are you holding up?” he asked with an uncertain smile. Brian sighed and walked over to him. Nogla opened his arms to invite him in for a hug. Brian accepted the invite, wrapping his arms around the other. “I can’t believe I can go on like this, to be completely honest,” Brian muttered into Nogla’s chest,” I’m just so tired.”
Nogla hummed, softly swaying them from left to right. “I understand, it’s all going to be over soon.” Brian sighed, feeling content for the first time in a while, wrapped in Nogla’s arms. Tears started to form in his eyes. He wished he could be like that forever, surrounded by the warmth of the love of his life. But somehow, he knew that could never be.
“I don’t know who the monster is and I’m not sure if I want to find out,” Brian sighed, voice wavering slightly. Nogla pulled back a bit. A small smile appeared on his lips as he looked Brian in the eyes. He leaned in and softly kissed the other. “I love you,” Nogla said,” I really do.” Brian smiled and pulled him back in for a longer kiss.
“I love you too.”
When he pulled back, he swore he heard a sound like a vent closing. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a figure moving through the shadows. A whisper sounded, something like “killed them all” floated through the air. Brian could barely make out the colour of the spacesuit the figure was wearing.
He blinked. He swore he could see very sharp pointed teeth shimmering in the lights of the computer screens. “W-was that... Marcel?” he asked. Suddenly the feeling of immense fear creeped up upon him. “No, my love,” Nogla said, as he placed his hands on both sides of Brian’s head,” It’s just your imagination.”
2 impostors remain.