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5up was having as normal of a day as you can when flying through space with a group of aliens. The crew of the Skeld was small but mighty. The day like always was filled with monotonous tasks.
It wasn’t until after he had finished emptying the garbage shoot and cleaning the air filter in the o2 room that 5up’s day was thrown off course in an unwelcome way.
He and Hafu were cleaning a vent in the weapons room and discussing some new food he had discovered.
“I’ve never had anything quite like it!” 5up animatedly tells Hafu as he unscrewed the vent. As soon as the cover was off he felt the itch of a sneeze. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of the dust and paper clips that had accumulated since he and Hafu had last cleaned the vents. Koji and Ze walked past waving at the two.
“I can’t believe you’ve never had salmon before,” Hafu says as she handed him the garbage bag after returning Koji and Ze’s wave. “Here I thought you were the expert at Earth’s foods.”
“In my defense,” he started to defend when the lights flashed red and the sound of an alarm went off signaling an emergency meeting. 5up frowned at Hafu. What had happened to warrant an emergency meeting he wondered.
Matching 5up’s frown Hafu set her bag down, “We better go see what this is about.”
5up climbed down the ladder and the two quickly made their way to the cafeteria. The seriousness immediately sank in when he saw the rest of the crew was already there and that the doors had locked behind them when they entered.
Ovilee and Ellum were arguing about something at the meeting table in the center of the room.
“I’ve just seen Ovilee kill!” Ellum was shouting frantically pointing an accusing finger at the girl.
5up’s heart sank. Kill, there was a death who had died? Beside him, Hafu let out a startled gasp.
There was blood splattered on both Ellum and Ovilee. “Ellum, don’t you dare try and turn this on me,” Ovilee shouted returning the accusation.
5up felt sick when he realized that of the twelve crew three were missing. Janet was in a corner unable to speak. Undoubtedly she had seen something but whoever had done this must have had the ability to silence her somehow.
Dumbdog, Dk, and Kimi were absent.
“I saw you standing over Kimi,” Ovilee explained, “I cleaned the vents in the cafeteria before heading over to reactors to check the levels Junk was there when I left for electrical to fix some wiring I found Kimi dead.” A choked cry escaped her as she explained. “I went to check if anyone else was in there when Ellum came in and started to say I killed her.”
“No, I saw you kill” Ellum protests.
“Calm down!” Hafu says collecting herself and taking charge of the meeting, “Did anyone else see anything? And where are Dk and Dumbdog?”
“No one can find Dk,” Ze volunteers, grimly “But Steve and I found Dumbdog. He had been in medical it's possible he killed Dk. We found him with an empty jar of a Ju’grn’at sample.”
Steve nodded. Everyone knew that Steve and Dk only pretended to hate each other and were actually best friends, “We know what Ju’grn’at does to people, It takes over and fills you with a blood lust. It makes sense that it would have interacted poorly with Dumbdog’s DNA.”
“Well, I know 5up didn’t have anything to do with this. I say we keep a close eye on Ellum and Ovilee just in case it wasn’t the Ju’grn’at sample and report anyone else acting suspiciously. We will contact their families when we reach our destination.” Hafu instructs. “This meeting is dismissed.”
An assortment of grumbles and various nods of agreement follow Hafu’s instructions. Slowly the crew dispersed to their various tasks. There is a tension in the air that wasn’t there before.
Before leaving Steve gave Hafu the now empty Ju’grn’at sample jar. She quickly threw it in the trash.
5up grabs one of the boxes that have the crew's dinners and heads back to his room. All motivation to finish cleaning the vents is gone. He gives Hafu a nod on his way out of the cafeteria.
“Janet let’s get you back to your room. Hopefully, you will be able to tell us what you saw in the morning.” Hafu comforts. She places a gentle hand on her back and passes 5up going the other way towards the women’s rooms.
Janet’s face remained blank her eyes seemed unfocused as she followed Hafu. 5up’s thoughts wandered as he headed back toward his room. A Ju’grn’at infection made sense but it seemed too simple.
Ovilee and Ellum were friends too its not like they had just met the whole crew had been together for years at this point and were all good friends.
Ovilee’s story felt more believable to him. Ellum was a good crew mate but he definitely was known for his joking tendencies and misunderstanding of situations.
In his heart, he hoped that’s all it was. They could mourn their deceased friends and that would be the end of this issue.
The sinking feeling of dread in his stomach thought otherwise. 5up didn’t sleep well that night.
His stomach was unfortunately right. When 5up woke up after a fitful night of sleep and trudged to the cafeteria for breakfast he ran into Ze and Steve.
5up’s blood ran cold as he watched Steve try and attack Ze. Before 5up could react though Steve fell over on the floor. Both he and Ze watched the blood begin to pool around his midsection.
“What the fuck,” 5up gasped. He knew there were aliens on this ship but he wasn’t sure what this could be.
“We should call a meeting,” Ze said mournfully looking at his friend, “Steve must have thought I had something to do with Dk’s death. He was a Sheriff hybrid.”
The manner of death clicked for 5up. “At least I know you haven’t killed anyone.” it was well known that Sheriff hybrids could only kill someone if they had killed in the last four months and if they were wrong they would die instead.
“Let’s hope the others knew. Steve was never exactly subtle when it came to his hybrid nature.” Ze says grabbing Steve’s arm and dragging him towards the cafeteria.
When he got back to Earth 5up was going to need so much therapy.
The two walked to the cafeteria dragging Steve behind them so he could be ejected into space. Ze hit the button and the two waited in awkward silence for the other crew to arrive. When they did Ze spoke.
“I lied yesterday. Steve killed Dumbdog I saw him do it, but he was a Sheriff hybrid. This morning on the way to the cafeteria he tried to use his ability on me as well and obviously it didn’t work.” Ze told the dead quiet crew of the Skeld. It was getting to be a very bad week.
This crew had been friends for over 4 years now without losing a single crew mate and then suddenly when they finally head back to Earth with their new knowledge that’s when disaster struck.
“That actually makes sense,” Koji says, “I knew he was a Sheriff he told me.”
“The thing is the timeline doesn’t work for him to have killed both Dk and Kimi” 5up announces with a new horror settling in, “We know Kimi was in electrical when she was killed and if Steve killed Dumbdog in Medbay there is no way that he would have been able to kill Kimi too.”
If it was possible the situation got grimmer. Not only was another of the crew dead but there was a killer among them at this very moment still.
“Guys I think we need to get rid of Ellum now,” Hafu says looking up from the floor. “If Dumbdog didn’t kill Kimi then that means there’s still a killer, and between him and Ovilee he is more likely. We will put it to a vote,”
Hafu had said what everyone was thinking but no one wanted to say.
The voting method was anonymous and the majority would win. It wasn’t the crew's first time using this system but now they all hoped it would be the last. It was the law of space.
Ellum protested loudly but was ignored as the votes were cast.
“Six votes for Ellum, One vote for Ovilee, and one vote for Junk.” Janet read out. She had regained her voice and explained that she hadn’t seen anything it was just the shock of losing her closest friend Kimi.
“You know what this means Ellum,” Hafu says coldly. She leads him to the pod stationed in the cafeteria for this reason. It was filled with supplies enough for him to survive if he was good along with a tracker.
5up watched as his once friend was sent out. Hafu’s insistence to push him out didn’t feel right. She should be smarter than this. He was beginning to wonder if it was simply the Ju’grn’at or if it was something more.
He had himself voted for Junk something about the man's body language during this last meeting didn’t sit right either. The entire crew watched as Ellum’s pod faded out of view.
—
A week passed the unease began to lift. 5up was reading up on the alien infestation known as imposters and was certain that was what had happened. He couldn’t help but think that perhaps Hafu might still be one.
5up was finishing his upload when Junk finally snapped and called for a meeting.
“I want to go back for Ellum,” Junk declared, “I think that it was just Dumbdog and we made a mistake. Ellum is an honorable man.”
The rest of the crew looked at him with disdain.
“I don’t think that that was Ellum anymore,” 5up broke the silence saying,”I have been reading up on Imposters. They are a Ju’grn’at variation and happen after a Ju’grn’at attack. Usually, there will be two Imposters and a Ju’grn’at. If that was Dumbdog and one was Ellum I think there is still one among us.”
His words hung in the air as the crew began to protest.
“That’s crazy!”
“That would mean there is another one?”
“Let’s just get back to Earth as fast as we can and let the tests figure it out,”
There was more to the clamor before 5up had enough, “Calm down everyone,” He shouted when he had their attention he continued “Unless there is another death I say that we finish cleaning the ship for landing and then we get back to Earth were we all take a long break.”
What he didn’t say but everyone heard was “Let’s get to Earth and never speak to each other again this is getting to be to much even for the best of friendships.”
The crew listened and separated.
—
It was three days later when they had only two days left before earth and 5up was emptying the trash when a different kind of emergency occurred. The entire crew got an alert on their data pads that the reactor was having a meltdown.
This wasn’t going to help the side eyes and distrust amongst the crew. No one had smiled since Kimi and the rest had died.
5up himself had to clean their blood off of the floor. They never did find Dk so it was assumed that he had been eaten by the Ju’grn’at before Steve had killed him.
As 5up ran towards the reactor he passed Janet running the other way. Alarm bells went off in his head as well as the ones on his datapad.
That was when he stumbled across Ze’s body. He didn’t allow himself to look at it until he had restarted the cooling system on the reactor. His hands shook as he pulled out his datapad again. He sent out an alert to the rest of the crew. “Stay away from Janet emergency meeting in 5 minutes”
It was only then that he allowed himself to kneel down next to his friend. Desperately he checked for a pulse. There was none. He closed his eyes and bowed his head in respect for his now-lost friend. The ship was going to be quiet after this.
He left Ze’s body where it was. These would be the last deaths the Imposters caused.
As the now haggard crew made it to the cafeteria a realization set upon 5up. There were still two killers left.
If Janet was one she hadn’t interacted with anyone near the Ju’grn’at death until after the first kills. With Ze and Steve now dead no one had directly interacted with the Ju’grn’at.
5up paled. Hafu had taken the Jar and then spoke to Janet. Hafu had spread it. His best friend was gone. It made sense now why she wanted Ellum gone.
Their goal was most likely to kill everyone on the ship.
“Janet killed Ze,” he informs the crew.
Immediately she tried to protest but she was covered in Ze’s blood. Junk grabs her by the arm and holds his gun to her head.
“Hafu is infected as well. It was the jar that Steve gave her. He must have been immune as a Sheriff but Hafu wasn’t and then she gave it to Janet.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Hafu exclaims, “It must be 5up”
A tear rolls down his face as he pulls his gun out as well Hafu didn’t have hers on her thankfully.
“If you are in there somewhere still, Hafu, I am sorry,” 5up says and nodded at Junk. The two dragged the imposters over to the door. There was no pod for them. They shoved the protesting Imposters who now that they had been exposed allowed their eyes to glow red.
They were shoved in the shoot and ejected into space.
5up slumped to the floor after it had been done. Junk sat beside him and Ovilee joined.
“I told you it wasn’t Ellum,” Junk says after a while.
“We can send someone to get him, but I am never going back to space,” Ovilee said.
Both men by her agreed. “We are going to need so much therapy,” 5up said.
—
The once close crew of twelve returned to Earth as a group of three. Authorities were sent to retrieve Ellum who was rescued.
The four of them gave their reports to the Space Agency and retired. A funeral was held for the lost crew.
Their friendship was never quite the same but they did heal. The four became closer after their shared trauma. None of them set foot in a spaceship again. The Skeld was decommissioned and placed in a museum along with the tragic stories of the crew.
5up went down in history as the savior of his crew for figuring it out. He and the others never were able to escape the lasting paranoia that there was still an Imposter on Earth. The four survivors of what became known as the Ju’grn’at tragedy never escaped the nightmares of those red glowing eyes of those who once were their friends.