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Chapter Text

"Craft, Philza. U.N.C Skeld." 

THe room was filled with whistles and murmuring of appreciation and awe. The Skeld was only given to the best, manned by the top in their fields. Philza walked up the stairs to the podium, receiving his new badge, patches, and tablet with a handshake from the Head of Star Command. The ceremony continued till all ships had been assigned. 

Philza walked down the hall, receiving congratulations with a closed smile. He found his way to the private room marked for his meeting, and after taking a deep breath stepped in. His officers were sitting in the room, filling three of the eight chairs around the room. Philza tilted his head in confusion,

"Wasn't I supposed to have a new medical officer?" He asked aloud.

"She's currently defending her thesis, but she should join us once she's done." The new face at the table explained, flicking his fingers up, moving the video he'd been watching to be presented on a holographic screen in the center of the room. On the feed was a young woman with green hair standing in front of a presentation, explaining diagrams and charts to a room of older officials. Her expression was calm and serious, all her focus on the information. Philza watched her for a minute before looking at the blue haired man watching the screen intently with pride in his eyes.

"You're rather fond of her, have you worked together before?" He nodded his head. Philza sat at the table pulling up his crew list.

"You've got to admire her composer, this is one of the most stressful and nerve racking things a person can do."

Second Officer Technoblade     Suit color: Pink

"That must have taken weeks if not months to collect data, but I can't find fault in the findings."

Science Officer Wilbur Soot    Suit color: Yellow

"I know this has been her passion project for years, I saw her old notebooks. They've put this as their crowning achievement in their studies." 

Head Engineer DanTDM      Suit color: Blue

"Well if this is the work ethic she puts in her work, we shouldn't be worried about anyone getting sick or hurt." Phil noted, pulling up the qualifications and certifications of his crew and looked them over. Skeld only had the best of the best and these were what proved each one of them were exactly that. 

"That concludes my presentation, I have sent my reports, case notes, and final papers to you for you to analyze. Are there any questions or anything you would like me to elaborate or reiterate?" The young woman kept her voice even as she answered some of the older officials questions with facts, citing things in her reports. 

Medical Officer Emerald Star      Suit color: Silver 

"Dan, your history says you've been on a crew with Emerald before. How is she on board?" Phil asked, looking up at the blue haired engineer. 

"Has a habit of putting work first, but once given assignments sees them through to completion. Always obedient to authority unless they sense something wrong. Eccentric would be the way I'd describe them, they like music so as long as they have it they'll be fine."

Philza nodded, Crew obedience was great in day to day ship life, but someone standing up in a crisis was also a good thing. It had been what saved a few crews back when Impostors had been running rampant. Luckily Impostors were no longer a threat. 

Three young men entered the room, the tallest double checking the name card outside the room before entering. The other three members of the Skeld. Philza stood to greet them, followed by the other officers. 

"Gentlemen, I am glad to make your acquaintances and work together. Please, Take a seat. Once our medical officer joins us we will begin our meeting." Each of the young men nodded, taking their seats around the table. Dan swiped away the feed of Emerald's defense of their thesis. The smallest of the trio looked at Dan with excitement, his brown curly hair messily swept away from his face in an attempt to be properly dressed in uniform.

"I can't wait to work alongside you, DanTDM. You're one of the best Engineers in all of Star Command.

Engineering Specialist Tubbo     Suit color: Brown 

Dan smiled, "I can say the same about you. I've seen your scores and your practical work and I am impressed." Tubbo practically beamed at the compliment. 

"Ranboo, I'm glad you're joining us, I heard that you had considered leaving the academy a few times." Technoblade spoke, looking at the young man with straight, but still fluffy, brown hair. 

Science Specialist Ranboo.     Suit color: Purple 

"I... Struggled a bit deciding what I wanted to do with my life. But I'm excited to start here." 

"We all have had those moments, it's not a bad thing. Your computer science scores are incredible." Philza reassured and praised the mask-wearing figure. 

"Thank you sir, I've had quite a lot of hands on practice." 

The door opened one final time, the last member of their crew.

"Apologies for my lateness, someone didn't realize my defense of my dissertation was on the same day as ship assignment." The young woman walked in and immediately sat down next to the blue haired engineer, running her fingers through her hair to keep it neat. 

"We saw. Thank you for coming as soon as you could." Philza thanked her then turned to the last member, who was staring at his own hands, picking at the piping on the cuffs of his dress uniform.

Communications Specialist TommyInnit.       Suit color: Red

"Mate? Are you okay?" The blonde's head shot up when he realized he was the one being spoken to.

"Just nervous. It's my first full time assignment on a ship. I'm sure once we get on the ship they will fade." 

Philza nodded, knowing that it was common for academy graduates to be a bit nervous right before their first assignment. The lack of safety net was kinda scary to adjust to, but most handled it just fine. 

"I'm sure everything will be fine, We are all here based on our merit and skills. If there's something wrong we most likely will be able to handle it." The Captain encouraged, slipping easily back into his familiar leadership role. There were brief introductions between the new crew before a call took over the room's big screen. The conversations halted as the form of one of the Admirals filled the screen. 

"Greetings U.N.C Skeld Crew, Glad to see the crew is all accounted for and present. We shall now begin your mission meeting."

Chapter Text

Tommy stood on the transport shuttle, holding on tightly to the support rail as the ship rumbled and shifted as it ascended through Earth's atmosphere, heading towards Aura Mira, Star Command's ship port on the edge of Earth's reach. There were many other people on this ship, all heading up for various reasons. Some, like Tommy, were heading for their ship to start their missions. Others were people who staffed the station, getting ready to take over their shift. Many were cadets from the Academy on a class trip, those were pressed against the windows, looking up at the rapidly growing station.

He'd been one of those not too long ago. He'd started living among humans as an infiltration method about a year and a half ago, but now was the official start of his mission. 

Kill the Crew of the best ship the humans had. The supposed best of the best. 

He swallowed as the ship passed through a rather dense pocket of turbulence, focusing on his human body.

The specific placement of the joints in each limb, the placement of hips where only two legs started from, the symmetry of bones.

He wasn't happy about the smallness of his mouth or how dull his teeth looked, but it had to be done. However one thing about human form he did like was the fact he didn't have to hide his eye color. Humans had such a wide range of eye colors, blue being one of the more common. Humans took pride in their eye colors, plenty of females had complemented his eyes in the Academy, so it was nice to feel good about his eyes for once. 

He'd been born with blue eyes. To his parents he was weak, a loose end, a failed legacy. He'd been looked down upon by his species due to this stupid difference, which drove him to pushing himself in training, to be the best Impostor so he could have glory and respect. Once he finished his mission he'd be able to have a life free from judgement.  

The ship's intercom announced that they were a few minutes from docking, Tommy squaring his shoulders as he mentally prepared for what awaited him. 

That's when a cold hand landed on his shoulder, making a shiver go down his spine. He knew that hand, nothing good had ever come with it. 

"Hello Tommy." He swallowed hard but didn't turn around.

"Dream. I thought you were already on a ship for your mission."

"Change of orders from the Counsel. I'm staying here to monitor Aura Mira. I thought I would send off our "best" with a final encouragement." Dream sounded much too slick, Tommy hated when he sounded like this. It was worse than when he was yelling hateful things. His voice got even closer, Dream leaning closer to Tommy's ear to whisper in their native tongue,

"Still following along? No plans of defecting or deserting?" Tommy rolled his eyes, turning to look Dream face to face, a slight smugness growing in his core realizing the other's human form was slightly shorter than his own. 

"I am as loyal as the day I took the oath in front of the Counsel. You will see my training was not wasted." 

Dream's face didn't move at Tommy's growl, So Tommy straightened up, the ship shaking in the familiar way they did when docking. Switching back to human tongue, Tommy tried to make his exit.

"I thank you for your concerns but I assure you, I got here by my own merit, I have this handled." He turned away from Dream, grabbing his red backpack from the floor, and heading towards the exit, before being stopped by another hand on his shoulder. Of course Dream wouldn't leave him alone. 

"What sort of Mentor would I be if I didn't walk you to your ship? C'mon Inanis Estia, Let's see you off." Dream spoke with a sickening sweet smile, wrapping an arm around Tommy's shoulders. 

Tommy hated the coldness in his gut and the acid tasted in his mouth from the name Dream had called him. It had never been a good thing. An insult, a slur. 

He wanted nothing more than to get away from All of this, but for now he could settle for getting away from Dream. So he kept his pace quick, following his instructions down the paths to where the ship should be docked. 

By Gods, why did it have to be at the end of such a long extended section? Dream was talking his ears off, switching between encouragements in human and insults in their native tongue as they approached and passed humans walking about the corridors. It was painful. Tommy prayed for some relief.

"HEY JACKASS!"

Relief came in the form of a green and silver haired human in a silver flight suit, yelling across the platform. 

"You Are Creeping Everybody Out, Especially Him. So Let Him Go, Turn The Heck Around, And Leave." They glared at Dream, looking very ready to throw hands if he decided to not comply. Dream clearly noticed that everyone was now staring at them, and so let his arm around Tommy's shoulders drop, mumbling something of a good bye, before walking away like he'd been told to do. There was something warm about watching Dream walk away after being scolded by a "lesser species". Tommy shifted his bag to be properly on his shoulder, turning towards the sliver human. 

Then he saw the patches on the uniform, more readable as they approached. One said U.N.C Skeld the same ship he was on. Another right underneath it was a little red cross bordered in gold and green. Medical Officer with a doctorate. 

He had been saved by his new Medical Officer. The biggest threat to his mission. 

...

Well, at least Dream was gone. 

"Thank you. That was rather kind of you." 

"No Problem, sorry that it kinda put you in the spotlight though. But that kind of person only listens when they can't escape." Sliver admitted, one hand on their hip as they looked down the way Dream had just left, the other arm holding a dark grey case labeled with medical symbols. "You looked uncomfortable, so I was gonna help." 

Tommy looked at their colorful hair, studying the strands. Humans were rather aesthetic beings, changing their hair and putting color on their faces. The green was clearly that, seeing that the very short strands around the side of their skull were brown. The sliver however was different, the skin at the base different from the rest. He realized he should probably stop staring as Silver's head turned back to him. 

"We should probably get to the ship. Take off is in an hour and we need to do last minute prep."

"Yeah we should, shall we?" Tommy agreed, motioning with his hand towards the ship. Silver walked ahead of him, placing the case they were holding on a cart with others and pushing it up the gangway, their black boots having an iridescent purple to them that was definitely not regulation. Clever human. The ship's interior was full of bright lights and cool metal hallways. Silver split off to finish their own pre-takeoff tasks. Tommy tried to find his own quarters to put down his bag with the others that had been sent ahead, but wasn't having much luck. He needed to go to admin so he could get the map of the ship added to his tablet. 

But first he needed to find it. 

Brown came running around the corner, crashing into Tommy and sending both of them to the floor. Brown groaned, sitting up and rubbing his face from where it had made contact with the wall. 

"So Sorry about that mate. I was trying to get my last pre-take off tasks and wasn't checking for others, are you okay?" 

Another thing Humans was one of their care about others, more specifically how it was not often a transactional thing. For most humans it was natural, emotional, easy. Impostors didn't do that. Tommy looked at Brown, who was now getting up and holding out his hand to Tommy, confused why he was putting a pause on his own work to make sure Tommy was okay. He tentatively reached out and grabbed the offered hand. 

"I'm fine." One tumble wasn't going to do damage to him, he was built tough. Brown still looked a little guilty.

"Were you looking for your room so you could put your stuff down? I can show you to the Private quarters." Brown's face broke out into a smile as he pulled Tommy up to stand. He nodded and followed the short human. The sooner they got to the quarters the sooner he could leave Brown and do his own tasks. It didn't take long, the doors with their colored stickers indicating whose room was whose. Tommy waved his wrist band at the scanner, hearing it beep before the door swished open. 

The room was simple, meant for when crew mates wanted to be alone or during their rest hours. Tommy put down his bag next to his crate of things he'd sent ahead, not like he had much to begin with. 

Brown was still standing in the hall when he came back out, tapping away on his tablet before looking up and seeing Tommy there. 

"Waiting to set up later? Can't blame you. Let's get you over to Admin, I've got a task over there." He asked, staring at the back of Brown's fluffy curls as the two walked to Admin. Very similar to his own curls. Admin was very close to the private quarters, so they arrived quickly. Brown moved to one of the screens, connecting his tablet and uploading what looked like schematics of the ship. Tommy instead moved to the center console, pulling out his own tablet and placing it on the pad so it could be updated with the map and his pre-takeoff tasks. 

Luckily it only took a moment, pinging once done. His main task was to check the comms system across the ship, starting in the Helm. This task would take the longest but he could do other tasks while testing. 

In total it took him an hour to test the whole ship, in which time he ran into Purple, Green, and Blue.

The latter two set him on edge. Green was his captain, the second biggest threat to his mission, as well as an authority figure, which always put Tommy on alert. 

But Blue set him off in a different way. He'd been working in electrical when Tommy had walked in to test the comms. Tommy had opened his mouth to warn Blue he was about to test, but he didn't get any words out when any unfamiliar scent ran smack into his instincts. Immediately it put him on high alert, eyes flicking around, searching for danger. Tommy stood still in the door for a solid three minutes before Blue noticed and turned around, his blue hair pushed back by a pair of goggles. 

"Red? Do you need some help with something?" He asked, hands up like he wanted to reach out but was hesitant to. Tommy almost didn't hear him as his internal alarm was ringing so loud but he couldn't figure out why. 

. threat, unfamiliar .

"Red? You there?" 

Tommy shook himself back to his senses, swallowing his panic and pushing it away to sort out later. He cleared his throat and looked Blue in his eyes (his very blue eyes), and lifted his tablet. 

"I'm checking the comms across the ship, making sure they're all online. I was just about to check this room."

Blue nodded, "I'm just about done here, I'll let you get to it." 

Tommy would deny how fast he left after the test was done. 

"Crew of U.N.C. Skeld, Please Head to Take-off Positions For Launch."

Tommy was already in Communications when the call came through the ship, so he sat in one of the chairs against the wall and pulled the straps together, clicking the metal buckles and tugging on the security straps to make sure they held. Slipping on the correlating headphones, he heard the voices of his crew clearing their areas as ready.

"Medical Secured. Silver Locked In."

"Labs Secured. Yellow Locked In."

"O2 Secured. Purple Locked In."

"Reactors and Engineering Secured. Blue Locked In."

A pause

"Sorry, the headphones hit me in the face. Electrical Secured. Brown Locked in."

"Storage and Weapons Secured. Pink Locked In."

"Communication Secured. Red Locked In." Tommy confirmed, running his hand through his hair. 

"All crew and cargo accounted for and secure. Permission to initiate launch?" Captain Green's voice was the last to call through.

"U.N.C Skeld, you have permission to launch from Aura Mira. Good luck on your mission, Safe Travels."

"Thank you Star Command. Crew, prepare for launch." 

The automated system started preparing the ship to separate from its dock, Tommy tried to distract himself. He thought back to Electrical, where his instincts had gone haywire. Blue had been the only other person in there, and he didn't seem like much of a threat. There was barely any muscle on his frame, Silver was the same height and they definitely had more meat on their bones. 

"Em want to make a bet?"

"Dan I swear if this is about me screaming you are not getting any sweets for two weeks." 

"Aw.. I like your baking too much." 

"Good. Now shut up, I'm trying to not panic right now." 

Apparently Silver had an issue.

"Silver, Are you okay?" Green asked, concern audible in his voice. 

"I'll be fine Captain. I don't like take-offs from this kind of station." Silver dismissed, their voice tight. Tommy didn't understand, take-offs were thrilling, they got his hearts racing, made him feel alive. 

Like Now, as the ship suddenly dropped from the station, Free falling for no more than three seconds before the engines roared to life. There was a scream, muffled through the ship but still loud enough for even humans to hear. High pitched, probably from Medical. 

And they were off the darkness of space contrasted with so many stars filled the windows as they flew further and further from Earth. 

"Not a word Blue." Silver's voice came through the headset after a crackle that indicated the microphone being moved, tight and shaky. 

"The worst of it is over, don't worry. I'll come get you as soon as I can." Blue talked to Silver like a pod leader talked to a young larva. That made something twist in Tommy's hearts. Mars passed outside the window, rusty red with white clusters of domes.

"That was You Silver?" Yellow asked.

"I don't do well with drops."

"Twenty minutes till we are out of the System." Pink's voice called through the channel. 

Twenty minutes till he had to face his mission again. Tommy let his head fall back against the seat, closing his eyes.

Chapter Text

Two months in and the crew of the Skeld had fully settled into a routine that had the ship sailing smoothly. For Phil, it had been a bit of a learning curve to adjust with his new crew. Not in a bad way, it's just he was used to Wil's and Techno's habits after a few years working together on their previous ships. But everyone else was unfamiliar territory, but he was more than willing to learn. 

Looking through the Crew Files was the first stop, and they were supremely helpful as a starting point. For one, both his Medical Officer and Engineer Specialist were both Neurodivergent. Not a big deal, They each had their accommodations and Phil couldn't say it held either of them back in any way. If anything, it threw them forward, Tubbo especially. 

Ranboo had diagnosed Anxiety and PTSD, Making him a bit more jumpy and slightly paranoid. The first time Phil had walked into O2 while Ranboo had been working without making the younger aware had not ended well. Ranboo didn't like giving their back to people, scanning rooms before entering. 

Dan had taken a while to warm up to the other members of the crew, Emerald being the exception due to their history. He was caught off guard many times by the others, mostly by Wilbur and Tubbo's eccentric manias while working or in their down time. But with encouragement from Emerald he warmed up to the crew, surprisingly to Techno first. 

"What do you make of our new Crew, Tech?" Philza asked his second in command as they sat for an early morning meeting, pouring coffee for the pair. Techno leaned back in his chair, accepting the mug as Phil handed it over. 

"Dan is intelligent and efficient, good company too. He puts up with Tubbo pretty well, not to say Tubbo is a problem in any way..."

"He's loud." Phil interjected as Techno took a sip of his coffee.

"I was going to say dangerously smart. I'm sure the kid could somehow turn our missiles into nukes if we asked him to. Or if he was bored. " Techno admitted, "It's not a bad thing. I'm glad he's sociable, the others could keep him out of trouble." 

"Maybe. Half the crew is about a year apart in age, so they'll probably be thick as thieves by the end of the mission." Phil conceded, then pausing with a look of concern. "What are your feelings about Red?" 

Tommy, or Red as he'd very adamantly insisted on being called, kept to himself on the ship. He always looked like he was tolerating the others during meals and did his tasks with no complaint. 

"There's got to be something there. We haven't insisted on going solely by colors since the eradication." 

"Kid is probably running from something. I wouldn't be surprised if he's scared of forming relationships due to his past. I was. Still am." Techno added spinning the cup on the table like a dial. Phil sighed heavily, looking down at the swirling coffee before taking a drink. 

"How bad that you're running from your name?" He asked, Techno shrugged in response. 

"Maybe leaving the name is his way of leaving it behind." He offered, "Wil did the same thing."

"Wilbur was running from himself, I don't think Red is in the same..." Phil started but trailed off. Techno raised his eye brows, taking a sip of his coffee. Phil drummed his fingers on the table, thoughts running fast. "It feels... My gut tells me it's more complicated than that."

"As if running from yourself isn't complicated?" 

"You know what I mean." The captain retorted, causing the second in command to snort. "I think we should take advantage of our Ship Doc's interest of study, it's getting about the time that Star Command wants evals." 

"Yeah, let me know how that goes." 

Phil looked at Techno, who was avoiding eye contact. 

"She has her Doctorate in Psychology, work with her." 

"She's the youngest on this ship Phil. I'm not going to put my problems on her shoulders." Techno got defensive, his grip on his mug tightening. Phil rested a hand on his arm, but Techno refused to look at him. 

"Don't go into it thinking you are. She's still a professional." 

"She would have been Nine Phil. Not even Star Command got that desperate." 

Phil didn't know what to say after that. Techno finished his coffee, grabbing his mug as he stood. 

"We've got to get started. Come on Captain." 

Emerald pushed her chair away from the computer in the Medbay, letting the wheels roll across the floor in the dimly lit room. Perk of being a medical officer, control of the lights. Captain Philza had told her to start the Med Evals on the crew, but let her pick the order of when each member of the crew needed to come in. 

The physical was easy enough, just stand on the scanner and let it do all the work. The Psych Eval however had to be done by the Medical Officer on board. Luckily, said Officer could schedule how many they wanted to do that day. 

Like today, they had just finished their own and Dan's. Tomorrow would include Philza, Red, and Tubbo. But as of now they were done with work. They could stop and just chill. Standing from the chair, rolling it back to the computer so the magnets on the floor could keep it from rolling into something vital. 

Emerald left the room, turning right down the hall to the cafeteria, deciding that some chocolate milk and Cheez-its were the perfect snack for watching the stars go by. Each crew member had a cabinet for their preferred snacks and treats, Her's was kept stocked full as a reminder to eat. Sometimes the only thing she'd eat was a handful of one of her snacks across the day, and Dan would have to threaten to tell the Captain to get her to eat something more substantial. 

She would never deny that she was a major hypocrite. In charge of making sure every crew member was consuming filling and nutritional meals and receiving enough fluid, yet forgets to eat and drink. 

Pulling the bottle from the cooler, Emerald started to sing quietly to herself, a song that had been stuck in her head all day. Shaking the container of Cheez-its to pour a portion into a small bowl decorated to look like a carved pumpkin, she tapped out the rhythm, finally able to place the tune. 

Umbra, by Ghost 2025. Great song. Epic Cowbell.

"The Altar is lit with black candles
The darkеr, the better
So killing, it's thrilling me!" 

"You didn't strike me as the Satan worshiping type." 

Emerald threw the box at Wilbur's face, whipping her arm so fast that he didn't have time to dodge. 

"Make your presence known you asshole." 
"I'm not the one who assaulted one of my crew mates with a box of crackers." 

Emerald rolled her eyes, walking over to pick up the box from the floor. Luckily none of the cheesy squares had fallen out during impact. 

"I Like a lot of music. It's a nice way of keeping my brain intact." She huffed, closing the box and putting it back into her cabinet. "That particular band is nice because it spans many genres, mostly filling out classic metal. They had some pretty great theatrics with their shows." 

She picked up her snacks, turning around. 
"Is there something you needed from me?" 

Wilbur shook his head, stepping to the side and reaching for the community cooler, searching for something. Emerald left him to his devices, walking out into the cafeteria and sitting at a table close to the windows looking out into the stars. Facing the vastness of space, some would feel insignificant, small. But Emerald only saw beauty, the swirl of galaxies, the pin points of light from stars burning so bright their light was measured for miles. 

She had to thank one of her old mentors for this outlook. 

The heavy sweetness of the chocolate milk was comforting, reminding her of nights spent looking up at the stars through the dirty skies, trying to trace the patterns of constellations from the porch swings. There were no familiar patterns anymore, but then again, she wasn't the same little kid wanting to explore whatever she could. 

"You could've had a career with that voice. I've heard someone singing through the ship and thought someone was broadcasting their personal music." Wilbur's voice came from over her shoulder, his footsteps coming close. Emerald shrugged,

"You're not the first person to say that to me."
"Well, they were right. You got a particular genre you prefer?" 

Emerald gave him a blank stare, making Wilbur realize that really was a stupid question, considering he'd heard her singing for the past few weeks. "Oh, you don't really care about that do you?"
"Nope. In a way, it's the beauty of a mind wired to not fit in boxes." 

"Unstuck. That seems a nice way to be." Emerald turned his comment over in her head, sipping her chocolate milk. It was nice, but she knew the real depths of that statement. At least from her perspective. 

Wilbur shared her silence, both watched stars go by the big windows. It was nice, peaceful and serene.

For about five minutes.

"Doc, Ranboo doesn't believe that being anywhere in the proximity of a nuclear explosion means immediate death." Tubbo and Ranboo ran into the cafe, Tubbo loud as always. 

"Who starts a conversation like that?"
"I didn't say that, I said without fallout the actual danger of a nuclear bomb is the concussive shock-wave, which, arguably, is much more survivable depending on the situation." Ranboo clarified, sitting down at the table and folding their hands. Tubbo with much less composure, flopped into a seat, looking at Emerald expectantly. Emerald turned away from the window, shifting her legs so they were under the table. setting down the bottle as she brought her hands up. 

"We have tested that." The trio looked at her with varying levels of shock. 

"During the height of the Cold War, America was very actively testing many applications and ideas of nuclear weapons. The American populace was fear of the dangers that nuclear fights could wreck on urban centers should nuclear dogfights happen. So five military personnel volunteered for a publicity stunt to prove the safety of their technology. They called it the Genie." 

"Why? That sounds so stupid." Wilbur exclaimed, looking in horror at both the Medical Officer who knew this off the top of her head and Engineer who was hanging onto every word.

"This was the Cold War, 1950's and 60's. Trust in the government from military personnel was high. And the five who volunteered firmly believed that a nuke detonated that high up would be contained."

"And? What happened?" Ranboo asked leaning forward, curiosity peaked. Emerald took a sip from her bottle, before answering.

"They all lived, some into their 90's. It was filmed, because publicity stunt, and they recorded a synchronized flinch after a flash. I'm pretty sure you could look it up. So to answer the question, in essence the danger of an atomic weapon comes from the shock wave first then the fallout in the long term. Without debris to ionize the fallout would be minimal."

The three guys looked at her, ranging from admiration to horror. She slipped another few crackers into her mouth, proud of herself. 

"Again, Why do you know that?" Wilbur asked.

"That one had a huge hyper-fixation on Nuclear destruction when she was very little." Dan's voice came from behind them, causing three of them to turn toward the blue haired Engineer. Dan walked over, a small smile on his face like he was caught in a fond memory. "How young did you say you were when it started? 8?"

"A little bit older than that, maybe ten? Either way I just know a lot." Emerald answers, Sliding over to let him sit next to her. 

"One of the more unusual interests for a young girl but who were they to judge." Dan laughed as he knocked into Emerald's shoulder, receiving a returned bump in response. 

"So you just casually know trivia on Nuclear disasters?"

"Lots of Macabre topics actually, I didn't really think of things as taboo."

"Lemme guess... You had a true crime faze." Tubbo jumped in, cutting off Emerald and Ranboo's conversation. Dan snorted, looking away as Emerald looked at him.

"Who said it was a faze?" 

Tubbo and Ranboo broke out into laughter, while Wilbur still looked bewildered. Something Emerald noticed.

"I originally wanted to be a Forensic Specialist, Later a Forensic Psychologist, but by the time I was on ships I couldn't stand the courts system." 

"So, exchanged the dead for the living." Wil finally spoke, coming out of the stunned state he'd been in. 

"In a way." Was all he got in response. 

Going down a different tangent, the group continued having their conversation, leading to a very animated debate on what would get to the crew first, radiation or exposure. 

Dan smiled at Emerald, completely at ease for once. Emerald looked up at him, matching his smile, knowing what he meant, before cutting into the debate with her own input. The wildest topics and arguments were being brought up, and it really did feel like they were slipping into team comradery.

Tommy snuck into Medbay, creeping over to the scanner, and cautiously unscrewing a panel on the back. He palmed a data cartridge, slipping it into a slot in the motherboard, typing a command into the screen that popped up in the Medbay screen. It ran for a few seconds before showing a notification of completion. He nodded, pulling the cartridge and replacing the panel just as carefully as he had removed it. Silver shouldn't be able to tell anything was a miss during his scan tomorrow. 

"we are too close to the solar system to start now. just a few more weeks." He whispered in his native tongue, slipping out the doors and turning back to the private corners. Til he heard the laughter from the Cafeteria, freezing on the spot. Laughter was such a nice sound, one he'd only gotten to hear once he'd started infiltrating humans. 

His training said to not join, but he listened to the conversation, the voices of Silver, Brown, and Purple, casually chatting about something he didn't have the context of. It sounded... warm...

His feet turned around, carrying him to the Cafeteria before his brain caught up. But by then it was too late. Yellow and Blue were also there, with Yellow being the first to spot him. 

"Hey Red! We were having a discussion on video game mechanics."

Brown and Silver nodded, with Brown jumping in

"Yeah, and how real they could be." Yellow turned back to him, an amused smile on his face, "Wanna join us?" 

It was an offer to join. All of Tommy's training was screaming at him to politely decline and go back to his quarters, but... 

There was no hostility in any of their faces, just eagerness and excitement. They were laid back and talking casually about video games, not tasks. 

"Sure, sounds fun." He found himself saying, approaching the table and sliding into a seat between Brown and Purple. He didn't know much about video games, but he did know a lot about human physicality. 

About an hour later the group dispersed to head to sleep, promising to have a debate again. Only when Tommy was laying on his bunk tying to slip into rest he realized,

That was the first time he heard his own laugh.