Chapter Text
Its a beautiful… day? Night? Whatever time it is on the Skeld. The crew is transporting valuable Ore+ to Industria, as explained in Orange's Skeld introduction video, shown to new crew members.
Yellow and Brown are cooking a pizza, Orange is getting signatures on a HR paper, which Black and Cyan are signing, Lime is crawling through the vents to the reactor room, Red is slacking off playing games, Purple is watching the cams, and Blue, Green and White are in Medbay. Everyone is accounted for.
As soon as Green and White, the new crewmates, are done with their scans, and done with watching the introduction video, they are given a tour of the Skeld by Orange.
First, the storage room. Orange began to tell White and Green about their work here
"Sometimes your unpaid internship will mean you work in here with Black and Cyan, our two geologists!"
"Namaste." Cyan greeted White and Green
"I'M a Geologist," Black spoke up, "Cyan is a GEMologist."
Orange tried to correct, "Thats not what the paperwork says!"
"Well the PAPERWORK IS BULLSH-"
Orange, Green and White hurried out before Black could get too worked up about the paperwork wording, heading to the reactor room and Orange began to tell the new hires about it.
But before Orange could finish their sentence, Lime popped out of the vents, scaring everyone. They began to ramble on about something about the vents being turned around.
"This is Lime. Our engineer." Orange said, exasperatedly.
"Im also an ordained minister." Lime added.
White questioned "…why are you in the vent?"
"What are you, a cop?"
White took the question literally.
"No, but I'm friends with cops!" They began to ramble on "I'm friends with all kinds of people! Landlords, influencers, politicians' children, people who greenlight live-action versions of animated movies, people who watc-"
"Ah, I ain't got time for you jaw-waggers!"
Lime retreated into the vents, bumping into the edge on the way down and grumbling as they crawled away.
They checked for Purple in Security, but it seemed they weren't there.
"Oh, it seems like they aren't here right now." Orange commented. "Looks like we'll have to move to the next crewmate who I like the same amount as everyone else!"
They entered Medbay, Blue was standing in the middle. Blue's visor glimmered.
"hello, doctor." Orange whispered, quietly and flusteredly. They tossed blue the trust ball for them to give a fun fact about themselves. "Trust ball?"
Blue caught it effortlessly. "After my time building structurally sound homes for the unhoused in Northern Yeniria, I found that trust isn't given, its built." Blue tossed the trust ball back, expecting someone to catch it.
Instead, everyone was too enamoured by his speech and beauty to catch it, and the ball ended up cracking Green's visor.
Green commented. "You're the most attractive person I've ever seen."
"Now, let's not objectify the hot doctor!" Orange quickly brought White and Orange along to the next room
"Now onto the cafeteria! I think we can skip this very boring, very fair working environment!" Orange explained.
Behind them, Yellow and Brown, the two cooks, talked between themselves.
"Say Brown, looks like Orange got that new intern." Brown nodded in agreement as they cut up the food. Yellow shouted out to Green. "Hey! How many beans you being paid, Intern?"
Orange chuckled "We dont need to discuss our rate of bea-"
Yellow quickly hopped the counter. "Discussion of wages is Protected speech!" They spun and tossed Orange aside. Brown followed Yellow over to Green.
"Cmon, Green. Spill it on three. One, Two Three."
All 3 spoke at the same time, Yellow and Brown predicting Green's Answer:
"Nothing, I'm an unpaid intern."
Yellow walked over to Orange, who had just got up off the floor, and grabbed the Trust Ball out of their hands in a flash.
Yellow began to speak quickly, and deadly seriously. "Unpaid internships favor the wealthy while being a capitalist exploitation of inexperienced workers under the guise of helping them achieve their personal and financial dreams."
They tossed the trust ball to Brown, who just said "Preach."
Orange finally got up properly, and hurried White and Green along through the hallway. "Thats enough indoctrination for today!"
"whats a capitalist?" Green asked
White answered cheerily "Me!"
They continued though the hallway, on their way to the cockpit. Right before they could be spotted by Orange, White and Green, Purple retreated in the O2 room. The tour continued anyway.
"We got the big one coming up!"
"Oh, you mean…?"
"You bet, The captain!"
All 3 entered the cockpit of the ship where the Captain, Red, sat in the pilot's seat. "Mira HQ, we'll get the Ore+ to Industria on time with no losses, over and out." They turned around in the seat to see the 3 crewmates approaching the cockpit.
"Ohh my gosh! Permission to come aboard?" Green asked, amazed.
"Haha, Permission granted!" Red chuckled. "Ill take that trust ball."
Red grabbed the trust ball that Orange handed them. "I'm Red, Captain of the Skeld. Shipping Ore+ across the galaxy is a lot of responsibility, but someone has to do it, and that someone is me."
"I am so excited to be here!!" Green exclaimed. "I wanna fly my own ship some day."
Red chuckled "why wait? Anyone wanna try pilot the ship?" They gestured towards the now empty seat and control panel.
Green started to walk towards it, amazed at the prospect of his dream, piloting a spaceship, was finally coming true.
But before Green could take the seat, White interrupted. "Sure!" He nudged Green put of the way and took the seat, humming while turning the ship in all directions, just for fun.
"Woah, I feel like one of my chauffeurs!"
Purple finally came out of the O2 room and into the cockpit.
"Hey, Captain, there seems to be- Woah! Is the contest winner flying the ship?!"
"Purple! Yeah, they uhh…" Red fumbled a reason. "They're… uh, doing it for a very captainly reason. That i will… say. soon!"
Orange then remembered to introduce Purple to Green and White. "Oh, this is Purple, our head of security!"
Purple very quickly greeted back but didnt lose focus on the main issue here.
"Yeah, hi. Is that allowed? Seems kinda irresponsible!"
Red quickly took a second to skim through the Captain's Handbook, searching for the word "Irresponsible".
"I don't see anything in the manua- I mean, I dont see any reason why not!" Red fumbled out another excuse. "…or maybe the unpaid intern should be flying the ship?"
Purple reminded him, "YOU should be flying the ship!"
"That doesn't sound right."
"Okay." Purple sighed. "I just came to say there seems to be a lot of security issues. The cameras don't record, theyre only in black and white, an-"
Red quickly interrupted, patting Purple's shoulder. "Im sure it'll be fine, Purps. We're just going to Industria!"
Green attempted to reassure Purple, just repeating Red's words. "Yeah, Purps, We're just going to Industria!"
Purple was beginning to get frustrated. "Well I can't exactly do the job youre asking me to do, without this stuf-"
But before Purple could finish their sentence,
BANG!
Everyone was thrown off their feet as the ship began to wobble. White, who had been piloting the ship, had hit an asteroid. The outer wall of the storage room, containing the Ore+, had been blown wide open.
An alert rang out through the entire ship. "ALERT, HULL BREACH. COMMS COMPROMISED."
White reassured the panicked crewmates. "Oh, this sort of thing happens to me all the time, someone will fix it!"
Purple, clearly annoyed, retorted "WE have to fix it!"
Lime opened the door to the storage room, where the vacuum of space was pulling all it could out the ship, and fell towards the opening. He grabbed onto a box, but lost his trusty wrench to the hull breach.
Many other crewmates began to get pulled. Yellow almost fell, but was caught by Brown.
Orange and Green fell, but landed on a box of Ore+. However, Orange lost their Trust Ball.
Blue spoke up. "Orange! Where are the rest of your Trust Balls?"
"REST of my Trust Balls?" Orange laughed hesitantly. "I only have one!"
The rest of the room yelled in consensus that they knew Orange had more than one.
"Okay, okay!" Orange ran over to a box with a cloth over it labelled "Emergency Supplies", and ripped it off to reveal the real label: "Auxiliary Trust Balls". A box full of them.
Blue yelled out to Orange once more. "Dump those Balls!"
Orange attempted to push over the heavy crate, but its too heavy. Suddenly, Black, Cyan, and Red jumped down to help.
Together, they finally tipped the box, plugging the hull breach with a pile of Trust Balls.
Blue, still holding onto one of the boxes, went into a handstand, which led into a landing flip.
"Wow. You've all done really well. I'm so impressed with our teamwork today. You've made me proud."
The rest of the crew cheered at Blue's short yet inspirational victory speech.
Then, Red stepped up beside blue and tried to second that speech. "Well, im the captain, so uhhh... I also said that. Me too."
The crew lightly clapped, reluctantly.
There was a beat of silence.
"How about a pizza party to celebrate we're not Dead?" Red asked. The crew lightened up a bit, and headed to the cafeteria.
Everyone chatted, ate, and were generally happy.
Except for purple. They knew that Red would want to chat with them, and they just weren't in the mood. They walked west put of the cafeteria, and locked the door behind them.
"Hey, guys! Have you seen Purps around?" Red went around to the different tables asking. "Purps? Puuuurps? Where are you?"
Purple sat down in their seat in Security. They watched the party from the cameras. Why did Red not take the job seriously? They thought back. To the accident. Why did Red ever sign that contract? Why work for Mira again? Why get them a job, too? They just didnt understand each other…
Purple sat back and relaxed in their seat. So… many… questions… they dozed off.
Well, until the vent behind them rattled. They slowly woke up, rubbing their visor.
"…Hm? Wha- AGH! WHO.... WHAT ARE YOU?"
They saw something awful. A hulking, pink, pulsing mass. Anyone else would have only been able to see a silhouette from the entrance. They reached for the alarm button, but were grabbed before they could press it.
Red went to look for Purple on his own. He unlocked the door that Purple had locked earlier, and perked up in surprise.
"Oh! Hey, Purps! I was just looking for… you… you okay?"
Purple was breathing heavy. They were shaking. They reached towards Red, grabbing their hand one last time.
"R… R-Red… H… H…
H… Help…"
Red looked concered. "Purps? What's wrong?"
A seam formed, straight down the middle of Purple's body.
Before Red could react further, they split in half. Blood spurted out, the two sides fell to the ground.
Red fell to the ground, silently distraught.
The rest of the crew freaked out. They screamed, panicked, and ran around.
Red just stayed there, on his knees, staring dead ahead, visor wide, down the hallway where Purple came from.
"…Purple?"