Chapter Text
Red and Purple talked for hours as the ship came closer and closer to its destination of Industria. They reminisced about their intern days, told each other various stories from their childhoods, and a very bizarre and disturbing story from Red involving paper clips.
But as the hours went by, Red started to get drowsy. They were currently sleeping and resting their head on Purple’s shoulder.
Maybe it was the fact that Purple was an insomniac, but they just couldn’t seem to sleep. The memories of their fellow crewmates’ deaths played on loop in their mind.
I should have done better to protect everyone, Purple thought, I was a terrible security guard.
“I wish I could go back and prevent this whole thing from happening in the first place…” they whispered to themself. Suddenly, the Skeld began to swerve and shake violently. Purple’s body is thrown around while a still sleeping Red slides down across the floor. What the hell was happening?!
Purple peered through the door window at the hole where the Ore Plus storage room used to be. Their eyes widened. The ship was headed straight into a black hole! The head of security ran towards their captain.
“Red? Red!” They shouted while attempting to shake Red awake. “We’re heading towards a black hole!”
“Wha…huh?” Red mumbled as they started to get up, putting their hat on lopsidedly.
“You need to be a captain for one more time and steer us out of orbit!” Purple gestured wildly.
“Oh. OH! OH CRAP I FORGOT TO LEAVE THE SHIP ON AUTOPILOT!” Red sprinted over to the captain’s control room, Purple soon following suit.
Red brushed the various video game cartridges and other miscellaneous items off the control panel. They gripped onto the steering wheel and tried to guide the Skeld away, but the force was too strong.
“Ugh! We’re locked in its orbit!” Red cried.
Oh god. This is it. We’re dead. Purple thought. They sank to the ground, defeated. Red looked at the black hole and then back at their friend coworker. They let go of the controls, and kneeled down to cling onto Purple. If Red was going to die, at least they weren’t going to die alone.
The Skeld shook harder and harder. The two crewmates could hear metal clanging and clunking. The ship was breaking apart!
The two shut their eyes and hugged tightly as a blindingly bright light flashed around them.
“PURPS?”
“WHAT?!”
“BEFORE WE DIE, I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU THAT I LO—“
At the exact moment the Skeld entered the hole, something strange happened. The ship exited out the black hole a second later, looking completely unscathed.
This was because it didn’t enter a black hole, it entered a worm hole.
Purple and Red opened their eyes and blinked. Purple got up and scanned the area around them. Strangely, the Skeld looked not brand new, it was an older model after all (because Mira Corp loved to cut corners), but it looked like it did at the beginning of the mission. Even the Ore Plus storage unit was back.
“What? How is this-I don’t-I don’t understand-“ Purple muttered as they continued walking. They opened the door to the room and stopped dead in their tracks.
“Uh, Purple? Purps? Where’d-Ah! There ya are!” Red said. “What’s going on?”
“Red…I think we went back in time.”
Red stepped into the hull and immediately saw the very much alive pair of geologists Black and Cyan handling the Ore Plus.