Chapter Text
"Hey, back now. Ship's opening"
The coral crewmate with a yellow hardhat ordered their team to brace to receive the delivered ore+. In an orderly manner, they line themselves up readied to face the fatigued crew. The entrance to the skeld lowers in the docking bay with a hiss leaving a white fog to be cast around the storage unit. For a moment, nothing could be made out but considering there was no abnormal movement, Coral motioned their team to remain in position. There, a singular crewmate stepped out from the ship along with another.
"..uh hey there!" Red chuckled nervously while Purple shifted uncomfortably next to them. The storage of the skeld was entirely barren of any resources nor any other crewmates seem to be in sight. Coral only sighed, speaking into their walkie talkie.
"Yeah an imposter got em. And these idiots must've chucked the bodies and the ore+ into space or something."
Not long after a bunch of White crewmates in suits escorted Red and Purple out to a separate room. They glanced at one another nervously getting a serious case of deja vu.
"They're gonna make us sign an NDA right." Red whispers to Purple. Purple nods, seemingly in thought on how to escape.
"Quiet" The white crewmate starts " Our team is collecting the remains of your crew. Meanwhile Pink would like a word with you two."
Both their visors widen from Pink's name. No way they're repeating what they did last time. Red glanced over at Purple who seemed to be seething. The white crewmate seemed to notice Purple too.
" If you plan to run, we have you know we are armed."
The air becomes heavy with the simple threat.
Red noticed Purple mumble something under their breath in the lines of 'Fuck Mira' averting their eyes to distract themselves. The walk was silent and thick the remaining way until they eventually stood in front of the familiar dark oak double doors leading straight into Pink's office. Another white crewmate opens the door for the three. They head inside bregrudgingly starting at the omnious looming figure of the Mira CEO.
"If it isn't the reactor duo." Pink muses, almost finding the whole scenario entertaining. "You two must have some incredible luck to survive not one but two disasters!... Or a curse."
Purple clenched their fist staring at Pink pointing an accusary finger at them.
"You're gonna make us sign an NDA like last time aren't you?! And basically cover up everything!" Red really, truly admired Purple's bravery and integrity to speak up when things are wrong but they were scared shitless right now and Purple wasn't helping. Pink, similar to last time, took the threat very lightly. As if they were 20 steps ahead of their plan.
"Of course! If we disclose part of the job requires you to transport murderous alien eggs for fuel, no one will apply." Pink smiled wryly. "However you do have no choice with this one, its either the NDA or biting the bullet."
"WHAT?" Red was shocked at the sudden escalation "This is completely increwmane!" They could feel their legs shaking and their chest tightening from the adrenaline. They never once objected to Pink's suggestion. However it felt weirdly good in a way for speaking up. LIke they were doing something a little better for this world. "Others need to know about this! They need to know they're going to DIE." Red yelled slamming their hand onto Pink's desk expressing the absurdity of the situation. Pink looked down at them unphased.
"Look, no one's going to pass." Pink stated merely "We have the technology and a great team of medics to resusicate your dead crew. We also have a team of experts tracking all of you at all times so if you ejected any innocent crewmate we can fish their frozen body back to the lab. So, if you two sign the NDA we will resurrect the crew back. If not, you can join them alternatively."
Red looked shocked. Since when was Mira this brutal with their policies? And since when did Mira achieve these levels of technology? And if they did so, how come the skeld's always in bad condition? Did they simply care that much about their employees to spend most of their resources in resurrecting dead crewmates? No that wouldn't be. Mira is a greedy corporate buisness. They're keeping them alive so they don't gain a loss from employee deaths. Purple frowned at Pink's revelation.
"What about the posessed? Green and Orange? They basically have no solid dead body. How the fuck will y-"
"That's confidential. We wouldn't want competitors knowing our secret." Pink states bluntly "But we guarantee the whole crew will be back. Though a side effect will be that they will have their memories, so emotional trauma we can't do much about it. But don't you worry, since you showed us how incompetent your crew is, we generously decided to add a professional to your crew!"
Red and Purple stiffened. Someone added by Pink of all people will probably be a giant prick. Not to mention them keeping tabs consistently. But what choice did they have really. Its either the NDA (plus the whole crew back) or death. Pink smiled signalled the white crewmates to bring over the paperwork and pens for them. Red looked over at Purple. Purple sighed.
"Fine. But we're only signing this for the crew." They growled.
"Perfect." Pink smiled "I'm proud you've learnt from your past mistakes Purple."
After they signed their paperwork, the two were led to something like a hotel room. They were informed it will take a maximum of a week for their crew to revive and after they did so, they will have to embark on another journey to deliver the ore+ again. Red and Purple both soured at the thought of being back on the Skeld with the potential of an alien cutting their head off smooth yet they had no choice. Either that or hefty charges even a captain's income cannot afford. On the brightside, they were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted that fell under Mira's rules during their one week period. But Purple felt uneasy about the addition of the new crewmate. They weren't informed about them and their identity itself seemed to be strictly confidential. All they knew was that they're a nurse, a surprisingly minor role for someone deemed so important, and they were one of Pink's 'Most trusted individuals'. Purple didn't like that description one bit. Neither did Red.
"This whole thing" Red starts "Its so..."
Red moves their hand around in the air trying to encapsulate their feelings. Purple groaned.
"At least the crew is safe." Red reassures patting Purple's back. "Well I think, I'm not sure if they're even alive yet haha" Red tries to lighten Purple's mood. It seemed to work a little, the wrinkles on top of their visor seem to smoothen out slightly as they looked back at Red.
"Yeah. I can't wait to have them back." Purple said hopefully "I really miss Brown and Yellow's cooking. Especially after whatever shit we ate for the three weeks to survive."
Red chuckled at the memory. Once they defeated Green, they realised both of them were hopeless at cooking. They were basically surviving off ingredients to eventually canned food after stress eating a little too much.
"It's a miracle we didn't get food poisoning. We didn't even have Blue to help us!"
"I mean we did have medicine it was just labelled very.. poorly." Purple said almost feeling bad on commenting negatively on Blue's handwriting. But they were a doctor after all.
"Well if we're talking about handwriting I'll like to bring up Black." Red commented "Their handwriting is so them. I don't know how to explain it. Its so angsty." Purple rolled their eyes.
"Right like Orange wasn't complaining about how your signature being basically a small drawing of a spaceship." Red's cheek flushed in embarassment.
"Purps you know I made that in high school..."
"Yeah I can tell you were a loser."
"Was not! I was actually pretty popular with the ladies. Heck even Cyan kissed me before that mission!" Red defends themselves.
"I think it was more in a platonic way Red. Sorry to break it to you." Purple teased "And you definitely have no game."
Red deflates admitting defeat. They sighed deeply.
"At least I have more game than Green right?" Red chuckled nervously.
"I wouldn't know. Same with White. Both of them died too early." Purple shrugged. "I'm not even sure that the alien copied Green perfectly either."
They sat in grave silence for a moment.
"I can't believe Lime was right about the aliens though." Purple starts again to readjust the mood "They even got who were the aliens."
Red nodded in agreement. "Yeah maybe we should listen to them more. Well to some extent."
The silence returned again but this time from fatigue.
"We should clock out." Red suggested. Purple responded by flopping on their side of the bed, curled up ready for some proper sleep. Red crept in next to them hugging their back.
Sharing a bed was a normal occurance to them now. After the whole fiasco, the two refused to be separated, afraid of the possibility of another alien loose on the ship. It was to the point they would both have trouble sleeping away from one another, in fear one will either die or be posessed by a parasite. So they prompted to sleeping in one bed which they eventually grew accustomed to after some awkward nights.
"Hey Red?"
"Hm..?"
"I can't wait to see them again."
"Me too Purps, me too."