Chapter Text
Gray was trying to rest before their Skeld pilot duties had to resume, Red had offered to take the first day, even if it was only to impress the new crewmates, but Gray didn't really trust them with that. They heard Orange enter the Skeld accompanied by someone, Gray decided to introduce themselves and walked out into the hallway, their room was on the upper side, along with Red's and another two rooms, they didn't know whose, but there were plates in the door. As a copilot, they didn't have to share a bunk, but that didn't make the MIRA sponsored mattresses any more comfortable.
The tour was just getting to medbay, Orange skipped the security guard to talk to their obviously favorite crewmate, Blue. When Orange turned back to talk to their tour group, they spotted Gray standing in the hall looking at one of the fluorescent light sticks in the ceiling.
"...and this is our copilot, Gray." Orange said, gesturing towards them. That took Gray out of whatever important thoughts they were having and back to the present. "Hey, Gray, trust ball!"
Gray caught the ball, forgetting what to do next. "What do I do now?"
"Say a fun fact about yourself." Orange reminded them.
"My fun fact is... I can juggle 4 balls." Gray said. "I'd show you, but we only have one."
"Yeah! We only have one, right?" Orange sounded nervous, almost like they had a secret trustball stash somewhere... that didn't make sense. "Anyways, let's continue our tour." They led the new crewmates to the kitchen, probably trying to avoid Brown and Yellow. Grey stayed in their room, trying not to worry so much about Red's piloting abilities; they were only supposed to start the ship anyways, what could go wrong? They decided to read to pass time, with almost the whole day left.
______
Apparently, everything could go wrong. Red let the contest winner fly the ship, how did they even become the captain? White, of course, didn't know how to drive a literal spaceship and crashed it against an asteroid, opening a giant hole in the storage wall. Blue had the idea of using Orange's secret stash of trustballs to close the hole. Somehow all of that happened right before lunch, so they still had time to celebrate the fact nobody died suctioned by the infinite abyss of space.
Some time passed, but white wasn't anywhere to be found. They came stumbling into the cafeteria, everyone turned to look at them, but they fell face first into the floor. Everyone panicked, Red, wh was supposed to be the responsible leader of the crew, didn't do anything about it. It was Blue who took the lead in this situation, taking white to medbay and making all the necessary tests. Red and Orange went along with them, leaving everyone else in the cafeteria.
"Is white dead?" Cyan asked Black, who was sitting next to them.
"They're probably fine, stop being so dramatic Cyan." Black didn't want to talk to them.
"But- what if-" Cyan was now crying, holding onto the geologist's hand, Black pushed them aside and moved to another table, Cyan held their crystal necklace instead.
The rest of the crewmates came back, Red announced White was probably fine, they just passed out, but they still needed to scan everyone just in case. Gray didn't want to use their rest day taking a mandatory scan test, but they didn't have any option, it was mandatory after all.
By the time they had dinner, White had woken up and was sitting with Green. Blue was about to skip dinner to work instead, but to Orange's insistence, they decided to rest and do their work in the morning. Gray finished their plate and went to sleep, preparing themselves for work tomorrow. Thankfully, as a copilot they didn't get a roommate, so they could just go to sleep and not worry about being woken up by an insomniac or whatever. Unfortunately for Gray, this time they were the insomniac, waking up in the middle of the night with a bad feeling, similar to those you get when watching horror movies late at night, except the scariest thing they had encountered all day was the emptiness of space, and when you work in a spaceship, it becomes a daily thing.
Groaning, they got up, maybe a walk would help tire them out. They went to the cafeteria and drank a glass of water, they prepared to go back to their room when they heard someone in admin whispering, or maybe crying? All of that headphone use was finally catching up. Gray decided to go check the noise, it probably wasn't a killer alien or whatever.
When they got to admin, they saw Orange sitting in a corner, crying and talking to themselves.
"I'm not- I'm not dying, I don't wanna- for once I hope Blue isn't right, This is- this is just stress! It's stress and it'll pass, right? Aliens don't- I'm not "infected by a parasite" these- these thoughts I'm having- they're just- they're stress!" Orange was talking to themselves, getting constantly cut off by their own sobs. They noticed Gray standing there and tried to compose themselves, putting on their usual cheerful tone, but they still sounded sad. "Oh- Gray! Hi!"
"Uh... are you ok?" Gray said.
"You heard everything, didn't you?" Orange stopped trying to pretend, their voice even sounded different, just a bit, but Gray noticed.
"Kind of... can you... tell me? I wanna help, it's fine if you don't want to, but..." Gray sat beside them in the floor.
"I guess you already know, so it's no use trying to hide it, hehe..." Orange tried to smile again. "Blue said I got infected by an alien parasite during the crash and that I might die if I let it take control of me." They sighed. "It's making me have... thoughts I definitely wouldn't have otherwise, and I fear I might do stuff I- stuff I could regret."
"What do you mean "stuff you could regret"?" Gray said.
"Violent thoughts."
"Oh."
"I bet now you think I'm gonna kill you when you turn your back." Orange fidgeted with a trustball, how many did they have?
"Well, I trust you not to kill me. Intrusive thoughts are shitty, I know, but I still trust you." Gray put a hand on the other's shoulder, Orange hugged them, still crying, still scared, but relieved now there was someone who knew, so they weren't alone.
_______
Breakfast came, the two crewmates had fallen asleep on the floor, next to the admin table. Gray woke up to Orange still resting their head on them, they tried not to move so they didn't disturb Orange, but Orange had already woken up, just laying there until they saw Grey looking at them. Orange blushed and got up, way faster than a normal crewmate should have, but Grey didn't really notice, they just stood up and stretched. Their back hurt from sleeping on the floor, but orange's head wasn't that uncomfortable, overall it was kind of nice, at least as nice as sleeping in the floor can get.
When the two had gotten to the cafeteria, they saw blue going off to medbay to continue their investigations. Orange didn't sit with Gray this time; they sat with White and Green instead, probably discussing new hire stuff. Gray took out their phone and headphones to play music, but nothing looked good, so they just ate their breakfast and went back to navigation to do their job. Red was playing minecraft in the main console, they didn't notice Gray coming in.
"Hey, Red, i know it's my turn to pilot but can you use a side screen?" Gray said. "I kind of need to see."
Red paused their game. "Whop- sorry, I'm moving, no biggie, right?" They moved their console to one of the smaller screens.
"Yeah sure, just please use headphones, and don't yell when you find creepers." Gray took the center seat. "Did you log in the route yesterday?"
"Sure did." Red said, proud of themselves for remembering this time.
"Alright." Gray put on their headphones and played random music, just to have something to do.
________
Orange woke up with their head on Gray’s shoulders, they had fallen asleep in admin somehow. They tried to think of what had happened after they dropped in the floor to cry, deciding they were kind of comfortable, even if they were laying on the floor. Then, they remembered how they had told Gray everything about the alien parasite.
“Just kill them, easy as that.” The alien’s voice said in their head. “No witnesses, no evidence.”
Orange shook their head, focusing in the feeling of the rug under their fingers, trying to calm down. They looked at Gray, still sleeping beside them. Then, Gray opened their eyes.
Orange panicked and stood up as fast as possible, why were they nervous? Probably some alien instincts or whatever, unless… nope, definitely alien instincts kicking in, they almost ran to the cafeteria, leaving Gray in admin. In cafe, Green waved at them, Orange walked to their table, where White was also sitting. When Orange took a seat, Green’s smile dropped like an act.
“So you’re the third one of us.” Green said, White looked suddenly very interested in the floor. “I’ll get to the point, you need to kill at least one person, or else I’m killing you.”
Suddenly, Orange understood why White looked so uncomfortable; Green had probably told them the same, both of them were infected too, and it seemed Green had given up.
“But- I’m not-“ Orange tried to deny their parasite affection.
“Cut it off, I saw your scan in medbay. Blue’s lucky they stayed in their room.” The intern was somehow very intimidating, it was hard to believe they were the same person, in fact they probably weren’t. Orange felt the tears appear again, but they pushed it back in case Green took it as an offense or something, they’d cry alone in admin later.
“White already agreed, so don’t try to get out of this one.” Green said.
Orange turned to look at White, but they looked almost terrified, if they wanted to survive they’d have to kill someone or figure it out alone, unless… Gray?