Comms

Brian Strongarm, was fixing the wiring in Electrical when the communications, known as "Comms", went down. There was an audible "click" that resonated throughout the ship and echoed in his helmet. The audible warning was followed by the blinking of the hallway lights signaling something wrong. If the Comms malfunctioned, the ship would be unable to update the progress of the tasks completed by the crew to HQ. Fixing this new issue became the priority according to protocol.

"Great," Brian mumbled, cursing under his breath. "Now I have to go all the way to the other end of the ship." He shrugged and shook his head, unsure if he should be annoyed or simply indifferent. "Ship this old," he continued to mutter as he worked to complete his current task. "Not sure why I'm surprised."

Brian was just about to finish the second part of the current maintenance before moving away to work on the Comm. As he was pulling the last cord to close the circuit, a flash of blue – white discharge pulsed through the wires and exposed circuitry undoing all his work in blinding glory. A massive surge of energy signaled the Comms becoming completely corrupted. Brian saw the other astronaut rush out of the room when Comms failed.

"Maybe," he mused in a whisper to himself. "I can just wait it out. The team will get it fixed. Eventually." It was just a minor setback he decided. Soon enough he could get back to his wretched tasks. "I'll just wait here and replace this one," he mumbled as he set to work on the recently refried circuits in front of him.

Brian had barely noticed another crewmate standing in the corner of the room, most likely waiting for the communication to be fixed like he was. While he mechanically prodded the blackened circuit, his wary mind wandered to the memories of life back on Earth and the life he had left behind. His wife. His children. His friends. When would he see them all again? For that matter, would he see them again?

Brian could hear his wife's words of goodbye echoing in his ears, his children's tears of sadness as he hugged them one last time. He wished he could have brought them along like some of the astronauts did but he knew the mission was too dangerous for them. It's better they stayed.

As Brian continued to recall events from the past. He remembered the trees, the blue sky, the song of the birds at dawn. The little things he had taken for granted when he was living on his home planet. Brian's eyes were filled with the images from the memories stored in his brain and were oblivious to the astronaut who had just taken a step closer from the corner.

"Click"

The lights ceased blinking and Brian was snapped out of his dreamy daze. He shook his head and forced his eyes to adjust. He was just about to get back to work when he took notice of the other crewmate standing right beside him. A little too close. Brian didn't have time to make out any details.

A gurgling sound came from somewhere deep in the astronaut's chest.

"What the…" Brian was cut off as the gurgle morphed into a sinister growl.

Brian starred in abstract horror as the crewmate split in half with a sound so sickening it made his hair on his back rise. The sound was a mix between the ripping of paper and the slow cutting of meat. Brian gawked, eyes wide, feet rooted to the ground as the insides of the astronaut revealed baring fangs and rows of sharp-edged teeth. A sharp spike sprang out. Frozen in fear, Brian's last thought was of his family and how he would, in fact, never see them again.

-*-

Patricia Ivanov, an cosmonaut, approached Electrical on her way to continue working on the tasks she had been assigned. She had just fixed communications, turning the dial to the right frequency to receive critical messages from HQ. The damage which had triggered the alert was surprisingly simple to repair. The setting had been altered which caused it to malfunction. Patricia knew that someone had to have done this, but she didn't have anyone to suspect since no one was found near the communication room. It may have even been done remotely. Patricia considered the circumstances on the way back to her tasks. She didn't know whether to feel scared or to dismiss any anxiety-filled thoughts that clouded her mind. "Maybe it was just an accident," she reasoned to herself. Walking into Electrical, she couldn't help but think of a list of people she thought were acting abnormally.

Turning the corner confirmed her suspicion in a gruesome way.

Patricia's vision blurred and her world spun and she almost fainted. She thrust her hand out and felt it contact the bulkhead and was just able to keep herself together. Her eyes widened in sheer terror when she realized what she was looking at.

The bottom half of a severed crewmate's body lay in a pool of dark red blood that still spread around the remains, the furthermost edges slowly crystalizing in the cold air of the ship. The blue material of the spacesuit was soaked with so much crimson it was nearly black. Ragged edges of the thick material drooped under the weight and looked as if they had been unevenly torn apart. A segment of the crewmate's spine protruded out of the body, glistening meat, and chunks of flesh still clung to it. More of the poor man's thick, dark fluids dripped slowly from the exposed hunk of bone and nerve. The corpse's lower half was nowhere to be found.

Patricia choked down a wave of fear as it wrapped its tight and cold grasp around her throat. Her brain was shouting at her to move but her limbs refused. She was paralyzed by the sight. Glancing down, she realized she had stepped into a puddle. Deep red was soaking her pink space suit with blood. When she finally found the courage, she inched towards the body to get a better look, careful to avoid the blood that had splattered onto the ground. With trembling hands, she struggled with a device that looked much like an enhanced loudspeaker. This, she knew, would signal the crisis response protocol. She brought the gadget lined with red to her mouth. She knew she was required to give the reason for the alert that would be broadcast throughout the ship to the whole team.

Her voice had grown soft and dry, and she choked up every word in a harsh, rasping whisper.

"I found a dead body..."

-*-

The first emergency meeting was tumultuous. Pure pandemonium. A whirlwind of questions, responses, and theories spurred confusion and disorder.

"Where was it?" someone shouted.

"Did he have a family?" another echoed.

"Are we in danger?" demanded a third.

The entire maintenance crew had gathered around the center table in the Cafeteria. They were arguing fervently about the possible murderer, the empty seat between them a constant reminder. Voices rose and soon it was little more than a shouting match, a contest to be heard over all the others. No one was making any solid headway and accusations were about to going to start to fly around any second. It was just as the disputes were beginning to get out of hand when an astronaut in an orange spacesuit spoke up with a controlling tone, quieting the crew.

"Fellow teammates!" he called out with soft authority, raising his hands to encompass all. "Please! Listen to me!"

The crew quieted down simultaneously, listening to the authoritative figure, behaving more like professionals than boisterous children. When Orange saw that he had everyone's attention he continued.

"I saw White walking away from Electrical!" Orange exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at White. "This astronaut was the closest to the body! He must be the imposter!"

A murmur rippled through the nine remaining teammates, many doubting the witness claim.

"Wh…. what?" White stuttered. "What you are talking about..." he turned frantically, looking everywhere. "I was just going to the Communications room," he defended his voice quavering which only added to his suspiciousness.

A solemn silence swept through the cafeteria. The team knew what was at stake. Something must be done. Someone in their midst must have murdered Blue. But who?

"We have to be certain," chimed in an astronaut in a cyan-colored spacesuit, calm and composed. His strong British accent enhanced his formal tone of voice. "Is there anyone else who condemns White?" he continued.

More silence.

"If not, then there is clearly not enough evidence to convict him of the murder." Cyan challenged. "Simply seeing him near the Electrical room is not evidence enough. I propose that we skip on voting this meeting, but White will remain a suspect and will be watched more closely. Any objections?" the speaker turned his head, locking his gaze for a few seconds on each of his teammates.

Everyone present knew that emergency meetings were governed by several rules. One of these stated that any final decision had to be determined through a democratic vote where every team member had an equal say. In this case, the proposal was to pass on the vote and move on. Paul personally agreed with this proposition as he struggled to cope with the early death of a crewmate.

How could things be going wrong already? Paul wondered as he watched the rest of the crew.

After a heavy silence, grunts of agreement rippled throughout the team. The suspected astronaut seemed to breathe less erratically and gulped in relief. Everything seemed to have been settled until someone opposed it.

"I disagree," a crewmate in a yellow spacesuit stated, his arms crossed defiantly over his chest. "I suspect that it was Lime. Why don't you explain why you were late?"

Yusef Evans, in the yellow spacesuit, was the only person in the team that knew about Luke's resentment for the mission. Luke had almost forgotten about him in his search for the alien. He had been a close colleague and friend of Luke's after befriending him several decades ago when they were in the same cadet class. But their friendship had become complicated with their conflicting views.

He had warned Luke about the consequences of openly expressing his opposing ideals. The superiors were too stubborn and arrogant to let him change their perspectives. Luke had ignored his friend's advice and had gone ahead to schedule a meeting with them anyway. It was understandable since he had worked on the proposal for many years.

Yusef was nonetheless insulted when Luke carried on with his controversial recommendation. Now Luke had been essentially forced into a mission he had been so adamantly opposed to. Yusef knew him enough to suspect that he would only be a threat to the operation, and he was determined to stop him. From his perspective, murdering a crewmate was far over the line. Yusef was genuinely interested in the reason why Luke was late to the Dropship, other than the animosity he felts about the expedition. Yusef believed Luke was most likely meticulously planning every part of his strategy to sabotage the ship.

Cyan didn't give time for Luke to answer. "Very well, let's have a vote," he scoffed, a hint of mockery and exasperation in his response. "All in favor of moving on from this assembly?"

The majority agreed with Cyan's proposal, nodding their heads or raising their hands. No one was convicted of the murder. With the emergency meeting finished, the team pulled away from the round table to continue their tasks knowing that a murderer was still out there. Among them.