Companion

Burning with anger and frustration, Luke flew through the hallway in the direction he saw Orange move in. His fists clenched; he felt the same drive to kill the astronaut as he had when Yusef betrayed him. When the alarms suddenly stopped, Luke thought that he had died and his mission was accomplished. When his lungs continued to fill with fresh, clean air, he knew this was not so. As he opened his eyes and realized his sabotage had been fixed, he burst out in exasperation, throwing the chair he was sitting on across the room and immediately stormed out in hot pursuit.

He knew that after Orange had seen him, he had become one of the prime suspects. There was no way Luke was going to let him go. Looking into each room, he kept his hand close to the hilt of his knife, ready to end the life of the threat. With his heart beating hard, Luke turned his head just in time to catch a glimpse of Orange running into a room. Comms.

A malicious smile spread across his face. Luke beamed with satisfaction that his prey was now trapped. Dashing to the room, Luke gripped his knife in preparation, his muscles tensing with exertion.

Reaching Comms, two bright colors caught his eye. Luke scowled.

There were two teammates standing closely together as if Orange knew that he was coming for him. The strategic move put Luke in check. There can't be a witness. Just as he took a step out, he heard the dreaded sound. A sound he had heard on the last recordings of a previous crew that had been sent back to HQ.

A deep gurgling, and a sickening separation of an astronaut's body. Luke gawked in terror and surprise. He was right all along. It was Red.

Orange didn't share any of the fascination and looked on in pure horror, living his last moments mortified. His life was then extinguished by the sharp tongue impaling him. It coiled back into the creature as quicky as it appeared. Blood spilled out of a fist sized hole in the center of his head, brain matter strewn out onto the communication controls. Red didn't seem to notice Luke, or simply didn't care, as it then proceeded to sink its teeth into the top half of its prey. Orange's body sat between jaws of fangs that seemed to disappear into the suit of the unmoving human. Death poured out of the sides of the mouth in thick rivers, spilling onto the floor, seeping into the cracks. A deafening crunch was followed with the bottom half of the body falling to the ground, sputtering blood and other fluids. The air filled with the stench of digestive fluids and bodily waste as gore and filth oozed from the half-corpse on the floor.

In disbelief, Luke let out a little gasp. With its acute sense of hearing, the alien immediately transformed back into the innocent-looking crewmate it had once been. The blood blended well with the red fabric of the suit, almost indistinguishable as it gushed out of where the monster separated. Turning around with a quick pivot, the alien locked eyes with Luke where he remained frozen at the entrance. A moment passed in silence as the two species stared each other down in an act of dominance. Luke considered reaching for his hand cannon, but he decided otherwise. It would be more beneficial to work with the alien than to fight it. His plan was coming together again.

Clearing his throat, Luke began with the same tone he had when he first spoke to Red. "I see that I was correct," he declared with a little pride in his voice. "You might want to be more vigilant before you end one of our lives. I thought that your kind was more intelligent - and less sloppy," he said, looking down at the pooling blood on the floor.

The alien stood there, still, as if processing what Luke had just said. It had been caught in the act, there was no denying now. Unless it was thinking of murdering Luke too.

"Human anatomy was always scrumptiously intriguing to me," Red finally replied, his voice excellent as before - as if nothing had happened.

Luke was amazed. They not only possessed physical superiority but could also comprehend complicated emotions like humor and sarcasm. He had not been informed about this characteristic in the data he had read.

"It seems like we had the same intentions…" the alien said, hinting at the knife Luke still held firmly in his gloved hand. Hardly noticing, he quickly slid the weapon back into its hidden sheath.

"Were you the one in the vent?" Luke asked, his mind bubbling with fear and excitement. The fact that he was alive and talking to an alien was already a miracle.

"We don't have time for meaningless questions," the alien paused as if considering his next words carefully. "This ship is reaching its destination. My home planet."

Luke was taken aback. Polus was their home planet? It explained so much, starting with the reason why the aliens were so aggressive. They were simply protecting their territory.

"I have been given the authorization to work with you on this mission," the alien finally said in that same calm, rational tone. "It is hard to find an astronaut with the motive to kill others. Let's end this operation."

-*-

Paul moved through the hallway, deep in thought. His tasks dwindled down as the ship began to stabilize, showing their efforts had not gone to waste. Through this small accomplishment, he simply couldn't wrap his mind around why a fellow crewmate would sabotage their mission. He reasoned that it could be an alien, but that just felt wrong. Why would they be here? His mind wandered to the horrifying image of Pink's mauled body. He shivered.

Either way, once they land, the remaining survivors could regroup with the other astronaut groups and sort it out. They were almost there, just a few hundred thousand miles to go.

Heading to the electrical room where it all began with the body of Blue, Paul mentally prepared himself. This would be the first time since the discovery of Pink's corpse that he would be entering the room. He had to steel himself for the task of dealing with the recent memory of the body he had found there. Pulling out the tablet his mind shifted to the electrical diverting maintenance he was about to conduct. He needed to focus.

Entering the room, his eye sensed movement around the corner of the light control box. Paul's heart rate spiked, the muscle pounding hard against his chest. Whatever it was, it blended in with the shadows so well, Paul could barely make it out. His eyebrows furrowed, and his fight or flight instinct kicked in.

With a quick pivot, Paul could clearly see what was in front of him. His face softened and fists unclenched. It was just another crewmate: Black. No wonder I couldn't see him, Paul realized. Intentionally or not, his crewmate had blended in with the shadows.

Turning his head, the astronaut jumped, clearly startled by Luke's presence.

"Woah!" Black said with what sounded like a French accent. "Scared me there, friend."

"My fault, I'm sorry," Paul apologized after ensuring there were no threats. "I've been seeing you around the ship. My name's Paul." He regretted that he did not get to know his teammates earlier. The encounter with Lime was socially disturbing, but fortunately, not everyone was as demeaning as it seems. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed, the air faint with the dull smell of burnt rubber and metal.

"Hmm, I do like that name.," Black said with a nod. "I am Benjamin. A pleasure to meet you."

As the two worked on their tasks alongside each other, they conversed about their past life on Earth. While it was mostly just small talk, it was the simplest way to reminisce and escape the horrors of The Musk. Paul learned that they both had a strong interest in astrology and physics from their youth. As they continued to talk it turned out that they had been in the same space academy together before entering the colonization team. A connection was established immediately.

Paul finished his task first, flipping several very specific switches, while Benjamin took a little longer. He considered moving on and leaving Benjamin to his task, but then decided against it. With the recent happenings onboard, two were stronger than one. His mind was brought back to the possible threats that lurked in the ship. Could Benjamin be one of them? Paul knew that he needed to be cautious but gave him the benefit of the doubt. He seemed trustworthy enough, especially with such a captivating French accent.

Completing the transfer, Benjamin placed the tablet back into his pouch. "What do you make of all these things happening around us?" Benjamin asked casually. "An alien? A fellow crewmate?"

It was as if he could read Paul's mind. Before responding, Paul consolidated his thoughts and considered the different ways he would answer, figuring that he could be honest about his opinion. After all, they needed to develop a sense of comradery, especially with the long mission ahead of them.

"I'm not certain," Paul answered in a steady voice. "But it all feels quite strange. The malfunctions, for instance, don't seem normal. The probability for them to happen in such a rapid sequence is just too low," Paul shook his head. "I can hardly imagine that it is not someone or something purposely causing them."

"An imposter?" Benjamin was beginning to see the way Paul saw the situation.

"Yes, exactly!" Paul felt like he had it figured out. "But what could we do?" he asked rhetorically. "Contact HQ? Eliminate them? But how?"

"Who could it be?" Benjamin continued to ask. "Was that the reason for the reactor meltdown and the oxygen system failure?"

"I believe so, but I have no idea who could be doing it," Paul was beginning to feel uneasy. Frustration ate at him. All this time he had done nothing to suss out the perpetrator. The number of teammates was dwindling. It was only a matter of time until the imposter, whoever it was, found them.

Benjamin and Paul stayed silent, deep in thought as they wondered what they could do about the current predicament they were in. With the possible courses of action running through his head, Paul suddenly heard a click.

"Did you hear that?" he asked, his thoughts interrupted. He immediately switched into survival instinct. Looking up, Benjamin shook his head.

Click.

This time Benjamin was concentrating and heard the sound too. The source seemed to be the electrical distributor at the far corner of the room. Taking a step closer, Paul heard another click, this time pinpointing the source. Opening the control compartment, ignoring the yellow electric warning sign, he peered in. Benjamin, who was now watching from behind him, gasped.

Both teammates were baffled to see that the distributor had just been fixed, with each of the switches succinctly in the correct position. Somehow, the compartment had done the task. By itself.

Their suspicions were confirmed when Benjamin realized that the taskbar on his tablet increased at that exact same moment.

"This was Pink's task," Paul whispered. The bloody images of her remains flashed again in his mind. Shivering, he shut the compartment. Was it a simple coincidence? Did this ship have self-repairing functions he was unaware of? Whatever it was, Paul was not going to let it distract him from getting his own jobs done. Moving towards the entrance, he beckoned Benjamin to follow, pulling him away.

"Where's your next task?"