Chapter 1: Rea, code name Red

I grumbled while walking to electrical, why did I have to get one of the hardest tasks? As I crossed storage, I noticed something weird. The mop and bucket that was usually in the corner was gone, but there was water all over the floor instead.

I went to the water to see if I could find who could make such an idiotic mistake when I saw Wolfram hovering over a woman that I didn't know, with… was that blood on them? I scanned the woman's face to see if I had seen her before, but I don't think I would forget a person with vanilla colored hair.

I looked at Wolfram to see him putting something in his pockets, and him glancing at me suddenly. I tensed up as he had an unknown expression, feeling something bad was happening. Then his eyes glinted with something and he put his finger to his lips, like he was telling me to be quiet, and reported the body.

***Some time later

I was sitting dumbfounded as the rest of the crew listened to Wolfram explain what happened. "I found the woman unconscious in storage when I was going to the trash chute. I think something happened to her before I got to her, since when I arrived there was water everywhere and the mop and bucket was scattered."

"After I checked if the woman was breathing, Red found us. Right Rea?" What about the blood on the woman though? I kept thinking about it. Maybe I was imagining it? Or maybe Wolfram didn't want to say it in front of everybody. As I thought, Aegean bumped my shoulder, shaking me out of my train of thought.

"What?" I snarled at Aegean as she used her head to point at Wolfram, and I realized everyone else was looking at me. "Oh. Yeah, I found White and that woman not soon after I guess." I spoke while standing up, then sat down.

Cobalt nodded and turned to his devices, typing at it furiously while asking Wolfram questions. Everyone else murmured amongst themselves. Yohan and Sable walked towards me, with the little girl still holding onto her teddy bear. I growled as they approached me.

"Hi Rea! How are you doing? What did the woman look like? Was it surprising when you saw Wolfram and the woman?" Yohan kept rambling on as I grumbled. Well, at least he distracted me from thinking, as that hurt a lot. I can't imagine doing that 24/7 like Cobalt does.

Finally, Cobalt looked up from his computer and cleared his throat. Everyone swung their heads towards him, and he stood up. "After running some messages and checking with people, I've found out that the woman's name is Elaine, code name Heaven."

"Supposedly, I was told that she was to come and check on our O2 tank since our oxygen was running low lately and I requested additional O2 tanks. But it seems someone interfered with comms and knocked Elaine unconscious since half of our data is deleted."

"Are you sure? It might've just been their internet went down and caused their data to be deleted. What ship are they from, Cyan?" Casphea inquired Cobalt, and others agreed. I scoffed. If it was just data loss of a conversation, it couldn't be critical right? Let's just get on with life.

"I'm sure, since Elaine had their part of the data to confirm the O2 tank refill and she's from MiraHQ. Also, even if it was their part's fault, which is highly unlikely, how did that come to us having data loss too?" Cobalt asked, which caused ripples of murmurs among the group.

I stood up straight in my seat and thought about the object Wolfram put into his pocket. Did that have anything to do with the data or whatever Cobalt was talking about? And now that I thought about it, he never mentioned the blood or the object in his pocket. I grew tense thinking about it and blamed it on Wolfram. If only he would have explained everything.

Jerk. He knew I hated thinking about such trivial things. I thought about it for a while. Finally, I came to a conclusion and approached Cobalt and Wolfram. "I need to talk to both of you. Now." I demanded. Cobalt seemed confused but nodded and Wolfram had an unknown expression on his face for a second, before reverting back to normal.

I felt myself recoil back. What was that? I went to the side with both of them and explained to Cobalt. "I know I'm not credible or crap, but, I'm pretty sure I saw blood on that woman. Care to explain why you didn't mention that?" I interrogated him, but he just let out a sigh, as if I was being a pain to him.

"Have you considered why that woman, Elaine, might not have moved an inch while you watched her? It's because she's dead Rea. She's dead. And how would the children act? To know that Elaine was killed here?" Wolfram said angrily, and I stood still. That woman was dead? I acted again without thinking about the possibility, I'm such a dumbass.

Before Wolfram could chew me out more, Cobalt stopped him. He spoke some words to him, then leading us back. I think he spoke some more words after that too, but I didn't pay attention. I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Then I noticed everyone was still here.

I looked around and noticed something, then turned around. Sable quickly swiveled her head to the side, but I had already noticed it. Why was she acting so odd? "Sorry everyone for keeping you here for so long, but I need to announce something."

Cobalt continued. "There's something very important that I need to discuss with the leaders of the other spaceships and also needs to be said in person, so now we'll be need to get to Polus as quickly as possible, and so we'll need to update the tasks." He then proceeded to put the information on the bulletin board before telling us to go to sleep.

Was he really going to go on as if he didn't hear from Wolfram that a woman died on this spaceship? No, I was wrong. Cobalt is our leader, and if he broke down and mourned over Elaine, then the whole crew would panic. Which meant that I couldn't mourn for Elaine publicly too, and same goes for Wolfram.

I sighed and took a look at the list and the tasks I had to do and groaned.

- Stabilize the steering in Navigation

- Card swipe identification in Admin

- And Fuel the engines in Storage, upper and lower engine

Out of all the other tasks, I had to get the longest one. I cursed inwardly. At least I didn't have to start the reactor nor fix wiring, since it was a pain to get done for me. I took an apple from the kitchen before heading down to the bunk beds, munching on the apple while heading to my destination.

As I stepped into the 'room', Primrose informed me that Lili was still in the showers, then went to bed. I nodded and threw away the apple core and fell onto my bed. If Lili was using the showers, there was a low chance there'd still be any hot water left, and I didn't feel like getting up. I the rest of the night I thought, and fell asleep that way.

After 4 days, the planet Arcadas could be seen, and within it, Polus. The trip went smoothly with no more incidents, and it seemed like the thing with Elaine would be discussed during the meeting scheduled in Polus. Of course, this didn't mean there was a break for us.

Which leads to now, with me checking the monitors on the computer for people's heart beats, which is possible to be recorded due to the watches strapped around our wrist. It seemed weird, seeing 30 people's heart rates on a computer at once.

I looked at Bailey, who was standing guard at the door, which was even weirder. For some reason, I was recruited to stand watch of everyone's heart rates, and to report immediately if someone's stopped. I thought about it but it still didn't make since. There was only one attacker in this whole group, if you think the killer was chosen to come here.

And even then, it's 29 people against 1 person, which would put the person at a major disadvantage. My brain hurt thinking about it, as if it was blocking me to think about it further. Bored, I called out to Bailey. "Hey Bailey, why'd you choose Barnwell as your code name?"

Bailey didn't reply. Weird. I got up from the chair I was sitting on and approached Bailey. He was leaning against the door, but it seemed like there was something wrong. Suddenly Bailey fell to the ground, and I saw it. White pupils staring back at me, lifeless. I shrieked in surprise, and stumbled back.

Bailey didn't have white eyes. Bailey had brown eyes, and he wasn't bleeding before. Wait. Bleeding. I looked up and saw 2 figures come in, as well as a 3rd one standing outside, as a guard. I quickly ran to the door connecting to the hallway, but it shut. I panicked and looked at the attackers. I could feel the color drain from my face.

It was Wolfram and a crewmate from another spaceship. The crewmate was holding a knife, with blood stained on it, while Wolfram held a gun. I trembled. I knew something wasn't right. I grabbed my walkie talkie and was about to speak in it when Wolfram spoke.

"It's no use. My friend outside cut down communications while we came here, and they were also the ones to lock the doors down." Wolfram indicated to the door I had my back to. He smiled a wolf's smile, and I laughed bitterly. "You truly are a smart one Rea. Too bad you didn't chosen to become an imposter, and you lost your memory, like all the others."

What? "What are you talking about, White? Nobody has ever lost their memories in our 'crew'." I said the word crew bitterly. Wolfram just shook his head and smiled, as if he understood. He pointed the gun at me and his eyes had a glint of pity.

I didn't need this bastard's pity. "You won't understand, and besides, it's time for you to go now. The 'audience' is waiting for crew #128 bloodshed to happen, and you will be the first." Before I could ask what he was talking about, he shook his head and said, "Goodbye, Rea." And the last sound I heard was the bang of the bullet.