Over a full day had passed since White's death. Everyone on board except for Red and Green was gathered in the cafeteria, silently eating dinner.

Today's mood has been understandably somber. The trip doesn't have the same sort of magic that it did before. My first ever mission was supposed to be fun, it was supposed to be the exciting trip with my friends that I'd dreamed of since I was in kindergarten, but now I'm always just going to remember it as the time our crewmate fucking killed himself in the middle of the mission. Not to mention that my friend discovered his body, which must have been even more traumatizing for him. I felt sick at the thought of what he must have felt, walking into the room and being unexpectedly greeted with that scene.

This was supposed to be fun.

Yellow told me that White's throat had been slit open. A knife from the kitchen was found by his side, implying he did it himself. It didn't make sense, though. Why did he commit suicide during the first week of a mission, in the middle of the ship? Why did he invite me to come along? If anything, it would have made the most sense for him to do it in his cabin.

Green had said White had never seemed to be faking happiness. Yellow pointed out that's it wasn't a reliable conclusion to draw just by looking at someone. I know something about this situation is very wrong. This isn't right. It just doesn't make sense.

"This sucks," Lime muttered. She looked and sounded like she was barely holding back tears.

"Mm-hm," I sighed.

This was supposed to be fun.

"They ejected his body through the airlock earlier," Yellow said abruptly, looking down at his hands.

"What?" I snapped to attention. "And no one told me? Won't his family want to do something with him?"

"Pink didn't tell me until after it had happened. Black said that it would take far too long for his body to be retrieved from the ship. Why didn't they tell me? He was my mentor," he said quietly, sounding hurt.

"Do they really think we're so immature that we can't handle something like that? Are they purposely excluding us?" I thought out loud, not bothering to try holding back my anger.

"Yellow, that's awful," Lime murmured.

It was crazy how quickly things went back to normal—well, as normal as the situation would allow—after the incident. There was nothing we could do about it. All we could do was go back to completing our tasks. Social interaction of any kind felt intolerable for a while, so for yesterday and today, I'd abandoned the wires and focused on the rest of my list instead.

Red stepped into the room. Green trailed him. "Black," he called. "We need your help with something."

"Coming," she answered, standing up and hurrying across the room.

"Wonder what he needs her for," Yellow commented.

"Probably some nerdy shit," I laughed halfheartedly. "That's their specialty."

"Do you need help with wiring tomorrow?" Yellow asked.

"Sure. Well, maybe I'll have to do it with Pink, since she's the electrician and actually knows what she's doing," I said.

"God, I can't stand her," Lime muttered.

"You don't like her?" I asked, slightly surprised.

"I mean, I can work with her fine, but I just find her annoying," she said with a shrug.

"You kind of have to get along with her, so I suggest you shut up before anyone overhears us," Yellow cut in.

"We—hey—do you two hear that?" Lime cut herself off and held up a hand. Upon listening very intently, I heard distant muffled voices coming from the east hallway.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Yellow hissed.

"I'm going to check it out," I said, pushing my chair back.

"I don't think it's your place to be snooping around," Yellow commented.

"It must not be too important if they're being this loud," I pointed out.

"Cyan, no, you really shouldn't," Lime urged uneasily.

"It'll just be a minute."

I figured they must be in Communications. As I approached the room, the voices became somewhat clearer, although a droning static buzzed over their voices.

"What's going on?" I called into the room.

All three crewmates spun around. "Cyan, get out of here," Black snapped. The communications radio emitted loud crackling sounds. The voices were becoming ever more distorted.

"Cyan, go," Green yelled when I didn't immediately respond.

I backed away and rushed back down the hall. Right before I reentered Storage, the radio cut out and was replaced with a shrill beeping. The three older crewmates' alarmed shouts became a distant noise as I ran into the cafeteria.

I tried to relay the news the moment I reached the table, before my friends could ask me about it. "There's something wrong," I hissed. "I don't think I'm supposed to be telling you this, so don't say anything—"

"Then don't tell us!" Lime hissed.

"Is everyone in the cafeteria? I call an emergency meeting." Black's voice rang out over the distant noise. I looked up to see her standing in the east doorway.

"Yes—where are Red and Green?" Purple called back.

"They're still in Communications," Black continued. "They told me to report this to you. Something is wrong on this ship. We received a call saying that one of our crew members is still on Earth."

"But . . . there are only ten of us." Pink sounded confused. "Well, were—"

"Was that correction really necessary?" Yellow muttered.

Black ignored him. "That's what the problem is. Our real crewmate is back on Earth. Someone has snuck onto this ship that doesn't belong here."

Lime seemed doubtful. "Hang on, wouldn't we know if there was an impostor on the ship? And no one on the radio told you who it is?"

"I'm guessing you've all heard by now, thanks to Cyan's overzealous prying," Black said dryly. "Our communications cut out. We could barely understand what they were trying to tell us. All contact with ground control has been terminated."

"Lime makes a good point," Brown cut in. "How could the impostor blend in seamlessly with the crew?"

"There's only one reason I can think of. Whatever it is, this thing is not a human."

Shocked murmurs broke out among the crewmates. Red and Green hurried back into the room. "Everything is down," Red reported. "Tablets, Admin, radios, cameras, ground control . . . nothing is working."

"They stressed the danger of this situation right before signals cut out," Green continued. "This is not just someone who snuck on board for a quick thrill. This person is dangerous. Well—we don't know if we can refer to it as a person."

All nine crewmates glanced at one another warily. Brown finally broke the silence: "I knew White's death wasn't a suicide!"

The room went totally silent once more. The crewmates expressed horror, not just shock.

Holy shit, I didn't think of that.

"As awful as it sounds, that makes sense." Yellow sounded scared. "White didn't kill himself, he was murdered!"

This was supposed to be fun.