"Hongjoong? Are you awake?"

Befuddled, Hongjoong blinked his eyes open. More confusion overcame him when he noticed they had already been opened, and he just cleared them as consciousness flooded back to him.

Numb, he stared at the contorted face of San, pulled into a frozen grimace even in his sleep.

It took Hongjoong a moment to understand where he was, why it was so cold, and why the pungent smell of death permeated the sanitiser-flavoured air. Once understanding dawned upon his sleepy brain, he tumbled backwards, away from the stretcher with the body on it. Behind him, someone exhaled, and Hongjoong whipped around to look at them. The morbid view right after waking up had startled him, and his sudden movement made the person behind him flinch, too.

Seonghwa stood next to the entrance, his hand still hovering over the light panel that he must have activated just now. The glowing blue light that shone from it illuminated his perplexed features.

"You startled me," Hongjoong croaked, his body still not entirely awake yet. Seonghwa nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I could say the same thing."

When another shiver wracked Hongjoong's body, he wrapped his arms around his frame. He was dressed only in his thin pyjamas and the cold air bit through them viciously.

"I... I sleepwalked here?"

"You did." Seonghwa still eyed him warily, as if unsure that he truly awoke. According to him, Hongjoong also muttered in his sleep, but they were never distinct and logical sentences like right now.

Clueless, Hongjoong stood in the icy chamber a moment later. Then he nodded at the door.

"Let's go. Thanks for waking me. I don't know what I was doing here."

The shock of waking to the view of their dead friend haunted his mind, chilling him from the inside out. When he brushed past Seonghwa to shuffle outside, the man allowed him to squeeze past without a comment. He shut off the lights before he followed the other man. When he noticed him trembling, Seonghwa placed a warm hand on Hongjoong's back to rub his blood flow back into him.

The ship was shadowy and quiet. Nothing moved behind the cabins of the other crew members. The silence haunted Hongjoong. Flaring paranoia that his other crew members might have died unnoticed, too, blared in his mind. Only Seonghwa's soothing presence that was right next to him assured him that everything was fine. Hongjoong made it back to their room with his knees soft like jelly.

It was just after five in the morning.

Hongjoong sat down on the bed while Seonghwa toed his shoes off. When he came over to sit beside Hongjoong and pulled him into his arm, Hongjoong slumped right against him. The ongoing pressure and concerns webbing up the crew exhausted him, and he barely got time to breathe. Seonghwa's fingers that massaged his shoulders pricked into his cramped muscles like vicious needles to unravel them.

"Do you want to go back to sleep?" Seonghwa whispered hushedly. Nobody would hear them anyway, but the dim setting of their orderly room called for discretion. Hongjoong shook his head, too troubled to find peace. San's pale face still flashed before his eyes at every blink. The images haunted him as if they had burned themselves into the back of his lids.

For a few moments, they sat there, both of them unable to relax. Two humans huddled together in fear and apprehension as death grimly held their ship in its spindly fingers.

"Want to have sex? To take the edge off?" Hongjoong craned his head to look up at Seonghwa. The faint light that played around his features didn't come from the wall panels. They floated in space near a larger star that reflected the sunlight of this galaxy. From this angle, it fell inside their window over the reading corner that Seonghwa had built out of a few blankets and pillows there. The glow suited him, as anything that related to the stars.

Seonghwa followed Hongjoong's gaze to the little corner of comfort. Both of them enjoyed spending their time reading there whenever the garden seemed too brimming and far to visit.

When Seonghwa reached out to scoop Hongjoong up into his arms and carry him over to the corner, Hongjoong gladly held onto him. He relaxed finally, all terrifying thoughts and memories straying off as he focused on his handsome lover. Seonghwa gave him a little smile when he pushed him down into the blankets and sat up to pull his shirt over his head. Once he came back down to cover Hongjoong's body with his, Hongjoong's fingers wrapped around his shoulders to pull him close. He could gladly let his lids flutter shut to revel in the sensation of Seonghwa's touches on his skin.

This time, no San flashed before his inner eye. Only Seonghwa and the stars remained significant.

-

Wooyoung disliked the idea that they had to get rid of San's body. Granted, nobody wanted to fire San back out into the cold and unfriendly infinity of space, but they had no other choice if they wanted to keep their ship free from bacteria and the med bay in use.

"Can't we pick out some chamber and lower the temperature in there to freeze him? Throwing him out is barbaric. I want to have the chance to bury him on human ground and have a funeral with his family," Wooyoung begged, angry tears clouding his eyes once more. His hand gripped his ring tightly, unwilling to let go as if it was the sole part of San that remained.

Yunho had told Hongjoong earlier that Wooyoung had slept in San's room last night, surrounded by memories of the man.

Troubled, Hongjoong gnawed on his lip.

"I want to, Wooyoung, I really do. But we can't be sure about the alien virus and his natural decomposition process. Out thermometers cannot lower far enough to freeze him safely. And even then possible alien bacteria might survive. We don't know what we are dealing with." He tried to sound diplomatic, did his best to listen and convey compassion.

But Wooyoung was a wreck. A shallow, nervous wreck who had lost the love of his life unexpectedly. His flittering eyes didn't want comfort and pity. He wanted San back.

"Can't we at least try? Please, I can take care of everything. We have cooling systems in use if the engine overheats. If we regularly freeze water in there and replenish it in the room..." Wooyoung knew that all his attempts had no hope. He quietened bit by bit, his red eyes lowering with pain. He looked so pitiful, so heartbroken that Hongjoong had to bite back his own sorrow.

"We'll hold the best funeral we can offer and we can catch up on the mourning period once more with his belongings once we return home. I promise this is for the best, Wooyoung."

The crew sat around the desk in tense silence. All of them either grieved in their way or fought the paranoia.

Wooyoung whimpered, but he finally sat down. Although his scowl conveyed his contempt for their decision, he was too exhausted from crying for so long to plead any longer.

Once it was settled, silence returned to the room. They had nothing more to discuss. Everybody would return to their duties and be accompanied by the sinister air of despair.

"If that is all, I recommend we get back to work. Take breaks where you need to, but don't be reluctant to use work to cope. We will look out for each other." Hongjoong said in conclusion. Before he could stand and officially end the meeting, however, Yeosang slid his tablet onto the table. Hesitant, he shoved it in Hongjoong's direction.

"I... Sorry, but I wanted to add something right here so we all are at the same wavelength. It's about San. Please look at this."

Wooyoung's stare bore holes into Yeosang as Hongjoong pulled the tablet over curiously. When he inspected Yeosang's face, he found it sealed from any sentiment.

"What's that?" Hongjoong muttered mostly to himself. He picked up the device and scanned the content in front of his eyes.

It was a graphic of one of Earth's ocean creatures, an octopus. Its blue skin stretched all over the animal to end around the lower half of its eight tentacle arms. White suckers covered the sensitive underside. Intelligent eyes stared at the beholder.

One of the few animals that were still around after the many climate changes that Earth had gone through in the years. Durable fellows, if a little terrifying.

Confused by the unrelated image, Hongjoong glanced at Yeosang. He looked serious, far too serious to be playing a joke.

"I think this is what has killed San. Not a virus. Do you recognise the pattern?"

Dumbfounded, Hongjoong stared at the picture. Jongho reached for the tablet to look too, and one by one the device made its way around the table. More faces morphed into befuddlement and confusion.

The assumption absolutely repelled and threw Hongjoong off at first. No octopus was going around killing people.

But the longer Hongjoong thought about it, the more it made sense. Little suckers with the regular and yet changing pattern. The missing flakes of skin on San's neck.

What in the world had prompted this comparison? And how could it make sense? Hongjoong was very sure they didn't have an octopus on board.

"How did you-"

Yeosang interrupted him, his hand raised warningly.

"Don't ask. You wouldn't want to know. But don't you agree it looks similar?"

It did, in the weirdest way. And yet, Yeosang couldn't possibly mean an actual octopus.

"What you're saying is, is that... an alien life form, a creature has killed San? Instead of a virus? One with tentacles?" When Hongjoong met Mingi's incredulous gaze, he shrugged. Neither of them knew how it could be. Only that it looked suspiciously the same. As the crew reviewed pictures of San's corpse and the tentacles, the finds had them suck in harsh breaths.

"Yes."

Hongjoong smiled confusedly, unsure of what to tell Yeosang.

"That sounds... More unlikely than our prior theory."

"It's only a theory for me, too. But since it entered his mouth and bloodstream, it might have lost some cells there that then meddled with his and that's the alien traces that we found. I know how ridiculous it sounds, especially since we just inspected the entire ship and found nothing at all, but I didn't want to be quiet about it. What do you think?"

Hongjoong respected him for speaking up. As ridiculous as the theory sounded, Yeosang had brought it to their attention, and thrown it into the mix of theories.

"Well... I don't know. As you said, I find it highly unlikely even if it would be able to hide away like the octopi we know. But I'm willing to further the idea. If it were a vicious octopus creature, we can only hope that it got expelled and died in space the moment he got thrown out."

The crew glanced at Jongho. The young man's gaze was glued to the table, unmoving.

"If it's a creature large and powerful enough to strangle a human, then it likely also could move him to the garbage chutes. But it would also mean we have an unfriendly visitor on here that must have infiltrated the ship through the filtering systems. Those creatures are intelligent. If a new alien race developed similarly to them, then it might be perceptive enough to permeate us and try to feast on our crewmates."

Hongjoong doubted this was the case. In the faces of his crew, he saw that they genuinely did, too. The rash might just look like tentacles. And freakish as octopi were, too, he doubted that the first alien creature they would meet would have developed to one of their Earth animals coincidentally.

"I know how wild it sounds," Yeosang said with a grimace. Before he could feel embarrassed for speaking up, Hongjoong gave him a reassuring smile.

"Thank you for telling us. Under these circumstances I want everyone to be extremely watchful. If anything is out of place and hints at a hidden visitor, don't hesitate to point it out. I pray for our safety, but since we can't determine the cause clearly, I want the highest attention from all of you."

The crew nodded solemnly. Finally, Hongjoong stood and handed the tablet back to Yeosang.

"We will ready San then and prepare for the funeral. I appreciate any help you guys can offer, but you have every right to stay in your rooms or do your tasks while we wrap him up. No pressure."

With a tense smile, Hongjoong left the room. Seonghwa and Yunho followed him to help. The rest stayed behind to either soothe Wooyoung's hiccups or discussed Yeosang's unexpected theory with him.