"The coordinates were wrong! It was a set up!" was the last thing you heard before the comms went out and a few moments later, the lights shut off.
[[Turn on your flashlight and walk forward.]]
[[Walk in the darkness with one hand on the right wall.]]
[[Wait for the backup generators to turn on the power.]]Saving your flashlight's battery for when you might need to use it later, you walk in the darkness. Only the creek of the ship to accompany the cold chill in the air. You hear a distant clang, you
[[check to see what the noise was]].
[[stay put]].
[[turn on your flashlight]].The cold air was still and the weariness of the absence of the hussling crewmates running around. A thought creeps inside of you, wondering how many of the people, who have grown to become a second family to you, have died already. You shake the thought away as it led to tears building up and the sudden anxious thought that you could be next.
You hear a distant clang in the darkness, you
[[check to see what the noise was]].
[[stay put]].
[[turn on your flashlight]].Your vision was limited but at least you had some idea of where you were going. The hallway was wearily silent of other crew members and a chill ran up your spine with each step as the ship would creak.
You knew even if the ship was taken over or if this had all been a trap, you should
[[find the engine room]] first.
[[find another crewmember]] first.
[[find the control room]] first.
[[check on the cargo]] first.Upon finding the engine room, you begin trying to find the backup generators to see if you can start it up manually to get the lights back on. You aren't the engineer on the ship, you are just in charge of weapons in case of external forces trying to prevent your crew from smuggling spices across space borders. Unfortunately, the force stopping your crew was internal. There had been nothing on the radar before the sudden halt of the ship and the sudden voices talking over one another on the comms until it went silent.
Fuck, you couldn't even figure out where the backup generator would be. Jerry had shown you once before when you were chilling with him in the engine room, but you couldn't remember where it was since it was so long ago. Did the engine room always used to smell so god-awful? You reminded yourself to tell Jerry to stop skipping his cleaning duties.
Suddenly, to make matters worse, your flashlight runs out of battery.
[[ignore it and feel around for the generator]].
[[panic and wait for the generator to start automatically]].You start thinking about the names of the people you have grown to love like a second family. An overwhelming sense of worry fills your chest at the idea that any of those people could be dead. And an even worse dread hangs above your head that any of those people could be someone who ultimately betrayed everyone.
[[Start calling out names]].
[[Keep silently searching]].When you finally got to the control room, you are stopped in your tracks due to the sealed doors. As much as you tried to push the keypad or bang on the door, nothing happened. You need the backup generators to bring back the power. So you decide to
[[find the engine room]] .When arriving at the cargo room, you make sure that all the precious cargo was safe. Spice smuggling is a dangerous game to play, so a part of you wasn't surprised that you were being set up. Spice was expensive to obtain. And these spices were undocumented, so even if someone stole it, no one would know. Nothing seemed to have been tampered with though. And you knew as long as the ship was still in space, there was nowhere the culprit could have taken the cargo anyways.
[[find the engine room]] There is a light around the corner, you begin running. You call out names to figure out who it is around the corner, but you are met with a flashlight in your eyes and then the sudden and quick painless death.You stay in one spot for quite some time. Fear held you in your tracks, refusing to let you take one step nor allowing you to draw a breath. Whoever or whatever had made the noise couldn't be allowed to know where you were.
After a long time of complete silence, you decide to
[[find the engine room]] .
[[find another crewmember]] .
[[find the control room]] .
[[check on the cargo]] .The light helps you keep the fear that had been building up inside your throat and stomach calm down a little as you could now see what was around you. Whatever that was making that noise earlier wasn't clanging anything again and you decide not to investigate.
[[Walk forward|Turn on your flashlight and walk forward.]] Finally someone starts calling back out to you after several minutes of babbling out names. You begin to run towards the calling voice. There is a flashlight at the other end of the hallway, around the corner. You turn yours off. When you run around the corner, their light is in your eyes. Before you can say anything, they kill you. You are dead.After a long time of no results, you decide to instead try to
[[find the engine room]] .
[[find the control room]] .
[[check on the cargo]] .Your fingers find what feels like a familiar set of buttons and a lever. You try your best to remember the code for the generator, however it is difficult to think when the buttons were sticky. A thought ran through your brain of how you needed to remind Jerry to always keep the engine room clean and to stop slacking off on his duties.
It is time for you to pull the lever, but when stepping closer to the controls, your foot kicks something. You decide to ignore it for now as you pull the heavy lever with all your might.
The lights turn back on and the engines roar with life. When you look down to see what was on the floor, your stomach churns. The stickiness you felt on the buttons from before had been blood. It ran down the side of the panel down to where Jerry's head had been blown off.
[[You start to vomit]].
After a long while in the silent darkness of the generator, you hear a voice calling out to you. Into the engine room, there is a flashlight bright in your face. You can't see, but that doesn't matter since you got killed.Vomit spews from your mouth and nose. You can't hold it in. Tears fall down your face unvoluntarily as you clutch your stomach in agony. The noise coming out of you is inhumanely full of pain.
After several minutes of sobbing and vomiting, you decide it would be better to just leave the engine room. Before you leave, you decide to
[[leave your jacket on Jerry]].
[[promise to avenge Jerry]].With the power back on, you walk to go find the control room. But you are stopped when someone turned communications back on. Everyone is talking over one another with the questions they had and the worries they had. You try to mention Jerry's demise, but no one can hear you.
Suddenly, you hear your captain's scream, "Shut up! Everyone listen up! I just went by the engine room and found Jerry dead. Everyone gather at the control room now!"
Everyone gathers around at the control room in a few minutes. They are all riddled with questions and accusations. As soon as the captain walks in, there is silence. And the captain speaks,
"I know who killed Jerry."
Another silence.
"It was -" she turns to you, "you!"
[[What???]]With the power back on, you walk to go find the control room. But you are stopped when someone turned communications back on. Everyone is talking over one another with the questions they had and the worries they had. You try to mention Jerry's demise, but no one can hear you.
Suddenly, you hear your captain's scream, "Shut up! Everyone listen up! I just went by the engine room and found Jerry dead. Everyone gather at the control room now!"
Everyone gathers around at the control room in a few minutes. They are all riddled with questions and accusations. As soon as the captain walks in, there is silence. And the captain speaks,
"I don't know who killed Jerry."
There is a silence. No one speaks for quite some time as perhaps a moment of silence for their fallen crewmate.
However, while everyone went through their moment of grief, you already had. So instead, your mind raced through different thoughts.
Suddenly, a thought occured to you.
[["Captain, when did you find Jerry's body?"]]
"I found your jacket on his body!" she lifts up your jacket from before with Jerry's blood stains all over it, "and your fingers are covered in blood!"
Shock stuns you and you don't even know what to say.
[[Be shocked]].
[[Explain you turned on the generator and what happened]].The captain stares at you for a brief second before responding,
[["Before the lights turned on"]].
[["After the lights turned on"]].Full of their own shock and rage, the crewmates go after you. You try to speak now, but their fingers pull at your hair and nails dig and rip your skin. Pain instead escapes your mouth instead of explanation.
As your old friends start to carry you, you try to explain that you didn't kill Jerry and that you were the one who turned on the backup generators.
No one believes you.
"How would you know how to do that?"
"You were never really that smart. You only know how to use weapons and that is how you killed Jerry!"
"Jerry probably was the one who turned on the lights for us and you killed him!"
They are about to eject you into space.
[["Guys! Listen to me!"]]"Likely story," the captain says, "but if you had found Jerry's body then, why didn't you report it after the comms came back on."
Before you can explain, full of their own shock and rage, the crewmates go after you. You try to speak now, but their fingers pull at your hair and nails dig and rip your skin. Pain instead escapes your mouth instead of explanation.
As your old friends start to carry you, you try to explain that you didn't kill Jerry and that you were the one who turned on the backup generators.
No one believes you.
"How would you know how to do that?"
"You were never really that smart. You only know how to use weapons and that is how you killed Jerry!"
"Jerry probably was the one who turned on the lights for us and you killed him!"
They are about to eject you into space.
[["Guys! Listen to me!"]]"Then how come you didn't turn on the backup generator?"
The captain was silent.
You found the killer. You win."What was your reason for going to the engine room if the lights were already on?"
The captain is silent. You found the killer. You win.
No one listens.
Just before you are ejected, you notice a weird smirk on the captain's face. It makes sense, the dots align and your heart breaks. And it is too late as you are sucked out to space. You cannot breathe and your body freezes over. You are dead.