Murder on The Skeld

Chapter 3: Emergency meeting

"But... we're ten," Rachel says in complete puzzlement. "Why does it say nine?"

"Not going to wait around to find out," I say and head to the cafeteria.

Rachel trails me to as I reach the couch and lift open a panel in the wall beside it. Underneath are several smaller buttons, a big, red one and a microphone. I press the red button and speak.

"Everyone come to the cafeteria," I say, my voice echoing from the speakers in the room. "Now."

Grady is already on the couch but he takes off his VR glasses as the announcement interrupts his game. Pich comes from the back of the ship, Owen and Benny come from the front of the ship and Lee, Charlet, and Yuki come from the middle entrance. That just leaves one person.

"Where's Walter?" I ask.

They all look at each other, then to the corridors, as if expecting him to come out any moment.

Pich speaks up. "Okay, who saw him last? And where?"

"I saw him here," I say. "About half an hour ago."

"I saw him head to the engines," Grady says. "Maybe twenty minutes ago."

"We should look for him," Yuki says. "Something might be amiss."

Owen is already on the run. "I'll check the front-"

"No," I say. "We all go together."

Owen stops and stares at me like I'm crazy. The rest of the crew is giving me similar looks.

"I think..." I say, barely believing my own words, "that we've got aliens on board."

Now they really look at me like I'm crazy. Some look close to laughter.

"This is a joke, right?" Grady says. "It has to be a joke."

"It's not a joke," I say. "Half an hour ago, the console found twelve lifeforms on board. Now, it's only finding nine."

"Does that mean Walter is dead?" Benny asks.

"Maybe," I say. "Probably."

"But we're nine right here," Yuki says. "If there ever were aliens on board, they must be dead too."

"Or they've found a way to bypass the scanners," I say.

Or, I think to myself, they're right here among us.

"Maybe they've left the ship," Grady suggests. "Maybe... Walter tried to throw them out the airlock and got taken out with them."

"No, because I've reconfigured the airlock after its malfunction," I say. "You need two people to open the door now. Did anybody help Walter open the airlock today?"

People shake their heads or murmur no. Lee takes a step away from the group, looking rather uncomfortable. Charlet begins to breathe rapidly.

"It's my fault," she murmurs, looking down at the floor.

Yuki is at her side at once. "Of course it's not your fault," she says.

"We didn't scan the ship before takeoff," Charlet says. "Buck wanted to but there was a broken wire and I didn't want to delay the launch."

Yuki puts her arms around her. "It's not your fault," she says again. "Nobody could have expected this. We don't even know if it was aliens."

"Well, what are we standing around for?" Owen says. "We should get going already. He could still be alive."

"Fine," I say. There's no harm in making sure. "But we walk together. Nobody leaves this group."

Owen leads the way, heading to the front of the ship. We start in Weapons, and move on to Oxygen and Navigation. We check every corner of every room but there's no trace of Walter anywhere. Once we reach security, in the back of the ship, I sit down by the control panel and check the logs.