Ejected

Chapter 1: Alone in the Cold

Star is a fairly young cyan captain bean. They're the ambitious, but quiet type. They work alongside their crew to get everything done in a timely manner, but generally aren't very talkative. For the most part, Star only speaks when they need to and has a tendency to be blunt.

Unfortunately, this raises a lot of suspicion amongst the crew about their captain. As the number of crewmates drops, each meeting results in more arguments about who is responsible for all the murders that have taken place.

A meeting was currently taking place after Shortstack reported a dead body. The yellow bean described what he saw.

"I saw Green's body in the snow. It had ice forming over it as though it's been there a while."

Star looked down and was in deep thought. Who could be the one behind all of this? They get up from their seat and ask:

"Where was everyone before the body was found?"

An orange crewmate was holding a small, crying child in his arms. The child was traumatized because his mother was killed in front of him. The little cyan bean was splattered with his mother's blood as she was violently stabbed to death.

"My son ran into the office screaming as I was downloading some data. He looked absolutely horrified and was leading me outside when the body was reported."

The orange bean struggled to not burst into tears when answering the captain's question, but he couldn't take it anymore. He had just lost his wife and needed some time to himself.

He looked up at Star once more. "M-may I be excused?"

The cyan captain walked over to the other and gave him a gentle, reassuring hug. "Of course. I'm sorry about what happened. We will get to the bottom of this and bring whoever did it to justice."

The orange bean took his son and they both quietly went back to their quarters.

"Anyways, where was everyone else?" the cyan bean interrogated.

A short, banana-colored bean said, "I was outside fixing the weather node and Purple saw me do it."

The purple bean nodded and added, "I was on my way to the lab to go fix the telescope."

The doctor of the crew, a lime-colored bean named Sublime intervened, "I was testing the medbay scanner after it broke. There was no one else in the lab with me the last time I checked."

Purple retorted, "You must've been so busy you didn't notice me then. I was right there."

Star interrupted the pair of arguing beans,

"Now isn't the time to be fighting. I still haven't heard where the others were."

After the group refocused, the questions continued. The chef of Star's crew chimed in, "We don't have enough information to figure out who it was. Let's get back to work and see what happens from there."

Before Star could encourage the group to try and discuss more about who the cold-hearted killer was, the others walked out of the office to go do the rest of their tasks. All except for Fidel, the security guard and Star's best friend.

"Don't you think it's a bit unusual that Orange left in the middle of our meeting, Captain?" the tan bean asked.

"Fidel, he just lost his wife. We should give him some space. I'll take over his tasks and check on him later," Star replied.

—

Some time later, Star went to go check on the orange bean and his son. He was sitting on his bed, hiding the tears in his eyes by burying his face. His wife meant the world to him, and for her to be taken away just like that? Whoever had it in their heart to do such a horrible thing could not be forgiven.

"Captain, I have a favor to ask of you."

The cyan captain looked at him with a gentle expression.

"Yes, of course. What is it?"

"I want to know who did this."

"We'll do our best to discover the killer and take action."

A shiver went down the orange bean's back. He had no idea what had just gotten into him, but all of a sudden, he felt livid.

"It was YOU, wasn't it?!!"

He tackled the captain and punched them in the face a few times.

Star tactfully pushed him off and stood up before speaking again.

But before they could, the aggressor pinned them against the wall and began to choke them.

"I- I- would never do such a thing."

Star began to gasp for air as the orange bean's grip tightened.

He slammed the captain against the wall once again.

Fidel barged into the room when he heard all of the commotion. He didn't hesitate to pull out his taser and detain the attacker!

"Go! I'll deal with this from here."

—

Star ran out of the room to gather the rest of the crew and go to a safer location. They needed to know that the orange bean had gone berserk and might not be what he seemed.