Isolation [Among Us]

Chapter One

Every expedition was a risk. Polus had warned its aspiring cosmonauts of this fact on the first day at the Mira Space Academy. The unknown was just that-- unknown. Humans couldn't be expected to be the only form of intelligent life in the universe. That, the instructors had insisted, almost laughing at the thought, was a statistical and chemical improbability. Life existed. Whether or not it was benevolent was another question altogether.

The first ship to be attacked was for cargo. It could have been pirates. But communication reports indicated that two crewmates had turned on their ship, sabotaging the vital systems and killing their fellow crewmen one by one. Whispers of the imposters that posed as crewmates, indistinguishable from their human counterparts, trickled through the pipeworks as more and more ships suffered similar fates. Sometimes an attacked ship would reach its destination, the surviving crewmates glassy-eyed and numb, rambling about betrayal, teeth, and ejections. After the fifth ship suffered the same fate, Polus came to a conclusion. The imposters were real.

But, as Polus liked to repeat, every expedition was a risk. The space program wouldn't stop because of a low-percent chance that every member of a ship's crew would be horrifically murdered. There were enough people willing to take the risk-- all for the chance to float among the stars.

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He signed himself away when he was 17. The ever-smiling recruitment officers had driven to Lucas' shambling city in gleaming cars, offering an escape from the cycle that trapped everyone in Gellia. Would you rather sell second-hand weaponry like every generation of your family, or would you like to make a name for yourself? they had asked him, offering pinched eyes filled with pity. If you join the Mira Space Academy, your future is as endless as the stars.

Lucas didn't see many stars. The thick dust that hung like fog dampened the night sky in Gellia, making the pinpricks of light that did poke through seem like torn holes in a dark cloth. He wondered how many more stars there could be. The recruitment wanted him to do the right thing. Sign on the dotted line and get an almost-free scholarship to the Mira Space Academy. When he had given pause, raised a note of concern on whether he would ever return home, the officers had laughed. Would he rather live and die poor on Gellia? They were offering an opportunity, they said, and it would be foolish to say no. All he had to do was accept the hand that offered an escape. So he did. Within a day of the officers' arrival, Lucas left his home with more than half of his old schoolmates.

The galaxies and swirls of space dust he saw on the first night from home made the choice seem worth it.

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"So, what colour are you gonna choose?" Evie asked when Lucas walked into the men's bunks. She lay down with her head facing the door, sprawled out on Lucas' bottom bunk. Her pretty face was pushed together by the fists that held her head up.

"You're not supposed to be in here," he said, shrugging off his jacket. Evie ducked as he pitched it on his bunk, the MSA stitching on the back staring at him as he threw it. Her hands flew up to her head.

"Watch the hair! I got it done for the ceremony." She cupped her palms around the crown of her head, dark fingers dancing over the purple-threaded braids. "And they're not gonna kick me out for being in the men's barracks when I literally graduate tomorrow."

Lucas hummed, pushing Evie's legs aside to settle on the opposite end of the bed. After two years, he still wondered where she found the vanilla that she smelled so deeply of. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her shift to a sitting position as he leaned over to untie his laces. "Yellow."

"Aw, like your hair?" Evie grinned, her white teeth gleaming pearls against her brown skin. She reached out a hand to thread her fingers through Lucas' loose curls.