When Ryder left, he took the fighting spirit with him, but tension lingered on the bridge. Mi-Cha’s fists stayed balled up. Clive’s expression was sour. Aymeric and Petra stood like coiled springs. Even though Theo hadn’t really been in the fight, he’d taken a few knocks himself, and knew they would leave bruises.

  If you survive long enough to form bruises. There was no guarantee that Theo, or anyone else, would survive the Hell’s Ark.

  The crew and scientists stood on opposite sides of the room, unsure of what to say. Petra stepped forward. Mi-Cha stepped back and held her fists ready.

  “I’m sorry,” Petra said. “Right now, I think we should find Erika and Ryder.”

  “Christ on a dildo; Ryder will just shoot us.” Mi-Cha spat.

  “He might wave the gun in our faces,” Petra said, “but I think he won’t shoot at us. He’s only after Erika, I think.”

  “She’s the spy,” Clive said.

  “According to Ryder,” Petra countered.

  Theo stepped forward, ready to back Petra up. A gunshot stopped him from talking.

  Everyone stared at the elevator door. Nobody came up the elevator, nor the ladder on the side.

  “I’ll look for Ryder and Erika,” Theo said. “If I don’t come back in fifteen minutes, send someone else.”

  “Uh, didn’t Ryder wanna shoot you?” Aymeric asked.

  “He wouldn’t shoot his own crew,” Petra said. “I mean, Ryder wouldn’t shoot any of us.”

  Aymeric pulled a face, but didn’t say anything.

  Theo tried to leave through the elevator, but the Captain’s Override was still in place. He instead went down the ladder, to the second floor. The galley was empty. No more gunshots went off.

  Theo checked the door to the cabin hall, and found it unlocked.

  “Ryder? Erika?” Theo called.

  His echo responded.

  Theo checked the door on the shower room, though the Captain’s Override had been used on it. Ryder could have locked himself inside, but that wouldn’t make sense.

  Unless an alien was after him.

  Theo checked over his shoulder. He didn’t see any strange shapes in the galley.

  Something shuffled.

  Theo tensed.

  The noise came from the corner.

  A head popped up in the ladder. It was Erika.

  “Stop,” Theo ordered.

  Erika froze. Her eyes found Theo. She was breathing fast. Her lips opened and shut, but no sound came out.

  “Where is Ryder?” Theo asked.

  “He…he…oh God…” Erika adjusted her grip on the ladder.

  “I won’t hurt you,” Theo said. “The fighting upstairs has stopped. Will you come with me?”

  Erika took a deep breath. She placed her feet on the floor, but kept a firm grip on the ladder. She took two more deep breaths, then she looked Theo in the eyes. Her mouth was parted, but she wasn’t saying anything.

  “Where is Ryder?” Theo tested.

  “Um…dead,” Erika whispered.

  Theo didn’t believe Erika; the Captain was too important to die. That was Theo’s immediate, emotional reaction, though. When he cleared his biases, he was left with one fact: Captain Ryder was dead.

  Theo nodded solemnly.

  “We’ll go up and tell the story to the others,” he said.

  He led Erika up the ladder and onto the bridge. It was a short climb, but Theo kept a close eye on Erika. Nothing had cleared her name yet; she could still be a danger.

  The rest of the crew was still in the bridge and still looking sorry for themselves. Clive and Mi-Cha stood on one side of the console while Aymeric and Petra took the other end.

  “You found her!” Petra leapt out of the chair, and wrapped Erika in a hug.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Are you okay? Tell me you’re okay,” Petra said.

  “I’m fine, but Ryder…” Erika swallowed. “We wound up in the reactor room. The Aranea killed him.”

  “Excuse me?” Mi-Cha said.

  “Ryder’s dead,” Erika announced.

  “Oh. Um…” Mi-Cha pressed her lips together. Aymeric moved to Mi-Cha’s side. He rose his arm, ready to hug her, then stopped himself.

  “How?” Clive stepped forward.

  “He chased me into the reactor room. And then the Aranea dropped from the ceiling and…” Erika trailed off.

  Clive’s expression remained blank. He turned his attention to some point beyond the ship walls, and toyed with the pins on his jumpsuit. Theo hoped Clive could hold himself together.

  “Is there any trouble with the ship itself?” Theo asked.

  “Other than the fact we’re gonna get fucked by an asteroid field? Nope,” Mi-Cha said.

  “If the ship is fine, we need to make sure Erika is not the traitor,” Theo said.

  “She’s not,” Petra stated.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Theo said. “Ryder had his suspicions. I do, too.”

  “Me, three,” Mi-Cha called in.

  “You just like conflict,” Petra spat.

  “How’re your ribs feeling, bitch?”

  “Enough,” Theo barked.

  Mi-Cha and Petra glared at Theo, but they didn’t try talking back.

  “Uh, Erika? You don’t mind if we go through your things. Just to alleviate doubts?” Aymeric said.

  Erika sighed, and nodded.

  “We should go through Ryder’s belongings, too. I know Naoki thought he was the traitor.” Petra glanced over the room as if Naoki would appear and back Petra up. The overseer was still missing.

  ? ? ?

  Petra’s first search through Erika’s room had been sloppy and turned up nothing. Petra wanted to mark the search off her list and keep going, but she knew exactly what was going on in her brain.

  Petra and Erika had been friends for three years. They hung out together in their free time. Petra did not want Erika to be the spy, because if she was, that friendship was a lie.

  Clive and Mi-Cha searched every corner of Erika’s room, though. That’s what Petra needed to do.

  She made a second, more thorough check around Erika’s bed and desk. She held her breath when she checked under the mattress.

  What happens if you feel something?

  Petra came up empty-handed. Her second search was as empty as her first. She let her shoulders relax.

  “No one found anything?” Petra asked.

  “Yet,” Mi-Cha said.

  “I don’t think I’ll find anything,” Petra said.

  “Well I do!” Mi-Cha spat. “This little bitch thinks she’s so smart, but we’ll find something, won’t we, Clive?”

  Clive said nothing. His expression was still vacant.

  “Well, we’re gonna find something,” Mi-Cha repeated.

  Petra shook her head.

  “It’s time we checked Ryder’s room,” she said.

  “But–” Mi-Cha grit her teeth. “Fine. Just fine.”

  ? ? ?

  Clive wanted to say he wasn’t through searching Erika’s room, but he couldn’t find his voice. He could barely find his own limbs and make them move.

  Petra pushed open the door to the captain’s quarters.

  Clive’s chest twisted into an even tighter knot.

  They shouldn’t enter the room without permission, because the Captain would be mad. And Captain Ryder was still alive. Clive hadn’t seen a body, and no body meant the person was alive. That’s how the world worked in movies and shows.

  The Captain was still alive. Hurt, maybe, but alive. Erika was wrong when she said he’d been killed. Someone needed to go to the reactor room and take the Captain to the med bay, so he could be patched up.

  Petra and Mi-Cha stepped into the captain’s quarters. Clive managed to follow. He checked through the Captain’s belongings carefully, so nothing would be out of place. From the corner of his eye, he saw that neither Mi-Cha nor Petra gave the Captain’s belongings the same care.

  The Captain had taken Clive in when he had nowhere else to go, and gave him purpose when he’d been drifting through life. At the very least, Clive could defend the Captain’s room. He couldn’t talk, though. One question consumed Clive’s mind: what do you do now that the Captain is gone?

  ? ? ?

  Erika wasn’t the saboteur, and nothing in her cabin should make anyone believe otherwise. Still, she couldn’t shake the image of Petra returning to the bridge, grim faced, and carrying something incriminating pinched between two fingers.

  Theo and Aymeric only made Erika’s anxiety climb. Theo sat still and stared blankly at Erika. Aymeric eyed Erika with suspicion. The pair wouldn’t hurt Erika though, at least not without reason.

  What if they do find a reason?

  Petra, Clive, and Mi-Cha returned up through the ladder. The emotions on Petra’s face were unclear. Mi-Cha’s face was twisted up. Clive still looked like a shell of a human being.

  “We found nothing that suggests Erika is the traitor,” Petra announced.

  Erika breathed her anxieties out.

  “Which doesn’t mean fuck-all,” Mi-Cha added. “She could have hidden something up her asshole before this all went down.”

  “We also found nothing to suggest that Ryder was the traitor,” Petra continued.

  “Which, y’know, still means fuck-all.” Mi-Cha thrust a strand of hair away from her face.

  “We don’t know if either are the traitor?” Theo said.

  “No. No, I don’t think either are the traitor,” Petra said.

  “You have a bias towards Erika,” Theo stated.

  “Well I don’t! Neither does Clive, but we still can’t make the accusations stick!” Mi-Cha shouted.

  “I promise that I’m innocent,” Erika spoke up.

  “‘Cause if you’re the issue, you go out the fuckin’ airlock,” Mi-Cha spat.

  “I’m willing to believe that she’s innocent,” Aymeric said. “Unless there’s evidence otherwise, y’know?”

  “So Ryder’s the guilty one?” Mi-Cha demanded.

  “I dunno. No? Sabotage doesn’t sound like his style,” Aymeric said. “It doesn’t sound like anyone’s style.”

  Silence.

  Someone in the room was the spy. Sabotage was someone’s style.

  Erika shook those thoughts off, and rose to her feet.

  “We’re done investigating the traitor,” she stated.

  “Just in case we find something against you?” Mi-Cha said.

  “Both Ryder and I are innocent, but now Ryder is dead because he was hellbent on finding the traitor,” Erika said. “This search is driving us insane. We have to stop it.”

  Mi-Cha wrinkled her nose. Erika couldn’t blame her; she wanted to pick everyone apart until she found the traitor and vented them out the airlock. She wanted to go just as insane as Ryder, but that would only hurt innocent people.

  “We stop the investigations,” Theo stated.

  Petra agreed next, followed by Aymeric, then Clive. Mi-Cha crossed her arms. Erika looked Mi-Cha in the eyes and waited for the pilot to start a fight. Mi-Cha glared at Erika, then looked away. That would have to do.