I looked back at her just once, promising myself that I hadn’t just made a mistake that would cost me my life. Walking out the doors, I shut them behind me with a press of the button. I didn’t think that would pose much of a challenge, seeing as it was likely that our murderer likely had a way to get through the doors. But it didn’t feel right to leave the doors agape with a defenceless girl lying on the bed. Not that Allison was anywhere near a defenceless maiden, but in her current state, anybody would be.

Hearing the doors close behind me, I all but broke out into a sprint towards my sector. There was something that I had to check, something that couldn’t wait. Because if I was right, I was currently in a lot more danger than I had previously assumed.

***

Panting, I reached my sector. Without pausing to regain my breath, I hastily pulled open the drawers containing the trail drug reports. Sifting through the different drug reports, I eventually reached the divider containing the general information packages. The two that were currently being tested, the ‘mental function enhancer’ and the ‘blood plasma modifier’ were both in the early stages of development, but it was a legal requirement that both had sheets detailing their effects and early trial testing.

I had already looked at the trial testing results in my search for side effects and hadn’t paid much attention to the general page. My job is just to record the effects on the health of the animals, and it isn’t actually a precondition that I have knowledge of the drug beforehand aside from injection procedures.

Flipping open the for the mental enhancer, I started pouring over the details of it’s intended function.

It turns out, the ‘mental function enhancer’ wasn’t quite what the name suggested it was. It worked by affecting the amygdala circuits, responsible for the behavioural and physiological responses elicited by perceived threats. It attempted to inhibit these circuits, thus making the livestock more docile, and easier to herd or control.

The murderer had been clean, impossibly so under the pressing circumstances. Obviously, every move had been extensively calculated, and every interaction practised. But they had made one mistake, one mistake that they could never have foreseen.

They had screwed up. Screwed up big time.

“Something most of you wouldn’t know about me is that I hate spaghetti to the point of throwing up…I still literally can’t eat it without throwing up”

Allison had an extreme aversion to spaghetti due to past traumas, to the point of eliciting a physiological response; vomiting.

She had eaten her dinner with absolutely no complaint- with no reaction in the least.

* * *

The parasite was trying to continue its natural life cycle by causing the host to jump into a body of water. However, in this environment, there weren’t many bodies of water lying around- the only real one being in my sector, but the parasite wasn’t smart enough to work that out. The only real equivalent in this environment was going to be the outside: Space itself. The parasite was attempting to make her suffocate to death in space.

The murderer had likely planned for me to find the parasite. It was a fairly logical guess that I’d eventually correlate Allison’s actions with the actions of my swans. Then I’d be able to reason that it was the parasite that was causing Allison’s fits of anger- In her attempts to commit suicide by space.

And therefore, it was only natural to assume that she was the killer. In some fit of rage or from an attempt to stop her leaving the ship she must have lashed out at him. Mystery solved no more worries.

But that wasn’t the case, because the killer- the real killer, that is- could never have planned for the meal discrepancy at the end. Perhaps they were able to plan far enough to see Dan’s incapacitation device being used, but they didn’t plan for Allison’s lack of physiological response. Perhaps they didn’t know about her hatred or fear of spaghetti, but for whatever reason, they didn’t factor it into their calculations.

So, I likely still had a murderer on board this ship, still very much functioning and able to move around.

2 choices- Dan or Saskia? I had reasons to suspect the both of them- Dan for his convenient ‘sleep device’ and Saskia for the ease in which she switched sides to believing Allison was the killer. There was no way that this wasn’t planned out meticulously before the mission even started, so one of the two had some serious acting skills.

But even worse, it looked like the two of them were pretty much in an alliance after they left me to put Allison to sleep. So if I tried to go against the real murderer without getting the other person on my side I’d be against both of them.

Regardless, I definitely wasn’t going to reveal one of my only advantages until it was absolutely necessary. Me knowing that one of them was the traitor was something that I had to keep hidden at all costs in the hope the killer would slip up with something.

But who?

* * *

It was now the only one on board that knew there was still a killer amongst us. And I had a 50/50 chance of guessing the right one, so I needed to be utterly certain. And the only way to do that was to do a little bit of investigative work.

Perhaps by talking about how we were safe now that the ‘murderer’ had been put to sleep might incite some relief or some other tell-tale expression on their face? It was a tenuous link at best, but all that I had.

I headed off in the direction of Dan’s sector, as his was the closest to mine. But I halfway to the sector, I ran into Saskia, who was walking towards me.

She had a small smile on her face, and a slightly wet face as if she had been crying. But when she saw me, however, she brightened up even further and increased her speed.

With tears sparkling at the edge of her eyes she wrapped her arms around me. What the hell? This wasn’t normal behaviour at all! Even for the situation that we were in- she’d held an unyielding poker face throughout the whole thing. Why change now?

“Meet me outside the medical room in an hour” she whispered softly in my ear- so soft that I wasn’t completely sure that I had heard it.

Now that sounded suspicious. Why not say what she needed to say now? Why go back to Mason’s sector?

She broke off the hug and made a show of wiping the tears out of her eyes.

“I’m so glad that it’s over,” she said, much louder than before.

I was just about to ask what’s over- but then I caught myself. I still shot her a questioning look though- why did she want me to come to Mason’s sector?

With a pointed look at the security camera’s she quickly spun around.

“We’ll have so much to talk about later!” she said enthusiastically as she looked over her shoulder.

That wasn’t referring to Earth, obviously. She needed to tell me something, something concerned about why the security cameras were still functioning. Had they been fixed? Had Dan somehow got them working again?

And why back at Mason’s sector? Why not a corridor that wasn’t surveyed by a security camera? Although there were only a few blind spots in the system, they weren’t exactly hard to find.

My original intention of visiting Dan had vanished. If Saskia really did have something to tell me, then it was likely to be about him. And if it really was something about him being the traitor, then perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to go out and question him.

I turned on the spot and headed back to my sector. One hour.

Either way, if it was a trap or if it was some information, I was likely going to find out who it was. How would I feel? Would I be angry at them for the death of my best friend? Would I be nervous about their skill in subterfuge and murder? This wasn’t something I could ‘simulate’ like I sometimes did before an important conversation.

An hour, huh? Well, I wasn’t going to spend that hour just brooding.

* * *

I headed out, with 5 minutes before the promised meeting time.

In the sides of each of my boots I had an injection tube filled with Phencyclidine, a tranquiliser that was effective no larger animals such as horses and to varying degrees, elephants. At my waist I had a pair of Kahn Scissors tucked into my waistband. The scissors wouldn’t be very effective in combat but might act as a deterrent until I could figure out how to stab my target with the injection tube.

Arriving at the sector I found the doors shut and no sign of anyone around. Upon stepping closer, however, there was a small white note stuck to the wall directly under the security camera- in its blind spot. In neat cursive, it read:

Walk inside, but don’t look like you’re waiting for anyone- you’re just going in there to grieve.

MAKE SURE YOU COME ALONE.

-S

I had to give her credit, that was a plausible excuse for using this room as a meeting place. As soon as I read the note, I swept my vision across the hallway, as if I hadn’t paused to read anything- hoping that I hadn’t paused long enough for the security camera to be able to pick up anything unusual.

I hesitated before entering Mason’s room once again. Except for this time, it wasn’t because of Mason. Was I walking straight into a trap, easy prey for an ambush as soon as I walked through the doors? Or was this really a plea for help? I knew I had to go through with it- I’d not forgive myself if she turned out to be telling the truth. After all, I still wasn’t sure which one of them was the killer yet, only that I knew one of the two of them was.

But just because I had to enter the room, didn’t mean I wasn’t going to take any precautions. I slipped the scissors out of my waistband and into my right hand, as well as retrieving one of my tube injectors from my boot with my left. It really wasn’t much- and certainly nothing against a trained killer- but all I had to do was get one hit with my injector. And I had one additional injector in my right boot if I needed another element of surprise.

I pushed my thumb against the scanner to the side of the door and brandished the scissors out in front of me.

There was no one to be seen from outside the clinic- so either there was someone waiting with their back against the wall for me to enter, or I was a little early.

Fat chance.

I sprinted straight through the door, to the other side of the office. Whirling around I affirmed my suspicions- there was someone else in this room. But not who I had expected it to be.

“Shit!” cried Dan, obviously panicked. He raised the chair leg up to point it shakily at me, previously being held loosely beside his leg.

The doors to the clinic slammed shut without any motion on either of our behalves, startling me.

So, he really did think that he could catch me unawares as I walked through the entrance then. If that was the case, then he really should have been a lot readier for my arrival- at least holding the chair leg in readiness.

But, Dan jumped a little at the closing of the doors as well. This really wasn’t a well thought out plan by either of them. If he was more experienced, he would’ve taken advantage of the small distraction caused by the doors shutting.

But his focus quickly returned to me, and we began creeping around in a circular fashion, waiting for the other to make the first move.

“Did you already kill her as well? You heartless bastard- you were working with Allison all along- I thought you were friends with Mason!” he snarled, as we continued to circle each other.

“Go screw yourse-” I started to say, then realised what he’d actually said.

Allison wasn’t the killer. And I certainly didn’t kill Mason.

“Oh” I finished, lamely.

“What did you say to me?!” Dan seemed to be building up his rage, psyching himself up to attack me.

I tucked the scissors back into my waistband and put the tube injector into my pocket.

Dan deflated, confused.

“…what?” he asked me.

I ignored him, walking straight past him, back to the door.

I didn’t even bother trying to open it.

“Having fun watching us out there, Saskia?” I asked conversationally.

“Awww are you sure you don’t want to go again for a second round?” she answered me cheerfully.

Dan’s jaw dropped.

We’d just gotten played.

Badly.