Betrayal

Chapter 11

Warning: Blood, death

I raced towards the reactor. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The siren blared and red light flashed as I ran. Johav wasn't far behind me. A countdown had begun, and I tried to hear, but the blasting sirens covered it. 

I stumbled into the reactor room, and placed my hand on the scanner. Someone needed to get here quick, there was a second scanner that needed to be pressed for the reactor to reset. I held my hand there, waiting for someone to come through the doors and help. Why wasn't anyone coming? My knees were weak and my hands shook. I panted for air; the long run tired me out. I heard some doors close somewhere on the ship. In medbay, maybe? Storage? 

Where was Johav? Wasn't he right behind me? 

Dani rushed into the room, tears streaking down her face. She pressed her hand to the scanner and the siren and flashing red light stopped. She rushed toward me, crying. 

"A-Aura, it's horrible..." 

"What is it?" 

"C-connor...in weapons..." 

I pulled myself out of her grasp and ran. Faster than I thought I could. 

I found myself in weapons along with everyone except Dani. I pushed past them to see what was going on. 

"No..." 

Connor's body laid on the ground. Blood had splashed on the floor, the walls, the supplies. Gunshot wounds were visible in his chest. The black fabric had torn and was wet with his spilled blood. 

He was dead. 

And that wasn't even the worst part. 

He'd been murdered. 

--- 

We had no place to keep a body. A consensus was reached, a very emotional one at that, and it was decided that the body would be incinerated. No one wanted to, it didn't seem like we honoured the memory of him very well, but we didn't have another option. Emily-Anne was actually good with cleaning up the blood. She said it didn't bother her as much, and someone had to do it. 

Johav took responsibility of the body. He kept saying it was his fault, and that he didn't take care of his crew. When he came back, his eyes were red, with tears or smoke, I didn't know. I ran up to him and hugged him as we both started crying. "I was supposed to be strong," he whispered. "You still are. Now we have to do everything in our power to stop something like this from happening again." He pulled away, and a anger hardened in his eyes. 

"Someone is responsible. I will find them."  

A meeting was called in the cafeteria. No one had there helmets on. Everyone was shaken up. 

"This was a murder. Someone here killed one of our own. And for this situation, everyone is guilty until proven innocent. I will not have a killer on my ship." Johav said, his voice trembling. "Weapons isn't close to the dorms. Why was he out here?" 

There was silence for a moment. 

Izzan piped up, "Well, we can take into account who Connor shares his dorm with. And I'm no detective, but the bullets used to kill him were probably made of lead. If we check everybody for traces of this element, it could point us in the right direction of the killer." 

Johav nodded. "Good idea. Now, Quentin. You are...were...Connor's roommate. Do you know anything about his death?" 

The colour drained from Quentin's face. "I-I don't know, I mean...I thought...um..." 

Ferula got impatient and yelled, "Why don't you give us some answers already!? Maybe you did it!" 

Quentin's eyes filled with fear at her accusation. "What? Of course not! I could never!" 

Ferula slammed her fist down on the table in fury. "You were his roommate! We've spent one day on this ship and someone's dead! The only one Connor would've spent the most time around is you!" 

"Ferula, please, calm down. If our emotions go up, our intelligence goes down. I know everyone's shaken up, but we must find this...this imposter and get rid of them." Johav inhaled and closed his eyes, asking Quentin again, "What did you see?" 

Quentin was shaking and tears were rolling down his cheeks. "I didn't kill him...I couldn't!" 

Alessa had a thoughtful look on her face. "Well, you work in navigation, which isn't too far from weapons." 

"Y-yes..." I could practically hear the terror in Quentin's voice. 

"But...I saw you walking to the dormitories, so unless you can teleport from the other side of the ship and back, you would've been missing when the work day ended." 

Quentin ran and hugged Alessa, saying, "T-thank you...thank you..." 

She didn't push the him away, either. Instead she hugged him back. "It's okay. I know you didn't kill him. I believe you."

Alex spoke next. "If no one has enough evidence, we can't convict someone of murder. Not yet, at least. Let's do the tests Izzan suggested and see what the results say." 

I took a good look at everyone's faces before we all parted. Many of us had tearstained cheeks or bloodshot eyes. My own hands were shaking. It was impossible to tell guilt from fear. Death like this doesn't just happen. 

 Someone was responsible. And we would find them. No matter what.