Ceres (3rd-person POV)
It took a minute for Ceres to figure out he was being ignored.
With everything hurting—most especially his throbbing, burning, bleeding hand—a minute or two passed before he was upright again. Jericho was quite the fighter, he had to admit.
The struggle ceased, with orange-suited Zaniah restrained by Jericho and everyone figuring it all out. To his surprise, Genesis's hardness went away when the realization hit her. Instead, she was...sad? Heartbroken, even?
"Zaniah?" she said, her voice stumbling. "But you—what? Why? Why, Zan?"
Zaniah lowered her head, her expression still obscured by the helmet. Ceres willed his thoughts to channel to his accomplice: Snap out of it! Kill someone or something!
But what would that do? Zaniah had been hesitating a little too much with everyone, leaving him to always get his hands dirty while she insisted on being the guy in the chair. But to her credit she did try to stab Jericho just now. It wasn't enough, though. Now he had to step in, in a way that would allow both of them to get away alive.
All attention still on Zaniah, Ceres edged towards the vent and carefully pulled out his mini tablet from under his shirt, his ears ringing. The screen was glaringly bright as he activated it. He pulled up a command application disguised as Minesweeper and tapped out some, well, commands. The light below the grates of the vent blinked twice, then shut off. The clamp detached itself and made a sound like a stick on a bass drum as it landed in the shaft. He quickly but carefully lifted the grate and slipped inside, keeping his shot hand close to his body.
Static erupted in his ear as his superior tried to connect with him. When his voice came through, it was even more hissy than usual.
"Oxy—find th—anks. Got th-t?"
"Uh, no?" Ceres whispered. But the guy disconnected anyway, leaving him in darkness and silence.
He peeked over the floor, at Zaniah and the crewmates. Genesis was still trying to coax a motive out of her, but gratefully Zan was smart enough to say nothing.
But then Jericho tried to push her away, towards lower engine, lips pulled taut. Genesis held her chin high, but a single tear was sliding down her cheek.
They were going to eject her.
Ceres huffed and pulled out one of the two pistols the crewmates had stupidly left on the security desk. He held it in his good hand and held his breath as he tried to aim, knowing that with his non-dominant hand, crouched half-inside a vent, the odds of hitting someone weren't exactly in his favor. But he had to try.
He fired, and didn't wait to see everyone's reaction. He quickly ducked down, letting the grate shut above him, and re-attached the clamp. The crack of the gun still rang in his ears, but he could still hear the alarm from above as he crawled in the dark to safety.
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An Imposter Among Us
Fanfiction"Congratulations, Miss Duri. You're leading the fifty-fifth voyage to Polus." My initial giddiness wore away under a new and frankly uninvited sense of suspicion. Only an hour ago they were set on selecting anyone but me. What made them change their...
