POLUS

VII - Questions

Bianca
Chapter Three
Ship 2

BIANCA POV

So, my first experience with what Pink calls a "reactor meltdown" (sounds like what my sister does when mum won't buy her the new iPhone 320), seems to have gone great !! A slight panic, but not that bad.

We continue walking, since Pink still hadn't finished transporting the gas tanks, and once we're both done, I decide to head off to sleep.

It's a new day! Or not. In my mind, it is. Time doesn't really work the same this far away from a planet.
I look over at the bed a few metres away, to see Pink fast asleep in it. And yes, he does wear his helmet while he sleeps. I don't know how that can possibly be comfortable- although sometimes he does just have a few pillows over his face instead- he just really isn't keen on showing his face. Plus, I do find the helmet thing kinda cute.

I also see someone sleeping in the third bed across too. A guy I haven't met yet- I won't interrupt, I can introduce myself to him later!

I have a bunch of tasks I want to get through today, so time to get up!!

After getting a few done, I decide to head to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat- but I stop in my tracks when I hear faint crying.

I turn a quick corner to see the girl with the light brown suit- I believe her name was Hazel- sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth.

"Oh god, are you okay?" She doesn't hear me at first, and jumps when she finally sees me in front of her. "Oh- I... would you believe me if I said yes?" She looks up at me, her eyes noticeably stained from what I'm guessing would be tears.
"...not really." I sit down next to her, wrapping my arms around her in a hug-
oops, I forgot some people don't like that.
"Sorry, I'm a hugger."
"It's fine, please."
I hug her again, she is shaking.
I know what this is :(
"How often do you have panic attacks like this?" She seems surprised that I know, and wipes her eyes. "Like, once a week. They've been getting more frequent recently though... I think it's this mission." I look at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well... I think I'm on the wrong ship."

"...what?"

The wrong ship?
That can't be right.
Mira is extremely precise with who they put in mission teams. And the boarding process is super careful.
But then again- I haven't checked the info on the group yet. I don't usually do that often, neither does Pink, he only does for his medic crewmate things.

"Yeah. See- there's this person, a really close friend of mine. We were supposed to be on this mission together, but when I boarded, I couldn't find them... and now I'm certain that they're not here at all." I frown. "Maybe, you two got split last minute?" She looks at me. "I thought so too, but look at my Tablet." She shows me her Mira Tablet, which has the crew list displayed. Everything seems normal until I see someone I don't recognise- a few, actually. One named Val, another named Harvey, and another named named Levy. Wait. Actually, now that I think about it, that's not the only weird thing. There's a few people missing, too.
One of them being me.

"Wait... I'm not there?"
"Yeah, that too... that's one of the reasons I got so anxious when you first approached me, I didn't recognise you on the list." I quickly get out my tablet, and...
"Oh."
"What?" she looks at me, curious. I show her my tablet.
"Who... are these people?"
We look at the crew list on my tablet, which has no one that I recognise, not even Pink.
"I... I don't know."

What is going on? This hasn't happened before, is it just because it's my first Polus mission? But that also doesn't explain Hazel's. I should ask Pink about this.

I get up and start heading back to the sleeping quarters close to medbay. I hear Hazel trailing behind me asking questions as to where I'm going, and I reassure her to follow me.

"Pink!" I yell as I walk into the sleeping quarters. Luckily, the guy I saw sleeping in the other bed seems to have already gotten up. Pink groans. "Bee... what... quiet down..." He says in a groggy voice. "This is an emergency though!" He turns quickly after hearing the alarm in my voice. "What's wrong?" I shove my tablet in his face and he sits up, readjusting his helmet. "What am I looking at?"
"I don't know any of these people!"
"....eh?"
"I haven't seen a single one of these people on the ship yet, and everyone I have seen isn't on here! Am I on the wrong ship?"
"Me too." Hazel quietly adds. Pink takes my tablet with his hands and observes the list for a while. "It's just a regroup, Bee." He says, sighing. "A what now?" He rolls back over and lays down. "Mission teams sometimes get switched last minute, and the tablets take a while to update. This happened last year, remember?"
I know what he's talking about. Last year, our groups were switched with another's at the last minute. But that time, we were all informed way before we boarded, and it only took a few hours to update!

"Oh." Hazel lets out a relieved sigh. "That's all it is? Okay." I laugh nervously (BECAUSE IM NERVOUS LIKE TF IS GOING ON THIS MISSION) and shrug "yeah... that's all it is I guess." I'm not fully convinced, but- maybe it really is a regroup, but just worse this time?

"Yes, it's completely normal."

The entire ship shakes for a second out of nowhere.

Pink jolts back up after being shaken around his bed a bit.
"What was that?!" Hazel says whilst regaining her balance after nearly falling.
"That, however, that's not normal."
"It, uh... it seems fine now?"

Pink dismisses my comment and gets up, heading out to the nagivation quarters, still in his pyjamas (which are really cute btw, he has good taste)

Hazel and I follow along frantically, Pink investigating what's going on. Hazel is shaking again so I link my arm with hers to reassure her.

"What's going on?" I hear the other girl in the black spacesuit's voice faintly from behind us, when I look back I see she's following along now as well.

Pink hastes his way over and begins rapidly typing into the main monitor screen for a few seconds, but- then he just stops.

"What? What happened?"
He doesn't respond.
"Pink?"
He doesn't move a muscle.

..

"We're being ambushed."