Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 8 - Who's the Dangerous One?

Dubious walks up to Erik. "Erik.. This is really.. Well, it sucks. I know you've worked so hard on this, but.. we're not getting anywhere."

"You're firing me."

"Stay in touch, okay? And if you have any great ideas, please reach out. I mean it."

The soft humming coming from the Artefact starts to intensify. Then a high-pitched whirring. The humming gets louder and colourful lights glow in the crystals on the Artefact. Then suddenly the Artefact plays the song loudly. They cover their ears until the song ends and it gets silent again.

"Aaah! Ahaahaha! Did you see that!? Yes!" Erik jumps and cheers excitedly with Singh. He hugs her, lifting and spinning her around.

...

"What if we were to try and.." Ethan sighs. "I don't know, triangulate our position?"

"Yeah, with pulsars. Yeah, been there, done that." William says.

You're still in the observation deck, now alone with the two.

"All our comms are down. I have no idea where we are." You tell him.

"All of our comms. With Earth too?" Ethan asks and you nod.

"All of our comms."

Ethan sighs and lean on the wall. "Okay.. How bad is it? Lay it on me."

"The somatic remains offline." You say as you check it on your tablet.

"But everyone asleep is fine." Willliam reassures Ethan. "It's just, anything we need to induce sleep, software, hardware.. It's fried."

"Okay.." Ethan nods and stand up and walk over to the table. "You know what I was thinking?"

"This ship vaporising into nothing and me along with it? Cause that's what was on my mind." William says.

"How Erik and Jana would never know what happened." Ethan says. "That we would just.. disappear like we never existed."

"I.. I was really scared." William admits. You and Ethan look at him in empathy.

Then Ethan sighs and looks down. "What am I gonna do about Ian? It's not like I can just.. throw him back into soma sleep now."

"Ian is gonna have to answer for what he did, but.. maybe it's something you deal with once the mission is complete." You tell him.

...

You and Ethan went to get Yerxa and now walk into the mess hall with him, stopping in front of everyone, you and Yerxa behind Ethan on each side. William appears in the room.

"You don't like me.. I don't care.. I am not here to be your friend.. or your father. I have a job to do.. and so do you." Ethan tells the crew sitting around the dinner table. "All of you. So, let's get back to work and back on mission."

They all look awkward and hesitant, just sitting there, shuffling in their seats.

"That is an order."

"You heard Ethan. Let's get this ship up and running." Yerxa then says and leave to get back to work, and then everyone leave too.

Ethan sighs and looks at you. You grab his forearm and give it a gentle squeeze as you walk past him. Then the two of you walk back to the observation deck.

Later Ethan is sitting on the floor working into an open panel. As he sits there, he watches the crew working on repairing the damages. They talk and laugh while they work, all familiar with and care about each other.

...

Ethan is down working on the engine with Yerxa. There's an area on the engine that has live electricity dangerously exposed.

"Fixing this is gonna take time." Yerxa complains.

Ethan just ignores him as he continues working.

"You want me to go out and push?" He then ass him, to lighten up the mood, but Ethan just sighs. "Or do you want me to just.. get out?"

Again, Ethan just ignores him.

"You know, we could be out here for years, Ethan, so if you're the type to hold a grudge.."

Ethan sighs and turns, frowning at him. "You mutinied, Ian."

"You think I wanted any of that to happen? For it to go that way? Everything I did, I did because I put the mission first."

"Oh, you can't honestly believe that. Ian, you put your ego first."

"And you've never put anything else ahead of the mission? Or anyone?"

"I am out here, light-years away from my brother and niece, to protect them."

"Exactly. To protect them. Not the rest of us. Be honest. If it ever comes down to a choice between this crew and Jana.. or, you know what, Yn.. if you had to choose between us and Yn.. Who would you choose?"

Ethan frowns confused and slightly taken aback at him using you as an example. "That's ridiculous."

"And there's my answer." Yerxa nods. "But I'm the dangerous one, right?"

Then Ethan glares at him. "Get back to work, Ian."

Yerxa gets back to where he was working and looks down at the screwdriver. "You know Ethan.. were the situation reversed.. I'm not sure I'd be quite as.. magnanimous with you."

Ethan stops mid movement in his work, but doesn't turn around. "No?"

"No." He picks the screwdriver up and walks back slowly toward Ethan.

Feeling his presence nearing him from behind, Ethan turns around to him. And before Yerxa attacks, Ethan kicks him back and he gets caught in the exposed electricity. It burns his body, killing him immediately. Ethan stares as at Yerxa's dead body on the floor.

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