Among Us: Hosts

Ch. 5

"Is she not planning on giving the patch out yet?" Simi whispered testily to his wife. It had been a couple of hours since the meeting. No one could sleep.
Raha overheard them. "Even if she did it wouldn't go to you, Simi."
He snapped around and shook his head. "I doubt she'll give it to someone who could be an imposter."

"I'm the most qualified." She shot back.
"By what standard?" Kandor lazily said across the room.

Prem, Gan, and Chiedza were outside in the hallway. Chiedza was standing off to the side, brought as the insurance in case one of the three was an imposter, but really, she was turned away to give the other two some privacy.

Prem looked sickly. "I just wanted to talk to you."
Gan looked at him in concern, "Yea, what is it?"

"We've known each other for a few years now."
Gan sighed, "Prem, I know it's you. I believe you."
Prem seemed to tear up. "Don't say that. Don't believe people so easily. Be more cautious, please."

"Prem..." Gan blinked a bit. "Are you okay?"
"No." The shorter man burst into soft sobs. "I'm not. How can I be?"
Gan paused before testily reaching forward to put an arm around Prem, but when he didn't stop crying, he pulled him into his chest with his other arm and held him to lull him a bit.

Prem tried to speak between sobs, but Gan shushed him, saying "I know. I know," softly.

"If I don't make it... I want to use this chance to say–" Prem started. Gan pulled away just enough to be inches from his face. "I know. Prem, I know you." He put his forehead to Prem's and closed his eyes.

Prem's breathing calmed down a bit and he closed his eyes. "Right." He lifted his heels to steal a short kiss from Gan, who relished in it for the moment it lasted.
They hadn't noticed that everyone in the med bay had quieted down to listen to their conversation, and Kandor made a disgusted face.
"Look, they don't even know if the other is an imposter."

Assisi glared at him. "Love is a beautiful thing, Kandor. Your skepticism is easier said than done. Besides, we don't even know if it's not you."

"Me? Please, Assisi."
"She's not wrong," Chantelle affirmed, folding her arms.

Simi sighed, "Everyone please, let's not do this right now."

The three that had stepped out finally returned, and the crew finally turned off their lights and retired to their beds.

The ship was dark and silent. Only the mechanical whirring of the AI controlling processes around them could be heard, along with the hum of the reactor in the back of the ship. The red hue of the nighttime lights lined the rows of hallways. Usually, it was a scene of comfort and coziness, but tonight it only emphasized sinister motivations lurking among the non-humans on board.

Halfway through the night, a short beep was followed by the AI's soft voice. "Starting hyperjump in 3, 2, 1..."
The ship accelerated imperceptibly, everyone stayed asleep... except Ganbaatar.

He opened his eyes to the darkness and waited till his vision adjusted. As quietly as he could, he got out of bed. He slowly walked over to where Prem was asleep. He stared at him for a little bit, thoughts racing in his head. Next, he walked over to Chiedza. His Vice-Captain patch lay on the table beside her, and it caught the glint of the red hallway light perfectly. He reached out to touch it, and felt the coarseness of the fabric.

He knew it was his fault that he was losing the position, but it still irritated him. Being Captain or Vice Captain gave them great control over the ship, and other crew mates. He had worked so hard to be kicked for a stupid mistake, the brunt of which wasn't even his fault.

In his annoyance, he tsk'd and grabbed it to stuff into his pocket. It would be madness to assign a different Vice Captain now. Gan walked out of the med bay, through the cafeteria, and towards the navigation room.

He checked on the ship's trajectory to Earth, and then put in the access key to check on the crew mate profiles. The screen filled up with cards with the names and home countries of the crew onboard. As he read the degrees each person had, he chuckled at how qualified everyone on board was. The crème de la crème. Chantelle was surprisingly similarly qualified to him, he remarked to himself with a smile.

A few minutes passed by as Gan fiddled with the controls, when he suddenly startled as he heard the faint sound of footsteps from the hallway behind him. When he turned, it was dark, and quite far away. A fear grew within his chest, but he pushed it down. The grey-blue tinge from the screen dimly illuminated the room. His favorite room.

He'd spent years aboard the STS-AU-17. As Gan looked around at the lit up buttons, he walked over to run his fingers over the He'd shyly shown the controls to Prem here a year ago, worried he'd sound too nerdy. Prem had just laughed off the worries and called it cute.

*clink*
Gan smiled. Humans make the strangest connections in the strangest of places.
*clink*
That's why we had to look out for each other. Look out for everyone on Earth.
*clink*

Gan turned, interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a grating sound. He quickly looked around and pinpointed the source. One of the vent grates slowly pushed open as a head poked through slowly.

"These vents are so small! How did you ever— oh," Gan reprimanded himself for even asking the silly question. A pair of bloodshot red eyes, looking inhuman, popped up slowly from the vent. Gan's heart raced. This felt primal. Something deep and animalistic within him knew to recognize those eyes as eyes on the hunt. And tonight, he was the prey.

Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. Standard protocol: the cafeteria had the Code 2 emergency button. All he had to do was press it.

But before he could get his feet to move, a long tongue quickly zapped out from the midsection of the perpetrator, and the last thing Gan saw was those eyes of the hunter, surrounded by rows of glistening teeth, dripping with satisfaction.