As soon as they met up with everyone else in Cafeteria, Nova and Sean released hands, and Corpse remained with a grimace as he hunched over, resting his forearms on the backrest of one of the chairs, gritting his teeth at the thought of losing Nova to that group of people-pleasers.
It was like night and day to see everyone's change in persona — well, everyone except Corpse. Corpse was always hard to read, for he always kept to himself. So, Nova found that him remaining quiet and fairly emotionless was not entirely out of character for him.
"When we figure out who did this, they're getting ejected from the ship," Felix took a seat at their usual table as everyone crowded around, side-eyeing each other in suspicion, "Now, where was everyone again?"
They all took turns stating their locations when the emergency was called.
"O2 with you," Nova said confidently.
Felix's eyes narrowed, "Where were you before that?"
Nova's face dropped, thinking she had been in the clear, "Navigation."
"But, Rae was just in Navigation," Felix's suspicion grew towards Nova as he turned his attention to Rae, "Rae, did you see Nova?"
Rae's face tensed. "No, I didn't," she admitted, obvious regret washing over her for not vouching for Nova. Nova had no idea what to retort, afraid that she'd end up saying something incriminating.
"Okay," Corpse interrupted, "I don't think it's right that we're singling out Nova. There's five other people here."
Corpse couldn't let Nova take the blame, and Nova felt relief that at least someone was trying to speak up for her, though thinking it was strange it was Corpse; she never thought he'd bothering speaking up to vouch for anyone really.
"Why are you so interested in taking the blame off of Nova?" Felix inquired curiously.
"Cause she didn't do it," Corpse argued to protect the girl.
"And, how are you so sure of that?"
Corpse gulped, knowing he was caught. His cheeks burned a bright red, "I saw her on cams. She didn't go to storage at all."
Nova's eyes darted to the side, finding it odd that he was pretty much admitting to watching only her the whole time. She blushed madly, but ridded the feeling as she concentrated on the situation at hand, needing to clear her name.
"I finished with Navigation and was about to start my task in Shields when O2 went off," Nova said, literally fighting for her life.
Felix turned towards Sean, "And, where were you before you found Joel?"
Sean's lips trembled, unable to form words as he was still in shock. "Electrical," he finally mustered.
"Let's just not make any brash decisions," Nova spoke up, not wanting Sean to get blamed just because he wasn't quite in his right mind.
"And let the killer go?" Poki said, in disbelief.
"So, what were you doing before the alarm went off?" Nova spoke up, aggravated at the whole ordeal.
Poki gulped, stammering on her words after being put on the spot, not giving a second thought to being suspected, "I- Well- I like to stay in upper left- cause no one's really over there- and sometimes reactor goes off-"
Everyone eyed her suspiciously, for her nervousness was translating to guiltiness given the situation.
Rae began fidgeting, feeling as though her closest friend there was being targeted and wanted to avert incrimination, "-And, what about you, Corpse? Creeping on cams the whole time, conveniently not seeing the murder take place?"
