An Impostor Among Them

Part 1: The Skeld

I didn't have to take more than two steps out of the airlock to see the size of the research station. I'd thought the dropship's size was incredible, but it could barely compare to the main vessel, which must have been at least twenty times larger. Even though I'd been briefed on what the ship would look like, it still amazed me how we could get something like this up in space—and how I had been selected to work in it.

Brown turned to us with a smile and a sweep of her arm. "Welcome to The Skeld!" she announced.

My friends, Lime and Yellow, looked equally as awestruck as I felt. We're the only ones who have never been on this ship. In fact, we've never been in space before at all. This is our first ever training mission. Might I add, this is only the fifth journey in the world allowing trainees to come along. Not to brag, but I think that makes us pretty special.

This stage of our training is to go into space and gain two months of experience on a real spacecraft. We'll learn how to fix and manage equipment on board, to work as a team in an isolated environment, and become familiar with ground control communication. Although this trip serves no purpose other than training, I'm feeling like the most important guy in the world.

There are ten members on board: Red, White, Black, Green, Brown, Pink, Purple, me, Yellow, and Lime. The older ship members have all been in here before; especially Brown and White, who have each spent most of their career on this ship.

Brown and Red, the latter being our commander, guided Lime and I through the back side of the ship. Purple and Pink led Yellow down the other side. We made plans to each make a full round through the ship and reconcile in the cafeteria, which doubled as our meeting room.

Black, White, and Green all headed to the front of the ship to confirm connections with ground control and chart the course for our journey. Midway through the tour, Brown broke off from our group so she could examine the engines before they were started up.

Red led us into a small room. Several complex-looking monitors lined one wall, as well as three panels. In the center of the room, two small steps created a dip in the red-tiled floor, leading to a large table. One corner of the room was slightly cut off to create a small two-foot-long section of wall. On this wall was another monitor.

Red said over his shoulder, "This is Admin. Don't worry about those computers on that wall. We hardly ever use those, and it's generally only the older crew members who do. The table is for keeping track of crewmates' locations, but there really is no need to use it. In case you do want to use it, this is the switch to turn it on." He opened a small panel on the side of the table and flicked a switch. The screen embedded in the center of the platform lit up with a brief flash of green light. It now showed a map of the ship from above. The map wasn't in great detail; only outlines of the rooms were shown. There were multiple small circular icons spread throughout the rooms. As I watched, one disappeared for a moment and reappeared in an adjacent room.

"See these circles? They each represent one crewmate. We can't see who they are—our ship doesn't have that kind of technology yet—but there are sensors to tell how many people are in that room." He pointed to Navigation on the map. "That's probably Green. And here, in Communications, must be White and Black."

"What is this for?" Lime pointed to the other side of the table, where an appliance rose from the platform.

"That's the card swipe to check in every morning."

"Why do we need to swipe it every day?" I said.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. We were told that it's to check in, but I don't see why it's necessary, considering how we can't desert the ship in the middle of space."