The days were starting to blend together. Honestly, it was hard for Brooke to tell just how long they'd been stuck on this ship. Logically it couldn't have been more than three days, though it was hard to think logically about much of anything being trapped in the middle of deep space with nothing to do.
When they were working, a week would go by in a heartbeat. Under these conditions? It crawled. Being stuck in this ship was sapping away at her willpower. Yesterday was a perfect example of that. She very nearly said fuck it and went into that quarantine unit without her isolation gear on to hug Jacob. Ultimately she managed to overcome that desire and put on her hazmat gear first. But still, this was miserable.
She wanted to just sleep until the quarantine was over. Maybe this was due to all the stress of the past seventy-two hours, but Brooke was exhausted. She had zero motivation to get up. And had it been her choice, she would have likely spent the remainder of her time on that ship in Chris's big plush bed.
Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. As she was so rudely reminded of by the Captain entering his quarters and turning the lights on to full bright right in her face. She groaned in complaint before placing her pillow over her head. That was so unnecessary.
"Sorry, Babe. We've got a situation," Chris insisted, a hint of urgency in his voice.
She lurched up from the bed like an undead zombie, hair a tousled mess, drool running down the corner of her lip. Definitely not her best look.
"What time is it?" she spoke in a groggy, half-asleep voice.
"Just a little passed 13:40," he admitted.
She turned towards the bedside clock. "Fuck, that late?"
He nodded. "You seemed pretty zonked out this morning, so I didn't want to wake you."
This didn't make sense. She'd been asleep for almost fourteen hours now. Why was she so damn tired?
"What's going on?" she asked while rubbing the back of her neck.
"Kevin's gone missing," he explained. "No one can find him."
Brooke blinked at him in confusion before finally getting out of bed. "What?"
He nodded. "Get cleaned up as quick as you can. We're having an emergency meeting in the mess hall."
"We should hold it in the med bay," she suggested, already in the process of getting dressed. "Jacob deserves to know what's going on."
"Hmm. Good point," he admitted. "I'll tell the others to head to the medbay."
Chris left. Brooke was in the process of getting her hair situation under control when a thought occurred to her. She turned her gaze towards the computer monitor sitting in the corner.
His PM box was wide open.
Shaking the thought away, Brooke focused on getting cleaned up before heading out the door. She made her way down the corridor, through the mess hall, to the medbay where everyone was congregating.
"Is this everyone?" Chris asked as they all gathered around near the quarantine unit.
"We're missing Samantha," Owen informed.
"I'm sure she'll be here soon," Jess assured cheerfully, sitting on a cadaver table while kicking her feet in the air. "She just needs a minute."
Brooke wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she saw Jess turn and wink at Jacob. At that moment, a figure came walking briskly down the hall. The sliding door to the medbay opened, and Samantha came walking in, a slick grin on her face, eyes coated in shadowy mascara, and lips pumped up with a glossy coat. She was wearing her hair down, which was strange, but what's more, she'd apparently gone down a size in jumpsuits as well. Her booty was looking especially perky in that getup.
"Sorry, everyone. I had to finish blow-drying my hair."
"Oooo, you are looking good today, Chica," Jess complimented in a flirty tone.
Samantha flipped her locks behind her shoulder and flashed her a stunning smile. "Why, thank you, Jess."
She patted the spot next to her. "Come sit next to me."
Samantha happily sat her shapely rear next to Jess. Brooke glared at them both suspiciously. Since when did those two become so buddy-buddy?
"You held up the meeting because you were blow-drying your hair?" Chris asked, a mixture of confusion and annoyance in his voice.
She shrugged. "Pretty much."
"You realize one of our crew is missing, right?" he insisted. "And considering who it is, I figured you, of all people, would want to show a bit more urgency in the matter."
Samantha laughed at that. "Oh, please. Me worry about Kevin? The asshole is probably off sulking on the mining deck somewhere."
"It is the only place on the ship he's even remotely important," Jess commented.
She snickered at that devilishly. "Good one, Girl."
While they giggled amongst each other, Rebecca nudged Brooke's arm and murmured quietly to her. "What's with them? I didn't realize those two were friends."
She shook her head. "They're not..."
Chris cleared his throat sharply. "Look, we can make all the jokes we want, but this is serious. A member of our crew is missing."
"Kevin never came to bed last night. He hasn't been seen in almost twelve hours," Rebecca insisted. "It's a big ship, but it's not that big. Something's happened to him."
"Samantha, you were the one who saw him last. Did he say anything about where he might have gone?" the Captain asked.
She sighed in annoyance. "We argued about some shit, and then he took off. Look, I don't know what you want from me, Chris. My best guess is he's down on the mining deck somewhere avoiding me."
The more she heard, the more suspicious Brooke became. Samantha was one of the first people to notice Kevin was missing. And now she was behaving like she didn't care he was gone.
"Can't you just access the Cordoba security footage?" Jacob suggested. "If he's down on the mining deck somewhere, he'd show up on the cameras, surely."
Chris sighed in worry. "Unfortunately...that's the other reason I needed to call this meeting."
The crew all gave the Captain concerned looks. He turned up towards the ceiling.
"Mira, would you like to tell them?"
"Someone has sabotaged the security mainframe," the ship AI explained. "I can no longer access cameras."
"What?" Brooke lurched up from her seat upon hearing that. "What do you mean sabotaged?"
"It is as I said," she insisted. "Someone has manually gone into the security mainframe and sabotaged the system."
Owen nodded. "Chris and I confirmed it ourselves. They went into the security room and fried the box with a plasma torch. We're blind on all decks."
"That motherfucker!" Rebecca declared in disbelief. "It wasn't enough just to gripe and bitch about his pay; now he's going on a one-man mutiny?"
"Mira, did you happen to see who it was who sabotaged the cameras?" Brooke asked.
"I'm sorry, Nurse Holloway, but no," she admitted regretfully. "Unfortunately, my processing capabilities are limited in regard to what I can see at any given moment. I cannot be in multiple rooms at once."
"It would have to be someone who had access to the security room."
"That could be any one of us, Rebecca," Owen insisted. "This is a commercial mining barge with an eight-man skeleton crew. When was the last time anyone needed to check the security feed for any reason?"
"Come on, guys, the obvious suspect is Kevin here," Jess insisted.
Samantha nodded in agreement. "He's the only one carrying a grudge right now. It had to be him."
Chris sighed in frustration. "Well, regardless of who's at fault, right now, Kevin is either hurt, stuck, or doing something he shouldn't be." He looked up at the ceiling again. "Mira, can you at least tell us if our mining technician is still alive?"
"I can confirm there are eight lifeforms present onboard this ship," she declared.
He nodded approvingly. "Well, that's a start, at least. Alright, we'll split into three teams. Jess, I want you with Owen. Samantha, you're with Rebecca. Brooke, you're with me."
Jess rolled her eyes and hopped off the cadaver slab. "The Captain pairing up with his girlfriend."
"Will wonders never cease?" Samantha muttered sarcastically.
"We're gonna go deck by deck," Chris instructed. "Starting with the living quarters, then heading to engineering. From there, we'll go to storage, then mining. Anywhere he could have conceivably gained access to, we need to search. Any questions?"
They all shook their heads.
"Best of luck, everyone," Jacob offered lightheartedly. "I'll be here holding down the fort."
--
They'd searched just about everywhere on the ship, but Kevin was nowhere to be found. At this point, Rebecca was convinced the man had just vanished out of an airlock or something. Splitting off into groups, they checked the only place they hadn't fully looked yet, the mining deck.
"Kevin!" Rebecca called out while walking alongside a very bored-looking Samantha. "Are you there? Kevin!"
Samantha sighed wearily. "You know, if he could really hear you, I feel like he would have responded by now."
She gave her a weird look. "What has been with you today? You're acting...odd."
"Odd, how?"
She shrugged. "Well, for one, I don't recall you ever wearing your hair down while you're working."
Samantha grinned pridefully. "Like it?"
Rebecca cleared her throat awkwardly. "Well...sure. But it's kind of a safety hazard. Especially down here. Also, I can't help but imagine the wedgie you must have with how tight that jumpsuit is."
She giggled devilishly and ran her hand across her rump. "Oh, come on. You can't tell me my ass does not look good in this."
Rebecca turned away, her cheeks burning slightly red. Something Samantha was very quick to pick up on.
"I don't know...it just feels like you don't even seem to care Kevin could be hurt. And since when are you and Jess bff?"
"I'll have you know she was the inspiration behind this new look."
She chose not to comment. Rebecca still looked discontent about something. Samantha sighed in frustration.
"Look, I get where you're coming from, Rebecca. I really do. But the fact is, my relationship with Kevin was never healthy. I need to move on, and so does he."
