Three weeks. Three goddamn weeks you had to live with that insufferable alien. "Oh, he's so cute!" "Oh, why don't you like him Aster?" "He would never hurt anyone!" The snotty voices of your "Friends" echo in your head, bouncing around in your skull. You hate him, hate him with all  your fury. You want to catch him alone in a dark room and strangle the life out of him, or stab him in the back when no one is looking. But for now... you must wait. Wait until you gain the trust of the monster in the ship, then.. only then will you strike. You smirk in the darkness of your room, laying on your bed while flipping a plasma knife by the handle. You imaged how it would feel, sliding it betwixt his shoulder blades. Imagining the oh so satisfying feeling of slicing open his first heart. 

Ah, but you must restrain yourself from doing any lasting damage yet. People would expect it to be you based on your dislike for him. Yes, you had it all planned out in your head, the kill, the getaway, you had it all. Your demonic grin grows wider as you plot his glorified demise. Someone is banging at your door, calling your name. "Aster! Captain Luna requests you!" Ah Cosmic, Luna's little brother. So sweet, innocent... He would never suspect you for murder. "Be out in a sec, I gotta change." This was not true. You slept in your medic jumpsuit, but you did need to put away the knife in a safe place. "Andromeda's coming too, Luna says its important."

The door opens with a faint vvit sound as you leave your room with Cosmic. The halls were as always, crowded with at least 15 different types of aliens, all pushing. The elevator is not empty this time, but you make it so by saying that the captain needed you. You pressed the button to the eleventh floor and waited for what seemed like hours. Finally the elevator opened to crew members running about carrying files and whatnot. Luna sees you and waves you over to a short mechanic. "Luna this is Andromeda, from what I've heard you've both met" You nod, remembering the girl who ear raped you before you even got on the ship.

Andromeda is scrolling through a projection of files, ignoring the flight manager's protests. "Ignore her, she's my older sister." That seemed to calm him down when she heard Luna say it, but he was still giving nervous glances at Andromeda. " Captain, our scanners have created a 3D projection of the ship. Would you like to see it?" Luna nods and motions for you to follow, but she stops in her tracks. "You know, I don't think that'll be necessary." Outside the huge plasma glass window is a destroyed v-shaped dreadnought growing crystals from its hull. All conversation stopped immediately. Suddenly a plasma screen started flashing red reading, "Incoming distress signal!" Cosmic rushed over and tapped it so you could all hear the transmission.

A tall paper pale spider person (Arachnokhja) appeared on the screen, looking terrified. "This is Captain G of the New Republic, If anyone's out there we need assistance! Someone- no something is killing everyone and infecting them!" The dark room around him seemingly starts to get crushed and loud screams can be heard from outside it. "OH GODS NOT LILITH TOO!" He leaps off his chair, knocking it down and tripping over it. The door is leaking blood, and bending under something's weight. G tries to get up, but before he could get all eight legs on the ground the door breaks and crushes his legs. Something, you don't know what starts to drag him out of the room, having literally no regard for the captain's pain. "77875! It's 7787-" A horrible bone-breaking crushing noise followed by a gurgly scream and rivers of blood end the distress signal. You're terrified- no traumatized, after what you just saw. You've always had a fear of blood but this is much more then just an open cut. You just freaking saw someone get murdered.

You're extremely nauseous and dizzy all of a sudden, your vision blurs and you feel yourself falling to the ground. Luckily for you someone got you before you passed out. Bad news is, Orion is short and you are not. While attempting to catch you, he popped his back in so many places it took all of his energy to not cry. You quickly stand up and brush yourself off, questioning the laws of reality as you never saw Him in the first place. "When the hell did you get here?" You ask, the suspicion overly apparent in your voice. Orion takes a minute to recollect himself before replying, "I was always there. I'm tiny so you didn't notice me." You nod and make a mental note to be wary of short people.

"Cosmic, how long ago was that distress call put out?" Luna asked, stoic as always. Cosmic did something you didn't catch and pressed a lot of buttons you didn't care about, until he found out the exact date. "It was broadcast three years ago." Luna nods and the rest of the tec and pilot crew in the area started doing their jobs again, if a bit shakily. However, Cosmic and Luna were speaking in hushed voices, with Cosmic occasionally saying something you could hear. Luna sighed and nodded, motioning for you and Orion to come over. You glance at Orion, who is already in deep conversation with Luna. You shrug, if that's what it took to look normal.

" Captain Luna? What exactly was that thing? " Orion asks, the shy tone usually uses is still getting on your nerves. Luna looked upset for moment before turning to you. "Aster, your parents were biochemical engineers were they not?" You nod slowly, wanting to rip out her throat slowly and torturously for knowing that about your parents. "Aster, there's something you need to know. They were working on a living Crystal, they lived on that desert planet so you never knew. And now... that crystal is killing people..."

" And it probably killed your parents. "