PART ONE | CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Captain Darren Chess of the Novas had taken it up to himself to rule the solar system ever since the Stars fell three years before.

They said they were taken down from the inside.

Word around space pubs, whispers in the shadows of forgotten restaurants and rumors in cantines floating infinitely in the galaxy had it that one of the mechanics went rogue and killed everyone else of their rank and the former captain of the ship, stole a project that could quite possibly destroy the universe and escaped with one of the escape pods before dousing the survivors with a memory gas to make them forget everything about them. The Stars would have been the only ones with an accurate idea of what happened that night but they, too, had lost most memories of the event.

Three years passed and no one could remember a thing about the person who destroyed them.

All this happened while the Stars were being attacked by the Suns, who were after the same plans that disappeared with the rat. It was unclear whether the traitor worked with them, but everyone had a different theory about what happened.

And the Stars... Well, that night was a tragedy for all of them. Most of them died during the attack and the survivors managed to pick up the pieces and build a new research facility.

You see, the Stars were only made up of people who had no one else. Orphans and children disowned by their families, which was why most of the crewpeople were between the ages ten and twenty. There were older people, of course, but they weren't as big in numbers. That was one more reason why the massacre that took place there shocked the entire solar system so much.

Three years, and everyone had given up hope in finding the culprit.

Three years, and the Suns still hadn't paid for their crimes.

Honestly, Darren was trying to put the past behind him. Yeah, what happened to the Stars was terrible, but they were slowly rising to power again and would probably find the traitor soon. Maybe they just weren't giving out the traces they'd found to keep it a secret from the rat themselves.

Everyone knew that they'd kill that person if they ever found them and no one on their right minds would aid them or accuse the Stars of murder. Everyone knew that the traitor deserved the worst, because if they'd felt any guilt about what they did that night and about all that blood on their hands, they'd have come forward and paid for their actions. Instead, they hid away in the dark; the only person who remembered the fall with every excruciating detail...

The new captain of the Stars was a guy named Ron Bowns, who had been the former captain's right hand before the tragedy. He'd only been seventeen years old when he got the position, but he had yet to disappoint. He'd lost too much that night to let his people down again.

Darren couldn't have asked for a better crew. His co-captain, Sidney Claw, was as loyal as they came. She was in her late twenties (much like Darren himself), ambitious and knew how to get what she wanted, but she would never betray her comrades. She and the captain had known each other since they were kids and had gotten in all sorts of trouble together. They'd gotten married half a decade before on a dare, but didn't get divorced after and became an actual couple. Ask their friends and they'll tell you that they were practically begging for that opportunity.

The crew on the whole was about a dozen people and that may not sound like a lot, but they were close and worked hard when they weren't partying or fighting with each other.

Darren thought he knew everyone perfectly, but that notion was flushed down the toilet when he got a call from the surviving Stars.

"Someone's calling ya." Sidney told her husband, while munching on a bag of chips and sitting on his favourite seat (which was a huge no-no and earned her a glare).

She was only wearing her underwear and an oversized, white button-up shirt that reached down her knees and that Darren suspected she'd stolen from his drawer. Her black curls were falling in her face, forever making him wonder how she could see, and her intense blue eyes were shining underneath all the mass she called hair. Her back was against one handle of the chair, where she'd laid a pillow, and her legs were over the other.

"Who is it?" Darren turned to look at the big screen that took over most of a wall of the pilot room.

"Dunno. It's an unidentified caller or whatever. It's too early for me to work on this, I'm still havin' breakfast." Sidney shrugged.

"Sidney, it's four in the afternoon and you're eating chips."

"Why are ya repeating everythin' I say? Anyway, aren'tcha going to answer that? I was in the middle of watchin' some trashy reality show from Mars."

Darren rolled his eyes and answered the call. A young guy, who couldn't have been any older than twenty, appeared onscreen. Darren and Sidney both recognised him immediately as the new captain of the remaining Stars; he'd been all over the news a few years back.

He had dark green eyes that were rimmed with dark circles. He was pale and his reddish-brown hair were messy and all over the place. He looked exhausted and in dire need of a break.

"Greetings. I am Ronald Bowns, captain of the Stars, and I have a request for you."

"Uh... Hi? I'm Darren Chess and this is my wife and co-captain, Sidney Claw, aboard the ship referred to as Nova. How can we help you?" Darren leaned against a table, his hands holding onto the edge on either side of him.

"We have suspicions that the fugitive who brought our downfall three years ago is hiding away in your ship." Ronald explained.

"Alright, then. We'll check for stowaways right away. Do you have any idea what your fugitive looks like?" Darren asked him. He was hoping that Ron had remembered some of the details, but was disappointed by the younger man's reply.

"We're not looking for a stowaway, captain Chess. The traitor is someone among your crew. We still have no memory of their appearance, but we sure hope you will be able to locate them soon. In a few days we'll visit you so you can hand them in. If you haven't found them or have decided in favor of concealing them, we're going to take your entire crew in to be interrogated. I wish you the best of luck and hope to hear from you soon. Have a nice day."

With that, the screen went dark again. Darren stared at it in shock for a few moments and nothing could be heard but the engines. He ran a hand through his curly, ginger hair and blinked rapidly in disbelief.

Then Sidney snorted.

"Well, this is gonna be fun! Is it too late to quit? I don't do well with interrogations... Remember that one time I was arrested for no big deal?"

"You were arrested for fraud and tax evasion." Darren reminded her patiently.

"You're doin' it again!"

"Doing what?"

"Repeatin' everythin' I say." Sidney rolled her eyes. "So, anyway, remember how nervous I was? I actually confessed to the whole thing. I'd have spent five years in space jail if ya hadn't... uh... bailed me out. I don't want the same thing to happen now."

"But you're not who they're after."

"Yeah, but that time I spilled my guts and said some pretty embarrassin' stuff when I got off topic. Probably because I'd been drinkin' up an hour before at Gigi's..." she paused, thinking about it. "See? I'm trailin' off again. And now we're banned from Mars, so now I have to spend my time watching trashy reality shows from the planet."

"I'm just glad they haven't created alcoholic chips yet... You'd be drunk 24/7."

"I like the way ya think. Where do ya stash that Vodka, again?"

"I keep changing its hiding place because you keep stealing it, so I'd say that it's none of your business."

"I'll find it on my own, buzzkill. We have to start investigating the crew. I don't want the Stars to destroy us... They're pretty hell bent on findin' that traitor."

"They could never destroy us. You're going to build a wall with all the empty bags of chips and protect us from their blasts."

"If that's whatcha're dependin' on, we're all gonna die. Even if it worked, I'd be too lazy to do that and ya know it." she scoffed.

"I still love you, babe."

"Love ya too, you big dummy. Now get to work, I'm gonna make some coffee and start checkin' everyone's background again..."

"Good luck."

"You too. You're gonna need it... Thank goodness I don't have to go out there and communicate with people."

"Sidney, they're our crew."

"Damn animals is what they are! Just throw a chicken wing at them and they'll tear each other apart to get it. And it ain't like we ain't feedin'em! When you step outta this room, you're entering a goddamn jungle."

"You're on your period, aren't you?"

"How can ya tell?"

"Many things. One, I just checked the date. Two, you're talking trash again. Three, you stole my seat. Need I go on?"

"No, just go have a talk with the beasts out there. Let's just hope they won't eatcha alive..."

"You're unbelievable..." Darren shook his head, chuckling at Sidney's normal behavior.

He knew she didn't mean what she said and that it was probably the cramps talking, so he opened a cupboard and threw her some pain-killers on his way out.

"You're a life-saver!" she called after him as he left the pilot room.

"Took you long enough to realise..." he laughed. She flipped him off, absent-mindedly, as the door closed.

Darren still hadn't really thought about Ron's accusations. He was only just starting to let all that sink in and the more he thought about it, the worse he felt about suspecting his friends. They'd been flying together for three years, since he and Sidney stole that ship from a Martian when they were trying to escape the planet. Good times... It had been before they'd actually legalised their ownership of the spacecraft.

Everyone could be a suspect because everyone joined after the Stars fell. There was no way for him to narrow it down. Everyone had to be checked and most importantly, no-one could know because they would attempt to escape. And, surely, people other than the traitor would start panicking and trying to run away, mainly because they'd be worried about being considered as a suspect.

Things were getting really complicated really fast, causing Darren to feel weaker the more thought he gave the matter. It was going to be a really short few days and he didn't know how he'd find time to conduct all the needed investigations.

He had to remain inconspicuous. One wrong move and they'd have to go on lockdown... There would be a lot of paperwork if it came to that and his wife would never let him hear the end of it.

Darren decided to start with the more isolated members of the crew and the ones that didn't really talk much. If he'd started with Jol, everyone on Pluto would know the very next second. He didn't really know how to keep a secret and loved jumping to conclusions.

He looked for Zoel first.

Zoel Phyture was from Mercury. She was the tiniest in the crew, with a height of just 4'9'', and had green skin. Her hair and eyes were chocolate coloured and she had such a quiet voice that most people avoided talking to her because they could rarely and barely hear what she was saying.

Ironically, she spent most of her time with Jol Corb from Pluto, the most talkative person aboard the ship. He favoured her over the rest of the crewmembers because she was a great listener. Jol was extremely pale, with ice-blue hair and light red eyes. He never stopped talking, not even in his sleep. Darren suspected him the least, because they already knew everything about him and had heard most of his stories thousands of times over the time they spent together.

He knocked on the door to the kitchen, since that's where Zoel worked for the most part. Her actual job was being their navigator, but she was amazing at cooking and they hadn't landed in a long time, so she'd taken it up to her to feed everyone on the ship. Since she was from Mercury and her home planet was so close to the sun, she couldn't stand the cold either, and was always dressed in multiple sweaters and warm clothes, even when the others were dying of the heat.

"Zoel? Are you in here?" Darren called from the door, which opened a few seconds later. She smiled and waved at him, pretty much aware that he'd have a hard time hearing her greetings.

She led him inside and rushed to the fridge to bring him the snacks she usually gave him on his visits.

He wasn't really hungry, but he didn't want her to think anything was off so he accepted the homemade chips she gave him.

"Save some for Sidney." Zoel told him slowly so he could read her lips. Her voice was barely audible, and if she'd spoken any faster he wouldn't have been able to understand her.

"I will." he chuckled. "Uh... I need a favour."

She tilted her head and waited for him to continue.

"The Space Office sent us a warning that we need to make some reports on the crew because there are some complications with our archive. I have to ask you some personal questions, but I don't want the word to get out yet because some of the crew, like Izzy, are going to panic." Darren explained.

Zoel nodded in understanding and took a small whiteboard from the counter and started writing.

"Can you print the questions for me?"

The captain gave it some thought and then agreed.

"I'll bring you the papers as soon as I can."

"Thank you." she smiled again.

Darren started making his way to the door to leave, but Zoel slammed the cupboard a couple of times to get his attention. When he turned around again, he found her pointing at the chips she'd prepared for him.

"Right! Thanks, Zoel. See you later!" he grabbed the chips and left.

It was, indeed, going to be a short week.