“You’re a lot smarter than what I originally gave you credit for- you can take pride in that, I don’t underestimate many people!” she continued in a jovial tone.

“Thanks, I suppose. Is this the part where you explain your grand plan?” I deadpanned.

“Look, I’ve never been good at that evil villain monologuing, I’m more of a backstabbing kinda girl, you see. But suffice to say, some entities are pretty keen on getting their hands on some mind controlling bugs and drugs. Ooh, that could be a product slogan- Bugs and Drugs!” she giggled.

I rolled my eyes, but Dan was still a bit behind the times.

“…what? Why aren’t you in here, Saskia? Wasn’t that the plan?” he queried, a little dazed.

Saskia ignored him completely.

“Ah, and you guys were the testers. Well, not all of you, just Allison. Sadly, you guys were the collateral- but if it makes you feel better, the story will report that you all fault valiantly to protect both Allison and me only succeeding in saving my life at the cost of your own. My employers can’t release a drug without doing all the necessary trials- even in the black market there’s still paperwork and regulations!”

Dan seemed to have caught up, at least with grasping the situation that we were stuck in.

“Why us? What was so special about us, to choose our mission?”

This time, Saskia didn’t ignore Dan- but I’d imagine that he wished she did.

“As for why you? Nothing, absolutely no reason at all. Don’t delude yourselves into thinking that we chose you individually to be the people used as collateral damage. You aren’t special. You just happened to get the short straw. Of course, it made my job easier because you guys didn’t have any bond so to speak. I’m just the hired hands; it’s not my company or anything. You’re just a job, and soon you’re going to be a statistic for the number of deaths from spacecraft malfunctions.”

Dan dropped to his hands and knees, all the fight and anger leaving him. I looked on, dismally noting that I hadn’t known exactly how bad my team was- which turned out to be ¬-much, much worse than I could ever have imagined.

“Enjoy your last sleep; I’ll afford you that much of a break.”

I didn’t respond to that. I did appreciate the heads up, but I wasn’t about to give Saskia any more satisfaction, either.

“And Oliver?”

“What?”

“You actually forced me to try when you didn’t believe Allison was the killer. So, my sincere congratulations to you for making me take off the kiddie gloves, even if was only for a few hours or so.”

“Don’t suppose you could make an exception for me, then?”

“Nah, you’re going to have to die- nothing personal, you understand? Just business. Good night! Don’t let the bed bugs bite!”

I took the silence that followed to mean that she had left us.

* * *

“What just happened?” he finally asked.

“How much have you gathered?” I responded tiredly. This wasn’t going to be a quick explanation, but I did need to ask some questions of Dan as well, so it was only fair that I answered some of his.

“I’m not as dim as either of you take me for, I did comprehend that I was just played. But why? Allison’s not the killer?”

Even though I now knew who the killer was, I was still hesitant to reveal my whole hand. It wasn’t because I held suspicion against Dan, it was more that I felt the less possible consequences there were, the better. It was entirely reasonable to assume that he could mistakenly reveal my trump card to Saskia, or that she could find a way to trick Dan into telling her everything. Better to have no one know anything at all.

I didn’t lie to him though; I at least owed him that. Lying by omission wasn’t as bad, I didn’t feel.

“No. Allison isn’t the killer,” I asked, knowing what question would come next.

“Then what about the blood stains! She didn’t even want to tell us what they were from!”

“That was her blood- and no, she didn’t tell me herself. The short answer is that there’s a type of mind-controlling parasite called ‘nematomorpha’ which incites its host to drown themselves in a lake.”

“Why don’t I know about this? Why isn’t this a more talked about thing, that we have mind-controlling parasites existing on earth that could be controlling our every motion? It’s not a government conspiracy, is it?”

“That’s because it’s natural host is the cricket. It can’t control anything larger than that, well never has been documented too, at least. But someone has come up with a drug that affects the brain in such a way as to make the control viable. And guess who the trial tester is?”

Dan went white as a sheet

“Not us, you idiot- Allison. It was all set up to look like an accident- Allison came into my room during the mission and could’ve been infected by the parasite when she was in contact with the ducks. And the drug that was used in conjunction with the parasite was one that I was trial testing on the animals already. Saskia must have received a sample of the same drug to bring onto the ship and use it on her victim. Or she somehow took it from my sector, meaning that she can open locked doors on board this shuttle.”

A guilty look emerged on Dan’s face as I said the words ‘locked doors’.

“What do you know about the doors?” I asked, exasperated.

“No! I don’t know how or if she opened your doors!” he emphatically denied.

I couldn’t keep the annoyance off my face as I waited for him to go on.

Eventually, he relented.

“But… I did teach her how to lock the doors from one side. She said she wanted to protect herself! And all I taught her was to be able to deny access to one side of the door.”

“So, the gist of what you’re saying is that we’re trapped in here because you taught her how to lock us in.”

“No! Well… yes- but I only wanted to give her something to protect herself! I could change the permissions back to normal if I had a computer, no trouble.”

“But you don’t.”

“But I don’t.”

“So, we’re stuck in here until she decides to let us go, i.e. not in the foreseeable future,” I said, perhaps a little too harshly.

Dan was still sitting on the ground, but now he turned his face upwards, towards the ceiling.

I sat down on the floor too- there was nothing more to do. The best I could do was get some sleep so I’d be ready for whatever was happening tomorrow. Planning was essential, but I could only execute those plans if I had a clear state of mind.

I looked over at Dan, who still had his eyes on the ceiling. His head was at such an angle that I couldn’t see the expression on his face, either.

“Dan, I’m going to try and get some sleep. You should probably try as well; we need to be as focused as we possibly can be tomorrow. And sleepiness won’t help that.” I called over to him.

He didn’t say anything, didn’t even wave a hand to indicate that he had heard me talking. Instead, he continued to look up at the ceiling, away from me.

I wasn’t going to reprimand him for being rude in a situation like this.

I lied down on my side and tried to get comfortable, before realising that there was no way that I was going to sleep without some sort of temporary pillow. Taking off my outer jacket, I bundled it into a makeshift pillow and rested my head against it.

There was silence for a moment until a soft, quivering voice broke it.

“We’re going to die in here.”

It wasn’t a question.

I wished that I could answer him, to tell him that I had a plan, but I couldn’t take the chance that Saskia was somehow listening in.

I rolled over to look at him, but he was still in that same position, face towards the ceiling.

I couldn’t see his expression, but it was impossible to miss the tears falling off his chin.

With nothing to say, I let sleep overtake me.

* * *

The room was still dark when I opened my eyes. We hadn’t designed to turn on the lights after our fight, and the light of the sun didn’t play much of a factor on this spaceship.

Dan was sleeping on his back, his head lying upon his unfurled outer garments. He had managed to get some sleep last night, which was good.

I didn’t think it was a great idea to go over and shake him, so I got up and turned on the lights.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he received a rude awakening, as he slowly brought his hands up to rub his eyes.

Once he was sufficiently conscious, he turned towards me, and I could see the redness in his eyes. Last night had really taken a toll on him.

I was almost certain that Saskia would come to the door again to either gloat or tell us how we were going to perish. From the brief glimpse of her ‘real’ personality, lording over us seemed like something that she would do- or at least give us some twisted choice as to how we wanted to die.

And as Dan sat there, blinking in the bright lights, his eyes red and raw from crying, I didn’t think he’d be able to ‘remain calm’. And I really needed all the advantages I could get.

“Dan how are you feeling?” I asked, tentatively.

He gave me a baleful glare, apparently knowing that I saw him crying last night. But he at least had the grace left in him to answer.

“We’re going to die here. On this ship. In space. We won’t ever see anyone again.”

I opened my mouth to try and placate him, but just as I was about to say something, he interrupted.

“Don’t you dare try and inspire hope in me. I held that help throughout this whole situation, and no it’s gone? Look at me. Don’t pretend that you can’t see how broken I am. I can’t go through that again. Don’t try me, Oliver. Please. This isn’t something that a few well-meaning words will fix.”

He was right- if I wasn’t going to risk telling him what I had planned- to give him an actual something to base his hope upon- then well-meaning words would be an absolute kick in the teeth.

“No Dan, I’m not going to do that. All I ask is that you don’t break in front of Saskia. Don’t give her that satisfaction.” I implored him.

Bravado- even false bravado, would help him at this point. It was like how putting on a smile when you didn’t really feel it can induce the feeling of happiness.

A wan smile stretched across his pallid face.

“That, I can do. I’ve been a bit of a coward in this life I suppose. Perhaps it’s time for me to try something a little different.”

And then, like clockwork, I heard a familiar lilting voice at the door.

“Did you call?” out captor asked through the lock.

“Only if remarking about how you’re a bitch constitutes calling you” I replied, eliciting a grim laugh from Dan.

“How long did it take you to come up with that one? You must’ve spent your night productively, huh?” She responded without missing a beat.

Well, I didn’t really expect her to lose her cool- that was more for Dan’s sake than anything else. And to be honest, if it wasn’t for helping Dan, I really wouldn’t be in the mood to be exchanging witty repartee with our sadistic captor.

Without waiting for my response, Saskia continued.

“Well, I’m here to deliver news about your sorry fate. Sadly, because of a mechanical and technical failure, you guys were burned alive in an explosion that ripped a hole in the ship. Luckily, I was able to escape the affected area and secure the lock in order to isolate the damage.”

I could see Dan trying not to react to the news, but it was clear to see that it was getting to him. It was getting to me as well. How could it not?

“Don’t worry guys- it won’t happen for a few more hours yet. You should congratulate yourselves on getting so close to earth though- there are less than 20 hours until we reach Earth! You’ve made it to the last day!”

We weren’t going to respond, and soon Saskia released that as well.

“Well it’s been oh so fun playing with you both- but I’ve got to go now! I’ll come around in a few hours to give you a 5-minute warning, don’t worry. Wouldn’t want you to get a nasty surprise!”

After her parting remark, we could hear her footsteps nosily reverberate through the corridors as she left the area.

But only a few minutes passed before we heard a quick rapping on the door.

“Knock, Knock!” came a whispered voice from the other side of the lock.

Dan whipped his head around to face me, wide-eyed, all ruminations from upon our death sentence thrown out the window.

“Is that…” he mouthed.

It was a female voice, 100%. But it wasn’t Saskia's.

I shot him a quick grin.

“I never really did understand your explanation about the electrodes- might need to give me a more detailed instruction for next time!” I whispered back.

My move, Saskia.