Diane swipes the lock to the final gate—that separates them from the abandoned station—open.

Yuuta is sure their commander mentioned that it had only been four days since it had ceased to function at some point during his lecture; however, he thinks it looks like much more time than that has passed. For the air is stale, and the only remaining light—belonging to a far off corridor—flickers and reveals its fading bulb, trapped beneath a small, rectangular cage.

“Geez,” Miranda mutters. She holds her arms close to her chest whilst they all enter together. “Kind of reminds me of those weird science fiction movies someone got a hold of during our last training camp.”

“Wow, thanks for the reminder, Miranda!” Yuuta retorts as he glances around the emptied lobby full of paths that lead to many other corridors.

The lightbulb finally goes out.

Yuuta thinks he catches Xander jumping on his spot, but he tells himself it’s just his imagination, and not Xander’s old fear of horror movies that has been awakened by Miranda’s remark.

Aside from the smoke emanating from the pipes above, and a little red light giving off a soft glow from a nearby fire alarm, the entrance is deserted.

Diane swipes her key-card in the slit next to the wall. “For good measure,” she says as the doors close again. “Wouldn’t want anyone, or anything, to get out.”

Yuuta isn’t sure he wants to know what this anything is, but as he notices Xander gulping repeatedly and biting his lip, he cannot help but nudge his comrade with his elbow. “Hey,” he whispers, “get a hold of yourself. Miranda was just joking.”

“S-Sure…” Xander replies as he steps forward, into the prison of metal. And Yuuta knows, that this isn’t good, because Xander never stutters—not unless something very, very bad is about to happen.

“So what’s wrong then?” Yuuta skips to his side, closer to the control panel, leaving Miranda and Diane alone to inspect the physical aspects of the room with the help of their flashlights. “Why do you look terrified even though this is probably just going to be a walk in the park for you?”

Xander pauses in front of the station’s secondary control panel. “Hack it,” he says. “Then we’ll talk.”

A grumbled, “Yeah, yeah, hold your horses, Major Williams,” leaves Yuuta’s lips. He connects his watch, which serves as a template for his holographic computer, to the panel. A screen pops up into the air, alongside bright neon keypads and windows made up of various colours. Yuuta thinks it is unnerving to only have Diane and Miranda’s whispers, the low humming of the engine carried by the vibration beneath their feet, for company as he begins to type away. “I’m waiting,” Yuuta decides to add, in hopes that Xander will start talking and cover the unpleasant noises Yuuta dreads more than silence.

Xander leans forward.

It’s just like when they were cleaning the ship a few hours ago, except this time, Yuuta doesn’t even have a moment to be embarrassed. A wave of relief washes over him once he feels Xander’s breaths ghosting against his neck—and, if anything, he finds himself more than glad about their current proximity.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I feel like this is one of those missions,” Xander says, and Yuuta’s blood goes cold again.

“How do you know that for sure?” Yuuta whispers as he wonders why they’re both talking with their voices so low, when Miranda and Diane are the only ones who could eventually overhear them from this distance. “Are you sure it’s not just because you’re squeamish?”

Miranda knocks something over and swears. Diane reprimands her on her language once more.

Xander crosses his arms. He rises, leans against the wall and shakes his head. “I wish.” His chuckle is empty. Yuuta briefly glances up to find him scanning the five empty corridors before them with his eyes. “I heard the stories,” he says.

“The impossible missions?”

Xander nods. His grip tightens around the bodysuit that covers his skin. “Yeah,” he says. “A squad gets pinged, told it’s just a mutiny, and then they disappear and are replaced the next day as if they’d never existed.”

Yuuta gasps. “I thought that was just an urban legend though.” He lifts his hands from the keyboard. “Xander, doesn’t that mean we should get out of—”

“Keep hacking,” Xander snaps. “It’s just a feeling, what I told you, nothing more. Maybe the power went out and the whole crew is stuck in a room somewhere and unable to get out.”

“But—”

“We don’t do things on feelings here, Yuuta. Keep hacking.”

“Whatever,” Yuuta mutters as he gets back to it. A part of him wants to tell Xander the power isn’t out, or else they wouldn’t have gotten here in the first place, and he wouldn’t have gotten into the system; but Xander isn’t oblivious to these things. Even if it’s just a hobby to him, he’s one of the best hackers I know, Yuuta thinks, there must be a reason as to why he spoke those words.

As Yuuta finishes up checking everything one by one, he frowns.

“What did you find?” Xander asks him.

“Nothing,” Yuuta blurts, confused and unable to believe the result of his hack as he cringes at his screen. “Seriously, what the hell? Everything’s normal!”

“What?” Miranda shouts from across the room as she zooms over to his side. “Are you sure you didn’t mess up? Or that maybe your system glitched?”

To this, Yuuta sighs. His shoulders hunch over as he furrows his brows. “You know, I appreciate how much you believe in me, Miranda—but no, I didn’t mess up, and neither did my darling piece of machinery. I’ll have you know I even managed to get a map of this place.”

“Please don’t start calling your computer darling, it’s disturbing,” Xander huffs with a shake of his head that does nothing to hide his disappointment, as he marches back into the middle of the room. “All right, team.” He clears his throat. “Anyone find anything?” As they all shrug and stay in their places, Xander gulps, and Yuuta wonders if he’s the only one to catch onto that.

Xander turns so that his bag is no longer facing the tall, narrow corridor that looms over their figures. “We’re all taking the one in the middle. It’s the main control panel apparently, and the one that’ll be able to tell us what the heck went down here—if it’s the security system or the cameras that are broken.”

“Uh…” Yuuta takes a wide step towards Xander and eyes him dubiously. “How do you know that?” he mutters so that the others cannot hear. “I didn’t show you the map yet.”

Xander gives him his signature wink and points down to his own watch. “Seems you let your guard down, partner.” He snickers. His gaze goes dark with a competitive glint Yuuta hasn’t seen in him for a while. “Careful,” Xander says as he walks away. “I could have been one of our enemies and you would’ve given them all the data they’d wanted.” He pauses in his tracks as Yuuta fumes with rage. As Xander looks at Yuuta from over his shoulder, he smirks. “Good thing it was only me, huh?”

Yuuta returns his grin. He shoves his hands into his pockets and stomps over to his side. As he stands on his tiptoes to reach Xander’s ear, he whispers, “Xander, you bastard, I’m going to get you back for that one, you’ll see.”

They enter the dark corridor, completely oblivious to Miranda and Diane’s conversation behind them. Xander chuckles again. “Please do, Lieutenant Aoki.”