The Murderer Revealed
Who: The Group & Murderer
Where: Outside Medical Supplies Deck (and Inside it, too)
When: Pfft.
===================
<<SNIP>>
The crew all made they're way into the airlock, and the micro-
thrusters carried them out to the space next to the hull.
Seconds later, the airlock sealed.
"What?..." Phil said, concerned "Holly, why did you seal the
airlock?!"
"I didnt Phil, it was overridden manually..." Came holly's voice back
over the suits internal comm.
"Great..."
"By the way.." Holly said, returning "I nearly forgot, you've all
only got 5 minutes of air left..."
"WHAT?!" They all shouted "WHAT THE SMEG DO YOU MEAN?!"
"Easy easy, save your breath!!"
The crew looked at each other, and it was at this pont they
realised... were one member of the group was missing.......
<<END SNIP>>
"Well," said a voice over the suits' communication relays, "You've
really made this quite irritating for me."
"Who is this?" snapped Niples, before remembering their shortage of
oxygen and trying to conserve his breath.
"Oh smeg," murmured Wildflower.
-- Inside The Medical Supply Deck Airlock --
"This is me," replied Keto, stepping out of his suit and heading
back into the deck proper, "Charles Keto. Congratulations, Mr
Niples, despite your bumbling and general lack of leadership ability,
you actually made the right choice."
-- Outside, In Space --
"You WERE the murderer!" gasped Niples, "I don't...well, actually I
do believe it. And I'd like to point out that if you had all
listened to me from the start, none of this would have happened!"
"Shut up, Nipples," said Phil.
"No, let him keep talking. With any luck he'll exhaust his oxygen
supply," muttered Wildflower.
"Actually, his oxygen supply won't make that much difference,"
interrupted Keto's voice over the radio, "Seeing as all of your
supplies will be giving out in about four minutes. Just for your
information, the nearest other airlock, window or indeed any port of
entry into the ship is at least a twelve minute space-run away. I
almost wish it hadn't come to this, but you forced my hand."
"Why?" asked McJohn, after a long pause during which everybody
tried to work this out, "Why did you murder Jasmine?"
"Because she stumbled across me on the medical supply deck,"
growled the murderer's voice in return, "And she would have told
others. And your little detective game almost ran into the same
thing. So I decided that I couldn't let that happen. I killed
Jasmine, and when you wanted to come down here I drained the suits in
the airlock and persuaded you to all head outside. And now, with the
security lock on the outer airlock door destroyed, there's no way it
can be opened. I'd like to apologise for having to do this to you
all."
"What stasis booth?" asked Wildflower, "There's no stasis booth on
the medical supply deck."
"Oh, that's where you're wrong," replied Keto, "There is. And I
couldn't allow you to find it, could I? Because then you'd find out
where I'd hidden him."
"Hidden who?" blinked Niples.
"Keto, of course!" shouted the voice, "You'd find Xavier Keto all
tucked away there in a nice little robot body and questions would be
asked! I couldn't let that happen!"
"A nice little robot body?" echoed Phil.
"Oh SMEG," repeated Wildflower.
-- Inside the Medical Supply Deck --
"Yes, a robot body," hissed Keto, wiping the window of the
concealed stasis booth that moved into view as he tapped a code into
a broken-looking keypad. Inside, a slightly larger-than-skutter-size
robot was plainly visible, with a human brain held within a glass
container attached to it, "A robot body concealing the brain of
Xavier Keto. Well, I couldn't very well kill HIM, could I? Firstly
he's my brother, and blood's thicker than water, as they all say.
And secondly...well, I couldn't have fitted into this nice medical
jacket in THAT body, could I?"
"Smeg..." repeated Wildflower again, who appeared to have gone
almost catatonic.
"He performed the operation once, it was my turn," spat the human
form of Charles Keto, "I was tired of being stuck in that robot
shell. When Xavier came down here to collect medical supplies,
during some clone attack I believe, he wasn't paying any attention to
anything other than his work. It was easy for me to tranquillize
him, and I set about preparing the area for an operation -
sterilising the area with alcohol, the usual procedure. Remarkably
easy on a medical supplies deck.
"But then Jasmine came along, looking for some other supplies. She
stumbled across me while I was halfway through the operation
and...well, I daresay it didn't look pleasant to her. Naturally I
couldn't let her escape and tell others, so the scalpel came into
play again.
"After the switch, I placed Xavier into my robot shell and into
stasis. There was only room for one, so Jasmine had to be disposed
of. The security cameras overlook all external airlock entrances, so
that was no good. I decided to shift the body to a different deck,
in the hopes that at least suspiscion would be diverted from any
medical staff. Apparently only Niples was fool enough to suspect us
anyway."
"Yes, well," sniffed Niples haughtily, "I'm a cut above the rest of
these..."
"Quiet," said the Keto body, softly, "But now you're all going to
die out there, so I have to come up with some fabrication as to why I
wasn't with you. I believe this will be quite painful, but I don't
really have a choice, do I?"
"A choice as to wha...?" began McJohn, but was interrupted by an
inhuman shriek as Keto stuck his foot in the automatic storage door
and hit the security override. It slammed shut, cracking his leg
neatly in two.
"A broken...leg, should serve as an am...ample excuse for my not
going on a space-walk," he coughed, laughing to himself, "And now, I
shall say goodbye. I believe you to have about two minutes of air
remaining. I suggest you use it to say your prayers, if you are so
inclined."
-- Outside, In Space --
"What are we going to do?" gibbered Niples, as Keto cut
contact, "Phil, can't you get us back through that airlock?"
"Like he said, the controls are broken," replied Phil, "And
besides - you think a ship on which I'm security officer can be
broken into from outside? By US?"
"What about another airlock?"
"Twelve minutes' run away," sighed Wildflower, "Or weren't you
listening?"
"SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?" shrieked Niples.
There was silence.
===========================
OOC: Bwahaahaahaa. >:) Okay, Onion, you guessed right. Sort of.
It was Keto, but not the Keto you expected.
Jay/Andy has the next post in this plot, I believe...but feel free
to panic and remain unable to get back into the ship for a while if
you like. Just think: for all you know, you're going to die in two
minutes or so. ;)
- Chris (JHXMT)