"Finally, we land somewhere normal." Plissa groaned, sinking in the pilot's seat. "Looks like the next destination on our map took us to this space station thing. Anyone need to use the restroom?"
Short to say, everyone needed to use the restroom.
"Okay, headcount time. Other Lisa?"
Slissa raised a hand.
"Emily?"
"Here."
"Butter Knife?"
"Ever-present and watchful."
"Sweetie Giraffe?"
"AM HERE."
Plissa looked up. Way, way up.
"Yup, you're here alright. 'Kay, looks like we've got everyon--"
"Wait, what about Zoey? She left the ship with us earlier, didn't she?"
Plissa groaned.
"Zoey! Zooo-eey!" Plissa called, walking down the long, empty halls of the space rest stop. "Geez, this place is big..."
Sweetie Giraffe silently agreed, for she was able to actually fit underneath the ceiling.
"Why are all the lights off?" Emily wondered aloud.
"Beats me. This place is spooky. I feel like a stereotypical horror movie character walking through this place."
"You imbeciles know nothing of true horror..."
"Who was that?" Plissa whipped around. "Oh. It's just Butter Knife being edgy as usual. Wait--" she pointed her flashlight at a wall. "This... this was the base of operations for Crew-A?"
The group moved a little closer to the text on the wall. It wasn't painted in blood or anything--that'd be too stereotypical. It was just the usual big block letters that one would've found on things like billboards.
But enough about that.
"Yeah, it's Crew-A's base alright. Look," Slissa pointed a finger at an arrow pointing down the hall. "The command center's down there. Maybe that's where Zoey went."
They continued walking, at some point passing beneath a dusty-looking intercom speaker.
"In...truder... det-cted..." a slow, robotic voice wheezed. "Div-rting... res...ources to def...ense..."
The most depressing-sounding alarm began to blare overhead, though "blare" was definitely overstating it.
"Oh, what now?" Plissa rolled her eyes, sweeping the flashlight's beam across the hall in front of them. "Are there gonna be traps or something now?"
A small frog hopped into the light.
"Huh. Guess that's all there is then." Plissa squat down, holding a hand out to the frog as Slissa belched behind her.
The frog proceeded to ascend to a higher plane of existence and vanish. The twist was that there wasn't any trap at all. The alarm was just to alert the folks who once lived there. You just got got. You heckin' heck. You--
"Alright, skipping ahead now!" Pointy Stick grumbled.
So ya boi Tonkus took a nice long break from writing this chapter and now has no idea what happened or what he wanted to have happen. Time to yet ideas into the void again as usual.
"Finally, there you are, Zoey!" Plissa pointed her flashlight at Zoey Wayve. "Are the other Zoeys there with you?"
"Yup! And I even made some new friends!" Zoey held up a space-octopus. "I'm naming him Tenta."
"What about Octi?" Emily cocked her head. "Tenta makes you think he's got ten tentacles."
"Ooh, yeah that's a good idea."
And so Crew-T acquired the old pet of Crew-A without ever actually solving the mystery of what the heck happened to Crew-A. Maybe we'll learn, maybe we won't.