The Deal (Sumiru)
“Come on.” Sumiru whacked the side of their tablet. “Connect!”
“Mine’s not connecting either,” Kendra growled.
“Or mine.” Therine made a face at her tablet. “I patched myself into the secondary network that the security guards use for communication– I know I did it right because I've done it before, but the whole thing is down!” She dropped her tablet on the desk in frustration.
“Hey, hey.” Sumiru put their hand over her arm. “We have to stay calm.”
“If you break the tablet, it definitely won't work,” Kendra reasoned.
“Argh. Fucking fine. Fine. You're right.” Therine put her head in her hands. “Dammit. Dad always said I get bitchy when I'm hungry.”
Sumiru set their tablet down. “There's the emergency lockdown rations in the closet. I'll go grab some. You two keep trying on finding a connection, okay?” Therine and Kendra had more experience with technology by a long shot. Sumiru was just going based on vibes alone at this point. They had never even so much as held a portable tablet until their family was selected for the colony project.
Therine sighed. “Okay. Thanks, Sumiru.”
“No problem.”
They hopped up and took a second just to stretch. It was nice to be on their feet again. Sumiru wasn't cut out for this sitting still garbage. Usually, when they had the run of the whole spaceship, they didn't feel claustrophobic, but stuck in this room...it was a different story.
B-19 was too full of people. Everyone was settled down, which made it feel less crowded, but it was still crowded. People got out of their way, though, and thankfully the storage closet at the back of the room was quiet and unoccupied. Small, but in a way that felt safe instead of stifling.
Sumiru stepped inside and shut their eyes, taking a deep breath. One step at a time. One step at a time.
“Hey, sheepy.”
For an insane moment, they were certain their mother had somehow teleported into the closet behind them. Only mom ever called them ‘sheepy’.
But the voice wasn't their mother’s.
They jumped almost a full foot in the air and opened their eyes.
The person standing against the open doorway was– themself. Down to the being weirdly tall, the patchy tan, the short braid in their pale hair, but their eyes were wrong. Sumiru didn't like looking at their eyes. It hurt.
And they were trapped here. In this small space, with the only exit blocked.
Oh stars.
The newcomer laughed. “I see you trying so hard to save all of them, but you can't and you know it. I can, though. I can save all of them.”
Their head snapped up, and they stared right into those horrible, empty, stabbing eyes.
Their doppelganger grinned, their lips turning pale with how wide it was.
“But. You have to want it.”
"Want it?" They blurted, the words falling from their frozen lips.
"Want. It," their doppel repeated.
Sumiru couldn't want it more than they already did. They needed to be saved, desperately. They wanted Chaliez to live. They wanted Shay to get to see her parents again and for them to all get to mourn Sharabi together. They wanted to see their own parents again. They wanted this whole nightmare to be over. They wanted to be in Tau already, like they were supposed to be. Setting up new homesteads, teaching people how to do it. That was what this was supposed to be, not...not this!
“How about we shake on it?”
The doppelganger barely even had time to offer their hand before Sumiru took it.