Mickey8 takes it with trembling hands. The consumption log. Small irregularities—barely a few missing grams of food here and there. But Marshall isn’t stupid. She never has been.

—You know what I think? —she asks, leaning over her desk—. I think someone is stealing food. And if it’s someone who doesn’t exist in our records, that means we have a stowaway in the colony.

Mickey8 forces a laugh.

—What, you think there’s an alien infiltrating the base?

—I don’t know, —Marshall admits—. But I’m going to find out.

Shit.

That night, Mickey8 tells Mickey7 the news. His voice is heavy.

—We’re screwed.

The lie can’t hold up any longer.

One of us has to disappear.

Let me know if you approve this translation, and I will proceed with Fifth Part: Discovered.

Fifth Part: Discovered

The lie collapses. Not slowly, but like a building exploding from within, crumbling in an instant.