Screeching alarms echoed throughout the ship silencing all chatter on the mess deck. At the same time, the lights along the top and bottom of the walls turned orange and began pulsing in a steady pattern. What we heard next had us scrambling to our feet, meals forgotten.

“Alert! Alert!” The ship’s voice sounded over all comm channels. “This is a code orange! Alert! Alert! This is a code orange! Unnecessary personnel are to return to their quarters. All other crew are to report to their superiors for further instructions. . . Alert! Alert! This is a code orange!”

‘This is bad!’ I thought to myself. ‘This is bad, this is bad. This is really, really bad!’ Luckily no one noticed my panic. Mostly because I was not the only one who had a slight breakdown. An orange alert meant the ship sensed it had been infiltrated by a Chidecki.

The Chideck are a race of shape-shifting aliens humans discovered during the infancy of their space exploration. Let’s just say that ‘first contact’ did not go well. Only a threat by Chidecki warrants an orange alert. Should any of the other space-faring races threaten humans, they would only get a red alert.

This is not good. The ship is on the edge of chartered space. The closest possible help is a light-week away. By the time anyone reaches us…let’s not think about that.

I followed the others out of the mess hall and tried to clear my head. I would need all my wits about me for the foreseeable future. An orange alert. I thought I had covered everything. Taken all the precautions, both necessary and unnecessary.

Human technology could sense when a Chidecki phased, or shifted forms, and I know I haven’t. Not since I stepped aboard. Not even in my sleep, or I would have been found out by now.

The jarring alarm quieted to a manageable level, but the orange lights continued to pulse throughout the ship. If I did not set off the alert then…

There must be another Chidecki aboard this ship.