Once the repair being finished fixing the communication system, Ren and Marcus graciously thanked him and paid him. With the comms up and running again, Kennie tried to get into contact with either Earth or another ship that departed around the same time as they did.
"I think we're too far away from the other ships and Earth." He exclaimed, having no luck with reaching either one.
"I'm not surprised." Marcus said, "We seem to be much further away than expected. To arrive back on Earth, we'll need to use light speed multiple times, which isn't really an option."
Thinking for a moment, Ren suddenly recalled about what Marcus mentioned not even ten minutes ago, "wait, before that. You said you wanted to speak to us about Chronos."
He nodded and guided the group to the bridge, locking the doors and closing the vents off from Chronos, "yeah... I just, don't trust him that much."
"You don't trust anyone." Kennie chuckled, leaping into his seat, and opening the vents back up, "how long did it take you to trust any one of us back at the academy."
"He's right." Ren agreed, taking his seat and placing an arm on the arm of the chair as he rested his head in the palm of his hand, "and there was no reason for you not to trust us yet you didn't trust us."
Marcus, hesitated a nod, understood where they were coming from, "yes, but. Doesn't it seem like Chronos being here could cause problems? He was probably the one who ruined the nav system and comms, not to mention jumping the ship into light speed without approval."
Ren, seeing where his physicist was coming from, slowly nodded, "that is true, but if he did do that, then wouldn't we be able to find the missing navigation pieces?"
"He could've thrown them out of the airlock," Luciel added, rising from his seat, "I'll check whether it's been opened recently."
He wandered out of the bridge and down the corridor, disappearing from the sights of the rest of the crew.
"Where is he now, anyway?" Kennie asked, "he did join us on the ship... Didn't he?"
The three thought back to when they returned to the ship, almost positive that Chronos was also with them when they boarded. Ren leapt from his seat and ushered the group towards security, thinking that he could find him by looking through the cameras.
"I wonder if he's in a vent..." Kennie pondered as they reached the security room, "it's entirely possible."
Reaching the room, Ren sat down and turned on the cameras' monitors and began flicking through the corridors to the rooms. He inspected each one carefully, ensuring not to miss the sneaky mystery lad aboard the ship.
"Furthermore," Marcus said, not finished with his explanation, "I don't even think Chronos is his actual name. We know next to nothing about him; how can we trust him without knowing exactly who he is?"
Making a valid point, Kennie nodded his head, "I suppose you are making sense, but maybe he's being just as cautious as you are?"
Before being able to say another word, Luciel rushed into the room, wearing a concerned expression. He's curly two-toned hair messily floated above his forehead as his black eyes popped out from his light skin. To the older guys, it seemed that Luciel just discovered something unbelievable.
"What's up, Lu?" Ren asked, spinning around in the chair, "you're rarely like this."
"I bet Chronos did open the airlock." Marcus snarled, becoming more and more cautious of him which caused his dislike of the young lad to grow, "we should've kept a closer eye on what came aboard the ship."
"No, it's not- well, it is about the airlock, but it was opened prior to the navigation system failure." He exclaimed, "and I don't think Chronos was the one who opened it."
A sudden realisation hit against the other three crewmates as Luciel finished his explanation. Worry, anxiety and paranoia flooded through the eyes of the crew as Ren abruptly jumped to his feet and stormed out of the security room. Hastily, Marcus, Kennie and Luciel all followed behind him as he spiralled down the stairs and entered the engine room.
"Chronos!" He yelled, clearly annoyed by something, "what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
A sudden abrupt crash occurred as Chronos came into view of everyone. It looked as if he was tampering with the engines and Ren caught it all on camera.
"See! I told you we shouldn't have trusted him!" Marcus yelled, stomping towards Chronos and violently snatching the tools from his smaller hands and throwing them onto the floor.
Without warning, Marcus viciously yanked Chronos to his feet and dragged him towards everyone else. Chronos was desperately trying to pull his arm away from Marcus' tight grip, only to not succeed and find himself flung in front of all the original crew members. Ren's emerald eyes glared with fury and disappointment as he remained silent. Both Luciel and Kennie we're just stunned into silence as they didn't know what to say - they truly trusted Chronos completely. Whereas, Marcus kept his smug expression on his face as he expected this to happen.
"Let me explain." Chronos quickly said, "I have a good explanation."
"Go on then?" Ren said, crossing his arms over his chest as he leant back into his heels and waited for Chronos' brilliant excuse.
"Well, you see..." He trailed off, trying to find the right words to express what he was doing, "it isn't as bad as you'd think."
As Chronos continued trying to explain himself, Kennie wandered over to where he was, glancing across what was tampered with and how much damage was dealt before Ren was able to spot it.
"What do you mean it was nothing? You tried to disconnect the engine from the thrusters and ruin the wiring." He held up a couple scratched and torn wires to show everyone, "it's going to need to be replaced."
"No! I didn't do that!" Chronos yelled, "believe me! That wasn't me!"
Tightening his grip around Chronos' wrist, Marcus hauled him out of the engine room and into one of the spare crewmate quarters. Ren and Luciel followed behind them, silently, as Kennie remained in the engine room, trying to repair and fix the broken wires and connect the thrusters to the engine. Mercilessly, Marcus threw Chronos into one of the room and locked it from the outside, the only view into it was from a small rectangular window at the top of the door.
"You'll stay in there until we return to Earth!" He yelled, "I don't want any more problems cause by you!"