Chase suddenly found himself back in his room, out of FTL and staring at his computer monitor. Part of an unidentified red planet was visible in space. Then, a sleek, very familiar spaceship flew by the planet and disappeared into distance. The Normandy! The screen faded to black.

"Hah, the Normandy. Still the best ship ever," Chase said, sitting back in his chair.

Remembering something, Chase tabbed out and began to type furiously.

Ryan suddenly saw Isaac from Dead Space on his computer monitor, staring at a holographic display. Isaac shut the display off and sat there in quiet contemplation. Darkness consumed the room for a brief moment. Then, he looked down and to his right and saw a ghastly woman crouching besides him. It instantly lunged at Isaac and screamed horrendously, covering the screen with static. Ryan shouted with surprise and fell backwards with his chair, hitting the carpet with a thud.

Ryan took a deep breath and started laughing.

"God, I love horror games."

He got up on his two legs and brushed himself off with his two hands.

"God, I love being human."

Ferry sat up in his bed with a start. His laptop was on the table beside him, playing the Star Trek video he had been watching before he was taken:

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

All the while, a cheesy CGI ship was flying through space and past multiple unidentified planets. Ferry fell back into bed and pulled his sheets up to his face.

"Home sweet home!"

Kirby saw Fox's Arwing fly straight upwards out of the complex, narrowly avoiding the explosion following closely behind. Fox soared victoriously into space, joining his fellow pilots near the Great Fox.

"MISSION NO. 7

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"

"Fox, you're OK!"

"Way to go, Fox!"

"That's our leader!"

Kirby relaxed on his home's couch and put his controller down.

"Did I just kill Andross or the Rebel flagship? Wait…" Kirby wiggled his tongue around. "Sweet. Succulent. Sack. Yes! No more darned hissing!"

Meredith sat there in her room. On her computer monitor, the FTL credits were rolling by. Her keyboard, mouse, and PC were in front of her. The game was only on the screen. She was just in her room. She breathed a sigh of relief. She went over to her real-life bed and lay down. Remembering what happened to Margaret almost brought her to tears.

"No. There's no way she's gone," she told herself.

No rest for the wicked. She went back to her computer and began typing furiously.

Felix was back in his room, forced to watch as his Kerbal Space Program ship careened through Kerbin's atmosphere, turning the ship's outside red from the high velocity. He stared and stared, not realizing that he was finally out of FTL and back in the real world, at his computer. His ship showed no signs of slowing down.

Suddenly realizing that his ship was going to be destroyed, Felix slammed the spacebar, deploying the parachutes of his ship. They caught the ship right before it was about to smash into the surface of the planet, allowing his ship land without a scratch. He took a moment to look around his room.

"Oh my god. It's over. It's finally over," he said to himself.

Felix shouted "Yes!" with passion.

"Yeah! Fuck yeah! Screw you, FTL! We win!"

He immediately tabbed out and began typing furiously. He intended to contact the other crew members of the Kestrel to confirm that their experience had really happened. He intended to find out the final fate of Margaret.

All six of them had gotten into contact with each other by the time a month had passed. They talked to each other in a group call over the internet. They discussed how insane what had happened was, as well as whether or not they should tell others about their experience. They concluded that it would be best to keep it to themselves, so as not to appear crazy or cause themselves unnecessary problems. They became better friends through the call and agreed to all meet up in-person someday.

One by one, Kirby, Ferry, and Ryan all eventually had to go. They left all left the call, leaving Felix, Chase, and Meredith together.

"Hey guys," Felix said after some particularly awkward silence.

"Hey," Meredith responded. "Have you two found any trace of Margaret?"

"No, I haven't…" Felix said dejectedly.

"I have," Chase stated.

"What? Really?"

"I looked her up. Margaret, 15 years old from Seward, Nebraska," Chase explained. "Once I found our Margaret, I managed to get her home number and I called it, asking for her. Her mom picked up and I told her I was a friend."

"Then what?" Meredith asked.

"Her mom sounded super depressed. She told me that Margaret had been in a coma for a month. When I heard that, I immediately started thinking, 'Hey, we just got out of that FTL game a month ago. What if those two things are related: her dying in FTL and her getting into a coma in real life?'"

"Captain Fe-, I mean, Felix. And Chase. There is something I must tell you two that might be relevant," Meredith said.

"What's up?" Felix asked.

"Last week, I started up FTL again out of curiosity."

Felix shuddered. He couldn't stand the idea of playing the game, let alone buying it.

"And?" Chase asked.

"And I found that all of the ships in the game were unlocked for me. The thing is, I wasn't the one who unlocked them."

"That's kind of strange. Is that a big deal, though?" Felix inquired. "Sounds like a good thing to me."

"No, the biggest deal happened when I selected the Mantis ship. Normally the names of the starting crews for the ships are completely random. However, no matter what I did, every time I selected layout A for the Mantis ship, the names of the four crew members were always the same. And guess what their names were."

"What, were they our names?" Chase responded, laughing.

"Yes, they were."

Chase choked a little bit upon hearing that.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked, coughing some more.

"Felix. Chase. Meredith," she stated. "Those were the names. Every single time."

"Huh. What about the fourth member?" Felix asked.

"The fourth member... was named Magmar."

Felix could practically feel Chase's jaw drop.

"Are you kidding me? As in, Margaret Magmar?" Chase asked.

"That is a distinct possibility," Meredith admitted.

"What does this even mean, Meredith? Is the game trying to tell us something?" Felix said.

"Well," Meredith replied. "With the existence of the real life Margaret confirmed… I believe the game is offering us three a second chance to bring Margaret back. The question is: are you two willing to play the game again?"

THE END