So, it turned out that one of the engineers had a girlfriend or something in the compartment Nick had been about to turn into a cemetery. The translation didn't come through well and Nick didn't bother with the details. The Chief Engineer was dead, along with engineer Malash.

That left the unconscious doctor and the very dangerous Lieutenant Razzamatazz or whatever his name was. Nick argued with the fuakalas about what to do with the second assault team. Nick was fine with killing those sons of bitches, since he was pretty sure that they would happily execute any fuakalas that had survived the massacre and been left behind. He still didn't want to kill anyone.

His other concern was for the shuttle itself. It was potentially very useful and valuable to them. He couldn't think of any way to salvage it, though, without risking a counterattack.

Surprisingly, it was the klutz Gofa!lu who came up with the best solution. "Can Petra just...take the shuttle, while they're mostly off exploring the base?"

The answer turned out to be yes. It was much easier for Petra, in control of the Kalash-Quovo, to hack the much smaller systems of the Drop Shuttle Pargolpha, than it had been the other way around.

So, Nick told Petra to launch the Pargolpha with no warning, not even closing the hatch. Sure enough, the guard on duty on the ramp fell off, leaving only the pilot aboard. The bastard who fell is probably cursing his luck, but we just saved his miserable life.

They closed the ramp, sealing the shuttle, and all they had to worry about was one Goldaskian pilot. Petra locked him out of the controls. The pilot might eventually manage a partial override, but probably not in the time remaining before it returned. Wary of a suicide attack, Nick made sure the shuttle was never aimed directly at the Kalash-Quovo, even flying it backwards for the last part of the trip.

They parked it directly in front of one of the main guns of the cruiser, and had what Nick would call a favorable negotiating position. Geh!kin explained the situation to Pilot Yulliksu in simple terms: he could continue to do his job for new masters, or he could die. Pilot Yulliksu chose life.

Next, Nick woke up the doctor with pure oxygen. Doctor Sana Vickall understood the situation rapidly. Given an option that would save the lives of her crewmates, she cooperated, producing drugs to keep them unconscious. Once everyone in the landing bay was so treated, they cleared the air there and the rest of the fuakalas came out of the Hextalpha.

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There were some tense moments. A lot of the fuakala survivors wanted to kill the unconscious Goldaskians in the bay, and it took some minutes of arguing to talk them down. Nick had no love for the bastards, but he was determined to keep his word. Ultimately, he had to lean on his total control of Petra to get the most emotional to back down. He hated to play that card, because every time he used it, he got the fuakalas madder at him.

To reduce the temptation, they woke a couple of crewmen, and had them load the unconscious people into the Pargolpha. After sunset, they rode with Yulliksu down to the surface, and unloaded their crewmates into Nick's second home. It would take five such trips to ferry most of the Goldaskian crew off the ship.

On the third trip back up, Lieutenant Razaan made his move.

Nick had expected it. With Petra's new sensors, it was easy to track the assault team as they marched to the spot where they saw the shuttle come down repeatedly. The fuakalas had removed essential components of the shuttle's weapons before letting Yulliksu fly out, of course. That included the stealth systems, so the only threat the shuttle could pose to the cruiser would be by ramming.

Of course, Razaan got a bit creative, but Nick had read some good military science fiction as a teenager. In more than one novel, the attacking heroes left their ships in spacesuits and floated over to the place they were invading. It turned out that the Goldaskian armor had some stealth capabilities, so he wouldn't be able to see them jump. Instead, Nick had Petra watch for the tiny recoil of the shuttle when they pushed off.

He needed to time it a bit early, because he didn't want to screw it up and let them get aboard. So, as soon as the attackers were floating free, he had Petra make the Kalash-Quovo fire a short burst from its engines, and they simply dodged the helpless marines. In fact, most of them got caught in the ship's wake, and...unfortunate things happened to them. Nick didn't understand the physics—he had no idea how the engines worked—but the ship's exhaust was very obviously lethal.

I didn't expect that. Nick grimaced. At least it was quick, he told himself, trying not to get sick.

That's probably good for another couple of years of therapy, he thought unhappily. Automatically he answered himself, shut up, brain. He knew it wouldn't be that easy, though. I actually did the deed myself with that one. I just killed almost two dozen people. Assholes, but...shut up, brain! Later!

"Petra, keep a lookout for any... hatches in the ship's hull... that either open or malfunction in any way."

"'Lookout' is 'watch'?" Petra asked.

"Yes."

"'Hull' is 'outside edge of ship'?"

"Yes." Petra had started asking questions like that often. Apparently, she now knew enough English that it was much easier to learn the rest, and she was also good at making guesses.

"Nick, you are getting a debuff."

"What?"

"You are losing health."

Nick winced, and noticed that he was having more trouble breathing. "Yeah, I may have pushed...myself...a bit too far..." Man, I am getting really fucking tired of getting sick and injured.

Really...fucking...tired...

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