You didn't panic. It was the first rule the taught you in command school. The Armored had a somewhat more direct method of dealing with it. Officer who panicked under fire were summarily dismissed if command found out. That was the lucky option. If command didn't find out... well there were a lot of ways inconvenient officers could die in the field. There were two or three 'accidents' out of each intake. Don't panic, work the problem and make a decision. Words to live by. Sayeeda watched Neil fly out of her field of vision, a fairly narrow one while wearing her space suit, her helmet was always recording, with luck she could figure a bearing from the data and pick him up with the Highlander. Of course the Highlander was thousands of kilometers away and outside radio range. She could jump back down to the asteriod and get back to the asteroid tender, but that rusted bucket didn't have much more of a radio than her mastoid implant. She couldn't fly the thing, she thought she might handle simple manuevers in the Highlander with Lonney's aid but there was no way she would get that cantankerous bucket airborne, much less back to the node. Work the problem. The station had to have comms, gone ones too, microwave and laser probably as well as radio. She could get in touch with Taya and bring her out for a pick up, then they could search for Neil. Of course that left the small problem of seizing the communications gear on a probably hostile station with who knew how many bandits inside. Still, it was at least an actionable plan. Feeling resolve flow into her Junebug picked her way down the hull, magnetic boots making each step feel slow and somehow theatrical. She made her way to a large vent about twenty meters down the hull. The primitive gas sensor in her suit registered it as the output for a nitrogen scrubber. She climbed in squeezing herself carefully between metal stripping that covered the two person tall output pipe. About four meters in she found what she was looking for, a large emergency access port, intdended for servicing the scrubber. She pulled a multitool from her belt and got to work. It took ten minutes to get the door open with the aid of her helmet AI and a quick short of the circuit inside was the second door of the mini airlock and she dutiffully repeated the process trying not to think about Neil floating further out into the void with each passing moment. At last she found herself amidst a wonder. A long corridor big enough for two people to walk abreast stretched in both directions and purple glow strips line the roof. More remarkable by far was the profusion of mushrooms that clung to every surface. The varied dramatically in size, shape and color, running from dark brown to phospherecent green. It was like a farie garden out of ancient stories. Junebug looked down at her oximeter. The green light indicated the air was safe to breath but she didn't want to risk the spores that might be here. It seemed unlikely this was a deliberate planting, more likely stow away spores had taken route here in this marginal environment. Life, amdist the chaos. Junebug opened her pack and drew out her sub machine gun, pulling the charging handle back and letting the loading springs draw it forward with a metalic snap. Death amidst the chaos as well. ______________________ "Fuck fuck fuck," Taya moaned wracking her brains for something to do. Keep him talking, she decided, stall and see what happened. She touched a plate to enable the external speakers. "Uhhh, you can ask me questions from out there," she responded trying to sound firm and in charge of the situation. On her monitor she saw the man laugh. "Oh no, come on out now or it will be the worse for you." It had an ominious finality to it. Time passed. Thirty seconds a minute. Taya tried to resist the urge to chew on her fingernails. What would Junebug do if she were here. If only she could ask the capt.... "Lonney, I need help, what would Captain Sayeeda do in a situation like this," she asked quickly as men began to close in on the ship some holding cutting bars and flame lances. The AI didn't respond immediately, predicting human action involved factoring more variables than were practical and Lonney hand'nt had a chance to gather too much data on the Highlanders Crew. Still he had been asked a question. "I reckon the capt'm'd open fire with the ventrral cannon. I estimate casulties at better'an ninty five percent," the computer drawled in its obnoxious accent. Taya paled. Firing the ship mounted weapon in a confided space like this would vaporise thousands of credits worth of equipment and might well kill not only the hangers occupants but people in the main station as well. She wondered if Sayeeda would have tried it anyway. "Ok ok too extreme what would Neil do?" THe first of the snatch team was within reach of the hull when there was a sudden and penetratingly loud clicking noise. Everyone froze expecting some defensive system to come online. Nothing happened and after a few moments they began to relax. The next sound was so loud it literaally rattled panels. Lonney turned the entire hull of the Highlander into a massive induction speaker and Neil's archaic rock music blasted out at volumes which were literally dangerous to the human ear. The men around the ship fell back, several of them cluthing at bleeding eardrums and screaming, a sound far to puny to sound over the ancient rock ballad. The supervising figure did not flinch from the painful barrage of sound. Lars Aldoon merely watched, planned, and promised himself the girl would suffer. [@POOHEAD189]