Tired as she was, having not slept for three days, Mallory’s words served to jolt Zey awake. Her chemical gland followed suit, pumping stimulants around her system. If they all went in and things turned hostile, the Jo could lose its Captain, XO, four engineers and a senior Tamerlane contractor. The rest of the crew and passengers would have next to no chance of leaving this planet without a rescue team. Zey was already bending all the rules of first contact by going in there; there was no way she was going to sit back and let the others reap all the glory. But there had to be some sort of counterbalance.

“Noted, but there’s no way I’m letting you go in alone. Too dangerous. That being said…” Zey replied to Mallory, then turned to Zhao.

“Zhao, I know you’re going in for Vigdis but I'm pulling rank. You’re staying put - Anselm can take over Command, but we can’t lose [i]all[/i] our engineers. Organise the crew and take defensive positions by the airlock. We won’t be long.”

“Captain!”

“That is an ORDER!” Zey snapped, face rippling with adrenaline.

Zhao let off a string of expletives in Mandarin that the Captain didn’t catch, then stormed off.

Zey followed her away with a stern look, then turned to Danny Varen and Tyreese Darnell.

“You too Danny. Can’t let you and Dr Ibarra both in that room…Mr Darnell, If I give you a weapon, will you shoot me in the back?” Tyreese sniffed nervously and shook his head.

“No ma’am.” He replied sheepishly.

Zey stared into his eyes for a moment. He wasn’t [i]that[/i] drunk, and she needed someone imposing to show that while they spoke softly, they had big sticks too.

She took Danny’s Benelli shotgun and put it into Darnell’s grip.

“Stand in front of me and don’t do anything stupid or I’ll kill you myself. Everyone ready?”

With that lightning reshuffle completed, Zey filtered into the airlock behind Mallory, followed by Dr Ibarra, and Tyreese Darnell. The airlock cycled again, and they emerged out into the shuttle bay. Zey held her palms out and tried not to panic as she saw the creatures at one end by Vigdis. Her heart rate and breathing increased, and her mask made a rasping sound as it processed the air.