Titan Fleet: The Invictus Part 5

More crooked fingers tapping on b.u.t.tons are preparing the small darkened s.h.i.+p for interception. The alien a.s.sa.s.sin sat at the console ignites a thruster burn for a few seconds, so as not to be picked up on scanners, and the small s.h.i.+p drifts towards the Invictus, making no sound in total darkness, until it makes a well-executed landing on the hull of the Invictus, its clamps locking on for dear life.

Not a sound is made by the silent menace as it boards the s.h.i.+p through the salvage area. The creature stands seven feet tall, its sheer evilness floats before it in a cloud of putrid green gas. Its mission is to seek out life, destroy it and consume it.

Chapter Thirty.

Stirring the fresh cups of tea, the smell of Earl Grey wafting around his head, Rusty pauses for a moment as he has hears something. Thinking it is Nova, he calls out to her.

"Hey, Nova, is it one lump or two, I cant remember?" There is a silence and then the sound of something being knocked over in the living room, so he looks through the hatch just in time to catch a glimpse of a tall shape exiting the room in a hurry. Rusty walks back quickly and reaches into the drawer for a large knife, as he had left his gauntlet in the engine room. What a great idea that was, he thinks to himself, but with courage in his heart he eases his way out of the door and creeps around the pillars and checks out the living room, before deciding it was just his imagination and finis.h.i.+ng off the tea. The doors to the bridge slide open and close again behind Rusty as he hands Nova her tea.

"Hey, Nova, I thought I heard you a moment ago in the living room, or was it just me?" Rusty inquires, hoping it was her and not the onset of s.p.a.ce sickness.

"No, I have not left the bridge, perhaps it was Anc or Padley, although they should both be in rest mode at this time of night. Ill check." Nova takes a look at the security cameras throughout the s.h.i.+p and finds the two robots in their bays in rest mode. Baffled by this, she continues to search the s.h.i.+p, and then her heart starts to race as she spots a figure in the shadows, lurking there ready to pounce.

"Look! What is it? There is something on board with us Rusty, and it dont look friendly one little bit." The hair stands up on the back of her neck and chills run down her spine to her toes. She is here alone with it; well almost alone as Rusty could not fight off a cold, let alone something as big as this. She opens a channel to Pace.

"Captain, sir, it appears we have a problem on the s.h.i.+p. Something has crept on board and it doesnt look friendly. I dont think it knows we are ..." While talking to Pace and looking at his face on her gauntlet, she has taken her eyes off the figure and now there is a very large banging on the bridge doors.

"Oh, I spoke too soon, sir. What do I do?" Nova has never been this scared before, but now she can see this figure is a large mean looking monster with sharp teeth and four eyes, its blue muscular body not tiring from this activity one bit. "Sir, it is blue and has claws and it wants in." Pace shouts for the security team to get back to the s.h.i.+p on his gauntlet screen and fears for his companions safety. They all begin to run for the airlock tunnel, but are a fair distance away it seems.

A large fist makes its way through the heavy metal doors of the bridge. It retracts and a set of eyes appear, viewing through the hole. A second hole appears next to it, but this time to Novas surprise, Rusty meets the creatures eyes with a sharp blade. The knife sinks into an eye with ease and the creature shrieks and falls back in agony.

"Thatll teach him a lesson, eh!" exclaims Rusty as he turns to look at Nova, just as the right hand door is ripped off its hinges and the creature appears behind Rusty, teeth dripping with drool and blue blood running down is scaly face. A large snarl is heard and poor Rusty is picked up and flung out of the now open doorway, into the pillar opposite. He drops to the floor motionless, blood trickles out from underneath him. Nova blasts the creature in the chest, which knocks it back enough so that she can escape it and get out of the bridge. She slides along the floor next to the creature and blasts it a second time. Her gauntlet is not military grade, so it was like using a pea shooter against a tank. She hot-heels it away, heading for the robot bays to activate the robots, as they would fare better against this intruder. But this blue demon is used to catching its prey and has trained many years to perfect his art. It leaps and lands in front of Nova and swipes at her several times, before there is a connection of claw and skin. Nova looks down to see red drips of blood splas.h.i.+ng down on top of each other, her life draining from her slowly, as she holds her gaping stomach the best she can with her two hands. She is still on her feet, but swaying as the monster closes in for the kill. Tears well up in her eyes. Could this be her end, she thinks. She had never loved someone and will never marry now and she will never be able to get back lost time. She stumbles backwards and falls to the floor with a thud.

Her head begins to swirl and she cries out, "No, please no." The dark shadow on the floor moves closer until it begins to cover her, blocking out the light and she knows it is close now. She can smell a horrid rotten aroma, and green gas envelopes her and her eyes close. The creature leans down to grab her by the ankle and as it does a large chunk of blue skin peels of its back and lands on the floor next to its foot, a second chunk splats against the wall. The creature turns to face its attacker, only to be confronted by four heavy gauntlets blasting away at his skin, so it knows no other way but to attack and launches in the air once more, this time towards Talia, but it is met with a force s.h.i.+eld and a woman who knows how to use it. The creature lands on its back four foot away, chunks still being blasted from it, but is not finished yet and even when it loses part of its arm it still wants to fight. It flies up again into the air, but this time it knocks down Briggs, impaling his leg to the floor.

"Ahhh," screams Briggs, "You, eat this!" Pus.h.i.+ng his gauntlet into its mouth, a blast finds a soft part and yet another chunk flies and sticks to a wall. It is still not done yet and all the security team are now getting stuck in. Pace heads for Nova to see if she is ok, and Megan and Sam head for Rusty. Upon getting to Rusty, they find him with a pool of blood around his head, but he is still breathing. They pull him away from the fighting and put pressure on a large cut on his head, and then look over to Pace, who is now doing CPR on Nova, as she is not breathing.

"Come on kid, you can do this." Tears running down his cheeks, Pace is doing all he can to bring her back. "Sam, get Padley down here now, d.a.m.n it." Pace is covered in Novas blood and is trying to hold her together. His hands are shaking as he presses down on her chest to keep the heart pumping, letting go of her wound for a moment.

Tom grabs the creature off Briggs in a head lock and a large glowing sword is thrust through the creatures back, and then explodes out of its chest. The creature is surely done for, but no, it has been toying with them it seems. The thick green gas has worked its way into the fighters lungs and now the tide is turning once more to the creatures favour. The team are gasping for air and with each gasp it is sealing their fate. The creature gathers strength and limps off still at great speed. Leaving everyone behind, it exits the way it entered and thrusters fire and a small s.h.i.+p shoots off at light speed.

Chapter Thirty-One.

Sam gets to Padley and Anc and pressing b.u.t.tons, they both wake instantly. They had both needed a total power down to refuel, because of all the work they had been doing. Sam gives them orders and Padley springs into action. First small doors on the bottom of her feet open and wheels pop out, and she hurtles off to help the wounded. This was a great way to get around fast and heal people. They were not seen a lot, as it was an expensive design.

Moments later Padley arrives to find the wounded. She is calm and collected and so was the best choice Pace had ever made, especially when two probes shot out of Padleys arm and with an electric charge she gets Novas heart beating again. Next she stabilises Nova and keeps her sedated while temporary sealing her gaping wound. Then she quickly examines the now unconscious security team who all lay in a pile on the floor on top of Briggs. They were stupid to take their helmets off when they came back on board the Invictus, because then the gas would have not affected them. They were all breathing, all be it shallow. Padley spun over to Rusty and his head wound was a.n.a.lysed, before being sealed up with a small laser. Next Briggss leg was also sealed, and one by one everyone is taken to medbay, where Padley a.s.sesses the condition of her patients. Pace is stood at the side of the bed, next to Nova, stroking her hair. Megan is watching him and realises how much Nova means to him, so she walks over to Pace and comforts him.

"She is a tough one. She will be fine, Pace, honestly. She will be back on her feet in no time, youll see." Megan puts her arm around his waist and stands quietly.

Sam has collected samples of the creatures blood, and an air sample of the green gas, and is busy a.n.a.lysing in his lab. Padley, after what seems to be hours, approaches Pace and Megan with her findings.

"Captain, the situation is this. We have four people unconscious, one with a serious leg wound, and we have no way of waking them, so we will have to wait until the gas wears off. Rusty has a nasty head wound and I am keeping him sedated, due to some swelling on the brain he has suffered, and Nova here, will need surgery to fix the damage in her stomach. I can do this, sir, but it will be a few days, maybe longer, until they are back on their feet.

"All this from just one of those blue things. It was far different to the other ones I fought. This green gas is new to me too. No wonder there are bits of s.h.i.+p everywhere. Megan, I want you to contact the Robur and fill them in on the situation."

Megan goes to leave, but half of her wants to stay. "You sure youre ok?" Nodding, Pace tells Megan he is fine and then sits in the chair at the side of Novas bed. His whole crew had been affected by just one creature. What would they do with five or ten or even more. They needed to find the weak point on these things and be ready for them next time. Pace is still stroking Novas blond bob shaped hair. She looks so peaceful and he begins to remember when she was younger. She loved to dance and was always training to be a ballet dancer. She had stared in a few shows, before breaking her ankle in a show stopping performance which ended her career. He was so proud of her and she was his little sister as far as anyone was concerned, but he often wondered if his real sister ever made it alive to any other planet, or did she perish along with so many other people in that life changing meteor storm. Whispering in a gentle voice over Novas head, Paces eyes filled with salty water.

"Come on kid, you can do this. You have been through too much to let this stop you now, and I need you here, you are my family." Pace kisses her forehead softly before composing himself. "Padley, you better save her, she is my little sister. Let me know, after the operation, how she is."

Padley nods and returns to Rusty in the next bed, to examine his stats. "Yes, sir, now if you dont mind, I am very busy." After checking Rustys pulse, she hot wheels it to Briggs and begins treatment on his torn leg. Pace walks out of the medbay and begins to examine where the creature had breached his s.h.i.+p. There was a burn mark on the hull and it looked like the whole area had been melted and reformed in an instant, technology that he had heard rumour of once but never knew actually existed. The creature had entered the s.h.i.+p through the sc.r.a.p bay, which was at the top most part of the s.h.i.+p, without triggering the security system and no hull breach was sounded, very scary stuff indeed.

On the other side of medbay in a separate room, Sam was still working on the samples he had taken from the creatures tissue and gas samples. "Clever, very clever." Sam is talking to himself, excited because he may have found a link to how the creature breathed their air. The gas he is working on is so toxic to humans, but seems to be linked to the blood of the alien creature. Like oxygen in our blood, this toxic gas is what the alien breaths into his system, and the fact that something was generating this gas around it so it could breathe was a good place to start. "Mmm, must have a generator or tank on him somewhere, to produce this stuff." Sam, still muttering to himself, walks out leaving his work for a moment so he can catch the captain.

"Captain, a moment please." Pace turns around still mulling things over in his brain and clearing new s.p.a.ce in his head, ready to receive new information. "Did you say you had fought one of these before, Sir?" Pace nods, but explains to Sam that it was a different sort of creature with different strengths. "Did you see a gas like this creature had; only its quite important?" Catching up with the captain, Sam is searching for answers to help him and the others.

"No, there was no gas, however, there was a small oval container on its back with a tube going into its body, but apart from being bigger and having some sort of armour on, it seemed the same in many ways too. Why do you ask?" Sam explains that he thinks the gas is the way the creature breaths, so like our oxygen tanks in our s.p.a.cesuits, if we took away the creatures ability to breath, we could fight it better. "We should check out the security tapes and see what we can see and how this thing is so dangerous, its movements, tactics and strengths, and now hopefully a weakness, thanks to you, Sam." Sam smiles at Pace.

"Lets just keep our fingers crossed, perhaps we could put our toxin into their blood stream and create an oxygen generator and give them a taste of their own medicine." The two men travel together, discussing a few more things, before checking the security feedback on the bridge.

"Just as I thought, sir, look there a small canister on its belt and a small one on its back, covered with something to protect it perhaps. Very clever." They continue to watch the screen to learn more about the alien, while in the other chair and attempting to contact the Robur, Megan sits tapping her console and waits briefly before getting an answer from the Roburs pilot.

"Robur, this is First Officer Megan Frost of the Invictus. I need to speak to your captain. We have been attacked." A pale faced pilot nods and patches Megan through to the Roburs captain.

"I hope there is a blumming good reason why you have woken me at this hour First Officer Frost!" Captain Miles sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes before concentrating on what Megan is saying.

"Did you not see any of what has just happened, Captain? First we were pelted by chunks of s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p and then a small s.h.i.+p landed on our hull while we were aboard a part of the t.i.tan s.h.i.+p, and an alien creature boarded our s.h.i.+p, injuring many of our crew. You did not even contact us to see if we were ok." Megan is not happy at her welcome from the captain.

"We did see you board the other s.h.i.+p and thought you were capable of handling things. We did not see the small s.h.i.+p though. I hope that your crew is ok. If you need anything, then just let me know, other than that, what can you tell me about this creature?" The captain is now wide awake and is all ears. Megan explains what happened, but does not tell him the latest developments as she does not know them. Listening in on what Captain Miles is saying, Pace and Sam have both stopped what they are doing to see what the other s.h.i.+p is doing. Captain Miles thanks Megan for the information and tells her that they will stop here for a while until they get the salvage on board and the first pods are sent home. Megans screen goes black and she turns to Pace and Sam in disgust.

"Captain Miles seemed unconcerned about what we have just been through and did not offer to send help at all. He did say if we needed anything to ask, but something tells me help would be a long time coming."

Pace puts his hand on Megans shoulder. "Dont worry, we have things under control and your friend here has worked a few things out, so we have plenty of avenues to explore before we beg those losers for anything. Lets get back to work and we all need to get some rest, we have a busy day tomorrow doing salvage work. Ill get Anc started on some now to get a head start." Pace thanks Megan and Sam for holding things together and goes in search of Anc.

"So glad you are here, Sam, Im sure things will be fine, Pace is a great captain." Sam sits next to Megan for a moment.

"He is not how I imagined at all." Sam pauses for a second and looks at Megan. "If you dont mind me saying, he seems a little bit soft in character to be a captain, but I like him and I can tell you do too." Sam winks at Megan, wondering what answer she will come up with. Megan smiles and turns her head slightly away to compose her face so that Sam does not catch on to her feelings.

"He may seem, as you say, a little soft and I think that is because this is his first command, and apart from that he likes to be fair with people even when they turn their backs on him. He does good to others, even when they do wrong to him and that is what makes him unique and that is why I like him." Megan puts the s.h.i.+p into auto-pilot and continues to chat to Sam for a while longer.

"Right, well we better be going to bed then, busy day tomorrow." Megan yawns and gives Sam a hug and says goodnight, before heading up the spiral staircase to Paces room where she lets herself in and gets ready for bed.

Chapter Thirty-Two.

Anc is on high alert and still patrolling the s.h.i.+p when Pace finally catches up with him.

"Anc, I need you to get some salvage for me from the t.i.tan s.h.i.+p. It has to be done tonight." It is actually very early in the morning but in s.p.a.ce there is no sunrise or sunset, so time seems continuous. "Now, the engine section that we came across needs to be taken apart in this section and sc.r.a.p put in the sc.r.a.p bay, and here and here we need to cut, this will make the engine small enough so we can use the crane arm at the rear of the s.h.i.+p to secure it to the s.h.i.+p as a smaller chunk." Pace is showing Anc on a litepad what he needs doing. "But be careful handling the engine, we dont need it to explode, ok?" Anc eyes wander over what he has been shown and computing the best way to do it agrees, but before going off to work, he has one question for the captain.

"Sir, you still need protection if anything comes back." Pace rea.s.sures Anc that they will deal with any boarders should they come back, before heading off up the stairs to his room.

The door opens quietly and a slender figure lies on top of the bed. He is happy that Megan has taken him up on his offer, but this time she is dressed in a s.e.xy nightgown and must have drifted off to sleep while waiting for him to return. She looks so beautiful and Pace thanks his lucky stars that he has met her. He undresses and pulls a cover over the both of them to keep them both warm. Megan turns and snuggles up to him, her hand on his chest murmuring something or another, before drifting swiftly back to sleep.

Chapter Thirty-Three.

Anc is now aboard the large t.i.tan s.h.i.+p, cutting metal away as requested and is cutting a large stubborn girder when two small lights appear down the hall way. "Who goes there?" Anc shouts, all of his lights coming on at once to illuminate the area ahead of him, and his combat system getting ready for contact. There is a response from a smaller robot down the hall.

"T1tch of the Robur. Who goes?" it returns and it still walks on towards Anc.

"I am Anc of the Invictus and I claim this salvage as mine." Anc stands up and begins to walk towards T1tch trying to get a systems reading on it to see if weapons were armed. A small robot approaches Anc. It is blue in colour and looks like a small three-foot tall tech robot of some kind. Anc realises it is no match for him in a fight, so powers down his burst cannon and his s.h.i.+elds lower so the other robot can tell he is not being aggressive. As T1tch draws close enough to Anc, he looks up and shows his palms to Anc. It was something between robots to show they had nothing to hide and at this gesture the two robots stood as friends.

"Why are you here, little one?" asks Anc now turning to continue his work.

"I was sent aboard to scavenge a few parts for Captain Miles, but now you have claimed this sc.r.a.p, I will have to search elsewhere." The small robot is scanning the area for life forms.

"What do you need?" replies Anc.

"I am looking for polron capacitors and tissue samples from the blues." Anc s.h.i.+nes his lights into a corner where a blue is hunched over, still dripping blue blood everywhere.

"Over there for your samples and I believe there are some polrons in that circuit hanging just over there. Take them, we dont need them." The little robot thanks Anc and goes about taking the samples and parts it needs alongside its giant counterpart, and the two robots work peacefully for a few hours without a sound until T1tch has finished his work.

"Thank you, Anc. I must go." The small robot whizzes off faster than it arrived before Anc can reply in kind. Ancs work is almost done, so he returns to the Invictus and takes his place at the controls of the giant mechanical crane at the rear of the s.h.i.+p. He makes short work of securing the sc.r.a.p in the hold and easily attaches the engine to the rear of the s.h.i.+p and clamps it to the hull with the crane.

Chapter Thirty-Four.

Morning comes around quickly, and it seems Anc was not the only one who worked through the night. Padley had been busy operating on Nova for over six hours, which was a long time with all the latest technologies, but she was pleased with the results and wakes up Pace with a beep, beep of his gauntlet. Padley explains that all went well, but that Nova will need time to wake up and will need several days to recover properly.

"Awe, thats great news, Padley, youre one in a million." Paces heart is uplifted at the news. Megan wakes just after Paces screen goes dark and with a yawn she rubs Paces chest.

"Morning, darling. What happened to you last night? I was waiting up for you with a surprise." She kisses him, a slow lingering kiss and what a way to start a day, they both think.

"I had to put Anc to work and a few other things, sweet. Im sorry." Megan throws back the covers and walks towards the shower turning back slightly and looking over her shoulder at him.

"You can make it up to me, Im sure." She whispers, before slipping off her gown and entering the shower, with a beckoning finger enticing Pace to shower also. No second invite is needed and after a while they are both dry and dressed and heading to see what salvage Anc had sorted. They went up in the lift holding hands, but quickly letting go when the doors open. A huge pile of sc.r.a.p from floor to ceiling towered before them and a busy Anc was cutting metal and loading it into the chutes, so it could fall into the salvage pods for dispatch.

"Great work, Anc. How are things?" asks Megan, walking towards a laser cutter.

"All goes well, First Officer. One pod is ready for dispatch and a second one is half full." Anc continues to cut, and Megan and Pace join him for the next two hours cutting metal and sorting components that would be of use, and storing them in the large storage units nearby.

"Almost done here. Shall we get breakfast and see what Sam is doing?" asks a hungry Pace.

Sam pops his head around the door from the medbay, "Did someone say breakfast? I believe its my turn to cook."

The three of them ready themselves for a taste sensation, but before going down to have breakfast, Pace first checks in on Nova, who now has pipes and bandages on her body. She has more colour in her cheeks now and he cant wait until she is back up causing trouble again, he has misses her cheekiness. The three friends all help to cook breakfast and sit talking things over.

Things always seem better in the morning, Pace was thinking back to what his mum always said, and she always liked to have a good cup of tea before anything else in the morning. It would set her up for the day and she always had a smile on her face, so it must have been the tea. Pace would have given his left arm to just sit and chat with his mum over a cuppa again, but you cant change the past, only look forward in life and make it the best you can, and despite yesterdays events, they were all smiling and doing well all considered.

Wiping his lips Sam gets up and takes his plate to the sink, and after doing the was.h.i.+ng up he tells Pace and Megan that he will continue his work upstairs. Pace and Megan find their seats on the bridge and start to scan the new s.p.a.ce around them. The engines of the Invictus burn once more, now that the salvage had been collected.

"All normal, sir. No anomalies at all on my screen." Megans eyes quickly wander over her data and systems. Pace notices the Robur slowing down, before two salvage pods blast off out of the side doors, like sh.e.l.ls from a cannon on a s.h.i.+p. Thats odd, thought Pace; they seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Pace scans their destination, which appears not to be Foloss. In fact, its totally the opposite direction.

"Thats strange. The Robur has sent its pods the wrong way. Try to get their captain for me, please; it could be a program error." Megan taps her console in an attempt to raise the Roburs captain, but receives no response back at all. She tries for a few more minutes before giving up.

"Nothing, sir, it seems they are ignoring us." Pace jumps up from his seat and goes off to check on their own pods. He arrives in the loading bay and takes a long look at the auto-destination programmed into the on board computer, and to his amazement these are also programmed for a different destination to Foloss, so he sets the computers on all pods to standby so they dont launch automatically. The course set on the pods is a little further than the destination they are heading for, so he knows it is all about time, so all they can do is wait until tomorrow, but today was a new day and there was plenty to do and he wanted to get started early.

"Megan, the bridge is yours. Keep doing a deep scan as far out as you can. I need to check on a few things and Ill be back." Pace leaves the s.h.i.+p in Megans good hands and with a little peace of mind he makes his way to medbay where he interrupts Padley on her rounds.

"Hows things, Padley, all ok?" Padley puts down her litepad and walks over to Pace, the small wheels on her feet now gone, because the emergency is over.

"Captain, Nova will be waking up soon and has done very well, although she will still need bed rest. Rusty will still need to be kept sedated, until he heals some more, just to be sure, and with the security team, all members just need to be roused. I have kept them all in an induced coma, as I did not know the situation regarding the brig and current orders, so thought I would consult you first, before I woke them." Padley waits for confirmation on what to do next.

"Wake them, Padley. They helped us a lot; it could have been a lot worse." Pace tells her, and he turns back to Nova.

With a deep breath and a jolt Nova wakes up, grateful she is alive. She is scared, as the last thing she saw was that horrid beast. She takes a few moments to focus around the room, but then peering over her, a happy face looks down on her.

"How ya doing kid? It was a rough night, but you made it through." Pace hugs Nova the best he can, almost getting tangled in the wires around her.

"Tell me its dead and gone, it wont come back again." Nova still looks scared and is now gripping Paces arm with vice like fingers. Pace pulls up the chair and explains what happened, and rea.s.sures Nova that all will be ok and she will be safe from now on. Nova asks him to promise, but he tells her that is something he cant do, but he will try to avoid them as much as he can. Nova starts to try to get up, she wants to be back in the pilots chair, but she is too weak from the surgery and still woozy from the meds, so decides not to try to be a hero and rest for a while, and still feeling so tired she drifts off to sleep. The next voice to be heard is Toms. He, like the others, is now awake also and is grateful everyone is alive and relativity in one piece. He sits up on the edge of his bed, all gla.s.sy eyed and feeling a little sick.

"Captain, is it gone and is everyone ok?" Pace walks over to Tom after covering Nova with a blanket.

"We are all ok, and all thanks to you and your men for doing your job. We were lucky this time. How are you?" Tom tells Pace that his men will be ready to fight again in 15 minutes if needed and that he was cooking dinner tonight and maybe they should have a small celebration that they all survived. Pace agrees and dinner plans are made for 1700 hours. The security team now have access to their rooms once more and make their way to freshen up and prepare for the next fight should there be one. Pace does not keep their gauntlets this time, as that would be just stupid. Pace thanks Padley once more and enters the bio lab to check in on Sam.

"Hey, Sam, what you got for me?" Pace walks over to Sam and leans on the work top next to him.

"Well, Sir, I have been busy. I have worked out that the creature has the ability to turn off pain in combat, a bit like in the way we use adrenaline in our system. Its similar to us in many ways, but also has things I cannot even begin to understand about it. The problem is, its toxin will knock us out like we have experienced, but if we can lace this gas it spews out with something nasty, it would have to breath it in and then perhaps it will pa.s.s out too, but that would be too tricky and not work out in s.p.a.ce. However, we could weaponise it and put our toxin straight into its blood stream by using edged weapons, say like this knife I have designed, which has a built in injector which can carry say 50 doses. Maybe use gauntlet blasters to open up a wound, because we know its skin is so thick, and then boom! Have a bit of metal in ya! Just an idea, the knife would need to be made to this design and I still need to run more tests on our toxin, but it could work. One question remains though, are the security chaps gonna want to face up to that again, all up close and personal?" Sam hands Pace a litepad with the knife schematics on, and he is glad that all the years he put into Biomimetic research was worth it, but he would never tell anyone what things he did for the government, because they were top secret after all.

"This is amazing, Sam, how did you come up with so much in such a short time? Ill get to work on the knives straight away and we may have a better chance next time we face a blue. Give them something to worry about." Pace thinks to himself that Sam was an amazing a.s.set to his crew and well selected by Megan.

Sam replies and jokes with Pace. "I guess its just in my genes, Captain, thats all. Wait until I have to solve a real problem."