Emily Faust and Doctor Ramus sat in the loading bay staring up at a screen that had been installed to monitor conditions just outside of each bay door. Two images on the screen showed nothing but empty platform but one of them, from the camera facing the station, showed five men wearing armor and wielding proton rifles. One of them was using the butt of his gun to rap hard on the door itself but with the Honshu’s thick armor the sound was barely audible inside the craft.

“They’ve been standing out there for fifteen minutes,” Faust said to her colleague, “you’d think they’d have gotten the hint by now eh?”

The doctor was a handsome sort of fellow a little past middle age, his dark skin clearly showing his ancient Indian heritage. His hair had begun to gray heavily at the temples but he managed to stay nearly wrinkle-free. He was about the oldest person onboard so to them he was the “old man” but most folks wouldn’t have seen him that way. Typically he wasn’t much of a talker unless it was to scold one of his patients for not following orders. This time he simply smiled at the young pilot and nodded. Over the last few minutes the situation had slowly turned from worrisome to comedic. The crewmen who’d been assigned to guard the bay had since started an impromptu game of cards out of sheer boredom while the two senior officers spoke. The armed men outside had absolutely no hope of breaking into the ship with the relatively light arms that they carried and they seemed to think that if they just kept banging on the hull long enough someone would eventually let them in.

“Okay Doctor, the captain is incommunicado and we’ve got armed thugs knocking at our door. Any suggestions?”

“Don’t look at me Miss Faust, with the captain and first officer M.I.A. you’re the one who’s in command now.”

“Well, our last order was to keep the ship sealed and that’s exactly what we’ll do. Obviously we can’t lift with the captain and Ansul still aboard the station so.....we sit here and wait. For what?”

“Firstly you forgot about poor crewman Jones who’s also on that station. Secondly, you should know by now that Captain Tarsik always has a plan. Well...he almost always has a plan.”

“I did not forget about Jones Doctor, I was just trying to be economical with words.”

Ramus chuckled, she wasn’t what he’d call overly talkative, at least not to the point of being annoying but economical with words was also not a phrase he’d use to describe the pilot.

“What’s so funny?”

“Is my relative silence starting to rub off on you pilot? I say relative because most of the gas-bags on this ship are completely unfamiliar with the concept of closing their mouths...even when they’re just sitting there respirating.”

Faust gave him a look that said “not amused” then reached for the tele-wave on her belt. She tapped a few keys that patched it into the ship’s external speakers. “Hey you!”

The booming voice apparently startled the armed men and both Faust and the doctor laughed when they visibly jumped with a start on the monitor.

“I suggest you gents jet off before I decide to fire up my engines and make toast out of all of you. You’re not getting in here with anything short of an a-bomb boys.”

The two sat and watched as the men finally seemed to give up and head back to the station airlock.

“Okay doc I’m gonna head back up to the cockpit, if anyone else comes knocking don’t hesitate to tell them ‘We don’t want any.’”

Ramus shook his head and smiled as the pretty young pilot walked away and jumped onto the access tube’s ladder that would give her a relatively quick trip up to the cockpit from the loading bay. It was a hell of a climb but she was tenacious enough to not let it bother her. He couldn’t help but think to himself about just how much Captain Tarsik had been rubbing off on that poor little lady.