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'Chivan spores? I haven't seen Chivan Spores in use as a toxin for over twenty years. Never seen them mixed in with Hikarii sap, either.' Chief Medical Officer Nalen said as she reviewed the medical file that had been sent across to her the moment the CMO of the Eclipse had given JD the green light to be transferred back to the Jinx.

'The sap of the Hikarii tree is notoriously sticky and when it dries, it's smooth as glass if applied right. It's non-toxic, too, which makes it great for manufacturing purposes. In fact, Candara export a lot of Hikarii sap and even have some agri-worlds dedicated to growing the trees purely for the sap. The wood's too soft to be of any use in serious manufacturing, but the sap is perfect for glue, plastics and even some lacquers. It's perfectly translucent and has a pleasant scent, much like cut grass. However, used in its purest form, the sap is porous. Which is how the spores ended up in the Captain's blood stream.' One of Nalen's techs said. 'Quite honestly, he's lucky he's got an immune system as robust as he has, otherwise the spores would have killed him three minutes after initial infection.'

'I can't say an alien mushroom persuading my nervous system that it's freezing to death is the best way to go.' Nalen said with some distaste.

'I'd rather be blown to pieces than freeze.' JD muttered.

It felt as if his whole body had been wadded with ice cold cotton. He was connected to an intravenous drip and a heart monitor whilst a pair of wires were glued to his temples. He was lay on a soft bed in the corner of the medibay, the privacy barrier pulled around the small area. He groggily looked from Panzaarian to Panzaarian. 'I need to get to the bridge.'

He tried to move, to sit upright, but his limbs refused to obey him. The most he could manage was a few croaked words and slight movements of his head.

Nalen snorted a laugh. 'I don't think so. You're in no condition to go about your regular duties. I want you in here, where I can see you for the next twenty-four hours. The fine folks aboard the Eclipse stabilised you before shipping you back to us. But that doesn't mean you're ready for work. The Chivan Spores are still in your system and will remain there for the next ten hours if we keep up with the antibiotics, which means, Captain, you need to behave yourself and stay put this time. No sneaking away like last time.' He opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced with a raised finger and a stern look. 'To make sure you don't go wandering around, I've posted 'round the clock guards and everyone in here has been given my permission to render you unconscious should you manage to slip by them. So stay put, enjoy your rest and don't fuss about your medication, understood?'

'Yes'm, understood.' He mumbled, resting his head back into his heavily starched pillow.

'I'll be back to check up on you in an hour.' She promised and passed through the privacy barrier, the tech following her.

JD closed his eyes. He really did hurt and had the urge to start shivering. After hearing what Nalen and her lab tech had said about the spores in his system, he decided it would be best to stay put. He sank into a half sleep, resting in that comfortable space between being oblivious to his surroundings and being fully aware of them. Someone had pulled the privacy barrier aside, the thick, accordian-like curtain rustling softly in its rails as it was pulled closed again. He was about to say something sarcastic, but as light hearted as he could possibly manage to Doctor Nalen when a pair of soft, lightly scaled lips pressed gently against his forehead. The scent of oiled leather, woodsmoke and gun oil filled his senses and the comment died on his lips as he recognised who had come to visit him.

'I never got the chance to ask about Vin...' He mumbled softly.

'His injuries were too much for the EHP to handle. He died earlier this morning.' Shadow replied softly.

He grumbled a curse and cracked open an eye to look at her. Her deep blue and black scales were dull, and her fiery red crest was flattened against her head. She had capped off her broken horn with a lightweight steel stud. She had also removed the smartweave 'gloves' that enshrouded her scarred and holed wings, and as she leaned forward, they spread out above the two of them in a dark, leathery canopy. She gently pressed a hand against the side of his head.

'You're freezing.' She said bluntly.

'And you look like hell.' He replied dryly, his words coming out as a croak.

'I'd rather do another two shifts without a break than have mushroom spores floating about in my blood.'

'Two shifts?'

'Haven't you heard? The ship's been badly damaged. Got caught out by the Lishni.' She said in mock surprise, her eyeridges raising slightly. 'Everyone who can, has been working on fixing as much as possible. I'm not sure how much is actually operating at peak efficiency right now. I'm a foot soldier, not a sailor on this run. You'll have to ask Spirit or Sid for details.' She added with a touch more seriousness.

'We lost anyone else since Vin?'

'Not that I know of, no. Anyway, Saleen sends her love. We're currently underway at the moment, so no doubt the moment we drop out of the slipstream, she'll inform Luna and Shade about what's happened.'

'We still heading to Impart?'

'Yes. Spirit's in command, naturally, with Commander Locane as her XO. The Reaper and the Eclipse are also in transit, so we should all arrive en masse. Everything beyond that, I don't know. Not my chain of command nor my pay grade to know.' She slid from the bed to stand beside him. 'I best be off. I need to clean myself up and get some rest. I just thought I'd swing by and see how you were doing.'

JD wanted to reach out and grab her wrist, to pull her onto the bed beside him, but his body still refused to obey him. Instead, he craned his neck and watched as she slipped through the privacy barrier, leaving him in the dimly lit nook to his musings and pain.

'Captain on the bridge!' Someone announced brusquely.

JD tried not to wince. Commander Locane's voice carried a little too well today, he thought grimly. Not really a great thing as his head was pounding and the pain killers Doctor Nalen had given him were yet to kick in. He looked across the bridge, taking in all the faces now turned toward him, showing broad grins. A few of his officers even stood up and saluted him. He acknowledged them all with a nod of greeting and a smile.

'What did I miss?' He asked curiously.

'Not much.' Locane replied. 'Just a little slipstream turbulence and that's about it.'

JD circled around the base of the command island, nodding to the Wasp before he settled into his command chair beisde him. The worn leather seat adjusted and flexed ever-so-slightly, squirming around him to better suit his frame and he let out a soft sigh of relief. It was good to be back on the bridge again and in charge. He pulled his command wand from the folds of his tunic and un-clipped it from the leather strap that secured it around his neck. He pressed his thumb against an indentation on the narrow console that seperated the captain's chair from the XO's chair and inserted the slim metal stick into the hole that opened up. A few seconds passed and the outer rim of the port lit up green with a beep. He removed his command wand and the port sealed up again. With his command codes now active in the system once again, his nest of screens lit up with reams of data. Then he remembered the Candarans. He looked up sharply, turning to Locane.

'Did Meeshan pay up?' He asked.

The Wasp's mandibles parted in a broad grin and his antennae twitched approvingly. 'He did. A healthy sum too. Apparently, he added something else to the challenge rules on the quiet. The loser has to pay up fifteen percent of the total of the contract. Per ship. Since you won, however, each ship got fifteen percent added to their payment. I don't think Admiral Meeshan's C.O will be pleased about an un-sanctioned forty-five percent increase in payment, though.'

'Fifteen percent per ship?' JD asked in astonishment, casting another look about the bridge. No wonder his crew seemed so damned happy this morning. Even spread across the 217 remaining crew, plus the share of the profit that would go to the bereaved as compensation, it was, indeed, a healthy sum.

'Fifteen percent per ship.' Locane confirmed, his pleasure at getting such a tidy bonus evident in his tone.

He was still struggling to contain his grin. After all, this was very nearly their fourth mission without payment. The next shore leave was going to be an interesting one, for sure. JD checked the monitor that displayed the helm and navigation status. One hour left in the slipstream, then they would be dropping into real space. Lieutenant Marc Wylees, who was manning the navigation station, had plotted their course to drop them out at the closest point to Impart Station as he could possibly get without upsetting the station master and any ships in the area. From that point, it would be five hours until their arrival at the station. Satisfied, JD then looked to his damage control monitor. His crew had brought the remaining three sublight drives back to a servicable standard. Two of the three were working at 87% efficiencly, whilst the third was currently at just over half. Thankfully, the slipdrive had not sustained any damage, being nestled snugly between the four sublights.

The missile battery on the coreward flank of the ship that had taken a beating was offline, it's status listed as non-viable. The entire rimward flank of the ship, whilst some repairs had been done, was also listed as non-viable. Some spare hull plating had been welded into place, easing the pressure on the force fields and two more point-defence batteries had been brought back online. They were currently rigged to draw power directly from sublight drive two, the sublight which was currently operating at 56% efficiency.

'This is more than just a complete re-fit.' JD mumbled as he read deeper into the damage reports. A mug of hot s'ryn had appeared by his left hand. He picked up the mug and sipped thoughtfully, his brow furrowing. 'Vice Admiral Osharra is not going to like this. Especially if the Reaper and the Eclipse are beyond the repair capabilities of the slips at Impart, too.'

'We might be sent on to either Roolan's Landing or Pavrobie's Rig. Both of those shipyards are more than capable of dealing with the damage we've suffered.' Locane commented. 'Impart has the facilities to patch up this level of damage and nothing more.'

'Are we still scheduled for our re-supply there?' JD asked.

Locane nodded and he brought up a list on his main monitor. 'We're to be receiving a shipment of food directly from Pan-Chef Catering, a full re-stock on ordnance delivered directly from Kruz Mil-Tech, except for missiles. They've been stricken from the list at the last minute for some reason. Major Coltan's order arrived at Impart two days ago. No idea what she ordered, exactly. The shipment's just tagged as Sponge Cake. The medical supplies are listed as the first to be loaded, too. And we have four replacement short-distance slipdrives waiting for us, which will no doubt please Miss Dansen.'

'Sponge cake?' JD said aloud, bewildered. A few heads turned then went quickly back to staring at screens. 'When did she order that?'

Locane looked up the order date. 'Three months ago. And it's a sizable order, at that. Five crates of Sponge Cake.'

JD brought the list up himself and looked at it. Pushing Bonnie's curious order aside when he found nothing more on it in the manifest, he looked up the missiles to see who had cancelled his order. He thumbed the in-ship comm.

'Master Sergeant Toche here.' Came a voice.

'Toche, did you cancel our missile shipment?' He asked.

'Cancel? What? No, I didn't cancel the missiles. We have two dozen left that are usable, the others are currently being repaired with our last functioning materializer, and we had to dispose of fifteen others before we entered the slipstream, because they were damaged beyond repair in the fight.' She said, sounding a little hurt that he could suggest such a thing.

'Any idea who did cancel the shipment? Because I'm drawing a blank here.' JD asked.

'No, sorry, Boss. Ain't got the foggiest. I've had nothing through my database mentioning the cancellation.' She went quiet a moment as she checked. 'Only info I've got is that the order was cancelled this morning. Came in via tight-beam FTL transmission... I don't have the clearance to view anything more about it.'

'How are you seeing that and I'm not?' JD said as he fiddled with his computer. He couldn't bring up the sub-screen that showed any messages that had been attached to any adjustments in the re-supply orders. He frowned, wondering if the computer had sustained some damage that was more serious than anyone initially thought.

'Might be a break in the system. The geeks're still working on the damage to some of our circuits, so some data isn't making it to where it should be. Let me try and send it to your station.' Toche replied.

A minute passed, then a little notification popped up in the bottom left corner of the screen he was looking at. A file was being transferred through the system, but it was taking an abnormally long time to perform the data transferal that would usually take the blink of an eye.

'I got it. Thank you, Toche. Captain out.' JD said and opened up the file. He updated the current orders list with the new one that Toche had supplied and he frowned when he looked up the missiles again. 'G.A.N...'

'Pardon? What does that mean?' Locane asked, looking up from his own work.

'The message attachment to our missile cancellation. It just says 'Sit tight, I have you covered.' and is signed G.A.N.'

'You look worried.'

'Last time I received a message like this, I ended up with a twenty-five tonne railgun mounted on a forty tonne dropship. It did not end well for all involved.' He shook his head. 'I'd like to know who this person is and what he has for us.'

'We'll find out in a few hours. We're about to exit the slipstream.' Locane said after a moment of excercising his imagination.

JD looked up. The wrap-around screens that were built into the walls at the head of the bridge showed a perfect view of the slipstream corridor they were traveling through. The sensors and the external cameras worked together to compile an image that the naked eye couldn't see; the swirling violets, threaded with blues, golds and silvers of the slipstream beyond. A countdown appeared in the bottom right corner of the central screen. Five minutes until slipstream exit. He listened as Wylees made the announcement to the ship and JD saw his status board light up, telltale after telltale going green, telling him that all stations were prepared.

He looked out across the bridge, saw the anticipation in everyone's postures as they prepared to drop back into real space. Normally, it was a risky manoeuvre. Scanning equipment could miss small details, there could be someone or something waiting for you at your exit point or an important system in the ship's drives or shields could fail. Not to mention that ships were blinded for a time after dropping back into real space. The suddenness of going from FTL to subluminal speeds in an instant shocked the onboard computers and the sensors always needed a second or two to catch up with what was happening. The only part of a ship's scanning array that was generally left un-harmed, was the passives. All they had to do was listen, so they were always the least energy-intensive systems onboard any ship.

'Exiting the slipstream in five... Four... Three... Two... One...' Wylees said, the Iguana double-checking his instruments in preparation.

The Jinx groaned around them, a hard shudder vibrating through the deck plates and bulkheads. The lights flickered and died, being replaced by the dim red of the emergency strobes as a klaxon wailed somewhere behind them. The ship's status board flickered, lighting up with several telltales switching from green and amber, to red.

'We've just lost the forcefield for the rimward missile battery. Blast doors are still sealed up. No casualties.' Locane announced.

'Looks like we've just lost three more force fields and a sublight.' JD said, looking over the damage report. 'Thankfully no else seems to have died.' I should have put my armour back on, for fuck's sake.

'Small mercies. The departments are still on the ball and are reporting no injuries.' Locane added.

JD looked up as the klaxon was silenced and the main power came back on. Sublight-3 had just spooled back up again after its hiccup. The bridge crew had barely flinched and Ari was guiding the Jinx smoothly through the outer edges of the expansive debris field that Impart Station was using as a natural first line of defense. The debris field was 1.6 AU in circumference and was supposedly the remains of a large moon that had broken free of its wide orbit around the outer planet of the star system. Impart Station was sitting dead centre, a massive star-shaped structure with five large spokes radiating out from a fat central cyclinder 5 kilometres tall. Three narrow habitat rings spun around the cylinder, the top and bottom rings being used for general living and services, whilst the middle ring was station command and control. Pressed snugly between the rings were dozens of ships; small freighters, personal vessels and a star liner were among those nestled againts the station's main body.The cylinder was capped at each end with nests of beam weapons, railguns and point-defence cannons. A trio of sleek corvettes prowled around the inner edges of the debris field, whilst a squadron of two-man fighters patrolled further in. It was a fine set-up for a station that was four systems away from any meaningful help should something go drastically wrong.

'Captain, we're receiving a text only transmission from the Eclipse.' Consal announced.

'Show me.'

Consal shunted the message to JD's station. It took a few seconds longer than he'd like to load, but at least he wasn't greeted by bad news when he finally opened it.

'We're to proceed as planned. Hail the station, Mr. Consal.' JD said, reading the message.

'Now hailing, Sir. We can only get audio, I'm afraid. Our comms array is still too damaged to do much else.' Consal said apologetically.

'Shadow Stalkers Military Assistance vessel, Jinx, you will proceed towards docking arm four. A tug will greet you half-way and take over your helm controls until you are fit to leave the station. Does this motion suit you, Jinx?' Said a harsh voice.

'This suits me well, Impart Control. We are badly damaged, however, so I have no idea whether you will be able to connect to our helm control wirelessly.' He replied.

'I see this, Jinx. Is your hardline connection port still available?'

JD looked to Ari. He had no idea, as the ship was refusing to tell him. She nodded and mouthed 'Yes'.

'Our hardline connection port is still available.' He replied.

'Very good, Jinx. It is a quiet day, so proceed on your current course. Any deviation will be seen as hostile.'

'Copy that, Impart Control.' JD cut the comm and leaned back in his chair.

Ari had already set about taking them closer to the station, nursing the damaged ship smoothly through the traffic until a tug greeted them a few hours later. JD watched on his sensors monitor as the tug, after failing to establish a wireless link with helm control, rotated and locked onto the Jinx's hull with a resounding, dull thud. A few minutes passed in tense silence as both the Jinx and the attached tug drifted without drives toward the station, the two ships trying to communicate with one another.

Eventually, there was a sigh of relief from Ari and Wylees as the two vessels found common ground and finally shook hands.

'The tug and Jinx are now connected.' Ari announced with relief. 'Full helm control for the Jinx has been handed over to the tug and we're still sorta green across the board.'

'Thirty minutes until docking.' Wylees said, tapping at his keyboard. 'Local time is nine-forty-three.'

'Make sure the Jinx can sync up fully with the station's systems before leaving your post, Mr. Wylees. I don't want to imitate Captain Drumear's mishap.' JD said, watching as Impart Station slowly filled more and more of the view screens.

Wylees shook his head with a small grin. 'I have no intention of making us a laughing stock for being late to our own raid, sir.'

The closer they got to the station, the easier the comms array found it to sync up with the station's medianet. The comms board lit up with reams of adverts, the latest news and the constantly updated feed for the local weather. JD discarded the vast amounts of adverts, had a look at the weather - he was pleased to se that the Jinx was still reading the weather correctly regardless of the damage dealt by the Lishni - and browsed the news.

The mega-corporation, VanceTech, had acquired a new business partner; a small star system in the Dark Fringes. The government of the star system was saying how pleased they were to be in partnership with VanceTech's mining branch. All well and good until the ore runs out. JD thought sourly. The Golden Star Freedom Movement had recently lashed out at a Tenglaar corvette that had been loitering on the edges of their recently established territory. Naturally, the Tenglaar took this as an act of all-out war, and every news outlet in the galaxy had sent a reporter or a journalist to trail on the heels of a sizeable Tenglaar task force that had been shaken lose to investigate the loss of their corvette. JD stifled an inapropriate laugh. Investigation was not the Tenglaar's strongest point. They tended to shoot first and then ask their questions, if they had any or could be bothered. And the Tenglaar had some very big guns and very few words to speak. The territorial spat between the Ishmari and the Jes'wa had been settled peacefully after two years of fighting. Hydrogen prices had gone up by 2% in the Corlensi Sector. Prices for iron ore was at an all-time low in the K'tannan Prefecture.

'Another boring day in news.' JD muttered, shutting down the channel.

He looked up again. The docking arm and the four slips within, one of which they they were assigned to, dominated the view screens. He checked his chrono. Thirty minutes had slid past and they were now being guided into the arm, the vast structure of their assigned repair slip swallowing the Jinx with ease, gently embracing the wounded destroyer in its zero-G environment.

'Docking procedures check.' He said.

'Docking clamps now in place.' Ari announced. 'Umbilicals now in place and secure. Syncing the Jinx to Impart Station's life support systems and calendar... Complete. All fully functioning systems are green. All damaged systems in operation are amber. We're ready for drive shut down.'

'Impart Control is hailing us. Audio only.' Consal announced.

'Put them through.'

'Shadow Stalkers Military Assistance vessel, Jinx, this is Impart Control. Shut down your drives and have all non-essential personnel disembark for one of the hab rings. You're damage is far too much for us to fully repair, and the repairs we will be doing will be better suited to a ship empty of all but key engineering and technical crewmen. If needed, long-term accomodation can be arranged.'

'Understood. Chief Engineer Kieron Binx and his team will be on hand to help guide your engineers and techs through our systems when need be.' JD replied, knowing that Kieron and his teams would deftly guide the Impart techs and engineers around certain, more sensitive factors of the Jinx.

JD inserted his command wand and gave the ship the all-clear for total shut down. Beside him, Locane was typing furiously, already sending out orders to the department heads. Ari was busy shutting down the drives, taking them offline carefully just in case something had been missed during their attempts to repair them. The ship fell deathly quiet. It was an odd thing. The sublight drives, whilst surprisingly quiet, still put out the lightest of vibrations through the ship's super structure; mostly, they could be felt through the deck plates and bulkhead walls. First time spacers found the vibrations to be a little unnerving once they noticed them, but after a while, the feel of the sublights became a reassuring thing, almost like a blanket or a nightlight is to a child.

In a sharp contrast to newbie spacers, veteran spacers became nervous or uncomfortable when the drives of a ship went quiet. Silent drives on a working ship was often seen as a bad omen to most.

'Sublight drives offline. Slipdrive offline. Artificial gravity, life support, lights and emergency force fields will shutdown when Chief Binx gives the order and no sooner.' Ari announced.

'Does he have the only code for that?' JD prompted. He found that this was the worst part of shutting down a starship for major repairs for him.

'Aye, Chief Binx has the one and only code. The code will reset once we disconnect from Impart's systems.' Ari iterated.

It was yet another safety feature; To initiate total shut-down of a starship, either the captain or the chief engineer were given a code, courtesy of the ship's A.I core, to green-light them to render the ship completely inoperable. Once brought back online, however, the code would be erased from the databanks and thus become obsolete. Any attempts to use that particular code again would fail, as it would not be recognised. The A.I core would have to be prompted for a fresh one, and only the captain or chief engineer were able to do such a thing.

In this case, Kieron had beaten him to it. The two had worked together long enough for JD to let it slide. Kieron knew his business and JD knew his. Both Demon and Dragon knew each other well enough to know that trying to play each other at their own game would not go well.

Kieron was an engineer. JD was a leader.

He opened a ship-wide link, praying that his message would reach everyone.

'All hands, this is the captain. All personnel barring those who are essential to repair work - you know who you are - will be taking some shore leave. You will be recalled once enough repairs have been made to allow us to head out to Nuam, so don't get too shitfaced. And try not to spend all your money in one hit.' He cut the connection and brought up the ship's status on one screen and the active map feed on another. He watched as green dots swarmed from the habitable sections of the ship, all of them heading towards the available airlocks. In groups, his crew left, leaving only a few behind. He looked out across the bridge feeling oddly melancholy.

'You're all dismissed. Go, have fun or whatever it is you do on your time off.' He said, waving them away. 'You too, Sid.'

They each shut down their stations, stretched, yawned and exited the bridge with varying degrees of badly concealed excitement. Two and a half years of active duty with barely any real down time was starting to get at them all. Even if Impart Station was initially set up as a repair yard and a re-supply outpost, time off was time off, and no one was complaining. Not even JD, who always hated the idea of a strange repair crew crawling over his ship whilst he had to sit back and watch. Once everyone had left, he deactivated his station and left the bridge, making his way to the nearest airlock.