Leaving Nathan to himself, they opened the cargo hold’s outer door, revealing the attached station seal. They walked forward, entering the main docking tube, next to the entrance to the main deck. Alzigo was waiting for them with an anti-grav carrier.

“Greetings, Earth Force,” he said. “I have the rest of your equipment ready. Shall I bring it aboard your ship?”

“Yes, please,” Lana replied.

Nori held up her hand, and a terminal pole extended from the floor, unfolding to reveal several holo monitors. She ordered the device to scan the ship and a few seconds later the results appeared on the screen.

Hull fractures detected. Fix: 5,600 piTec

Life Support: cascading overload detected. Fix: 12,000 piTec

Structural integrity compromised. Fix: 35,000 piTec

Null Tunnel drive unit severely damaged. Fix: N/A.

“Crap,” Nori muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Bulco came to stand next to her.

“Take a look.”

The Engineer peered at the console and his expression darkened. “Damn. Looks like the freighter took a heavier beating than I’d first thought.”

“How come you didn’t notice it before?” Nori frowned.

Bulco rubbed his neck. “I’m not sure. Maybe my Engineering score isn’t high enough, or maybe the freighter’s internal sensors are not suited for self-diagnostic.”

“We have a bit more than nine thousand piTec, that’s not enough to fix everything,” Nori said.

Alzigo returned with the empty carrier in time to catch her words. “If you’d like, I’d be more than happy to extend your loan to cover the extra cost.”

“No, wait a minute,” Bulco said. He manipulated the console and chuckled. “There we go. All it needed was an Engineer’s touch.”

Nori looked at the monitor. The displayed text had changed.

Life Support systems. Status: 33%

Structural integrity compromised. Status: 67%

“What does it mean?” she asked with a frown.

“The structural integrity isn’t that bad, the ship can hold it together for a while, as long as we don’t crash land it again. Life support is in more critical shape, but it should hold until we return to Earth’s atmosphere. That means we can ignore those two issues for now and just fix the hull.”

Nori shrugged. “I’ll take your word for it.” She selected hull repairs and deposited the crystallized piTec into the console’s slot.

Completion Time: 34 minutes.

Through the corridor window, they saw large robotic arms detach from the space station and circle the ship, peeling off burned chunks and welding fractures shut.

“It looks like you have some time to spare,” the tall alien said politely. “May I invite you back to my quarters for a light snack?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Nori said. “I had some time to think, and there are a few more things I wanted to ask you about.”

They followed their host to the main deck and into his clutter-filled apartment.