“That sounds reasonable, but I was kinda hoping your new Path would give us a way to get rid of those horrible Warped.” Lana smiled ruefully. “I’m afraid my Path, Expert, has no combat capabilities, so I would be pretty useless in a fight.” She clenched her jaw. She would never ever mention that Berserker Path to anyone. Ever.

Nori scratched her cheek distractedly. “Don’t worry, that’s why I selected the Level Suppression trait.”

Lana gaped at her. “You did what? But the Tec Infusion boost was way better.”

“It was better in the long term,” Lana corrected her. “But our immediate needs take precedence.”

She drew the Disruptor from her belt and held it firmly in front of her.

Disruptor, Rank: F5 (Active)

“Looks like it worked. The prerequisite is gone,” she said with satisfaction and pointed the weapon at the far away wall. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot inside the ship,” she said as she saw Lana’s alarmed expression. “I’m just getting a feel for it.”

Nathan approached Lana and tugged at her sleeve, pointing at the alien’s corpse. A teardrop-shaped gem had appeared on its torso.

The two women exchanged looks, then Nori bent and picked it up.

piTec: 5600

She frowned. “What the hell is piTec?”

“Hmmm, sounds similar to Tec, maybe a sort of subtype,” Lana said. “Maybe try infusing it and see what happens?”

Nori contemplated the small gem in her palm then shook her head. “Better not risk is. As far as we know, doing that could be lethal.” She placed the item in her belt pouch.

“Now what?” Lana asked.

Suddenly, the green light that illuminated the room turned blue. With a low whooshing sound, the door next to them slid upward, revealing a dark interior.

4 - Scavengers

The two women stared at Nathan as he withdrew his fingers from the light console.

Nori looked at him with a frown. “How the hell did you do that?”

Nathan smiled faintly and shrugged.

The dark-haired woman moved next to him and put her hands on the console.

Prerequisite unmet: Expert Level 10

She frowned. “I need to be level 10 to use this console.”

“Let me try.” Nori moved next to the shorter woman and touched the console.

Shuttle Bay Console:

Close door

Initiate launch protocol

“It’s a shuttle bay!” Nori exclaimed.

“How can you tell?” Lana asked.

“I have access to the console, I can even give it commands.”

“But it doesn’t make sense,” the dark-haired woman protested. “Even with your level suppression bonus, you’d still need to reach level eight to use that thing.”

Nori concentrated on the console in front of her and a new message popped up.

Access Granted (Navigator score 5)