“You should take it, Nori.” Lana and Nathan emerged out of the scout ship, catching the end of the conversation. “It makes sense. You two are always in the thick of battle, and if Bulco can’t use it …”

“Alright.” Nori held up the sleek-looking armor and pressed it to her body. Seams opened and gears rotated as the armor plates shifted, hugging the woman’s toned body in a tight fit. Nori held up an arm, marveling at the lightness of the material. She could feel the armor press on her, not hindering her movements - just the opposite, reinforcing them, ready to go at the slightest twitch of her muscles. She felt like she could run a marathon in the armor without breaking a sweat.

“It needs to be recharged occasionally,” Bulco said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it as part of my responsibilities as the ship’s main Engineer.”

Nori turned to the Expert. “Lana, what did you find?”

“The flight log is pretty slim. The ship belongs to the Inthidlon 3rd merchant fleet. I transmitted all the ship’s data to Unity for deeper analysis later, but from what I can tell now, the ship flew to several space stations, the last of them before coming here was Hammerhead.

“So, he wasn’t lying about that part?”

“No.”

“Everything leads back to that Hammerhead place,” Bulco said. “I guess we know what our next destination is.”

Lana frowned. “Wait, how are we going to--”

“Bulco’s going to transfer the null tunnel drive from the scout to Unity,” Nori cut her off. “We’ll stop by Alzigo’s for repairs and pay back our loan, then we’ll head out there.”

“But we can’t leave,” Lana protested. “We just won an important battle, and the survivors still need us. And what about the rest of the world? There are other shelters and other people who need our help.”

“We’re not leaving just yet,” Nori said. “We’ll leave the ships here for Bulco to work on. We’ll take the Hummer to meet up with Diamond and Martin. We need to discuss our plans with them, but we can’t stay for long. Somewhere up there, someone is scheming about us and we need to know what they have planned.”

“She’s right,” Nathan said.

Nori nodded at him. “Thanks, Nathan.” She turned to Bulco. “Start working on the null drive. We’ll stay for the night, and tomorrow the rest of us will go meet with the shelter leaders.”

Bulco grinned at her. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

22 - Voyage

The Hummer’s giant wheels sprayed gravel as it sped through the broken streets under the light of the new dawn. Nori easily guided the large vehicle, evading most obstacles, occasionally driving over them with a satisfied grunt.