Bulco chuckled. “Take it easy, girl. I might not be able to fix the ship, but there’s still some good news. He walked over to the workbench and caressed it as if it was a lovable pet. “This baby will let me do things I couldn’t do with our own technology. Here, check this out.”

He took The Puncher off this arm and laid it on the table. A holographic representation of the item appeared hovering above it. With quick, fluid motions, Bulco manipulated the hologram, causing slender robotic arms to pop out of the table and start tinkering with the device with a shower of sparks. A few moments later the process was complete. Bulco picked up The Puncher and proudly showed them the now much sleeker-looking device. “I shaved off nearly thirty percent of its weight and replaced its spring system with the alien version of hydraulics.”

The Puncher, +4 Strength when punching (Prerequisite: level 10)

“Impressive.” Nori nodded.

“Thanks,” he said, putting the device back on his hand. “Let’s go check that shuttle of yours.”

They walked back through the bridge and entered the door leading toward the shuttle bay.

Bulco frowned as he noticed the pilot’s blue bristle-covered corpse and looked over at Nori. “Is that where you got your ray gun from?”

“Yes,” she answered briskly. “The shuttle’s on the other side of that door.”

The door opened to reveal the shuttle’s round interior.

“Hey, that’s interesting,” Bulco said. “I see an option to upgrade this thing.”

“Upgrade? How?” Nori asked.

“It’s hard to explain. It’s like in a computer game. A new interface popped up, showing me the shuttle and the available components I have to work with. I guess everything you kids found in that storage room counts. At the moment, I can add a mechanical arm to it. Says here, it’ll have a two-ton lifting capacity.”

“That could be useful,” Lana said.

“Let’s first figure out how to get it out of the ship,” Nori said.

The four went outside and walked underneath the wrecked exit chute.

“Yeah, this thing’s busted alright.” Bulco nodded. “Shouldn’t be a hard fix though. The workbench had a special tool that can straighten the metal.”

Lana turned to him, surprise all over her face. “Wait, so we don’t need to use your car for that?”

“No. Why would we?”

The woman closed her eyes and sighed. “We thought we’d need a powerful machine to have a chance at straightening the hull.”

“Ah.” He thought it over for a moment. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. It might be possible to use the Hummer’s winch to pull it straight, but that’s not really a precision tool. Luckily, you have me. Give me ten minutes and I’ll take care of it.”

Bulco went back into the ship, leaving the three companions behind.