“First, we’re dropping you off at the freighter,” Nori said. “Use the components we found in storage and try to come up with a cartridge design that will fit our normal weapons.”

“What about the Zappers?”

“We need to hand them out, but aside from us, Martin is the only one who’s gained a level and can use them. We could initiate a few folks with our piTec, but we only have two thousand left, and I think we’ll need it to buy more supplies later.”

“My crew has four people who are level one,” Bulco said. “We can arm them and send them to hunt low level Warped to extract more piTec.”

“That’s a good idea,” Lana said. “And we shouldn’t use the piTec for level ups. The first time a level zero extracts Tec, they have an especially high extraction rate - remember when we touched the alien pilot and we got half his Tec, or when Martin got four levels at once? When I was alone with Alzigo, he told me that in some cultures hunting Warped is considered a sort of rite of passage. The young achieve adulthood by gaining several levels without having to spend ‘money’ on it. We should do the same. It’s dangerous, but it's way more efficient than spending our piTec. Bulco, if your guys can kill a Warped, they should let a level zero person do the extraction. He’d gain a level or two at once.”

Bulco looked at Nori with a raised brow.

The tall woman shrugged at him. “Told you so.”

The Engineer turned back to the excited woman. “You got a head on your shoulders, girl. Yes, that’s exactly what we’ll do. I have eight men in total on my crew. I’ll put them hunting the low level Warped and get us some more piTec.”

“We’re nearly there,” Nori said.

The monitors on the center dais showed the broken street outside and the large, scorched freighter came into full view.

Nori pressed some buttons and narrowed her eyes in concentration. “Hold on tight; this might be a little rough.”

“What are you--” Lana started.

She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Like a bullet shot in reverse back into the barrel, the shuttle plunged into the larger ship’s launch chute. It stopped so abruptly in its docking spot, that even the inertia dampener wasn’t enough to prevent the passengers from getting a little rattled.

“Okay, now I see why we need the harnesses,” Bulco said, releasing himself. “Nice landing, kid, but you might want to slow down a bit next time.” Nori gave off a relieved chuckle. “That was the slowest setting. I think the shuttle was never meant to dock inside the atmosphere.

Bulco reached the Zappers’ crate and opened it.

“What are you doing?” Lana asked.