She paused, one hand on the open lid of the medbox. The skin over her knuckles, she saw, was shiny and bone-white. Were machine-heads, she said in a monotone. For all I know, youve damaged our implants.

Im not sure thats

Dont you understand? she yelled, her control suddenly slipping. If you ever want to find your way home, youd better make sure your pilots are kept in good condition. Because if you did any serious damage to us, you might want to get used to the idea of spending the rest of your fucking life on this ship.

Sifras demeanour turned even more hostile. Fine, then, get the hell on with it.

I dont want you in here while Im getting undressed, she said. You can go and wait outside.

He shook his head. Im not letting you out of my sight for one

Goddammit, she screamed, I want you out of here!

Sifras nostrils flared, and for a moment she wondered if she had pushed him too far. The last thing she wanted was for him to use those gloves on her a second time.

Fine, Sifra spat. Youve got two minutes.

Five, she said, as he stalked back outside.

She undressed quickly, climbing inside the medbox and pulling the lid down over her.

She kept trying to think of some other way she could have handled things, but however she played it out in her head, it kept coming out the same way.

She felt something gently prick the skin of her arms, back and legs. Bash was right, she thought, in those last moments before she lost consciousness. Theyd find some way to get through this, somehow.

Whatever it took.

A few days later, Megan found herself back inside the astrogation chair, while Bash was spending yet more time in a medbox. He had needed four or five consecutive sessions so far, since Sifras gloves had apparently caused more extensive damage to his higher-level functions than Megan had anticipated. She had required a few additional spells in the medbay herself.

She realized that Bash needed to be seen by a specialist back home, but out here the best that could be done for him was the auto-medicinal equivalent of applying a splint. And that meant she would have to do double-duty on the command deck until he was ready to resume his duties.

At least Tarrant had shown the good grace to vacate their shared quarters by the time she had returned from the medbay. They were now within a few light years of C-H45k their target system, and the Wanderers hiding place. Just from the drain on the ships plasma stores, she knew that Sifra and Tarrant had been sending more messages back to Otto Schelling.