The shattered edge

[arvg]

"No I am not BLOODY alright!" Doctor XiaoBei cursed as he tenderly fingered the welt on the back of his head from where Santorini had whacked him with her gun.

His head swam from the blow, and though he had been unconscious, a rather significant dose of something noxious from the Coalition doctor Igor, and he was upright, albeit very irked.

The Commissariat had a rather annoying habit of continually getting in the way, especially when it came to obstructing things that actually needed to get done. They had to be right, even when they were very badly wrong.

"Just give me the pain killers, and let me have a cigarette," XiaoBei demanded getting to his feet a little shakily.

The doctor, who was already smoking, shrugged and offered one to the scientist.

Sufficiently placated by nicotine, he grabbed a TAC and put a call into the bridge.

Naturally that meant being stuck on hold.

For quite a while.

He gave up, marching down through the ship towards the docking port that would connect to the repair ship currently servicing all the damaged ships of the Flotilla. Working his way through it, he ducked through another hatch and onto the Social Credit.

"Mister Brooks," he said, placing a smile on his face as he took an expressive drag on his cigarette. "You're going to take me across to the alien derelict at once. Consider this an order from the Science Directorate."

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