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then he wouldn't need any more. If by some miracle they survived then the other drug would relieve the pain and knock him out. She carefully tucked that vial away in her pocket. If they got through this then he deserved a long and pain-free sleep. The scanner turned out to be broken so she had no idea the extent of the damage to his shoulder and the much hoped for skin regenerator was missing. She just hoped it wasn't too bad. When the pain lines started to leave his face though she felt a little better, the drug was at least doing what they hoped it would.
    Norik wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. The longer they left the two men to wander the ship and wreak havoc, the harder it would be to deal with the threat. He wanted her to stay hidden in the lounge until he could come back for her.
    "This is my mess, I want to be there to help clean it up," she insisted. "I can use a plasma blaster. It's hardly any different from my pulse blaster and I'm an excellent shot."
    "No," he told her.
    "But you can't even use this arm," she said and punched him there to give added emphasis to her argument, a flinch was his only response. "You can't use a knife and a plasma blaster at the same time."
    "No."
    "Please? I can cover your back."
    He turned around and gave her the full force of his glare. This was definitely a man used to having his orders followed, she decided and gulped. Still she would not be galled. "I'm coming with you."
    Norik sighed, lightly dropped his good hand onto her shoulder and squeezed. A small sound of surprise escaped her lips as she slowly dropped. He managed to catch her against his body and lowered her to the floor. From there he dragged her behind a couch. "I said no," he muttered mostly to himself before he slipped out of the lounge and along the corridor to the stairs that would lead him down to engineering.
    The only thing that Norik had going for him at the moment was that his shoulder had stopped bleeding and the pain was down to a manageable level, at least for now. No doubt it would start again once he exerted himself. The faster he got this over with the sooner he could worry about the state of the ship and ensuring their survival until a rescue vessel arrived.

    * * *

    This was a disaster. A disaster that had just taken a turn for the worst. Norik could have strangled the woman for her stupidity. He had left her unconscious in the lounge for her own safety and now that was seriously compromised by the plasma blaster currently pressed under her chin. What made it worse was that it was the plasma blaster he'd entered engineering with. The man had taken him by surprise and to make matters worse, Jasmine had run straight into them. He decided that if she walked away from this he would kick himself and then kick her for starting this whole damn mess.
    Jasmine clutched at the arm that held the plasma blaster, in a futile attempt to push it away from her. She mentally berated herself for getting caught but not for wanting to help Norik.
    Stompy yanked back on her hair with his other hand and made her cry out. He wiggled the muzzle of the plasma blaster so it dug into the curve of her neck. "Stop squirming," he told her.
    "I'm not squirming," she said through clenched teeth. He had her head pulled so far back that she could see both Stompy behind her and Norik in front of her. The man also seemed intent on making her bald as more hair was ripped from her scalp. Her eyes watered and she wanted nothing more than to see him so dead that no one would recognize him.
    "And you, you stay back," he ordered of Norik.
    Norik held his position and tightened his grip on the knife. He weighed up his options but didn't like any of the outcomes.
    "Now, before I kill you," Stompy hissed into Jasmine's ear. "You have something that belongs to my employer and he wants it back. Said whatever means necessary. As you can see I've the means."
    "I don't know what you're talking about," Jasmine said and instantly