His ship had been taken totally unprepared by the pirates.  He had just completed an exterior maintenance check and cycled into the air lock, when they blew mutiple shots through the chemical transport ship.<br/><br/>Those not killed by vacuum were poisioned by the vaporized heavy metals.<br/>He kept his suit sealed and quickly grabbed a pair of heavy blasters from an armory locker, along with lots of spare oxygen, water and nutrition packs to last two weeks.  He also thoughtfully picked up a dozen grenades, and some heavy electrical explosives with ignition systems.<br/>On a whim, he grabbed a large softsuit in case someone somewhere was still alive.<br/>A tech repair kit and portable medkit completed his pack.<br/><br/>He set his life support to minimum and wrapped his suit in multiple space blankets to conserve heat and to hide himself from scans.<br/><br/>Why had  he ever agreed to take a berth as Chief Engineer on this deathtrap...the pay was incredible, but working around hi rad and heavy metals was just stupid.<br/>He wondered if he had just not been thinking clearly.<br/>After all,  his home town had been nuked...he had distant relatives, but no one who'd miss him.<br/>Peace had come too late for him.  He really disliked Norms (natural ungenetically enhanced humans).<br/>Their paranoia had started it, and now he was alone.  What good was being a disease resistant, fast healing, man with neuro-mech interfacing, if there was no one to be with.<br/>So he hung out with aliens, seeking out compatible femmes...weird, but that was him.  At 33, he was no youngster.  His helmet reflection told him he wasn't ugly yet, and his medium frame was still leanly muscled.<br/>He waited three hours, then hand cycled the airlock and looked outside.<br/>He could see the pirate base only 50 meters away.<br/>Painted black and built by fusing many ships together, it would look like space debris to most.<br/>No one was on his side of the ship, as he kicked off.<br/>His grav boots grabbed the side of the station easily.<br/>The idiots had left the outerlock door open and he was quickly inside.<br/>He placed explosives at key points quickly.<br/><br/>A slam of his blaster butt from behind crushed the throat of an inattentive guard, and he proceeded to the brig to see if any crewmates had survived and been captured.<br/>Almost all the cells were empty, he turned to leave, but then he found her.<br/>He  didn't know what species she might be, but she was humanoid enough to be exotically attractive.<br/>He put his finger up to his lips against his helmet, then slid the softsuit and an oxygen bottle through the bars to her.<br/>Once she was sealed up, he used his blaster to melt through two bars on her cell.<br/>An alarm went off and he heard the sound of approaching guards.  Grinning at her, He grabbed the cell bars and thumbed the relay.<br/>The station shook as multiple charges blew through walls on both sides of major pressure doors.<br/>A hard wind battered them, then died down.<br/>Checking the ship, they found few bodies, most having been pulled out into vacuum.  He motioned her to follow, gave her a blaster, and opened closets until he found a large cart.  Moving through the station, they were able to gather batteries, oxy refill tanks, water tanks and food.  In the docking bay, a smuggler's ship was mostly loaded with crates and had intact air locks.<br/>It was empty of crew, but filled with fuel, and necessities.<br/>He was getting worried that she would  freeze in the soft suit, so he opened the bay and fired up the drives on the medium well-armed fighter.<br/>He noted that the armaments were full and that the inside atmosphere was terran normal, if a bit warm and humid.<br/>He was surprised, but very pleased to see her hop into the pilot's chair, scan the controls and bring up the flight systems.<br/>While he could be a co-pilot, it would have taken him quite some time to have figured the flight system out.  He was a great engineer, but piloting was an art.  He knew that was one thing he'd only be fair at.<br/>Still, he was needed.  He brought up the diagnostics and routed them through his neural implant.  Almost all sytems were measuring good or better. Only a backup warp coil control had a minor warning.<br/>He pulled his helmet off and breathed a slightly rank scent.  Reptiles had been previous occupants.<br/>"Chief Engineer Krip reporting for duty.  Glad I could be of assistance.  Obviously, you know your way around that position.  May I inquire the name of the pretty pilot who' going to plot us a safe course out of here?"<br/>He gave her a big smile, and projected the good diags for her on the secondary screen.<br/><br/>“Partners?”<br/>