Chapter 8 Being powerless.

When the emotions died down Tommy felt drained.

The first thing on his to do list was to get some food,and the second was to get some sleep.

When he woke up he went back to his routine. The only difference was that people didn't avoid him as much as before,thanks to his successful project.

He also added a new activity to his daily routine,he spent 2 hours everyday looking through the station's schematics.

When he was looking for a way to connect his generator, he found out that this station was a fully independent shipyard designed to run without any resupply for years and with a crew of 2500 people.

This didn't make any sense to him in the beginning, but soon he found out that the area they had access to was a very small part of the whole station and there was no connection to the other stations.

In other words The blue station was its own unit and through some wandering around he found that some of the missing passages were welded shut with heavy steel plates so he decided to figure it out later.

Another discovery he made was that the cannons in dock 2 were a lot stronger than those in dock 1 ,which meant that they could get a bigger ship and according to the specifications they were looking at a small cargo vessel that was right in front of the hangar entrance.

Finding everything out took him a whole week,and he still had over 90% of the schematics left to look through, not to mention the other documents he found in the database.

After this week the first fighter was already sold and everyone started working on the second one which was already partially dismantled by Tommy and Simon.

In that time Tommy finally went back to his former fitness level which made him very happy.

Another welcome change was that Alice started talking with him again.

She came to him one day when he was running and apologized for distancing herself from him but it took her a long time to get over the incident and knowing the truth about him.

He accepted her apology and from that day on he had another person to accompany him to the meals.

Next one to approach him was John of all people which was strange because he was a total solitary man, he almost newer interacted with the others unless he needed something or someone needed something from him.

And it was no different this time he came to Tommy asking to help him with repairing another grav-cart he found by accident.

Tommy agreed and within a few hours there were now 2 grav-carts to use which helped everyone a lot.

One day during the break he was discussing bringing a bigger ship to dock 2 with Simon and Alice.

-I know it's big and we will have to be more careful with its disassembly but just think about it,

Having small ships in dock 1 and a bigger one in dock 2 will help a lot with the fuel problem.

Said Tommy, trying to convince Simon of his point of view.

-I understand that,but i still think that for the first try we should try to gram a smaller vessel as a trial run for the cannons,you know that they were just sitting there for a long time.

And whatever the diagnostic system shows, I still think it's better to take things slowly.

They both had their good points and it looked like the discussion could take a long time to resolve.

-Why don't you compromise?

Suddenly Alice spoke up.

They both forgot that she was even there thanks to the discussion.

-What do you mean ? Asked Simon.

-Well you want a smaller ship to test the dock 2 cannons and Tommy wants a bigger one so that it would take longer to dismantle and save us some fuel thanks to that.

So why don't you compromise and grab that shuttle right next to the cargo vessel?

She said with a smile.

-Oh and it wouldn't have anything to do with the big red cross on the side of said shuttle would it?

Asked Tommy with a knowing smile on his face.

Alice had a weakness for all things that were connected to medicine and if there was a chance to get some more Medical stuff she would go for it.

-Maybe it does maybe it doesn't.she said with a charming smile.

-But it solves both of your problems doesn't it?

Both men were stupefied when the meaning of her words struck them.

A moment later they both started laughing out loud.

-You're right it does solve our problem and apparently covers your interest to boot.

Said Simon ,when he finally stopped laughing.

-You're one clever lady.

Added Tommy.

-While thank you I'll take it as a compliment.

She answered,smiling coquettishly.

-Then it's settled the first target is a medical shuttle.

They were in agreement.

A moment later Tommy who was sitting to the front of the big window in the central area pointed at it .

-What is that ship that doesn't look like resupply?

When his companions turned around to take a look they both turned pale.

The ship was small but it had an emblem that everyone knew.

-It's not a resupply, that ship means only two things:

Either someone was forgiven and their exile was lifted or it was decided it will be better to get rid of that person.

Explained Simon with a grim look on his face.

-There is also a third option.

Alice said with a quiet voice and a sad expression on her face.

-Simon it may be another Henry case.

She was trying very hard not to sob at the memory of that day.

Simon put his big hand on her shoulder trying to console her.

-Henry was an exile here, one day a ship just like that one came and they took him.

Simon started to explain.

-A week later they brought him back, and when they did he was near death.

-They tortured him.

Alice suddenly said with a broken voice.

-She did all she could but he didn't make it.

Now you know why we dread seeing this kind of ship.

After hearing that Tommy was pissed.

Simon grabbed him by the hand.

-Don't do it, you can't win.

He said ,guessing correctly that Tommy was going to try and fight the incoming nobble servants.

-So what ,do we just let them take someone without doing anything?

Younger man said with fire in his eyes and anger in his voice.

-That's exactly what we're going to do.

Simon answered while shaking his head.

-Because the only other thing to do is to get killed without changing anything,they have power armors and there is no way in hell we can win against that.

So don't even try it.

All we can do now is to pray that the person that they came for was forgiven and if not then that their end is quick and as painless as possible.

Tommy gradually calmed down and after thinking things through he had to admit that there was no way to win against power armors without having a weapon.

He hated being powerless and at the mercy of others but for now he had to accept this reality,but that didn't mean he liked it and he was going to do something about it in the future.