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course.”
    “Of
course.”
    They
met at the lock. Cilreth handed out stunners and soft slug pistols. Relachik
and Arlin had utility belts to hold unused weapons, but Cilreth ended up with
one in each hand.
    At
least she’s not pointing either of them in our direction , Relachik thought. If her weapon
discipline is lax, she’ll end up shooting us sooner or later. Hopefully in a
simulation.
    “There’s
a bit of cover here,” Cilreth said. “But only enough for one of us on each
side.”
    “Arlin
and I are Space Force. You’re a search specialist,” Relachik said. “So you
stand beyond, around that bulkhead,” Relachik said.
    “You
got it,” Cilreth said. “I wasn’t looking forward to hitting the beach first
anyway.”
    She
handed her gas grenade to Arlin. He nodded his thanks and armed the grenade
with his link. Relachik did the same with his.
    “Give
yours a low detonation threshold. I’ll set mine higher, let it go farther into
the ship,” Relachik said. Arlin replied with a short digital chirp used by the
Space Force as an efficient acknowledgement. The marines called such transmissions
‘battle yah’ and ‘battle nah’, for a positive and a negative, respectively.
    The
lock doors opened. A set of robotic arms folded up from the floor and started
to pry the hatch of the other ship. If it weren’t for the disabler on the other
ship, they would have to cut through. As it was, the arms, designed to open the
hatch of a dead or disabled ship, would work fine.
    As
soon as a gap opened, they released their seeker grenades. The devices rolled
through the lock and into the other ship.
    “Masks
on,” Relachik reminded Cilreth.
    Arlin’s
grenade reported its detonation. The doors had opened wide enough to allow the
team through. Arlin jumped through first while Relachik remained under cover.
    “You
can come forward,” Relachik said. He pointed his weapon into the opening to
cover her as she moved into the lock and to the side. Then Relachik went in.
    “At
least one of them succumbed,” Arlin said.
    The
other side had filled with translucent gas. Battery powered emergency lights
illuminated the interior. A man was down, but it wasn’t Arlin.
    Relachik’s
second grenade reported detonation, further into the ship.
    “The
main hall is clear, one more appears down,” Arlin reported.
    “Okay,
just cover the hall. We’ll go door to door,” Relachik said. He tried the first
portal on his left. Power room.
    Then
he walked out into the main corridor. He caught a glimpse on his right of Arlin
covering him. In the middle of the corridor, another smuggler lay unconscious.
The next chamber looked like a common room beside the mess.
    “No
one in the mess,” Relachik said. He checked in a food cabinet, but it was an
electric storage belt that could bring food in from a larger store. No room for
anyone to hide.
    Relachik
walked back out and checked the other side of the corridor. It was a private
quarters, empty. He checked another room. Telisa was inside, unconscious.
    “I
found her. She’s okay.”
    “That
was straightforward. We’re a good team,” Cilreth said.
    “Don’t
relax until we’re out,” Relachik said. “One of them may have found a gas mask.”
    “Okay.
But I’m barely even in yet,” she said. Cilreth backed out while Relachik
carried Telisa out. Arlin was the last to leave.
    “So
far so good,” Relachik said. “Of course, the settings will get harder. I’ll
challenge us a bit more next time.”
    “Sure,”
Cilreth said. “That was pretty tame.”
    “It
went better than I thought. Of course, it gets a lot uglier than that if we
screw up. Now, how about a planetside approach?” Relachik said. He brought up
another of the scenarios he had prepared.
    The
three of them stood in an alien woods. Huge, thick trunks of some kind of life
forms rose around them. The trunks were orange, but quickly turned green toward
the top, where fern-like leaves spread in a dense canopy. Whatever star