I woke up in the infirmary. My hands impulsively reached for the back of my head. I felt a band-aid there. The nurse smiled at me. "It's good you're awake. How are you feeling?"

I sat up on the bed. Dizziness overcame me. "Take it slow"

"I'M FINE," I said angrily.

The nurse paused for a moment. "Can I feel your hands and legs?"

"Why?"

"I just have to check that they are warm. Can you feel my hand? Do you have any pain?"

It occurred to me again that I could have died today. Many times.

At that moment I made a decision.

"All good," I said in a sinister tone. "Though there is one thing that you could do for me"

"What is it?" she asked with a naive wide-eyed expression.

"Go back to wherever the hell you came from." 

She looked confused. "I don't understand."

"I'm going to hire another nurse. This is my team and I would rather have someone I know."

She left. Probably crying. For all I cared.

I was still wearing my uniform so I got up and went into the cockpit without changing. My techdevice alerted me that pieces of equipment had been stolen from the ship. Why didn't our security work before now? 

With my techdevice, I called the entire crew in for a briefing.

"As you all know, there has been an attack on my ship," I paused, thinking of what to say next.

"All of you were completely useless in preventing this. What do I even have mechanics for? What do I have soldiers for? You are USELESS. If I could fire you, I would. I don't know how much time you spent training or checking our security, but I assure you it is NOT enough. Until I catch the scum who did this, ALL OF YOU are going to have much less free time than before, I assure you. And I am going to find this scum, I will find their families, friends, I will find everyone that has ever been in contact with them. And they WILL be EXECUTED. ALL OF THEM!"

I took a deep breath and then screamed into the microphone, louder than before: "DISMISSED!"

The room started clearing up and Mr. Heydrich approached me carefully. Quietly and calmly he began talking:

"I know of a contact in Chaus that might prove useful in finding the pirates."

"Coordinates?"

"His name is Charon. He runs an enterprise in Nephele. You should use one of our avatars and bring a few men with you, without their uniforms, of course. The ship has an inbuilt defilade so that is something you will not need to worry about."

"Stop explaining things to me like I am not your captain.", I commanded sharply.

He looked as if he was surprised, then said: "You speak very angrily to your subordinates. Your anger is very well justified. These pirates need to be brought to justice by your hands. But do you think you might have spoken harshly? We don't even know..."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU ARE MY ADVISOR! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HELP ME! AND WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE? NOTHING! You think that because of your experience that YOU could tell ME what to do. But I just got abducted by space-scum and what did you do to prevent that? FUCKING NOTHING! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Mr. Heydrich hurriedly left. I set the course for Tharo. First, I was going to pick up Brielle. Then I was going to find that scum. I was going to find them fast. Right after lunch.