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"Aye, captain."  Tomalek said, going over to the communications station.  He hailed the colony:  "This is Commander Tomalek of the USS Wintreath.  Captain Erikson wishes to speak with you." 

It took at least 3 minutes for someone to answer the Communications call. Someone who appeared to be the officer in charge of the station spoke.

"Hello? This is Proxima Penduli Station. We are being attacked by pirates. We need assistance, code 162. Currently they are fighting in the halls. We can't hold them back for much longer, there are about 20 of them and we only have 10 up here! Please help!"

The comms. shut off.

"We must help them at once! Prepare a shuttle to take us to the station."

For the duration of the trip, Zerick had been working with HKR to figure out how to fix his processor with many breaks to explore the ship, looking at how all of the stress on the ship is handled by it while creating a mental map.

As they were on approach to the outpost, Chase had finally created everything he needed and fixed up HKR's processor back to new. And the best part was that the android didn't explode.

"Alright, you're all fixed up!" Zerick wiped the sweat from his forehead. "That took way too long..."

HKR awoke. Technically, it never slept, but period that it was not-operational had been long. Six and a half years had gone by, the longest HKR had ever been out. It sat up and scanned the room. The human engineer, Zerick Chase was standing next to it. It turned to face him. "Zerick Chase, the human. Diagnostics running... Most systems operational at full capacity. However, my power unit will require repairs that will render me non-operational for periods of time." It got up, put its feet on the floor and drew itself to its full height. "Your repairs were thorough, Zerick Chase. Again, you have my gratitude, and as a sign of goodwill, I will offer my services to you for no charge. This unit is proficient in advanced combat techniques. But first, did you find my staff?"

Hendrik began frantically packing weaponry and equipment into the shuttle.

He had been awake for the entire flight over, but had made sure to exercise regularly, fearing encounters of this sort. He was now 31 years of age, but in the best shape he'd ever been in.

He contacted the captain through his communicator: "Captain, I need a layout of the space station if I'm going to fly us in."

Over the 6 1/2 years, Fern Hun didn't have much to research. So, in his free time he made many different weapons, extra ship parts, and many miscellanies things with what he knew. When word got around that there were pirates terrorizing the planet they were currently at, Fern went over to the closest storage room, where he kept them, and then started hauling the first few boxes to the weapon room.

Aria had spent about half of the flight in stasis, and the other half out; she would switch every year or so. Upon arrival she had already been awake, reading an old book she had brought. This was how she had spent many of her waking hours, studying on the history and science of the universe. Of course, the actual scientific jobs were left to the scientists, but she had a somewhat less serious interest in the topic.

Now she had received word that there was a pirate attack on the Proxima Penduli station they were headed toward. It was a good thing, she supposed, that she had kept in shape. She left her room and joined Hendrik in packing equipment into the shuttle.

"Good day, Aria. You're looking beautiful as ever. More, actually."

He got his routine flirting out of the way quickly, and watched her usual disinterested smile form. He had seen her in the gym often enough, and even trained with her a few times to teach her some basic hand-to-hand knowledge, and found her to be a pleasant but enigmatic gym-buddy. Oh, well, he thought, I'll just try again tomorrow. He became more serious as he asked her a question.

"It's a bit unusual to have pirates in the colonies, don't you think? All the ships are government issued, so these pirates are either skilled criminals who stole them, or they defected from the military. Aside from that, there shouldn't even be piracy this early in the colonisation process. Information is being withheld from us, and I don't like it."

Anderson kept going in and out of stasis for the past six and a half years, getting out every other week. In his time awake, he would keep in shape and practice self defense. Besides this, in his pastimes, he would converse with other awake members, and explore the ship. Sometimes, he would go to the bridge and take in the view, and other times, he would get himself lost in the many hallways and corridors until he knew the ship like the back of his hand. The map in his wrist was also handy to get around.

He was in stasis when they arrived. He woke with a start, and when his wrist lit up notifying him of the impeding pirate attack, he thought, Why did I put myself back in stasis? Now I have to help rid this station of pirates after only having a couple hours of- It's been two weeks! I never go for more than one week! David quickly got himself ready and rushed to the bridge to join the others.

Gunther, for the first few months of the trip, alternated being in and out of stasis every few weeks but grew very bored and found no good reason to stay awake while his body aged. By the sixth month in, he went into stasis for the remainder of the trip.

As the ship arrived near Proxima Penduli, Gunther woke and immediately vomited on the floor. Ugh, can't go that long in stasis again.

He was told of the pirate situation, so he headed to the closet in his room, slowly limping his way there and half sleep. He grabbed his machine gun, then walked towards the shuttle bay.

As he made his way there, he started to wake up more and his limbs started to get their feeling back. He realized that it would be his first combat situation with the new crew. Fuck, fuck, fuck... Fuck I'm hungry.

"Skilled criminals or deserters, I agree it's suspicious, and don't like it at all either," Aria answered Hendrik. "I hope we'll at least find out what's going on once they're taken care of."

She enjoyed Hendrik's company; while she didn't feel the same attraction he obviously felt toward her, he was an enjoyable enough companion. Out of the crew, she definitely spent the most time around him.

James had been irregularly going into stasis for the entire flight, though he made sure to check on the ship's course at least once a week and stayed out of stasis for at least one month consecutively each year. At some occasions, he had studied the various topics stored in the ship's computer. As a result, only two years had passed for him biologically.

Well aware that the first leg on their trip was coming to an end, James had exited stasis a week before they had arrived. He received notice that the space station was being attacked by pirates, and that some of the crew and officers were going on the shuttle to help them.

Hendrik would be piloting the shuttle, so James would have to take control of all piloting duties until Hendrik returned. James decided to go to the bridge in case anything was required of him. On the way there, he passed the hangar containing the shuttle, and noticed Aria and Hendrik packing equipment onto the shuttle while engaged in a conversation.

"Hello there," James greeted them. "Would you like a hand?"

"Yes, we would, actually. Thank you for offering."

Hendrik regretted not spending more time on the flight with his co-pilot, and intended to remedy the situation.

"How do you feel? Have you recovered enough from stasis? The few days I spent in it for medical procedures made me really groggy when I woke up, for about the next nine days even. By the way, thanks for covering for me that time."

"I felt that way the first few times, but as with most things, you get used to it after a while," James replied. He began to help loading things onto the shuttle. "We have a pretty good navigation crew and computer system, so those few days that you had to rest were fine. I should thank you for covering for me when I repeatedly went into stasis."

Alexsandr helped pack the ship as well. He decided to bring his trusty officer sword and a modified pistol he owned. Just then, he was reminded of the robot.

"We should bring HKR-07 along as well. He is a robot trained to fight after all. Also, bring him his staff."