"If we're at that stage, pour me one," Ali quipped as she arrived at Grey's ready room to find him reading a report with a glass in his other hand.

Grey gave a derisive chuckle. "That depends entirely on what your report looks like compared to Ala'tuk's," he retorted.

Ali's eyes tracked his movements as he gestured with the glass in his hand as he went back to reading. The movement was sharp but coordinated, so he was angry but not actually drunk. "We got our people back, that was always the priority."

"We could've had the ship as well."

"No, I believe the threat to detonate was genuine."

"Why?"

"Because I recognised the logos on the merc's uniforms," Ali explained, putting her own data-pad on the desk for him to read when he got to it. "Pikaya - roughly translating to might of the sun -, you ask anyone for a list of mercs and they'll feature within the top five. Everyone knows they'll get the job done, beyond that they'll have a crack at pretty much any type of job if the money is right."

"They seem oddly reputable," Grey said, unsure if he was joking or not.

"For a merc group, sure, but there'll be more than their fair share of bad customers who are propping up buildings across a variety of planets," Ali shrugged. "You can find a contact for them on Oran just as easily as Peshtar."

"And that's enough for you to take their threat seriously?"

"That reputation you joked about, it includes a history of their members taking themselves out to preserve the mission."

Grey frowned again, before taking another swig of his drink. "Anything else?"

"Mishri and I have both had a crack at tracing the owners of the ship. So far we've been unable to locate anything. There's also the possibility it was stolen so any records we find will be meaningless anyway."

"I must say, you're surprisingly calm about all of this," Grey observed. "You are usually in a foul mood when a mission goes this badly wrong."

"I repeat, we got our guys, all accounted for and alive when we beamed out," Ali reminded him. She had definitely been part of missions that had gone worse than this. She was also hoping that if she repeated that enough that she'd start to believe she hadn't failed.

Grey sighed and put both tablet and glass down, pushing them away before rubbing at his face. "You're right, of course. I just…"

"Hoped that we might be making more progress?"

Grey scoffed and it made Ali smile. "Pretty much," he agreed. "I'm too old for this crap you know."

"You're not that old, sir," Ali retorted, trying to resist giggling. She knew that this was serious, he was swearing.

"It's starting to feel like it more days than not."

Ali scrutinised him for a moment, and made a note to talk to Narla about keeping an eye on him. Then she reached to her belt and unhooked her scanner and another small device and placed them on his desk. "My scanner contains various biometric data from the mercs we took out before we reached the lab, we can use that to try and trace them. The other is a data module I ripped out of one of the medical interfaces from our recently rescued members, I have no idea what it contains, but it's better than nothing."

Grey looked from her to the gadgets and then back again in astonishment.

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"Still feel old, sir?"

The silence lingered for another breath, before Grey reached for the bottle to pour Ali a drink and handed it over. "Preliminary thoughts or findings?" He asked.

"The majority of the crew we encountered were kentarian, not surprising because of the Pikaya affiliation," Ali explained. "We found our people in an improvised med bay, and Narla will be able to tell you far more about the meds than me. Everyone had some kind of sedative, a few only painkillers on top of that, and others had a whole host of others."

"To what end?" Grey asked. "Why kidnap our people just to drug them?"

"I don't know, honestly most of these aren't even experimental."

"Any guesses?" He asked, and Ali couldn't quite meet his eye. "I know you, Ali, even if it turns out you're wrong, you'll have had a thought about that lab."

She sighed. "Unless it was a massive diversion, chances are they were doing something illegal, or certainly frowned upon enough to need to hide it. No one showed any obvious physical marks on them, but Claire said she had been in so much pain."

"From the drugs?"

Ali waved her arms in another shrug, she had annoyingly few answers and it was frustrating. "Possibly, that would be preferable to my paranoid theory."

Grey glanced at his glass before throwing back the last of it. "Okay, let's hear it."

"Telepathic torture techniques are considered pretty unethical in kentarian society, to the point where even in cases of planetary security they're frowned upon and most security personnel are expected to hand in their resignation if it's required. A safety mechanism as you will," she explained. "It's not impossible that this might be a rogue group experimenting on just what that kind of telepathy can do."

"Forgive my ignorance, but aren't kentarians already aware of what they can and cannot do?" Grey asked.

"Yes and no," Ali tried to explain. "There's stories of old war techniques, rumours and hearsay. A lot of the records and teachings were deliberately destroyed when Kentar reformed to join the interstellar community." She paused and rubbed at her face. "Look, I'm probably wrong - krekt, I hope I am - but it's the only speculation I have until they're well enough to tell us what happened."

Grey rubbed at his jaw as he considered what she was saying, before nodding. "Okay, go get some rest," he ordered, before he raised his hand to interrupt Ali's objection. "I want you to have some sleep behind you before you start tackling any data."

"Am I allowed to swing by the med bay first? Or has Narla banned everyone till she gives the okay?"

"She's allowing visitors, in limited numbers. But I still expect you to get at least a couple of hours sleep before heading back to work."

"Yes, sir." Ali even saluted.

~-x-~

Ali almost hadn't dared go to the med bay. She knew it was irrational, she'd know if anything had gone seriously wrong since they returned, but she couldn't help but worry that this would make anything bad real.

It was far busier than usual, and Ali was doing her best to not think about the times she'd seen it this busy before.

"Ali!" She turned at the sound of her name and saw Claire sitting up in a bunk, grinning brightly.

Soon enough Ali was next to the bunk. "Hey, shouldn't you be staying put?" Ali asked as Claire stood up to pull her into a firm hug.

"Narla says I'm fine to move about so long as I don't overdo it - her exact words," Claire explained, letting go of Ali just enough to perch on the edge of her bed again. Despite the chipper sound to her voice, she was clearly still not quite recovered. "Honestly, I've been much better since you removed the sedative, and I'm not sure what kind of drug cocktail Narla's got us on to manage the pain and fix us up."

"I'll check in with her later," Ali figured. "When she's less busy."

"We do like to keep things interesting," a tired voice teased behind her

Ali turned sharply as Claire giggled. Whilst they had been talking Ben had joined them, leaning heavily on a nearby console and looking like hell, but alive. Ali shook her head at him as if she were about to formulate a smart reply before giving in and taking the couple of steps required to hug him tightly. His arms automatically catching her and he felt the ragged breath she took before relaxing against him.

"Narla better make sure you're both duty-fit soon, because I need to kick your arses for making us worry like that," Ali decided as she let go of him.

"We missed you too," Claire teased with a giggle.

"Seriously, we thought you were dead," Ali reprimanded, but her voice was soft.

"It felt it some days," Claire admitted sadly, and Ali moved to wrap an arm around Claire's shoulders, letting the helmswoman rest her head against her own shoulder.

"But you survived," Ali reminded her, as Ben squeezed Claire's shoulder as he moved to sit down next to her, admitting that he needed a break from standing. The younger woman gripped his hand as if she could anchor herself to this safety via her friends.

"That means Spud's throwing us a party then, right?" Claire's joke was half hiccup as she was trying desperately not to cry.

"Almost certainly," Ali promised as she shared a look with Ben. Claire couldn't hold it in anymore and she was sobbing into Ali's shoulder. Ali just hugged her tightly to let her know she was safe now as Ben awkwardly patted her back. Despite everything, that made Ali smile.