My vision was clouded with blackness as the orc choked me.

“What were you trying to do? Whatever it was, it looked like you failed. Pitiful, just like your coward brother. Well, you have made this quite convenient for me. I usually have to go to my prey instead of them coming to me. I also have to thank you; you know for reminding me that I had a camp earlier. I would have never found the altar. I’ll let you have a closer look here in just a sec–” William said before he was cut off.

Next thing I knew, I was on all fours, coughing a few inches of filth on the ground. I looked behind me to see Stercus in the doorway, the shit rift closing with a pop.

“Get up you fool,” Stercus yelled.

I got to my feet stumbling to the door. Glancing behind me, I saw that William had taken the full force of the jet but was already on his feet. His orcs still lay strewn on the ground. We turned the corner to the bathroom when I heard an exclamation of pain. I turned around to see William in a throwing pose, Stercus in the air, before me a glowing red knife in him. There was no doubt the knife would have struck me instead. As Stercus hit the ground, he vanished. I kept running, falling into the spinning water.

I was back on the spaceship bathroom, this time sprawled on the floor. I don’t know how, with two broken wrists, but I was only down 1HP. I clicked the pill bottle in my inventory, and the pill appeared in my hand. I had never broken a bone before this point, and damn did this hurt. I pushed through the pain only knowing that relief would come with the pill. My hands swung limply and unnaturally as I raised the pill to my mouth. As I swallowed the pill, my wrists straightened out, and I yelled out in pain.

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Once I caught my breath and forgot about the pain, I looked around. I didn’t see Stercus. The water in the toilet made a bubbling noise as it stopped spinning and splashed to the ground.

I opened my interface and went to my abilities tab. It showed “summon familiar,” with Stercus greyed out for 47 hours, 57 minutes, and 32 seconds counting down.

In that moment, I was really happy that my robes were self-cleaning, having seen William chasing us plastered with filth. I let out an involuntary laugh, thinking back to William covered in shit. It wasn’t that funny, but I still laughed, a delirious laugh. While I knew Stercus only saved me out of self-preservation, I was still thankful. I would probably be dead right now without them.

“Captain!” a voice said coming from my chest.

“What is it?” I said.

“Captain! Can you hear me?” the voice said again.

In Star Trek, they always had to touch their insignia. I reached for where I saw mine was in my reflection and heard a chime.

“What is it?” I said again.

“Captain, I am glad to hear you are alive. The crew is being overwhelmed. They are making their way to engineering. They must be after our Beryllium Sphere.”

Well, I guess I needed to figure out how to get to this planet and having something taken from engineering didn’t seem like it was going to help me. I walked to the door, took a deep breath, and pressed the button to open the door.

I got this, I thought.

The door slid open revealing multiple robots standing outside waiting.

The last thing I saw was a metal fist to my head.