Kozak had stalked off as soon as Jezem had mentioned where Engineering was. Everytime he had counted on the Syndicate to make sure the ship was working, something had always gone wrong. It was just as easy for one of their engineers to rip out an existing power coupling and replace it with a cheap knockoff, just to sell the original for a profit. Yes it may cost the ship a little bit more, but he had yet to meet a crew who was willing to trade a few slips for the chance of getting caught due to a failed power coupling.

On his way he had sent a coded message to the couriers on where to bring his shipping containers. It was costing him most of his remaining savings to get those containers to the ship, but with one or two good missions, that wouldn’t be an issue any longer. Maybe then he could get off of these blasted ships, and set up shop somewhere. While he would never admit it, nor would any Klingon, he just didn’t move as fast as he used to. But he still had enough customers calling for some repeat business, that he could probably get himself a hunting lodge somewhere, and leave the constant fighting to the younger warriors.

Stepping into Engineering he let out a grunt. Better then he expected with most of the consoles still there. Whether it was because they just weren’t worth enough to bother ripping out, or they couldn’t find something else to replace the necessary equipment, he wasn’t sure. But from appearances the ship was in better shape then he thought. Now to just find where they had shorted the crew.

Grumbling he pulled open an access hatch to the warp core and started giving it a once over.

• Kozak