The first opportunity to put our preparation to practical use was surprisingly mundane. A long-distance hauler had been on departure from near-Earth space when a mutiny broke out, and the captain locked himself on the flight deck and hammered the distress beacon.

“We’re sending you in with a normal four-man boarding team,” announced Hart, rapidly loading monitoring equipment onto a shuttle that would be shadowing the op. “You’ll be acting as their point man.”

I nodded, slinging the rest of the cases into the hold and strapping them down. “Do they have security clearance?”

“Affirmative, they’re all special forces veterans. We knew we might need to send you in on a convention op at some point, and these guys are good at what they do. Make sure you’re up to their standards.”

I looked down at the hard lines and armoured panels encasing my body, and thought that standards had been pushed pretty far indeed.