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time until his inertial vector indicator was pointing directly to the
rear of his ship. With a quick glance out the side viewport he timed a
pulse of engine power and stopped the Venture class command vessel
perfectly. The familiar green cone of the closest available docking
port activated as he targeted the station but Ikeprof was beyond
needing such docking aids. Rotating again, he lined the nose of his
ship up and accelerated towards the docking clamps. One thing he was
glad that didn't change was that the new strut system still allowed one
to dock at 100v or less. The force field generators which protected the
docked ships also served to brake a ship as it approached the clamps.
The clang of the clamps engaging rang through his hull and the slight
change in cockpit pressure indicated that he was back on station life
support systems. A slower glow of pink light swirled around all of the
ships viewports as the stations field generators formed a bubble around
his ship. The glow cleared as the bubble stabilized and became
completely transparent. The station interface appeared again on his
HUD. From this spot he had a perfect view of almost the full length of
this strut. Knowing that other squad command members were docked on 4
of the 6 other struts emerging on all 3 axis of the station he felt
comfortable that minimal activity could occur here without the squad
being aware of it.

A quick glance to the right showed one of the station port bots
clamping on to an apparently abandoned Quantar mining vessel. When a
pilot became disabled for over 24 hours, his ship was removed from the
docking ports on the struts and placed in the now valuable interior
station storage in order to make room for pilots who would be arriving
and departing in 24 hours or less. The flare from the port bots engines
illuminated the struts surfaces allowing him to truly appreciate the
engineering marvel that it was. At over 2K in length on each axis, the
strut allowed for hundreds of ships to dock at the same time on all 4
faces of the strut. The interior of the strut was a dizzying blur of
high speed shuttles and bots ferrying the commodities, weapons, repair
AI units and pilot support materials to the individual ships docked on
the struts, but the smooth outside surfaces perfection was broken only
by the docking clamps themselves.

It was evident that many of the pilots were enjoying the decrease in
combat activities as at least half of the ships on this strut had
darkened navigation lights signifying that the pilots were not manning
their ships. A quick count showed that a few cargo transport vessels, 1
Quantar fast transport craft and 3 Octavian medium fighters were manned
with the rest of the assorted craft showing as powered down.

Knowing that he was due to go on duty in less than 4 hours, Ikeprof
tapped the control that adjusted his command chair for sleep settings.
"Not enough time to head to the officers quarters" he thought to
himself as he drifted off to a restless sleep.

A distorted beeping and the bright blue text of a squad communication
message appeared on Ikeprofs HUD at the very top. Wakening from a
restless sleep and sitting up in his seat he noted that it was the
expected automated reminder telling him it was time to go on combat
coordinator duty. Stretching tiredly he de-activated the station
interface, glanced out both side cockpit windows and toggled his radar
range to maximum. Setting the radar to "in-flight' only mode, he
checked the scope for hostiles and bountied pilots. Satisfied the scope