Ever have a hangover so bad you just want to kill anyone and everyone who comes within your immediate radius? Ever have such a throbbing headache that you want to puke your guts out when the motion sensing lights come on in your quarters as you roll over to drag yourself out of bed? Ever have that annoying shipmate who just insists on trying to cheer you up, won’t piss off, and just seems to yell every word he says?

I had one.

I woke up this morning with the worst hangover I can remember. Must’ve been a good night, but damned if I could tell you anything about it. Thankfully, I woke up alone. I’ll never forget that time I went on a bender and woke up with three achuri females in bed with me the next morning, but that’s a tale for another time.

This morning, I dragged my sorry ass into the shower, threw on some clean smelling clothes, and headed towards my pod. We had powered down under cover of an asteroid field in our issued Huginn, on day three of a five day recon mission. Recon can be relaxing and today was the perfect day for some relaxation.

As I made my way to the bridge, I received the usual salutes, a few smiles of pride at my shiny new Talon Commander pin, but for the most part, my crew was busy with their preflight checks. I had trained them well, and had no doubts in any of their abilities.

There was a new face today however. I’m sure he told me his name but don’t ask; I can’t remember. He wore our standard security uniform, with his red shirt blazing underneath. It hurt my eyes. His constant yammering hurt my ears.

I was checking over my pod with Aura, making sure everything was in optimal condition, and “red shirt # 5”, as I had already come to call him, was doing his best to impress irritate me.

Maybe it was the hangover. Maybe it was something else entirely; let’s call it fate. After some choice words to red shirt #5, I somehow ended up at the airlock controls, him stripped naked in the airlock. Next thing I know he’s floating through space in front of our ship. There he was, floating peacefully, content, for all eternity. The bastard.

I quickly got into my pod. If I wasn’t going to get any peace, any contentment, then neither was he. The crew worked quickly to release the anchoring cables which secured us to a nearby asteroid. Powering up the reactor, I bumped him. Then I bumped again. It brought a pure and joyous smile to my face, and suddenly my hangover didn’t seem so bad.

I think I may have found a new hobby.