He watched as the docking cradle, dormant for decades, silently whirred into life and slid out into the blank center of the pipeline, deftly catching the vessel that fell suddenly and without warning into its waiting embrace. Hank took another draw from the butt between his lips, then tossed it disdainfully out over the edge, watching the still-burning ember arc out into nothing as the vessel in the cradle drew closer. The cage opened in front of him as the dock engaged. All was accomplished in near-silence, the only sound the hiss and crackle of the cooling phase drives at the aft of the corvette. Hank cleared his throat, coughed loudly, the noise echoing out and back and forth along the pipeline. How long had it been since he had spoken? It felt as if his throat were covered in a thick layer of dust from the disuse of his vocal cords.

The docking port of the corvette opened with a liquid slurp as the phased vessel re-integrated into a solid. Exterior lock, interior lock parted, reminding Hank so much of female genitalia that he smirked under his luxurious handlebar moustache. The interior of the vessel proved to be just as dark and mysterious as the unintended metaphor.

Two black shadows emerged from the short passageway into the ship, hoods drawn over their features. Hank flinched for a moment in uncertainty, hand moving in a flash to his side, where a shiver gun fashioned to look like an ancient revolver hung from a leather holster. Faster than his human form could ever manage, one of the black-hooded forms flew forward, knocking Hank asunder and painfully disabling him with one tap of a hidden energy weapon. Silvery threads of weapon silk spun around Hank’s torso, pinning his arms to his sides as he fell with a meaty thud to the metal floor.

Whistler threw the hood back from his face and bent down to Hank’s level, where he produced a slender black device and thrust it into Hank’s neck. The old cowboy gasped with the sudden and sharp pain, and struggled under his silken snare. The black tube in Whistler’s hand beeped, and the weapon silk disintegrated. He stood, outstretched a hand, helped Hank to his feet.