James nodded and followed Smith through the starship’s interior.  The corridors were bare; every few metres, a hatch lay open, revealing the starship’s innards.  James cringed, remembering just what his first CO had said when a hatch had been left open accidentally, then realised that Ark Royal’s crew didn't have much choice.  There was so much to do and so few of them to actually do it.  He was mildly surprised that there was no dust in the corridors; indeed, it seemed that the whole ship was surprisingly clean.

He paused as he heard a dull rumble echoing through the ship.  “What was that?”

“Test cycle for Fusion Five,” Smith said.   “We test one of the six fusion cores each day, just to make sure that they are still operational.  Losing one of them would be irritating.”

“More than irritating,” James said, recalling his earlier thoughts.  “Could they be replaced, if necessary?”

“We’d have to have the cores built specially for Ark Royal,” Smith said.  He smirked, as if something amusing had just struck him.  “Not the only such problem, of course.  We couldn't get the different generations of computer cores to work together, no matter what the manufacturer claimed.  In the end, we had to splice in a Chinese system we scrounged up from somewhere, just to provide a bridging system.  If we have to replace the cores, we can probably improve on the design and cut out half of the cost.”

James stared at him.  “You have a Chinese computer system attached to the ship?”

“Among others,” Smith said.  He seemed to be enjoying James’s discomfort.  “As I told you, we’ve had to improvise.”

Briefing Room A looked as though it had been reassuringly normal, once.  A large table sat in the middle of the compartment, surrounded by chairs ... half of which were piled high with boxes.  Judging by the markings, James decided, Smith and his crew had laid claim to thousands of outdated spare parts that would otherwise have been sold to civilians or simply discarded for scrap.  Probably the former, he told himself, after a moment.  Even outdated military surplus would be useful for civilian starship crews.

“Find a seat,” Smith said.  “We’ll start in a moment.”

James hesitated, then took one of the handful of empty seats and watched as Midshipwoman Lopez entered, carrying a tray of mugs.  There was a large bottle beside the mugs, he noticed as she put the tray down on the table, but it was completely unmarked.  If it came from a still on Ark Royal – technically against regulations, yet he’d never served on a ship that didn't have a still – it might well be very strong indeed.

“Be seated,” Smith ordered as his officers entered the compartment.  “We have a great deal to discuss.”