Oddly, the alien craft was slightly disappointing.  Once he’d come to terms with the moist atmosphere – the doctors insisted on everyone using breathmasks until they were sure there was nothing harmful in the alien atmosphere – he’d realised that there wasn't anything too different from human technology at all.  Part of his mind realised that wasn't actually a bad thing – something based on completely different principles would require years to unravel, if it could be unravelled at all – but he couldn't help feeling as if some of the wonder of the universe had faded away.

He couldn't help envying the aliens for the sheer amount of joy they'd worked into their creation.  Human starships were boxy, built more for utility than elegance; the only truly elegant human ships were the handful of luxury liners that plied the tramlines between Earth and the various wonders of the human sphere.  They’d been  built by shipping corporations willing to expend the money to design ships that looked spectacular, despite the inefficiencies.  The aliens, it seemed, cared less for cost and more for elegance.

Or maybe there’s something in them that wants to beautify their ships, he thought.  There were human movements that wanted to produce ships identical to science-fantasy ships from the previous two centuries.  Most of them were utterly unworkable, at least as military starships, but civilian models could work if someone put up the cash.  Wouldn’t we, if we could get it to work?

“We’ve moved the prisoners to Ark Royal,” Major Parnell said, when Ted finally reached the alien engineering compartment.  “None of them talked to us, so we put them in with the others, in hopes they would speak.”

Ted nodded.  The more samples of alien words they recorded, the quicker it would be to decipher the alien tongue.  “And the self-destruct?”

“We accidentally disabled it, according to the engineers,” Parnell admitted.  “We got lucky, sir.”

“I know,” Ted said.  He looked over at Anderson, who seemed to have merged a chunk of human technology into an alien control system.  “What can you tell me?”

“Good news and bad,” Anderson grunted.  The engineer pulled himself away from the merged system with obvious reluctance.  “I think I've figured out how they extend the range of their FTL drive; they actually create a stream of gravity pulses that boost the potential tramline into reality long enough for them to use it.  It's actually much more flexible than we realised, sir.  We may discover that there are more than two tramlines in this system.”

Ted blinked in surprise.  “How do you figure that?”

He held up a hand.  “Spare me the technobabble,” he said, quickly.  “Just plain English, please.”