Several of the guards started laughing but stopped as they realized Nori hadn’t even cracked a smile.

“You’re serious?” Diamond asked incredulously.

“That’s why we got this big tub working again.” She gestured toward the ship behind her.

“I see,” he said, though his expression was doubtful. “Well, come on in, then.”

“Just a second,” the Navigator replied, “Let me tell Bulco.” She hurried back to the freighter and found the Engineer cursing loudly as he tried to force two torn and twisted parts of the wall back together. “Bulco, we’re going into the shelter for a while as Diamond’s guests. You want us to bring you something to eat?”

“Might as well,” the large man grunted. “This thing’s gonna take a little longer than I’d thought.”

“How much longer?”

He wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Normally, I’d say about half a day, but I’m pretty beat already from pulling an all-nighter working on the cartridges. I’ll finish up the interior in a couple of hours, then I’ll have to crash for the night. I’ll start working on the outer hull first thing in the morning, and hopefully finish it up before noon.”

Nori winced.

“Hey, I’m not too happy about it either, but I don’t want to rush it, unless, that is, you want the hull to breach while we’re in space.”

“OK, I get it,” Nori said. “Anything we can do to help?”

“Just bring me something hot and greasy to eat when you get back.”

“Will do.”

The tall woman went back into the shelter and joined the others in the shelter’s communal mess hall for a light dinner.

“I think I’ll get back to the ship before it’s too dark,” Lana said after Nori filled her in on the intended delay. “I want to keep reading up on the alien technology and learn how to operate the ship’s internal systems.”

Nori nodded as she slowly chewed on a piece of canned peach. “That might not be a bad idea. I still don’t know what half my flight monitors are there for. I should probably take some time to figure it out.”

Once they had finished eating and parted warmly from the shelter’s residents, they returned to the ship. They found the Engineer spread-eagle on one of the beds, snoring loudly. He was still sweaty and dirty and hadn’t even bothered taking his boots off.

Lana’s face softened when she took in his unkempt state. “Do you think we’re working him too hard?” she whispered to Nori.

“It can’t be helped. We need the ship space-worthy ASAP, and right now, he’s the only one who can do it.”

“I think I’ll go get some coffee beans from Diamond,” Lana said thoughtfully. “He's earned that much.”