‘And the Mos Hadroch? It’s still where it should be?’

The question surprised Ty. For some reason, the possibility that it might be in danger had simply never occurred to him. ‘It’s fine,’ he replied. ‘But who would want to take it?’

Dakota got a strange look on her face. ‘One of us should go back and stay there, keep an eye on things.’

‘Then, in that case, I might as well go back myself,’ said Ty.

Perez nodded. ‘Yeah, good idea. We just needed to make sure everyone was all right while the comms are down. The others are up on the bridge trying to figure out what happened. I’ll send a couple of spiders with you as well, just in case.’

‘Just in case what?’

‘We can keep an eye on you through the spider’s sensory systems,’ Perez explained. ‘Until we have a better idea what’s going on.’

‘I guess I don’t have a problem with that,’ Ty replied.

‘One other thing,’ said Dakota. ‘We haven’t heard or seen from Olivarri yet. Have you?’

Ty shook his head. ‘No, not. . .’ Not since he approached me to tell me he was spying on all of us. ‘Not since our last shift together, no.’

Perez glanced at Dakota. ‘I guess we keep on looking then.’

‘Yeah. Listen, Nathan. Since we can stay in touch through the spiders, if you see or hear anything, let us know straight away. Especially if you see Olivarri.’

A couple of hours later Dakota hauled herself back up to the bridge and collapsed on to a couch. Corso and Martinez stepped over to join her, while Willis worked away in the background at mapping the areas of the frigate that had already been checked out.

‘I’ve had time to think about this now,’ she told them. ‘There are about a dozen key vulnerabilities at different points on the ship, based on what I’ve seen with my own eyes as well as via the spiders, and every one of them was hit individually.’

‘Ted said pretty much the same thing,’ said Corso, who had taken a seat next to a console and swivelled it around to face her. Martinez stood beside him, eyeing her like she was something you would grow in a Petri dish. His attitude towards Corso had clearly become somewhat strained ever since learning about Trader. ‘So it’s definitely sabotage?’

She nodded, and tried to blink away her fatigue. ‘I think someone spent a lot of time setting things up. The data-space has recovered enough that I managed to track down software routines in the primary stacks which I can’t even begin to explain. They might be viruses, or they might be something else. I’m guessing the former, but they’ve now been cleaned out or isolated.’

‘And that’s what caused the ship to shut down?’

Dakota shrugged. ‘That’s my guess.’