Megan felt her face grow hot, but forged on regardless. <We make the modifications to the lifeboat using the engineering sections dedicated fabricators. Theyre running on automatic most of the time, anyway, producing replacement drive-spines, hull components and all the rest of the stuff the ship needs to keep itself functioning. If we programmed them to make modifications to one of the lifeboats, theres really very little chance theyd get to know about it.>

<That still doesnt tell me how you fit an entire nova drive inside a lifeboat.>

<We trigger a core dump, and eject the nova drive into space. Then we launch the lifeboat, grab the drive, and were on our way home.>

<This,> sent Bash, <is what happens when you juice your own brain chemistry with wild abandon.>

<I know what Im talking about,> she retorted. <We can do this.>

<Megan, even if we can pull this off, its going to take us near-as-damn half a year to get home. A lifeboat just doesnt have the resources to keep either of us alive that long.>

<So we engineer the lifeboat to incorporate medbox technology. We fly most of the way home in suspended animation.>

He was silent again for a moment. <I can think of a hundred more objections,> he said eventually.

<You asked how wed integrate the drive into the lifeboat. We build a cage to contain it. And with the lifeboat having such a tiny mass, its going to take a lot less power and a lot less time between jumps. We can make it back home a hell of a lot faster than a ship massing as much as the Beauregard does.>

<Okay, fine, I can see youve thought this through. But theres still the question of opportunity. You cant just trigger a core dump. Its an emergency manoeuvre designed to remove a nova drive from a ship in order to prevent its capture. It needs the permission of the registered senior crew before the command deck AI will accept it. And right now, that means Tarrant.>

<Unless those two have been hurt,> she said, <or killed, or cant communicate with the pilot. Or if the ships integrity has been severely compromised. The Wanderer attacked the Kelvin without warning. If it attacks the Beauregard as well, thats when its systems can trigger a core dump and push the nova drive outside the hull. But we need to have the modified lifeboat ready to go the moment the Wanderer makes its move.>

<If it makes its move,> sent Bash. <If the ships integrity is damaged. If both Tarrant and Sifra, by some miracle, fail to notice whats going on. Do you see how much of a long shot all of this is? If, if, and if.>

<Got any better ideas?>

<Hell, no. And just thinking about all the things that could go wrong makes me want to shit my pants. So when do we start?>

<Youre serious?>