“I didn’t write the rules,” Plinkett said. She paused and cocked her head. “In fact, I’m not sure anyone wrote the rules.”

Rogers was not a violent man. Fighting, among other things, scared him. But right now, if he had had access to a weapon, he might have chosen to use it. Or at least hand it to someone else and ask them to please use it for him once he stepped out of the room.

Just as he was about to continue considering being violent, Deet started talking.

“Incoming message!” Deet said, loud enough for everyone in the cavernous IT center to hear. Heads started popping up from cubicles like groundhogs whose tunnels had been flooded. “Incoming message!”

“From who?” Rogers asked in a hushed whisper. “What are you doing?”

“Incoming message from all connected computer terminals! This is a Status One Alert!” Deet went on, his eyes flashing. “Information-processing terminals connected to the main network will not reboot.”

“What?” Plinkett said, her eyes wide. “That’s impossible.”

“More incoming messages!” Deet said, his voice now getting louder, approaching the volume of his noise jamming. “Multiple hardware failures are being experienced along multiple terminal streams throughout all decks aboard the Flagship!”

“I’m not getting any of this,” said a tech, who was looking down at his monitors. “Nobody put in a ticket for hardware failures.”

“More incoming messages!” Deet shouted. “The ticket system has been taken offline by worms!”

“Bugs,” Rogers whispered.

“Bugs!” Deet corrected.

“Has anyone tried rebooting?” someone cried helplessly from the back corner of the room.

“He says they won’t reboot!”

“I have the ticket system up right here,” the skeptical tech said. “Guys, everything looks fine.”

The admiral, somehow catching on, pointed at the tech who had spoken. “Arrest that man!”

“What?” The tech’s eyes snapped up. “Why? What did I do?”

“He’s in leagues with the worms!” the admiral yelled.

“Bugs,” Rogers whispered.

A pair of MPs burst through the door and dragged the poor man out. In the chaos, Rogers noticed Deet scooting his way slowly toward an open power terminal, into which he plugged his extension. Suddenly, people around the room began shouting.

“He’s right! The ticket system is down.”

“Did you try rebooting?”

“I can’t! The reboot button is gone!”

“Oh god. Oh god.”

Everyone began moving at once. Stacks of papers appeared without explanation, thrown into the air as people ran for the door. All semblance of military bearing and discipline was abandoned as the entire IT department scrambled over each other to try to get to the door of what they thought must surely be a ship about to explode. Even Plinkett prepared to bolt, but Rogers grabbed her by the arm.

“Stop,” he said, “we need your help.”

“There is no god!” she shouted.

“Take it easy. We can fix this for you. We just need to get to the mainframe room.”

Plinkett was lost in a mix between hysterical laughter and uncontrolled sobbing. “How can you possibly do that? The ticket system is down.”