Rogers rolled his eyes and started the long run across the Pit to the control room. He could see Hart inside, his face shiny with sweat, as he worked the controls. From the outside, Rogers could see that there was something a little off about the room; it seemed to be packed to the brim with pillows and blankets. In fact, when he went to open the door, he found he couldn’t; the door, an old lock-and-hinge type, got stuck on the corner of a pillow.

“Damn it!” Hart called from inside, his voice muffled by the walls. And the pillows. “Hang on.”

Hart stopped what he was doing and turned around to bend over, vanishing from Rogers’ view. Different sleeping paraphernalia flew upward, including what appeared to be a very unfriendly-looking teddy bear with fangs and a purple jacket. After a moment, the door swung open.

“Sorry,” Hart said as he finished clearing a path for Rogers and Deet to enter. The room looked much bigger on the inside, the illusion supported by a high ceiling, and every window seemed to have a control panel under it that jutted out from the wall like an awning at hip-height. Underneath, Rogers definitely saw people sleeping.

“Nap room?” Rogers asked.

“Sort of,” Hart said. “Ever since we’ve been taking shifts working on the bomb removal, people are coming in here for a break.”

Rogers frowned. “That was like . . . thirty minutes ago. What kind of shift work is that?”

Hart ignored him. “Come over here,” he said, gesturing to the console he’d been working at. “It’s like a god-damn block puzzle over in the bay where your ship is stored. I managed to get it into the loading section, but there are a dozen other ships blocking the way. It’ll be another few minutes.”

“Fine,” Rogers said. “I’m going to need a VMU. Is there a storage locker nearby that might have some spares?”

“Yeah,” Hart said. “It’s in the My Ass room. Let me pull one out for you.”

“No need to get testy,” Rogers said.

“First I’m repairing your ship, now I’m moving it around the belly of the Flagship. I’m like your god-damn valet parking assistant.”

Hart’s speech degenerated into old-man grumbling as he worked furiously at the controls. Through the windows that opened out into the docking bay, Rogers could see an automated ship-movement system involving cranes, hoverlifts, and conveyor belts moving ships all around like giant pieces of cargo. At the very end of this bizarre conga line, Rogers could see the Awesome, looking as good as new.

“Fine,” Rogers said. “I’ll find one myself. Deet, hang tight and see if you can’t plug in and help Hart move this along a little quicker before your metal brethren get here.”

“Aye aye, LOWER EXTREMITY ORIFICE.”

“My god,” Rogers said as he left the room, “it’s like I’m not trying to save this whole fleet.”

It only took a few minutes for Rogers to find a VMU with full air reserves that fit him; the engineering crew, particularly the maintainers, were always working outside the ship. By the time he got back, sweating from lugging the thing across the Pit, he could immediately see that things were going a lot faster in the docking bay. The Awesome, however, was still a few minutes away from being ready to launch.