The minor fire that broke out on solar panels S8 through S10 was contained by the ship within seconds. Bright, crisp light flooded engineering, blinding Edison until Misato, hands covering her eyes, shouted, “Lights to half!” It was dim again, mercifully, and he shook the spangles out of his vision.

He hadn’t realized how long they had lived in almost complete darkness.

The woman in the hatch had gone silent, but he had heard the bang of her body against the duct wall. Edison glanced at Misato, who had gone rigid as they both listened to the ship cycling systems, bringing itself back online to full. Full. No more emergency status. No more code blue.

“What did she do?” Edison asked, taking a gingerly step toward the maintenance hatch. There was no movement within.

The much shorter woman marched past him, going on tiptoes to loosen the hatch. Her iron-gray bob was streaked with lighter silver and swung back and forth as she worked. “Ballsy move. She cut solar panels hoping the RTGs would overload from the increased stress. Didn’t work so good.”

“Why didn’t you think of that?” Edison groused, taking a step back and letting her pry at the hatch. “You’re a goddamned engineer, Iwasa.”

“The best damned engineer,” she corrected. “And the best damned engineer doesn’t try something that could fry the ship for good. Or, you know, fry all of us. What she did was practically suicidal—even most pirates won’t try it when they find a dead ship. She was trying to blow us all to hell. Instead she just brought us out of being stalled.”

“Not sure how to feel about that.” He helped her pull down the heavy cover on the duct hatch and leaned it against the wall. Being far taller, he could easily peer inside. The woman was slumped over, utterly still, one foot kicked out toward him.

He watched her for a moment and saw the slow rise and fall of her chest through the suit. Alive, at least, but that would probably wind up being a disappointment for her.

“Why didn’t you try to stop her?” he heard Iwasa ask.

“Why didn’t you?”

Edison glanced down and to the left, and saw the old woman cross her arms and shrug, a twinkle in her eye even through the blue glow of the Foxfire.

“I’m not afraid to die. I’m only afraid to lose myself.” Iwasa looked away from him, but he could tell she wasn’t finished. “And besides, I was sort of curious what she would try. I know this ship like the back of my hand, and I was pretty sure she couldn’t kill us from there. Now, if she found a way to get at the plutonium in the RTGs, we’d be having a different conversation.”

“Yes,” Edison said, venting a dark chuckle. “We would.”