“No, I actually do. Between us we have access to nine brains and haven’t come up with anything resembling a viable solution.”

Izairis crossed her arms and glared. “Seven brains. I don’t think Oush’s boblet farmer or my basket weaver are destined to contribute much.”

Even with all the brains, there wasn’t a lot they could work with. Silent Child had been tied to the Vortu sortie, which itself was under the control of an approaching cruiser. They needed to either crack the sortie and retake control or find a way to kill the oncoming marauders.

“Anyone got a Vortu downcord?” Naecia grumbled rhetorically.

She rage-scrolled through the ship’s schematics. The sortie had taken near full control of the Silent Child. They needed to figure out a way to defend the defenseless. Getting rid of the sortie was the most obvious solution, except that they couldn’t access the airlock to reach it and the dock’s emergency charges used to remove unwanted or dangerous vessels were, of course, also under lockdown.

Naecia continued through the submenus, swiping back and forth, growling. “Oush!” she called. “What menu was environmental?”

Oush shifted his eyes across his face. It looked like a chore. Naecia wondered why he didn’t just turn his entire head.

“Hull,” he said.

“Right!” Right. She scrolled to the menu for Silent Child’s hull. Submenus included anything attendant to the hull, whether externally or between its inner and outer shells. Structural integrity, electrical, flight surfaces, locks, air circulation and filtration systems. There were stability and equilibrium readings for housings through which the ship’s nine – wow, nine – dilaceration cannons ran. Worthlessly inoperative at the moment. After that came the fire suppression system, hydraulic fluid transport, and the critical steam system utilized by the attitudinal thrusters. Hmm.

“Aptat!” she called.

They patched through after a beat. “Naecia. Did you solve quantum transport?”

“Not yet. It’s too cold down here to think. Do the Vortu have control of environmental?”

“Standby.” A pause. “Let me know if you feel a change.”

“What are you doing, Naecia?” asked Izairis.

“Making it more comfortable.”

Naecia grinned as a current of warm air bathed her face. As with most void-bound ships, active heating requirements were low because the warmth generated by onboard activities had nowhere to escape. Components and people created heat which had to be actively dumped into space as radiation. Naecia suspected that such low demands meant that any environmental heating requirements would likely be set up to pull from the critical steam. Warm air meant the steam was actively circulating even though the ship was not currently utilizing its pitch, yaw, and roll thrusters.