79 Coordinated flocking activity wherein birds, most famously, starlings, take on shapes in the sky. In 1986 Craig Reynolds developed a program that simulated the flocking behavior of birds called “Boids”, using computer generated “bird-oid objects” shortened to “boid.” Also, a shot at New Yorker pronunciation of the key word.

80 Humpback whales sing songs to each other in frequencies often too low for any human to hear, which is good because they rarely shut up, singing for up to twenty-three hours in one go.

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY

Naecia unfolded the locking mechanism on the access hatch to the hull space. Taking hold of the handle, she used her weight to yank it down and break the seal. Atmosphere from the third deck blasted by her and she quickly slipped inside. Aptat closed the hatch and coded it shut.

It was like being inside a massive mechanical body, stuffed with alloyed veins and arteries carrying the Silent Child’s vital fluids, keeping it alive. The hull space followed the contours of the ship’s middle section, which was roughly dome shaped. The equipment she had to access was at the apex of this dome and just beyond toward the opposite side. She pulled herself along by the hands. The hardest part about working in zero gravity was remembering to hold on and not to push off anything too forcefully, lest she wind up helplessly suspended and unable to get back down. She started up the hull’s arc, crawling over layers of pipes and conduit. These were systems she knew and understood, and familiarity brought comfort. The tool pod strapped to her chest shifted back and forth as she went, and she checked it with a hand as one might a child in swaddling.

Near the hull’s crown she shuffled sideways to where the dorsal thrusters were mounted in the outer shell, then traced the supply lines back from each of those to the docking ring.

“How are you progressing?” asked Aptat through the suit’s com.

“I’m below the dock now.”

An airlock ran between the dock on the outside of the Child and the inner hull, creating enough space for her to stand. She weaved in between the structural supports below the dock to the other side of the airlock passage, where the critical steam piping continued down to the fore side of the ship. Here, the hull space opened dramatically to allow for the massive power generators that supplied the forward-mounted dilaceration cannons.

Naecia located the run of pipe that she’d keyed on from the schematic. She withdrew a simple spanner from the tool pod and moved along.

A shift in momentum yanked her suddenly aft, but she managed to wedge a forearm between pipes to keep from shooting back down the slope of the inner hull. Acceleration gravity.

“Aptat?”

“I’m here. Are you hurt?”

“Not yet. What happened?”