One flashed dark blue light at Indigo and he nodded, then turned to the group and spoke aloud, presumably for the benefit of the humans.

“The passage ahead is very small,” he said. He was pitching his voice louder, but his voice did not carry well, and Quint and Benny had to come closer to hear. “We will have to crawl through most of it, and get on our bellies for part of it. It goes on like that for ten to twenty yards, but then opens up to a normal hallway again.”

I kept worrying at the hole I’d made in the hem of my shirt. “Why is it so cramped?”

The Indigo Minister paused, the same way Quint had done back in the Republican System a million years ago whenever I’d asked a question that was not in her script. Indigo, however, recovered a lot faster. “I believe at some point in the past a bomb was detonated in the hallway beyond this door,” he told me. “The ship’s self-repair systems closed up any damage to the hull, keeping atmosphere and heat, but did not clear the internal obstructions.”

What the hell would drive a group of people to detonate a bomb on their own ship?

“The passage is difficult to traverse,” Indigo said. “But to find another way forward would mean doubling back.”

“We go forward,” One said.

“Wait,” Quint said. “How narrow is it in there?”

“Do you think we’ve got another choice?” Benny snapped.

“No, but… what if we get stuck?”

She’d spoken what I’d been thinking. Indigo was slender and not particularly tall; all of the Ministers were built similarly. I was a head taller than Yellow, the tallest of them, and had broader shoulders than any of them.

“Number Two took your height and breadth into account for his assessment,” One said. Disdain dripped off her like water from an icicle.

“Shouldn’t we just cut through?” Quint said.

“If we cut through, it may disturb the debris overhead enough to cause a collapse.” Indigo sounded terribly calm for discussing the possibility that we could cause this ship to fall apart around us. “The risk is too great. The passage is passable.”

Quint fidgeted. “But—”

“I’ll go before you,” I said. “I’m bigger than you. That way you know if I can get through, you can get through.”

“I—”

I clapped Quint on the shoulder, smiling. “It’ll be fine,” I said, trying to will calm into her; I could feel One’s owl-eyes on us, assessing effort and cost. “Just follow me, okay.”

I crouched down next to Indigo before Quint could protest again. “Lead the way,” I said. His gaze flickered up and down me once, unreadable. Then he turned away and crawled into the hole.

Indigo hadn’t been exaggerating. My shoulders scraped the walls as soon as I crawled in. I slowed down immediately, feeling my way; I only had Indigo’s light to guide me, and the walls were uneven. What was almost impassibly narrow at one point was wide enough to roll my shoulders loose a few feet further. In places the passage was only narrow because broken metal bars stuck out like swords, and I had to suck in my breath as I wove through to avoid being stabbed.