“Good,” Niko said. “Though no other survival gear at all, Skid? You’re getting lazy.”

“I am being knowing we is being a team, Captain, is being begging your pardon,” Skidoo retorted.

Despite the direness of the overall situation, Niko had to laugh. While it had been good to work together in the restaurant, it was even better to work together this way, knowing that no matter what they might face, she had a team that was capable of dealing with it, one she knew and trusted. Milly and the critic were something of an unknown quantity, though.

She turned to the latter. “And you, Lolola?”

“And me what?” the critic said with a touch of hauteur.

“What do you have with you? The general inventory lets us know what we have at our disposal in case emergencies arise.”

“There is nothing in my bag that would be of use to you,” she declared.

Dabry and Niko exchanged glances.

“No weapons? No medical supplies?”

“My reader and personal gear,” Lolola said. “They are mine and not part of the general inventory.”

“This is a survival situation, ma’am,” Dabry said.

Lolola put her nose in the air. “Then it is up to you all to make sure I survive.”

This was, as they would find in every other interaction, indicative of the critic’s overall demeanor. She acted as though the others had been personally responsible for the situation, as though it were all just part of the meal that she had ordered, a meal that was truly lacking in both presentation and content.

After a few fruitless attempts at conversation, they all simply stayed out of her way and by mutual accord, decided to leave her to whatever fate happened to present itself. Her testimony would be of less worth than the direct examination of their memories, and while that was a harsh and unpleasant process that no one looked forward to, they did anticipate being cleared of any wrongdoing and eventually released.

This was all just a small setback.

After that they did scatter and explore the ship. Bioships were rare technology, taken from the Spogillys, and each one was unique. Thorn and Talon, who followed such things, told Niko that there were fewer than two dozen of them in the Known Universe.

She could have gone below, to explore the several cargo holds, balloon swellings on the underside of the ship, their curves a visual caress, an exterior undulation of darkness.

Shelves and straps webbed their interiors. Past that lay the biological chambers where racks of purplish weed grew, its fruit little water globes that the ship’s servitors, here shaped in organic bone in arachnid forms, harvested every few hours.