The ship shuddered gently under the women. Neeka looked up from the monitor at Macnelia and Jyra. They all exchanged smiles as the enormous engines came to life.
“Ready to link engine number one,” Neeka said into the earpiece.
“Initiate now,” Craig’s voice replied.
“Coming online,” Neeka said. Several tense moments passed before she spoke again.
“Linked. Onto the second engine.”
It didn’t take long before all three engines were connected to the bridge and responding to the controls.
“We’re looking good here,” Craig reported.
“And here,” Neeka said.
Their voices were drowned out as Macnelia lifted a com microphone to her lips and spoke.
“Attention throughout the ship, the engines are online.” Her voice echoed in every room.
“I could barely hear her over the noise down here, but I heard that,” Craig said through the earpiece and Neeka chuckled.
Macnelia smiled as she set the com down, but Jyra approached, grinning broadly.
“I have more good news,” she said. “You can tell them one of the storage bays in the stern is full of food and water.”
Macnelia shot a skeptical glance at Jyra and raised her eyebrows.
“Neeka, ask Craig if there are any crates of food aboard,” Jyra said.
Macnelia’s next ship-wide transmission revealed not only the presence of the food, but also where to find it.
*
Everyone reconvened in the main hangar beneath two of the enormous laser cannons. Leonick and Craig had collected some food and water from the storage bay on their way back from the engine room and after sharing mutual congratulations, the group exchanged talking for eating.
Jyra tore into a package of dried apples and gulped some clear water from one of the jars. The food was second only to what she’d eaten on Drometica. Even though she knew of richer flavors and purer water, she couldn’t forget the substandard quality of each she’d grown up with on Tyrorken.
As she chewed, Jyra stared at the massive doors on either side of the hangar. For a moment, she wondered if maybe the atmospheric shield on the door that had been closed since their arrival might still work. Then she remembered both shields were powered by the same source.
She took another swig of water and nudged Craig on the shoulder.
“We need to find an electrical schematic for the shield power panel,” she said.
Craig had punctured the vacuum seal on a package of bread and just torn into the crust with his teeth. Unable to speak his reply for the moment, he shook his head. When he swallowed, he answered properly.
“I asked Neeka,” Craig said. “According to her, there’s no entry for it on the ship’s computer.”
Neeka looked up from a container of cold soup and nodded.
“I didn’t investigate why it wasn’t there, but I figured it would be something we could probably use to get the shield working again.”
“It would make the whole job easier,” Jyra said. “Do you think Jed could have erased it?” she added to Craig.
“Why would he?”
“Well,” Jyra began, frowning as she tried to see where her reasoning was taking her. “If something was wrong with the shield, the diagnostic computer compares the schematic to the actual device. If any there’s discrepancy between the two, the computer sends an alert to the bridge. What if Jed deleted the entire shield schematic and overrode the diagnostic processor to make sure no one found out about it?”
Craig took another bite of bread and pondered while he chewed.
“It’s certainly possible, but erasing the entire program and bypassing the computer would take a long time.”
“We don’t know how long he had to sabotage the ship,” Jyra said. “Causing the shield to fail could have been the first thing he did, maybe before it even took off. If that’s how he undermined the ship, then the actual defect to the shield operation system is probably pretty small. It had to be impossible for anyone aboard to correct in a hurry.”
“So where do we start?” Macnelia asked, setting her jar of water aside.
“At the control box,” Craig said. “Maybe you and Neeka can find the schematic. I never knew Jed to be too great with computers and hopefully he just stuck the plans in some other location. It might be possible to hunt it down.”
“Can we enjoy our first meal in days first?” Shandra said, setting an empty box of crackers aside while reaching for a second.
“I know I’m not doing anything until I’m finished,” Berk grunted.
Jyra observed him out of the corner of her eye. Even with his bulky coat, he looked thinner. His beard and hair were as wild as ever, but his eyelids hung lower than usual. His clutched his flask in his left hand while he stuffed some sort of canned meat into his mouth with his right.
“We’ve got to finish with the laser cannons after we’re done,” Derek said, wincing as he shifted his wounded leg in order to better face the group.
“Careful,” Neeka said, setting her arm on Derek’s shoulder.
“I can turn myself around just fine,” he said shortly.
“How are you doing?” Macnelia asked.
“Fine,” Derek said, but his tone grew stiffer. “Couldn’t be better for someone who’s been shot in the leg.”
Jyra stopped eating, suddenly aware of how Derek must feel amid all activity, most of it beyond his physical capability with his injury. She recalled one of Dario’s friends had accidentally shot himself in the leg. Although the injury was said to be minor, it had taken more than six months to heal. Jyra wasn’t sure how much damage the bullet had done to Derek, but his inability to fully serve the resistance clearly irritated him. Where will the resistance be in half a year? Jyra wondered. Where will I be in half a year?
After the meal, Jyra and Craig made their way across the hangar to the shield control box. They removed the bent cover and after several minutes of studying the wiring, Craig pushed himself back from the wall, shaking his head.
“It looks normal,” he said. “Nothing’s cut or missing.”
“He likely wouldn’t have done anything in here,” Jyra said. “We just had to check.”
Craig wiped his brow before lifting the cover back into place.
“Let’s the check the box for the other door,” Jyra said as she drove in the mounting screws.
“All right,” Craig said. He sounded skeptical.
“We have another circuit to use for comparison,” Jyra said.
“Hopefully they’ll just dig up the schematic,” Craig said, fighting off a wide yawn.
“Until they do, let’s go to the other side of the hangar,” Jyra said.
*
“This is different.”
“How?”
“The wires here.”
“They’re just on the right instead of the left,” Craig said, staring into the control box for the second hangar door.
“Oh,” Jyra said, her excitement draining. She hated the feeling, but had often faced it while working in Jed’s garage. However much she might enjoy troubleshooting problems, the experience only gave her satisfaction if she solved the issue.
What if they couldn’t get to the bottom of the malfunctioning shield without the schematic?
Craig picked the cover up, but Jyra leaned forward suddenly, pushing a group of wires aside.
“What are these?” she said. “There were two wires entering the other box, but there’re four here.”
Craig set the cover back on the floor and examined the wires between Jyra’s fingers. They reached the conclusion at the same time.
“Of course,” they said together.
Their gaze traveled up to the top of the box, following the wires into their junction clips. One of the conductors had been pulled free.
“That’s it,” Jyra said. “That’s all he had to do.”
“Simple,” Craig said. “Sabotage the system on the opposite side of the hangar.”
“The shields share the same power source,” Jyra said. “I didn’t realize the lines for both sides of the hangar were routed through here.”
“No one figured it out fast enough either,” Craig said, reaching into the control box.
Carefully, he opened the clip and inserted the loose wire back inside it.
“Check it with the bridge,” Jyra said.
Craig jerked his head sideways to activate the earpiece.
“Macnelia or Neeka, update the shield status,” he said. “We may have solved it.”
“What?” Neeka replied.
“Update the atmospheric shield status.” Craig rolled his eyes and Jyra tightened her grip on the control box.
“We’ve got a reading!” Neeka yelled and Craig tore the earpiece free, cursing and holding his ear.
Jyra sank off her knees to lean against the wall, surrendering to a feeling similar to the one she’d experienced when she found the food in the storage bay.
Macnelia’s voice suddenly boomed over the com system, reporting the shield was back online.
Except for the two women on the bridge, everyone was in the middle of the hangar working on the laser cannons. Tools fell to the deck with a clatter and cheers erupted, the noise echoing through the cavernous room.
Craig extended a hand and pulled Jyra to her feet. His eyes gleamed beneath his Mourning Mark. Jyra glanced at the charcoal smudge and gave Craig a small smile.
“Your parents would be proud,” she said. The light in Craig’s eyes faded but he didn’t look away.
“So would yours,” he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. His hand glided down her arm, avoiding the wound near her elbow.
Jyra was aware of the approaching footsteps and knew who it was before he started speaking.
“All right,” Berk said, with a smile. “You’ve got the shield back up so come give us a hand with the cannons. They’re almost ready.”
*
Jyra opened her eyes, blinking in the dim light of her quarters on Mastranada. She pushed her hair out of her face and sat up. As she rubbed her eyes, the events before her nap came back to her. She and Craig had restored the atmospheric shield. Then they had helped the others mount and prep the laser cannons. Macnelia and Neeka returned from the bridge and suggested everyone get some sleep.
“Once the fighting begins, there’s no saying when we’ll be able to rest again.” Macnelia’s words filled Jyra’s head and she pulled on her clothes and wandered into the corridor. She wasn’t sure where she was headed, but as she drew closer to engine room, Jyra heard noises.
For a moment, she thought of the guard Berk had slain in the room, but she tried to focus on her fresh curiosity instead. She opened the door and discovered Leonick working at a panel on the wall.
“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” she asked.
“I do not sleep,” Leonick said. “Especially when I have as much on my mind as I do.”
“You always have a lot to think about,” Jyra said. “What is it now?”
“I am mostly preoccupied with fixing this ship.”
Jyra stared around the engine room and realized that since they crash-landed on Valiant Conductor II, she hadn’t heard or seen any effort to repair Mastranada.
“I think everyone thought overhauling the TF ship was more important,” Jyra said. Leonick dug a flask out of his pocket and took a mighty swig.
“Macnelia thought it was important,” he said, an uncharacteristic tone of bitterness entering his voice. “If something happened to the large ship, how would we escape? Until I get these new fuses in place, Mastranada cannot even power up.”
“Where did you get the fuses?” Jyra asked.
“From the TF ship. They were in a supply locker near the engine room. My point is, we have taken an awful risk staying aboard this ship, and we are about to take an even greater risk by firing on other vessels. I have not been able to convince Macnelia that repairing this ship is vital to our survival should something happen to the TF one during the fighting. I will not let this ship go down inside another.”
Jyra saw him glance at the energy cores behind him. She suddenly remembered the conversation she and Leonick shared in this very room before they bombed the TF complex. She learned Leonick had invented energy core technology. Jyra recalled the way he worked on them. She had never seen anyone approach a machine with such care and delicacy. TF had played a part in barring energy cores from becoming a standard fuel alternative for ships, which is what Jyra suspected motivated Leonick to join the resistance in the first place.
Jyra saw his point about using Mastranada to evacuate Valiant Conductor II in an emergency. It seemed odd Macnelia didn’t view fixing Mastranada as a priority. The conversation she recently overheard between Macnelia and Berk surfaced in Jyra’s mind. Macnelia hadn’t sounded like herself, but Berk had suggested she had been pushing herself too hard.
“Has Macnelia seemed different to you at all lately?” Jyra blurted before she could stop herself.
Leonick deftly pressed the fuses into their contacts and wiped his hands on his trousers.
“I cannot say,” he said. “If you are inquiring about her attitude toward repairing this ship, it does not matter because she should be ready to fly again.”
“All you had to do was replace the fuses?”
“There were other tasks,” Leonick said, snapping the panel cover in place. “Several power cables were shaken out of their couplings during the crash landing. I also patched three ruptured air lines.”
He stared around the engine room and his eyes fell on the energy cores again. A look of reverence spread across his face and he laid a hand on the closest one. Out of nowhere, Jyra realized Leonick’s expression reminded her of how her parents used to look at their young children.
“What is it?” she said, surprised that she had trouble speaking.
“These are the last energy cores I know of that actively power a ship,” Leonick said, before taking a long sip from his flask. “To see them and interact with them is a privilege I never expected to experience again. I understand machines and what they require to survive. Every machine I have made is part of me and I do what I can to nurture and support them. To meet again when I thought these cores lost has renewed my commitment to their survival.”
“You speak of them as though they’re your kids,” Jyra said. Leonick turned his gaze to her and nodded.
“In a way, they are,” he said. “And if we run into trouble during the coming assault, we are going to need them as much as they need me.”
He left the engine room and Jyra followed him into the corridor.
“Have you had any luck developing your time machine?” she whispered after him.
“I do not rely on luck,” he said shortly. “I rely on a systematic approach.”
“Well, have you started building the machine yet?” Jyra asked, still walking after him. Leonick paused and turned, drawing out his flask and unscrewing the cap.
“The first rule about designing a machine is knowing the environment in which it will function. In the case of the time machine, I am still searching for the correct environment.”
“You mean the galaxy parallel to this one in all ways except time?”
“Precisely, but the universe is a big place and I can only search it in small increments,” Leonick said, emptying his flask with a final gulp. “The parallel galaxy may not exist, but I would like to find out one way or the other. If the galaxy I am after is out there, then I will start building the time machine.”
Jyra already knew how she would answer the question residing on the tip of her tongue, but she had no idea how Leonick would respond.
“Once you build it, would you use it to change anything in your past?”
“I might,” Leonick mused. “But there is no sense thinking about it until the means to act on it are developed.”
His mouth curved into a grin as he entered his quarters and shut the door behind him. Jyra returned to her room and picked up her mother’s locket. She sat in the semidarkness, remembering how the jewelry hung on her mother’s neck. Jyra pulled the blanket over her and fell asleep, imagining what her counterpart might be up to in a parallel galaxy.