Lael walked under the Pride. Below the cockpit pontoon was a lone white metal chair attached at the top with a rail that connected to a track mounted on the ceiling, inside the ship. Lael looked at the chair and sat down. 

The chair shivered as it came to life and with a whine, raised upwards into the ship. The chair rod rode along the tracks inside the pontoon, passing walls of monitors, computers and two sets of chairs positioned facing one another along either side of the pontoon. It reached the all-glass canopy of the cockpit and clicked into place, hanging above the window-framed floor.

A small box lowered from the ceiling on a rail of its own and stared at Lael with its single blue rectangular light. "DIX construct online. Passcode?"

Lael stared at it. "I need one?"

"Passcode?" DIX repeated. A series of vents on either side of the chair slid open and clicked into place.

Lael was suddenly feeling a sense of dread. "I don't know."

She heard the hiss and smelled the thick vapor of an electrical charge. A pair of bands wrapped around her hands and kept her wrists taught on the armrests.

"Fek!" Lael said. "I should have called Rho."

The bands released her wrists and the vents closed. "Passcode accepted. Begin."

Lael stared at DIX in confusion. "Begin?"

The armrests of the chair opened, and a set of T-shaped handles raised upwards. Lael grabbed them, flipped a toggle and felt the ship shiver. She taxied the ship off the drydock, adjusted the heading and pushed the sticks forward. The Pride roared through space.

"Fek, how fast is this thing?!" Lael said, holding on to the handles for dear life.

DIX gave her the top speed.

She blinked. "The hell kind of ship is this?!"

"Vector Technologica Victory Transport Mark 5 Blindsider."

Lael wiped the sweat from her forehead. "The hell kind of engines does this ship got that gives us so much torque."

"Pride is not equipped with engines."

Lael stared at DIX in disbelief. "What do you mean no..."

DIX interrupted her. "Status-Three class rocket has appeared on sensors. Rocket is on a collision course with the Mandari asteroid belt. The rocket's Reactor is overloading and will reach critical mass in three minutes."

Lael's eyes widened. "We need to board that rocket and stop the meltdown."

"Impossible," DIX said. "The rocket is polarized. Boarding options consist of an EMP discharge or demagnetize through concussive force."

"EMP discharge will blow the reactor," Lael said. "We got anything for option b?"

"Affirmative."

"Do it." Lael said, "But we don't want to damage the rocket."

"Affirmative," DIX said. The second pontoon came to life through a series of whirls and loud whines. It caught Lael's attention, and she stared out the side of the cockpit. The pontoon began to spin. "Arms-Assembler online. Assembling parts, please stand by. Constructing metallic shell..."

DIX interrupted itself, "Coalition of Forces starship Lady Killer off the port, bearing Twelve-Omega, Panther-Seven." Dix said. "Reactor readings show they are preparing weapons. Options?"

"We got weapons?"

"Affirmative," DIX said.

"Disable their rocket," Lael said.

"Copy," DIX said. A thin red beam shot out from Lady Killer's nose-mounted laser and barely missed the Pride's sudden arch towards the Lady Killer. One of the Pride's half-bulbs let out a whine. A lightning bolt shot out and streaked across the Lady Killer's hull. It suddenly caught fire.

"Weapons and communications relay destroyed," DIX said as the Pride roared past the rocket.

Lael nodded and said, "What's the position and heading of the Status-Three?"

DIX gives it to her. Lael typed it into the right armrest's keypad and pressed the trigger. The Pride changed course and roared across space, shooting past the Lady Killer.

The vents opened again, and thick white clouds of hot steam began to filter into the cockpit.

"The hell!" Lael shouted.

DIX said "Decrease speed."

"No," Lael said, pulling the sticks back. "I got this."

The Pride began a wide arc.

"Decrease speed," DIX said. Lael wiped sweat from her brow. "Getting hot."

DIX said, "Pride is overheating. Change trajectory to prohibit immediate shutdown."

"We don't have engines, how can we overheat?"

"Brake systems are at critical levels."

"Hell," Lael said, pulling the sticks back. The Pride's arc decreased as it slowed down and approached the Status-Three.

DIX said, "Within weapons range."

"Launch!" Lael said.

DIX said. "Launcher is manual control only."

Lael looked about the buttons and switches on the armrests, trying to think like Hull. She noticed a flat round red button all by itself at the top of the right armrest. She bit her lip and punched it.

"Knuckle up!" DIX said.

The bottom of the pontoon ejected a rocket that fell through the depths of infinity. It suddenly ignited and shot across space at the speed of lightning and hit the starboard side of the Status-Three. A low rumble followed a bright flash. The Status-Three's thrusters stopped, and the rocket floated dead in space.

"Depolarized," DIX said.

"Can we link up and board?"

"Affirmative. Engaging docking clamp."

The seat rolled back and locked into the rear wall. Lael quickly unbuckled as the floor decompressed and hissed open.

DIX said, "Status-Three Reactor shutting down."

Lael quickly climbed down into the rocket.

"Janit!" Lael shouted. "Janit are you there?"

Lael dropped into the rocket, and the first thing she saw was a section of the wall sheared off with the interior wires hanging all about the cabin. Hull stood there with a ripped wire in each hand. "Yeah?"

Lael looked at the hole. She looked at the rest of the empty cabin, all molded in one-inch thick steel and beyond the hatch, all one piece. She stared at Hull in shock. There were no tools. No gear. No nothing. "How the hell did you do this?"

Hull couldn't help but grin. "Viam Inveniam."