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They walked in silence—Sonya leading the way, 110 right behind her, Hawkins moving semisteadily next to the Bynar, and Drew bringing up the rear. They reached the ladder without incident and started to climb down.

Sonya reached the bottom of the ladder, followed quickly by 110 and Hawkins.

Then a bulkhead closed between Hawkins and Drew, cutting the latter off from the other three. Quickly tapping her combadge, Sonya said, “Gomez to Drew.”

“I’m okay, Commander. It kinda caught me by surprise.”

“Did another bulkhead open at the top of the ladder?”

“Uh, yeah, one did. I’ll try to cut through.”

Looking at her tricorder, Sonya said, “That’ll never work; you can only get light stun on the rifles. This bulkhead’s made of rodinium.”

“Damn.”

“Ganitriul, is there any air being pumped into there?”

“There are no air vents in the section that Crewperson Drew is presently in. However, there is enough air to last him approximately three hours and seventeen minutes.”

“Drew—” Sonya started.

“It’s okay, Commander,” Drew said. “I’ll be fine. Maybe the bulkheads’ll open up again, maybe the scattering field’ll go down—or maybe I’ll get through some other way. You just get to the core. And, hey, Vance?”

Hawkins said, “Yeah, Steve?”

“Keep an eye on them, huh?”

Snorting, Hawkins said, “Don’t talk, pal, you’ll just waste air. I know that’s hard for you, but do your best.”

“Hardy-har-har.”

“Commander,” 110 said, “there is an Eerlikka patrol moving in this direction. It behooves us to continue forward.”

Nodding, Sonya said, “Stiff upper lip, Drew. We’ll be back for you soon.”

Ganitriul spoke: “Commander Gomez, I do apologize for this turn of events.”

“It’s not your fault, Ganitriul,” Sonya said soothingly. Listen to me, she thought, trying to calm down an inanimate object.

“However,” the computer continued, “I do have good news. The patrol that is heading your way is presently coming down another ladder. They are now trapped in the same manner as Crewperson Drew. Assuming the bulkheads do not raise without my consent—which is a possibility—they will remain trapped.”

“That just leaves eight of them,” Sonya said.

“And three of us,” Hawkins muttered.

Hoping her smile was as encouraging as she intended it to be, Sonya said, “It beats twelve against five, Hawkins. C’mon, let’s move.”

They continued on in silence for several minutes, 110 providing directions toward the core. Many of the walls, like the cul-de-sac where they’d taken refuge earlier, were occupied by dusty, marblelike interfaces. According to the schematics, this section used to house the weather control systems, and was heavily used up until about a century earlier. Then it was consolidated into a smaller system located one level up.

“Commander Gomez,” Ganitriul said, “I have more good news.”

“That’s a nice change,” Sonya muttered. “What is it, Ganitriul?”

“I have regained control of Security Measure 7. I can deactivate the scattering field now.”

Before Sonya could tell Ganitriul to go ahead and do so, Hawkins said, “Commander, I don’t think we should do that.”

Frowning, Sonya asked, “Why not?”

“Right now, we’ve got the advantage. Even with light stun, we’re better armed than the Eerlikka, even with inferior numbers. If we turn the scattering field off, we lose that, ’cause they’ll be just as well-armed.”

“Good point,” Sonya said with a nod. She thought a moment. “Ganitriul, is there any way to change the frequency of the scattering field so it will only affect the Eerlikka blasters, but not our phasers?”

“I might be able to. I will attempt to adjust the field.”

“Okay. In the meantime, leave it on.” She turned to Hawkins. “Good work, Hawkins.”

“No problem, sir,” the security guard said with a tired smile. “Just doing what Core-Breach’d want me to do—keeping us all alive.” Hawkins’s dark skin had gone almost gray for a while, but he seemed to be getting his energy back up. Whatever was in the medikit seemed to have done the trick. Still, his left arm hung uselessly at his side, while he carried