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“We don’t know what spaces have been breached by the attack,” Lando said. “I could even hit vacuum going straight ahead through the portals. I’m telling you—”

Just then the shoulder joint of Lobot’s contact suit bumped gently against the face of the chamber. Moments later, Lando, too, drifted into a solid barrier.

“Ship’s moving again,” Lando said.

“Just barely moving.”

“Changing direction, too.”

“Under way, or under tow?”

“No telling from here,” Lando said. “But more likely under way—there hasn’t been enough time to sweep the ship, and it’d be risky to take her under tow until that was finished. Come on.” Lando jetted toward the opening he had made, grabbed the edge, and pulled himself through.

What he saw as he pointed his lights and his blaster at the opposite end of the chamber startled him to speechlessness. The portal was already irising open.

As Lando began to retreat he swiped at his suit controls with his gloved hand, killing the lights. Behind him, Lobot took the cue and did the same. But even after Artoo obeyed the instruction Lobot placed in his language register, the chamber remained faintly lit by the glow from a narrow ring encircling each of its open portals—all six of them.

“Lando—”

“I see, I see,” Lando said.

“Lando, those are the STAFF ONLY doors you were talking about. What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure.” He jetted diagonally to the nearest of the four previously unknown portals for chamber 229 and stole a peek through it.

“What can you see?”

“More of the same, only different,” Lando said, heading for the portal to chamber 228. “Check the one behind us.”

Both the chamber ahead and the one they had just left were also now showing multiple portals lit by glow-rings. Some of the new portals opened to tiny dead-end chambers, others to narrow cylindrical passageways, still others to the vast interspace Lando had discovered when planting the sensor limpet.

“Any ideas?” Lando asked Lobot.

“Possibly. Rule-based logic must be strictly prioritized, following a conditional decision tree,” said Lobot. “The first thing the ship did was to seal all portals, giving the highest priority to containing the damage—a reasonable response to an attack, especially if there was a hull breach. Then, after an inventory of the damage, the next highest priority was given to restoring freedom of movement, perhaps to facilitate repairs.”

“Or escape,” said Lando. “Are you saying you think this means the attack is over?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Lobot. “The ship has thrown all the doors open. We may never have another chance like this.” He pointed at the portal below them, leading to the interior. “The heart of the ship is that way.”

“Maybe—and for all you know, it’s at the other end of a ten-kilometer maze. And if she’s on the verge of breaking up, what then?” Lando demanded.

“What else can we do?”

“I have to see how bad the damage is. Give me your left glove.”

“Why?”

“Because you won’t need it where you’re going, and I do need it where I’m going—out to the hull and forward to find out how much damage there is.”

“That’s pointless. Either it can repair itself or it cannot,” said Lobot. “We have to look for the control nexus.”

“You can do what you like. I need to know where things stand.”

“The ship knows,” Lobot insisted.

“When you figure out how to talk to her, let me know. Until then, we’re both wasting time. The glove, please.”

Lobot hesitated, then unlocked the retaining ring and twisted the glove sharply clockwise. He sent it spinning across the chamber toward Lando with more force than necessary.

“Thanks,” Lando said, catching it cleanly with his bare hand. “I’ll bring it back.”

“Is every gambler always sure that the next draw’s a winner?” Lobot asked. “If you make it back, you can look for me in here.” He jerked a bare thumb in the direction of the portal behind him.

“I’ll do that,” Lando said, jetting toward a portal on the opposite side of the chamber. “If you want to help me out,