"We are so glad to have you aboard," the Hev Ambassador said to Pirra.

Pirra was shocked at how good his skill at her language was - almost like a native speaker.

She trilled back. "Ambassador, we're glad to be able to help. Will the Captain be all right with our tech crew taking a look at your systems?"

The Ambassador spoke briefly with the Captain. He was slightly disgruntled; he had quickly realized that the Response Team's translators were picking up his words, but he still could not understand them.

"He agrees. He asks specifically if someone can look at his translation unit."

"Absolutely," Pirra promised.

The rest of the team had caught up, several man-handling generators in the zero-g to try and get at least some systems functioning. While Caraval had set up a basic base in the hangar they'd arrived at, to get much access to the Hev systems they'd have to go deeper. No system was going to grant full acess in the same area that anyone could potentially land at.

"Tred, get working on that engine system," Caraval ordered. "Get things up and running ASAP."

The man nodded nervously and plugged in, while the commander came over to Pirra and the two Hev.

"Lt. Commander, this is Ambassador N'Keeea," she said, gesturing. "And Captain K'Raaiia."

"Ambassador, Captain." The man stuck out a hand to both in turn.

It was a very odd gesture to a Hev, bordering on insulting, and the Captain glared at him, while the Ambassador took his hand and shook it lightly.

"We're going to - with your permission - try to get your systems running again as best we can. The Leviathan is currently being led away from this area by our mother ship, but we can't know how long or how far they can draw it."

The Ambassador seemed to know at least some human languages as well, at least Spacer, and he quickly translated for the Captain.

"He does wish for the system to be operating and quickly. In the meantime, he . . . he hopes you can help with another delicate situation," the Ambassador returned.

"We're happy to take a look and see if we can help," Pirra answered, hoping it was something that actually fell into their purview.

"Pirra, go with them, I'm going to get everything rolling here," the Commander ordered.

The Captain led her and the Ambassador deeper into the ship. She wondered just how far; it was a massive vessel, one big enough to justify having an internal rail system.

They passed through a crew quarters area, but she saw only a few members of the crew; they seemed cold to both her and the Captain, though none questioned her presence.

After passing through a makeshift engineering shop, they came to an emergency door, one that had been sealed shut.

It contained a thick clear viewing port, and the Captain gestured to it.

"This area is contained for now, but we do not know for how long," he said.

Pirra wondered if her translator had missed a word, but she drifted forward to look through.

At first it just seemed like some sort of converted cargo area. She saw containers and tech modules bolted to the floors and bulkheads.

"Did it get vented to space?" she asked.

The answer did not come. She looked back, to see the Captain staring at the Ambassador. He didn't want to talk and give away something, and the Ambassador seemed to be pointedly ignoring his stare.

"What's going on?" she asked, her eyes darting between them. "I can't help if you don't tell me. Look, if it's some cargo that's not legal then I can promise some discretion, but-"

"It's not that," the Ambassador said quickly. He finally looked at the Captain, but K'Raaiia seemed to be unwilling to budge on whatever the issue was.

Pirra turned to look back through the window. She saw movement, and tried to get a better angle, but her night vision was not that good.

It was a Hev, she was sure. He was walking, and didn't seem in distress. While he wore a spacer's suit, he didn't have any helmet on, so the area had to be pressurized.

He turned, somehow sensing her gaze. He looked directly at her.

And she realized that half of his face was not there.

Where it was, the nature of his injury, she did not know. It was no longer like a Hev, but its head was grotesquely shaped on that side, and there was no edge. It simply faded into the air, or the ether, she could not know.

Letting out a startled shriek, she pushed back from the port and drifted, staring at the Captain.

"Did your vessel come too close to the Leviathan?" she demanded.

There was a hesitation, and she snapped her next words sharply. "If you do not tell us the extent of the harm, we cannot help - and we will be forced to leave."

The Captain demanded a translation from the Ambassador, and once that had been given, he snarled back at her. "You're not leaving until we have power!"

"Captain!" the Ambassador said quickly. "She has already seen and figured out the issue! There is no point to threats or lies at this point."

The Captain looked almost ashamed, but Pirra felt her blood rising at his threat.

Fighting back the urge to rip into him - verbally, at least - she looked to the Ambassador. "Tell me."

"My apologies," he said, his voice truly humble and contrite. "For very good reasons, we have been keeping the extent of the damage from the crew. You asked if we had come close to the Leviathan - yes. We did not simply come close, we believe that this section of the ship may have actually touched it in zerospace."

"That's not possible!" she burst out. "Even getting within a few thousand kilometers of a Leviathan is enough to take any ship apart!"

"Except this one was asleep," the Ambassador replied quietly. "We believe . . . we believe that in its state of deep hibernation, its Reality Break Shadow was limited solely to its . . . for lack of a better word, physical structure. And we struck it."

"That's what awoke it," she realized.

"Yes. This is all our fault," he admitted. "We could not have known, but we have awoken something terrible."

He looked to the door. "Touching it has affected our ship, and now all the good Hev in that section are trapped. It is too late to help them, I think. But the ship itself is changing - and that change is spreading. This is the third corridor we've had to close as the infection spreads."

*******

"Commander Caraval," Pirra radioed.

After a moment, the man's voice crackled in her ear. "How is it?" he asked.

"Private channel," she told him, and then relayed what she had just learned. She had closed her helmet and opaqued her visor to outside view. Dessei didn't have much in the way of lips to read, but she wasn't going to risk it, all the same.

"The rest of the crew don't know, Commander. I get the feeling the Captain is unpopular with them and he doesn't want them to think the situation is as bad as it is."

The Commander was quiet a few long moments before talking again. "That's not the only thing we've learned. Tred's found that this was originally a pretty good ship that the Hev bought and built their own vessel around. It has its own zerodrive and a class-9 AI running it."

"A class-9? That's beyond most biological beings. It's not even legal in the Sapient Union," she hissed.

"More practically, it's the source of their problem right now. Not many know this, but the better an AI, the more prone to tenkionic corruption by just this sort of thing."

She put the pieces together. "So when they hit the Leviathan their AI was corrupted and that caused the shutdown."

"Right. So before we can get the power back on, we have to purge the main AI core. It's not exactly functional, but it's not going to let anything run until we get that sorted."

"Can we send in drones?"

"They're not viable in this scenario," Caraval replied. "We'll send some along, but a bio has to go in. Only way to be sure."

She didn't know why, and she didn't need to. She just knew what she had to do.

"I'll take care of it, then. I can get directions from the Ambassador with the least translations involved - should give me the best shot."

Caraval hesitated. "I'm not trying to send you on every dangerous task here, Pirra-"

"I'm best-suited, Commander. Comes with the job," she replied. "Just send me the instructions on how to purge the system."

Turning, she looked to the Ambassador.

"I need to reach the AI core," she told him. "We have to purge it before we can get the ship functional again."

He bared his teeth and let out a growl, something she fortunately knew was a sign of shock and dismay. "That . . . is in the barricaded section," he said.

Feeling her heart beat faster, she kept her face impassive. "Understood. Can the Captain let me in there?"

The Captain was watching them carefully, noticing that they were conversing. "[You get translators working?]" he demanded.

"No," the Ambassador told him. "They have to purge the computer to get things working."

He snarled. "[No! No touching that! Too sensitive! Too much private information.]" He whirled on Pirra. "[You want everything from us, don't you? All our secrets!]"

She couldn't hide the scorn on her face. "Tell the Captain that if he wants his ship to be more than a drifting hulk then we have to purge his illegal core. He can come watch me flush it down the toilet if he wants, but it's happening either way."

The Ambassador translated her words - carefully altering a few here and there to take out her rudeness.

"They know it's an illegal AI," he added.

The Captain's face looked stricken, and for a moment Pirra wished she did have a sidearm. His hand had gone to his own, and she knew that the legal ramifications of his AI could be severe. But he didn't draw the weapon.

"Tell him that as long as he helps us purge it, we can kill any charges. No one really even needs to know he had it," she added.

After N'Keeea translated that, the Captain's look softened a little. "[We got it that way]!" he added. "[Bought second-hand, didn't know it was illegal!]" He let out a sigh punctuated with clicks of his sharp teeth. "[But computer is in closed-off section. Too dangerous to reach.]"

"I'm going in anyway," she said. "I just need him to open the door and give me directions. Please impress upon him that without doing this, we absolutely cannot get this ship moving."

The Captain nodded. He did not say anything, but reached up to a control panel.

"I've seen the computer core," the Ambassador said. "It's not hard to find. You simply go straight down the corridor, take two lefts, then a right and then the third hole in the ceiling. There's a large security door, however . . . it seems that the crew often leaves it open. If it's open you can go right into the computer room. If not - I'm not sure, as the system will not allow it to be opened."

"I'll just have to hope it's open, then."

She carefully recorded his directions, hoping she didn't get lost. Summoning two drones, she hoped she could use them for any direct interactions.

"I've got it," she said. Using maneuvering thrusters to move nearer the door, she nodded to the Captain.

"I'll be back in five minutes," she told them.

The Captain had hold of a heavy lever to manually open the door. He forced it and she jetted in, trying to touch nothing, not even the floor.

The door closed behind her.