Caraval gave a sharp wave to Pirra. Bullets were about to fly, and he didn't want her anywhere near this.

Instead, she floated towards them.

"I understand your pain," she said.

One of the Hev snarled at her. "Quiet! We know you received favoritism, getting to return! No others who went in came back - so why you?"

Their eyes went to Caraval, and he hoped to hell Pirra knew what she was doing.

"Your Captain didn't want to let me back in," Pirra said. "He tried to lock me out. But it would have been a diplomatic incident. But I am lucky - I did not get a secondary infection." She patted her undersuit. "This protected me - and so did my main suit, which was infected and I had to abandon at the last minute." She hesitated a small moment, then continued.

"I saw the others in there. They were not so lucky. I'm so very sorry."

Caraval feared that their anger would burn even brighter. But he saw some of the fire in their eyes fade.

"They are our friends and family," the leader of the mutineers said. "We just want to see them again. Or . . . at least give them proper farewells."

"I know," Pirra said softly. "But it can't be. I saw them, and . . . they're not suffering anymore. They decided to take control of their fates. It was not easy, and it was not fair. But I'm sure they did it not only to spare themselves worse fates - but because they care about you, their friends and family. They knew you would feel like you must help them, but they took that choice away, to make it easier to say goodbye."

The leader of the mutinous Hev bowed his head. "My mate was like that," he agreed. "She . . . she was always selfless."

Others hung their heads, and while Hev did not shed tears as humans did, Caraval could tell their sorrow was deep and sincere.

"I'm very sorry for your losses," Caraval told them, interjecting himself into the conversation. "Right now, we need to focus on saving the rest of your people. I'm afraid there's only one way we can do that - by detaching that section of the ship. I don't know of any other way."

Captain K'Raaiia stepped forward. "It is with great reluctance I agree to this," he said. His voice was blustery, but Caraval thought there was at least some sincerity in it. "We shall detach the section, and upon our return from this trip we will raise a monument to the bravery of the Thousands Who Sacrificed."

"You will . . . with your own money?" the head of the mutineers asked.

Caraval caught the pointed question and tried not to smile. K'Raaiia's face went through a myriad of emotions, anger not the least among them. But he knew his position was not one of strength.

"With my own funds," he agreed.

Caraval cautiously moved forward. "Captain, how do we detach that section?"

The Hev considered a moment. "It was an addition but we never intended to remove it. However . . . we never properly finished its connection. There are no deep ties to our vessel. If we break a dozen connectors, it should simply drift free."

Caraval noted that such a weak connection was incredibly illegal in Sapient Union space, but didn't bring it up.

"We have a few charges that might help, but I'm not sure if they'll be enough. I can have teams go to each site-"

"No," the head of the mutinous group said. "They are our people - we will do it."

Caraval bowed his head to them. "I understand. We cannot get the ship moving or communications back up until we get it off, so time is of the essence. The Craton may be in trouble, and we can't be sure the Leviathan won't come back this way."

"We will waste no time," the Captain said. He began barking orders to his crew. Caraval saw some hostility to him remaining, but his crew did follow his commands.

Caraval moved back towards Pirra, who seemed lost in thought.

"You all right?" he asked.

She was startled out of her reverie. "Yes, Commander."

"Good work there," he said. "Even if you ignored orders."

"I won't make a habit of it," she said with an attempt at a smile. It wasn't normal for her kind, and looked wan as well as forced.

"Glad to hear it. Now . . . this time go back to our ship for real and wait there."

"Aye, sir."

He caught her arm as she turned. "Have it prepped and ready. If something goes wrong with this blast, then we're going to have to get out of her fast."

*******

"Engage explosives on my mark!"

Pirra heard the order over the comm and braced herself in the shuttle. She had put on a spare suit, but it wasn't tailored for her physiology and it was rather large on her frame. Still, it worked and was better than being in just an undersuit.

"Mark!" the order came.

She tried to calculate the odds that the whole Hev ship would rip apart. They seemed far too high for comfort.

A rumble passed through the ship, into the shuttle. It felt like a small earthquake, and her eyes went to the sensors detecting air pressure.

It fluctuated. Dropped.

Then it stabilized.

She let out a deep breath. The ship was holding together for now.

There were external cameras on the shuttle, and while the explosions were not going on at an angle she could see, she could see the debris that blasted away from the hull.

"Sensors confirm that a section has separated," she messaged Caraval.

"Extent?" he asked.

"Not sure. After predicted micro-debris field has spread enough I can send in some drones to confirm. Until then, the risk to them is too high."

There was a pause before Caraval spoke again. "The Hev seem pretty nervous, and they're talking in a tradespeak that our translators don't know. Better send in the drones anyway. We have to be sure."

"Understood."

Pirra sent a directive to their drones, and began to guide them around the Hev ship. Only the small glitter of debris as it caught a light source was an indication of the deadly cloud that would exact a terrible toll on them.

But that was what the drones were for; unintelligent and expendable assets that could be sacrificed in place of real lives. Didn't keep her from feeling bad about it, though.

Almost immediately, one of the dozen she was commanding went to static. Sensors on the others confirmed that a larger piece of debris had smashed it head-on. In the dark of space it had been all-but invisible. The whole cloud of debris was baffling to all manner of sensors, carrying heat, reflecting signals, and making it simply too dangerous to even have the most powerful sensors extended.

Two more went dark; only one was destroyed, but the sensor array on the other had been holed by a small piece of scrap. Probably her own boot she had left behind, she thought in annoyance.

Keeping six back, she sent in the other three.

And there they beheld the sight of a section of the ship floating free.

Just the sight was terrible to her. Seeing a ship in such a shape that large pieces were floating free was a terror; her mind immediately jumped to ways in which they might approach it for trying to save those stranded. In any other situation, it would have been a terrible and desperate thing to behold.

Even if it hadn't been corrupted, the debris and proximity to the main ship would have made it too dangerous, she surmised.

"Pirra, update?"

"Sensors confirm separation. Unsure yet if it has enough energy to drift free."

"We're pretty sure we have control back. The Captain is considering a minor burn to drift the rest of the ship away. Feed the drone telemetry data to the Hev network to assist them."

"Yes, sir." She did as ordered, feeling her frustration rise as she tried to feed the data. Without any AI, trying to communicate with the Hev ship was about as easy as explaining zerospace to a potato.

When she got a confirmation from a Hev engineer, she felt at least a little better.

"Preparing for burn," the order came.

She steeled herself and set the drones into intercept mode. This was going to be only marginally less dangerous than the initial explosion.

"I hope someone else is monitoring air pressure," she muttered.

She felt the ship begin to move. It was subtle, held in check by the ship's weak counter-G systems, but she felt it all the same. It wasn't a strong burn, and it made her concerned for the robustness of their system.

But that wasn't an issue for right now. Pushing that worry away, she checked the drones.

"We're moving away, it looks - no, wait, the section is following! Commander, there has to be a structural cable that didn't cut!"

"Get on it, Pirra!" Caraval barked. He began to throw orders to the Hev and the rest of the team, but she knew it was really on her at this point, through sheer bad luck of being on drone duty.

Two drones dove in to find the cable. The debris was even heavier here, bouncing around between sections of the hull. One drone was cut in half immediately, she saw it on the other's camera.

The other didn't make it much further.

She sent in three more from her reserve, trying for new angles the computer calculated might be safer. One made it, and she saw the cable.

"Ram it," she ordered. "Full speed."

With enough energy, the drone should shear the cable . . . but at this close range, there was only so much time to accelerate.

The drone hit, but the cable didn't break.

Four left. "All in," she said, sending the last of their drones in.

Three made it in, better than she had hoped. The first two hit the cable and damaged it. The third took a hit from debris, but wasn't disabled, instead spinning out wildly.

"Get control!" she ordered the system. "Use the momentum, if possible."

The system went through a million scenarios. It settled on one and ran it. The drone continued to spin, its thrusters burning to add to its inertia. Such a force wasn't good for it, but they were rated for incredible accelerations - Pirra just hoped it would be able to take them in its damaged state.

Whirling like a buzzsaw, it hit the cable and sheared through.

As the sensor feed went blank, she felt another shudder through the ship.

"Visual confirmation by sensors - the section is detached!" Caraval called.

She slumped in her seat. "Cannot give confirmation on my end - all drones MIA." Damn it, she was going to put in for a vacation after this.

No, after her quarantine, she realized. Maybe that would be like a vacation.

"Most systems are coming back online," Caraval noted, still broadcasting to the whole team. "Good work, team. The Hev now have full control of their vessel, including coms. Get me the Craton."