Tirqwin and Bastureftu, intent on the consoles around the brain globe, didn't look up as Sabrina ran into the room. Tirqwin demanded, "Sabrina, who is on the control deck?"
She didn't stop to ask how he knew who it was. "Jaisen's there. Tassan and Chavadanafra are in the infirmary. Darice is hurt pretty bad."
Tirqwin's mouth twisted wryly. "Finally you have met someone whose propensity for flinging themselves into the line of fire exceeds your own. Sabrina, we need to bring the secondary core processor online and take the main processor offline."
Bastureftu said, "And we can only hope the conditioning hasn't infiltrated that, too."
"They are not linked, to prevent just that," Tirqwin replied.
"But the conditioning was in Khediva herself. She could have infected it. And if she has not, she still may."
"It is a chance we must take," Tirqwin said.
"It's like a computer virus?" Sabrina asked.
"Something like, yes," Tirqwin answered.
"Can we find out if Khediva's still got it?" Sabrina wondered.
Bastureftu said, "We would have to mindscan her. It would take time we do not have. The best we can do is switch processors and hope."
"Sabrina, get up to the control deck and get ready to disconnect the main processor," Tirqwin said.
"But I don't know how to do that!"
"With Khediva locked out, there isn't any real way," Tirqwin said. "You'll have to destroy the processor, or at least damage it enough to stop it functioning."
"You mean...blast it? Tirqwin, a few minutes ago you were yelling at me for pulling a few wires!"
He spared her an angry glance. "And now I am telling you to blast the main processor—when I give you the signal!"
Sabrina swallowed. "But what if it damages Khediva? What if I rupture the hull? What if—"
"Sabrina!" Tirqwin growled. "I am fully aware of the risks! For once will you just do what I—"
He vanished in mid-word. Sabrina blinked in shock, then cried out in horror when she realized what had happened. "Malvarak took him!"
Bastureftu looked grimly at her. "We still have to get Khediva online. I am almost ready here. Go up to the control deck and stand by."
A sudden jolt sent them both reeling. Sabrina cried, "What's happening?"
Her comlink pinged, and Jaisen's voice said, "We've been disconnected! I can't be sure, but I think the other ship has released us and emerged!"
"Leaving us in the Way?" Sabrina exclaimed.
Bastureftu said, "He thinks we haven't got a Tirqwin on board and we're trapped."
Sabrina switched channels. "Tassan, get Asnefer conscious. Malvarak's got Tirqwin and we're stuck in the Way!"
"I'll do my best," came the response.
Bastureftu remarked, "Even if the High Tirqwin is conscious and we get Khediva back online, this Way may not respond well to her. It was opened with a Pharon crystal matrix."
"Has this ever happened before?"
"No."
"Do we have any other choice?"
"No."
"Then I'm going up to find something to blast the processor with," Sabrina said.
"I will let you know when the secondary processor is ready," Bastureftu said. "It will be a rough ride while I switch over. Find something to hang onto."
_____________
Sabrina emerged from Scotty's room carrying a shoulder-mounted laser cannon, the largest of the weapons she'd ever been taught to use. Fortunately the job at hand didn't require finesse, since she couldn't recall firing it more than once. Jaisen gaped at her as she set it down and opened the floor access panel that led to the main processor banks.
"You'd better go to the infirmary with the others. It's far enough away, and it can be sealed if I breach the hull," she told him.
He took another look at her set expression and hurried from the room. Moments later, Tassan arrived in time to see her start down the access ladder with the cannon.
"You're not going to fire that in an enclosed space!" he exclaimed in disbelief.
"I've got to take the main processor offline," Sabrina explained. "It's dispersed and has got redundant capacity all over the place. I've got to hit it hard to give the secondary processor a chance to replace it. This laser's got a frequency that should pretty well fry everything."
"Including you, if there's a backwash!" Tassan exclaimed. "How well do you know that weapon?"
"Well..."
"Give it to me. I've used ones just like it a hundred times," he said, reaching out his hands for it. "Besides, I'm wearing combat armor, and you're not."
"You don't know what to aim at!"
"From what you say, aiming isn't going to be the problem, getting out alive is. I can take a better guess at the settings than you can. Give it to me." When she hesitated, he snapped, "If this doesn't work, they're going to need you to try something else. I know nothing about this Ship, but I know this weapon. Give it to me!"
Reluctantly Sabrina climbed out of the access tube and handed him the cannon. "I was going to go for a wide dispersal and low setting," she said.
"Logical," he nodded, taking her place on the access ladder.
"Be careful!"
"I will." He paused. "You don't think the Guardian can help us?"
Sabrina shook her head. "Mara can't function very well within Ways without Tirqwin's help. She can't get to us to help us."
He nodded. "I take it the timing matters?"
"I'll yell down to you when it's time."
"All right." She heard his hands and feet on the metal rungs; then he paused. She got down on her hands and knees and peered down into the dimly lit tube, where she could vaguely make out his face turned up to her. "I love you," he called softly.
"I love you too," she called back, and blew him a kiss.
"Stand back," his voice echoed up to her as he began moving again.
Sabrina sat back on her heels and turned to look over her shoulder as she heard footsteps. "Asnefer!" she exclaimed. "Are you all right?"
"I am well enough. What is happening?"
Sabrina told her. "So when we get the processor switched over, we'll need you to take us out of the Way. Do you think you can?"
"It is always tricky working with a Wayship one is not paired with," Asnefer said, "and this Way may not be a normal one. But I do not see that we have a choice." She seated herself at the controls.
Sabrina switched on her comlink. "Bastureftu? We're all ready up here."
"A few more seconds," he replied. Sabrina counted fourteen before he said, "All right. Now!"
"Tassan! Now!" Sabrina cried, stepping back from the access tube.
The lights flickered as the deckplates shook with the impact of the blast. A wave of heat and smoke shot up through the access door, forcing Sabrina to back up even further. Someone was shouting through the comlink in her hand, and she batted the smoke away as she brought it up to her ear.
"Switching now! Hang on up there!" Bastureftu's voice said.
Sabrina shouted, "Hang on, everybody!"
The Wayship jolted and shuddered horribly; metal shrieked somewhere nearby as Asnefer and Sabrina clung to the main control console. It came to life beneath their hands, flickered, then stabilized.
"I have control!" Khediva cried.
"Prepare for emergence," Asnefer said calmly.
"Tassan!" Sabrina yelled, running to the access door. "Tassan! Are you all right?"
There was no reply.
"Stand by for crisis emergence," Asnefer announced over the comm system.
"Wait!" Sabrina said, peering into the smokey tube.
"We cannot wait," Asnefer replied. "The conditioning may seize control again!"
"One second!" Sabrina pleaded, stretching her hands down into the tube toward the shape she thought she saw there. A gloved hand grasped hers, and she pulled with all her strength. Tassan, covered with black grime and racked with coughing, slowly emerged from the tube. When he was completely out, sprawled on the deck in Sabrina's arms, gasping for breath, she said, "Okay!"
"Emergence begins," Asnefer announced over shipwide comm.
Khediva shuddered again, her frame shrieking in protest, and then slammed sideways as if hit with a polo mallet.
"We are out!" Asnefer shouted. "Realspace engines firing! General distress call!"
Khediva's headlong tumble halted, sending all of them flying into the wall as she righted herself under the power of her engines.
"I am fixing our location," Khediva announced. "Secondary processor operating within normal parameters."
Asnefer was clutching at her head. "That was almost as bad I as feared."
"It was no joy to me either," Khediva said dryly. "We are in the Outer Rim."
"How long until the other ships can reach us?" Sabrina asked, helping Tassan to his feet.
"Several days," Khediva reported.
"We don't have several days. Malvarak may kill Tirqwin!" Sabrina protested. "Can you locate Sribarak?"
"I am scanning now," Khediva said. "But his Pharon crystal matrix may cloud my sensors. Still, I should be able to determine a general area."
"Is your link with Tirqwin operating?"
"No. I think he may be unconscious. Or it may be the Pharon crystal."
"Then Mara can't sense where we are?"
"I do not know," Khediva replied.
"Can we get to Praxatillus?"
Asnefer frowned. "I hesitate to open a Way with Khediva in this condition. I would prefer to run some diagnostics first."
Sabrina sighed and did the only useful thing she could: helped the semi-conscious Tassan to the infirmary.