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spoke. "I took it as an elective in pilot school, Sir. I thought I was getting an easy grade since it was being phased out. It was anything but easy. I believe I can navigate this ship on manual and will take a shot at it if needed, Sir. Just say the word."
    I looked at the Captain. "If she says she can do it, Captain, I believe she can."
    The Captain turned to Lieutenant Commander Thigs. "Is there any way to salvage those star maps before shutting her down?"
    Thigs replied, "Not without bringing that bug with them, Captain. Besides, they may have already been altered, Sir. We have no way of knowing if they remain accurate or not."
    I spoke. "Back on the Suppressor , Frig had a similar problem that he isolated to running on a single machine. He was eventually able to defeat the app that was running. Could we do the same?"
    The room was silent as everyone looked around at each other.
    The lieutenant spoke. "I'm sorry, Sir. I don't think we have the personnel on this ship who could do that. The lieutenant commander and I are probably at the tops of our abilities when it comes to this ship's systems; that is how we picked up these assignments. Computer and system security, however, are not our strong points, Sir. Had you not asked me to look for something specific, that virus, or whatever it is, would have taken over all the interconnected systems on this ship."
    I replied, "OK, I'll shut up, then. Captain? Rodriguez might be our only option."
    The Captain spoke. "Thigs. Reset that nav system. Miss Rodriguez. When that system is restarted and the local maps are complete, please work with the lieutenant commander to get us home."
    I turned to the lieutenant. "How is the core coming?"
    The lieutenant replied, "Processing cycles have dropped to 40 percent, and the second firewall has been reconstructed. Give it another hour, and that virus should be eradicated from the system. It's trapped in a junction between the nav system and the main core, where it has limited processing power and memory available to it. Once the firewalls are intact, we can shut down that junction and it will be no more. I will program an alert that will let us know if the firewalls are under attack. There is no guarantee that we can stop it if it happens again, but we should at least know that it has started."
    I turned my attention to Rodriguez, who was now sitting at the nav console. "How are we looking?"
    Rodriguez replied, "The maps are under construction as we speak. Until that's complete, I can't say if I'll be able to do this right, Sir."
    I furrowed my brow. "I thought you just said you could do this."
    Rodriguez turned around. "I said that I believe I can, Sir. Believing and doing are two different things entirely. If the maps come back, and if I can get my arm pad sensors to download their latest info, we might just get lucky with a few matches, Sir. If that happens, I should be able to get us in the general area of the Grid."
    I shook my head in a sarcastic manner. "Well, how about we be a little more specific next time there, Ramrod. I don't fancy us having to broadcast an omnidirectional signal out here so the Grid can signal us back with a location. I think we would have other visitors before that signal came back."
    Rodriguez nodded and smiled. "You got it, Sir. No more volunteering!"
    I sat back in my chair. We were adrift in space while our fellow Humans were in need. I wondered if the Grid's systems had been compromised like ours. They certainly had the personnel resources on the Grid to combat such an attack, but what if they were unsuccessful? The Grid could once again be at internal peril from an outside force.
    York placed her cybernetic right hand on my shoulder. "We'll make it, Sir. If there is anyone that can fly us home, it's her. Just give her a little time."
    I replied as I gazed at the star maps building on the view-screen, "I hope you are right, York. I can't say I like being out here by ourselves. Not with those Gonta ships