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it was possible to run a starship without a sentient consciousness, but nobody had ever done it. Theory was one thing. Starships were something else.
    â€œAll right, HARLIE,” whispered Korie. “You get to sleep a while longer.” He punched in the command, then locked the console.
    He levered himself sadly out of the computer bay and pushed himselfalong the keel until he got to the engine room. Work lights were hung all over the chamber, and crewmembers were already maneuvering around the great singularity cage in the center.
    Chief Engineer Leen was supervising the stringing of an auxiliary power conduit. He looked up as Korie floated over. “I sent a man to the forward lookout to take a sighting, but we’re tumbling ass over tea-kettle. Until we get HARLIE online, we can’t do anything about that. I think we can get the autonomic network online sooner than that. I need to see if it’s traumatized. And I’m rigging an auxiliary electrical harness, so we can charge up the mass-drivers as soon as we’re oriented. What else do you want to know?”
    â€œThat’s plenty. HARLIE’s down for at least six hours, maybe longer. I want you to pull the manuals on running a ship without a brain, if we have to—and cross your fingers that we don’t have to. In the meantime, I’m taking the tour. I need to see what shape the crew is in.”
    â€œThey’re rocky, but they’re working.”
    Korie looked at Leen. “Have we got the skillage to get home?”
    Leen shrugged. “We don’t know. I’ve got Randle taking roll. Some of the boys are a little mindwiped. I don’t know if we can bring ’em back.” His expression was very unhappy.
    â€œAll right,” said Korie, accepting the report. “Have the galley make sandwiches—uh, did the galley crew make it?”
    Leen shook his head.
    â€œSorry. Okay, appoint two men to kitchen detail. Let’s keep the lights on and the air circulating. If we can’t make this work, we’ll plug in the hole and try to run for it. But I’m assuming the worst.” He looked to Leen, “Did I leave anything out?”
    â€œWe could pray. . .”
    â€œI stopped praying a long time ago, Chief.”
    â€œDidn’t get your prayers answered?”
    â€œI got an answer. It was no.” Korie pushed himself out of the engine room into the aftward keel. It was darker than the keel forward. Korie paused at each of the manually operated safety panels and double-checked atmospheric pressure, CO 2 content, temperature, and humidity. All were stable. Good. That meant hull integrity hadn’t been breached. The biggest danger right now was that there might be a pinhole leak somewhere in the ship; but with no power and no network, there was no way to detect a pressure loss or locate the hole.
    There was too much to worry about and not enough worriers.
    Korie floated up into the shuttle bay and let himself drift while heconsidered. Maybe the shuttles could be useful. They were designed to be powered up quickly; maybe they could plug into a shuttle brain and run the ship from there. The shuttles weren’t sentient on the same scale HARLIE was, but they were smart enough to avoid bumping into planets, moons, and asteroids. He’d have to talk it over with Chief Leen. It was another option.
    As he headed forward again, he nearly bumped into Reynolds and MacHeath. They were maneuvering an unconscious crewmember toward sick bay. Korie nodded to them, then pushed himself quickly ahead.
    The ship’s mess was full of men and women; the overflow from sick bay. Some were conscious, most were not. Several were moaning. As Korie watched, two more crew members pulled themselves into the room. Fontana, the ship’s pharmacist, floated in, carrying a hypo-spray injector and began administering sedatives to the worst injured. She glanced over to Korie. “You okay?”
    â€œI