Hank couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t only that neither he nor Kaylee could figure out what was wrong with the com system, but also a feeling of something else being wrong. It wasn’t even the meal they’d had.

“You sure you got time to eat?” Mal had asked, eyeing Hank as he wolfed down his meal. “I mean, wouldn’t want you getting indigestion or anything.”

Hank swallowed a huge mouthful. “Got a cast-iron stomach.” He patted his belly.

“Right, dear,” Zoe agreed deadpan. “Then it must be someone else who tosses and turns all night and sounds like an oncoming train. Which is all kinds of disturbing.”

“Must be,” Hank said, then belched.

Bethany and Ethan laughed, and Hope covered her own mouth with her hand. Ben looked at his father wide-eyed.

“See, that’s just what he doesn’t need to hear,” Zoe complained.

“Funny Daddy!” Ben said, grinning.

“You’re going to lead him into bad ways.”

“With this crew? How could I possibly do that?”

“Difficult,” Simon agreed, taking a third piece of bread out of Bethany’s hands.

“Anyway,” Mal said loudly. “Why all the haste?”

Hank shrugged. “I want to spend another hour going over the Cortex link again. I can’t help feeling whatever’s the problem is staring me right in the face, if only I were looking at it the right way.”

“You want me to come with you?” Kaylee asked.

Hank shook his head. “No, no, sweetie. There’s just a couple of things I wanna try, then I’ll be turning in. I’ll fix it, though, never you fret.”

Only he hadn’t. And nothing he did seemed to make a difference. He’d gone to bed with the problem going round and round his mind, and it was at about the fifth time he’d listed all the possible reasons for a failure and got lost halfway that he decided he’d had enough. Something else was nagging him, and he wasn’t going to be able to sleep until he had at least identified what it was.

Zoe was out of it, her hair spread across the pillow, and she only stirred slightly when he slid out of bed and grabbed a pair of soft pants