“Well?” Cho asked, wiping at his forehead with the back of his hand, but it wasn’t due to any rise in temperature. In fact, it had dropped several degrees, but the cold sweat on the chief engineer’s brow appeared again almost immediately.

Kaylee sat back on her haunches, the scanner still in her hand. “There’s something inside the box, but I can't get to it. If I could get it loose, maybe I could ... perhaps there’s a seam or something, but I'm scared of forcing it in case it blows, and without getting to the innards ...” She huffed out air in frustration.

“Is there something else I can get, to help? Maybe some other tools ...”

“I don’t see what. Maybe if we had time we could cut out the entire section, put it into the airlock and flush the whole gorram thing into space, but that’d take a few hours, and I don’t think we’ve got the that much.” She indicated the display, a lot closer to zero than it had been.

“Yeah.” Cho glanced over his shoulder. “So what ... we tell the Cap to evacuate where we can?”

Kaylee’s lips tightened. “You think there’s any point?”

He slumped back against the wall. “No. Not as I can figure. When that thing detonates the fuel lines will rupture, then there ain't nothing that can stop it blowing, and I ... maybe a few folk’ll survive, if they’re behind sealed bulkheads.”

“With no air, no heat? And nobody coming to the rescue?”

“Then what do we do?”

Kaylee looked up into his face, this man who reminded her so much of her father. Not that her dad would ever give up. She felt her backbone stiffen, and she straightened. “Our best.” She climbed back into the small space, her eyes drawn against her will to the timer still counting silently down, seeming to be chopping her future into bite-sized portions. Okay. Right. An hour until … boom. “Come on, Winnie,” she whispered to herself, using her father’s old nickname for her to try and bring him closer. “We’ve got work to do.”

---

0:59:10

“Got ‘em, boss.”

Chester smiled coldly at Fr