The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu

Chapter Fifty-Three

DELTA TEAM -43:08

“It just plain ain’t gonna work,” Kaylee said, a note of disgust in her voice. “I done tried every workaround I know – and some I made up on the spot – but there ain’t no way to get that gorram gun up an’ runnin’ without full power. Take three reactors the size o’ Serenity’s to do it.”

“And if we had full power, then we wouldn’t need to kill the drones – they couldn’t hurt this ship under power,” Master Lei concluded, his face on the monitor grim.

“Why not use missiles?” Wash asked. “A tub like this should have missiles sprouting from every nook and cranny.”

“Plenty of missiles,” grunted Master Lei. “But they wouldn’t work. Not only could the drones see them coming and go to an evasive orbit, starving them for fuel, but that gorram frigate has plenty of lasers to take them out long before they reached their targets.”

“Gorram frigate,” Wash echoed. “That’s gonna be a problem eventually.”

“Indeed,” agreed the monk. “The boarding parties have already sparked more aggressive defenses from my ancestor’s cunning program. It isn’t giving me any particulars, but it keeps dropping maddening hints of the dire state of affairs.” He grunted dismissively. “That’s for the infantry to deal with. We must focus on this problem. I am open to suggestions.”

“How about a broad-spectrum EMP?” Kaylee inquired, chewing her littlest fingernail. “We could at least disrupt their guidance and nav computers.”

“Won’t work,” Wash said, shaking his head. “Those things are designed for long-term deep-space operations, in any kind of environment. Massive shields. If they can take the EM field of an active star, any little EMP we could generate they wouldn’t even notice.”

“Perhaps a hack?” asked Master Lei. “Any way we could redirect them? Preferably against that frigate?”

“Mr. Universe might be able to do it,” Wash said, reluctantly. “But he’d have to be here. Couldn’t do it over the cortex, too many security protocols. Anyone else