Keith raised his hands. "It's just that-"

"The work was done perfectly," said Rhombus, "but this ship's designers never thought we would be in a battle."

"Sorry," said Keith. "Lianne, what's the procedure in a situation like this?"

"There is no procedure," said Lianne. "The ocean deck was considered unbreachable."

"Can the water be contained with force fields?" asked Keith.

"Not for long," said Lianne. "The force fields we use in the docking bays have enough strength to hold air at normal pressure against vacuum.

But each cubic meter of water masses a full ton; nothing short of the ship's external forcefield emitters could hold back that much pressure, and even if Gawst hadn't overloaded those, there's no way to aim them inside the ship." "If you turn off the artificial gravity in the central disk and on all decks below it, at least the water won't flow down," said Thor.

"Good idea," said Keith. "Lianne, do that."

"Security override," said PHANTOM's voice. "Command disallowed."

Keith shot a look at the PHANTOM camera pair on his console. "What the — ?"

"It's because of the Ibs," said Rhombus. "Our circulatory system is based on a gravity feed; we'll die if you turn off the gravity."

"Damn! Lianne, how long to move all Ibs from decks forty-one through seventy to the upper decks?" ' "Thirty-four minutes."

"Begin doing that. And get all dolphins out of the ocean deck — but tell them to stand by with breathing apparatus, in case we have to send them below into the flooded areas."

"If you evacuate starting from deck seventy," said Thor, "you can turn off the gravity there first, and work your way "That won't make any difference," said Lianne. "By the time the water has fallen that far, it'll have enough momentum to continue on downward even if gravity is no longer pulling

"What about electrical shorting?" asked Keith.

"I've already shut off the electrical systems in flooded areas," said Lianne.

"If the ocean deck were to drain completely, how much of the lower decks would it fill?" asked Thor.

"One hundred percent," said Lianne.

"Really?" said Keith. "Christ."

"The ocean deck contains six hundred and eighty-six thousand cubic meters of water," said Lianne, consulting a monitor screen. "Even including all sealed interdeck areas, the entire enclosed volume of the ship below the central disk is only five hundred and sixty-seven thousand cubic meters."

"Excuse me, but I think the PDQ is in trouble," said Rhombus, gesturing with one of his ropes toward part of the holographic bubble. Two Waldahud ships were converging on the Starplex probeship, lasers crisscrossing.

Keith's eyes darted between the holo display and the monitor on his console showing the progress of the flooding.

"Wait," said Rhombus, "the Dakterth is coming up on the stern of the two ships attacking the PDQ. It should be able to draw their fire."

"How are the evacuations coming?" asked Keith.

"On schedule," said Lianne. "Are we leaking any water into space?"

"No; it's just an internal breach."

"How watertight are our interior doors?"

"Well," said Lianne, "the sliding doors between rooms seal when closed, but they aren't strong. After all, the door panels are designed so that anyone can kick them free of their rails for emergency escape in case of fire. The weight of the water will burst them open."

"What genius thought of that?" asked Thor.

"I think he helped design the Titanic," muttered Keith.

The ship rocked again, heaving back and forth. In the holo display, a cylinder carved out of Starplex's central disk, ten decks thick, was tumbling against the night.

"Gawst has cut out our number-two generator," reported Lianne. "I'd evacuated that part of the engineering torus as soon as he started carving into it, so there were no casualties. But if he can get one more of our generators, this ship won't be able to enter hyperdrive, even if we could get far enough from the star to make that possible."

A burst of light caught Keith's eye. The Dakterth had severed the engine pod from one of the Waldahud ships that had been firing on the PDQ. The pod pinwheeled away. It looked as though it was going to crash into the cylindrical core that had been cut from Starplex, but that was only a trick of perspective.

"What if we vent the water out into space."?" asked Rhombus.

"We'd have to cut our own hole into the ocean deck to do that," said Lianne.

"Where would be the easiest spot?" asked Keith.

Lianne consulted a schematic. "The rear wall of docking bay sixteen.

Behind it is the engineering torus, of course. But right at that location, the torus contains a filtration station for the ocean deck.

In other words, it's already filled with water right up to the back wall of the docking bay, so you'd only have to carve a hole in the bay's wall to get water to pour in."

Keith thought for a moment. And then it hit him. "Okay," he said.

"Get someone with a geological laser down to bay sixteen right away."

He turned to Rhombus. "I know the Ibs need gravity, but what if we cut the artificial gravity, and spin the ship instead?"

"Centrifugal force?" said Lianne. "People would be standing on the walls."

"Yes. So?"

"Well, and each deck is cross-shaped, so the apparent force of gravity would increase as you went farther out into each

"But it would also keep the water from flowing down the central shaft," said Keith. "Instead, it would be trying to press against the outer walls of the ocean deck. Thor, could you set up such a spin using our ACS thrusters?"

"Can do."

Keith looked at Rhombus. "How much gravity do you Ibs need for your circulatory systems to work?"

Rhombus lifted his ropes. "Tests have suggested that at least one eighth of a standard-g is required."

"Below deck fifty-five," said Lianne, "even at the ends of the arms, we won't get that much apparent gravity at any reasonable rotation rate."

"But that's only fifteen floors that have to have their Ibs evacuated instead of forty," said Keith. "Lianne, inform everyone of what we're doing. Thor, as soon as no Ib is left below deck fifty-five, start spinning the ship. Bleed off the artificial gravity as we come up to speed."

"Will do."

"People should probably vacate the rooms at the ends of each arm, because of the windows," said Lianne.

"Why?" asked Keith. "They're transparent carbon composite; they won't break even if people are standing on them."

"Of course not," said Lianne. "But the windows are angled at forty-five degrees there, because the edges of the habitat modules slope at that angle. It'll be difficult to stand on them once the apparent gravity shifts so that those sloping windows become slanted floors."

Keith nodded. "Good point. Pass on that advisory as well."

"Will do."

The holographic head of Longbottle aboard the Rum Runner spoke up.

"Polluted waters we are in. Engines overheating."

Keith nodded at the holegram. "Do what you can; if necessary, head away from us. Maybe no one will follow you."

Starplex rocked again. "Gawst has started carving into the central disk beneath our number-three generator," said Rhombus. "And a second one of his ships is carving in from the top of the disk, right above generator one."

"Start spinning the ship, Thor."

The starfield holegram began to rotate. The ship reeled again. "That took Gawst by surprise," said Thor. "His lasers are skittering across the entire undersurface of the central disk."

Lianne spoke up. "Jessica Fong is in position inside docking bay sixteen, Keith."

"Show me."

A frame appeared around part of the starfield holegram — now spinning at dizzying speed. Inside the frame, a picture of the interior of the docking bay appeared, with a space-suited woman floating in midair.