"Still no luck?" Kolya leaned against the edge of a console and watched the team poking at the controls and connecting devices to interface ports.

"Nope." Dylan stifled a yawn. He, Grish, Ayastal, Kolya, and Donovan had kept out of the way for the past half-hour while Ralissa and Lorkis tried to power the systems on and access the computers. The flight deck had been illuminated only by everyone's helmet lights at first. Lorkis had pulled a high-powered lamp from Ralissa's backpack and secured its magnetic clamp to the wall. A cloud of spores filled the air, turning the light murky. The team's movements had kicked up a lot of them, and they'd needed to brush even more off the control panels and monitors.

Ralissa sighed. "Either the reactors are shut down or depleted, or power to these panels has been cut off. We'll check the engineering section and see if we can power the systems on from there. If we can't, we'll pull the main computer's memory core, plug it into a power supply on the Jemison, and view the flight recorder files. At the same time, the backup team can bring the thrusters over and attach them to the hull to stop the Vancouver's spinning and boost it into a stable orbit. After that, Galactic Expeditions can send a crew to retrieve their ship whenever they want."

"While we're here," Grishnag said, "we should search the ship and see what we can turn up. Looks like the whole ship has been powered down for a very long time, so I doubt we'll find any survivors even if the crew didn't abandon ship. Still, there's a good chance that their personal effects are still here, and we can pack those up to send home to their families."

"And maybe we can find something that'll give us an idea of what happened to the crew," Kolya said.

"That too, yeah."

"And when we've finished the morbid and depressing stuff here," Lorkis added, "maybe we can take a look around one of the ruins down on the planet."

"I don't see why not," Cora said over the comlink. "It'd be a shame to head back without doing a little exploring, and it might be just what we need to take our minds off whatever you find on the Vancouver."

"Just what I was hoping to hear." From Kolya's tone, Dylan guessed she was grinning even though her face was hidden by her helmet's visor, just as everyone else's was.

"Exploring a deserted alien outpost," Donovan said. "Sounds like a nice romantic outing."

"That's what I'm thinkin'. And maybe we can get a head start." Kolya turned to the scientists. "We'll cover more ground here if we split up. Like, someone goes to Engineering, and the rest divide into pairs or whatever and start searching the ship."

"Sounds good," Ralissa said. "Lorkis and I will check out Engineering. Everyone else, pick a partner, I guess."

"Dibs!" Kolya glomped onto Donovan and dislodged part of the spore coating on their spacesuits. He laughed and put his arms around her.

Ralissa motioned at the lamp. "Each of you has a supply of these lights in your backpacks. Attach them to nearby surfaces as you progress through the ship, so you can find your way back here easily. We'll leave them here when we head back to the Jemison to make it easier for the Gal-Ex follow-up crew to find their way around."

"Cool." Kolya pulled three lamps from Donovan's backpack, clamped them to her right thigh, and waited for Donovan to do the same. Then she hopped into the air, overcoming the low gravity easily, and grasped the edge of the doorway into the main corridor. She pulled herself up, braced her feet on the edge, and sprang to the next doorway. She grasped the edge, attached a lamp to the wall, and switched it on before pushing herself past the door.

Donovan hurried to catch up with her.

"So, do we go off on our own or stay together?" Dylan glanced at Grish and Ayastal, hoping they wanted to stick together. He didn't want to admit it, but the pitch-darkness, spores, and the emptiness of the ship had already done a good job of unsettling him. He couldn't help imagining himself in any of a few hundred scenarios in the sci-fi and horror movies he'd seen while growing up.

"We'll finish sooner if we all split up." Ayastal glanced at him, hesitated, and put her huge hand on his shoulder. "You and Grish stay together, just in case. I'll head off on my own."

And now I'll be worried more about you than about myself.

Ayastal patted his shoulder and shrugged. "You know me. If an alien monster jumps out of nowhere and attacks me, I'll punch its head off." She pushed off the floor and into the central corridor.

"Heh." Grish held his hand while taking a couple of lamps from his backpack. She turned away and waited for him to take a few from hers. "Dylan and I will check out the first centrifuge. That's crew quarters, right?"

"Crew quarters, lounge, gymnasium, and mess hall," Cora said over the comm. "Second centrifuge is science and research, labs, and the medical bay. Third one is equipment storage, fabrication and repair facilities, and so on. Fourth is life support and other primary systems. The shuttle bay and emergency escape vehicles are housed between the second and third centrifuges, and the module directly behind the fourth is Engineering."

"Donovan and I can take a look at the central section," Kolya said, "and see if the shuttles and EEVs are still here. If some of 'em aren't, then the crew's probably gone. Some of 'em, at least."

"Sounds good."

"I'll start looking around the second centrifuge, then," Ayastal said. "Whoever finishes first can move on to the third one."

"Works for me." Grishnag gave Dylan's hand one more gentle squeeze before launching into the central corridor. "Okay, kid, let's see what we can find."