*   *   *

“Okay,” Sonya began. They were all gathered around the conference table again, several hours after their last meeting. Carol Abramowitz had spent the time studying the data, trying to figure out what kind of people they were dealing with, but it was difficult, given the lack of any indication of personal items. Of course, it was possible that any personal items were vaporized along with the crew back at Randall V, but that still left her with precious little to work with. She did know that these people had been honorable, and they’d valued all life. They’d also been more tolerant of heat, and had found new and impressive ways to harness solar energy. And they’d made a ship strong enough to dive right into a sun.

“So, what have we learned?” Sonya asked.

“Well, we know the ship’s based on solar energy,” Fabian said. “Not just propulsion but lighting, heating, circulation, everything. Its sensors actually operate mostly in the infrared spectrum, picking up heat signatures and translating those into three-dimensional image maps.”

“Its shielding is mostly absorption,” Pattie added. “The Dancing Star didn’t have any weapons when we first encountered it, or any shielding against energy weapons. Instead it had a strong hull and a collection array to protect it from solar energy and then absorb that energy for its own purposes. That’s why it could dive into a sun without harm, because the energy around it was siphoned off for the ship’s use.”

“The computer systems are efficient,” Soloman said. “Not overly complicated, but very solid. Particularly resistant to heat and to vibration, even more than in most starships. The coding is not the most sophisticated, but it’s very clean.”

“The ship routinely used stars for both energy and acceleration,” Tev said. “And the capacitors are built to handle exactly that type of massive input.”

“It also went into a sun—all the way into one—and came out unscathed,” Carol commented. She didn’t get all of the technical details the others were sharing, but that fact had impressed itself on her.

Sonya nodded at her. “Good point. We also know that Pattie and Kieran disconnected the collector arrays after Salek’s death and before launching the ship into the sun. Yet it has power now, and is approaching overload levels again.” She tapped the table. “What does that tell us?”

“Was the array reconnected?”

Tev shook his head. “No, it is still isolated.”

“So the ship was drawing power in some other way.”

“Right. But what?”

Carol watched them all thinking. She wished that she could contribute more, sometimes. Then something occurred to her. “Um, Pattie said most of the ship’s protection when it entered a sun was in its collection array, right?”

The others looked up at her, and Pattie wiggled her antennae in agreement. “Yes. There’s some shielding material between the hull and the interior walls, to keep the energy from leaking through fully, but mostly it was the array that siphoned off energy before it could prove dangerous.”

“But, with the array disconnected, how did the ship survive being inside Randall V’s sun?” She leaned forward. “I mean, never mind its powering back up—why wasn’t it incinerated?”

The engineers all looked at each other. Then Bart, her fellow nonengineer, spoke up.

“I’ve got a question, too. Pattie, did you just say that the ship has shielding between the hull and the inner walls?”

The Nasat nodded. “Yes. The hull is unusually conductive, and the shielding keeps energy from penetrating into the ship proper.”

“But why make a hull conductive at all?” Fabian wondered out loud. “I mean, why not just put the shielding on the outside and be done with it?”

Sonya gasped, and everyone turned toward her. “That’s it! Carol, you’re a genius! The hull’s an energy conductor! The entire ship is one giant absorption array!”

Everyone stared, then started nodding. It always amazed Carol that, even at times like this, they didn’t just all start talking over each other. Instead, someone spoke and the others listened, with occasional interjections. This time it was Pattie who commented first.

“It all makes sense,” she said. “The collection array was a supplemental power source, not the primary. So when we disconnected it, we thought we’d prevented the ship from powering up but all we’d done was slow the process down.”

“And, with the entire hull absorbing energy,” Fabian cut in, “the ship can easily withstand diving into a sun. It’s absorbing power from all sides, and all that energy gets sent through the capacitors and into the collection plates. The shielding makes sure none of it goes into the rest of the ship instead, and funnels it all toward the engine room.”

“So when it was sent into the sun,” Sonya finished, “it just used that to power up again.”

“That still leaves one problem,” Gold pointed out. “Duffy and Stevens programmed the Dancing Star to fly itself into Randall V’s sun. They didn’t give it any instructions past that. So what’s it doing all the way out here? Even with its power restored, something made it leave that sun and launch itself in a straight line.”

“I may have an answer to that,” Soloman said. “Many of its computer files had been wiped before we found it that first time, but not everything was lost. I have been going back over it, and I think I’ve found the relevant command.” He glanced down at his padd as if for confirmation. “Each internal vent knocked the computer systems offline, but they rebooted after a suitable period. An emergency protocol demands that if the ship’s systems shut down twice within roughly one Federation week, the ship will immediately start a preprogrammed course. Most likely back to their homeworld, for repairs.” He looked embarrassed, the first time Carol could remember seeing that expression on his face. “The commands were hardwired into the system, which may be why we missed it before.”

Gold nodded. “Makes sense—if it’s broken down twice in one week something’s wrong, so it’s recalled for servicing. And, between its crew’s sacrifice and then Salek’s, that was twice in a single day. So once it was online again, and had enough power, it headed home.”

“Why is it close to overloading again, then?” Corsi asked. “Isn’t it burning off the energy as it goes?”

“Not enough, apparently.” Fabian thought about it for a minute. “Actually, I think I know why. And it’s our own fault.” He shook his head. “Salek disconnected the safety protocols so that he could vent internally that second time. I’ll bet some of those protocols included commands for automatically venting energy to prevent an overload. Plus, I did retask some of its vents for use as guns—so it can’t use those vents unless someone engages them from the weapons console I added.”

“You had no way of knowing that it would reemerge,” Sonya reminded him. “Why bother to reactivate those protocols if it’s just going to sit in a sun forever?”

Gold glanced at everyone. “Well, I’m impressed, as usual. So now you know how it works, and why it’s moving, and why it’s overheating. What’s next?”

“Now we deactivate it properly,” Sonya replied. “We—” Whatever she was about to say was cut off by a call from Shabalala on the bridge.

“Captain, a ship just dropped out of warp and is heading right for us.”

“On my way,” Gold replied, standing up. The others followed suit. “Good work, people. Gomez, Tev, you’d better come with me.”

As they all headed out, Bart leaned in toward Carol and whispered, “Genius?”

Carol just grinned back at him and, very maturely, stuck out her tongue.