“I should have known. I should have seen this coming!” Yili was angrily configuring a portable electronic sensor unit, which was providing about as much light as a single flashlight. All the Argent personnel were gathered around their Chief Engineer watching her work with the eerie white glow of the field emitter lighting up their concerned faces. “That energy field technology gives whomever is using it the ability to set up an energy dampening field too. They’ve cut power to the whole station, and anything in here that runs on stored power has about thirty minutes before it’s drained and useless.”

Zony suddenly had a hunch and reached into the small pouch on her belt. She produced the alien device she had found aboard Argent and noticed it apparently still had power. The yellow glow bathed Zony’s uniform all the way to the floor.

“What about this thing?” she asked rhetorically. Yili looked up.

“Does it have power? Can we use it?” The impromptu meeting moved to where Zony was standing. The Signals Officer examined the device. The glowing indicators didn’t look all that different from before.

“We could have used this earlier when we did have power,” Zony muttered. “I don’t know why I didn’t even think about it.” Finally she got the readings she was looking for. “I think we’ve got enough in here to send one person. Maybe two. But they can’t go far.”

“Where to?” DeMay asked. “There’s nowhere to go except back to the ship, and then what? Anyone who teleports back there is just going to be trapped like we are.”

“The Dunkerque could provide us power,” Yili pointed out. “Teleport me back to the ship. I’ll lash us up some kind of transmission system and we’ll figure out a way to get this station operational.”

“Negative, lieutenant.”

Everyone looked at Colonel Moody. Yili was about to reply when the marine officer motioned for quiet. “You’re not going back there without escort. For all we know, these knuckleheads posted guards aboard, and if you’re involved with a complicated repair job you’re not going to be available for guard duty. Signals, it’s both or none.”

“I don’t know if this thing has enough stored energy for two, sir.”

“I’ll take your best guess, then. Commander, hand me that blaster. We’ll take two. You keep one. Zony, get at least one of these commlinks working and stand by for our hail once we get our communications sorted out.” Moo took the alien device from Zony. “What do I do with this?”