Names!
February 18
We’re making good time, going through the Blobmart (ah, humanity and our ability to nickname everything). I’d say ‘surprisingly’ good time, except that the Amalgamation was as good at ship architecture as it was at everything else. The layout is a masterpiece of efficiency and design; after a day getting acclimated, even our puny human brains could instinctively find ship departments. I’m reasonably sure I could get to the engine room with my eyes closed.
The only thing is, the Blobmart is big. We can send probes to check out each compartment, but that takes time. Preliminary estimates say there’s over eight thousand rooms in this thing, of various sizes, and it takes time for us to check each one. We really need to get the power up and running again.
Emily was forthcoming over the problems with that. Maybe too forthcoming. “We have ground the main power generators, naturally. But Senior Technician Aldini is dragging his feet about even testing them. He insists on inspecting them, over and over again.”
“Is he worried about turning them on?” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t blame him. Even if everything is working, it’s been four hundred years. Something might have decayed.”
“This ship shows no sign of corrosion or metal fatigue,” Emily retorted while leaning forward, “and that includes the power systems. And Aldini is not worried about restoring power. Quite the contrary: he is eager. So eager that he is delaying, in order to get the most pleasure out of finally doing it. It is just a little …squirmy, to see this.”