Some controls were obvious, since they were necessary for any
spacecraft; others were completely unfamiliar.
After about an hour of looking around, Joe sighed, "Gonna need more
time, Zip."
"I know. We'll just have to dedicate ourselves to it until we feel
confident enough to take the ship into space."
"I'm making some progress here," announced Mark. He was at a side panel
near the navigation station. As he worked the keyboard, various
schemata appeared in quick sequence. "I can't read anything, but it's
obvious that these are engines. I can't recognize everything that's
coming up, but most of it I can. See, here is a circuit diagram, and
this part here can only be a reaction chamber. I think this ship might
use cold fusion for power, but I can't know for sure until I can read
this stuff, or see it in action."
"You figure it out, Mark, and I'll fly it," said Joe confidently.
"Well, this stuff is you boys' specialty," said Zip. "I've got to think
ahead to the next problem. Assuming we can get this rig to fly, and
assuming we can open the airlock, we've still got to escape the
pirates. I doubt this ship is one of the invisible ones, and they'll
have us spotted and speared in less then three minutes if we just fly
out of here, saying, 'Thanks for the hospitality, sorry we have to
leave so soon.
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