Chapters 11 and 12 are up! As always, comments are welcome.

"Silas! Just the guy I wanted to see."

The boy looked up. He had one glove off and machine oil streaked up the side of his face. "Leena? What are you doing here?"

"Hodhshi was giving me a tour." Khaleen forced a smile. Silas stared at her, and her expression grew somber. "Hey, I need to talk to you. You got a second?"

"Sure." He led the way to an alcove out on the main lines of traffic. At the back a man crouched with a welding torch; when he saw them enter, he stood to go, but Silas stopped him.

"Khaleen, this is Jazal. He's one of the senior machine techs. Whenever Hodhshi wants something done, Jazal is the one that makes it happen. He's been working with me," he added, "teaching me engines and stuff."

"Vorthih," the man bowed. "Your kinsman is a quick student. I must be careful, or Hodhshi will give him my position." His face was hidden, but there was a smile in his voice.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Silas asked.

"I'm trying to figure out what to do. I've been talking to the officers – I get that things are pretty bad now, but…"

"…But you want a second opinion?" Silas glanced at Jazal.

"I guess – Yeah. I don't understand most of what Hodhshi's been telling me."

"He's like that," Jazal said. "He's a good man, a good engineer. He just needs a translator, sometimes."

"He needs a lot of things, and I have to figure out how to get them. I need ideas, guys, suggestions. How can we make this work?"

"More people," Silas blurted. "Some of these guys have been working four, five watches in a row. They're gonna wear out."

"We could use more materials, too," Jazal put in. "The transmission conduits –" he motioned to what he had been welding. " – have been mended six times in this section alone. And it's not even one of the heavier use sections."

"Well, I think I can get you one of those things, at least. Is there any way we can make what we have last a while longer?"

Again, Silas and Jazal glanced at each other.

"I think we can keep jury rigging things for a while if we have enough manpower to make it work," said Jazal.

"How long is a while?"

"…Months? Maybe years, even."

"Great, that's great."

"Leena, where are you gonna get the extra guys from?" Silas demanded.

"Wherever I can. They don't have to be engineers, right? Just labor?"

"I think so," Silas said. Jazal nodded confirmation.

"What else? Is there anything we're doing now that we could do differently?"

"We've got a lot of higher systems that don't need to be running," Jazal pointed out. "If we cut back to only what was vital to keep sailing, we could free up some manpower."

"Ok. Keep me posted."

Silas threw a mock salute. "Sure thing, Vorth-y. Was that all?"

"No. One more thing. How are the guys?"

"What do you mean?"

"The guys down here, the ones doing the work. You said they were wearing out. What's their status? How are they?"

Silas looked at Jazal for an answer. The man cocked his head, thinking, and stood on one foot. He gave Khaleen the impression of a plastic lawn flamingo.

"They're not well, Vorthih," he said at last. "Their friends are gone, the Aether is lost, Harudheen is no more… But they'll keep going for you, as long as you ask it of them. You're our vorth, after all, our leader. What else do we have? Otherwise, we're just passing the time until we die."

Back in New York, whenever Khaleen needed to do some serious thinking, she would go up to the roof to do it. There was no roof here to sit on; but she had the run of Malekith's old quarters, and no one else really came in there. For the next two days she sequestered herself there, leaving only to receive morning report from the officers. After forty-eight hours of reading, sketching, and pacing, she decided it was time to air her conclusions.

"Dude, where have you been? I asked you to come in here like an hour ago."

From his expression, Algrim plainly didn't like being called "dude." He could deal with it; Khaleen had other things on her mind.

"I think I solved our personnel problems. Take a look and tell me if you think this could work."

"It won't."

"You didn't even look at it!"

"I don't have to."

"Well, drop dead. I'm running it past the other officers anyway."

Algrim bent over the sketch, scowling at Khaleen's handwriting. "You did away with the entire Harrow crew!"

"We aren't using the Harrows, and we need the crew in other places."

"We need the Harrows to be ready if we have to do battle."

"We aren't going to 'do battle.' We're gonna lie low and keep our noses clean. And if we need to use the Harrows to get off the Ark, they can be ready in five minutes from where they are now."

"What's this?"

"A list of essential and non-essential systems."

"The cloaking shields are non-essential?"

"We don't need them to stay alive. But we do need the air scrubbers and the drive core –"

"How in the Nine Realms are we going to 'lie low' if we can't cloak the Ark?"

"We're in space! Space is really big. We stay away from planets and stuff people are looking at and we're fine. Besides, you weren't using the cloaking shields when you were hibernating."

"No one knew we had survived. Asgard wasn't looking for us then; they are now. Those shields are the only thing keeping their eyes off us."

"Ok, fine, maybe we need the shields. But we need to economize –"

"I have been over this a thousand times. We can't keep the Ark battle-ready if we shut half of it down."

"We don't need it to be battle-ready, we just need it to support life. You need to stop running this place like it's the old days. There's a new mission now."

"I understand that. But you cut an immense number of systems."

"It'll free up the manpower we need to keep the engines running, and give the guys more off-duty time to rest. They're running on empty," she added in response to Algrim's scowl. "You keep pushing them like this and things will fall apart."

"What are they supposed to do? Sit and weep for a world that can never come back? Staying busy keeps them from dwelling on the grief."

"Ok, whether or not blowing off your problems is a good idea, they still need to sleep."

"Do you not think we do what we do for a reason?"

"Whatever! It's not working."

Algrim looked like he desperately wanted to say something, and only tact was keeping him from spitting it out. Khaleen glared back at him.

"Did you fight with Malekith like this?"

"Malekith knew what he was doing!"

"See, that is your problem. You fight with the people who are trying to help you, but you'll blindly follow the guy who leads you on a suicide mission –"

"You know nothing of leading men, or of running an Ark!"

"Which is why I'm calling a council, to see if I missed anything with this plan! Things have got to change!"

"Um… am I interrupting?" Silas stood fidgeting in the door. "I passed on to the officers that you want them to meet you in here."

"Thank you, Silas. See, he listens to me."

Algrim snorted. Khaleen collected her projector with the tentative plan and sat down on the other side of the table.

"They're gonna be here soon. Please keep your comments to yourself until after I show them the plan. I already know what you think; I want to hear what they think."

In the end, and with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the officers agreed to a modified version of Khaleen's plan. Hodhshi in particular was glad to provide input; evidently he had suggested something like this once before and been shouted down. Khaleen gave him free reign to sketch out his thoughts on her notes, which he did readily. They kept the cloaking shields, but a large number of other systems were shut down or at least put on hold. Suddenly, running the Ark began to look like a much more manageable affair.

Algrim and Davitheen both expressed concern over how the crew would react to so much free time, but Versang put their minds at ease.

"Continuing to push them so hard will only compound the injury in the end," he told them. "Rest will do wonders for them. And they're Harudheen's finest. They're fully able to police themselves."

"And I can open up parts of Malekith's library to them," Khaleen offered. "Give them something to do in their off hours."

The final item for discussion was the necessity of a second meeting. Everyone agreed that they should return to go over the new plan after it had been in effect for several days. Khaleen offered that they should make the meetings a regular occurrence and suggested that all the senior personnel be included.

"What do want them in here every week for?" Algrim complained as the meeting broke up. "You're going to draw all the decision-making power away from the throne."

"First you rag on me for making calls on my own, then you get upset because I'm asking for advice," Khaleen replied. "I can't make you happy, can I?"

vorth: monarch. Technically it mean "king," but I'm going to assume it's a gender-neutral term.

Vorthih: my queen