"That's good. What do you mean by heroic?" I asked.
"She did the shoving while I held the door open," Zarex said.
"Pfft," Brinley replied. "We both shoved."
"Yes, but only one of us got hit by a chair leg," Zarex said.
"I should have ducked faster," Brinley said.
"You distracted him long enough for a last shove into the pod," Zarex said.
"It sounds like you both deserve a medal," I told them.
Brinley beamed.
Zarex simply shrugged. "All in a day's work. Now here we all are."
"Except Slek."
The moment I said his name, the comms buzzed.
"Engineer Slek here. A single nanobot can be destroyed by explosion. A cluster, however, is harder."
"Define harder," J'avet snapped into the comm panel.
"The ones on the outside protect the ones on the inside," Slek said calmly. "If I had to guess, I'd say they cannibalise and re-assimilate the metal, if they can reach it. A laser will destroy a cluster."
We knew that already, but lasers weren't recommended to be taken internally.
"So we can't destroy the ship," I said. "Unless we laser the whole thing."
"That would take a shit load of laser power," Slek said.
"Or a laser cannon hooked up to the weapons array," J'avet said.
"Which will only work if it's on another ship," Slek said.
"Wonderful," I muttered. "We can't self destruct, but someone can do it for us."
"Only as a last resort," Zarex said. He put an arm around me and drew me close.
"What do we do with Danec?" I asked. "We can't laser him." I glared at J'avet, in case he planned to suggest such a thing.
"They were dormant inside you," Zarex said slowly. "Was that you, or a coincidence?"
"If anyone can put someone to sleep, it's me," I said, trying to joke but falling flat.
"Has anyone tested your blood to see if it has some impact on them?" Zarex asked.
"Not yet," I said. "But I'm not sure how that will help Danec."
"Let's figure that out when we get to it," Zarex said firmly. "We need a vial of your blood and a vial of Freytauri. And some nanobots."
"That can be arranged." I nodded. I went to step away.
"Wait," Zarex said. "And a vial of Brinley's blood. To see if it's a human thing."
"It might be a programming thing," I warned him.