We’re engaged in high-energy diplomacy at the business end of a Haakon railgun when the comms screens glitch. I’ve had issues with the UI before, but something about the unfamiliar sigils marching across the corner of the screen clues me in.

“Someone piggybacked a virus on the stream,” I reported. “Comms are down.”

“Impact on core systems?” the Captain asks.

“None,” I say, already switching stations, pulling panels and stripping wires to access the ship’s ambient lighting. “The Comms subsystem has no hard-links.” It’s built that way for a reason, the same reason they need a Comms officer, a human air-gap to thwart any enemy vessel with basic code injection capabilities.

“Railgun powering up,” comes the report.

“We need Comms, now!”

“Comms needs a full system sweep!” The Captain’s not speaking to anyone on screen until we’ve spent a week in spacedock. I splice the last two wires beneath the desk as the Haakon frigate’s engines flare, taking our lack of response as prelude to violence.

When I press the button on my new screen, the ship’s lights blink out then flick back on, across a thousand windows.

“But we still have a way to signal them.”