Repairs continued to the ship all around me. Once the key systems were up and limping again, the tentacles had dissolved into their individual photons and disappeared back into the cloud. Apparently the life form was only interested in our survival, not in getting us mobile again.

Getting the overseer to talk to me again was a job of work. Every time I’d just about have it online, a feedback loop would spill cascading errors through the system, and the overseer would drop back into hibernation again.

And then all at once, I had it.

“Whoa,” I swore.

“What is it, carto?” Harrigan asked. He was looking over my shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed his approach.

“A veritable flood of information, sir. It’s going to take me some time to sort through it, but it looks like the key to interpreting this cartography-based system of communication.”

“So that last jump was not entirely in vain, then.” Harrigan’s voice sounded grim. "Small comfort.

“Keep at it. I need to know if there’s a point to this insanity.”