The handheld computer Fenn found was left with a menu showing a list of what looked like robot callsigns. The last thing selected was to dispatch "E-2000" to the bridge. There was an error log onscreen as well, showing that a "connection could not be established" and that it was retrying—probably owing to the radio jamming going on. However, continuing to read down, he'd find that the connection had been established, and the robot dispatched.

They had gone underwater, and away from the jamming. All the wireless features of the ship, including communications with the robots aboard, were now working.

Meanwhile, Pax would find little of apparent interest on the ship's screens—just the sort of status reports, navigational data, instrumentation, and other things one would expect. The most obvious terminals were the captain's seat, which had a small console; the helm, which had a yoke, pedals, a big row of throttle controls, and piles upon piles of instruments, screens, and camera views from all over the exterior of the ship; another seat with multiple joysticks and screens (gunnery?); yet another seat, which looked to be communications, judging by its keyboard and headset and more conventional computer-like interface; and so on, and so forth. Notable was that the bright orange, plastic keyboard was of a clumsily large size, as was the headset hanging next to it; perhaps it was built with one of Eggman's robots in mind. After all, he would have never intended any living thing to pilot his creations, even if he built them in that kind of way and surrounded himself by robots that imitated lifelike behavior.

Ivan was very like-minded to his mercenary friend and pretty much stopped to collect rings whenever applicable as well. The man had a family to feed, after all! Can't have them chewing on his boat. He collected as many as he could with getting in Casey's way and stuffed them in his coat pockets. Finally, though, he found his way onto the bridge as everyone was investigating the computers and equipment.

He didn't say a word as he looked around. With the exception of the invaders, the bridge was unoccupied. Ivan couldn't help but wonder if that was unusual for these kinds of vessels..

A few seconds later, Casey finished hoovering up everything of value and passed through the door as well, just in time to hear Avatar's gripe.

"Yeah, y'look real cool an' useful standin' there complainin' and smokin'," blurted the hog with a disapproving look worthy of a dad. "Seriously, go make yerself useful and go stand watch, yeah?" He pointed back out the door. "We gotta keep Gardyner covered 'til he's got this thing figured out."

Personalities were not so easily read, and she hadn't been around him quite long enough to read him; Casey was a bright and chipper, jolly big guy through and through, but he took his job very seriously, and wouldn't tolerate a naysayer or a Negative Nancy. Truth be told, he was very easily dragged down by bad attitudes, and didn't want to let one cast its ugly shadow across the...

"Oh, lookit, some bounced in here!"

There was a ring under a chair. He was grabbing it.

Suffice to say money improved his mood quickly, even if it was the equivalent of a big, shiny dime.

Pax indeed selected the most versatile console for accessing the ship's internal workings. Pretty much every single thing he was looking for was there, with just a little searching, but needless to say, there were also a few obstacles. The radar functions of the ship were easy enough to shut down without much hassle at all (it was already on standby, anyway, since the ship had gone underwater where radar was useless), but authentication was required for the things that would alter the system and how it received commands. He would soon find that he could not simply tell the ship with a few keystrokes to stop receiving orders from HQ. Similarly, the robots crewing the ship could not easily be deactivated; that too prompted him for authentication. It would require the correct credentials, or an interface already logged into that kind of access.

Down the hall, Avatar would begin to hear some suspicious noises—something like a hatch opening loudly, the sound of electric motors whirring as if to move a machine, and, soon, several powerful, weighty footsteps. There came a whining sound, almost like a jet engine of some kind. Something was going on back in the chamber they had come from.

Casey, out of rings to hoover up and not savvy enough with computer systems to be much help, had wandered out of earshot of the corridor, standing next to Tyra, and staring at the screen.

Chips. Movies. Drink cups.

"So there's a real crew aboard this thing somewhere," he murmured silently, "and they haven't gotten off... unless they're real good swimmers."

He turning and looking every which way as he walked, his meandering eventually carried him to where the hole with the ladder was. He produced a flashlight from his belt and shined it down, investigating cautiously, squinting, bushy dark-blue brows furrowed.

Every "Access Denied" or "Authentication Required" message that popped up elicited a low, agitated groan from the hacker. He leaned back in his seat, hand over his mouth in a pose of quiet contemplation, until Fenn called out for him, followed by Avatar's warning. "Eh...?"

Seeing the piranha girl going off by herself, Pax was quick to jump out of his seat and start calling to her, "Woah, woah! We don't know what's aboard this thing, don't go off by yourself! It's too risky, so--"

"Oh, just shut up already. She'll be fine. Not like she's a wuss who runs off an' hides whenever there's trouble," Tyra interrupted, looking Paxton square in the eyes and taking on an accusatory tone of voice, which was enough to make the dog quiet down and shrink away a bit, mumbling, "I--uh, I..."