Elaine bit her lip. To hell with it...
She looked at Guybrush. "Does this ship have a NC-10 communications terminal?"
"Ummm..."
"It does," said Wally. "Thirty seconds," he added.
"Show me the controls."
Wally scrambled out of his seat, nearly tripping in his haste. "Right here!" he said, pointing to a small black keyboard. Elaine came forward and sat down, with Guybrush dragged helplessly behind. She began typing furiously.
"What are you doing?" said Guybrush, his handcuffed hand being jerked around by all the movement.
Elaine's eyes never left the monochrome readout and her fingers never left the keyboard. "Hacking into Pael's maintenance AI bot. It's supposed to be impregnable, but I know most of the passwords."
"How long is this going to take?" said a worried Guybrush.
"Twenty seconds," Wally and Elaine said simultaneously. They looked at each other. "Or so," added Elaine. She stopped typing for a moment, looked up, and studied the walls on either side of the ship. "Wally, is it? I think it might be a good idea if we back up a few metres."
Wally jumped into the pilot's chair, and grabbed the flight yoke. Right away, the ship jerked backward.
The next instant, Marko fired.
It was a glancing blow, and the only indication that anything had been hit was the sudden dip and flash of the room's lighting, and a barely felt shudder that was gone even as it came.
"Warning shot," said Guybrush.
"Ten seconds," said Wally.
Elaine ignored them. Her fingers whipped across the keyboard like a video stuck on fast-forward.
Without any warning, a thick metal wall shot up right before them, closing off the passageway.
Elaine sat back and sighed. "Did it," she said. "That should hold them for a while."
Guybrush stared at the blank, featureless metal wall. There was perhaps a couple of inches clearance between it and the ship. "What did you do?" he said.
"All these passages are closed off at regular intervals by bulkheads," said Elaine. "We use them for various security purposes... don't think I'm going to tell you what these are..."
"Are there others in this passage?" said Guybrush, interrupting. He'd just had an idea. "I mean, if there's one behind Marko's ship, we could trap him!"
Elaine sat up, an irritated look on her face. "Never thought of that." She typed away for five seconds, then sat back again. "Done."
"Did it work?" asked Wally.
"Can't tell," said Elaine. "They might have reversed in time. They might be trapped inside. The bulkhead might have cut their ship in half."
She stood up, and looked at them both. "Now let's go-"
Elaine suddenly stopped. She had no idea what she'd been about to say.
"Go?" asked Guybrush. "Go where?"