Palamedes nods, pleased. "I'll see what I can hunt down. I have to admit, I'm as curious to see how your mechanism works as I am to watch the serials."

With a hmm, he takes off his glasses, fiddling with them thoughtfully. "I wonder if there is, in fact, somewhere on this ship where one could send or receive a signal--the bridge, for instance, which is mysteriously impossible to visit. But I take your point. It's a purposeful choice, isn't it? And why? To ensure we have no contact with the outside world?"

Pal finds that reasoning frightfully plausible--and it's familiar, too. "This ship reminds me a little bit of the place I was before I was brought here." A beat. "It's not a good thing."