The shipwright looked at the ruined bay, the bracing and the forward trim record.
“Not before your window,” she said.
Drake had not asked aloud.
Apparently his face remained an unreliable private document. He asked what the proper repair would involve. The shipwright named the inspection she still needed before promising a price, then pointed to the damaged mounting and the trade bay’s surviving support. Some material could be saved. Some could not. The temporary bracing would remain a temporary arrangement until the replacement work was done. Drake asked for the written repair estimate when the full structural inspection became possible. She marked his request without moving him ahead of another vessel already waiting for the same yard. For once, he found nothing useful to say about that.
The Gull’s Luck lay at the established portable-anchor berth with the damaged compartment closed off. Its temporary weather protection had survived the crossing. That did not make the ship sound enough to offer the protection rating she had carried before the strike.
A technician asked for that old rating.
“Of course—” Drake began.
Merrit looked at him.
