***Update 4/4 – please make sure you start from chapter 36!***

(Warning: more angst incoming)

The memory stick was still in use combating what it could with the virus, so Jinsu found and broke into Minseok’s laptop and spent several hours combing through the counter-virus and various documents he had on the Tardis coding.  It was such a big project and so much of it appeared to be retained in his head that there wasn’t actually that much new that she learnt from his notes, but it did make her even more aware of the mindset with which the Tardis coding had been created.  It was a thing of supreme coding, the pinnacle of anything that she’d ever seen in the computer technology world, and it had clearly been created with a view to excellence and finesse.  The only thing that Jinsu really felt she could compare the situation of the viruses to was the Tardis coding being a beautiful flower, a flower of utter mathematical perfection, that was stomped on by a horse or some clumsy person in heavy boots.  Minseok’s counter-virus was similar heavy stomping and meshed with the original Tardis coding, but it didn’t feel completely right with it.  Not in Jinsu’s eyes, anyway.

Still, there was enough of it and she had enough of her own knowledge to have a good look at it and see where she thought Minseok’s counter-virus could be improved.  He’d been working quickly, which was probably why it wasn’t as refined as everything from Tardis, but with some painstakingly close analysis, she finally figured out one area to tighten up that would overpower the virus when it came to controlling the engines remotely.  If they didn’t need to worry about that, it would be a relief, especially since they didn’t have Yixing with them.

Ignoring her growling stomach, she set to work, flicking back and forth between the various windows she had up on Minseok’s laptop every few letters she chose to put in.  It was slow work, made slower still when she remembered that both viruses had the potential to evolve and that she would need something of much higher power, and even higher staying power.  Time slipped by – as much as it could do in a vacuum – and Jinsu was so absorbed that she had no idea how late it was getting until the door opened.

“Finally,” said a familiar and unwelcome voice.  “What are you doing rooting through Minseok hyung’s stuff?”

Annoyed, Jinsu looked up.  “Why are you here?”

Baekhyun pushed one of his sleeve paws up over his wrist.  Why, Jinsu griped to herself, did he always have to wear jumpers with sleeves too long for him?  Didn’t he understand how scruffy it made him look?

“I couldn’t find you in any of the other obvious places, so it seemed a good guess.”

Jinsu gave him the stinkeye and returned to the coding, only to realise she had another problem. Tardis used binary whereas the virus didn’t.  Which was more potent?  Did it matter?  Was she going to have to change everything to a normal zero-to-nine system?

“Jongdae and I have fixed the engines,” Baekhyun said loudly.  Apparently he had no intention to get lost.  Jinsu almost fixed him with another glare, but then did a double-take and looked up, wide-eyed instead.

“What?”

“The engines,” Baekhyun clarified, scrubbing a hand through his hair.  “You said earlier that time would be better spent fixing the engines so we could leave the time stasis we were in, and Jongdae said you’d told him about the time stasis last night, so we’ve done all we can to shore up the remaining engine and transfer as much power from what’s left of the secondary engine to it so that with any luck it should get up to Temp 1 and be able to stay there.  We can activate it anytime at the flick of a level down in the engine room.  That would get us back into the timestream, surely?”

Jinsu didn’t know if she was more surprised that Baekhyun had actually taken the scathing suggestion seriously that morning or upset that Jongdae had been so happy to work with him.  She grunted and returned to the computer.

“Well, I clearly wasted my time,” Baekhyun said, a touch bitter.

Jinsu decided that there would be no difference between binary or any other number system and went back to correct the ones she’d changed earlier.

“Rude,” muttered Baekhyun before turning.  The door shut unnecessarily loudly behind him, but Jinsu barely noticed him go.  The code had to be perfect – flawless – before she tried it out.  And then she had to tackle the location code that the virus had destroyed as well so that they’d be able to get out of the timestream again smoothly rather than the previous couple of crash-landings.  Of course, if one engine was now working above usual capacity and the other was out of action, she was going to have to factor that into all her calculations, and she didn’t know what the new horsepower was.  She looked up to ask, but there was nobody there, so she shrugged and returned to other parts of it.

Before too long, a familiar vibrating hum spread throughout the machine as the lone engine started up.  Jinsu paused to listen to it, comforted by just how normal it felt and sounded.  It wasn’t quite the loud thrum that came