The hardest part of breaking ships is defusing them. Years of training and practical experience still meant multiple deaths a year, the tally increasing.

I was senior at 7 years. Lucky.

The battle-scarred indigo-purple ship changed colors depending on the angle of station lighting.

"Alright, ship. What are you hiding?". The only sounds were my suit breathing apparatus, and occasional radio chatter on the general band, from Station Ops. I waved the access key at the hatch; a metal playing card with the ship's name: The Stygian.

Shivers down my spine (which may actually be a auth scan, with these old ones). The door opened.

Inside, the Standby Power Fusion Reactor attempted to ignite and failed, causing reverberations throughout. Wall sconces lit with a blue flame; emergency magik. Engaging suit thrust, I entered.

Engineering. That's where I had to go, that's where any remaining power would be. Then the real work starts, dismantling. Each wall had a map, my suit's HUD did too. Passing each wall, there were dark stains. Pulling up the ship's history, there had been a hostile boarding. Rare, but it happens.

"Successfully defended, neat." The wiki article went into how several heroes defended the ship in hand-to-hand wand battle. Was a big deal, for its day. Almost there.

"Engineering. Fantastic." I used my access card, it failed. Time for manual bypass. Pulling apart the door panel, my own wand made quick work of the security codes, and I was in.

The ship responded.

"YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED HERE." A blue flaming skull appeared in front of the security console. A hybrid magic-computer, part AI and part soul, the ship's security system was designed to defend with psychology as well as advanced security tactics. Each ship was built with top-secret security defusal protocols, different per ship. I requested them from HQ.

"Hey, Kelvin, you there?"

"Yeah, what did you need?"

"I need the defuse codes for the Stygian."

"Oh, that one. Wow. You know they originally wanted to preserve it, but they already have several examples as museums. Let me request auth."

It was several minutes before a response.

"Okay, sending them over now. Be sure to repeat this exactly or you're going to have to exit and re-enter the room."

The codes appeared on the HUD.

"Thanks, Bob!"

"Anytime, Cynthia."

I began the sequence, the auth keywords in brackets.

"Oh ship. Your service in battle was [glorious], and the people you served live on to tell the [tale] of your [glory].

[do a dance, doesn't matter what kind]

This was new. I did a little dance and spun around.

"Oh [great] ship, you may now rest, your service is over. Authcode [1884656399 Alpha Delta Sierra Ampersand Oscar Octothorp 550272].

[You may rest.]

With wand ready, the skull faded out and my wand absorbed the last vestiges of power. The wall sconces went out, and the wand glowed bright. The next ship would receive this power and memory.

"Base, I have it. The ship is safe for decom."

"Great, we were concerned the security system would activate, it got James last week on the Intrepid. Thankfully the system didn't have enough power left, and he's fine now."

"Heading back, see you in a few."