"Petra?" Vance turned back. "You mean the—"
"Our copilot." He pointed toward a large liquid crystal screen at the far end of the cabin, now blank. "I want to try and use her to override Flight Control for the rest of the sequence."
"Short circuit the countdown?"
"I've never done it, but . . ." He walked over and reached down to flip a square blue switch on the right-hand console. "Let's see if she's awake this morning."
He glanced up as the screen blinked on and a large black-and-white double-ax logo materialized, set against the red and white of a Japanese flag. Next he pushed a button on the sidestick and spoke.
"Petra, report countdown status."
“All preflight sequences nominal.” The eerie, mechanical sound of a woman's voice, speaking Russian, filled the space. “Do you acknowledge?”
"Affirmative," he answered back. "You will now initiate ignition sequence. Bypass remaining countdown procedure."
“That is an override command. Please give authorization code.”
"Code P-18. Systems emergency."