Jim hadn't been worried about a lack of familiarity with actual double-edged swords, so much as the accompanying metaphor, but it's nice to know that translates just fine.

"There are a couple things you can do, depending. The Federation has starbases at fairly regular intervals in explored space, and without warp, a starship can still use sublight impulse engines to start heading towards the closest one. It's very slow, but it's better than nothing. Like if you had to row a sailing ship." Even though Shade-Seeker said he's not a sailor, Jim feels fairly confident the Saxhleel knows enough to get the gist of it, at the very least. "We can also contact other ships over huge distances, so if communications are still working, we can call the closest starship and ask for help. Might have to wait a bit for them to get to us and give us a tow someplace where we can get repaired, and towing at warp is tricky business. The Enterprise had to get towed back to Earth after her maiden voyage and it took about two weeks to get there."