"He had no idea how ships worked or what they were," the lawyer said.

I'd figured out most of how their ships worked, but there were some things I had no idea about.

Can't your bright young technicians figure out how his ship works?

The changes began to include speed as the ship worked its crooked way down toward the planet.

Give me some credit for knowing how this ship works.

If the ship works well, we can return another time.

Right now we've got to find out how this ship works.

He then tells Max about things that would have been lost if the ship had really worked.

If we can figure out enough about how this ship worked, the knowledge could put us forward a hundred years.

"No acceleration-which means the ship works on a principle different from any known."