Fractured Horizons: captured weapons behind alien access controls

In Fractured Horizons, human specialists examine the alien warship Vengeance while an enemy fleet steadily reduces humanity's defenses. The aim is to understand and copy its technology, but the human pilot's security clearance does not permit him to operate many weapons or even learn their capabilities. Maintenance crews, technical teams and weapons designers have worked for two weeks without the hoped-for breakthrough. A new processing core is brought in specifically to break encrypted data arrays. The pilot doubts that it will succeed where the earlier attempts failed, while every delay increases the danger to human population centers.