Thanks again. I had further weirdness of the same type, with the same ship. So, after I posted that I had "fixed" the problem, I got it into orbit with only the center section left. I turned on the lights and they started burning up the battery at the bottom of the whole craft. Nothing strange there. Eventually, I did run out of charge in the command module, but I had a small side panel which charged it up once I came around to the sun. I thought it was weird that the battery at the bottom of the craft kept the lights going, even lights on the command module itself, but the command module charge died all the way. Imagine me, again having no control because the command module is dead, but still having the lights blazing. Furthermore, since the solar panel charged it back up, I noticed it also charged the battery up. So, if the battery can be charged by the solar, and the command module can be charged by the same panel, why can't the battery charge the command module? Weird right. Something is messed up between a connection somewhere, or there is a little glitch, or both. Battery on left of ship, command module on right, panel in the middle, panel can charge both, but they aren't sharing charge. There isn't anything in kerbal that moves power directionally right? Oh well, I'm killing the ship and starting over. I'm new to kerbal so just through tonight, i'm already better than I was when I built this problematic ship. The problems are kinda fun, at least for a little while. thanks.