Weapons unlinking?

[IANF]

I drove my ship off and accidentally got out. it sped away without me so i had to chase it down. i got to it and had to quickly jump in an run because pirates found me. i turned to fight but only 1 block of gun was linked to the weapons. even though i had 8 4 block guns none were connected though they were working earlier. I couldn't shoot the pirates down and i couldn't stop to replace all my weapons. so my ship died. The weapons were working earlier because i was shooting them off randomly.