Trial of Insight

[Lilla Syrin]

They came out of the lift and into a dimly lit hall, the scent of old food and sweat strong in the air. Nadorcot moved forward, reading the numbers on the doors. Lilla’s right hand dropped to her belt and.

They reached the door to the room Taska had given them. There was a doorbell, but Lilla ignored it; Taska had told them to knock. She rapped her knuckles once beneath the eye slit. “Here for a pickup,” she said. “Package from Coruscant.”

There was silence. Behind her, Lilla could sense Nadorcot checking the hall, covering their backs.

“I remember Coruscant,” a voice said from the other side of the door.

“Never forget,” Lilla said.

The magnetic locks on the door slid back with a solid thunk.

“Come in,” the voice said.

Lilla shared a look with Nadorcot, then tabbed the open button on the panel above the doorbell. The door slid open immediately, revealing a room narrower than the hall itself and even more poorly lit.

A single fixture, recessed into the wall on the left, guttered, then flared bright for a moment, and in it Lilla could see a man, dressed in refugee attire, tears in his tunic and poncho. He looked to be in his mid-twenties at most, and like a man who was living on a cocktail of suspicion, fatigue, and worry. His hands were out of sight beneath the poncho, and Lilla had a very good idea what they were holding.

“Close it behind you,” the man said.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla stepped inside far enough to allow Nadorcot to enter behind her. The door closed with a whine, and the one ceiling light flicked on, dropping a blue-white glare onto all of them.

“Who’re you?”

“Lilla. Jedi. And this is Nadorcot, a Ranger.”

The man looked at them, then brought his hands out, empty, from where they’d been hidden. “Onnect. You’re my ride?”

“We’re your ride. Sooner we’re out of here the better.”

“No argument.”

The lights suddenly changed hue, flashing red. An instant later, a klaxon started blaring. Onnect started, one hand again vanishing beneath the poncho, this time emerging with a blaster carbine, its barrel cut down, presumably for ease of concealment. He stared at them accusingly.

“You bring someone with you?”

“Not on purpose.” Lilla said, turning and cradling her saber hilt in her palm.

Nadorcot had opened the door and was sticking her head out, blaster at the ready. “It’s clear. We should move.”

“Stairs at the end of the hall,” Onnect said. “Safer than the lift.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Nadorcot led. They reached the door to the stairs and the Ranger hit the panel, but the door refused to open. Nadorcot slapped a hand against the panel a second time, and there was a whining noise. On the display above it, Lilla could read the words EMERGENCY LOCKOUT.

“Environmental emergency,” Lilla muttered. Of course, the building sealed itself off.

“Elevator,” Onnect hissed.

“Get it open!” Lilla told Nadorcot, turning back toward the lifts and pressing her side against the wall. Onnect, on the opposite side of the hall, was mirroring the manoeuvre, bringing up his carbine. Behind him came the sound of metal tearing as Nadorcot tore the door panel’s access plate free from the wall and began yanking at wires.

At that moment, the elevator chimed and its doors opened to reveal the bounty hunter. He came into view, planting himself squarely and bringing up both his guns. From the corner of his eye, Lilla could see Onnect glaring at her.

“On the bright side,” Lilla said, “they’re not government troopers.”

“Then who are they then?” Onnect demanded.

“Bounty hunters.”

“For me?”

“No…for me.”

The bounty hunter opened fire, ripping plaster chunks off the wall over Lilla’s head.

“Bounty hunters?” Onnect sounded incredulous. “You let bounty hunters follow you?”

“I didn’t precisely let them do anything!” Lilla deflected back two shots. “I can only guess Taska sold us out.”

Behind her, Nadorcot shouted in glee and the door suddenly opened.

Lilla gestured to Onnect. “Go!”

Onnect loosed three shots of suppressing fire from his carbine in quick succession, and Nadorcot followed those with another four from her pistol. With a lunge, Onnect was off the wall and through the door, Nadorcot after him.

Lilla deflected back another salvo, then followed the others into the stairwell. Nadorcot was somehow in the lead, leaping from landing to landing ahead of them, blaster gripped in one fist.

Onnect clambered down the steps after her, with Lilla on his tail, checking over her shoulder. For a handful of seconds there was nothing but the sound of their movement as they descended as quickly as possible, and then a blaster shot rang out from above and shattered the concrete a bare centimetre from Lilla’s left foot..

Nadorcot now reached the bottom of the stairs and it seemed the bounty hunter had anticipated this escape route and was trying to cut them off. Lilla pushed past Onnect and raised her hand. Nadorcot and the subordinate bounty hunter were too close to each other for Lilla to risk much. So, using the Force, she lifted the bounty hunter and smashed him against the wall.

“Move,” Lilla said.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

They emerged into the lobby, the old man still on his bench. “I did what you asked.” He held out a palm.

Lilla flipped some credits at the old man and ran through the lobby, Onnect beside her. Nadorcot was now behind them, and Lilla once again heard her blaster firing, and the thud of the shot smashing into a wall.

More blaster fire chased them out into the street, and Lilla turned to head for the speeder, catching movement off to her right. Another bounty hunter had taken position behind what Lilla intuited was the bounty-hunting team’s own speeder. Lilla lashed a hand back to grab Onnect’s poncho and pulled him down as he dove. The bounty hunter’s shot sizzled overhead and punched a dent in the facade of the hotel.

The Ranger reached down and yanked Lilla back to her feet, Lilla in turn pulling Onnect up after her.

They made the corner and turned it as another shot narrowly skimmed past Lilla’s shoulder. A swoop bike was parked a half-dozen metres short of where Lilla had left the speeder. It hadn’t been there before, and she nearly ran into it.

Lilla vaulted into the speeder’s front seat, thankful she’d left the top down, and Onnect similarly tumbled into the passenger seat beside her. Finally, Nadorcot dove into the back. Lilla kicked the engine to life, slammed the throttle forward, and wrenched the yoke, and the speeder shot forward and slewed into a one-eighty. Ahead of them, now, one of the bounty hunters was standing in the open and raising his rifle to his shoulder. The weapon was scoped, and Lilla could swear she sensed the reticule on her, the crosshairs settling between her eyes. The speeder howled, launching toward the man.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla realised she was about to get shot. There was nothing she could do, no place to move the speeder, no other direction to turn, no time to call on the Force and control the vehicle. The bounty hunter had her dead to rights.

Beside her, Onnect was on one knee in his seat. Raising his own carbine to his shoulder, he fired. Lilla was certain he’d missed, but the human bounty hunter staggered and fell, his own shot going wild.

The speeder tore forward as Lilla brought it through the turn, accelerating back in the direction of the hotel. They flew past the entrance just as the leader and one of the other bounty hunters emerged. Nadorcot fired once, the blaster’s bolt exploding over the bounty hunters’ heads, then ducked down to avoid return fire. Lilla, on the rear-screen projection, saw them pelted by rubble. The leader loosed a salvo at them, one of the bolts skipping off the tail of the speeder. The vehicle dipped, and Lilla jerked the yoke and brought it back under control.

“I hope you have a plan,” Onnect said.

“Yes, we have a plan,” Lilla said, glancing at Nadorcot. “We go to the port, we go to our ship, we leave. That’s the plan. It’s a good plan.”

“It’s hardly a plan.”

“I can take you back to your hotel if you’d like,” Lilla said.

“No, thank you,” Onnect said. “We’ll try your plan.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla swung the speeder onto the main drag and opened the throttle to full. Buildings and vehicles blurred past. She checked the rear screen again, catching her breath. Nadorcot was reloading.

“I can't believe she sold us out,” Lilla said.

The Ranger nodded. “She must have had a reason.”

“Betrayal isn’t the only option,” Onnect said.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“They’re being pursued?” the officer said.

“Not at the moment, though two of the bounty hunters are certainly going to follow.”

“Only two?”

“I had to exercise initiative to execute your plan as required, ma’am.”

“Discreet, I trust?”

“Very discreet, ma’am.”

“Two had to be neutralised to allow the quarry to escape.”

“Let me know when they reach the port.”

“Understood.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The lights over the docking bay doors switched from red to blue.

Lilla turned as she entered and walked backwards for an instant, speaking to the two who followed her.

“It’s fast,” Lilla was saying. “You’ve never been on anything faster. We’ll be okay, I promise.”

The second one to enter was Onnect. “She better be,” he said. “Because she looks like she needs a tow.”

The Ranger, taking up the rear, spoke next. “We’re going to be fine.”

Suddenly troopers stepped out from behind the landing gear, from where they’d been concealed behind the fuelling pumps, storage crates, loadlifters, and the mammoth generators for the magnetic shield that served as the roof to the bay.

They slipped from the shadows at the far walls and rose up from where they’d been hiding in the scaffolding above. They moved in near-perfect unison, the sound they made terrifying and certain.

The officer had her blaster pointed at Lilla.

Onnect and the Ranger both pivoted, turning back to the exit to look for an escape. Lilla started to turn with them, then stopped as she saw more flow into the room like water, surrounding Lilla, Onnect, and Nadorcot.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The stormtroopers surrounding them didn’t move. One of the troopers took Nadorcot’s blaster. They disarmed Onnect next, then came to Lilla. Reluctantly, she took her saber hilt from her belt and handed it over.

“I’m going to want that back,” Lilla said.

The stormtrooper didn’t say anything and just stepped back.

The officer spoke now. “You are outnumbered, outgunned, and with no hope of escape or rescue. Any resistance will be met with force. I say this to make it clear: you have no hope.”

“I always have hope,” Lilla said, mostly to annoy her.

It worked. The woman stepped closer.

“No,” she said. “You are terrorists. You are rebels. And you will meet the fate reserved for all enemies of the government. You will be interrogated. You will be broken. Then you will be executed.”

“You’ll never stop us,” Onnect said, behind Lilla.

“Onnect,” she said. “How does it feel knowing your team sacrificed their lives, only for you to end up in my hands at the end? I should think that would hurt quite a bit.”

Onnect moved forward, coming shoulder to shoulder with Lilla. “You will never stop us. We will not be broken. However long it takes, we will never stop fighting.”

Lilla looked at Onnect. It wasn’t the words, or at least not the words alone; it was how Onnect said them, the conviction of them. It was absolute, and it was fearless. But most of all it was admirable. Onnect believed what he was saying. He believed in what he was doing. And not just that, he believed that what he was doing was right and would prevail.

Lilla could relate to that.

The officer lunged suddenly, catching Onnect by the chin and pulling him forward. At the same time, one of the stormtroopers took hold of his arms. Lilla took the opportunity to take a half step back, closer to Nadorcot.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“You will tell us everything,” the officer said. “By the time I am finished with you, you will be begging to tell me everything, Onnect.”

She released him. “Binders on all of them. Search them. I want a transport immediately to move them aboard the Ascension.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Nadorcot tilted her head, and Lilla read her thoughts.

“I’m working on it,” Lilla replied telepathically.

There had to be a way out, but she wasn’t seeing it. With forty or more troopers surrounding the three of them, much as she hated to admit it, they were out of moves. If she could get aboard their ship there were options.

The ship was plated with military-grade armour that would easily shrug off the small-arms fire from the blaster rifles and keep them safe. There were a couple of other surprises packed aboard, too. But it meant getting to the ship, and she could already tell that wasn’t about to happen.

How to get aboard without getting shot to pieces in the process?

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The bay was littered with exactly the sorts of things you’d expect from such places. Crates of replacement parts scattered here and there, the refuelling system, its pressure pumps and hoses – that could be a big boom if she could somehow disrupt it – the great big magnetic-field generators maintaining the energy barrier overhead. Lilla glanced up, saw the shimmering blue, the polluted night sky above glowing a dull reddish brown, the cantina-ship coming slowly into view, riding its repulsors silently, the distant air traffic gliding past beyond.

Lilla blinked and nudged Nadorcot with her elbow, using her eyes to direct the Ranger’s gaze skyward. The ship was making a slow turn, almost hovering now. As they watched, the ventral hatch on the craft slid open, and a moment later the turret dropped into place, rotating to point at them.

One of the troopers was searching Onnect, and being thorough about it. Another trooper stood with him, holding three sets of binders.

“The magnetic shield is still up,” Lilla said, quietly.

Nadorcot mumbled something.

“It’s not my fault.” Lilla said loudly and turned suddenly, stepping closer to the Ranger until their chests were almost butting. “And I don’t want to hear talk like that again.”

“Be quiet–” a trooper said.

“You tell her to be quiet,” Lilla snapped.

The officer glared at them both, and Onnect twisted where he stood, his hands now out in front of him, the binders ready to snap onto his wrists.

Nadorcot leaned forward and called the Jedi something that Lilla would’ve been ashamed to say to her own mother. If she’d known who she was.

“You say that again I’ll make you regret it.”

Nadorcot said it again.

“That’s it. I’ve had enough out of you,” Lilla said, and she swung and punched Nadorcot in the jaw. It looked a good punch – but she used her Jedi powers to pull the blow and still make it look realistic.

Nadorcot screamed and both hands came up. Then, she shoved Lilla, sending her flying back into the trooper behind her. The first collision caused a second, then a third, a clatter of armour hitting the floor and Lilla landing atop the pile.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla twisted and wrenched the blaster rifle from the nearest trooper’s hand. She thumbed the selector to turn the weapon from stun, raised and rolled it all at once. She put the sights on the generator nearest her and fired. Blaster bolts flew and smashed into the machinery, bursting through its exterior casing, and Lilla fired again.

The generator blew, exploding into fragments and fire, and then Lilla was up on a knee and sighting at the second generator, across the bay. She knew it was a much harder shot, but she fired anyway. The second generator blew at once, and above them the magnetic shield vanished, immediately replaced by the howling of the heated, toxic air rushing into the docking bay. Tiny particles of smog stung her eyes and instantly coated the back of her throat. Lilla felt herself immediately beginning to perspire, and just as immediately felt the sweat evaporating from her skin.

Everyone was moving at once, now.

“Get down!” Lilla shouted and launched herself at Onnect, catching the man around the waist and dragging him to the deck just as the ship opened fire from its belly turret.

The first salvo of shots slammed straight into the group of troopers Lilla had left behind.

She heard shouts, cries of pain, and scrambled to her feet, dragging Onnect with him. Nadorcot was already halfway to the ship, dropping the ramp, and Lilla all but threw Onnect after the Ranger. Her eyes and throat were burning from the pollution, the foul atmosphere already feeling like it was corroding her flesh.

The heat was climbing; it had its own weight, trying to cook her inside and out. The stormtrooper who had taken their weapons was flat on the ground, facedown, hit by the turret fire.

“Run! Go!”

Another salvo from above, too close for Lilla’s comfort as she dropped the E-11 and scooped up her and Nadorcot’s weapons. Troopers were firing, but the ship’s salvos were forcing them into cover, and now Lilla was racing after Onnect, who was sprinting for the ramp. Nadorcot was out of sight, already inside.

Lilla was almost at the ship when she felt her right leg go suddenly numb as she was grazed by a stun bolt. She managed to collapse on the ramp as it began to raise. Onnect pulled her forward, into the safety of the ship.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“Nadorcot! Time to leave!” Lilla pulled herself upright using Onnect and the side of the hull, then half hopped, half limped through the main compartment and toward the cockpit. The ship came to life beneath her boots; she could feel it leaping suddenly into the air. Sweat ran into her eyes, making them sting. Onnect stumbled and Lilla had to brace herself, and then she was in the cockpit and falling into the pilot’s seat.

“Told you I’d think of something,” she said, reaching for the headset with one hand and taking the yoke with the other.

Nadorcot laughed and slapped a battery of switches. Behind them, Onnect was taking the navigator’s seat and already strapping himself in.

“You two play it fast and loose,” Onnect said.

“It worked, didn’t it?”

Nadorcot laughed again.

Lilla finished setting the comlink headset in place and turned on the speakers in the cockpit. “Thanks for the help.”

“Figured I owed you one.”

“You get him?”

“I’m here, Taska,” Onnect said. “Nice friends you’ve got.”

“They pulled through, didn’t they? But as much as I’d love to chat about the rescue, I’m thinking it’s time for all of us to get out of here.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla rocked the throttle forward, bringing the ship off of repulsors and feathering the engines to life. The ship responded, surging and eager, and already outside the canopy Lilla could see the pollution melting away, the stars springing into view. Off the starboard side, the cantina-ship was keeping pace, wisps of the upper atmosphere streaming from the ship’s hull like smoke from a dying fire.

The sensors began bleating, and Nadorcot checked her deck, slapped another two switches, and reached up behind her, powering up the weapons. Lilla glanced at her sensors and twisted to stab one of the buttons on the navicomputer, bringing it to life.

“I’m going to angle the deflectors,” Nadorcot said, then pointed at Onnect. “You better know where we’re going.”

“I know where we’re going.”

“Feed it to the navicomputer.”

Lilla’s leg was beginning to throb, the stun wearing off. Ahead of them and far too big, the Destroyer was turning into view, a flight of tiny dots in tight formation heading in their direction from beneath the massive vessel. “Taska, eight marks at one-one.”

“We see them.”

“How long until you can make the jump to lightspeed?”

“Couple of minutes.”

“Just stay away from that Destroyer.”

“You think? Really? Is that Jedi wisdom?”

“Destination is programmed,” Onnect said as the navicomputer beeped. “It’ll take a couple minutes before the jump is plotted. Can we hold them off?”

Lilla checked her sensors again, then the view from the cockpit. The ships were closing in, fast.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Nadorcot said.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“Will they bring us in on a tractor beam?” Onnect asked.

“Not at this range. With their own small fighters out here. It’ll risk tearing them apart,” Nadorcot responded.

“Got three more coming around, starboard at two-eight mark seven!” Onnect said.

“Shoot them,” Nadorcot barked.

Lilla played the throttle, dropping thrust on the ship’s starboard sublight engine and at the same time pulling the yoke to the left and back, bringing the ship around in a nearly uncontrolled spin and loop. The artificial gravity aboard the ship, a fraction of a second behind the manoeuvre, struggled to compensate, and Lilla nearly flew free of the pilot’s seat.

“Taska, how you doing?”

“We’ve had better days!”

Another fighter seemed to come out of nowhere, firing as it went, and shot overhead so close Lilla was certain she could see the pilot in the fighter’s tiny cockpit. The ship shuddered as laser fire raked the dorsal hull. The deflector display to Nadorcot’s left flashed, the small graphic representation of the ship that had been glowing green to indicate the shields were at full power now beginning to shift to yellow.

The Ranger reached under the console, pulled a coil of wiring free with an attendant burst of sparks, and shoved the end into one of the sockets at her right elbow. The display flared, the yellow vanished, and the green returned.

“That’ll work for now,” Lilla said. “Hold on.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Outside the canopy, the starfield whirled like someone was trying to send it down a drain as Lilla brought the starboard engine back to match thrust with the other two propelling the Ship. They shot forward, the ship now rapidly rolling around and around as it went.

“I can’t get a shot if you do that!” Onnect said.

“I’m giving you a shot,” Lilla said. “Get ready.”

The ship came out of its last roll and Lilla jinked to port, then dipped the nose before yanking back on the yoke, hard, putting the ship into a tight turn and inverting their flight and direction. The fighters that had fallen off with the ship’s acceleration reappeared dead ahead, closing fast, four of them in tight attack formation.

“Money lane shot,” Nadorcot said. “Do it!”

Onnect worked the ship’s turbolasers, the two turrets mounted atop and beneath the ship.

Normally – ideally – Lilla would man one of the guns and either Nadorcot or another warm body the other, but their current situation clearly didn’t allow for that. Lilla and Nadorcot were both required in the cockpit. It wasn’t the first time they had found themselves in this situation, and Nadorcot had accounted for it by running auxiliary fire control through the cockpit.

It wasn’t as accurate as manning the guns individually, and it relied heavily on computer assist, but if Onnect knew what he was doing, he’d be able to down at least one of the TIEs. Lilla had handed him the shot on a plate.

Onnect knew what he was doing. A flare of light burst off to Lilla’s left as the dorsal turbolasers fired, and one of the approaching fighters bloomed into a cascade of fire and debris. The remaining fighters tried to split, two to port, one to starboard; Onnect opened up with the ventral turret, and a second fighter exploded into nothingness, vaporised by a direct hit.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“One-four mark six!”

Lilla put the ship into another roll, this time swooping around to eyeball the coordinates Taska had given. The Ascension was looming closer, much closer than it had been before.

One of the computers at the navigation station chirped, then chortled.

“We’ve got the jump,” Onnect said. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Taska, we’re good to go.” Lilla said, the two remaining fighters still pursuing them and skimming past to port, firing as they came. The ship rocked again, the shield display flashing, the green disappearing into a wash of yellow. They were losing their shields.

The cantina-ship came into view through the cockpit, it was looping in an attempt to shake the three fighters still relentlessly attacking. As Lilla watched, one of the fighters fired a salvo that raked along the hull, shots flashing and dissipating along its shields. There was a flare of light, then a burst of debris from atop the hip.

“Taska?”

There was static over the comms, harsh white noise for an instant, then Taska’s voice, threaded with barely restrained panic.

“We just lost our navicomputer! We don’t have a jump!”

“You still have auxiliary?”

“It’s gonna be another minute before we can run the bypass. We take another hit like that, we’re dead in space!” The edges of panic in Taska’s voice were clearer.

Nadorcot looked at Lilla.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

It wasn’t good. A quick check of the sensors showed that the Destroyer would be in tractor beam range inside twenty seconds. They had their coordinates plotted, and the hyperdrive was ready; all it would take was a turn to the proper heading and kicking into lightspeed and Lilla, Nadorcot, Onnect, the ship, all of them would be instantly and safely away from the government’s grip. They could leave right now – mission accomplished.

But it would leave the cantina-ship behind, exposed, vulnerable. It would mean that Taska would be captured, brought aboard Ascension. She would be interrogated and tortured. At best, the crew would spend the rest of their lives on some penal world.

At worst, they’d never leave the Ascension alive.

Nadorcot was still looking at Lilla. She could feel Onnect behind her, doing the same.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla pushed the throttles forward, feeling the ship surge, and slapped the SLAM activator Nadorcot had installed to give the ship an additional burst of speed. The cantina ship zoomed closer, the fighters on its tail still swirling around it like angry insects. Onnect opened fire and clipped one of them, sending it twirling away toward the nimbus glow of the planet’s atmosphere, fired again and caught another with a graze along the cockpit ball. Atmosphere immediately erupted from the perforated cabin in a cloud of white and grey vapour as the fighter splintered into jagged pieces of metal.

“Go.” Taska suddenly sounded much calmer. “That Destroyer’s unbeatable. We’re done here. We’re not going to have the jump in time.”

The ship jolted, shields fading from yellow to red. Three fighters and a Destroyer. Taska was correct – there was no way to win that particular fight. And Lilla, as a Jedi, was always told that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

“We’re covering you,” Lilla said. Unless she was going to definitely jeopardise Onnect’s safety, she would continue to fight here.

“Really?”

“Really!”

Lilla heard the relief in her laugh over the speakers.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Aboard Ascension, they watched as the number of fighters steadily diminished, what had been eight now reduced to three. Something was wrong with the cantina-ship, though; they’d seen the debris fly. Their main prey was another matter. Fighters had scored direct hits on its aft section above the engines, twice along the dorsal line, and once near the cockpit, but not one of the shots had seemed to have any appreciable effect.

It didn’t matter. They were in range now.

“Target locked, tractor beam at maximum power.”

There was no visible response from the emitters at the fore of the Destroyer. Unlike lasers, the energy field for the tractor beam was outside the visible spectrum.

But it was there. A conelike ray slowly flowing away from them, a semi-transparent wave that spread inexorably toward the ships.

It first struck one of the fighters pursuing and yanked it back as if on a leash, taking the fighter’s velocity and suddenly, even cruelly, stealing it away. The stress was too much for the little fighter; the twin solar panels on either side tore apart like it was a child’s toy broken in an angry tantrum. The ball of the cockpit hung motionless, suspended, then crushed in on itself.

The beam continued its advance.

“If they catch us in that tractor beam, we’re done,” Onnect said. “I can’t let them take me alive, you understand that?”

“They’re not taking any of us,” Lilla said with genuine conviction.

Nadorcot quickly rebalanced power from the engines to the shields again. For the second time, she pulled the cord of wiring and plugged it into yet another socket.

“Taska, make a run for the atmosphere and we’ll cover you. How long until you’ve got your jump?”

“Another fifteen seconds.”