e could go without attracting attention, Jason navigated the air over the grassy parks and walkways that separated the towering buildings of Dracora. At no time did Jason bring the skimmer more than fifteen _shakra_ off the ground and didn't go any faster than sixty _kathra_ an hour, a virtual crawl that made their trip through Dracora take more than two hours. But it was the only way to get there without being spotted. Jason used the knowledge that Miaari gave him to take the least populated route, winding and twisting through the industrial sectors of the city, keeping away from any concentrations of Faey that might notice the low-flying, slow-going skimmer and get curious enough to have someone check it out. It was a nerve-wracking trip, as all three of them kept expecting fighters to swoop down and fire on them at any moment, but no such thing happened. Two hours after boarding the skimmer, Jason inched it over a crumbling wall that surrounded an abandoned warehouse, then extended the landing skids and set the skimmer down gently. _This is it,_ he sent. _We're about ten minutes early._

_I... there's someone in there, Jason, but I can't get a fix on how many, or who,_ Meya told him. _I can sense minds, but minds that seem to want to hide from me._

_Well, this is where Miaari told us to go. I think we have to trust that whoever's in there is a friend._

_I don't like blind trust like that, Jason._

_It's not blind trust, Meya, its faith. I have faith in Miaari. She won't let us down._

Meya gave him a dark look, then sighed and nodded. "Let's go. I hope they have dry clothes."

The three of them filed out of the skimmer and walked quickly towards the only door visible on the building, which was in the left corner. It opened before they got there, and all three of them stopped abruptly when they saw what was standing there waiting for them.

It was a Kimdori!

A male, and a fucking _huge_ one, nearly eight feet tall! Jason felt that shiver go up his spine when the Kimdori, in his natural canine form, looked at him, then motioned them to come forward as he stepped out of the doorway. They hurried to the door and stepped through, coming into an open warehouse area; the walls of the building were just a shell enclosing its entire volume. There were no rooms inside at all, just vast warehouse space. And in the middle of that warehouse floor was a small passenger dropship, a dropship being attended to by nearly two dozen Kimdori.

"Jason Fox," the male stated, looking down at him. "Miaari waits for you in the dropship. We have only to wait for the others to arrive, and then we are departing."

"Others? What others?"

"The Marines tasked to protect you. They are just outside the outer wall. They have been following you," he said with a sly smile. "Go to the dropship."

Jason nodded, and the three of them rushed over and up the cargo ramp. The interior of the small craft had been converted to carry passengers only, six rows of four chairs bolted to the deck. Two figures stood at the hatch leading to the cockpit, and it made Jason come up short.

One of them was Miaari. The other, holding her arm in her hand and looking a bit frazzled and wearing a thin, frilly black robe, was _Myleena_.

"Myleena!" Jason gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? She _kidnapped_ me, that's what I'm doing here!" she shouted, pointing at Miaari. "Took me right out of bed!"

"What? Why did you do that?" he asked, looking at Miaari.

"Because she must go," she answered simply.

"Go? Go where?" Jason looked around, then it dawned on him. "You're not taking us back to Earth, are you?"

She only gave him a level stare.

"Where are we going?"

"Where you must," she shrugged. "Board the ship, ladies," she called over Jason. He turned and looked, and saw nine black-armored Marines being led to the ship by that same huge male. "Time is passing, and we must be away from here soon."

_Jason? What the fuck is going on? Why are there Kimdori here?_ Meya asked.

_Damned if I know,_ he answered. _They told me they were going to help me get off Draconis, but they're not taking us home._

The Kimdori left the dropship, all but Miaari. The gray-furred creature walked up to Jason and put her hands on his shoulders, then put her hand on his neck. He felt that moment of _expansion_ when she did so, but he felt nothing pass between them. "This ship will take you to a cargo vessel in orbit over the planet. That vessel is unmanned and automated. The autopilot will take you to your destination."

"How do we get back?" Songa asked.

"You will know how to get back," she assured them. "This is a journey you must make alone. We cannot go with you."

"Why?" Jason asked.

"When you arrive, you will know why," she told him.

"I don't understand."

"It is not something I can explain to you without breaking an oath, Jason," she told him. "Do you trust me?"

"With my life," he blurted impulsively.

"Then trust me now. I am not sending you into danger, and when you arrive, you will understand. I wish I could explain it to you. I truly do. But I fear it is something to which we have been sworn to secrecy."

"But you weren't sworn to not, say, program an autopilot to take us somewhere, right? Take us somewhere so we'd see something you want us to see, and figure it out on our own?"

She gave him a wolfish grin. "You are a clever human, Jason Fox. You do your people proud. You have done your birthright as a human proud, but now it is time for you to accept your other birthright." She turned and beckoned to a Kimdori he hadn't seen, who had been in the cockpit, and the small female advanced and held out a tray holding a small white box to Miaari. She took it and offered it to Jason. "Open it."

It was a simple plastic box, made of white material, smooth and cool to the touch. It had no markings or designs on it, and he saw that to open it, he only had to pull the top away from the bottom. He did so, and found the interior to be lined with blue velvet.

Inside the box was a metal object, roughly semicircular in appearance. It was a twisted metal bar with five protrusions, one of which was a curled bar that rose above the rest of it. Jason took it from the box and turned it this way and that, until he turned it in such a way that he saw a horizontal prong and a vertical one. That brought back to him a sudden image of the picture he saw of Sora Karinne, and that strange black metal thing she wore on her face.

This was one of those things. It was one of the Karinne face ornaments.

"What is this?" Jason asked.

"You will understand when the time comes," she told him. "Listen to me very carefully, both of you. As you can see, there is only one, but there are two of you. Jason, this one belongs to you. Myleena will have to wait to receive hers. Now, it is very important that you understand this, Jason. _Do not_ put this on until _after_ you have reached your destination. But when you do arrive, as soon as you drop out of hyperspace, you must put it on. Do you understand?"

"Why?" Myleena demanded.

"I cannot tell you why. I can only tell you that you must listen to me."

"That's not much of a reason," she flared.

"Young pup, you try my patience," she said in a deceptively level tone, fixing Myleena a withering stare, one that made the freckled Faey pale slightly and shrink back from the Kimdori. "You are being difficult just to protest the way we brought you here. Get over it, Myleena Merrane. Your petty protests are nothing compared to the importance of the reason behind it. Now, do as I have told you, or I will _do something_ about it," she warned, holding up a clawed hand and reaching towards the Merrane noble.

Myleena shrank back from that hand. "Alright, alright."

"Remember, Jason. Put it on only after you have arrived, but you must do so the moment you are back in normal space," Miaari reminded him after turning to him again.

"I don't really understand why, but I understand, Miaari. What is it?"

"It is your birthright," she told him. "You are a Karinne, Jason. Both you and the resistant one," she added, giving Myleena an icy look. "This is who you are."

"Where am I going, Miaari? I don't understand."

"You are going to find the truth, Jason Fox," she told him. "It may seem that returning home and continuing against Trillane would be what you must do, but it is not. Finding the truth will be much more important to you. In this, you must trust me, Jason Fox. I would not lead you astray. Not now, not after we have come so far."

"I, I trust you, Miaari. If you say this'll help us more than me going home, I'll trust that you know what you're talking about. I have no bloody fucking idea what the hell is going on, but I'll look past that and trust you."

She gave him a wolfish smile. "Very good. They chose well, Jason Fox. Now is the time to prove that. Know only this. When you find what you seek, remember that we did our best for you. After you complete this journey, your opinion of us is going to change. Considerably. Remember only that we do truly care about you, and have done what we knew had to be done."

"I couldn't hate you, Miaari."

"I truly hope that is the truth, Jason Fox. Now, you must go, and so must we. Do you have all three sets of clothing?" Miaari demanded of a small male Kimdori who had scurried onto the dropship. He was holding a large bag.

"Yes, Elder," the male answered. "A uniform for Myleena and dry clothes for Jason and Meya."

"Put it there and disembark." Miaari looked over at the Marines. "Be seated, ladies, you are departing. Guard him well. He is important to the Kimdori."

"He's pretty fucking important to us too," Sheleese growled under her breath as the Marines moved aside and let the Kimdori pass. Miaari and the small female padded down the ramp, and she turned and looked up into the ship from the bottom. Jason started at her, his mind whirling as he tried to understand what the hell all of that was all about, but he had the presence of mind to wave to her as the ramp began to close.

"What the hell was that about?" Meya asked.

"I, I don't know," Jason grunted, turning the piece of metal Miaari had given him over and over in his hands. "I'm totally confused. I don't understand anything about what just happened."

"Where are they taking us, I wonder?" Songa asked. "Where could we possibly go to learn this truth she wants us to learn?"

"Well, we're about to find out," Myri said as the ship's engines whined into life, and they felt the ship lift up from the warehouse floor. "And they're not gonna wait for us to strap in, either! Everyone grab a seat, fast!" she barked.

They all hastily found a seat and strapped in, as the dropship, flying on autopilot, cleared the warehouse and turned a steep angle that told him they were on an orbital ascent vector _Why are you two wet?_ Maya sent in curiosity.

Jason and Meya looked at each other, then burst into laughter. _It's a long story,_ Meya replied. _I'm Meya, by the way. Personal bodyguard to Kumi Trillane, and one of the rebels of the Legion._

_We know who you are, girl,_ Myri told her. _We were briefed. You and Doctor Songa._

_I'm, I'm a little afraid, Jason,_ Myleena admitted privately to him. _What's going on? Why are the Kimdori acting like this? I've never heard of them doing things like this, or acting this way. It's almost like they're possessed._

_I don't know, Myleena, but _he looked over at Songa, who sat on his other side, her hand over his own on the armrest. _But I trust them. They've already helped us so much, I can't believe that they're doing anything other than what they said they are._

_But, are you sure?_

_As sure as I am of anything anymore. This ride has gone way out of my control, and now I'm just hanging on for dear life._

_That's an... appropriate metaphor,_ Myleena sent as the dropship's angle steepened, sinking them all into their chairs.

                                        * * *

The trip up as quick and nervous. None of them had any idea what was going on, what was happening, but Sergeant Myri had gotten them all calmed down well enough by assuming command. Once the ship came out of its ascent, they found out that the dropship had to be in space, for they were in a weightless state. Jason, Meya, and Myleena changed clothes, and being Faey, they didn't bother to go into the tiny bathroom of the dropship to do it. Jason, however, still had enough of a sense of modesty not to undress in front of eleven women, and the bathroom was occupied by Ilia, who was throwing up ("Space sickness, she always gets it," Sheleese had told him with an evil grin), so Jason changed in the cockpit. What Miaari had left them wasn't what he was used to, however. It was a matching skin-tight shirt and pair of hugging trousers, black and gray with silver vertical stripes running from the hem of the boot all the way to the waist on the pants, and a matching stripe from the hem to the collar along the outside of the shirt. The garment was made of memory mesh, a tough, resistant material that was very durable. It took him a little bit to get it on, since they were in zero gravity, but once he got them on, they seemed to visibly loosen, until they were as comfortable as a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. There was an overgarment that went with it as well, a garment so much like the old blue denim overshirt he used to wear that it made him put it on to get a feel for it. It felt the same way too, with sleeves that came down to his elbows and pockets on the outside of it on both sides of his chest. It fell over his chest perfectly to make it comfortable, so he decided to keep it. He had to strap himself to a cockpit seat to get the boots on, but it also gave him a view of where they were going.

It was a very old, very battered cargo ship. It looked like a flattened cigar, no nacelles, no protrusions, and the hull was pitted, stained, and in a few places, it had blast burns from weaponry. The ship had no windows, no ports, only a large pair of doors in the belly, doors that silently opened as the dropship approached it. The interior of the ship was empty, with a large array of clamps and claws on long poles hanging from the roof of the bay, and Jason realized that cargo containers were grabbed by those clamps. That was how the ship carried its goods. And since it was automated, there was no need for a crew and the amenities a crew would require. There were no crew quarters, no galley, nothing. Jason realized that they would never leave the dropship as the dropship slowed and then ascended into the cargo bay. The ship shuddered as a series of _clangs_ resonated through the hull, as the clamps took hold of the dropship and secured it. Jason looked down over the bow and saw that the doors were closing, while the sudden lateral thrust of the ship told him that the cargo ship was starting to turn.

_What was that?_ Myri sent.

_We're inside the cargo ship, and its starting to move._

_Thank Trelle, when do we get out of here?_ Zora asked.

_We don't, the ship's nothing but a flying cargo bay. It's robotic, it doesn't have anywhere to put us._

_Nuts._

Myri floated into the door and then pushed over to the cockpit seats, then strapped in to the pilot's chair. A few deft commands on the holographic keyboard brought up a second screen with elegant Faey script.

[Automated Cargo Carrier MDK83-2 online. Telemetry links enabled. Available link displays: Camera system; Navigation; Ship Status; Drone Activity; Cargo Manifests]

"What are you doing?"

"These old robot ships have an open system," Myri told him as she touched the holographic screen over words, which changed the display. "Sometimes, when they carry people like this one is doing now, it allows the passengers to establish a passive link with the computer's operating system, so we can see what's going on outside or see what the ship's going to do, but we can't change any of its commands. I'm getting us into the ship's navigation right now. Those Kimdori had to program the ship to tell it where to go, and when I get there, I can see where they're sending us."

"Oh. When did you learn about all this?"

"I'm a Marine, Jason," she told him with a glance. "We train for ship to ship combat, so we have to know how various ships work in case we ever have to board one."

"Ah."

"Here we go, let me bring up navigation. I'll project it up onto the windshield."

They looked as the windshield shimmered, then a holographic projection appeared of a starmap. Jason saw Draconis on that map as a yellow dot with a label, then a dotted, curved line appeared as the map zoomed out. The dotted line connected with a blue dot quite some distance away, connected by what Jason would call a pilot's arc back to Draconis.

Myri gasped. "Are they insane?" she demanded. "We have to get off this thing!"

"Myri, where are we going?"

"They have this thing set to send us to _Karis_!" she snapped. "If we come within fifty million _kathra_ of the planet, we'll be fried by radiation! What were they _thinking_?" she demanded as she typed furiously on her keyboard.

Karis. The ancestral home of the Karinnes, destroyed over a thousand years ago at the beginning of the Third Civil War. He remembered what he read, that the planet was bombed with Omega weapons, which poisoned the planet with deadly radiation that killed everyone who didn't die during the bombardment, and did it so quickly that they didn't even have time to get on ships and escape the planet. Omega radiation was _that_ lethal.

Why send him there, though? The planet was destroyed, and he couldn't even get close enough to survive if he tried! It didn't make any sense!

But Miaari knew it would kill him when she sent him there, so, maybe... maybe it _wouldn't_.

He had to have faith. He had to believe that Miaari wouldn't send him there to die. After all, she had had so many opportunities to kill him already; the idea of sending him to be cooked by a radioactive planet didn't really make much sense.

He put a hand over Myri's blurring hands, quelling her. "No," he said softly. "We have to trust Miaari. She wouldn't send us there just to die."

"Jason, I know you trust the dog, but you can't trust her this blindly," she pressed. "She's sending us to a radioactive wasteland!"

"She knows we can't survive there, Myri," he said adamantly. "So she wouldn't send us there unless she knew we'd be alright. Let's at least get there. If this thing uses hyperspace to get around, that means it can't jump into the interior of a star system. It has to come in at the edge and then come in under regular engines. We can check things out from the edge when we arrive, and go from there. Alright?"

Myri gave him a stern look, then sighed and nodded. "We'd have time to take over the drone ship and get it to take us home, but I don't like the idea of it. Karis is legally off limits, Jason. If we get stranded there, nobody's gonna come to rescue us. Nobody _would_, unless we were lucky enough to have a Jakkan ship nearby."

"What's a Jakkan?"

"The Jakkan are a race that's part of the Core Federation, the nation that borders us on the other side, towards the center of the galaxy," she told him. "Jakkans are immune to radiation. They'd be the only ones that _could_ come in to get us, but since they give off radiation themselves, it wouldn't be a good thing to be stuck on a ship with them for very long."

"Oh. Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?"

"Boy, I'm gonna beat you if you get us stuck there," she told him.

"Trust me, Myri, if we get stuck there, I'll let you beat me all you want," he grunted.

                                        * * *

It took them six hours to get to the edge of the Draconis star system, and in that time of weightless waiting, Jason could only wonder what Miaari had in mind for them. She was sending them to Karis, a poisoned planet that would kill them before they could even get within sight of it... but she wouldn't do that unless she was sure they'd be alright. It didn't make any sense, and seemed a little insane, but Jason had to hold to his faith that Miaari was truly looking out for him, and trust her. Trust her in a way he had never trusted anyone before, for she was sending him into what looked like certain death.

Karis. What would they find there? What was there that was so important that Miaari would kidnap Myleena and pile them into a ship to send them there, send them to a forbidden planet that glowed with lethal radiation?

He had time to ponder it, as did Myleena. They sat strapped to their chairs, debating the issue as the Marines floated about the cargo bay idly, doing maintenance on their armor, playing games, or in the case of Zora and Min, taking a nap. They wouldn't let him spend all his time in quiet consideration, however, for they hadn't seen him for a long time, and some of them didn't know him very well. So he and Myleena had quite a bit of friendly visitation from the Marines, as they renewed their friendships with Jason, and got to know Myleena, Meya, and Songa. He got to laugh with Sheleese, the squad clown, and get kisses on his cheeks at the same time from Lyn and Bryn, the cautious twins, and had Zora immediately start talking shop with him about flying and dropships, as they chatted about some new dropship and skimmers that had come out and Zora complained about some new rule changes coming down the pike that were going to be instituted at the beginning of next year. Zora seemed to glow with pleasure when he asked her how her son was doing, pleased that he would remember. Meya and Myri seemed to strike up an immediate friendship, hovering over on the side with a pair of MPAC rifles in their hands, talking about military tactics, guns, and other things martial. Both were professional veteran soldiers, one a Marine and the other a personal bodyguard, so they had a lot of common ground. Sheleese, Ilia, Lyn and Bryn were playing Queen's Swords using a magboard and a special deck of zero-g cards that Bryn owned, though Ilia still looked a little greenish around the cheeks. Maya was talking with Songa a few rows back, as Songa gave her some tips on field treatment; Maya doubled as the squad medic. Yana was checking her armor, piece by piece, hovering there in the cargo bay nude with her armor tied down to straps hanging off the wall, meticulously inspecting each part of it. She had no qualms about disrobing in front of her squadmates or other women, and though Jason was a man, he was also the husband of a squadmate, so that made him like family.

_I see they issued you new armor,_ Jason noted to Yana, after Myleena untied to go to the bathroom.

She turned and looked over her shoulder at him. _Yeah,_ she sent, and again Jason could feel her raw power. They told him that Yana almost never sent, she preferred to speak... but for some reason, she had no reservations about sending to Jason. _This is what we get to wear everywhere else, the Ajax. Nested MPACs, antigrav pods for zero-g operations and limited flight capability in gravity wells, telemetry, sensors, ground to space gravband comm system, the whole pod of _kaba_ nuts._

_It's a lot like mine,_ he noted. _Sounds like you have a few more systems than mine does._

_You have armor? What kind?_

_ZPS,_ he answered. _EM-60._

_Wow, those are really good. Expensive, but really good. Come over, I'll show you ours._

Jason unbelted and pushed off his seat, floating over to her. She braced one hand on the bulkhead and grabbed his hand with the other, and the touching of their hands caused her telepathic power to flare in his mind, as she unconsciously reached out to him, to try to join their minds. Jason had to actively defend himself from that push into his self, but the force behind it was very passive, very gentle. As soon as he offered resistance to it, it stopped advancing and quickly retreated. She blushed furiously and let go, lowering her eyes. "I'm _so_ sorry," she whispered. "When I touch people sometimes, that just kinda happens."

"It's alright, accidents happen," he assured her. "So, what else do these puppies do that's different from my ZPS?"

She showed him all the systems in Marine AJX Battle Armor, or just Ajax as the Marines called it, standard issue, built by a special personal combat systems division of Merrane Macrotechnology. Hovering there talking with Yana showed him that Yana was a little shy around him since she didn't know him very well, almost embarrassed about her incredible telepathic power, but she was trying to reach out and get to know him.

She explained how all their systems worked, basically as they just passed the time, then Yana broached a subject that caught Jason off guard. "Jason, what was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Having sex with Jyslin."

He gave her a startled look. "That's, er, a personal question, Yana."

"No, what was it like to, you know, _do it_," she asked, touching his temple with her finger meaningfully. "Boys won't let me do it, they're afraid of me," she told him in a quiet voice. "They're afraid I'm too strong for them, that I might hurt them. But you and Jyslin are both so strong, almost as strong as me, I was curious how you did it without, well, _hurting_ yourselves. You know?"

He laughed nervously. "Oh, _that_. Well, we were just careful, that's all," he told her. "I trusted that Jyslin wouldn't hurt us."

She chewed on the end of her finger absently. _I wish other boys believed that,_ she told him. _I've always wanted to try it, but boys are scared of me._

_Well, don't look at me,_ he warned.

She looked up at him, then giggled. _Of _course_ not, you silly. If we did that, Jyslin would kill both of us. I was just hoping you could, like, you know, explain how you did it without hurting yourselves, so I could explain it to a boy. I guess you wouldn't be scared of it, though. You and Jyslin are almost equally strong, so there's no huge gap there to intimidate you._

_I didn't realize Faey men were afraid of women like that._

_Well, they're afraid of _me_,_ she fretted. _They say I'm too strong, and I'll hurt them. You know, get lost in it and burn out their brains or something silly like that. They're afraid of opening themselves up like that to me, you know, no defenses._

_Well, sounds to me like you just need to find a guy that trusts you._

_You make it sound so easy,_ she accused. _It's not like I'll ever find a guy like you, either._

_Why not?_

_Jason, I'd put a year's pay on the fact that you're the strongest male telepath in the entire _Imperium_,_ she told him seriously. _You are _way_ over other males, and you're much stronger now than you were back in New Orleans. Your power has grown along with your control over it. I almost wouldn't believe a male could be as strong as you if I didn't know you personally. I guess that Faey blood in you mixed very well with your human blood and produced a male telepath with a woman's power._

_Maybe that's why Trillane is so afraid of me,_ he mused. _Not me personally, but what I might represent, a force of native telepaths strong enough to face them down._

_If I were Trillane, I would be,_ she nodded. _How strong was that other male? Tim, wasn't it?_

_Strong, but not as strong as me,_ he answered. _Though Temika is _really_ strong, up to a Marine's standard. Maybe you're right there, Yana, maybe children from a human and a Faey are very strong natural telepaths._

_Temika? Another human telepath?_

Jason nodded._ I met her in the preserve, after I left New Orleans. She's a powerful telepath, and she also throws a mean left hook. She could easily pass the Marine base test._

_Stronger than you?_

He shook his head.

_Well, your title is assured then, strongest human telepath,_ she told him with a grin. _You marry a Marine, baby, you _better_ be the best. We don't allow weaklings in here._

_Listen to you,_ he teased. _Making statements like that with your bare ass hanging out where everyone can see it._

_Like they care,_ she sent scathingly. _If they did care, I don't wanna know about it._

Jason laughed.

He and Myleena continued to speculate after Yana started putting her armor back on, but they simply could not understand why Miaari was sending them to Karis. There was just too much left out, too many holes. The only thing they really could say was that there was something there that Miaari felt they had to see, and that somehow it was tied in with the rebellion on Earth, that it would help Jason in his struggle against Trillane. But what could be on Karis that would do that? Maybe some old Karinne machines, like old fighters and stuff, that weren't blown up in the bombardment? If that was so, they'd have to decontaminate them. They could probably get some rifles and such, but given it was from a thousand years ago, they wouldn't be MPACs. They'd be hot plasma rifles or ion rifles, the technologies in use back then.

They ran out of time to speculate, however, because Myri shouted out from the cockpit that the ship was entering its hyperspace countdown, and they'd better strap in. "What's hyperspace like?"

"It's a jump, Jason," Maya told him. "It's very fast. We jump into hyperspace and travel between the origin and destination, then drop out of hyperspace. A trip to Karis is pretty far, so, what you think Lyn? Twenty seconds?"

"About that," she nodded. "Hyperspace travel is very fast, Jason. It only gets long if you're like moving between two empires or something like that. You move about a parsec a second in hyperspace."

"That's _in_ hyperspace, though," Bryn added. "Time moves different in there. It'll take us about twenty seconds, but out here, it'll take us about four days."

"Four days?"

"For everyone else. For us, it'll take about twenty seconds. It goes into relativity theory shit, you know. We'll be moving in a different time reference while we're in hyperspace."

"Einstein would have loved to meet you guys," Jason told them as Myri sent from the cockpit. _Everyone strapped in?_

_Just a sec, Sarge,_ Sheleese sent as she helped Songa adjust her shoulder strap, then she pulled herself into the seat next to the doctor and quickly and professionally strapped herself in. _Alright._

_We're good,_ Ilia answered. _We're ready to go._

_Alright, we're jumping in thirty seconds._

_I've never jumped hyperspace b