d and got control of himself, then looked around. Myleena and Myri were turning to look at the hologram, and Zora was already changing her navigation holograms. "We're here," she called. "Alright, I have 37 contacts in orbit around Terra. Looks like Trillane brought a whole squadron of their fleet here," she grunted. "I'm plotting a course to get us to this mountain of yours. We'll do a wrap-around of the planet, so they don't home in on where we're going."

"Now we see if those modifications the Kimdori made work," Jason said as he ordered the _Scimitar_ computer to access Civnet. It did so successfully, and he called Kiaari's contact number. He relayed it to a hologram that would project out from the little swing-away mini-console that attached to the right side of his chair. A window appeared, and Kiaari's Terran face, Kate, appeared there. _"Thank the Denmother!"_ Kiaari said explosively. _"Do you have any idea how good it is to see you, Jayce?"_

"Kiaari, listen carefully. Get everyone gathered together in the aircraft hangar, and get someone in the dropship and the skimmer. You're going to be picked up in about fifteen minutes."

_"Jason, we lost the dropship,"_ she told him. _"It was shot down last night. We lost Jenny, Bo, and Terry."_

Jason closed his eyes, clenching a fist as he absorbed that unpleasant news. "What happened?"

_"We don't know. We don't know if they found a way to penetrate the cloak, so we haven't launched the skimmer since then."_

"Well, get Luke in the skimmer and tell him to be ready to punch it into a belly-oriented landing bay. I want you, Jyslin, Temika, Kumi, Fure, Myra, Tim, and Symone in the skimmer with him. Tell him that he's gonna have to get it in here while the ship is still descending. He won't be able to get the skimmer under the ship once it lands."

_"They're all here, I got Kumi back from Nebraska a few days ago, after Trillane shut Vultech down and nearly caught her. What's going to happen? I haven't had any contact with Miaari for days. It's been really hairy here."_

"We found and salvaged a Karinne ship, Kiaari. We're in it right now, and about to get down there to pick you up. Just remember, hon, this has to be _fast_. We have no way to hide from Trillane, and they're gonna start shooting at us when we don't answer their hails for identification. Everyone has to get to the ship as fast as they can when we land."

_"You got a Karinne ship?"_ she gasped. _"What kind?"_

"A scout ship."

_"Alright, I remember those from my history classes. Stern ramp or bow ladder?"_

"The stern ramp. Luke has to get my skimmer into the little auxiliary landing bay in the belly before we can land, but it's gonna be a tight fit. It was meant for a zip ship, not a skimmer."

_"I'll do the flying, I remember where the doors are from the pictures."_

"Alright. Just get everyone there, and remember, this has to be as fast as possible. Just leave everything. We'll only have a couple of minutes at the most, and I'm more worried about the _people_ than the _equipment_."

_"You got it. We'll be ready. As soon as you're in sending range, call out to Jyslin. She's _very_ anxious to hear from you, and we'll know it's almost time when you do."_

"You bet I will. Be there soon."

_"Good luck,"_ she said, then the call was ended.

"Alright, I got a good course plotted. We'll hit the atmosphere around Asia and the come in on a shallow high-speed arc down to Colorado."

Zora brought them in hot. He had a hologram of the sensor readings displayed by the outside view, showing the planet and a series of red dots which were sensor contacts of other ships. None of them moved off their normal course as they came around the moon and accelerated, racing towards the planet. One of them began to slow as they approached the planet and got close enough for energy signatures to start registering on their sensors. When they got within 50,000 _kathra_ of the atmospheric boundary, Jason knew they were made. _[Contact. Receiving query hail on standard Faey ship to ship frequency. Open channel?]_

_[No, ignore it,]_ Jason ordered. "They're hailing us, Zora," he warned her. "They know we're here."

"I know," she said, glancing at the ship location graphic. _Everyone find a seat and strap in, this is gonna be a rough entry!_ she warned.

And it was. The ship shook as they hit the atmosphere, and Zora went as fast as she possibly could without losing control of the ship to air turbulence... which she was doing because the air wake and heat shockwave would deflect any incoming fire; at that speed, the air displaced by the _Scimitar_ was like a solid object, a laminar flow with defined borders that would disrupt and deflect incoming plasma fire from the big heavy-mount plasma cannons on the ships. The ship came in fast, and it came in _hot_, leaving a glowing trail of burning air behind it as the hull was heated by the atmosphere. The entire ship vibrated violently as the computer responded to the rapid raise in temperature by focusing environmental systems into cooling the interior of the ship. Jason found himself hanging onto his chair as the ship rocked, but he kept his eyes on that hologram by the outside view that showed large Faey cruisers still in orbit changing their courses to move into a position over their ship. They were getting into a firing position.

"Shields!" Jason gasped, then mirrored that command to the computer. The ship hummed as the power surged, and a graphic to the left of the outer view appeared, one of the ship, showing a glowing green sphere appear around the ship's icon in the center. Ahead, in their view, there was a shimmer of greenish light, and then the ship's vibration eased tremendously as the shields took the brunt of the air friction. _This is gonna get rough!_ Jason sent. _Hang on!_ "Zora, they're about to open fire!"

"I can't maneuver very much in an atmosphere at this speed!" she warned. "Let's hope all those burns on the hull are skin deep, and this old man can handle himself!" _Show 'em what you got, baby,_ Zora sent, probably unintentionally, patting her hand on her console.

They came in over the Pacific, so fast that they could fly from Los Angeles to New York in ten minutes. They slowed as they came down into the thicker air, and miles above, a Faey battle cruiser, nearly half a mile long, swung sideways and rotated so its broadside flank was aimed at the planet. Heavy mount cannons fired streaming coherent plasma down towards the surface, fast enough to keep it coherent but not so fast it shattered in the air and exploded before striking its target. Seconds ticked by as multiple pulses of angry red plasma screamed down from the heavens, meticulously aimed taking wind patterns and the planet's rotation into account as well as the target's speed and altitude. But those targeting computers had never tried to target a ship piloted by Zora Sharelle Karinne. Just like Jason, she had a pilot parent, but she literally grew up in a skimmer, and had been flying them since before she could look over the dash. Jason watched in surprised amazement as Zora handled the ship on manual control with a deftness and soft, almost delicate touch that made it seem like she was born wearing an interface. Slight changes in speed and altitude, coupled with evasive maneuvers, outfoxed the targeting computers of the battle cruisers in orbit, who had to be so incredibly accurate to hit a target from 200 miles away that at that range would be like trying to shoot the wings off a fly with a rifle at 400 yards. Plasma bolts showed as red blips on the tactical view on the right, and several of them streaked past the bow of the ship, falling short, even as others rained down like flaming spears of fire... but they continuously missed. None of them missed by much, but none of them came close enough to hit the shields. The _Scimitar_ danced in that deadly rain, and avoided every shot.

_Now comes the nasty part,_ Zora sent. _They see they're not dealing with an amateur they can hit from space, and they're launching fighters._ Sure enough, a series of small yellow dots erupted from the ships in orbit above, even as a series of dots appeared on the leading edge of the display, ground-based fighters. _Jason, we're only gonna have about thirty seconds once we hit the ground, and we're gonna take fire from both fighters and those cruisers as soon as they realize we're coming in._

_I know,_ he told her. _That's why we get paid the big bucks._

_I wanna see this paycheck,_ Myleena grunted mentally.

The fighters came into visual range as they crossed the shore of California at 15,000 _shakra_, ten Dragonfly fighters. That model was fast, sleek, heavily armed, and had strong armor. They intercepted the _Scimitar_ east of Los Angeles, as all ten lined up and fired angry red streaks of plasma energy towards them. Zora was good, but there was no way a ship the size of a destroyer was going to evade fighters, so she aimed right for their center and intended to plow through and make them chase. Angry flashes of greenish light appeared on the front camera, as flares of red appeared on the left ship status image. The shields had stopped the plasma fire! That was _metaphased_ plasma, and the shields stopped it!

Holy _shit_! The Karinnes' teryon shields could stop metaphased weapons!

Not without a price, though. Hits on the shields showed a sudden spike in shield generator power, and a heat warning. Even the brief salvo fired as the fighters met them head on was enough to make the shields work. Clearly, though they could stop metaphased weapons, they weren't very good at it. A hit from a cruiser in orbit would probably overload the shields and bring them down after only one shot.

The fighters scattered and let the big ship race through their ranks, then turned and moved to pursue as more fighters from orbit were lancing in on an intercept vector. Zora adjusted their course as they moved over southern California, not heading directly towards the mountain, so as not to give away their destination. The fighters behind did not open fire, because at the extreme speeds they were going and the distance between them, the plasma fire dispersed before it could reach the target. So they were at maximum throttle, closing the distance so they could get into firing range, but Zora was pushing the throttle herself, keeping the ship going fast, not giving them that chance. Though she was big, the _Scimitar_ had good engines, and they were keeping the much larger ship well separated from the pursuing fightercraft. They were laying down a sonic boom so powerful it was shattering every window ten miles north and south of the ship's trajectory, they were going so fast.

Just as the space-based fighters, a mix of Dragonfly and Starhawks, got within tactical range, Zora changed course, shifting north, putting them on a curling hooked curve that he could see would bring them over the mountain... but not in a straight line. Clever Zora, she was making her turn look like a defensive course change to keep the approaching fighters off their heads. _[What'll happen if the shields are up when they make contact with a solid object?]_

_[They will overload.]_

_[So we have to lower them to land?]_

_[Correct.]_

"Crap," Jason growled. "Zora, we have to drop shields to land!"

"I know!" she called as she turned more to the north and seemed to want to reach for a throttle as they moved out over Arizona. _We got two minutes, girls! Everyone get ready for a very hard and very rough landing! Get into a good position, we're gonna be hitting the brakes so hard the inertial dampers won't possibly be able to absorb it all!_

In the span of a minute, the ship hooked through Arizona and into Colorado, and then Zora hit the brakes. The ship lurched under them, making it feel like he was about to be pushed out of his seat, but his seat restraints kept him secured. Myri gasped and grunted as the ship slowed down so fast, so hard, that the fighters behind them were taken by surprise. They streaked past the ship, but two of them were too close. They hit the shields of the _Scimitar_ in glancing blows as they tried to get clear and were violently rebounded, and then air resistance did the rest. The composite Neutronium armor of the fighters withstood the stress amazingly well, keeping the fighters from flying into pieces, but the joints between the wings and the fuselage couldn't take the strain. The wings were ripped off both Dragonflies, and gouts of fiery discharge from ruptured plasma conduit running through the damaged areas vented plasma like little waterfalls as the two ships tumbled out of the sky.

They moved down, slowing down, closer and closer to the mountains below, until the peaks were nearly level with the outside view. _Jyslin!_ Jason sent with all his power as they moved into what he felt was his range, which was about twenty seconds until they landed. _You have thirty seconds to get everyone on board! Be ready!_

_I will!_ came a weak response.

"Zora, swing us so the stern covers the hangar door from above when we land!" Jason commanded as he ordered the ship to prepare to lower landing skids and the stern ramp, and also ordered the belly bay doors to open.

"You got it!" she replied as Cheyenne Mountain came into view.

It wasn't rehearsed, but it happened quickly and smoothly. The ship slowed, and slowed, and then it swung its stern around even as it continued forward, tearing the air as it moved against aerodynamics at 500 miles an hour, letting the shields take the brunt of the air resistance. The fighters around them had regrouped and turned to attack the ship, but Jason had a sudden brilliant idea. _Yana! We got about twenty fighters incoming! Do something about the pilots!_

_EVERYONE BLOCK YOURSELF NOW!_ Yana sent with rippling power, and it made all of them, even the telepaths in the mountain below, raise every defense and barrier they possibly could. But even those defenses weren't enough to completely block out the sheer _power_ of that young lady as she basically sent what one would call a jamming signal across the telepathic spectrum, a powerful cacophony that would be like an airhorn being blown in the ears of any unprepared telepath within ten miles of the _Scimitar_. The sudden erratic movements of the fighters closing in from the north and northeast was testament to Yana's amazing power, as one of the most powerful telepaths among the Faey used that power as a weapon against anyone in the area who was telepathic. She couldn't block them for long, until they recovered their wits and blocked themselves, but it only had to be for long enough.

With Yana blasting her power at full volume into the mental ears of the enemy pilots, and giving them a hell of a lot more to worry about than just shooting at a landing ship, that left only orbital strikes to worry about. The ship swung over and moved backwards as Jason's skimmer appeared under them, flying fast and straight and true on a vector that would intercept the landing bay. _[Close the bay doors the instant that skimmer is completely inside!]_ Jason ordered as he lowered the shields, and the ship slowed to a crawl and descended. The green globe around the icon of the ship vanished on the left, and before the ship had even fully opened the bay doors, the skimmer lanced in between them and took up a matching course that made it essentially hover inside the bay. The doors began to close as the hangar doors of the mountain opened, and a group of people started boiling out. Even from that distance, Jason saw a flash of blue among those faces.

Jyslin! She was on the ground! She wasn't in the skimmer!

The ship shuddered violently as the _Scimitar_ landed, sending up a cloud of dust as landing skids slammed into the ground, and the ramp lowered in a position that was only about 20 meters from the hangar door, with the wide stern of the ship hanging over the mountainside, almost resting on it. Zora couldn't have landed any better than that! The remaining members of the Legion were running like mad towards the opened stern ramp, and Jason watched as Jyslin, wearing her armor but not her helmet, was waving people ahead of her, getting them into the ship. "Hurry up!" Jason barked over the outside intercom, a voice they would hear. "Twenty seconds! Move it, move it, MOVE!" The first one to reach it literally jumped onto the ramp as it lowered to the ground and dashed up. More were behind him, a stream of Terrans carrying rifles, charging towards their escape ship. Jason glanced at tactical, and saw that the fighters were recovering and moving into an attack posture. Those people on the ground were sitting ducks, and his _wife _was among them! "Raise the shields!" Jason screamed.

_[Raising shields will overload them.]_

_[It'll make them come up until they do, so do it! Those shields will keep the fighters from strafing my people on the ground!]_

_[Objective noted. Raising shields in a directed arc to minimize surface contact.]_

And with that, the shield generator projected out a shelf matrix that would only cover the top half of the ship.

Jason had no idea it could do that!

But it couldn't do it completely. The shields still had to raise as an enclosed sphere, but it only tried to maintain bubble integrity everywhere but over them, maximizing power output only to certain shield grids. The fighters dove on them and started firing, and they _did_ try to fire at the people on the ground, but the shields intercepted that fire and dissipated the power of those plasma bolts into the shield matrix. The generator spiked, throwing multiple warnings across both sides of the holographic display as the shield generators instantly overheated, warning him of an impending shield failure.

The shields failed and came down seconds after they came up, but those seconds were all it took. Jyslin was the only figure not on the ramp, and then she engaged her antigrav and raced up onto the ramp at high speed, literally ramming the people in front of her and driving them before her into the ship.

"Incoming!" Zora barked as red dots appeared on tactical. The cruisers in orbit were firing on them, and the ship was a sitting duck!

"Get us out of here!" Jason screamed as the ship informed him that everyone was off the ramp and in the bay to which the ramp connected. The ramp began to close as the _Scimitar_ lifted off. It had only been on the ground for 24 seconds.

But it was too long. The ship rocked violently as it was struck port amidships by a plasma bolt, slamming into the scorched hull of the ship directly, with nothing softening that blow. The metaphased plasma tried to burn through the hull of the ship, but it encountered a molecular structure so dense, so strongly intermeshed, that it could not disrupt those molecular bonds and penetrate. The plasma detonated on the surface of the hull, the impact and force slamming the ship down nearly a meter and making it list violently to port, sending those in the bay flying to one side as the stern ramp raised to seal them in. The tactical of the ship on the left showed a flashing red splotch on the hull showing the impact, but the computer communicated no immediate damage to him, only a sudden major temperature increase in the sections abutting the struck hull. The ship rocked again as it was hit on the bow, and then one more time, causing a violent list to starboard as the very tip of the starboard wing was hit, almost turning the ship sideways. Each strike exploded on the surface of the hull without penetrating, and each hit did no reported damage outside of cooking the ship's sections that were struck, sending air temperatures soaring over the boiling point of water in the compartments closest to the hull. The air in the bridge itself became noticeably hot, for the bow hit wasn't far from where the bridge was located.

But then Zora got the ship enough speed to start evading orbital shots. Several more plasma bolts rained down, but they exploded on the surface of the planet when the _Scimitar_ moved out from under them.

"Yana, great job, girl! Get some people down to the ramp bay and check on the rebels, someone might have got hurt when we got hit!" Jason called over an intercom.

_You can send again, and we're on the way, just don't throw us all over!_ Yana sent.

_Send a doctor, we got some broken bones down here!_ Jyslin sent.

_I'm on the way!_ Songa sent immediately in reply.

_Everyone's accounted for, love!_ Jyslin sent to him, her emotions vibrating through her thoughts even with the desperate situation they were in.

_Where'd you get this ship, babes?_ Kumi sent in surprise.

_Knock off the chatter, we're not out of this yet!_ Myri rebuked as the ship accelerated with shocking speed, sinking Jason back into his chair as the change of momentum exceeded the ability of the inertial dampers.

_Jason, if we switch over to artificial gravity, that'll help stabilize us!_ Myleena barked. _And Zora can go vertical without slamming everyone down in the bay into the back wall!_

_Do it, sis!_ Jason answered, looking back at her.

_Everyone grab hold of something right now!_ Myleena commanded. _Activating artificial gravity, so things might get a bit shaky while it overrides natural gravity!_

Jason felt a sudden _lurch_ inside the ship, as if he was being pulled three ways at once, and then things settled down. _Alright, we're good!_ Myleena called.

"Show me why I love you, Zora," Jason said as the ship began to outrace the fighters.

"It's because I'm willing to play chicken with a battle cruiser," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him and winking.

"You're about to put your money where your mouth is, girl," Jason told her as they took a sudden steep ascent vector, literally coming up right under one of the cruisers in orbit above.

_Listen to me carefully,_ Zora sent through the ship, sending in that manner that would allow the non-telepathic Terrans to hear her. _As soon as we break the atmosphere, in about two minutes, this is going to get very hairy very fast, because the cruisers can use all their guns and not just the ones that can penetrate an atmosphere. Everyone down in the bay, tie yourself down to something or grab hold of something that won't move. The Marines and Doc Songa are coming right now to get you guys ready for this, and help keep the injured secured. Anyone not tied down or holding onto something is gonna get flung all over creation when I start getting us the hell out of here._

_Why are you coming up under that cruiser?_ Myleena asked.

_There's really nowhere else to go, they're bringing in more ships,_ she answered, pointing at the right display, showing more Faey cruisers moving to intercept. _I'll take my chances playing chicken with the one in front of me instead of trying to punch between them and get raked in a crossfire between two ships._

_Sounds scary._

_It won't be boring,_ Zora sent grimly as they rocketed away from the surface with the fighters in hot pursuit. But when they broke off, scattering behind them according to tactical, both Jason and Zora knew it was so the cruiser ahead of them could open fire without threatening to hit its own fighters.

It was as violent as Zora warned it would be. The cruiser opened up with everything it had, even firing plasma torpedoes that barely got two miles into the atmosphere before exploding, creating shockwaves that rocked the ship even from tens of miles away. Zora's light touch skimmed them through most of the plasma fire, but the ship was struck several times dead in the bow and along the leading edges of its small wings, making the ship buck like an angry horse. Blinking flares of red appeared on the ship graphic on the left showed the weapon strikes on the hull, but the dirty, stained, scarred hull maintained its integrity. They erupted out of the atmosphere and turned straight towards the cruiser, which sent a swarm of fire in their direction even as it began to turn. They saw that they were on a collision course, they were minimizing their visible aspect to the _Scimitar_. Zora sliced the ship right through the fire, avoiding the plasma torpedoes and the ion pulses, sacrificing them to the plasma strikes, as the old vessel rumbled and shook almost continuously as they were struck again and again, and as the temperature in the ship began to climb dangerously and the computer was reporting some damage to systems near the hull, damaged by the vibration and the heat. The cruiser grew in the display, until it took up the entire camera view, and the tactical to the right showed the _Scimitar_ and the enemy ship virtually touching on the tactical display.

"Zora," Jason called in concern. They got so close, Jason could see the individual plates in the hull, annealed together. "Zora!" Jason said, taking a white-knuckled grip on his chair.

"Calm down, baby," she told him as she jerked her head to the side. The _Scimitar_ rolled and lurched laterally, turning upside-down in relation to the cruiser, rolling over and racing by the cruiser not fifty feet from its outer hull, almost bouncing the ship off a bulge in the cruiser's hull as they went over it. An impact like that, between two ships of that size, would have been catastrophic! Jason could only hold his breath as the destroyer-sized ship sliced by the half-mile long monstrosity so close that their artificial gravity fields intersected with each other, sending anything loose in both ships flying since _up_ was in opposite directions on the two vessels. Everyone in the destroyer was ready for this by being tied down or holding onto something, but everyone in the cruiser within the gravity field of the _Scimitar _was not. The crew in the affected parts of the cruiser and much of their gear and equipment suddenly lifted up and slammed into the ceiling, then dropped back to the floor as the _Scimitar_ passed over.

Zora squeezed the ship past the Trillane orbital ships, and then opened up the engines and hurtled them straight out away from the planet, towards deep space. Fire from five ships behind them chased them, but Zora again showed her light command of the ship by maneuvering them out of the path of the plasma torpedoes and ion bolts, the more dangerous of the fire, and basically allowing the plasma bolts to strike, which the hull had proved it could withstand. But the ships got further and further away on the tactical view on the right, as they tried to turn to pursue, even as the fighters raced by the cruisers and gave chase. But this was a different environment, and the _Scimitar_ didn't have the advantage of all the momentum of re-entry on its side now, which showed that the fighters were quickly catching up to them.

"Idiots!" Zora growled. "If heavy mount plasma cannons couldn't breach the hull, what do they think fighters are gonna accomplish!"

"As burned as the hull is, they probably can't tell," Myleena answered that. "This thing looks like a burned dinner from the outside, Zora. The burns from the plasma bolts are just lost in all the burns from particle strikes from sitting in the nebula for a thousand years."

The hatchway opened, and Jyslin ran onto the bridge. She threw herself into Jason's chair, crushing him in her armored arms, her metal-clad body actually hurting him as it jammed into his chest and legs, but all that pain vanished when she pushed her forehead down against his own, establishing a deep communion in that skin to skin contact that conveyed all of her anguish and fear and worry, and also showed him her terrible resolve for making Trillane pay for what they did to him. In that fleeting moment, they just reveled in being together once again, letting their love for each other shine through their minds, through their souls. If only for a second, there was nothing but Jyslin, and everything was right in the universe.

She leaned down and kissed him deeply, putting her armored hands on his face, and he felt the paradox of that cold black metal on his cheeks and jaw, and the searing heat of her lips.

But she understood that they didn't have time for anything other than that. She gave him one more deep kiss, then raised up and looked down at him, her eyes soft and vulnerable. _I thought I lost you, my love,_ she told him.

_Never,_ he told her, reaching up and putting his hand on her cheek. She kissed the palm of his hand and pressed it against her face, closing her eyes and smiling as she nuzzled his hand.

"Not meaning to break up the reunion or anything, but we're kinda busy here, babe," Zora said, looking over her shoulder at them.

"Push off, Zora," Jyslin said banteringly.

"You can't order me around, Jys, I'm a Countess now," she said with an evil grin. "And you're still a commoner."

"She's also my wife, Zora," Jason told her. "You wanna revise that statement?"

"Maybe in a few minutes, when I have time to think about it, yeah," she admitted candidly as she looked back to her navigation console. _Twenty seconds to jump! Everyone settle in and get ready! Warn the Terrans what's coming, guys!_

"Those fighters are going to be in firing range any second, can we jump under fire?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, we can," Zora answered.

Jyslin settled so she was sitting on Jason's lap, and she kept his hand on her face, using that contact to urge herself gently into his mind. She absorbed everything that had happened to him after the attack in Scotland, and her eyes widened and she gasped when she saw what had happened on Karis. _Is that true? _she gasped, looking at him.

_Yeah, it is,_ he told her. _The Faey ancestor who gave me my talent was a Karinne, and the Kimdori led me there to show me, so I'd have a chance against Trillane. Congratulations, Duchess Jyslin Fox Shaddale Karinne. You're nobility now._

_That I can stomach, but _this_?_ she sent in surprise, touching the gestalt. _A telepathic _computer_?_

_It's a bit more complicated than that, but in a nutshell, yeah. We have to get you and the others interfaces. Nothing on this ship works without one._

_Ten seconds!_ Zora warned as the fighters closed the distance, and then started opening fire. Streams of metaphased plasma lanced through the darkness of space and peppered the stern, as Zora abandoned any evasive maneuvers and concentrated on making the jump. Jason saw from her nav console that her destination was the Draconis system, a big blue dot on the map, a