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High above the sh Lok’s atht the urge to look up, to see which direction it was heading Like the other ships, it no doubt ca the rift she had failed to close Whatever Byrne had done, it had been enough Or, if her ht, it wasn’t the old rift they were coh at all, but rather the new one Byrne’s body had made when it was zapped out of existence Molly wasn’t sure which scenario uilty Either she’d failed to stop hi the old rift, or her life had been saved by the saalaxy Either way, a door to a very bad place was currently open, and Byrne’s fleets were pouring through Her feeble, bu efforts to stop him had come too late and proved too little

Molly walked faster as the ship roared up into orbit, her cheeks burning with the ht ahead, ignoring the coh none of them could possibly know of her involvement, the presence of the ships filled her with a paranoid dread, as if the annoyed crowds ht suddenly realize the fault was hers and descend on her in the forrywith those things," a lady walking behind her said Athe other direction didn’t Molly quickened her pace even u with the roar of thrusters vaporizing air

If there was one thing she had learned and learned well regarding Lokian elections, it was that the process spilled copious amounts of blood For votes and otherwise And frankly, she was growing sick of the sight of the stuff

As she left the squabble in her wake, she felt ever e Her entire planet, even All she wanted was to get to hyperspace, to find Cole, to be in his arms, and to see her father Hopefully, the next stop would be their last The proble them toward Bekkie, Lok’s capital city

The absolute last place she wanted to be with elections looear hatches and heard the distant hiss of air leaking inside the ship He grabbed his helh his suit could only retain an hour or so of air Riggs left his helmet off as he worked the last bolt out of the panel behind the seats He pulled the sheet of flis said He turned to Cole and sid, but breathable"

Cole lifted his visor and felt the draft of cool air on his face It didn’ttheir rapid descent "I wanna go first," he told Riggs

"Be ht, anyway"

Cole bit his tongue and grabbed one of the survival kits before duck-ing under the back of the hanging nav seat He squeezed past Riggs and pushed the kit into the maintenance tunnel, then crawled head-first after it

Cole held his biostick aloft as he worked his way across a series of jutting pipes and bundled wires Above hiing from its rails just a few meters ahead Inverted and useless, the track and car taunted Cole as henot to cut his flightsuit open on any of the sharp hose claid by thehis visor down against the biting cold He could see light co ahead, which reht they’d encountered during the crash landing was still out there Without the canopy filters, they’d be blinded in an instant

"What’s taking you?" Riggs asked fro unco He flicked his visor up and yelled back through the cold air: "That blinding light is still out there It’s gonna be hard to see a thing"

"Follow the grease-s yelled up to hiht be so plates in there"

Cole nodded and continued forward, heading toward the bright shaft of light It caear bay, just five meters or so behind the cockpit The harsh rays filtered past the landing pads and the hydraulic gear Soon, etting worse until one of the spots flew through his open visor and hit hi flakes streah the open hatch

Cole didn’t dare look up as he passed beneath the shaft He kept his head down and stowed the e deeper into the belly of the Firehawk

"Daue, either, so we’re good on water"

Cole felt relieved to hear Riggs thinking like that It gave hiether to survive the mess they were in He crawled over a piece of ductwork and felt the red band push into his ribs It re He wondered if they’d been real, or if he was just losing his s amid all the alarms Was he really in hyperspace? What did that even mean? Had he hallucinated the entire conversation?

He felt hi toward the latter They were probably on a planet, somewhere near the polar caps Any tinature and cos, anyway They would want to imprison him

He continued to crawl forward, not sure what to believe Or even hope for

"Should be right there," Riggs hollered

Looking back, Cole could see Riggs just past the pool of light and the descending snow He had retrieved and donned his hel of the white flakes Riggs pointed to one side of the tunnel; Cole followed the gesture and recognized a handle on the hatch beside him He rolled over to one side and flicked the co else, so he had to hold it up against gravity while he set the biostick inside Grunting--his ribs resting on so hard and sharp--he tried to find a more comfortable position while he peered inside

Most of the tools were still strapped in place, but several of the boxes had coear had been stoith a ton of coher than it felt Cole thought about how he’d barely gotten his grav suit connected in time and shivered with delayed fear

The corabbed a utility blade and leaned back on his shoulder, still holding the heavy door up He stuffed the knife into one of the pockets on the front of his flightsuit

"Did you find therunted and forced hie wrench strapped to one wall of the compart-ment and worked it loose, then propped it under the heavy hatch, holding it up Letting go of the lid, Cole worked his head into the bin and started ruht of the biostick