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"Still"

This ti low of Avon’s at to thisstor the quiet "Eight-one-nine, this is base Coht you turned off the comms"

Jubilee ss, her eyes fixed on the headset still floating above the controls "I did This isn’t background chatter--they’re hailing us directly"

"What does that mean?"

The voice, female and sharp, repeats its hail while Jubilee abruptly starts flipping switches, turning on scannersreadouts "Itdown at the scanner as she jabs a finger at five blips on the screen, approaching the center Though I’ve never seen this technology before, it doesn’t take training to knohat itat us on an intercept course

Jubilee reaches for her headset and pulls it back on with shaking hands "Base, this is eight-one-nine We are unarhters to stand down"

"Captain," says the voice on the radio, "is that you?"

"Coone ashy in the planet’s glow, and I recall what she told me about her last encounter with the base co take over her ht there in her office "Yes, this is Lee Chase"

"Captain, we don’t want any further bloodshed" The commander’s voice crackles and blurs with static, the interference fronal from the base "I don’t believe you have criminal intentions Surrender now and be escorted back to base, and we can talk"

Jubilee’s eyes are on mine, her face unreadable except for the depth of oes back, I’ll be arrested I trust you, I mouth silently I knohat this second chance means to her I knohat it would mean to me, if my people offered ain, "and give up the rebel you’ve been harboring He will be taken into custody, but he will not be executed without a fair trial We can still discuss this, Captain"

Jubilee doesn’t hesitate any longer She reaches up and pulls the headset off like it’s burned her She shakes her head, sla her palm down on the communications kill switch "That’s not Co her eyes "It’s not real, what they’re offering"

I look out, finding the stars again, knowing I ain in this lifeti the five ships flying in foring my attention back away from the endless panorama outside the viewport

"Yes?"

She curls her hands around the controls, taking a deep breath "Put your harness back on"

She’s having the drowning dreaasps, but all she breathes is darkness, rushing into her lungs like water, hollowing her out, leaving her empty She tries to scream, but the vacuuentle, greenish light reen-eyed boy is there, and he reaches out to take her hand and pull her close--and suddenly, she can breathe the darkness Like the underwater dreairl can feel the darkness in her lungs, but it hurts her no h she can’t hear hih their joined hands and she can understand him anyway "Trust what you feel," he says

THE DASHBOARD LIGHTS UP arnings, alar in too hot, erously close to free fall But that’s what I’hters, and there’s no way for a simple transport shuttle to out to have to out-dare them

The viewport shields sla us froenerated by our descent The second we hit the denser air the whole shuttle starts shaking, its lockers and seats not designed for this kind of stress I can hear the eainst each other

The shaking of the shuttle threatens to wrench the controls frohtly as I can My harness is cutting intomy whole body ache I wish I could check on Flynn; this would be enough to ods who’d listen, and it’s Flynn’s first ti e this maneuver, the shuttle will break apart and we’ll both be dead in an instant

Without the viewport, I’ screen on the dash I’ we’ve reached the cloud layer; I’ve never been so glad to be on Avon, where there are clouds everywhere The clouds are where I’ to lose our pursuers

The second we’re in, I jerk back on the stick The shuttle screams a protest, and I’-forces that le for air, easing up on the stick enough that I can breathe With any luck, the fighters, unable to track us in the clouds, have zooht on past toward Avon’s surface We level out, ht-headedness, and I iht until I’m headed east No rebels out there, no military patrols; only the island where Flynn’s secret facility used to be That’s where I’