The phaser shot had taken her by surprise.

Val gasped when she saw Rice fly in the air and slump against the wall. She rushed to his side at the same time as Ondine.

She grabbed the man’s arm and searched for a pulse.

After a few seconds, she blanched, looked at the girl, and shook her head.

“I’m sorry, hon. He’s gone.”

Ondine’s eyes turned black.

She straightened, opened her mouth, and screamed as she faced the killer.

She extended her arms and Val saw water jump out of the tank, fly to her, and go through her. It came out of her hands in a more solid form and rushed toward the bearded man. He was hit in the chest so hard he flew back into the hall.

Kaine jumped the second beard, shot him with his own weapon, then got shot by Bledin.

Ondine screamed again and more water siphoned through her arms.

Tholin had gone very white. He quickly backed out of the room, shouting: “You’ll never get out of here alive!”

Bledin would have left too, but the water hit him hard and he fell to the ground screaming.

Val rushed to Kaine’s side and took his pulse.

She felt Ondine standing next to her, waiting.

“We might be able to save him,” whispered Val, “but we need to get him to the ship right away!”

She looked around, wondering how they could pull such a feat. They were alone again, but too far from the spaceport to hope to get there in one piece. Tholin was bound to have men all over the streets in no time. The spaceport itself was under his control. That had to be how he had known they were here. It was his world, after all.

They were doomed.

And Kaine would die.

She sat with her back against the wall, feeling defeated.

That was when her eyes fell on Kaine’s wristpad.

“The transpin!” she gasped. “That’s it!”

The device had to be on her if she was to control it. She quickly took it off her friend’s wristpad and plugged it into her own. She then grabbed Ondine with one hand, and Kaine with the other, in such a way that she could press the button to activate the device.

One instant they were in the devastated lab, the next they were on Starrider.

“Nim!” she shouted. “Get the infirmary ready! Kaine is hurt. We need to put him in stasis until we can get him to a medical unit.”

She had grabbed Kaine in her arms and was running while she talked, the girl following behind her.

“The tube is ready,” responded the disembodied voice.

“Thank you! Oh, and get us off this rock right away.”

“I will start the engine.”

They arrived at the infirmary as the ship came to life.

She dropped Kaine’s body into the open tube and sealed it. He would be frozen now, so at least his condition would not worsen.

“Val... We have a problem.”

She looked up at the ceiling.

“What?”

“I... I can’t seem to move. Something is holding the ship down.”

She frowned.

“What the hell?”

“Men worked on the hull shortly after you left. I thought they were fixing some of the damage we suffered in the asteroid field, but they must have put some locks on.”

She swore. “That has to be it! Damn them all to hell. Alright. I need to go check on that.”

Val started toward the door and saw the girl was following her.

“No, Ondine! You have to stay here.”

The child grabbed her legs and shook her head.

Val groaned. “It’s not safe, girl! I can’t have you out there. You’ll be safer here.”

But the child wouldn’t let go.

“I’m serious! Besides, someone needs to stay here to look after Kaine.”

The girl looked up, indecision in her eyes. Finally, she let go and nodded slightly.

Val ruffled her hair. “Good girl. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. Just make sure Kaine stays put. You know how he is, always wanting to be the hero.” She winked.

And, for the first time, she saw the girl smile.

Without wasting another second, she turned and ran down the hall, opened the hatch, and jumped out of the ship.

The field was empty. Tholin must not have expected them to get to the ship so fast, otherwise the place would be crawling with his goons by now. He must have cameras all over the place, though. It wouldn’t take him long to spot her.

She quickly ran around the ship and shot her phaser at the locks each time she spotted one.

When she got the last, she turned and ran back toward the hatch. That was when the goons burst out of the spaceport. And they came gunning at her.

She yelped and jumped behind a crate.

There were a dozen of them, and they were relentless.

She leaned down and hit the transpin.

Nothing happened.

What the hell?

Tholin’s voice boomed from a speaker above her head.

“Nice trick, that transpin. But you won’t pull that one on me twice. I blocked it. Now, how about you give me the girl and we can call it quits?”

“Go burn in hell!” she shouted.

“Not a smart move. But so be it. We’ll just kill you, then we’ll take the girl.”

The speaker went off and the shooting resumed.

She swore.

How the hell was she going to get back on the ship?

As she glanced over the edge of the crate, she saw one of the goons get hit by a beam and fall dead.

What had just happened?

Were they shooting at each other now?

She glanced in the direction the shot had come from and saw a shape disappear behind another crate.

“Run for the ship!” shouted a familiar voice. “I’ll cover you.”

She frowned. Why couldn’t she place the voice? She knew she should have, but her mind was reeling with too many thoughts, too many problems, too many pains.

Without thinking—in part because she was tired of thinking, but also because she subconsciously trusted that voice—she shot at the goons and made a dash for it.

She was almost there when the hatch closed and the ship started to lift off.

“Nim!” she shouted into her wristpad. “What the hell are you doing? I’m not on board yet!”

But Nim did not respond, and Starrider continued to rise.

Shots rang behind her and she panicked, running in a random direction, not knowing what to do anymore.

That was when she felt a hand grab her arm and pull her back behind a crate.

She fell to the ground, half panting, half crying.

Through blurry eyes, she saw a man lean down over her.

“Val? Are you alright?”

She wiped the tears away. Blinked.

How was this possible?

She must be dreaming.

“Peter? Is that really you?”

Her brother, who had died five years ago, smiled down at her and nodded.