Ean flexed his fingers as the countdown for leaving hyperspeed went below one minute. Soon, very soon, he would meet his mother, who would tell him who he is, why everyone wants to capture him and what's with this "Force" thing. Londo and Zeryn would get their money… good for them, and in time Ean would likely forget this ever happened. Soon. In less than 30 seconds. In fact, in only…
The ship rumbled and Ean flew off his chair as they suddenly left hyperspeed. As he crashed on the floor, his only thought was that it seemed they had gone out of hyperspace a microsecond too soon.
"What's going on?" Zeryn said, also on the floor.
"Holy crap!" Londo screamed. He was the only one still sitting.
Ean thought of helping Zeryn get up, but before he could a hand, she was already rising and running past him towards the co-pilot seat.
"Oh… no." She said.
Ean got up, and his "what is it" question died in his mind just as he stared beyond the ship's cockpit.
A myriad of small yellow plasma lines crossed over the space going from every point into every direction. Little dots zipped and zigzagged past one another as they spew blasts at each other, all against a backdrop of intermittent, cruiser-ship lights.
They came out of hyperspeed amidst a very engaged space battle. Fighters numbering the hundreds fought all over a capital ship, one of those triangular-shaped ships the empire used to employ when it was still around.
Zeryn had the rawest expression of panic in her face.
"Get us out of here. Now!" She cried as she shook Londo's elbow.
Londo typed as little slower than usual as Zeryn kept kept shaking him, but still he would not leave his eye off the battle before them.
"Pilgrim, you heard the lady."
"I'm sorry Londo." Pilgrim sounded as calm as ever "We are under the influence of an interdiction field."
Londo opened his mouth and seemed close to letting out all of his swear word repertoire, but instead only opened and closed his mouth a few times.
"That's why we got out of hyperspace a little too soon." Ean said, and actually surprised himself with how calm he sounded given the circumstances.
An alarm started blaring in the cockpit screens. Four dots approached the Pilgrim.
"Get ready everyone." Londo said "We have incoming ships."
Zeryn rushed out of the cockpit, probably on her way to the gunner seat. Ean sat down on the passenger seat as the Pilgrim already opened the tactical display screen before him.
"Pilgrim" Londo said "give me the quickest vector out of this interdiction."
Blaster shots started sounding throughout the ship. That was Zeryn doing her work. The starts outside of the cockpit veered and twisted as Londo started doing his. Ean completely lost the sense of what was going on outside the ship.
He scanned a few of the ships engaged in battle, trying to get a sense of who was fighting who. Was it the Republic? The First Order? The Hutts? All of his scans revealed that those were all droid ships – on both sides of the battle. It was hard to say how many of those were attacking and how many were defending, because they were all so different from each other, but it seemed, by the way they moved, that there was one group of ships intent on defending the cruiser, and another intent on destroying it. It was to this second group that the ships now attacking them seemed to belong.
The cockpit flared white as a droid ship exploded right before them.
"One down!" Zeryn yelled.
No sooner had Zeryn said that, another salvo of blue ion shots zoomed past them as Londo maneuvered the ship around their attackers. The Pilgrim's yellow-white lasers turrets soon met them again as the dogfight recommenced.
Blue-ion shots. Their attackers were trying to disable them. Why would they be attacking them with ion and the cruiser with plasma… unless they knew Ean was aboard this ship. Which could only mean…
"They are the droid army." Ean said.
"What?" Londo replied with a hint of irritation. Ean could see the tension in his face as he focused almost completely on the dogfight.
If those ships were from the same droid army that tried to capture him, and they wanted to destroy that cruiser, then almost certainly Ean would want to get in there. These were, after all, the coordinates where his mother said she'd meet them, and as soon as they arrived, they find this battle? She's in there. In the cruiser. Ean was sure of it, and Londo was plotting an escape route out of here. Ean could understand his survival instinct, but if they managed to leave in one piece, when would he ever get another chance to meet his mother? What if she perished in this very same battle? He could not run this risk. He had to…
Londo suddenly veered the ship right as Zeryn destroyed yet another droid ship. Ean had to hand it to her. She was, indeed, far better at this than he was. Already she had taken out almost all of their attackers, save two, and the Pilgrim still had more than half its shield strength. Soon, they would be out of opponents, and then…
Londo would leave, carrying Ean away from his mother, and from the truth about himself. That he could not allow.
"We have to go in there." Ean said.
"What? In where?" Londo replied with clenched teeth.
"In there. The battle. We have to help the cruiser."
Another salvo of shots was exchanged between the Pilgrim and the droid ships.
"Are you insane, Ean? We are going to get the hell out of here."
"My mother is in that ship." He replied, louder than he intended.
"Luke frigging Skywalker could be in that ship and still we would get the hell out, you hear me? It's a war zone in there. You have the tactical screen. Tell me how many ships are attacking the cruiser."
Hundreds. Three hundred seventy two, to be precise. Ops, seventy one. Against one hundred fourteen that were protecting the cruiser, but the cruiser was raining down plasma on those ships, so it did seem like it would win, in time.
Would Ean take this chance, though? Hell, no.
"Please, Londo, please. It's my mother!"
"Ean, shut up and sit down" Londo replied. "We'll come back later."
"It's ten million credits" He had to play the money card.
"It's my life!" Londo yelled. "Life trumps money all the time."
"And mine!" Zeryn sounded through the intercom.
"And thanks for mentioning me." The Pilgrim said.
Another ship exploded further away from them. Now they had only one opponent.
"We're gonna make it!" Londo said "Everyone prepare for hyperspeed."
They were going away. They were actually going to jump away from Ean's mother. What would he do? There were no escape pods in the Pilgrim, no smaller ship in the cargo bay. He was stuck with Londo and Zeryn whether he liked it or not, and no way to reach the cruiser short of…
Well, maybe there was something he could do.
Ean jumped out of his chair and through the Pilgrim's common room. Either Londo or the Pilgrim could have easily stopped him, but he had a pretty good idea they both had their hands full at the moment to pay much attention to him. No one would believe what he was about to do anyway, so they all likely thought Ean would play nice and let them carry him away with them.
In the cargo hold, Ean opened the supply crate that contained the space suits, and as quickly as he could got into one. The ship rumbled and veered as the dogfight went on, but Ean managed to get in the suit in less than a minute.
His time fixing the Pilgrim with Londo did help him get to know the corners and spots of the ship, like the inconspicuous emergency airlock just beside the hyperdrive. By law airlocks had to have a manual release and override, so that the crew could escape even if the ship's computer malfunctioned. In this case, it meant that the Pilgrim could not stop Ean even if she knew what he was about to do.
As Ean reached the airlock door, Zeryn celebrated her last kill through the intercom.
"And it's gone. We are clear, Londo."
"Hold on everybody! We are clearing the interdiction field in less than thirty seconds."
Ean opened the airlock door and stepped in the tight room.
"Londo!" The Pilgrim sounded "We have a problem."
Ean closed the inner door.
"What is it now, Pilgrim?"
"It's Ean. He's…"
Off he went. Jettisoned out of the Pilgrim through the airlock.
Thrust into the utter silence of outer space, Ean's space suit compensated for his spinning and levelled him head first towards the Pilgrim. The lustrous exterior of the ship faded quickly against the countless stars, and soon became just another shinning dot. It seemed to Ean that the ship turned around for a bit and then turned back away from him, as if it still thought about coming back for him, but a number of other, approaching sparkling lights may have helped them decide to leave for good, because that could only mean a number of droid ships approached.
Ean turned his suit towards the cruiser and propelled himself towards it. The suit computer calculated the distance and time to reach the ship at his best acceleration, plotting it in his helmet visor. Three hundred kilometers and three minutes, respectively, but even as he started propelling himself, he found that in his rush to get to his mother, he failed to consider the hundreds of fighters between him and the cruiser. Three of those closed in on him.
A text message popped in his visor.
"Welcome. I was expecting you. Please, board the ship closest to you and I will navigate you into the cruiser. Then we can talk more properly."
The three starfighters levelled their speed with his, and one of them opened up its cockpit for Ean. Only then did Ean realized that these weren't truly droid ships. They were ordinary starfighters, refitted to be flown remotely. He was actually floating beside at a small A-Wing squadron, his ride home. Home at last.