Londo clutched at a support rail as the ship shook ever more violently. Gone was the hangar's force field, replaced by an immense blast door which ran the whole length of its left wall. Even if Pilgrim got to them in time, how would she get in?

Ean busied himself putting on a vacc-suit and suiting-up Narla's unconscious body. Zeryn, beside Londo, stood before a console as she likely tried to slice her way through the Hangar's systems.

Londo turned on his own vacc-suit's magnetic boots and walked towards another console just beside Zeryn.

"I think I can get the blast door open" Zeryn said.

"Well, don't" Londo replied through the radio. The ship now trembled and creaked so loudly that talking became impossible. "This ship is already burning out there. If you open the blast door, scorching air will flood this whole place."

"Then how is the Pilgrim to get in? How are we to get into her?"

"I don't know…" Londo said as he stared all around him. Was there any place nearby where they could be safe?

"I have an idea…" Zery said. "I can use the re-rout you established to turn on one or two force fields on in the hangar. Enough to protect us…"

Her pause more than told Londo there was a "but" to it. She completed.

"We will be without life support, though, and without gravity."

"Well" Londo replied "It's either that or we turn to toast."

"Very well… Londo, Ean. Move towards that corner" Zeryn pointed at the wall opposite to the blast door.

Londo felt very, very light as artificial gravity failed completely and a corner of forced fields showed up at the spot Zeryn indicated. He moved one, two steps towards it, and had to crouch.

Without gravity, every droid piece, every destroyed ship part, every crate and wreckage in the hangar started flying wildly, smashing against each other and, if Londo weren't careful, against himself. Some of those pieces were huge, while others were razor sharp. The hangar suddenly became a shifting labyrinth of death.

Zeryn also dodged and ducked as best as she could, but she still had some charges to her heavy repeating blaster, which she used to clear a path towards the force fields. Londo, on the other hand, had only his pistols, and they were just not enough to blast away the flying, arrow-fast pieces of debris.

Londo dodged one armor plate, ducked a deactivated droid that flew past where he was, but he could not escape the incoming fighter thrown.

His magnetic boots snapped out of the floor as Ean grabbed his back and pushed him away with lightning speed. He held Londo in one hand and Narla at the other.

"What are you doing?" Londo asked.

"Saving you?" Ean replied as he waved Londo away from the path of a blade-like piece of starfighter wing.

"You have no mag boots turned on!"

"They were holding me down. I move better without them." Ean pushed himself against the wall as he flew through the hangar, turning his body around as he carried Londo and Narla, Pulling and pushing them way from the wreckage. As he passed through the inside of the force fields, he pushed Londo into the floor, and as his magnetic boots locked him to the floor, Ean used that as support to halt his own flight. Zeryn came in right after them.

The small force-fielded corner flashed at each piece of wreckage hat hit it, which meant that Londo could hardly see the outside of the hangar through all that blueish waving energy patterns.

"Everyone safe?" Londo asked.

"I think so" Zeryn replied.

"So we wait."

"For how long?" Ean asked?

"Not much" The Pilgrim replied in their radio channel.

"Pilgrim!" Londo could cry right then "Am I glad to see you! Where are you?"

"I'm right outside the hangar, Londo."

"Okay!" Zeryn said "I'm opening the blast door."

Screeching with a maddening, ear-blowing sound, the hangar blast door retreated ever so slowly as the multitude of debris flew out of it, making way for yellow-hot glowing scorching air to enter and burn everything in the hangar to a crisp.

The ship shook so strongly as the hangar opened that Londo's mag-boots nearly failed. Ean was thrust up, but held on to Zeryn at the last instant, before he exited the force field boundaries.

Outside the hangar door, beyond the glowing flames and thunderous turbulence, The Pilgrim flew beside the cruiser. Its heavily damaged left side thrusters created a trail of smoke beneath it as it shook just as violently as the cruiser.

"Londo… I have a problem." The Pilgrim said, so utterly calm given the circumstances "I cannot level with the hangar. The turbulence is just too much."

"Is the tractor beam active, Pilgrim?" Londo screamed out, even though he likely didn't have to.

"No. It was destroyed in the firefight."

"Do you have counterthrusters?"

"Ten out of twelve."

"You can do it, Pilgrim. Come in nice and easy. Level your hull, counterthrust the turbulence. Use the hangar door frame as a point of reference."

The Pilgrim approached the Hangar, but as she did so, the shaking of the hangar nearly had her smashing against the outer hull. She retreated a bit, and approached again, only to nearly miss being knocked away again.

Beyond her, the sky wasn't deep maroon anymore, it was bright cyan. They were already in deep atmosphere. Now long did they have? Minutes? Less than a minute?

"I can't Londo. It's too wild."

"Londo" Ean said "can't you take remote control of the Pilgrim? Bring her in yourself?"

"With what interface, Ean? This vacc-suit wasn't made for this. There's no software here to connect me with Pilgrim's flight controls."

Ean thrust Narla into Zeryn's arms. "Hold her" he told Zeryn. He turned at Londo, took off his own vacc-suit gloves and touched Londo's helmet with both hands.

Line upon line of code showed up before Londo's visor at blinding speed. Progress bars that filled instantly and were replaced by more machine code flashed up in hundreds of text boxes that popped in and out.

"What… are you doing, Ean?"

Ean didn't reply. He seemed deep in thought, like a meditating jedi, only, he was his own kind of technological wizard.

At last, Ean let go of him. Projected upon Londo's helmet visor, the commands for Pilgrim's flight controls showed up in a three-dimensional interface which nearly perfectly mimicked Pilgrim's cockpit.

"I have programmed a remote control interface and recompiled the vacc-suit kernel with it. Now you can remote-control Pilgrim."

Londo blinked, amazed, while Pilgrim said.

"That's right, Londo. I can see your suit as a new device on my thruster control interface. Oh… Ean… that was so… hot!"

Londo had a quip remark to that, but thought it better to save their lives first. He extended his hands and touched virtual flight-sticks as he realigned Pilgrim's thrusters, checked her balance and analyzed the turbulence pathways.

Slowly. Dangerously, deathly slowly Pilgrim stopped shaking in relation to the cruiser. One slip and it would be crushed in half. A smallest error and it could smash against them. Londo thrust it into the hangar. She hit the hangar ceiling once, almost scraped its right wing against the wall. Londo reverted her artificial gravity and used it as a support against the hangar floor and ceiling. At last, The Pilgrim turned its back on them and landed.

"You did it!" Zeryn said!

He sure did, but as he opened The Pilgrim's hangar ramp, how were they going to get into it? Between them and The Pilgrim's own shields, the blazing heat would sear their vacc-suits, burn at their skin and eat their bones alive.

""Come on, Londo!" Pilgrim said. This ship will crash any moment now!

Londo couldn't find a way to do it. The only way to walk there was with their magnetic boots, and they were just too slow for that.

The force field protecting them blinked out for a moment, and in that moment the heat and turbulence burned a few holes in their suits. They leaked their cool atmosphere now, and whatever time they had was just reduced to a handful of seconds.

Ean grabbed Londo, lifted him up and threw him at the Pilgrim entry ramp. Londo flew across the hangar, into the Pilgrim's cargo hold and hit his back against the Pilgrim's inner wall before he could even cry out. As he got up, dazed and dizzy, another body hit the wall beside him. Zeryn.

He recovered in time to see another body thrown into the Pilgrim. Narla.

Only Ean himself remained, but as he held on to the hangar wall, the force fields finally died out, and the blazing heat blinded any sight he had beyond Pilgrim's shields.

"Londo." Pilgrim said "I have to leave now. We have no time."

"Wait, Pilgrim!" Where was Ean? Was he still there? Yes, he was there, that was his body beneath the flames. "Hold on, Pilgrim."

"Londo!" The Pilgrim screamed.

Something hit Pilgrim's cargo hold wall, bounced towards them and rolled on the floor. Ean Van Tassel. Scorched suit, exposed armored chassis underneath his burnt-out skin, but he still moved.

"Go, Pilgrim. Go, go, go!"

The Last Pilgrim sped away from the dreadnought cruiser, trailing smoke forming a split path against the dreadnought's descent into the planet. She veered up, away from Ghelunion, away from that system, towards the blessed safety of space.