The only light in Davek's cabin was the nebula's liquid glow coming through the small porthole viewport. It spilled slow-shifting variations of blue and green across the crumpled bedsheets, the carpet, the locked door. Marasiah lay on her side, watching it. There was something hypnotic in the constant wash of color whipping past them as they tread through the Shroud, keeping its nebulous gases away only by draining all available power for the shields. Watching it she almost felt comforted. Maybe it was that round portal through which she viewed the void reminded her, just enough, of the cockpit of her TIE fighter.

Davek lay tucked behind her, chin nestled in her hair, both arms tight around her waist. What he was watching she didn't know, but sometimes he stirred lightly and she knew he wasn't asleep. They'd laid like that for hours, savoring warmth under the covers. Power had been drawn from life support systems and the air all over Voidwalker was so cool the crew went around with the heaviest jackets they could find. If they walked around at all.

There was nothing to do in this long five-day crawl through the nebula. The gases and radiation jammed all sensors, which meant they were safe from the Mandalorians until they reached the last open pocket of space. Then the fight would begin, but that was still two days away.

Over the past three, Marasiah had felt the crew sink into a despair that rivaled the days when they'd been trapped without hyperdrive. With nothing to do except wait crew schedules became meaningless. Her pilots had nothing to do. Rakash'mor's Twi'lek liquor was gone, not that it would have provided a good kind of relief anyway. Most of her pilots had become sullen. Vull tried to soldier on. Jayk's mood had ricocheted from giddy back to grim. Vendark was trying to keep everyone upbeat but the effort felt hollow, like even he felt he was playing the fool.

That they'd felt so close to salvation, only to have it snatched away, was the worst part.

Davek tried to hide it of course; from the crew and from her. He put up the brave front and when he tried, very cautiously, to probe deeper he deflected her questions with professional procedure. Honesty only came when it was cold and dark and quiet. He'd squeeze her so desperately it almost hurt. Moments like this were the closest he came to admitting he was scared.

After a long time laying in the dark she asked him, "Where did you think you would go when you left the academy? What did you think you'd become?"

At first he didn't answer, didn't even move. She wondered if he was asleep after all, but then she felt his chin shift against the crown of her head and he said, "I wanted to be better. Do more."

"What does that mean? What specifically?"

She felt him sigh. He said, "I wanted to captain a ship."

She'd thought as much. "I wanted to command an air group."

He laughed once, tiredly and without humor. "Well. I guess it worked out after all."

"Did it? What about… This thing I have? This power?"

"The Force. I thought you hated it."

"I don't know. I didn't even know what it was until you told me. I wish… I wish I either knew how to use it or didn't have it at all. I wish I could be one thing or the other."

"My mother was a fighter pilot and a Jedi at the same time." Just the word Jedi made her shift uncomfortably. He asked, "What is it?"

She exhaled. "On Kolfax Minor, they still call it the 'Jedi Cult.' Everyone thinks they go around stealing children."

"That hasn't happened in a hundred years." He said sharply.

"I know." She sighed. Davek got so defensive over a group he wasn't even a part of. "And I never really believed that. It's just… these powers were something other people had. I wasn't sure they really existed at all."

"They do. And Jedi who've trained and learned to use their power can do amazing things. It's not too late for you to learn."

She wanted to ask him if he really thought they could survive this, but she knew he'd just obfuscate and close the door that had been opening between them. Instead she asked, "What sort of teacher is your mother?"

"A tough one. You'd like her."

She could feel his affection in the Force, hear it in his voice, but there was wistfulness there too. She knew that a part of him had wanted to be a Jedi like his brother and mother growing up. That confession had seemed hard for Davek; part of him still wanted to be a Jedi now. Part of him always would, but Davek Fel was what he was; he knew what he was and that would never change, whether he lived two more days or eighty more years. She envied him that certainty, even if it was an unhappy one.

"What was it like, growing up with one Jedi parent and one…."

"Not?"

"Yes."

He shifted a little; his grip around her waist loosened. "What do you want to know?"

She let her attention fall to the hypnotic flash of blue and green lights through that little porthole. "Tell me a story, Davek. Anything."

"About when I was young?" He sounded skeptical but amused.

"I want to hear one."

He thought a moment. "We can trade. I'll go first. Then you give me one from Kolfax Minor."

"Not much to tell."

He squeezed her a little. "I'm sure you can think of something."

She smiled in the gloom. "You first."

He thought a little more, then started talking. His tone was slow and thoughtful, open and honest like he never was with anyone else. His words took them far away. She pushed back a little, nestling closer against him, and listened to him talk as the green-blue lights of the nebula wavered across the bed. They clung to each other as they clung to each passing day of life; there were only two more left.

-{}-

She was in a forest. A clear blue sky peeked through pine-needles that spanned out far above and cast dappled shadows on the ground below. She walked slowly, weaving around the base of thick tree-trunks. The ground, uneven as it was, felt familiar. She knew the way to walk without knowing why.

She found a small clearing where sunlight fell on a fallen log. An old man was sitting on the log with his back to her. She could see his beskar armor, the backplate, the shoulder-pads, and the short-cropped white hair on the head above them. She opened her mouth to call for her grandfather but no sound would come.

She walked up to him. When she got close she tripped and fell on her hands. Mulch and twigs stabbed her palms. She was wearing the rest of her beskar but no gloves. No helmet either. Strange. Wind brushed past and black hair tickled her face. She walked up to the log and took a big step over it so she could see her grandfather's face. When she got to the other side she was looking at the back of his head. She walked back around to the other side. Again he was facing away from her. That was when Tamar realized she must have been dreaming. Dreaming, or getting a vision from the Force, or dying of asphyxiation as the last oxygen in her broken spaceship seeped into the void.

Strangely, she didn't care. She reached out and grabbed her ba'buir's shoulder-plate with her bare hand. She tugged him around and there he was, looking at her without expression. His face loomed large in front of her, like it was greater that it had ever been in life.

His features creased in a frown. "What is it, Tam'ika?"

She opened her mouth and tried to speak. Nothing came. She sucked in air but all she could get out was breath.

His expression saddened. He reached up. The rough hand that cupped her face was too big for it. "Someone took me out into these woods a long time ago, Tam'ika. He was my vod, and my buir too. He took me into these woods when I was your age and told me everything about my parents. My father the clone. My mother the Jedi."

This was no dream; this was memory. Her grandfather, Venku Skirata, had taken her out into these woods when she was just old enough to wear beskar and explained it all to her: the weird feelings and intuitions she had, the deep unspeakable knowledge that she was different from the other children in Clan Skirata.

She hadn't been alone. Her grandfather had taken her and Nyal both.

She pulled free of her grandfather's hand and looked around. Her sister wasn't there; not as a grown woman, not as a child.

"That was when I decided I didn't want to be like my father or my mother, Tam'ika," her grandfather went on. "Not a Force-user. Not a tool in someone else's war either. I wanted to be a Mandalorian and a Skirata and nothing else."

I can't be either of those any more, Ba'buir, she tried to say, but she still couldn't speak.

Somehow, he heard her. "I know, Tam'ika. Now you're dar'manda."

She knew these words: no longer Mandalorian. Banned, excommunicated, stripped of everything you were. It was a curse, worse than a death sentence. She'd always looked on those dar'manda with scorn barely tinged by pity.

"There was another forest, on another world," her grandfather said. "I realized there that the Force wasn't a burden. It was a gift. Even if I didn't want it, it was a part of me. And I couldn't turn it away any more."

I'm dying, she said with silence.

"It's a gift, and it's a door," he said, "to a life that will never pass away."

He reached out again. She let herself fall closer. She felt his palm, warm and rough, an old man's hand on a child's cheek. It gave her comfort in her fear. The hand lifted back, very gently-

It slapped, hard. Her eyes squeezed shut. She cried out. She made noise.

She opened her eyes and they were filled with light. She felt something tight against her face, her jaw. She opened her mouth and sucked in air. She felt it fill her lungs. She realized she was on her back, arms and legs laid out flat. She tried to move them and they did. Somehow, she was alive.

Then she made out two faces hovering over her, both familiar, and she knew who she owed her life to.

"She's waking up," the darker man said.

"I see it." The lighter one leaned a little closer and gave her cheek another light slap. His face was familiar but different. Darker on the bottom; a beard growing out. That would take getting used to.

"Can you hear us?" Arlen Fel asked.

She nodded. An IV was dripping clear liquid into one arm. She lifted her other one- it was very heavy- and touched the breath-mask over her face.

"You can talk through that," Chance said. "Better leave it on for now. It's pure oxygen. You were barely breathing when we found you."

"Where..." she rasped, "Where am I?"

"We've got you on Starlight Champion," said Arlen. "The sick bay isn't big but it's got what you need."

"My ship?"

"The ship you stole form Krux? It's hooked to our airlock right now. You drifted pretty far from the coordinates you sent us. Outside of our long-range sensors, even."

"How did you find me?"

"Take a guess," the Jedi smirked. "I guess we're pretty much even, right?"

"Guess we are…. Thank you. Jedi."

"Not a problem." He squeezed her hand. They'd taken her gloves off. Beskar too.

"When will I feel… better?"

"Well, you're confusing our medical sensors a bit. They notice some cracked ribs, the residue of some facial bruising, and what looked like the after-effects of a multi-day slowdown of oxygen and blood to the brain. But it doesn't have any of the brain damage normally associated by that kind of deprivation."

"Healing trance," she said. "Used the Force. Like ba'buir taught me."

"I figured as much. The good news is, once you're fully out of the trance you should be as good as new, more or less. I can help you along a little, if you want."

"How?"

"The Force. It's never been my strong suit but I've learned some healing techniques. And since you're Force-sensitive too they'd be more effective."

"Shabla jeti." She snorted and looked at Chance. "Does he always show off like this?"

"He does have that habit," Chance admitted. "If you don't mind cutting to the chase, I'd like to know what happened that left you stranded in a dying ship in the middle of nowhere."

She took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened since they'd parted ways at Broken Moon. She went slowly at first; breath and memories came sluggishly. As she went on she felt like she was coming out of a fog and when she closed her story with her escape from the Shroud, Arlen helped her sit upright in her bed, back propped against the bulkhead.

"That's a hell of a story," Chance said. "So you say Savyar's location should be on that ship's computer?"

She nodded. "I can show you. We'll take the map of the Shroud from the freighter. Sync it with the memory core from the comm buoy. Check the logs. Identify which calls use Gevern Auch's high-level code. Trace those to Savyar."

"Well, that's straightforward," Chance said sarcastically. "Not that I don't appreciate all you went through to get us here, but are you sure that'll really take us to Savyar? I mean, if she's in that worldship then she can just jump wherever she wants."

"It's the best lead we have," Arlen said. "And I doubt she's moving that thing around much. She's probably got one place in the Shroud she keeps it unless she's taking it out to blow up planets. And if she does that, we'll know."

"Fair enough," she said, "Unless someone else finds it first. She might run then."

Arlen frowned. "Like who?"

"The Mandalorians have been attacked inside the Shroud. I heard we've lost a third of our fleet."

"We heard something like that too," Arlen said. "Do you know what happened?"

"Only a little. They say there's a rogue Imp frigate lurking around, doing hit-and-runs. They killed a whole waystation. A bunch of ships in drydock."

"An Imperial frigate?" The Jedi's eyes lit up. "Did they say what kind?"

She frowned. "No. Why?"

"It's just…. Never mind." For some reason he looked disappointed.

"Whatever it means, it's all the more reason to move fast," Chance said.

"We will." Arlen looked at Tamar. "You want a little help waking up?"

A part of her did, but she shook her head. "I'm waking up plenty. Just… give me a minute or two. Then we'll try walking. I want to clean up everything in Krux's ship before we ditch it."

"Fair enough. I found two helmets in there, by the way. Yours and some other guy's. Mind if I ask what happened to him?"

"I didn't kill him." She didn't want to mention the two Beskad pilots she'd blown up in her escape. "Just made him rest for a while."

"Fair enough."

"I don't want his helmet. Just mine."

"Then you've already got it." Arlen paused, then asked, "I was wondering, though. I didn't see any lightsaber on that ship."

"I lost it. It's gone now." In the rush to escape she'd barely thought about it, but it hurt now.

"I'm sorry." Arlen reached to his belt. His hand came up with her other lightsaber resting in an open palm. "I guess you should have this back."

"No." She put her hand on his. "Keep it. For now."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not a Jedi. You use it better than me. But... I have a question."

Chance cleared his throat. "If this is going to be Jedi talk, I'm going to slip out and go check Krux's ship."

"I'm not a Jedi," she wheezed.

"I noticed. Take your time. You two know where to find me."

After Chance slipped out she let her eyes hold Arlen's. "The Force… I've heard when some Jedi die, they don't really die. Their bodies dissolve and their ghosts come back to talk to people. My ba'buir said he'd talked to ghosts on Zonama Sekot. Have you?"

"I've only been to Zonama Sekot once. And I haven't talked to ghosts there or anywhere else. But I believe they exist."

"So when you die, Jedi… What happens to you? Will you see your Jedi friends, talk with all the other ghosts?"

"I don't know. I hope something like that can happen."

"But what about the rest? The ones without the Force? Would you see your brother again?"

"I don't know." His voice was pained. He didn't believe it.

"And what if they had the Force but were never really Jedi?"

"You're thinking of your sister." She nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, Tamar. Maybe. I can't say anything for sure."

"It's all right." She lied and looked away. There was too much pain in his eyes; hers too, probably. "There were just a couple things I wanted to tell her."

Without looking, without hearing, she felt the pain her words gave him. She hadn't meant to, and she grabbed his hand. "Okay, Jedi. Enough moping. Help me up and let's go find your friend."

"Are you sure you can walk?"

"Won't know until I try."

He smirked. "Good attitude. But you should know, once we figure out Savyar's location we can't just run back to safety. We'll have to go into the Shroud and verify before the other Jedi can move. Are you okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I have nowhere else to go." Even the smile she tried turned bitter. Arlen nodded, grabbed her other hand, and helped her to her feet.

-{}-

Four hours before Voidwalker's estimated time of emergence from the nebula, Davek Fel walked onto the bridge. The main generator was still routing all power to engines and shields so the lights were low. There was only a skeleton crew in the pits, at the consoles. Endless layers of glue-green gases peeled endlessly past the viewport. There was no indication they were nearing the end of this trek except for the mounting restlessness inside him.

It had been different five days ago. The entire crew had bristled with hope, energy, even optimism. The lure of finally getting home and seeing the families and friends they'd left behind had been almost overwhelming. Now all of that was gone.

They were still soldiers of the Empire. They would fight on the best they could, but without the added drive of hope and conviction he wondered how long they would last against whatever forced the Mandalorians had waiting. As he stood at the front of the bridge, looking out at the endless blue and green, Davek wanted nothing more than to go back to his cabin, lie down with Marasiah, and hold her as long as he could.

He heard voices behind him, familiar in lilt and intonation. He turned and looked at the tactical station. The consoles were empty except for Ensigns Por Dun and Korak. They were hunched close in speaking in voices that were soft but not whispers.

Davek's eyes caught Korak, who nodded and didn't look away. Davek walked across the quiet bridge to their alcove and said, "I'm glad to see you two are here early."

"It's not really a time to sleep, sir," Por Dun said.

"Couldn't stay in my bunk if I wanted to," added Korak. "Besides, there's always systems to double- and triple-check."

"We can't be too prepared," the other ensign added.

"That's very true." Davek looked back at the viewport. "I just wish we knew in advance what was coming."

"Does it really matter, sir?" the Kel Dor asked. "No matter what, we'll have to come out fighting."

"Very true. I just wish..." He sighed and shook his head. Self-pity had no place on the bridge. Not for the crew and certainly not for their captain.

"Is something wrong, sir?"

"No, Ensign. It… can wait until later."

"Ah. Yes, sir."

But of course it couldn't. There would be no later. They'd drop out of the nebula, into the maw of a half-dozen Mando warships, and then finally this long chase would be over. Everything they'd battled and dreamed and hoped and died for would be washed away in fire.

"I'm sorry, Ensigns," he said.

"For what?" Korak frowned.

He'd already had this conversation with Marasiah. After they'd repaired the hyperdrive, when they'd had hope again, he'd mostly gotten past the regrets. Now hope was gone and guilt was back. It was a sad place to die in.

"I'm just sorry. If you'd had a better captain, then maybe things could have turned out different."

They both stared in honest shock. "Sir," Por Dun said, "We wouldn't have survived this long without you. The battle with the asteroids, the raid on their hyperdrive, this-" She waved a hand at the nebula. "Everyone knows it. We'd be dead already if it wasn't for you."

He didn't know what to say. "I, ah, thank you, but-"

"We're so close, sir. We're not going to fail now," Korak said with conviction. He really believed it.

"We've gotten this far, sir," Por Dun added. "We can't just give in at the very end."

They stared at him and he stared at them, and he tried to reconcile the past five days' morbidity with their sudden defiance. It seemed like an apparition, but they didn't flinch from his doubt and their conviction didn't pass away.

Then he heard boots slapping quickly on the deck. He looked to the entrance to see Lieutenant Renwar step onto the bridge. She immediately walked up to him and saluted.

"You're early, Lieutenant," he said, stunned away.

She lowered her hand. "Best to start early, sir. Make sure we do this right."

There was only one thing for it, then. "Very good, Lieutenant. Get on the comm. Tell all section chiefs to report to duty as soon as possible. Rouse all crew. Everyone to battle stations."

-{}-

It took some doing, but eventually they compiled it all into Starlight Champion's navcomputer. According to its readout they needed to take several more jumps around the Shroud until they found a proper entry point; from there it would take just two more jumps to reach the pocket of space where, apparently, Savyar and her worldship were hiding.

Arlen made sure to transmit all of this information to his mother and uncles' ships. Then he started jumping.

By the time they were poised to enter the Shroud, Tamar had regained most of her energy. The woman had changed back into her beskar minus the helmet before she joined them in the cockpit. Arlen wanted to ask her what she thought she'd be fighting in that but decided against it. She'd been severed from her people, maybe forever. If hiding behind armor was her way of coping at the moment, so be it. Arlen couldn't even imagine what would happen if he found himself exiled from the Jedi Order. He'd probably feel like his life had been ended.

The Shroud spread before them to fill their viewport. Arlen exhaled and looked back at the others. "Well? Navcomp's got a lock. Are we ready?"

"Kinda too late to turn back now." Chance muttered.

"You had your chance on Coruscant. Tamar?"

She nodded once. Arlen pulled the throttle and threw Champion into hyperspace. The jump was short, under a minute. When they dropped into realspace they were surrounded by blue and green gases swirling in all directions.

"Well," said Chance as he looked out the viewport, "Now I have claustrophobia. One more jump?"

"Two, not that we're inside. On the maps, at least, the pocket where the worldship's stored had only one way in or out."

"Means with could well be guarded," said Tamar.

"I know. That's why I programmed us to fall out just short of the exit point on the map. Should give us a chance to scout from a distance."

"Or it could give us away before we get close enough to confirm Savyar's location."

"I really don't think we'll miss a worldship."

"I never claimed she was aboard the worldship. Likely, but not certain."

"She'll be there. I can feel it."

"Jedi intuition? Lovely."

"Without Jedi intuition you'd be floating cold in that dead ship."

"Yes, and you'd still owe me for saving your hide at Broken Moon."

Chance gave a labored sigh. "Come on, stop flirting and get on with it."

"We're not- Whatever." Arlen grabbed the throttle, pulled, the flung them into hyperspace again.

-{}-

When they pushed clear of the nebula there were two frigates and three corvettes waiting for them. The only reason Voidwalker wasn't annihilated at the start was that the Mandalorians had spread their ships out to cover all possible places where they might emerge. They were almost lucky: from where they did come out, only a single frigate blocked the exit vector that could have taken them out of the Shroud. Almost lucky wasn't lucky at all: the frigate launched its Beskads to block their path while the other ships hurried to converge on Voidwalker.

When faced with so many opponents, Davek had had no choice but to launch all fighters. Even the TIE Demolishers launched, even though most of them were nearly out of torpedoes. Davek's order had been simple: punch through the frigate in front of them by any means necessary.

If they did get an opening, and if they did have to run fast, they wouldn't have time to recall most their birds. The twenty-one pilots had gone out there on a suicide mission, known it, and flown out anyway, because it was the only way to buy the rest of the Voidwalkers escape.

If that chance did some, and Davek did have to give the order to jump away and abandon Marasiah, he didn't know if he could do it. If he did, he wasn't sure he could live with it.

He tried to focus on the first stage. Voidwalker swung its broadside to the Mandalorian frigate's port length. Mando ships were designed for attack runs and their side guns couldn't match Voidwalker's. Hopefully its shields wouldn't match either; at the same time the Breakers began their bombing runs, and together their attacks started to overwhelm the ship's shields. A few torpedoes got through and punched holes in the hull. The frigate's dorsal engine shuddered and died; a second later Voidwalker's volleys tore through its starboard engine and blew it apart.

Crews run across the bridge, quickly silenced. The frigate was turning around to bring its heavy forward guns to bear. Voidwalker's next turbolaser volley slammed into its forward shields and dissipated without doing any damage. Almost lucky wasn't lucky at all.

"Captain," Por Dun called, "Two corvettes are approaching fast. Will be in firing range in two minutes."

Davek glanced at the tactical holo. The frigate still blocked their path, though they kept blasting it with volleys from the starboard guns. The corvettes would soon come to squeeze them from port. Once pinned down they'd be trapped and helpless.

The only hope was to slow those corvettes with the TIEs while turning to attack the Mando frigate head-on. Their forward shields probably wouldn't last but they just might be able to gun the engines, punch past it, and clear the vector to hyperspace before the other Mando ships caught them.

There would be no way to recover the fighter.

With a shaking voice he said, "Ensign Korak, hail the CAG. And give me your headset."

The ensign removed it and tossed it to Davek. He slapped it on just in time for the connection to come live. "Lieutenant, do you hear me?"

Her voice crackled, "I heard you, Davek."

"How many have you lost?"

"Two Walkers, four Breakers."

He winced. "We have to try and gun it past the frigate. I need all TIEs to fall back. Hold off the Beskads and the corvettes."

"Understood." So curt, so determined. She knew what she had to do.

"Marasiah, I-" He stopped. There weren't any words.

"Coming around now," she said. "Good luck, Davek."

"You too," he creaked, and closed the link.

Before grief could surge and overtake him the bridge rocked, throwing him against the tactical console. He forced himself upright as Renwar reported, "Aft-starboard shields are broken. Reports of hull breaches, trying to seal."

"Helm, turn us around!" Davek said. "Prepare for a push to the exit vector. Forward shields on full. Guns, a forward firing solution."

The chorus echoed with frantic confirmations. As the ship pivoted the face of their attacking frigate, stark and fearsome as a Mandalorian warrior's' helmet, swung into the center of the viewport. He tried to focus on the adrenaline, the fear, the anger of battle; without it, grief and guilt would drown him.

"All forward batteries," he called, "Open fire."

-{}-

They'd fallen out well clear of the worldship, but the worldship was there. As Arlen had predicted, it was a little hard to miss a massive living disc of yorik coral over a hundred kilometers in diameter. As Tamar had predicted, the worldship wasn't alone in that pocket of space. A few vessels were flying loose patrol circles around the space. Rather than Yuuzhan Vong coralskimmers, they seemed to be tramp freighters, probably heavy modified.

"Definitely not ours," Tamar said. "Savyar's been using a lot of partisans in addition to Mandalorians. I'm not surprised she's using them here."

"You know, I have to ask," Chance said. "Did your people know about that worldship before Karfeddion?"

"I didn't." Tamar insisted. She shot a glare at Arlen. "Am I lying, Jedi?"

"No," he said seriously. "I can feel you're telling the truth."

She nodded, grateful. "As for Gevern Auchs… I still don't know how much he knows. He either knows or suspects Savyar is a Sith. That doesn't bother him, though."

"You people need to be more discriminating in employers," Chance said.

She sighed. "Auchs saw an opportunity to make a name for the Mandalorians again. It's been a generation since we really got involved in any major conflicts."

"Haven't been any major conflicts to get involved in," said Chance.

"Exactly," she said, which wasn't exactly true. Her grandfather had been leader of the movement to pull Mandalore away from outsiders' wars. Auchs had paid respect to Venku Skirata as an important figure, even while consciously undoing his legacy. "Auchs is determined to make the galaxy fear Mandalorians again. Plus, I'm sure Savyar gave him a good cut of the glitterstim money."

"What a wonderful partnership they must have," Arlen said sourly. "Have we seen enough here? I'd like to get out of the Shroud and comm the other Jedi. They're going to want to move as soon as I get them word."

"What then?" asked Tamar. It was an open question. She wanted to see how he reacted.

"They'll move in using the organic fliers they brought back from Zonama Sekot," Arlen said. "That'll help them get past the patrols and onboard the worldship. The plan is to sabotage it from the inside."

"And us?" asked Chance, just as curious.

Arlen shrugged and began to turn the ship around. "We'll figure that out as we go. Just like anything."

The look Tamar shared with Chance showed they were, for once, on the same page. Arlen ignored their discomfort, pulled the throttle, and sent them into hyperspace.

When they dropped back to realspace thirty seconds later, the dark dark shapes of two Mandalorian corvettes were immediately visible against the colors of the nebula. They were facing away, with engine-flares facing Champion, but swarming Beskad fighters quickly swung toward the unexpected newcomers.

"Stang, where did they come from?" Arlen hissed as he threw up the shields, right in time to catch the first laser barrage.

"Doesn't matter," said Tamar. "Keep moving. Don't let them get a lock."

"Really? I was going to let them kill us. Chance?"

"Getting guns and targeting online. We can't take all of them."

"I know. I just want to get us to the- Oh, come on!"

"What?" asked Tamar, and then she saw it. A third corvette had decanted from hyperspace, right on the vector they were planning the exit from."

"How did they find us?" Chance said, shocked.

"I don't know, but that route's cut off. They're launching more-" A proton torpedo slammed into the shields and cut Arlen off. The cockpit shuddered around them and Tamar was nearly thrown hard out of her seat. She quickly strapped on her crash webbing as another Beskad dove toward them, peppering their weakened shields with laser blasts.

"There's one more way to go!" Chance said. "Those corvettes, they're angling to another vector."

"Where does it take us?" asked Arlen.

"Let me check… One more passage, leads directly out of the Shroud."

"Let's do it." Arlen pushed the sublight engines to maximum and dove toward the corvettes. They sat close together, flank facing flank. Tamar knew what Alren was going to do, wanted to tell him to stop, knew it wouldn't do any good, and knew it was their best chance anyway.

She grabbed the armrests of her chair tight and prayed this mir'osik jeti wasn't going to get her killed.

Starlight Champion dove into the tight gap between the corvettes. As they approached the ships sprayed back inaccurate turbolaser fire. When they realized what Arlen was going to do their guns shuddered to a stop; if they fired as he passed between them they were more likely to tear open each other's hulls rather than his. Champion was between them, through them, and past them in a flash. The corvettes started firing again, and so did the Beskads at their tail.

None of it mattered. Arlen pulled the throttle, flinging them into a microjump, and for thirty beautiful seconds they were safe.

-{}-

The two TIE Demolishers dropped their torps and sailed clear above the hull of the corvette just as their warheads impacted brightly on shields without going through. A surge of dread filled Marasiah and she leaped to help them, but it was too late. Three Beskads dove from above and tore them apart with a hail of green laserfire.

Big and tempting targets, the bombers were getting shredded to pieces. Only four Breakers remained and eight Walkers. There was no way they'd handle all the swarming Beskads, the two corvettes, the other Mando ships further back but still approaching.

They were going to die here, all of them, and just maybe Voidwalker would escape. There were over nine hundred people on that frigate; a dozen fighter pilots were a small price to pay. Marasiah knew it; that and simple adrenaline kept the fear away as she bobbed and weaved, fell behind another Beskad and blew it to pieces with a volley of laser blasts. One more down but they still kept coming.

Davek would blame himself. She knew it. He might never get over it.

She snarled inside her helmet and went searching for more kills. She felt at one with her fighter; she moved it like part of her body, effortlessly weaving it around enemy ships, splashing laser blasts against the corvettes' shields. The TIE-X responded to every twitch of the stick. Lasers lanced at targets without her thinking to press the button. She slipped away from enemies before they had a chance to lock on. Whether it was the Force or instinct or the power of raw panic, she'd never felt more attuned to a battle in her life.

But none of it mattered. She'd never leave this fight alive.

She fell on the tail of two Beskads and gave chase. They led her away from the battle but she kept following, spitting lasers at their aft shields before one finally burst into the fireball. The second one accelerated and she chased it still. It didn't matter if it was running now; a minute later it could swoop back and kill more of her pilots. The T-shaped fighter danced as good an enemy she faced, forcing her into a scissors-maneuver where they both tried to get behind each other in a series of turns so tight they pinned her to the seat.

Then a ship appeared out of nowhere. It must have come out of hyperspace and the moment it saw two snubfighters shooting toward it, it opened fire with its main cannons. Marasiah pulled up hard to avoid the shot, then sailed over its dorsal wing. The Beskad was a half-second slower and burst into a fireball that the newcoming ship dove right through.

Marasiah spun her ship around. The newcomer was flying right toward the heart of the battle. She knew that ship, or at least its weird design, and she couldn't figure out where from.

Then it hit her. Bilbringi, the war games. It felt like forever ago. One lone ship had plunged into the middle of the mock-battle and dragged her and Rakash'mor along to stop a bunch of ship-thieves before they even knew what was happening.

She couldn't help herself. Marasiah hailed it and cried, "If that's you again, Jedi, we could use some karking help!"

-{}-

"Who the hell is that?" Chance said without sending a reply.

"No idea," Arlen breathed, and before he could tell Chance to open a link with her his eyes took in the battle they'd dropped themselves into. He counted three Mando corvettes and two frigates, all in motion except the one closest the place where they could have escaped into hyperspace. And in the center of them all-

-a battered but still-fighting Imperial Kontos-class frigate.

"Open a channel, now!" he snapped. Chance slammed the button. Arlen said, "Pilot, we're trying to get the hell out of here. Are you?"

"They've blocked our frigate!" the TIE pilot said. "The corvettes are moving in, we're out of warheads-"

"We've got concussion missiles. What can we do?"

"Take out that frigate! Its forward shields are on full but its engines are vulnerable."

"Understood. We're on our way. A little fighter escort would help." Arlen killed the link. "Chance, arms missiles. Get ready to let 'em all rip."

"This is the ship that's been killing Mandalorians for weeks!" Tamar said from behind him.

"Yeah, I figured that." He was starting to figure something else- hoping to figure it, daring to figure it- but none of that would matter if they didn't break that frigate. "Right now it's the one about to get killed. Hold on tight. This is going to be messy."

-{}-

The next volley of missiles from the Mandalorian frigate punched through he forward shields, through Voidwalker's nose, and ripped the forward decks apart. Alarms wailed on the bridge and Davek watched, helpless and debris and bodies spilled into the vacuum on the far end of the ship.

"Emergency bulkheads in place!" Renwar reported. "Shield generator's destroyed. Forward laser cannons are gone."

Davek gritted his teeth. "Helm, sitrep!"

"Hyperdrive still intact," said Jaeger. "Rear engines straining."

"Shields can't take much more from those corvettes, sir," Renwar said.

"Helm, pull us over that frigate. We'll either scrape past it or die trying."

"Yes, sir!"

As Voidwalker lurched upward, Ensign Korak said, "Captain! The TIEs are falling back!"

His heart dropped. Marasiah wouldn't obey orders and if they were retreating she was already dead. "Who gave the order?"

"The CAG, sir."

"Marasiah?"

Korak blinked. "Walker One, sir. She's, ah, she's with another ship-"

"Hail her! Headset, now!"

Voidwalker shuddered under his feet as he slapped the headset on. The frigate's cannons would be pounding their ventral shields and soon they'd be punching through the hull. "Lieutenant! Is that you?"

"Incoming, with help," she called.

He never thought he'd hear that voice again. "What help?"

"Keep pushing! We'll take the frigate from behind!"

"How? The Demolishers are-"

"Watch your tactical! Stand by!"

Davek looked at the screen. A yellow marker, denoting some unknown ship, was looping around the edge of the battle with two TIE-Xs flying its wing. The ship swung back behind the Mando frigate, toward its unshielded aft, then slowed right behind its engines.

Even though Voidwalker had pulled above the Mando frigate he could still see the fireball created by its bursting engines. The concussive force of the explosion buffeted the whole ship and took most of the bridge crew by surprise.

"They did it!" Korak jumped from his seat and shouted so loud the whole deck could hear. "That frigate's down! Power failing, guns dead!"

Davek didn't know how a miracle had fallen into their laps but he couldn't waste it. "All power to aft shields. Tactical, call our birds back! All of them! Engines, push ahead and plot us a course."

As affirmatives bounced across the bridge Davek rushed over to the comm station. "Hail that mystery ship. Now."

After a second the ensign said, "Got them, sir."

He took a deep breath and said, "This is Captain Davek Fel of the Imperial frigate Voidwalker. Please identify yourself."

For a drawn-out second nobody responded. Then a voice said, "Davek? You're alive?"

He knew that voice, even through the static. "Arlen? Is that you?"

Another voice cut in. "We're on your nose. Path is clear, course is plotted. Let's get the hell out of here."

Davek craned his neck and looked out the viewport. Far beyond, past Voidwalkers broken tip, he spotted the flaring five-engine configuration of his brother' Starlight Champion.

A miracle. There was no other word for it.

"Davek, we're gonna do a short jump to get clear of this thing! Ten point four-five lightyears. You got that?"

"Understood, we'll follow. Arlen, we-"

"We'll talk about this in a minute. See you on the other side!"

The link shut off. Davek hurried back to tactical just in time for hear Korak say, "The last TIE is in the barn."

"They're aboard? All of them?"

"Yes, sir."

He swung to the crew pit. "Helm, take us out ten point four-five lightyears exactly, can you do that?"

"Done. Ready to jump, sir!"

He looked at the space ahead. For the first time he could see a place where the gases and stardust that had choked them for the past six weeks fell away and there was nothing except blackness and glittering stars.

"Jump!" he shouted.

Then the bridge shuddered, the ship lurched, and he followed his brother out of the Shroud.