"Wait! That's the Titan, which looks so much like the Colossus," Tam exclaimed. She blinked several times, astounded. "It's like being back home." But it wasn't; she felt strange. No one was familiar; no one gave her a second look. This station was a mere shadow of the Colossus.
Did Jace Rucklin know where he was going?
"Kaz?" She ran up to the technician, who sounded so familiar. Before she could make a positive ID, he fled. "It's nothing," Tam told Rucklin, who looked unconvinced.
"I think we have a problem. I think Tam's here, with Rucklin." Kaz looked the holograph of worried.
"She won't allow us to steal anything from this station," Neeku warned.
"Lead the way, CB." Kaz was growing more excited with each beat of his heart. This was the most important mission to date, and the most dangerous. Failure wasn't an option; failure meant the Colossus' demise.
"The trans-binary deflector shield will go down soon, Kaz." Neeku's voice had risen, he not sounding in control of himself at all.
"We'll do whatever it takes to pull this off," Kaz assured. "All right, Neeku, we're almost there."
Hux looked cross, directing his animus at Kaz. "You are a technician here?"
"Yes, sir, I am," Kaz countered. His body was drenched from sweat. This encounter with this martinet general could spell the end of this desperate gambit. Kaz deepened his voice, wanting to sound a lot more mature. "I just transferred to this section. Sir."
"Lead the way," Hux instructed. "The layout is incredibly inconvenient. Do you have something to say, technician?"
"No...I, uh, said what I had to." Kaz shrank back, but managed to stay in the thick of things with Hux and Commander Pyre. He followed behind them, taking in their info-filled conversation, which sounded terribly ominous.
"This kind of reminds me of the Colossus. I kind of miss it," Tam expressed for the second time. "It's just more cold and sterile."
Rucklin shot her down with visual daggers. "You're crazy, missing that rundown place."
Meanwhile, Neeku was relieved about Kaz's daring masquerade fooling the First Order flunkies, making his evasion successful.
"We just have to get to the hyperdrive chamber," Kaz effused.
"We must get to the engine room," Neeku advised.
Kaz and Neeku hid, huddled by a console while they observed a First Order agent monitoring for their intrusive presence. "We're clear to go to the engine room,"
"I'll meet you back at the hangar," Tam said excitedly to Rucklin as he went his way as he'd been ordered to. She was on her way to the technician, whom she knew to be Kaz.
"There you are, CB," Kaz said. "Let's grab what we need and get out of here."
"Reroute the power," Neeku instructed.
"What is going on here?" Rucklin wondered aloud, well aware that something was very wrong here in the bay right before going into the hangar.
"Okay, power is rerouted. You are clear for extraction." Neeku was more than ready to leave the Titan behind, and hightail it back to the Colossus. Danger made him go a deeper shade of green.
"Hold it right there, Kaz!" Rucklin exclaimed, glowering at his former associates. "I'm not as stupid as you look. You should've joined the First Order along with Tam and me."
"No, please just hear me out," Kaz pleaded. "We must replace the trans-binary deflector. If we don't, the Colossus will fry. Rucklin—no! Rucklin! Rucklin." Kaz froze, shocked. The blond turncoat had every intention of turning them over to the First Order. What had made him such a womp rat? "He's turning us over to the First Order," Kaz lamented when Neeku demanded to know what was going on far off from where he currently was.
Before Rucklin could act, Kaz ran away, faster than he'd ever run in his life straight to where Vozo was. "We did it, Neeku. Slide the deflector into my pack!" Kaz directed.
From Tam's present location, she switched on the monitor, seeing her former friends trying to escape.
"Keep trying, Neeku, we can't give up yet."
Fear for the rising, Tam reacted instead of weighing the consequences, and released the door to let them proceed. When questioned, she mislead, "I tried to stop them, but they escaped." Tam never batted an eye. "I saw them go that way," she persuaded the pursuing stormtroopers to believe.
"Come on!" Kaz told Neeku. "CB, I need you to open the blast doors for Sector 1305."
"We've got to get back to the main hangar!" Kaz yelled, growing more anxious.
Once there, they were pinned down. "We need CB to lift the crane for us." Neeku thought it was a brilliant idea. Now the droid had to do it.
"Yes, we're gonna make it," Kaz cheered, as storm troopers fired on them, and CB positioned the crane in place. "Look out. Get down!"
As the floor collapsed under them, Neeku and Kaz jumped for their lives. Shaking hysteria off, they bolted aboard the transport, escaping, right into the sights of streaking tie-fighters, closing in.
Rucklin just knew he'd get a promotion, imagining that the Colossus' infiltrators had been captured, but Tam knew better as she watched Kaz's transport hurtle away. She also knew that Kaz and company weren't desperate. They were getting smarter. If they needed her covert help again in the future, she'd be more than happy to give it to them. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the First Order was double dealing, and she was being swayed back to those she used to call friends' side.