They were silent for a long time. Every so often Phaelon would glance out her port side and assure herself that what remained of her s-foils were still there. The shortened wings made the whole ship vibrate and made her feel off balance.

Finally, she felt Kyp's mind touch hers. So, there is a planet at the end of this, and not just some black hole. Right? he asked.

She offered him a mental shrug and knew he was rolling his eyes. "Drifter?" she asked her astromech. "Where exactly are we going?"

The astromech blatted indignantly.

"Of course I trust you, I'd just like to know," Phaelon insisted to the persnickety droid. "I'm just curious."

With a final raspberry, the droid complied. A system chart appeared on her navicomputer.

"Ansion?"

Where the heck's that? demanded Kyp's voice inside her head.

Phaelon flicked through the information. "There's not much there. Last they had a diplomatic envoy was just before the Clone Wars."

Wonderful. "Are they friendly?" Kyp finally decided to use the comlink instead of the Force.

There was a significant pause. "Relatively."

"Sounds like fun," he replied sarcastically.

OO

When they dropped out of hyperspace, Ansion was a gold and green ball hanging in front of them. "See," said Phaelon, "no black holes." From where she was flying, she could feel Kyp roll his eyes.

"Yeah well, random hyperspace jumps are the quickest form of suicide I'm aware of." His voice turned serious over the com. "How's the ship doing? You gonna make it through the atmosphere okay?"

Phaelon chuckled. "What's this, Kyp? You actually concerned for me?"

"No," Kyp replied lightly, "I didn't want to fly all the way out here only to have my charge disintegrate."

Her R-5 unit chirped something and she was forced to break off her conversation – someone from planetside control was trying to contact her.

I hope the last envoys made a good impression, Kyp sent as Phaelon switched com frequencies. Just don't let them know you're Jedi yet.

"Unidentified fighters, this is Cuipernam Control. Identify yourselves immediately." The voice that crackled over her com spoke in broken Basic.

"This is Captain Phaelon Lei of New Republic Starfighter Command." She tried her best to speak slowly and clearly. "My ship is badly damaged. Requesting permission for myself and my escort to land and repair."

They waited in silence for nearly three minutes before the controller was back. "Permission granted. Please follow these landing coordinates."

"Thank you, Control."