A/N: Okay, so I guess an explanation is in order as to why this took three months to upload (even though it took me the usual amount of time to actually write). My workload got bigger, and I do mean a lot bigger, so naturally that resulted in an initial delay. On top of that, a family member passed away just after Christmas, though as they were often away for months at a time, the impact didn't truly hit me until their funeral in early February. The latter in particular really drained me of my enthusiasm to keep writing, and then my workload increased again.

Things have calmed down for the moment, and I'm feeling a lot better now than I was. There should not be anything like this kind of gap between the current chapter and the next. I can't guarantee a frequent update rate, as my finals are looming, but I will try to get out one chapter a week if that is at all possible, though it may not be. I still have a lot of enthusiasm for this story, so feedback is welcome as always, especially as I might be a bit rusty.

I normally try to respond to reviews directly if I can, and I honestly can't remember if I did last time as I was a bit all over the place for a while. If I did forget, I'm sorry about that. Speaking of which…

Reponses to reviews are as follows:

AnarionRising27: Thank you very much! I wish this story were as good as Mission Impossible, but even I don't think that highly of myself. I've always felt that a story lives or dies by its characters, so that fact you like them so far is great to hear.

JustWriteAnon: I really appreciate your understanding. While I do love doing this, and I also love trying to get better and better, it is a hobby at the end of the day. Life got very heavy for a while, but it's a bit better now. Conflict is one of the best ways to write compelling characters, so I'm glad you're interested in what's happening between them.

seabo76: Thanks! A slow burn tends to lead to a more satisfying conclusion, in my humble opinion. I'll try to keep it up.

Guest (False Masks): I'm glad you liked the concept. Assuming you're reading this, could you perhaps give me an example of when I was a bit too exposition heavy?

Chapter 13: Aratoht

As soon as the ramp had finished lowering, a quiet hiss accompanying it as it slowly made its way down to the ground, Rassen noticed Kasumi's presence already moving away from where he stood. He glanced in the direction she was heading in, the corner of his mouth lifting in a smile as he noticed a pile of supply crates about fifteen metres away. Each of the boxes was about two feet tall and just over a metre long, and they were all coloured a uniform light grey. What had caught his attention, however, was what appeared to be an air shaft built into the wall a few metres behind the crates, which was presumably the thief's target. Despite his height, Rassen could only just see the entrance from where he stood, including the simple metal cover that protected it, and even then that was because he had been looking for whatever had caught Kasumi's attention. How the grey and black clad woman had spotted her target, considering her much shorter stature, he hadn't the faintest idea.

Remembering he had his own job to do, Rassen began to walk down the ramp, eyes moving all around as he tried to discover as much as possible about his surroundings, though he was careful not to show his interest too openly, keeping his head facing straight on. They had landed in the far side of the hanger, which itself was moderately sized. Several ships of the same design as their own could have fit inside it comfortably, though the sheer number of people it currently contained seemed much greater than the number of vessels it could hold at full capacity would require.

All of the other occupants of the hanger as far as he could see were batarians, and their looks of suspicion and anger at his arrival were not lost on the Jedi. Taking care not to look too obvious while doing it, Rassen quickly examined himself as best he could, frowning in confusion at how nothing appeared out of place. Realisation dawned as a Mandalorian suddenly became visible at the other end of the vast room, only to be met by the same glares from the batarians.

The Mandalorians must have a very good reason for working with them if they know the batarians distrust them that much.

Making note of the fact the batarians far outnumbered the Mandalorians, even though they were allies, Rassen turned his attention to his surroundings once more. While a lot of effort had clearly gone into maintaining the hanger; the floors and walls were clean, and the batarians all moved as though they knew their roles, something stood out to him as off. As he reached the bottom of the ramp and moved to stand beside it, feet together and back straight as he projected the aura of a soldier awaiting their superior, Rassen began to realise just what had caught his attention.

Here and there were signs of, for lack of a better term, cost-cutting. For instance, there was a doorway opposite where they had landed and where he stood. Above the door, a number of cables protruded outwards, as though someone had removed the metal panel that normally protected them in order to fix an issue, only to forget to replace it. Other signs of a lack of funding seemed to multiply exponentially as he continued to look for them. Not all of the floor panels matched. Most were of a light grey colour, but others were much darker in tone, some even being jet black. Looking up, Rassen saw that the hanger was illuminated by a number of powerful lights, rectangular in shape, though only about two thirds of them were working. As he watched, one of the sources of illumination suddenly flickered rapidly before cutting out and failing to come back on.

The cleanliness and organisation could only slightly disguise how low on resources the whole operation was.

Deciding now would be a good time to test out whether Kasumi's addition to his helmet actually worked, Rassen decided to contact her, turning off the vocabulator the helmet had come with originally and enabling her communication device.

"Kasumi? Do you read me?"

There was a moment of silence as he waited for a reply. A sudden burst of static caused him to wince before the thief's by now familiar voice reached him.

"What is it, Ras?"

Deciding now was neither the time nor place to remind her of his view on that particular nickname, Rassen pushed the small amount of frustration he felt to one side.

"Have you noticed how cobbled together this place is?" He asked, still standing as though he belonged, which seemed to be working, since nobody had challenged him yet. "It is obviously well-maintained, but it seems that as many corners were cut as possible."

Kasumi's reply was laced with amusement. "You're telling me," she grunted, causing Rassen to open his mouth to ask whether anything was wrong before she elaborated.

"They really went cheap with the ventilation system. There's a lot of rust in here, plus it's one of the smallest ones I've ever had to crawl through."

"You mentioned that you have infiltrated facilities like this one hundreds of times. I take it someone of your occupation is rather well acquainted with air ducts at this point?"

Kasumi grunted again before replying. "Sure am. There was this particularly nasty one back when I was with Sh—" The thief suddenly cut herself off, but it was obvious what she had been about to say.

"Kasumi," Rassen asked gently, "are you all right?"

"I, uh, yes. I'm fine. Just… memories." There was another moment of silence, followed by the return of soft grunts as Kasumi continued her journey through the ventilation system. Before he could ask her if she was certain she was fine, Rassen noticed with some alarm that a Mandalorian had just entered the hanger through the door opposite him, and had begun to approach.

"I am about to have company," he reported to the thief, silently glad that he was currently inaudible to the figure, since the vocabulator was disabled. He kept his eyes on the Mandalorian as they made their way past a cluster of batarians, who glared at the newcomer before going back to what they had been doing before. "Good luck finding what you need."

"Good luck to both of us."

He muttered an affirmative and muted the speech function of the communicator, leaving him still able to hear anything should either she or Shaela need to talk to him, but unable to talk to them himself. He then re-enabled the vocabulator, disguising both actions as a readjustment of the helmet as though he had put it on slightly incorrectly. That done, he turned to face the Mandalorian, who by that point had almost reached him.

As a quiet beep reached her ears, signalling that Rassen was still available to contact, but could no longer speak, Kasumi pressed on, slowly crawling through the ventilation shaft as quietly as she could. Getting into it had been easy. The hard part had been climbing directly upwards. Now she was crawling horizontally, it was somewhere in between. Even so, she was unable to stop the occasional quiet grunt of effort from escaping. The thief was well aware that she was smaller than most humans, and batarians for that matter, but even so, she couldn't help worrying that she might get stuck. Pushing aside that particular thought as she felt a bought of claustrophobia coming on, Kasumi fixed her eyes firmly ahead, trying to peer through the gloom that lay in front of her.

It was almost entirely dark in the confined space. There was the occasional dim pool of light coloured a dull red every few metres or so, the result of an outdated model of service light that the batarians had clearly got on the cheap. Outside each of those slightly illuminated areas, the rest of the shaft was lost in darkness, the combination of black and red enough to make the way she needed to go look extremely uninviting.

Fortunately, though, she had notified Shaela about what she was going to attempt just before Rassen had contacted her. Unfortunately, she hadn't had the time to connect all three of them to the same frequency. That meant they had to contact one another individually, and so she had been forced to end the call with the former to speak with the latter.

She had reopened the line to Shaela almost as soon as she had finished speaking with Rassen. Given that the plan was for the Jedi to stay where he was, the quarian was currently helping her by attempting to monitor whether there was anyone in the rooms her route led through that might hear her moving. Happily, the other woman seemed to have mastered the camera system surprisingly quickly and was providing constant updates, meaning she had something else to concentrate on besides worrying she might get stuck.

"Keep going, you're currently above a barracks if you are where I think you are, but there's no one below you at the moment." The quarian's voice, normally distorted only slightly by the speaker built into her enviro-suit, was barely audible over the sound of static, the verbal assault causing Kasumi to wince slightly as she moved one arm in front of the other. Thankfully, although she was using her omni-tool to talk with Shaela, she had remembered to fiddle with the volume settings so no one but her could hear the quarian. Muttering a quiet affirmative, the thief felt a brief stab of panic as her shoulders seemed to get stuck for a moment, only to let out a silent sigh of relief as they slipped free after she applied a small amount of force.

I must be losing my edge.

"Not all of the cameras seem to be working," Shaela continued, "but most are. I can't risk moving any of them, though, doing that would alert anyone else watching that I'm in the system."

Kasumi let out a low grunt that was mainly acknowledgement, though it was also the result of frustration. Rassen had been right; crawling through various ducts was something she was well acquainted with. Even so, that didn't mean she liked it. As her shoulders got stuck temporarily for a second time, and she realised she would probably be spending longer than she would have liked in the ventilation system, she decided she might as well use the opportunity to find out just what the tension between her two companions had been about, though she would have to keep her voice quiet.

"So… you and Rassen seem to be really into each other."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she winced. Was that really the best she had? Sure, she hadn't simply asked outright what had happened between the two of them, but even so, the conversation starter had sounded much better in her head.

Way to be subtle, Kasumi.

"I-I'm sorry?" Shaela sounded completely caught off guard by the statement, causing the thief to wince again. "O-oh right, yes, I guess we are," she stammered. "Um… why did you say that?"

Her muscles were beginning to burn from being forced to crawl for so long. Kasumi pushed away their growing protests as she kept going. "It's pretty unpleasant in here, so I wanted to distract myself a bit," she admitted, scowling as a particularly large patch of rust scraped against her body-suit, the noise quiet but still irritating. "Anyway, things seemed tense between the two of you after Watchman," she continued. "I was wondering if you maybe wanted to talk to someone about it."

There was a long silence. Kasumi winced yet again as she continued crawling. Of the two of them, Shaela had seemed by far the least trusting of her when they had agreed to help. Prying into something so private might have been going too far, especially as quarians were historically rather insular as a result of how they had been treated for centuries. The pause in the conversation dragged on for so long that Kasumi was eventually able to spot a break in the darkness ahead, a soft yellow glow which was a different kind of light to those above her. Speeding up slightly in her eagerness to be free of her cramped surroundings, she almost missed Shaela's reply.

"Why are you so interested?"

That was a good question. Was she simply curious? Did she only want to help? Kasumi frowned as a feeling she couldn't identify suddenly welled up. Or was there some other reason for her wanting to get involved that she didn't yet understand? Pushing aside the various other reasons her mind conjured up, she chose to go with the second option.

"Rassen," she forced her shoulders free from where they had just got suck yet again, "well… just before you met up with us, he mentioned he missed you. A lot in fact. And the look on his face when he heard your voice…" Kasumi trailed off, a lump in her throat as she remembered the last time she had seen that look. The same expression had been on Keiji's features when she had used his greybox just before destroying it. That look had left her feeling unsteady because it had been one she had seen many times when they had been together, regardless of whether circumstances had been good or bad. Realising Shaela was waiting for her to continue, she pushed aside the dull stabbing pain that had nestled itself in her stomach and continued on.

"It's just… he…." She shook her head in frustration. "When I saw the two of you together, you both looked so… so happy. Then all of a sudden there was this tension between the two of you. I know it's none of my business, Shaela, so if you don't want to discuss it then that's okay. I just… I guess I just want to help."

The pause that followed was shorter than the first but even so, Kasumi had almost reached the yellow light, which she could now see originated from somewhere outside the shaft, by the time Shaela's voice reached her.

"I… I'm worried about him."

Kasumi paused, one arm still outstretched to keep pulling herself along, at the tone of the quarian's voice. She just sounded so… lost for lack of a better term. Shaking her head slightly, she continued crawling.

"Why?"

"He… he's been acting differently to how he did before we were separated. He's… do you remember when he stood over the final Mandalorian?"

"Yes, he looked like he was going to kill him before he even asked him any questions," Kasumi replied, noticing with some relief that the light was shining through a vent cover, rather than what could have been a small hole, which meant she was almost free. "I obviously don't know him as well as you do, but I noticed that he glossed over what happened to him over the last few years. Do you think him being different to how you remember has something to do with that?"

"I'm sure of it," the abundance of static could not hide the fact that Shaela sounded impressed, which caused her to grin slightly despite her surroundings.

Heh, still got it.

"I take it you've asked him whether anything is wrong?" Before the quarian could answer, she continued. "No wait, let me guess. When you did he avoided answering the question, or he tried to convince you nothing was wrong."

"I… that's it exactly," Shaela now sounded amazed. "How did you guess that?"

Kasumi allowed her grin to widen as she finally reached the way out. She took a moment to consider her answer as she carefully scanned the metal floor of the room below her for any signs of life, and quickly checked all of her equipment still working as well. While she had obviously done so before leaving the ship, it never hurt to be safe.

"People never want to worry those they care about," she finally replied. "Even though it's almost always a good idea to tell others when something is wrong. Rassen told me you disagreed over something, and you seemed more upset than he did, so by putting all of the pieces together, it's clear he hasn't told you what happened to him. Given the kind of things he can do, I'm going to assume that whatever occurred, it was bad."

"I don't know what to do, Kasumi," Shaela's voice had dropped to a whisper; she could barely hear it over the static now. "I said I wouldn't force him to tell me, but how do I help him?"

The coast still seemed to be clear. Nodding to herself as she prepared to remove the shaft's covering and drop down into the room below, Kasumi replied gently.

"For now? Wait. Once we're back on the ship, keep trying to get him to open up, but don't force it. He's probably got used to having no one to talk to after a few years of chasing leads on how to get back here on his own, so he's probably out of practise confiding in others. Even you. Just… be there for him, and he'll come around."

"I… thank you, Kasumi." The thief smiled at the warmth in the quarian's voice.

"No problem," she grinned, "but I'm going to have to go silent for the moment since I've found an exit. Keep me updated and I'll try to do the same when I can."

"Understood. I'll keep this line open at my end." Even though Shaela's voice was now all business, Kasumi couldn't help noticing there was still a note of gratitude to it.

Rassen kept his gaze on the Mandalorian as she, he could at least tell they were female they were so close, reached him. He carefully examined the newcomer as she came to a halt a few steps away before standing to attention, feet together and arms at her sides. Given he was already in the same position, the Jedi continued to look at her, waiting for her to speak first.

To his surprise, the Mandalorian seemed nervous, the fingers of one hand closing and opening slowly as she watched him in return. Rassen frowned beneath his helmet at what he assumed was an inexperienced recruit who seemed to have no more idea what to do than he did. The silence dragged on for a moment, the newcomer still looking at him expectantly before she finally spoke.

"Excuse me, sir. Are you all right?"

Rassen blinked in surprise and his jaw dropped open, thrown for a moment by the voice that had come from the person opposite him. The voice that issued from the suit of heavy armour was softer than he had expected, though that was only slightly surprising. No, what had caught him off guard was just how young the Mandalorian presumably was and how, if you were to remove the electronic distortion produced by the vocabulator in her helmet, her voice was very familiar.

In spite where he was, he nearly laughed in disbelief. Of all the Mandalorians who could have been sent to greet their ship, out of the however many currently were in this galaxy, it had to be her.

There was no question he was currently staring at the same Mandalorian he had spared the life of on Horizon.

A million thoughts suddenly raced through his mind. How few Mandalorians were there that he had ended up with this one? Had she recognised him? No, that was impossible. He hadn't said anything, and his own armour covered him completely. The most pressing question of all, though, was why. Why was she the one that had been sent? She was the only Mandalorian he had encountered so far who was still alive. Was the Force playing some kind of sick joke on him?

Realising the woman opposite him was waiting for a reply, Rassen pushed aside his raging thoughts and pulled himself up a little straighter. She had addressed him as a superior, which explained the awkward pause. She had been waiting for him to speak first, and for that matter was still waiting for him to say something.

"Everything is fine," he said, silently glad for the vocabulator in his own helmet and how it made him sound gruffer than usual. He barely avoided betraying his surprise as the woman jumped slightly at his tone, though she still looked at him expectantly. Hoping Mandalorian military procedure was not too different from that followed by the Republic, Rassen stood at ease, feet shoulder width apart, hands behind his back. Quickly realising as he did so that the Mandalorian was still waiting for something, he nodded once, to which she responded by standing likewise. He let out a silent sigh of relief. So far, so good, but between the security question and now the current situation, he was not confident everything would go well indefinitely.

He turned his attention back to the blue and white armoured figure before him as she spoke, her voice soft and nervous, though with a hint of determination present as well. "Mandalore sent me to escort everyone to debriefing," she announced, fingers of one hand still twitching, though more slowly now. She stepped slightly to the side in order to get a better look at the still lowered ramp. "Um, where are the rest of them?"

"I…" Rassen struggled for a moment before he remembered the cover story. "The commando team encountered a foreign contaminant on the surface of Watchman. We currently have no idea what the cause of it was or whether it is dangerous. However, given the temperature of the world and how resilient a pathogen would have to be to survive there, it was decided that no risks should be taken. Everyone who left the ship is currently undergoing repeated decontamination cycles."

"Ah, right. Yes, of course. That makes sense." The young woman nodded quickly, unaware that he was continuing to observe her carefully. Had she recognised his voice yet? Was she only playing along until his back was turned and she could report him to someone else? He reached out subtly to the Force. No, he sensed no alarm from her besides the tension of a few moments ago. As far as he could tell, she believed him to simply be a higher ranking Mandalorian.

"Do you know how long that will take, sir?"

Rassen fixed his eyes on the opaque black T-shaped visor that he knew was identical to his own. "I do not," he said carefully. "One of the batarians mentioned it might take a while, given the decontamination system's unfamiliarity with our armour and the unknown nature of the pathogen itself." The Mandalorian nodded quickly again, mulling over the information for a moment before replying.

"You had better come on your own then, sir. Mandalore herself has set aside the time to personally debrief your group. She probably won't have time to wait around for the commando squad to be allowed to leave your ship."

Rassen winced, though the motion was fortunately lost thanks to the heavy armour he wore. "Are you sure that is necessary?" He asked, still managing to keep an air of authority to his voice despite how her reply had caught him off guard. "The commandoes actually left the ship. I did not. Surely Mandalore would prefer to speak to someone who did not hear what happened via comm chatter but actually set foot on that frozen rock?"

The Mandalorian was shaking her head before he had even finished talking. "She sent me herself, sir. Between you and me, she seemed angry about something. I don't think we should keep her waiting."

Kasumi had only been gone for a few minutes. Given the size of the asteroid, in addition to the fact she was probably still crawling through the vents, there was no way the thief could have managed to find what she needed in so little time, regardless of how experienced she was. Rassen felt his frustration build as he analysed the situation from every angle he could. If he refused to go then he would make the woman in front of him suspicious and also probably make Mandalore, or whoever was claiming to be Mandalore, even angrier than she apparently already was. If he agreed to go, however, then he would have to keep up the façade for longer, increasing the chance that someone would see through it.

Neither option was acceptable. The intelligent thing to do would be to claim he needed to check on something inside the ship and use the time that bought to recall Kasumi. As long as he could convince the woman in front of him to wait several minutes, they could at least start the engines before anyone on the asteroid realised anything was wrong. He was about to make up an excuse to tell the expectant Mandalorian, before he remembered the look on Kasumi's face when he had mentioned Shepard was a captive.

He might have only known her a few days, but he knew she wouldn't leave unless she had answers. Even if he could convince her, he knew from experience what it was like to come so close to finding what you needed only to be denied at the last hurdle. It had been a constant feature of the last few years for him. Decision made, he nodded to the Mandalorian before gesturing past her, resigning himself to the fact that at least he had possessed the foresight to attach a blaster pistol to the belt he wore.

"Lead on, then."

As she watched Rassen speak with the Mandalorian who had approached their ship, glad that the viewports of the cockpit could be polarised, even though the front of craft was facing away from both him and the newcomer and so there was no chance of anyone spotting her and raising the alarm, Shaela silently allowed herself to be impressed with Kasumi's abilities. She somehow still seemed to know where to go even though she had left the ventilation system. Shaela couldn't dwell on it, though, as her eyes were fixed on her omni-tool and so on every camera feed within the base. Well, every one that seemed to be functioning. Even for those that worked, though, the image quality was still rather poor.

Swiping between the one that was currently trained on Rassen and the ones near Kasumi's position, she gently exhaled, forcing herself to relax. Nothing had gone wrong so far. Kasumi knew what she was doing, unsurprising given that it was what she probably did every single day. The quarian shut down that line of thought before it could lead somewhere unpleasant. Kasumi had been surprisingly sympathetic about Rassen and herself. The least she could do was give the other woman a chance. It was only fair.

Seeing that a group of three batarians was approaching Kasumi's last reported position, Shaela notified the thief, who enabled the speak function at her end just long enough to say she understood before muting it again. So far, the quarian had been unable to spot the other woman through any of the cameras, as she had kept to their blind spots, which were many, given how dimly lit the whole facility seemed to be. That was a good thing, however. If she had seen her, then anyone else monitoring also would have. As long as Kasumi kept her updated as to her current position, though, she could tell her which areas to avoid at least temporarily. A few seconds after the thief told her she had reached an intersection, she hailed Kasumi again.

"A patrol is approaching from a corridor to your left," she noted. "There's a storeroom to your right. Hide in there and I'll let you know when the coast is clear." Kasumi sent back an acknowledgment, and Shaela nodded to herself as the group, this time consisting of Mandalorians, made its way past the human's position.

"All clear," she reported.

Kasumi's voice was less distorted than it had been while she was in the vents, though it still was a little difficult to make out what she said as she emerged from the storeroom. "Thanks," the other woman replied. "Can you—" The connection cut out, causing Shaela's heart to stop for a brief moment before it returned.

"Kasumi, can you repeat that last part?"

"I asked if you can see any terminals near me. If the software guarding them is as weak as the program protecting the security cameras was, then I might be able to find where they're keeping Shepard by accessing one."

Shaela frowned, silver eyes narrowing slightly behind her light blue visor. "Can you do that without anyone noticing? Won't the system at least log that it's been accessed?"

She could hear the smile in Kasumi's voice as she replied. "Not if I delete it the timestamp of me accessing it. You worry too much, Shaela. I know what I'm doing."

"I didn't mean… you know what I meant."

Kasumi laughed lightly as she replied. "I know. No harm done." Her voiced turned more serious. "Can you see one?"

Shaela started flicking between the different cameras, eyes narrowed slightly as she strained to pick up anything Kasumi could use, a task made more difficult by the poor picture quality. Within a minute, though, she saw something. Dragging her fingers to enlarge a section of the feed, she allowed herself a small smile.

"I've got something. There is a… I think it's a shift terminal in an armoury about one hundred metres away from where you are. Take the corridor the patrol just came from. It's clear for the moment, and if you stick to the edges the lighting is bad enough that no-one else monitoring should be able to see you. Then take the… the third door on the right. The terminal is between the third and fourth racks of guns on the left when you go in."

"Got it. As much as I appreciate the help, you better check on your boyfriend to make sure he hasn't managed to get into too much trouble."

Shaela nodded, then sighed when she remembered the other woman couldn't see the gesture. "Will do," she said, switching back to the camera she had used to keep an eye on what was going on outside the ship. An uneasy feeling entered her stomach when she suddenly realised that neither Rassen nor the Mandalorian were still outside the craft.

Flicking between different camera feeds, the quarian swallowed nervously when she finally located Rassen, unharmed, thank the ancestors, following who she guessed was the same person from before through a series of corridors similar to those Kasumi was traversing, though these ones were full of batarians, who glared at the two differently dressed figures as they passed.

If Rassen had left his position, that meant their chances of being discovered had just increased drastically. There was no-one to ward any Mandalorians or batarians away from the ship if someone decided to investigate and, worse still, the Jedi was surrounded by enemies. On top of that, he couldn't sneak away like Kasumi could, meaning there would almost certainly be fighting if something went wrong. As she prepared herself for the very real knowledge things could fall apart at any moment, she contacted the thief.

"You need to speed up. Rassen has been forced to leave the ship. Get to the terminal and find out where they're keeping Commander Shepard so we can leave."

Shaela barely heard the human's reply as she glanced down at the ground next to her, glad that she had the bag of medical supplies and other equipment Wessa had given her near at hand. She gently opened it and removed the kinetic barrier the asari had provided, attaching it to her suit and activating the device. Next, she slowly drew her pistol from its place on her hip, giving it a quick once over to make sure the heat sink was empty.

Ready to go at the first sign of trouble, Shaela took a deep breath as she prepared to contact Rassen. He needed to know what Kasumi's progress was. She could safely update him. He would only have silenced his own ability to talk and could still hear her. With a jolt, she realised they hadn't spoken since he had left her alone in the ship's storeroom. Suddenly apprehensive for a completely different reason, she switched from Kasumi's frequency to his.