Jae jolted awake at the sound of a door closing nearby. He sat up and saw that Caeben had entered the tiny med facility, carrying a bag of electronic supplies.

"You're back! Did you remember the hydrospanners?"

Caeben mutely handed the bag over and sank into a chair. It took but a moment for Jae to find that the pilot had indeed remembered. "Where's Arra, Captain Matock?"

When the Sylelian didn't respond Jae looked up, abruptly pulled out of his world of Y2 couplings and multitools. It was then that he noticed the deep sorrow on Caeben's face, his slumped shoulders and grieving eyes. "Captain Matock, what's wrong?" he asked quietly, suddenly concerned for the man.

"They took him," Caeben said numbly. "The Imps took Arra."

"Why?"

"Suspicion of anti-government sympathies." Caeben looked up, and Jae saw dull horror behind the glittering tears. "They took everything else from me, and now they took Arra."

Jae slipped out of his bunk and stood by Caeben's chair, ignoring the bag of supplies at his feet. "We'll get him back, Captain Matock."

Caeben shook his head. "No one ever comes back. Especially suspected Rebels. And he does have Rebel sympathies, kid. I'll never see him again."

"No, no," Jae insisted, nearly frantic to pull the young man out of his despair. "You will. We'll break him out of there. We will, you'll see! Come on, Matock, snap out of it! I need your help!"

The pilot just sat there, numbly shaking his head. Jae, however, was shaking all over, desperate to get to work. His first task would be to drag Caeben Matock out of his paralysis.

Jae ran along the hallway toward the cockpit, then suddenly stopped and leaned against a wall, overcome by a wave of dizziness and nausea. "This will never do," he muttered, chafing at his weakness. At last he went on more slowly, and finally sat at a dataport in the cockpit.

Time for some slicing. He tried to recall everything Kyell had taught him five years ago. It had been right before the older Tallen left for the Imperial academy, only two months before Shelpion destroyed their home and family . . . .

Jae shook off the old painful memories. Three hours later, exhausted by the effort of concentration and remembering past the terrible things he had experienced since the last time he saw Kyell, Jae had written a slicing program and plugged it into the Imperial databanks. For a few moments he watched it progress, but his eyes kept closing of themselves, shutting out the data scrolling on the screen. The boy dragged himself to a more comfortable chair and curled up in it, almost asleep on his feet. Instantly he was lost in dreams of smoke and fire and black alley pavement.

X

Bleep—bleep—bleep . . . The alarm Jae had programmed woke him less than an hour later. "Yes!" he whooped, seeing the words ACCESS GRANTED flashing on the screen, pulling him out of his sleep-induced fog.

Jae sat at the dataport and accessed a quick search program. Five seconds later he had the information he needed.

"Arramylian, cell 5687, level 2D, Imperial garrison of Rismyne . . ." Jae's voice trailed off. Quickly he pulled up a map of the garrison. He studied it with growing excitement. The Empire had made a very bad mistake, and Jae would be sure to exploit it.

Jae glanced over the other information and suddenly turned absolutely white. The garrison was getting overcrowded with beings arrested on suspicion of Rebel leanings, and the Imps was doubling up on cells. This considerably raised the stakes for Jae, for Arra's cell-mate was—

"Kyell," Jae whispered, sitting limply in his chair in shock. His brother was alive . . . .

But what was he doing back on Crenellia? Why had he been arrested? What had he been doing for the past five years? Surely he hadn't been imprisoned all this time? No, he would have been moved to a more secure facility, or executed.

Jae shook his head, shuddering. First thing first: he had to waken Caeben out of that lethargy. He transferred all relevant info to a datapad, then headed back to the med facility.

Caeben had fallen asleep in his chair, but Jae shook him awake. "Captain Matock, you've got to pull yourself together. Here, read this."

The pilot obeyed apathetically at first, but with growing interest. He sat up in the chair, alert and hopeful. Jae grinned delightedly. His plan had worked: Caeben was awake again.

The Sylelian stared up at his companion. "Where did you get this?"

"I sliced into the Imperial databanks."

Caeben gaped at the datapad, then at Jae. "Minions of Xendor, is there anything you can't do?"

Jae blushed and shrugged slightly, then stooped to lift the bag of supplies. "We're going to need an escape ship. I've got work to do."

"Hold it." Caeben stood and placed a hand on the boy's slim arm. Jae turned back. "When was the last time you ate, kid? Can't have you collapsing in the middle of the hyperdrive."

"I've got to get to work, Captain Matock. Time is flying."

"It can wait while you eat a good meal and get a few hours sleep." The pilot could see weariness behind the eagerness in the kid's eyes. "I'd better give you another azhali treatment, too. I'll try to be as gentle as Arra, I promise. And Jae?"

The boy looked up at him curiously.

"It's Caeben, just plain Caeben—not Captain Matock."

The young fixer nodded, smiling slightly.

During the meal Caeben kept studying the datapad, especially the page with the sketchy plan Jae had outlined. He repeatedly glanced at the tired face of the boy sitting across from him, barely believing that the same youngster had done all this.

"Do you really think it will work?" he asked at last.

Jae looked up, nodded absently. "It has to," he murmured. "We have to get them out."

"Them?"

The boy nodded again. "Did you notice the name of Arra's cell-mate?"

Caeben searched for the info, then blinked. "Kyell Tallen." He looked up. "Related?"

"My brother. The only one left of my entire family." The youngster toyed with his fork, his gaze far away. "In payment for my services as a fixer, all I want is passage for both of us to any planet in the galaxy—I don't care which."

"That would only be the first installment, kid. If this works, even if it doesn't considering all the work you'll put in, Arra and I are indebted to you for life."

The boy shook his head. "You saved me from Kaltyk and life on the streets. You owe me nothing." He stretched gingerly, wincing a little, and yawned, blinking sleepily at his plate of nerf-noodle stew.

Caeben shook his head and smiled, going over Jae's plan one more time. It was very risky and highly time-dependent, but feasible. Only one detail . . .

"Jae?" Caeben looked up and saw that the boy had fallen asleep with his head on the table.

Caeben smiled, then lifted the boy and laid him in his bunk, surprised by his lightness. He fetched the azhali balm and quickly treated Jae's back while the boy couldn't feel it, glad to see that the wounds were healing. The bleeding had stopped, the broken skin closed, and the swelling was slowly diminishing. In a few days, hopefully, the last traces of Kaltyk's abuse would be gone.

Caeben carefully tucked the youngster in, pulling the blanket up to his chin, and left for his own quarters. Best to get some rest while they could. They had a busy day ahead.