-KAJA-

  When Kaja Khan was a child she excelled at mathematics. It came easily to her and she regularly topped all her classes. That made her father proud. He would brag all the time about his gifted daughter. Kaja's mother however was different. She saw cracks where Kaja's father didn't. She noticed the fact that their daughter, while gifted, had a penchant for slacking off. Kaja did the bare minimum. ‘Close enough’ was her motto.

  Kaja's mother tried to beat it out of her, but the coddling of her father did not help. And so Kaja grew up with a tendency to settle for close enough, along with another tendency her mother hated: The tendency to not give full disclosure.

  It was because of this that Kaja failed to tell her companions about the time dilation. And it was also because of this, combined being okay with 'close enough', that she failed to tell those same companions that the coordinates of their destination were not exact.

  When Kaja hacked the Freighter, she had obtained the planet Chin's coordinates from it, but planetary coordinates were a fickle thing. They represented possibilities more than certainties.

  A planet was in constant motion, and so jumping directly to it from jumpspace meant you had to know precisely where it was at that one second. The ship had an algorithm that would have helped with this, but the virus had corrupted it. So Kaja had to create her own algorithm from the corpse of the old one.

  Her algorithm would transport them somewhere in the vicinity of the planet. There was a possibility they ended up miles away, and there was another possibility they ended up in the Planet's core.

  Kaja knew this, but she saw no reason to tell her companions. What were they going to do about it anyway? Instead, she did her best, and entered a 'close enough' approximation.

  ‘I wonder where we'll end up.’ That had been one of her last thoughts before they were launched out of jumpspace.

  Her question was answered a half-second later.

  The darkness vanished, and the StarHawk's windshield became awash with a display of rushing flames. The entire ship began to vibrate violently.

  Kaja screamed. "Ahhh!!!"

  She glanced to her right and saw Ramis screaming with her. His hands gripped the ship's controls as if hanging on for dear life.

  Kaja could tell from the numerous warning icons popping up on the StarHawk’s dashboard that the ship was being buffeted on all sides by intense frictional forces. That, combined with the figures popping up on the ship’s Nav, pointed to one thing: They were in the planet's atmosphere.

  That was not good.

  The atmosphere was a far better place to end up than the core, but it wasn't great. Kaja had hoped to end up in empty space above the planet. The atmosphere meant instant resistance to their forward motion. It meant intense heat for any ship entering it without the necessary shields.

  Kaja moved quickly and activated the StarHawk's planetary re-entry mechanisms. Almost instantly, the vibrations lessened and the flames dancing on the windshield dissipated.

  The StarHawk was out of immediate danger, but there was another problem. They had jumped with the Freighter, and all the Freighter's systems were down; it would crumble against the atmospheric forces.

  Through the now clear windshield, Kaja could see that she was right. The entire Freighter was on fire and pieces of it were being torn off. A large enough piece could ram into the StarHawk, tearing through their shields and crippling them.

  Kaja took hold of the StarHawk’s controls. The StarHawk lurched as she guided it through the burning hull of the Freighter.

  Ramis proved himself to be dependable. He stopped screaming and took over the ship's weapons. He fired at pieces of the Freighter that flew at them.

  ‘Good man.’ Kaja thought.

  She guided the StarHawk towards the Freighter's large exit. It would be tight. The opening had turned into a perilous maze of floating debris.

  Ramis cleared the way as Kaja flew. They bobbed and weaved, and finally they broke through.

  Kaja pushed the StarHawk hard as they streamed away from the Freighter's burning corpse. They would make it.

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  Suddenly, an errant piece of metal struck them. The shields held but the force of the impact wrenched the controls from Kaja's hands.

  They spiraled out of control, falling towards the planet's surface.

  Then something caught them.

  Kaja collapsed in her chair breathing heavily. The air around the StarHawk had taken on an odd blue tinge. She glanced at the controls and gasped.

  Tractor beam.

  The Order of the First Light Flagship had caught them in its tractor beam. A button on the StarHawk's dashboard lit up. Kaja tapped it, and a smooth voice spoke out.

  "Unifier to StarHawk. Are you guys okay?"

  Kaja glanced at Ramis. He was panting but managed to give her a thumbs up.

  "Yeah," Kaja replied. "We're okay."

  "Is your ship okay to fly?"

  Kaja ran a quick diagnostic. "Yeah, we're good," she said.

  "Okay then. We're letting you go."

  Kaja took back the StarHawk's controls. The blue light disappeared and they continued to hover in the air.

  The voice from the First Light Flagship spoke up. "Follow us. We know the coordinates of a safe landing spot."

  "Lead the way," Kaja responded.

  The Flagship flew out from over the top of them, casting a shadow on the StarHawk. They were still several miles above the surface of the planet, and the Freighter continued to blaze above them, now at a fairly safe distance. Kaja thanked the stars and began to follow the First Light Flagship.

  -BEN-

  Saya's shroud had saved them. The small gaps in the shroud allowed Ben to see that the Freighter lit on fire. The shroud held back the heat and flames, and protected them against the debris.

  Ben put two and two together and concluded that they had entered Planet Chin's atmosphere. The shroud continued to spin and they surged through the burning Freighter. They moved with such force that they tore through the Freighter's walls.

  They cut through wall after wall until finally they broke through the side of the large ship and into the air. It was nighttime, but the blazing Freighter cast an orange light over everything. The shroud continued to carry them forward, but it began to slow.

  As it slowed, it decreased in size, withering away until all that remained was a half meter strip floating around them. Then that strip also vanished and they plummeted.

  Ben scrambled to hold on to both the Priestess and Saya but his grip had weakened. He grabbed the Priestess, but Saya's unconscious form fell away.

  "No!" he hissed.

  They all plummeted towards the ground, the wind roaring around them. The air currents carried Saya's body further away from Ben and the Priestess. Ben felt the Priestess tap his side. He looked down and found himself looking into her determined eyes.

  The wind whipping past them made it impossible for speech to be heard, but the Priestess made a set of quick hand gestures which ended with her pointing at Saya's falling body.

  The message was clear: We have to get her.

  The Priestess pressed her hands firmly on his chest and a blue glow spread out from there and covered both their bodies. Ben felt a familiar weight pressing on him. It felt like the Vector force.

  He noticed the effect of gravity on them begin to lessen. They continued to fall but at a much slower rate.

  "We need to get her!" the Priestess cried.

  Ben barely had time to register that he could hear her voice when she grabbed his face and turned it to see Saya's falling body.

  "I'm increasing our speed!" the Priestess cried. The blue glow wavered, and they began to fall more rapidly. Though their speed increased Ben had the sense they had more control than before. He turned around, shifting the Priestess to his back.

  They sped down towards Saya's falling body. The blue aura flowed around them to form the shape of a blue arrow.

  They seemed to cut through the air, accelerating.

  "Slow down!" Ben yelled.

  "The blue aura changed shape again and they slowed as they neared Saya's body. The Priestess stretched out her hand and the blue aura expanded from her and wrapped itself around Saya.

  The Priestess made a pulling motion and Saya was jerked towards them. Their descent slowed.

  Ben was now able to make out features of the ground beneath. They were falling into a plain covered with long waving grass-like vegetation. He grabbed Saya and pulled her close. Her body felt cold, but that was likely due to the wind. He could tell she was still breathing.

  Suddenly, the blue aura fizzled out and they dropped. Ben clutched Saya close and moved to protect the Priestess but then the blue aura returned.

  He heard the Priestess laugh sheepishly. "I'm not sure how long I can keep this up,” he heard her say.

  "Do it in bits, then," Ben replied.

  "Huh?"

  "Let us drop. Then catch us. Repeat and repeat. It should be easier that way."

  The Priestess hesitated. "I'm not sure that's true,” she said. “But let's try it."

  The aura winked out, and they fell a few feet before it returned. The Priestess repeated the same action over and over again. Ben noted that her breath became more laboured as time went on.

  "We're close," he said, encouraging her. "You're doing great."

  "Thanks," she responded, but there was no energy in her voice. She continued to drop and catch them until one time they dropped and the blue aura did not appear again.

  "Priestess?" Ben called out as they started to gain speed. No response. Ben swore as they raced towards the ground.

  He turned so that his body would take the brunt of the impact from the fall. They crashed through the short grass and hit the ground with a thud. Ben rolled to lessen the impact. The blow was, however, still significant enough that Saya and the Priestess flew out of his grip. They rolled along the grassy plain until they finally ran out of momentum.

  Ben groaned. His body ached all over, but he was alive. The Priestess and Saya lay close to him, looking disheveled and unconscious, but alive.

  Ben breathed a sigh of relief. Then he heard a crunch. He jumped to his feet, though his body protested. A wide-eyed Chintari man stood a few feet in front of them.

  Ben hesitated. The Chintari man was young, and though his frame was strong and his shoulders broad, he did not look hostile.

  The man slowly raised his hands in the air. "I am a friend," he said. "I mean no harm." He walked forward and offered Ben his hand. "Hello. My name is Phillip."