"I need her now. This requires both of us."
Vaxon's silence lasted three seconds. Then: "Jalina, get to navigation. Medical team, handle survivors without her."
She arrived sixty seconds later, breathing hard, charcoal-stained fingers moving to the interface without hesitation. "What do you need?"
"Same as before. I calculate, you visualize, we navigate the impossible."
Our eyes met across the holographic display.
"Then let's do it again," she said.
The raiders closed to the firing range. Shields absorbed the first impacts, energy readings climbing toward critical thresholds. Vaxon pushed the transport ship harder, but physics limited our options.
The asteroid cluster loomed ahead, rotating death awaiting.
"Here." Jalina highlighted a path, her spatial intuition cutting through the chaos. "Between those two asteroids. Their rotation creates a channel every six point three seconds."
I ran the calculations. "If we enter at precisely the right moment, the gravitational forces will accelerate us to escape velocity."
"And if we miss the timing?"
"We'll be crushed between fifty-thousand-ton rocks."
"Well. That's encouraging." She studied the rotation patterns, fingers tracing invisible paths. "We have one shot at this."
"Then we don't miss."
The raiders fired again. Shields flickered, power readings dropping toward dangerous levels. Vaxon held us steady despite the impacts, trusting us to provide the escape route he couldn't calculate alone.
"Thirty seconds to the optimal entry window," I reported. "Jalina?"
"I see it." Her voice was absolutely steady. "The path is there. We just have to be brave enough to take it."
Twenty seconds. The asteroids spun closer, their gravitational fields distorting navigation sensors.
Ten seconds. Raiders closing, weapons charging for another salvo that our shields wouldn't survive.
Five seconds.
"Now!" Jalina and I spoke simultaneously.
Vaxon didn't hesitate. The transport ship plunged into the rotating asteroid cluster, clearances measured in meters, gravitational forces pulling us into an acceleration curve that made the hull groan.
The channel opened exactly when Jalina predicted. The gravitational slingshot engaged precisely as I calculated. We shot through the cluster at velocities that made the stars blur, the raiders left behind in our impossible wake.
"Clear!" The pilot's voice carried shock and relief in equal measure. "We're clear. Raiders can't follow at this speed."
Vaxon released a breath I hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Jump coordinates locked. Everyone secure for warp transit. We're going home."
The jump klaxons sounded. Reality folded. We disappeared from the contested sector, three Liberty survivors secured in our medical bay, nine crew members alive against improbable odds.
Jalina sagged against her station, the adrenaline crash hitting hard. I caught her before she could fall, my hands steadying her small frame.
"You did it," I said quietly. "You found them."
"We found them." Her dark eyes met mine, exhausted and grateful and something else I couldn't name. "Together."
The word carried weight beyond tactical operations. Beyond professional collaboration. It carried the possibility of something we hadn't defined yet, something that terrified and exhilarated in equal measure.
