"Elena—"
"You and Uncle Jin are my family,” Elena said loudly, drowning her out. “I won’t trade either of you—even for Mother.”
Despite Elena's firm words, Kira could sense the turbulent emotions her niece choked down.
"If it's really Mother, she's lost to us anyway," Elena said, her voice breaking.
The hardest thing Kira had ever learned—and something she had never mastered—was knowing when to call it quits.
It seemed her niece was a little more advanced than her in that respect.
Kira leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "You're a good kid, do you know that?"
"I know," Elena said.
Kira took a deep breath and straightened. "Raider, if you had staged an attack and stolen something, what would be your next move?"
"I'd find a way off this station," he said.
Kira glanced at Finn to see him nodding in agreement.
Her lips tilted up in a half smile. "Me too."
Finn accessed the interface on his forearm. "They'll want to take the quickest path to the docks. Let me see if I can find a map."
"Auntie, I want to help," Elena said. "I love Uncle Jin too."
Kira quelled her instinctive rejection.
As much as she wanted to wrap Elena in a bubble, she could already tell it’d be futile. Kira knew what it felt like to feel powerless while the people close to her were in jeopardy. It was the worst feeling in the world.
She didn’t want that for Elena. At the same time, she had no intention of placing her niece at risk.
"Before you say no, you should know I'm not alone," Elena said.
A chime sounded in Kira's comms accompanied by a notification in the upper right corner of her optics. Kira clicked on it, and a holo video of her niece appeared.
Elena swung the camera to capture Wren’s serious expression, his oshota, Auralyn, next to him.
They weren’t the only ones either. Devon, Joule, and Ziva stood to the side.
"Are you kidding me?" Kira asked. What was this? A fieldtrip?
There was some comfort in Wren and Auralyn’s presence, but not much. To attack Almaluk like this, the Tsavitee would have a lot of tricks up their sleeve.
Even warriors as accomplished as that group could be overwhelmed eventually.
Before Elena could answer, Kira's gaze locked on the silver turtle clinging to her collar. The creature's head lifted as it yawned before curling into a ball.
"MinMin," Kira said softly.
"What was that, Auntie?"
Why didn't she think of that before?
MinMin could be considered part of Jin. Not just in a metaphysical sense throughki,but also through an actual physical link that could be traced.
Kira dismissed the thought almost as soon as it occurred to her.
