“He dropped as soon as you were in,” Raider explained, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
That made sense. He’d hung on long enough for her to get to safety.
The second the connection narrowed he would have suffered the same rebound she did.
It was just taking him longer to recover, Kira assured herself.
“I have to say it would have been nice to have a little warning before he went dark.” Raider hit several buttons on the ship as the view outside tilted, the planet with the hazy boundary that marked its atmosphere dominating. “I almost didn’t gain control in time.”
Kira picked Jin up off the seat to cradle him in her arms. “He couldn’t.”
As a drone, he wasn’t used to the physical sensation of pain. It probably took everything he had to endure as long as needed for Kira to get to safety.
Raider’s voice turned soft. “Yeah. I figured that was the case.”
Kira seated herself in the chair, taking a moment to make sure they were both secured with straps.
As illogical as it was, Jin had a paranoia of being untethered during a re-entry. If he was awake, he’d want to be secure.
“How are we doing?” Kira asked.
“Our engines are fucked and we’re already in Ta Sa’Riel’s gravity well. We’re going down one way or another.”
“Lovely.”
A controlled crash landing. Her favorite.
“I really didn’t miss this part of being your friend,” Raider told her.
Kira accessed the ship’s comms. “Elena, please show our guests to the overflow seats and prepare for a bumpy landing.”
“Are we crashing?”
Elena’s cheerful voice made Kira take a second glance at their comms. Why did her niece sound so excited about that prospect?
“No.”
“It’s okay if we are,” Elena assured her.
Kira shook her head as she looked over her shoulder at Joule. She tilted her head at the hatch.
He gave her a quick grin and raced out the door.
“Finn—“ Kira started only to find the oshota already seating himself in the emergency reserve chair along the back wall.
He strapped himself in before giving her a look that practically dared her to try to order him off the bridge.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Kira said stiffly, casting a quick glance at Torvald.
She didn’t need to say a word to know the emperor had no intention of leaving the bridge.
She shook her head dismissing him from her mind. If he wanted to risk a broken neck in a crash, that was on him.
She had more important things to attend to—like making sure the ship made it long enough for such matters to be a concern.
She accessed the computer, bringing up the exterior cameras that were on the planet side of the ship.
An image of Ta Sa’Riel expanded on her monitors.
