I feared I would never be impossible.
Hyperspace was quiet, but the anxiety in my head was so loud as I watched the fuel gauge get emptier and emptier. My palms were sweating, and my palmsneversweated. What if I’d done the calculations wrong?
And what if this planet didn’t have the fuel we desperately needed?
I had a lot of time to worry, since Sian had excused himself to take a short shower in the refresher and get the massiff off himself and his clothes. I should’ve washed the dust off, but I told myself I’d do it after we made it to this uncharted planet.
Veebee asked if I wanted to play a game of cards with her, but how could I concentrate on anything other than flying right now? Besides, too many things were bouncing around in my head.
What if we failed to get home and something baddidhappen to theStarfarer? Something we could’ve stopped? I couldn’t ignore the very real possibility that Val had something to do with it. There were only a few reasons why he would need a blaster on theStarfarer, and that coupled with his adamant search for Sian and my dad’s warning…
What if he hadn’t been concerned with Sian being a stowaway? I had figured thewantedholopuck had tipped Val off about Sian, because it wasn’t like the guy wassubtlein his meanderings around the ship.
But maybe I was wrong.
What if he was looking for the lightsaber, too? Though, if he knew about the lightsaber, I was aware of only one other group who knew about that.
Beneath my fingers, the flight controls jerked.
Then—alarms. Everywhere. Lighting up every panel on the dash. Loud, screeching, they tore me out of my thoughts. I knew those alarms. They were connected to sensors warning of close celestial bodies. And if they were going haywire, then that meant—
“Sungrazers,” I whispered like a curse, and pulled the lever to shut down the hyperdrive.
Starstallcareened out of hyperspace like a pebble from a slingshot hitting water. It slammed into realspace with enough force to knock the wind out of me. I barely hadtime to brace myself and prevent my face being imprinted in the console. While Veebee was strapped in, Entoo wasn’t so lucky, their restraints snapping as they were flung toward the front of the ship and rebounded off the bulkhead with an anguished cry.
I hadn’t even thought to look out for meteor showers. They were rare, anyway, and most were tracked with navigation systems. Others, however, were sporadic like solar flares.
Of course this was our luck. Ofcourseit was.
I scrambled to wrestle back control.
Suddenly, something loud and large slammed into the side of the ship, spinning it sideways. I grappled with the controls again, panicked and clumsy. We should’ve stayed on Tatooine. We should’ve waited. We should’ve—
A warm hand enveloped mine on the controls, and Sian, hair still dripping wet from the shower, squeezed it tightly. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to.
His steady gaze was enough.
It grounded me.
Then he sat down in the copilot’s chair and buckled himself in.
Behind us, Veebee tried to reroute power from the damaged section. “We need to get out of here!”
Didn’t need to tell me twice.
I snapped back to my senses, planting my feet, Sian’shand squeezing mine on the controls again. He glanced at me, and I nodded back. I was okay. I had this.Starstallwhined as I forced it out of its spin. “Veebee, how much power do we have?”
“Enough!”
That was all I needed to know. I slammed my fist on the button to stop the alarms and shouted, “Hang on!”
Then I throttled it.
The ship whipped around, dodging another asteroid, and ducked under the next one. It was a small field of sungrazers—I could already see the end of them.Easy, I told myself.
This was easy.
Veebee shouted, “Ahead of us!”
