To Ben’s surprise, Jaina did not jerk her arm away or tell Zekk she wasn’t asking or even flash him a dirty look. She simply sat down and reached for her crash webbing. “Sorry,” she said. “Guess I’m not used to being a civilian.”
“I need to return to my station,” Ben said into his microphone. “Lieutenant Ioli will want to jump as soon as we’re clear of the gravity well, and I’m the navigator.”
Jaina nodded and waved Ben toward the cockpit. “Go. Let us know if we can help.”
Ben started forward, shaking his head in amazement. Jaina was acting like she actually liked Zekk. Maybe Ben’s mother was right about those two after all-clearly, something had changed between them.
The skiff shook as the first concussion missiles fell prey to the countermeasures and began detonating. Ben sneaked a glance at the threat display as he passed Tanogo’s station, then slipped into his own seat feeling immensely relieved. The wily chief had been exaggerating their danger just enough to assure a safe escape. The Terephonian missiles had begun to burn out and drop away almost as soon as they had reached the chaff wall, while the old Headhunters would not even leave the atmosphere until long after the Rover had entered space and hit maximum acceleration.
After strapping himself in, Ben activated the navi computer display and brought up a schematic of the route they had taken to Terephon. “Retrace our inbound jumps, Lieutenant?”
“Do we have a choice?” Ioli asked.
Ben studied a maze of narrow, twisting hyperspace lanes that disappeared into the Transitory Mists with no indication of where they led. “We’ve got a gazillion choices,” he said. “There’s just no way to tell where any of the others lead.”
Ioli nodded. “That’s what I thought,” she said.
Ben plotted a bearing to their first jump and transferred it to Ioli’s display, then set up a course retracing their route out of the Transitory Mists. By the time he finished, the Rover had entered space and escaped Terephon’s gravity well. Ioli sounded the jump alarm, then a faint shudder ran through the skiff and the stars stretched into lines.
“I can handle it from here, Ben,” Ioli said. “Why don’t you get our passengers cleaned up and debriefed? Colonel Solo will expect a full report as soon as we can make contact again.”
Ben removed his headset-the Rover’s engines had fallen silent the moment they left Terephon’s atmosphere-and collected Jaina and Zekk, leading them through a bulkhead into the crew quarters. This cabin was as cramped as everything else aboard the little skiff, with a small galley and a sanisteam unit tucked into the two front corners and four bunks stacked behind a sleeping partition in back.
Ben motioned Jaina and Zekk to the small table in the center of the cabin. “You must be hungry,” he said, turning to the galley. “What do you want?”
Jaina raised her brow-dislodging several flakes of mud-then looked down at her filthy jumpsuit and snorted. “I’m glad to see Jacen hasn’t trained the teenage boy out of you completely,” she chuckled. “Until I have a chance to clean up, a cup of caf will be fine.”
“Then you can have first sanisteam,” Zekk said, rising.
“Because I’m starved. I’ll have anything-as long as it’s hot and there’s plenty of it.”
He stepped into the sanisteamer to clean his hands and face, squeezing Jaina’s shoulder as he slipped past behind her. She did not wince or roll her eyes or anything-until she caught Ben staring at her shoulder. “What?” she asked. “Uh … nothing.” Ben turned to the caf dispenser. “We’re just friends,” Jaina said. Ben shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
“He’s not even in love with me anymore.”
“Sure,” Ben said, filling her cup. “Whatever you say.” He turned to give Jaina her caf and found her staring at the sanisteamer’s closed door. Wishing the cup had taken a little longer to fill, he turned back around and reached for one of the sipper lids the crew used at their duty stations.
“Ben-I don’t need a lid.” Jaina’s tone suggested she knew exactly why he had turned away. “What are you doing out here, anyway?” Ben put the caf on the table. “Jacen sent us.”
“No kidding,” Jaina deadpanned. “Why?”
“Because you disappeared after you went to Terephon,” Ben said. “And then Tenel Ka started to feel like she couldn’t trust anyone, so she asked Jacen to send us out to see what happened.”
“Then at least we gave her some warning,” Zekk said, emerging from the sanisteam unit. His face and hands Were clean, but he smelled more than ever like a bog. “Good.”