Relin snapped open his eyes.

"Jaden, when we get into the rings, I plan to use the tractor beam against the Blades. Can you compensate?"

A long pause. "You tell me when and which way to expect the drag. I can compensate."

"Copy that." To Khedryn, Relin said over his shoulder, "Maybe they won't follow us in."

Khedryn nodded but knew better. He had not been born lucky.

A patter of ice and small rocks, the steady beat of a snare drum, announced their entry into the fringe of the rings. Khedryn felt Junker decelerate and allowed himself a relieved breath. At least Jaden wasn't crazy enough to try to run the rings at full speed.

The Blades devoured the distance between them. They moved in and out of view as Junker flew deeper into the rings and the debris field thickened. One of the Blades hit a chunk of ice, spun wildly, and exploded in flame against a spinning rock that reminded Khedryn in shape of a clenched fist.

Ever-larger chunks of ice and rock whirled by, a blizzard that would allow Jaden no room for even a single mistake.

"Stang," Khedryn said, clutching the base of his seat in a white-knuckled grip. He reminded himself to breathe and tried to slow his heart.

"Getting thick now," Marr said.

"Stop stating the obvious!" Khedryn shouted, but forgot to activate the intercom. It was just as well.

As if to make Marr's point, another of the Blades struck a chunk of rock and exploded into a shower of flaming metal.

"Ready yourselves," Jaden said, and Junker began to spin.

Jaden dwelled in the comforting warmth of the Force. He barely saw the swirl of ice and rock whirling through the space before Junker. He felt each rock, each bit of ice, large or small, as if it were an extension of his body. All were connected to one another and he was connected to them. He abided in the cohesiveness of the universe, the ship an extension of his will.

Action preceded conscious thought. His hands were a blur on the console. Junker dived, climbed, spun, wheeled, and careered through the empty spaces between ice and rock. The patter of particles against the cockpit viewport sounded like applause.

Laserfire cut glowing lines along their port side and Jaden turned starboard, dived, then burst out from the bottom of rings and into open space. For a moment he caught the glimpse of the frozen moon of his vision, a pearl against the black of space, before, he veered hard right and lost sight of it.

Laserfire once more turned the sky green, crisscrossed the space before them, cut the darkness aft and starboard. Jaden put Junker into a spiraling roll as he nosed the ship back up through the rings.

Marr, his voice tight, spoke into the intercom. "What do you see back there?"

"Two are down," Khedryn said, his voice as sharp as a vibroblade's edge. "The rest are in pursuit. These jocks are good."

Jaden knew. Several of them were Force-sensitive.

But they were not as good as he was.

The ship's internal compensators could not keep up with Junker's rapid shifts and the g's pasted Khedryn to his seat. His vision clouded now and again when blood rushed too quickly to his head or too quickly out of it. Jaden had Junker wheeling so wildly through space that Khedryn feared for the ship's integrity, never mind the rocks.

"Hold together, girl. Hold together."

The Blades appeared and disappeared in the viewport, flickering in and out of sight like a faulty image on one of The Hole's vidscreens. Rocks and bits of ice large and small moved in and out of his field of vision with dizzying speed. The rapidly changing visual field made Khedryn nauseous. Before him, Relin seemed as impassive as stone.

"Ever gone angling?" Relin said softly to no one. His hand gripped the tractor beam controls.

Junker spun and veered hard to starboard. Khedryn tried not to think about the stress the vessel would endure between Jaden's piloting and Relin's use of the tractor beam.

"Engaging the tractor beam, Jaden," Relin said. "Drag on starboard."

He aimed the tractor beam at a large planetoid in the rings. Junker lurched hard and slowed as the beam tethered it to the chunk of rock. Junker's momentum pulled the rock out of its orbit, and Relin held it for only a fraction of a second before cutting it loose.

Junker lurched hard the other way but Jaden somehow compensated, and the rock, now spinning, crashed into another large rock, then another, and the leading Blades, unready for the sudden movement of the planetoids, wheeled out of the way too late. Two more vanished in a spray of metal and flames.

"Another two down," Khedryn said into the intercom, his voice cracking.

Laserfire split the sky, exploding a large rock to Junker's aft, spraying the ship with particulates. More laserfire lit up the sky. Jaden wheeled down, spun, pulled up hard. Relin aimed the tractor beam again, latched on to one of the Blades themselves. Junker lost velocity from the drag and the other Blades gained.

"Port," Relin said to Jaden, and used the beam to foul the Blade's trajectory. With no room for error, the fighter hit a rock and broke into two flaming bits, one of which spun into another Blade, sending it into a rock.

The rest of the Blades, swooping and diving in and out of the field of rock and ice, fired. Jaden nosed up but one of the beams hit Junker along the port side, shaking the entire ship. The lights flickered and an alarm rang.

"I cannot keep this up for much longer," Jaden said over the intercom. Khedryn could hear the stress in his voice.

Khedryn agreed. It was only a matter of time before they caught a laser. He spoke loud enough to be heard on the intercom.

"Jaden, can you get us out of the fighters' sight line for a moment?"

Jaden did not hesitate. "Yes."

"What are you going to do?" Relin asked.

"I am going to space what's in my hold. It'll hit a rock, explode, maybe fool the fighters if we can stay out of their sight. They can't scan us in here. We make them think we're dead, then lay low."

"I'll have to accelerate to full to open some space," Jaden said. "It will get iffy."

"Do it," Khedryn said, his mouth dry. "And the price of my cargo is added to the price you owe me."

Relin said into the intercom, "A hard dive out the bottom, we space the cargo, then a hard climb back in. We'll have moments."

"Good thought," Jaden said.

Laserfire exploded a nearby rock, spraying Junker with debris. Jaden climbed hard.

"Will what's in the hold explode with enough pop?" Relin asked Khedryn.

"I don't know," Khedryn said. He had speeders in there. They'd blow, though the thought of spacing his Searing made him almost as ill as Jaden's flying.

Relin pulled two oval-shaped metal devices from his pocket as laserfire shook the ship. "These are mag-grenades. Attach them to a speeder and press that button. They'll blow when the speeder does. Understood?"

Khedryn nodded, and another wild turn nearly caused him to pass out.

"Go," Relin said, then to Jaden, "Khedryn is on his way to the hold. Open up some space, Jaden."

Khedryn unstrapped himself and wobbled like a drunk through the corridors, using safety rails to keep his feet as the ship answered with exclamation points to Jaden's commands. He felt Junker accelerate, twist, turn, wheel, and he imagined his ship dancing through hundred-ton raindrops. The superstructure creaked and moaned under the strain.

"Don't get wet," he said, tapping a bulkhead as he opened the cargo bay hatches.

Everything was secured and in order, held down with magnetic clamps or stored in containers integrated into the walls or floor. He had two nearly complete landspeeders, his Searing swoop, Marr's speeder, several containers of electronics, and other pieces of assorted scrap. He ran to the landspeeders-he could not space his Searing-and affixed the mag-grenades. A press of a button turned both of them hot.