What Pandora saw before her after Hale’s ship had left hyperspace and entered real-space was not at all what she had hoped for. The planet she saw from the viewport wasn’t light blue, wasn’t completely encased in a flurry of ice, and had no atmosphere with swirling with frost clouds.

Her heart sank. This planet was not Garra.

Pandora was too stunned to speak, gasp, or even breathe. She couldn’t react at all. She could only feel. And what she felt was her own failure.

The coordinates she had entered were incorrect. How could she forget something so important, not only to her but to her entire planet?

Was it because she had allowed herself to be too distracted by Hale? Had she let her guard down so much that it interfered with her ability to focus on her mission?

If she answered yes to any of the questions circling in her mind, her plan was in jeopardy.

“What’s up with you?” Hale’s deep voice interrupted her self-pitying thoughts.

She sniffled. “This isn’t Garra, Hale.”

He furrowed his brows in confusion. “Excuse me?”

Her eyes surveyed the planet ahead of them, the teal waters enveloping most of the surface, with one irregularly shaped island of greenery along its equator. Surrounding the greenery and dotting the ocean were brilliant white patches and beaches of sand.

“This planet is not Garra. I should have double checked.” She sighed mournfully. “I can’t believe I entered the coordinates incorrectly. Apparently, I brought us to a planet called Vaanu”

Hale laughed. Loudly.

She hadn’t exactly expected him to be sympathetic or understanding. But she never thought he would laugh, and unashamedly so.

Pandora met his laughter with afrown. Upon noticing her frustrated state, Hale made a visible effort to quell his laughs into a grin.

“I’m sorry. But it’s not that big of a deal honestly.” He pointed a finger to Vaanu’s surface. “You see those lights? That means a civilization. And that means fuel. We can land here, get fuel, and then leave for Garra.”

“I didn’t think about that.”

“I told you. No problem. I’m thankful to be anywhere away from Zaya right now.”

Hale gripped the control yoke, titled the ship downwards towards the planet, and engaged the thrusters to maximum speed.

Pandora pulled her view away from Vaanu, which constantly reminded her of her mistake, and looked over to Hale. He was most likely unaware of the effect his words had on her. Someone to tell her that everything was all right was exactly what she had needed. Even if that someone was Hale.

Her mistake seemed so insignificant now. Hale was right: they could simply travel to Garra after. And perhaps this would be even better. The ship was too low on fuel to make a second jump to hyperspace. If they would have gone to Garra first, which was uninhabited, they might have been stranded.

“Thanks,” she said.

She thought she witnessed his cheeks turning pink.

“For?” he asked, his eyes focusing on piloting, not her.

Her blush was deeper than his. “For helping me realize that—”

Hale roared a curse, rudely interrupting her. Before she had a chance to feel hurt or retaliate, the ship bucked to the left, nearly knocking her out of her seat. Something had hit them.

The alarms began to blare, although far too late. Next came several layers of blasts that berated against the ship.

Hale grasped her arm to keep her from falling. “Strap in now!”

She secured herself with the seat belt just in time to prevent herself from flying out the chair when a flurry of blasts hit the ship again. She could feel her neck beginning to ache already, and Hale hadn’t moved the ship yet.

“Is that the same fleet?” Pandora asked.

Hale pushed down into a forwards loop. A storm of energy bolts grazed the bottom of the ship. “Yes, they...tracked us,” he managed to say.

Once Hale brought them out of the loop, she could muster a response. “... that’s possible?”

“Yes, but hyperspace tracking beacons—” he twisted the ship to avoid most of the enemy fire, “are very very expensive.”

Pandora looked down at the control board to check the shield gauge. The shields were frightfully close to fifty percent and had been decreased to that extent in a little over a minute.

Fearfully, she wondered how long this could go on.

* * * *

Zaya shadowed each movement Hale made as closely as her abilities would allow, her crew maneuvering nearby. She diverted her focus to shooting his ship, which was evident in the accuracy of her blasts. She may not have been able to match Hale’s skill as pilot, but he could never match her determination or her anger. And her anger heightened her focus.

Her eyes saw nothing but Hale’s ship. The darkness, the stars, and the planet beneath them might as well have been invisible.

Hale unpredictably swerved to the left and then sharply upwards and backwards. Zaya jerked the control stick towards herself to follow him and nearly slammed into a crew members ship.

“Sorry!” Zaya shouted through the comm channel speakers. “But stay on him!”

Her crew arced around a wider path and found their places behind Zaya.

She wished it were only she and Hale, that she didn’t have a whole crew to assist her in his capture. Then she wouldn’t be so ashamed about the fact that Hale had escaped and that he could escape again, even against Zaya, who wasn’t an unskilled pilot, and her entire crew. She wanted to understand how that was possible, but she didn’t have time to understand now. What she had to do was accept that it was possible, that Hale was that more talented.

Accepting that didn’t allay her anger. But again her anger heightened her focus. And she didn’t hesitate to use it as she unleashed energy beams from her cannons.

Zaya tilted her ship upwards to keep Hale in the regions her cannons could reach, and her lasers followed and hit him while he completed a loop. When he came out of the loop, Zaya had to hold back her fire to allow her cannons to cool. Her crew maintained the pressure on Hale with their pummeling blows.

Watching Hale’s desperate maneuvers made her wonder why he hadn’t yet attempted to make the jump to hyperspace. Each movement of his that she had witnessed were defensive; he hadn’t opened fire once.

This was unusual.

She knew Hale to be an aggressive fighter and aggressive pilot. She couldn’t think of any part of him that acted defensively, except maybe his mouth.

She came to a startling conclusion.

Hale couldn’t jump to hyperspace. His ship was too low on fuel.

Zaya laughed cruelly. That was such a careless mistake that would be stupidly easy for Hale to avoid. But it wasn’t surprising, sadly, that he had forgotten. She figured the last thing on Hale’s mind was fuel with the stunning princess of Elani aboard his ship. She hoped his ship was all Pandora came onto. But knowing Hale and being a woman herself, she doubted that was true.

It was difficult to tell Hale no. She knew that firsthand. He didn’t have to be persuasive with words or actions. His blue eyes and—to be blunt— his perfect, lean body were all the persuasion needed for most.

A chime from the control board drew her attention away from her thoughts to her cannons. They were ready. With her fingers on the triggers, she guided her aim directly on Hale. He straightened his path for an instant, and Zaya released her fire upon him.

She watched with satisfaction his ship jerk when her blasts hit him continually.

“Move in closer!” Zaya ordered.

Slamming the thrusters, she gained on Hale, shooting him all the while. Before she reached optimal distance from him, a white flash overcame his ship.

She and her crew destroyed his shields once again. But they weren’t about to stop there.

* * * *

Hale held up his arms to guard his eyes from the blinding flash looming over the viewport. With his hands off the controls, his ship swung back and forth turbulently, sustaining blasts from every side.

The moment the light had dissipated enough for his eyes, Hale opened them and regained his grasp on the steering yoke and twisted between layers of lasers. He found enough time to glance at Pandora to check on her; she sat curled up in her seat while still covering her eyes.

He had forgotten to warn her again about the flash.

“Did we lose the shields already?” Pandora asked.

“Unfortunately.”

He could see her frightened face visibly in his peripheral vision. He sighed. There was little he could do given the circumstances. This situation was unsalvageable, even for him, because escaping to hyperspace wasn’t an option. His ship barely had enough fuel to get them to the surface of Vaanu. Continuing this fight was a complete waste of fuel. Any impressive maneuver he could successfully deliver was only delaying his inevitable defeat.

He had been correct in assuming that he would lose against Zaya when Lorelei first told him that Zaya was coming for him. He hadn’t done what was necessary. That was evident: Pandora remained in his thoughts as much as she remained in his ship. His dreams of being with her, holding more than just her soft hands, and kissing more than just her beautiful lips lingered in his mind always.

He couldn’t help it. Every time he tried to forget those dreams, she would smile or he would catch a glimpse of her radiant eyes that would remind him of how much he was missing out on. It was painful, but it was true. The worst part was that she was out of his reach. And he wouldn’t dare to reach for her.

Comparing her to himself was like comparing light to darkness. One was good; one was not. One was beautiful; one was not.

Everything she was, he wasn’t.

He had to reaffirm that she could never be his if he wanted to prevent his imagination from escaping his control. Staying focused in the present situation was crucial. He couldn’t be sure of his fate, whether Zaya was going to kill him or not. But he was certain that Coran didn’t want Zaya to kill Pandora. Coran needed Pandora alive. So Hale wasn’t going to let his personal problems interfere with his piloting. He wasn’t going to let his ship whip out of control and crash into an enemy. He wasn’t going to be the reason Pandora didn’t survive this.

But it was possible that he were too late.

Sirens exploded with piercing sounds inside the bridge, indicating a complication more severe than no shields. He reviewed the ships diagnostics, while trying to steer away from five enemy fighters.

Oh, that’s gonna be a problem, he thought.

“What’s wrong, Hale?” Pandora shouted above the noise.

Hale laughed dryly. “Oh, nothing major. One of the engines has been blown up.”

“WHAT?”

His ability to maneuver the ship was now extremely limited. His attempts to make almost ninety degree turns came out as soft arcs, resulting in his ship being scarred by more energy blasts than ever before.

This situation was taking a turn for the worse. Rapidly.

“You heard me!” Hale yelled.

“What are you going to do?”

He didn’t offer an answer. He wished he knew what the right move was. He did know that some form of surrender to Zaya on his part was in order. But should he tell Pandora?

“Hale?”

“I’m handling it!” Hale exclaimed. “As best I can.”

Her eyes showed she was doubting him and that she was afraid.

“But don’t worry. You will be fine,” he assured her.

“I’m not worried about me,” she muttered quietly, but loud enough that he could hear.

If he weren’t in the middle of a battle, he would have had time to fully appreciate her words.

* * * *

Gratification. Sheer gratification. That’s the feeling that resonated within Zaya as she watched Hale’s left engine catch fire and the exhaust fumes cloud. A treacherous smile weaved along her lips, her seeing him struggle to maintain control. This was the first time she could recall witnessing Hale actually struggle with anything, except with keeping his money, that is. And she felt even more satisfied knowing that his wildly bucking ship was a problem that she had created for him. This left her wondering how good it might feel to see his entire ship burn.

Zaya imagined Hale’s face turning red with outrage when he realized that she had won. That he had lost. And being the better pilot didn’t change that outcome. All Hale could do is hope she would be merciful. She had yet to decide though.

“What the .... What are you doing, Zaya?” one of her crew members exclaimed through a private comm channel.

Her entire crew had stopped firing at Hale as soon as his left engine began acting up. Zaya hadn’t. Her lasers continued to strike Hale.

“We’ve practically got him. We have to recapture the princess!” His voice indicated his concern and confusion.

Zaya ignored him entirely, and gave no acknowledgement of his warnings. Her cannons didn’t halt or slow. Instead, her aim became more accurate, hitting less and less space and more of his ship.

“Zaya! You’re going to destroy his ship and the princess along with him!”

Her response to him was closing the channel altogether. It was more of an instinctive reaction that came out of a need for no distractions. She directed her focus to Hale and nothing else. In her mind, it was only he and she now.

Seeing more flames suddenly bloom on his ship enticed her to keep going at him and to block out her conscience pleading with her to stop. She placed her aim directly on his ship’s right side and held it there.

Alarms blared, indicating her cannons were overheating. But hearing wasn’t a sense she was using in the moment

Her shooting came to a complete, utter stop only after her ship’s computer shut off the cannons so that they could cool down.

But the computer hadn’t acted soon enough to stop her. And when what she had done registered clearly in her mind, she was helpless.

She sat back in her seat and stared at Hale’s right engine flaming worse than his left, and his main wing detached from his ship and spinning away.

Her heart froze over. This was her fault. Her failure. There was nothing anyone could do to prevent Hale’s impending crash on Vaanu. His ship was already drifting towards the planet as a result of gravity.

And since Hale, the greatest pilot she knew, couldn’t keep his ship from spinning and tumbling randomly in any and every direction, who was she to think that her crew or herself could salvage this disaster.

She swore she saw reentry fire on Hale’s ship now.

“What’s the plan now?” a crew member asked. This comm channel was open to every member.

Zaya knew better than to excuse her behavior. And she wasn’t going to bother with the explanation, as simple as it was. “I’m open to ideas.”

“We have to turn back. No one, not even Hale, can survive that crash. Both his main engines are down. He’s missing his main fin. He can’t steer. I’m not going to wait around to see what happens because survival is impossible,” a female crew member announced to all.

The rest quickly agreed with her.

“You can stay. But we’re all leaving,” she said to Zaya.

“No, you’re right. All we can do is go back. I’m coming,” Zaya answered dejectedly.

She saw her failure for what it was. And she realized her mistake that made this job a failure. In retrospection, she had been too consumed with Hale. He was at the center of every thought and plan. The decision that had bothered her the entire time revolved around Hale and only Hale.

If she would have been aware that Pandora was actually the true important part of the mission, not Hale, it might have not ended in such a disaster.

And she felt guilty. An innocent, young woman was bound to suffer the same fate as Hale, a vile criminal. That didn’t sit well with her. But Zaya had long lost the ability to control that outcome.