Alexa began to heat up the engines. She set every available source of fuel to the hyperjump, the lights clicking out, and she felt herself freeze in place. It was taking the petrification a while to get through her tail, but it already had the right foreleg in addition to the left, and it was seizing upon it. Delirious from the pressure and terror, Alexa saw a reflection in the mirror.

"What do you want," Alexa cried. "Just tell me what you want, and I'll give you it, and you can leave me alone in these final moments."

G'ana stepped forwards. She moved one paw towards the window of the ship, running it over the surface, and mouthed something incomprehensible. Alexa's heartbeat only intensified. The engines began to heat up. Alexa angled the ship into position with a slight uptilt of the nose. She could see the projection in her mind's eye, precise as it had ever been. She could sense it searing through space, felt herself alight with the brilliance of her mind, of her own plan. She had been concerned about this, and her midsection was almost entirely frozen, but all she needed was the next three beats. That was fine. She had three beats. At least G'ana would be here to witness this. Maybe she'd finally understand why Alexa had done it all.

"Bring us home," Alexa demanded, to G'ana's ghost.

G'ana did not answer.

The whine of the thrusters intensified as they heated up further. Two beats to the ground-to-hyperspace jump.

Alexa ran the numbers over in her mind. She went through another trajectory. Another. There was such a finicky window, but surely-- there was no other option. She couldn't-- no. Her aim was perfect. A computer couldn't have aimed better. It didn't. She had checked.

"You'll see," Alexa said.

"I have," G'ana said.

"I don't need your blessing," Alexa said.

"You wouldn't ask for it," agreed G'ana.

"No," Alexa agreed. "But the positioning-- if only Dusty had installed better software. He could have, easily, but he had to be obstinate about it. Kept saying I would do better."

"Wouldn't you?" asked G'ana.

Something cracked. No matter how she angled the ship, at this distance, at this speed... trying to hit a target of that size in hyperspace was next to impossible. She was going to fail.

"I don't know if I can do this," Alexa admitted to the mirror. "I didn't know from the start, but I don't know now, G'ana. If you want me to say it was a mistake to attempt your murder, I'll say it. It was a mistake. If you want me to say I was wrong to take the position I did, I'll say we got results, but I also won't deny that there were other ways we might have accomplished things. I know. I know there were better options. I know how I treated you. I know what Tabai is. I know what Benn was capable of. I know why Cassie was insecure. I know that Pechi... well, I don't think I could have figured out Pechi. I'll admit that. I'll admit, right now, that I should have taken better care of Dusty. He was my friend. I wanted to do the right thing, but I've never been able to, and so I've always just done the orthodox thing. This is an impossible trajectory, but I know whatever you've become, I know you're possible of tweaking it, just a little. Don't do it for me. Do it for them." Alexa bowed her head. "Please. I'm scared."

G'ana's eyes shone with starlight, and Alexa felt the ship lift, infinitesimally, beneath her.

"I know what you did to me," G'ana said, "And I've watched you for so long, and I've been so angry about what you did, but Alexa..."

"I'll apologize again," Alexa swore, her forelegs freezing up on the controls. There was no long any way to fix some infinitesimal error, even if she had wanted to adjust. "It won't mean anything, but I'll do it."

"I just wanted to say that you're brave, and if you rejected your demons, you could fight them. You could fight a world's worth, and maybe, if we ever got home, if our world did get its second chance, that's what it would need-- that strength, put to good use. That integrity. I want to say that I wish we could have been friends. I wanted to say that even though I was always a phantom, instead of a presence, it was an honor, for a while, to live with you."

Alexa's voice broke, her mane becoming stone. "And it'll be an honor to die with you."

The ship's engines whined and crackled with fire. Space became very long, then very small, and Alexa felt the world become light around her, the universe becoming a place of infinite light and noise as hyperspace, unshielded, shone out around her. Alexa saw everything, understood, for moments, what it felt like to be nothing and everything, and through the ship, which was her, and which was G'ana, she felt something connect.

Nine for nine.

What next? Alexa asked the captain as she disappeared, but first, she saw a sparkling Canira with a horn clutched triumphantly in her mouth, seraphlike, godlike in the void of space, the Omnian spirit born again in a form both canine and draconic, predator and prey both, overcome.