Jasper had urged Akion to take them as fast as the aquajet could go; they'd watched as the fighter maneuvered itself into the breach it had created only moments before.

He was confident that its attention was almost entirely directed on the ship, but he directed Akion to cut the engines once they were a few leagues away. Momentum did the rest; they glided silently towards the ship. It was easy to locate the breach; most of the scene's remaining smoke was being funneled out around the hole, and a floating trail of debris they swerved to avoid was as good as any trail.

"There it is," Akion breathed, and they both craned their necks to look at the still-steaming hulk of the fighter. From further within, Jasper could hear the faint sounds of suffering. He tensed up, wishing he could somehow block the screams. They were like hooks, pulling him backwards into dark memories, where his days had been filled with blood.

Focus, the Old One murmured in his head, and with an effort, he pulled himself back together.

Although the fighter filled the gap in the hull, there was enough space for them to squeeze through.

Jasper had clambered past Akion while the pilot kept the aquajet steady, and scrambled onto the ship. He scurried under the fighter's struts, hoping the darkness would keep him hidden.

Patched you in, came a sudden message through his feed. The notification startled him badly, and Jasper fought to keep his cool as he responded.

Noted, Annika, he answered, and opened the new comms feed that had appeared in his vision.

Who is this? The question came immediately.

My name is Drift, Jasper responded. Me and an aquajet pilot have just reached your breach. We're hoping to provide medical support.

There was a pause.

Where are you now? We're currently dealing with an active intruder. Is there any more firepower available? Can you provide support?

Jasper was already responding before the last of the questions had reached him.

I know there's a damn intruder. I'm currently hiding under their fighter!

A pause, then: ...you're under the fighter?

Yes! He was distracted from his feed for a moment by the sound of a booming voice. He tried to pick out words, but the space beneath the fighter made everything indistinct and echoing.

He's going to kill us. Even through the abstraction of the feed, Jasper could sense the woman's matter-of-fact tone, the lack of hysteria. Another message followed: He will kill me and everyone else on the ship. If you have the capacity to take him out without tampering with the pilot's electronics, you could save us all.

But wait- Jasper floundered for words, thrown off-kilter by the plea.

He was cut off, I'll buy as much time as I can. Either you can help us, or you can't.

Then the comms feed went dead, leaving Jasper with only his thoughts and that loud, angry voice.

This is where you prove yourself, the Old One said, its thoughts burning with intention.

I don't have a choice. If they die, I'm probably going down with the ship too.

There was no time to waste. Akion! Jasper messaged through the feed. Danger! Get me the harpoon! NOW!

"I'm right here," Akion answered from behind him, and this time Jasper really did smash his skull against the bottom of the fighter as he jumped in terror.

"Holy stones, Akion! I told you to wait..." then he saw the harpoon gun clutched in the man's hand.

He didn't stop to think. Not about the danger he was throwing himself into, or the potential of missing, or fumbling the shot, or the fact that he had suddenly found himself in the exact same kind of conflict he'd been avoiding for so long.

Rather, there was a strange blankness in his head as Jasper rolled out into the open, jumped up on the fighter, scrabbling for purchase on the hull. He grabbed struts, protrusions, anything that would support his weight, until he stood atop the fanned-out back of the craft.

For a moment, he simply stood, taking in the scene of destruction spread out before him. The limping, shaking wrecks of human bodies strewn about the floor, except for a small group of them closest to the ship, which exuded defiance. But even closer still was the dark silhouette of the pilot in their upraised cockpit, their back to him as they faced the hold.

Jasper lifted, sighted, old remnants of his basic training taking over. He lifted the clasp on the harpoon gun, and slammed on the trigger.

The pilot didn't have a chance of dodging; Jasper wondered, as the metal bolt slid through their body, if they even understood what had happened in the few fleeting moments before death.

Did you do it? That was Akion, his anticipation strong enough to seep into the feed.

Damn right I did, Jasper answered, masking his still-lingering terror with bravado. Thank you for your help. You've far more than expected.

Like I said, Akion's message was swift, I've been waiting for the rest of the galaxy to arrive for my entire life.

I envy that, Jasper said. But I recommend you head back now, before you get wrapped up in anything further. He was eyeing the group he'd noticed earlier. Even now, they were getting over the shock of the kill, had already noticed him.

You'll be fine?

Yes. Get outta here.

You better return that gun, was the response.

Yeah, yeah - we'll exchange it over a drink or two. Unlikely, but it was a nice sentiment.

Akion sent over a little, smirking emoticon to show what he thought of that, and ended their chat. With any luck, the Altonian would be halfway back to the resort by the time the crew of this ship knew what had happened.

No need to drag anyone else into this, he thought to himself.

Put a smile on your face, The Old One cut in, then, they may see you as a threat.

Jasper did as she suggested, pasting a grin on his face and waving jauntily as the first of the group approached the fighter.

"Jasper, I assume?" A tall, severe-looking woman spoke up first, unimpressed by his demeanor. "You were speaking to me over the feed."

The others murmured amongst themselves in response to her question. More specifically, Jasper knew, they were reacting to his name.

"Erin," he said, by way of greeting. To the others, he said, "I know what you must be thinking, but I haven't been to Saiseki in years."

The galaxy was a big place; it wasn't uncommon for peoples from a dozen different words to be found on a single planet, or a station. Saisekans were rare in the Rete, for obvious reasons, but it wasn't unheard of. Jasper supposed there were members of the Rete that had found new lives in his home empire as well, from both before and during the war.

A man, well-groomed and commanding, waved his words away. "I apologize if we seem suspicious. It's been... an intense few days."

"I understand," Jasper said. In a place like Alto II, as long as he kept his head down, then no one really cared where he came from. But these people were from the Rete's capital, or as close to Ferrus as possible. He needed to be careful about his past. He decided to take the verbal offensive.

"My name is Jasper Drift," he said, which was only a half-truth. "I was in the Skywave, part of the state-mandated support crew sent to help you."

There was a beat of surprise at the news. Jasper took that moment to send a quick update to Annika about the neutralized threat.

"I'm glad you survived," the man finally said, drawing back Jasper's attention. "As captain Aurrum of the Andromeda, I offer you both my thanks and my sympathies."

"It was a disgrace what this planet offered," Erin said.

"I don't disagree," Jasper answered, surprised by her tone but matching her brusqueness, "but we're the only settlement on this planet. We don't offer resources; Aquatime is just a resort town, and not a high-profile one at that. Why would we ever expect violence at our doorstep?"

Well played, the Old One said begrudgingly. Force them to reveal their hand.

Erin eyed him, but backed off.

"Fair enough," she said, "but you have misunderstood. The choice to send you off to what should have been certain death was the disgrace."

"Oh," was all he could say. Then he added, quietly, "for most of them, it was."

His gaze drifted past them, at the rest of the sorry scene. Now that the pilot had been taken out, he could focus on helping these people.

You haven't fully recovered, the Old One reminded him.

No, but see her uniform? These people are military of some kind. They'll have fac-boosts I can use.

I do not like those. They don't interact well with my own powers.

Too bad, he answered, but secretly he agreed with her. They'd come into play around the end of Jasper's doomed military career, and he'd found them to be incredibly dangerous. Before the Saiseki had managed to reverse-engineer the drug, they'd been devastated in any battles that had taken place on a station, or in open space. He didn't like the idea of tampering with Factors in such an unnatural way, but it was possible his opinion was skewed by long years with the Old One. She too, was a form of tampering, but one he understood far less.

"I have a healing Factor," he told the captain, "It looks like your crew was pretty devastated by that attack."

The captain nodded, expression strained.

"We'd appreciate that," he finally said. He turned away quickly, as if embarrassed and began barking out orders. "Erin, if you could get Lukas to finish opening the hull, please - we'll get all the non-critical injured below deck. We're out of immediate danger, but I don't trust the Andromeda's surviving infrastructure."

Erin nodded, and gestured to a young man, a boy even, that Jasper hadn't bothered to give much attention to until now. He'd been huddled behind his older companions, but now, as Jasper watched on in interest, he began to tear panels of metal from the floor with great sweeping motions.

So he was right - at least a few of them were from Ferrus itself. That lended itself to the theory that these people were of some importance, at least.

"Jasper," Aurrum gestured for him to climb down. "If you could use your Factor to stabilize the worst of things for the people we can't move safely..."

"I'm on it," he said, clambering down to the cargo hold's mottled floor. "Will the ship hold?"

"She's taken a beating," the captain said, offering him a helping hand for the last few feet, "but she'll float long enough."

"Alright," Jasper said. He stood besides the others, surveying the horror that surrounded them. But this - helping people - was something worth shoving away his memories for.

"Looks like I got my work cut out for me," he said, cracking his knuckles."

Do this right, the Old One murmured, And things will change for us. Yes... they certainly will.