"No special preparations, Ma'am."

“Okay. We’ll have things ready at the airlock.”

    "Very good. And make sure that there's a place in one of the pods for Drishti Kaur. That will be all."

The chief engineer stammers an affirmative, and Devika cuts the transmission.

She guides the SLAYER in on a cautious approach to the facility's primary airlock, keeping her autocannons trained on vital targets as she does so.

The SLAYER gives her a comm alert. "Drishti's pinging us back."

Deskyl nods; go ahead.

"I've got the relay back online. I can patch it directly into your cockpit, if you'd like to converse with the Boss from there?"

    "Yes; thank you, Ma'am."

"I'll head to the escape pods now?"

    "Yes Ma'am."

The transmission cuts out.

"I've got a new channel available. Strong signal but a lot of latency. Consistent with what she described earlier: a chain of tightbeam repeaters connecting us to someone very far away."

Go ahead.

    "Audio only, please, Ma'am."

"Of course."

For the first dozen or so seconds, there's nothing but static-tinged silence.

Then a mechanical voice says: "Please supply identification."

    "This is DZ-twelve-Q, speaking for Deskyl, the Sith."

"Vocal Identification Confirmed. Rerouting Transmission..."

The line goes dead for a second.

Okay. The cables holding Devika in the cockpit's center tremble a little as she intakes a sharp, shaky breath. Time to meet my maker.

The line clicks on again.

For many seconds there are no words, just the deep rasp of labored breathing.

Deskyl's brow furrows as she concentrates on the tenuous relayed connection; even for a sense specialist it's hard to detect anything under these conditions.

"Hhraaa-hhhgggg... hhraaa-hhhgggg..."

Lights flicker throughout the cockpit as visual data accumulates and a blurry holographic outline begins to take form.

"This will be a day long remembered."

There's a moment of sheer visceral terror, as Deskyl senses the other Sith and flares her aura in alarm.

    "Give us visual, please," DZ relays quietly to Devika.

(Devika does as she's told.)

The figure glances at those assembled in the cockpit once their transmission ceases to be sound only.

Devika looks to Deskyl, sensing her companion knows more about their interlocutor than she does.

In a low voice, Devika hisses: "What is she?"