ic Even Angels Fall (IC)

[Electra]

"It will be like paradise," Fleur agreed, sitting down crosslegged on a coil of vines. "But Freedom City is a big place, and there are so many villains! You and I alone aren't going to be able to take on all the criminals and avoid the League at the same time. We need other people on our team." She tapped her chin as though in deep thought. "I heard messages about other heroes who have started fighting crime your way. Maybe we can get in contact with some of them." She looked him directly in the eyes. "What do you think? Who can we trust, who else is with us and willing to fight to the death for Freedom City?" Fleur felt no moral qualms about lying to this doppelganger, but it was decidedly eerie and unpleasant to look at a familiar costume and know that it was not a friend, but a deadly enemy.

[SpicyWaffle]

"Hmm..." buzzed the mechanical robot behind the battlesuit, pacing slightly against the green floor beneath his heavy feet as he pondered his response. "Not zzure. I hadn't been lizztening to the newzz and zztuff. Y'know, too buzzy delivering the Zzting of Juzztizze," he mused. A metallic finger came up to his chin, tapping it soundly as he pondered who could help them in their just cause.

"Not zzure. But if we could find zzome more heroezz, we could totezz reform FORZZE OPZZ! Or zzomething. Man, I don't know," the Bee-Keeper groaned, struggling to come up with someone from the duo's dwindling list of allies. Suddenly, the Anti-Hero of the Hive seemed to perk up, a hefty fist smacking itself against his other awaiting palm.

"Oh, hey! What about Cobalt Templar?" suggested the dastardly robot with some measure of glee. "We fought zzome ninjazz onzze. Zzeemed like a pretty cool dude."

He paused for a moment, as if in thought, before brimming again.

"Oh! Oh! Wait! I do know zzome folkzz! Zzee, like, a week ago, me, Ironclad, Dragonfly, and Fenrizz totally wrecked houzze on thezze jerkzz who were zztealing their tech. They've got zzome zzeriouzz firepower, and pretty zzweet connectionzz, too, from what I could guezz. I know Ironclad, zzo I could probably convinzze her, at leazzt!" the Robo!Bee-Keeper exclaimed with some measure of pride, folding his arms as he collected himself. "Between uzz and their zzientific zzurpluzz, we could make zzome zzeriouzz progrezz againzzt the criminalzz zztill roaming free out there in the zztreetzz!"

[Fox]

In an adjacent room, seated on the floor next to some deactivated drones, Mara was clenching her teeth so hard her jaw ached - she'd fought alongside this thing, she'd trusted it somewhat, and it wouldn't even give them useful information. She'd wanted very few things in life as badly as she wanted to armor up, break down that door, and do...she didn't even know. Something. Anything, to get the information they were likely to desperately need.

But instead she stayed in the storage room, gritting her teeth, her mind in the security system so that she could watch things on camera. The not-Bee-Keeper would give them useful information, or they'd make do without it. One way or another, there was a plan, now, and she had to hope it would all turn out okay.

[Gizmo]

In the silence of the hidden room, Midnight could just make out the sound of Hallomen's teeth grinding. The detective clenched and unclenched one hand in a similar sentiment, ostensibly keeping it loose and at the ready near his belt while the other maintained the barrier of concealing mist. Behind his mask's ruby red lenses his metahuman eyes allowed him to pierce the veil and watch Fleur's delicate interrogation. It was difficult not to burst in and demand answers in his usual and proven effective manner but the risk of the robot self-destructing as the others had stayed his hand temporarily.

[Electra]

Fleur's voice was gently chiding as she responded to the Beekeeper, her own frustration held firmly in check. "Come on now, don't you trust me even after all this?" she asked. "I was listening to the League channels this morning, there were at least several heroes working in concert to try and take down some of the city's worst villains. I know you must have made plans with them ahead of time. It was a brilliant strategy, really, the villains were caught totally by surprise. They expected to get away with it all like they always do, but then suddenly real justice was being meted out! I only wish I could've been a part of it. There's going to be more, isn't there? We must have a way to get in touch with the heroes you laid out your plans with."

[SpicyWaffle]

Blushing secretly for the praise -- however ill-deserved it might have been -- the Bee-Keeper shuffled slightly in place as he tried to contain his well-mimicked, energetic disposition whilst encased in his beloved and highly dangerous suit of armor. While it might not have been his plan, per se, the android impersonator liked to think himself quite capable, and a keystone in the well-orchestrated coup against Freedom City's villainous cads. Besides, Fleur seemed on the level. Letting her in a little wouldn't hurt; and she'd be all the more prepared to strike with him when the right time presented itself.

"Well, when you put it like that..." he glowed, smiling manically behind the helmet. Clearly, Fleur de Joie was a more clever cookie than he'd thought; and he'd already thought she was pretty clever to begin with! "There were a few of uzz in on it, yeah, juzzt waitin' for the zzignal to get down to buzzinezz. The real heavy-hitterzz; folkzz who could get zztuff done! Let'zz zzee... there'zz me and Quickzztep, totezz out there mezzin' up the mobzzterzz and gangzzterzz. Harrier wazz zzuppozzed to wipe Blackzztone clean. Then there wazz Jill, Wander and Blue Jay.... they'd take care of the high-profile guyzz. There'zz a couple more out there, but man, it'd take FOREVER to tell you everyone who'zz in on thizz zzhendig!"

It was almost as if the faux Bee-Keeper was flaunting their supposed success, quite pleased with what they'd done in reducing the rate of crime thus far through force of arms and their planned coup d'etat.

"We knew we had to be thorough, y'know? A totally clean zzlate! We knew we'd have to wipe out azz much of the filth in Freedom Zzity as we could. Not juzzt criminalzz; but potential criminalzz. T-Babiezz and thozze zztained with Terminuzz zztuff, too; y'know, the onezz who pozze the biggezzt rizzk to making a mezz of what we're trying to do. That way when we're all done, it'll be zzuper-eazzy to keep Freedom Zzity nizze and zzafe for everyone elzze, and we can overzzee who'll bee allowed to zztay -- of courzze, we'll need zzomeone to lead..."

At that last bit, the Bee-Keeper seemed to trail off a bit as he stared on at Fleur. He shrugged, then continued.

"It wazz pretty tricky getting everyone on the zzame page at firzzt. But, hey, now that we're all here, it'll be eazzy-peazzy, and everything zzeemzz zzo clear. I'm zzure we'll get zzome back-up zzoon, then we can really take it to thozze evil-doerzz! And with your help, Fleur, maybee we can zzhow the world how to bee juzzt like Freedom Zzity onzze we're all zzet!"

[Electra]

"I'm sure it'll all fall into place very quickly," Fleur agreed, flicking a single momentary glance towards the storage room where Midnight and Mara Hallomen were waiting. "But consolidating these early gains is going to be so important. I know that at least a couple of those allies were captured by the Freedom League today, so we can't count on their help. The leader, has he got reinforcements that he can send to us right away? We need to plan with that in mind, so that we can take advantage of today's confusion. People are afraid, they need to know more about who is going to show them the way out of the darkness." Stesha's muscles subtly tensed as she spoke. If the Beekeeper took the questions badly, she might have a fight on her hands.

[SpicyWaffle]

Nodding approvingly at the prospect of everything falling into place, Baxter continued to beam with whatever passed for robotic pride. His body language, however, quickly turned south as Fleur mentioned that several of his colleagues had been captured by the League!

"W... what?" he murmured, cocking his head quizzically. While he was fortuitous enough to have been rescued, the thought of his allies in chains sent a chill down the android's spine. Almost instinctively, a gauntlet-clad hand rocketed up towards the insectile helmet, and the Bee-Keeper turned away from Fleur. He stood there for a few moments in utter silence, occasionally giving his helmet a soft tap or pacing lightly in place before he turned back to face her. A slight sigh escaped the modulated voice the Hero of the Hive, his attitude clearly soured in the wake of the truth as it hit him like a sack full of bricks.

"No, no, no!!" he barked. "No, wait! It'zz zztill cool. There'zz zztill the..." he began, tapping his helmet again. It didn't take a psychologist to see the signs that followed: the armored assassin's body tensing, then suddenly slumping as if a great blow had been struck; like the gravitas of some unknown situation having socked him square in the gut. With a pained, almost saddened twitch, the Bee-Keeper looked to Fleur de Joie -- his friend, his confidant, and his role-model -- with palpable hurt exuding from his falsified being. It was almost as if he'd begun to piece together the facade and discern some kernel of truth from within the lies, wounded as the realization set in...

Then the robotic doppelganger of the Bee-Keeper exploded. A caustic, violent eruption of fire and sparks shot out of his very humanoid frame as whatever was once an otherworldly impostor immediately slumped to the ground of the not-quite-a-cavern floor. For but a moment spasms rocked the android, but then it grew quiet and still; now nothing more than a smoldering remnant on the cusp of revealing what might have been some important truth.

[Gizmo]

The finely tuned thermal sensors in the underground lab triggered suppressing foam to cascade in a smothering blanket almost before the android had a chance to combust, reacting to a self-destructing alien robot just as they would an experiment's catastrophic failure. Only a beat behind, Midnight swept through the curtain on concealing mist, flinging a handful of pellets at the doppelganger and pulling Fleur around with his other arm to place his jacket's back between her and the conflagration in a single fluid motion. The pellets burst on contact, hissing for a moment as the gases released reacted with the air around them before turning to a good half-inch of ice that spread to cover the faux-Beekeeper in quick order, leaving it encased in mounds of frozen foam, both putting out the fire and restraining it. "All the intelligence we can afford to delay for," he opined calmly, albeit with a note of anxious impatience creeping into his voice.

[Fox]

"Agreed. ....less than I was hoping for," Mara admitted, an unreadable expression just barely breaking through her impatience and frustration as she looked down at what used to be Bee-Keeper. She'd expected a lot, but she hadn't expected him to be so....

She scowled, grabbing a worn messenger bag off a chair and stuffing a select few tools and parts into it. focus on the goal - repair ship - find Ellie - repair ship? - faster with two "Thank you," she said to Fleur, glancing the experienced heroine's way. "Probably have better places to be. People in the city to help. May have to see yourself out - need to find a friend down here and convince her to leave with us. Short delay, but ship will get repaired faster. Better. Ultimately saves time."

[Electra]

"I'm sorry," Fleur told the engineers, frowning in frustration as she studied the ice-covered robot from a safe distance. "I just don't know what happened. I really thought I had him on the line and that he was going to tell us something." She shook her head. "I shouldn't have prompted him to try and contact the others. It seemed like he heard something over his comm that made him self-destruct." Settling her composure back into place, the chlorokinetic smoothed down her ruined sleeves and tunic, then waved a hand at the vines covering the walls and floor. Instantly, the whole mass of plant matter disintegrated into brown dust.

Sensing the worry behind Mara's curt dismissal, Fleur headed for the stairs. "Good luck finding everyone," she told them. "Please, let me know how it goes. I know it isn't at all the same, but they're my friends too. And if you need anything from anybody in the city, just let me know and I'll find a way to make it happen." She turned to go, tripping one more time over Charlie as he and Puppy raced past, oblivious to any weightier concerns.

Just as she took the first step, she paused and cocked her head to her earpiece. "Okay, great. I'll pass that along. Velocity, one of the League reservists, says that they're taking out the control boxes that relayed commands to the robots. She also says that there's a Claremont hero called Kit who would like to be in on the rescue mission, if you could use the help." Fleur shrugged ignorance. "Unfortunately, that's one hero I haven't met yet. Good luck!" she told them again, then hurried up the stairs.

[Fox]

"Don't know any 'Kit's," Mara noted, once Fleur had left. "Though, probably wouldn't. Don't have much to do with Claremont, other than dating a graduate."

Her eyes had unfocused as she talked, little lights dancing behind them as she sent out a mental ping, looking for the little drones she'd come down with. Besides the few that had stuck nearby, she'd sent the rest off to find.... there you are "Hey!" she called out, thumping her fist against a door. "Time to leave. Need to fix a spaceship, could use your help."

[Electra]

There was a brief hesitation before Gina called out "Just a minute!" There was a sound of moving parts, the brief pzzt of a welder, and then the sound of Emerson's treads before Gina appeared at the door, cradling an unwieldy-looking conglomeration of circuit boards and wires that seemed mostly held together with electrical tape. She'd obviously taken Mara's permission to heart, since there were bits of several ongoing projects cannibalized into the design. Gina cleared her throat. "It's... it's a detector," she managed, staring down at her invention rather than looking at Mara. "I know exactly what energy frequencies Steve's suit projects. It's slightly different than any other Omegadrone, because of the modifications we've made. Once we're in the same solar system, this should give us the location to within about five yards."

With the explanation given, she risked a look around the basement, freezing momentarily when she saw Midnight. Adding more people to this rescue just made things more fraught, but it would make things faster, give them an edge if there was a fight. She'd just have to work around it, she reminded herself. And oddly enough, the blank black mask helped some, dehumanizing his features and making him seem less threatening. It probably didn't hurt, either, that she'd never worked closely with him before and he'd have no grounds for comparison. As for Midnight, there wasn't much to see but a small and somewhat homely woman with too much makeup spackled on to try and cover some impressive facial bruising, who didn't seem able to meet anyone's eyes. She had a robot with her, an odd little thing that looked a bit like a cross between Wall-E and R2-D2 with triangular treads supporting a cylindrical body from which rose a dual-camera head on a slender telescoping neck.

"What kind of ship is it?" Gina asked. "It'll be faster if we can get some schematics. I know the League has a database of known designs."

[Gizmo]

On almost any other day the mention of Omegadrone armor, modified or not, would have captured Midnight's attention, given the seemingly ceaseless string of altercations with the forces of the Terminus that had become a fact of his life, but on this day it was nothing more than a footnote to be filed away. "Not this one," he told the battered, mousy woman, pulling out a palm sized tablet computer and wirelessly mirroring a set of blueprints to the nearest monitor, making the source file readily available to Hallomen and her friend. The saucer wasn't exactly ripping edge compared to the equipment of some of the modern day spacefaring civilizations which occasionally came in contact with Earth but it was still ahead of the curve in relation to most terrestrial technology. "Beggars, choosers," he noted bluntly as red circles on the blueprint flashed to indicate areas still in need of repair. "Get it spaceworthy, Redbird will handle the rest." He had no idea who the woman in front of him was but if Hallomen considered her an integral key to success, given the obvious stakes Midnight was inclined to leave questions for later.

[Fox]

"Good enough," Mara insisted, tilting her head at the plans and both committing them to memory and shooting a copy off to her warehouse computer. She was already calculating the required repairs, for all that she really couldn't be sure until she saw it in person - though that was another problem entirely. "Have to assume you have it hidden. Should probably leave now. Bound to be something to interrupt...mmmh."

She frowned, glancing over at Midnight and letting herself ponder something she really should have paid more attention to a while ago. The math was simple, at least - the transitive property of relationships and secret identities. And if she was right, and she knew who he was, then her own wasn't worth wasting precious seconds on. "...no. Lost too much time already."

The heavy choker at the base of her neck lit up, flaring with neon blue energy as a wash of twisted space passed over her and left armor in its wake. [bg=#555555]"I can get us there faster,"[/bg] Dragonfly offered - in as much as it was an offer rather than a flat statement - as her suit locked into place and powered up with a quiet hum. [bg=#555555]"Just need to know where to go."[/bg]

[Electra]

Gina reached out and touched two fingers to the monitor with the blueprint on it, then grimaced at the stab of pain from her abused neural pathways as she tried to link up. She was going to need a lot more aspirin for this. Still, it wasn't quite as bad as right after she'd gotten blown out of the robot, so that was a good sign. A second later, a copy of the schematic glowed on Emerson's main body screen. "All right," she said, still looking at the floor. "Let's get a look at it and see what sort of tools we're gonna need. We're also going to need supplies for the trip, medical equipment. No telling what sort of condition they'll be in after weeks away." She swallowed. "I can have my people start getting that together while we're working."

Finally she looked to Dragonfly, though she spoke more to that notable's ankles. "The pocket thing again?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight made a flat noise when Hallomen armored up into the recognizable silver and blue of Dragonfly. It could have just as easily been a note of surprise or confirmed supposition but either way he evidently agreed that the reveal wasn't worth spending time worrying about just then. Without further comment he handed her the small tablet device and the coordinates it displayed, including a height which obvious put them below ground. "Discretion," he noted meaningfully, one word making it clear that her secret would go no further than the room and simultaneously requesting similar consideration for the information she had been given. "Tools and supplies on site," he assured the other woman, bending down to smoothly scoop up a protesting Charlie as the orange cat scampered by after the odd spherical robot.

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Not the pocket thing,"[/bg] Dragonfly replied, giving Midnight a quick nod. Most of her attention was on the tablet, though, and once she was sure she had the coordinates right she lost focus completely as her world became a sea of math and physics. Her suit was capable of performing such a long-range teleport, but only under protest, and it was not capable of calculating the jump itself - that required a mind that understood just how it worked.

Puppy had the presence of mind to notice his maker's suit spinning up, and at her beckoning gesture he braved the world outside his protective table to roll himself over to her feet, luring his feline antagonist along behind. As soon as they were nearby Dragonfly made a distracted grumbling noise and looked back up from her thoughts. [bg=#555555]"Flex your knees."[/bg]

The world shattered, the hidden workshop breaking apart like it had been painted on so much glass, shards breaking into fragments and fragments twisting through impossible geometries to reform into another place entirely. In particular, about three inches off the ground somewhere else entirely - Puppy let out a chirp of protest as he hit the ground.

[Electra]

"That's really weird," Gina muttered, looking up long enough to collect her bearings in the large chamber. She took in and filed away the collection of old supervillain equipment and ephemera, but most of her attention was captured by the large spacecraft that floated tethered in the center of the chamber. Setting down her makeshift detector for the moment, she took a sleek red,white and blue handheld scanner from the equipment bag Emerson carried and began trudging towards the craft with the robot at her heels. "Gonna suck not being able to fly and weld," she observed aloud, then walked into the ship. Her voice suddenly came from Dragonfly's communicator, clearer and more confident. "I'll start on the computer systems if you want to get going on the actual physical repair work."

[Gizmo]

Midnight landed silently and paused only to set a disoriented kitten down on the rough cave floor before moving swiftly to what looked like a combination of a mobile workbench and forklift mounted on sizable wheels and ferried down to the subterranean garage along with an open crate of parts. The duplicates of tools clearly indicated that two people had been working on effecting repairs to the ship recently. The black clad vigilante paused for a moment, clenching and unclenching one hand in a steadying gesture before moving the cart closer to make its contents readily available.

With that done he produced a metallic egg no more than two dozen centimeters tall from his coat and placed it atop the exposed engine of the custom made vehicle. The silvery object promptly melted into the machinery, which began folding in upon itself as panels slid away to extend modules that couldn't have logically been there a moment before. In particular a holographic projector rose from the sifting metals and lit up. The projection took the form of a statuesque redhaired woman in a stately back chauffeur's uniform tailored to an impressively athletic build.

"Redbird," Midnight introduced with a simple wave of his hand before picking up a pair of tools and walking up the ramp into the saucer.

The hologram clapped her hands and gave the visitors a wide smile full of simulated teeth. "Aha! A noble battlesmith and a... small... forge attendant?" Redbird hazarded looking over Dragonfly and Gina in turn. In truth they were both rather tiny compared to the warriors to which she was accustomed but she'd learned not to focus on such thing after a faux pas regarding Midnight's mind-synced comrade. "Whatever the case, if you have been invited into this sanctum, you must be invaluable allies! The sooner we retrieve Shieldmaiden Wander and the others the better," she noted more gravely, folding her hands. "I am an Furion autonomic machine intelligence, capable of interfacing with and enhancing any vehicle and I am at your disposal in this!"

[Fox]

On any other day, Dragonfly would have been utterly fascinated by Redbird - easily the most advanced AI she'd ever seen, beating out Vince and Sharl by virtue of her technology-altering abilities. On any other day, she would have found Gina's comparison to a forge attendant completely hilarious, given her infrequent feelings inferiority.

This was not that day. Redbird got a curt nod as the armored heroine grew wings and took off into the air, plates on her gauntlets pulling apart to deploy fine tools on articulated arms. The blacksmith comparison turned out to be remarkably apt, in its own way - this is what Mara did, after all; above all other things she was an engineer, a designer and builder of mechanical marvels, and bit by bit, plate by plate, wire by wire, the ship started coming back together.

[Electra]

Gina watched the appearance of Redbird with fascination, right up until the point where the AI noticed her presence, at which point she buried her awesomely bruised face back behind the panel she was rewiring in the cockpit. There were too many people here, too many functional, successful, heroic people who could, just by walking around and not freaking out, put her own best efforts to shame. At least they were mostly leaving her alone, not looking at her or coming over to see why she was practically curled up in a fetal position in the access hatch (and when had that happened, anyway?) Anybody noticing just would've made things worse.

All she had to do was get her mind organized and preferably out of her body as soon as possible. That was easier said than done, when her augmented brain was racing from worry to paranoia to schematic to failsafe much faster than she could possibly corral it, making the idea of fitting herself into the ordered world of the computer an idea as laughable as jamming a handful of half-set jello into a keyhole and expecting to pick a lock with it. Even with her hands still rewiring on autopilot she was next to useless and if anything bad happened to Steve it was going to be her fault and coming out of her basement had been a crazy idea and she was probably just going to die trying to find him in this rattletrap ship-

"Mow?" Gina jerked her head up when something batted her arm, narrowly avoiding another blow to her already-abused head. Midnight's orange kitten, it seemed, had lost his taste for adventure somewhere between the teleporting and trying to find his way around the alien spacecraft. He shoved his head under Gina's arm and climbed into her lap, the two of them making a very tight fit inside the access hatch. He didn't seem to mind, butting her chin impatiently for pettings even as he settled in and began purring.

Gina let out a breath that loosened the worst of the tightness on her chest and nearly managed a laugh. "Just make yourself at home, why don't you?" she murmured, freeing up one hand long enough to scratch behind an orange ear. "Guess we could both use a little break from the rush." She closed her eyes and took a few precious seconds to regroup and pet the cat. It actually helped quite a bit. "You can hang out here," she told the kitten, "but no messing with my body while I'm gone, all right?" Deliberately relaxing her body, she sent her mind out into the alien workings of the spacecraft's computer, doing in minutes what would've taken hours or days to program by keyboard. As Dragonfly repaired systems, she brought them online, tying them into Redbird's AI system and preparing the ship for its first flight in decades.

[Gizmo]

The combination of exceptional skill and the heavy weight of proper motivation saw the saucer brought back online and upgraded in several key areas in record time. The patched hull was sturdy in its own right but Dragonfly's spatial warp shield technology was quickly integrated as well. The sensory suite had been one of the most outdated elements of the alternate Martian design, leaving Gina to replace nearly the entire system while she worked on rebuilding the interconnected weapons systems.

By the time Redbird merged into the saucer it was already operational once again. The machine intelligence's presence was immediately obvious, however as the round plate shaped silhouette of the vessel slimmed down to a more arrow like profile, the exterior dimming to a glossy black finish accented with dark crimson wings emblazoned down the edges. The rear of the ship folded in upon itself before reconfiguring into a broad arc of blazing red light speckled with black dots of exotic energies as the faster-than-light drive came online. Inside the ship, controls subtly shifted to make themselves more fit for human hands while stark computer interfaces lit up one at a time.

All that remained was to remove the ship from its subterranean dock. "Dragonfly," Midnight requested, taking up a position in the cockpit with a stance that clearly conveyed his desire to be underway.

[Fox]

[bg=#555555]"Mmh."[/bg] Dragonfly made her way to the center of the ship, frowning upward as she pulled up her suit's measurements of the new size and shape she'd be having to teleport. Something deep in her suit spun up to speed as she put her arms out to her sides, concentrating on the physics of making here become there, if only for a moment; the world outside the ship twisted and broke apart, haltingly, as the universe unraveled into open sky - each chaotic facet of their surroundings becoming open air until they were left suspended above the Earth, free of its confines...and, thanks to Redbird, its gravity.

One of her gauntlets gave a nasty-sounding cracking, sparking noise and started to emit a thin trail of acrid smoke, but she'd honestly been expecting worse from trying to 'port something that big that far. She could repair it as they traveled. [bg=#555555]"We're clear. Go."[/bg]

[Electra]

Somewhere along the line, Gina had managed to drag herself free of the access tube and into the body of the ship itself, though the way she sat scrunched down in her chair and avoided looking at anyone suggested that it hadn't been from an excess of sociability. She finished calibrating the sensors even as the ship took to the sky, then just sat back for a moment to watch. The teleport to space brought a moment of both vertigo and redoubled agoraphobia, sending her consciousness rushing all at once out of the sensor network and into the dubious safety of her human body. There was so much pitiless open space everywhere, so many watching stars. She fisted her hands against the sensor console and forced herself to hang onto reality.

"Hold on, Steve," she whispered to the stars. "Almost there." Clearing her throat, she managed to raise her voice to a croak. "All systems answer ready for FTL."