The rock contained some strange gemlike substance. It remained within the rock, but as Kira watched it began to flow and glitter like water dancing in sunlight. On one edge of the rock, a light began blinking like a guttering candle. She stared, wondering why rocks or gems would behave that way, but maintained her focus on the spell, feeling her own strength draining despite the flow of power from outside.

The glittering movement inside the rock ceased.

"Kira! You did it, Kira! You can stop!"

Kira let her focus relax. The rock was back as it had been, oddly regular. She slumped in the chair, exhausted.

Jason came into view, picking up the rock and tapping at it. Why was he doing that?

"It did set off an alarm. I've got it shut off, but it was on for maybe fifteen seconds. Since my mom's ship put up satellites, they'll know we're in this city, maybe even what part of the city."

"What are you talking about?" Kira asked, not understanding a word that Jason had said..

"The drive."

"The what?" That was an odd name for a rock.

The universe lurched.

Kira shook her head, feeling dizzy. What had happened? She had been… "The drive. Did we destroy the data?"

"Yeah." Jason was giving her a funny look. "For a minute there you didn't seem to have any idea what I was saying."

"It was probably because the spell was so taxing," Kira said. "I was just a little disoriented, I guess." She stood up carefully. "What do we need to do now?"

Jason followed as she walked slowly to the center of the room. "I have to reset the drive to read-only. Externally, it's going to look perfect, as if all the data is still intact. But the matrix inside isn't going to have any data. It's going to be locked into meaningless patterns."

The door slammed open.

Kira spun about, drawing her pistol as she did so, and ended up facing her mother, who was pointing her own pistol at Kira.

"Well, this is awkward," Mari said. She holstered her weapon as Kira did the same. "Your father detected a spell. From you. It ceased, but by then we were close enough for him to sense your Mage presence. We thought you were in danger."

"We are," Kira said, putting away her own weapon. "The Urth ship knows that we're near here. Mother, that device from the Urth ship! We broke it. No, we fixed it. Actually, we broke it so we could fix it."

Her mother shook her head. "You sound more like your father every day. The data on that drive that posed a danger has been destroyed?"

"That's what I said!"

Before Kira could say anything else, her mother grabbed her and wrapped her in a fervent hug. "All that matters is that you're all right," Mari whispered to her. "I was so worried."