"I know. Mage Alera told me. That's how the Dragon Mage spotted me. I'm sorry," Kira said, feeling guilty. "Oh, Jason knows about the Mage-powers thing. I accidentally told him. Anyway, Jason figured out that if I could make part of the drive go away, the crystal inside that protects the data would destroy it just as if the crystal had been broken. So I got us this room so I wouldn't have any distractions and I concentrated real hard and I remembered everything you told me about it and I was able to do it." She looked from her father to her mother and back again. "That's all right, isn't it?"

"I hope it is all right," Alain said. "Creating such a spell did not cause any problems for you?"

"Nothing that I noticed," Kira said.

"You were disoriented for a little bit," Jason said, extremely anxious as he eyed Kira's mother and father.

"I was exhausted for a moment," Kira said.

Her father nodded, then surprised her with a rare smile. "Managing such a spell on your own, under such conditions, is very remarkable. Your Aunt Asha will be impressed."

Jason had been working with the drive, and now held it out. "It's done. The drive looks great from the outside, but there's nothing in it. If my mom links it in and checks, she'd see that, but I don't think she'll do that because there isn't any known way to damage the data in the drive without destroying it. After losing the drive to me for a while, she won't take any risks. She'll take it and lock it away in her safe until she's back on Earth. And then they'll find out it's empty."

Mari gave Jason an appraising look. "Being around Kira seems to have done you some good. You said that your ship detected something and knows where you are?"

"Yeah. I mean, yes. Yes, Lady."

Kira's mother went to the nearest window and looked out. "I see one of those drones. There's another a bit farther off. They got here pretty quickly. I guess we don't have to worry about that any more, though. Jason doesn't need to hide any longer. He can return to the ship."

"Mother," Kira said with a sinking feeling inside, "about that. I…uh…you see…um…"

"Kira, we don't know how much time we have. Please spell it out short and simple."

"Jason's in love with me and I don't know how I feel about that but I'm not unhappy about it but I am unhappy about the idea of him leaving."

"Oh," Mari said. "That does complicate things."