Shizuka squeezed Lan’s hand as hard as she could, holding on against all that was dragging her down.

“Shirley! Get that damned thing off of us!”

“Yes, Mother. Miss Satomi, please brace yourself.”

“Engaging battle mode.” Shirley’s figure dimmed as she integrated completely with the ship’s controls.

The runabout suddenly swerved from one side to the other, then slammed to a full stop. The fireball was caught completely off guard, and roared past them. Then, almost instantly, the runabout flipped, spun, and discharged a full-power disruptor burst back into the flames.

“Damned thing now off of us, Mother,” Shirley said as the runabout darted away.

Shirley’s maneuver was brilliant; it had bought them a few more precious seconds, and now their ship had a direct line to the stargate.

But the Big Donut was still flickering unsteadily.

“Aunty! Go to tectonic!” Lan yelled.

“Windee, cross-circuit to tectonic power,” Aunty Floresta said calmly.

Windee hesitated.

“Ensign Windee?”

“W-we haven’t checked my calculations!” In the rush to prepare, there had been no time to test the graviton emitters. And if Windee’s calculations were wrong, the energy imbalance would destroy the stargate and devastate most of the surrounding area.

“Ensign Windee,” Aunty Floresta said sharply. “Cross-circuit to tectonic power now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Windee replied. She closed her eyes and hit the switch. A brief, powerful surge of gravitons flooded the Earth’s crust.

Suddenly, every seismologist monitoring Southern California was stunned. All seismic activity in the area went completely and utterly still.

The power conduits surged as all the stored tectonic energy of Southern California smoothly poured into the stargate. The space-time filaments sang and glowed as Starrgate Donut majestically twisted open like a spiraling, cosmic French cruller.

And Shizuka was bathed in a wondrous, euphonious hum—that same merciful hum she’d heard when she had desperately needed the bathroom—except it now swelled into an almost heavenly crescendo: forte, fortissimo, fortississimo.

“The stargate is active and operational,” Shirley said.

“Thank you, Shirley. This is your stop. Time to go home.”

“Mother? But I can go with you—”

Lan shook her head. “I took away your childhood. I won’t take away the rest of your life.”

“Mother!”

“Furthermore, Starrgate needs you. Will you follow my orders, Lieutenant Tran? Please?” She said the word like a caress.

“Y-yes, Captain. I will do my best.”

Lan waved her hand over the console.

“I love you, Shirley.”

“I love you, Mom!”

Shirley saluted as her form faded away.

The space within the donut warped and swirled into glittering cadenzas of space and time.

“Shall we?” she heard Lan say.

“Yes, please,” Shizuka heard herself reply.

“Engage!”

There was a brilliant rainbow flash.

And then the ship was gone.