“In front of you,” Leesa added.

“Where?” Jom asked, his voice going up at least two octaves.

The sound of cutting started again.

“Here and here,” Nwo said, leaning over and jabbing buttons. The bay doors appeared on a tactical display in front of Jom, a red target overlying the image.

“Just press this when I say, yes?” Nwo said, and this time Jom got the meaning.

“That’s how we fire the weapons, yeah? Pew pew?”

“Yes, weapons,” Nwo confirmed, adding a “pew” in Basic to underline the point.

On the roof, Bell’s feet shifted.

“He’s got to be nearly finished,” Leesa said.

Nwo primed the engines, placing a hand on the thruster control.

“Not yet,” Kip urged, but Nwo wasn’t willing to wait. The water had completely covered the window now, and there was a sudden crack. Was that the transparisteel finally giving way?

“Yes, now,” Nwo said, pulling back the lever before Bell had finished cutting. Kip cried out to wait, but his shout was lost in the sound of tearing metal as the shuttle shot forward.

“Fire!” Nwo barked in Basic, grappling with the flight yoke as the shuttle barreled toward the doors. “Pew, pew!”

Jom pressed the trigger, and there was a blinding flash of light followed by a tsunami of water as the doors disintegrated.

Nwo shouted something else, but Kip didn’t hear what it was. He was too busy trying to grab hold of a chair. There was another crack, and water started to spray through a now very obvious crack in the viewport. Kip couldn’t see where they were heading, or even if they were out of the Innovator, but seconds later the water stopped pouring in and the gloom was replaced by smoke-filled skies.

Jom punched the air while Kip fought not to be sick as Nwo brought the shuttle around sharply, heading back toward the harbor. There was no sign of the Innovator, and the park itself was shrouded in a thick yellow fog that clung to the ground. There were fires and there were explosions, starfighters dancing around one another above them. The sky-islands were gone as were most of the pavilions, downed aircars burning on the dock, bodies strewn in all directions.

“My mom’s somewhere in there,” Kip said quietly as Nwo brought the nose of the shuttle down.

“We’re going in too fast,” Leesa cried, but Nwo just yelled at them to brace, pulling back on the yoke with all his might.

Kip had sat through enough flight safety holos in his life and called for them all to curl forward, their hands over their heads.

The shuttle hit the ground and screeched to a juddering stop, throwing them against their restraints. Kip looked up, surprised to still be alive. Jom was already out of his seat, opening the hatch.

“Is it safe?” Kip asked.

“Better than in here. We don’t know if this thing is going to blow.”