Yes. That’s what it was. He could feel the vibration through the harpoon. He caught something. A fragment of a conversation, from the Cloudship, from the Force. A vision of a flight deck, a squat figure in a command chair, crowing about what they had done … catching a Jedi on a hook …

Reel ’em in, boys. Reel them in.

Could it be real? Probably not, especially in his condition. The Force was mysterious, but there was every chance he was imagining things.

But he wasn’t imagining the air in the cockpit or the sound of Ember’s worried yelping. There was oxygen. There was pressure. There was the Force.

“Indeera,” he wheezed. “You’re sealing the breach.”

“No …” came the response. “The shrapnel I used to patch the hole is sealing the breach.”

He tried to focus, seeing twisted metal strips patching the hole around the chain. She had done that, reaching into his cockpit with the Force, nudging the shrapnel into the right place so the vacuum of space did the rest.

“That’s … that’s amazing.”

“You can thank the Force later,” she said, although Bell could hear the weariness in her voice. Such a feat would have cost her, especially during a battle. But as always, Indeera’s thoughts were for others, not herself. “How bad is it?”

Bell looked down at the metal protruding from his stomach.

“Bad.”

“You’re not finished yet.”

“Where are you?”

“Not far, but I’m still dealing with scav droids. Can you shoot the cable?”

He tried to focus on the long cord that tethered him to the Cloudship, the cord that was pulling him in.

“I’ll try.”

Some chance. Every movement brought fresh agony. The controls might as well have been in another ship for all he could reach them.

“Bell?”

He slumped in his seat, Indeera’s voice fading. He just needed to sleep.

Ember barked, Bell’s eyes snapping open.

“That’s it, girl,” he said, not looking around at the scared animal. “Keep barking. Keep me awake.”

“Padawan!”

“I’m here.”

He drew on the Force, trying to deaden the pain, trying to move. His hands found the flight stick, his numb fingers the trigger. He mashed the button. A laser burst from the Vector’s cannons, missing the cable on the first attempt but finding its target on the second.

But they were still moving. The cable was still intact. A laser-resistant metal. The Nihil weren’t as primitive as their junkbucket ships would have you believe, but Bell doubted if it would handle two Vectors firing on the same point.

“Indeera,” he croaked, his voice weaker than ever. There was no response, or at least he didn’t think there was. His ears were buzzing, the sound blocking everything else. “Master—are you there? I need you to fire with me, hit the cable together.”