Minutes passed. After the drama of getting their ship back into space, the Bridge was eerily silent.

Pey-Daika's voice broke that silence again, Aialo-El among their soft, inquisitive words. Richard glanced in their direction, his heart knocking in his chest, and then he looked at Ol-Maran.

The First Officer replied to Pey-Daika.

A ripple of terrible awareness passed through the Karra on the Bridge.

"What happened?" Shashi asked, her voice loud, more childlike than usual. "Are we okay? Did we get away?"

The Chorodonians gathered together, murmuring. The Karra gathered, too, in groups of two or three, reaching for one another's hands. Their grief was palpable in the atmosphere, although there was no sobbing, no dramatic outpouring of sorrow. Ol-Maran watched them from where they sat, their gaze unfocused, their complexion waxy and pale.

Garth returned from the med-bay. With Kavita's help, he began to treat Ol-Maran's wounds. Richard focused on flying the ship, Nen-Alaya at his side. He stole occasional glances at Ol-Maran, but it seemed there was nothing that could be done for the Karran's arm except to bandage it, use the pain relief devices, and hope for the best.

Richard stared at the screen, stared out into the depth of space. The world was a black so dark it was vivid, dusted with crushed diamonds that wavered and blurred in his vision. As the urgency and adrenaline of the attack wore off and he began to trust that they had truly escaped, he relaxed—but relaxing meant succumbing to what his body had pushed off for the sake of survival. His hands were shaking, and he wanted very much to be anywhere but where he was. Just for a minute.

"Richard," Kavita murmured.

"What?"

She was quiet for a few seconds. Then, even more softly, she repeated his name, putting her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her, aware now that there were tears sliding down his cheeks. Kavita met his gaze.

"They were just trying to get home," Richard said, his voice catching in his throat. "They were trying to help people. Find their family."

She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her embrace. Richard choked back a sob, holding Kavita tightly. He felt her shoulders shaking. A short distance away, Ol-Maran watched, pale and feverish. Garth was sitting on the floor at their side, his back against their chair, his arms wrapped around one of his knees, staring at a bag of Cheetos.

After a long moment, Kavita pulled back from Richard. She wiped her cheeks, looking up at him through red-rimmed eyes.

"We must carry on the mission. We are so near to success, and now we travel at hyperspeed. Our journey will be brief: a matter of two days, perhaps."

Richard and Kavita turned to Ol-Maran at the sound of their raspy, faint voice. They lifted their remaining arm, indicating the screen, their journey. "If I succumb to my injuries, you must carry on the mission."

"Hold on," said Garth. "Nobody's succumbing to anything." He wiped the heel of his hand over his cheek, frowning up at Ol-Maran.

"You're going to make it, mate. You've got to. Else who's going to navigate this thing?"

"I will do my best to survive," Ol-Maran said without a hint of humor, "but should I die, you must take my translator and give it to Nen-Alaya. They are the ship's best navigator after me."

Nen-Alaya had looked up at the sound of their name, tentacles lifting inquisitively. Ol-Maran made no effort to translate what they had said; it was a message for the humans alone, an effort to shield the Karra from the potential for yet more tragedy.

Kavita looked at Ol-Maran, serious. "I promise that if the worst happens, we will keep going."

They seemed content with this, relaxing back.

"You need to rest," said Kavita.

"I cannot rest. I must assist Richard."

"He has Nen-Alaya, and if something happens, we'll wake you," she promised. "You may be the first officer, but trust us for a little while. You will not be able to lead anybody if you don't rest."

Ol-Maran gazed at her in silence for a moment. Then, quietly, they said, "I should not be the leader. Aialo-El is our Captain."

"And you are their right-hand dude," said Garth. "You're in charge now. We need you. All of us do. Okay? So you're going to get some kippers, and we'll let you know if we need you. Promise."

Kavita searched the room, considering. Then she turned to Garth. "Let's go get some blankets. A mattress, maybe. We can make them comfortable, at least." She led the way to the nav pod, Garth trailing her.

Richard looked at the life support display. The lower right quadrant was still blinking orange, but if he wasn't mistaken, he had seen a brief flicker of red. He drew a breath, steadying his nerves, wondering what he was supposed to do about it. Could there have been a worse time to face damage to their ship? Ol-Maran was in terrible shape, and yet they were the one who was most knowledgeable about the maintenance of the ship.

Shortly thereafter, Garth and Kavita returned with a couple of blankets and one of the circular mattresses from a nest bunk. They prepared a sleeping place for Ol-Maran and helped them into the bed, where they quickly fell asleep, their breath slow but audible, their expression frequently tight with pain.

Richard focused mostly on the soothing sight of space stretching on before him. He kept one eye on the monitoring displays and glanced occasionally at Ol-Maran.

Eventually, worry got the best of him. He had seen a few more blinks of red. It had to mean that the damage was getting worse.

He looked around for Kavita and saw her sitting with Pey-Daika not far away. He gazed at her, waiting until she glanced up so he could catch her eye. When he did, he beckoned her with a subtle jerk of his head.

She joined him at the controls. She looked exhausted; it wasn't so much the dark circles under her eyes, which were there but faint—it was her posture, her expression, her aura. She looked like he knew they all felt: weary.

"What's up?" she asked.

Richard hesitated. He didn't want to tell her what he feared, but he had to. He indicated the life support view, where the lower right quadrant was still blinking orange.

"This is for the life support systems," he said. He spoke as softly as he could, suspicious that if Garth caught wind of an issue, he would panic.

Loudly.

Kavita frowned at the display. "Okay, I can see that something's wrong, but I don't understand this. Do you know what it is?"

Richard tapped the display, bringing up the details of that quadrant of the life support systems. "Well, obviously it's damage from the attack, but I'm not sure of much more. It looks like there's a breach in the hull and it must be impacting the systems. I think we'd have to look at it. Actually look at it in person."

"Okay. Tell me there are Karra aboard who know how to fix this."

Richard grimaced, glancing past Kavita to where Ol-Maran lay on the floor. "I think it's just them," he whispered. "Maybe we'll be lucky and Nen-Alaya knows something about the repairs, but do you remember when we were asking about the generators and power supplies on the ship?"

Kavita nodded. "And they said Ol-Maran knew the most about it."

"What are we going to do?"

"Can you tell from that thing how serious this is?"

"I can tell that it's getting worse. We went from yellow to orange, and we're starting to blink red every once in a while. I don't think we can wait, Kavita."