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Someone nominated her, but she said she would not go. She was staying with everyone left behind. They needed her here. There was so much work to do to strip the ship of information helpful to the Empire, and it was her duty to oversee that.

Besides, Toryn thought, Samoc would be left behind. She could not leave her.

The names came in quickly, and a list formed up that nearly matched one she would have drawn up herself. Some on the list tried to get others to go in their places, but Toryn was the only one who got away with that.

“To the pods, on the run!” Toryn ordered everyone on the list. “I want the rest of you to start combing every inch of what’s left of this ship for files and documents. Bring them to passenger level one, where we will manually erase them.”

The teams rushed to finish packing the pods. The eighteen people who had this chance climbed inside and strapped into their seats. There was little time for goodbyes.

“May the Force be with you,” Toryn said to them all as they closed the hatches.

“Viewport teams, look sharp,” Toryn said. “I want visual tracking of these pods.”

“Will do,” her observation teams called back.

“Launch!” Toryn ordered.

The pods blasted away from the ship and fell toward Hoth.

Everyone crowded to the viewports. The Bright Hope was suddenly very, very quiet. Everyone left on it thought how all their possible futures had shrunk now to two: death, or incarceration in an Imperial prison.

But we are happy for those eighteen, Toryn thought. We’re happy for them.

The pods fell in a tight line toward Hoth. The ship turned and all they saw for a time were the lights of the other wrecks and the star destroyer and stars. The star destroyer did not move to intercept the pods. If it launched TIE fighters to attack them, they could not tell.

When Hoth rolled back around, no one could see the pods for a time.

“Pods at three o’clock!” Rory shouted.

Everyone saw them then, three tiny lights, descending fast.

Soon they could not see them at all against the bright, white light of Hoth.

“I think they made it,” Toryn said. “Now, everyone to work! The Imperials took note of this transport when we launched the pods, you can bet on that. They’ll come for us next. We’ve got to be ready!”

She ordered the computer to erase itself on her command, and she sent a team to uncover the subprocessing units on each deck and prepare to smash them after the data had been erased as a failsafe backup. She ordered the droids to erase their minds on her command—which would come at the last possible moment: they needed medical help till then. The droids’ minds held records of all the Rebel patients they had ever treated. The Empire could not be allowed to get such information: it would tell them who had been alive at a point not far in the past, who had died, what they had said, what conditions they had been treated for—revealing possible weaknesses that could turn some into double agents. The droids would have to destroy themselves.

She thought for a moment about everything else they had to do: destroy documents, tend to the wounded, stockpile weapons, prepare to fight when the Imperials pulled in their ship. She was glad they had a lot to do. Everyone needed work to keep from thinking about the destiny they were rushing to meet.

“Rivers, Bindu,” Toryn said. “Form up a detail to study the pod bay and freight deck entrances. I want recommendations for defensive measures ASAP.”

“Ma’am!” Rory shouted. “Approaching ship.”

Toryn rushed to Rory’s viewport. It was an odd ship coming toward them. It did not look Imperial at all. “Can you read its name?” she asked.

“Mist Hunter,” Rory said.

She queried the computer for information on the Mist Hunter, but the Ships’ Registry database was offline.

Bounty hunters, Toryn thought. It had to be.

“Mist Hunter heading for pod dock two,” Rory said.

“I want anybody who can fight up here now!” Toryn ordered. “We’re getting company.”

Someone handed her a blaster, and