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"Good idea, Em Teedee," Jaina said.

"Lowie, let's hook up your little droid to the Rock Dragon's diagnostic systems and see if he can find any shortcuts or reroutings we can use to bypass the damaged systems. Meanwhile, the rest of us'll check out the external damage." She placed her hands on her narrow hips. "If we get the engines up and running, we can probably make do with only a few patches on the hull plating. Our primary mission now is just getting out of here alive."

"Mat is a good mission," Tenel Ka agreed, fastening her breathing mask over her face.

Jaina and Jacen did the same.

While Lowbacca remained inside to tinker with Em Tbedee, wiring him to the control panels, the other three exited the ship. Jaina used the light of a glowrod to study the craggy rocks of the cavern ceiling. The entire asteroid had nearly split apart from the immense impact of another meteoroid that had scooped out this crater. The air was thin and cold, the floor rough, the walls jagged.

But they were probably safe for now.

They just had to hope the attacking ship hadn't seen them duck into the shelter.

"Things could be worse. At least we're not inside one of those giant space slugs,' Jacen said. He kicked at the rocks under his feet, then shrugged. "Hey-it never hurts to check."

Jaina flipped her straight hair behind her ears and made her way to the rear of the Hapan ship, where most of the attacker's precision shots had landed. She felt dismayed at the sight of the blackened patches and carbon-scored holes sizzled through the engine cowlings and shield plates that protected their stardrives.

Using her multitool, Jaina stripped away the charred outer debris and looked at the mangled disarray that remained of one of their drives. The second engine had fared better: still damaged but possibly reparable, given a few spare parts, a lot of intuition, and some risky rewiring.

She pointed to the burned metal plating and destroyed components.

"Jacen, Tenel Ka-while I check with Lowie to see w hat diagnostics Em Teedee's been able to run, I'd like you two to dismantle these damaged systems. Pull them out-we'll have to bypass them. Maybe we can salvage a eyberfuse or two... but they look pretty stagged to me."

"That was going to be my expert opinion," Jacen said.

Inside the Rock Dragon's cockpit, Jaina bent over Em Teedee where Lowbacca had hardwired him into the main control systems.

"This is all terribly confusing," the translating droid said, his optical sensors glowing up from the center of the cockpit panels.

"At first I found all this Hapan engineering to be completely incomprehensible. However, as I continue to study these systems, I believe I'm beginning to understand. I am gifted with self-learning capabilities, you know."

Lowie pointed out the displayed schematics, gesturing with his furry arms and making suggestions. Since he was preoccupied with the ship's complex systems, Em Teedee couldn't spare the computing power to translate the Wookiee words, but Jaina could figure out most of what Lowie meant.

'You want us to divert all the power from our weapons systems and shunt it into our remaining engine? You think that's smart?"

This comment finally got Em Teedee's attention. 'But Master Lowbacca, that would leave us completely defenseless!" Lowie made a sharp continent, and Jaina knew what the young Wookiee meant. If the attacking ship found them before they could escape, they'd all be doomed anyway-with or without weapons.

"I agree. We'll have to put everything we can into our engines," Jaina said with a sigh. "Let's get them repaired, plot an immediate path through hyperspace, and head off on that vector. I just hope we can jump to lightspeed before that pirate locks on to us and shoots us down."

Lowie groaned his agreement, and Em Teedee refrained from continent.

Jaina knew they would all have to work together, and quickly. She guessed that the other ship was still combing the rubble field, ready to blast them to pieces. He must have intended to capture the young Jedi Knights at first, targeting