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connections were obscured. Jalia wasn’t supposed to engage engines until she was 150 keets away, at minimum. The momentum she’d built up with that last lurch would carry the Resolute out to that distance in about twenty minutes, during which they’d have to wait to use their plasma engines.
    Fortunately Jalia had another option.
    She activated her ship’s gravity drive at minimal power and latched onto the gravity of the system’s star. With just a tweak of pull, the Resolute was launched toward the star at four keets/second, and the jumpship quickly shrank from view behind them.
    They were in the clear now, as far as jumpship security was concerned. Jalia sincerely hoped that had been the hard part and they’d just dodged the blast, but with a ticket price of 100,000 credits she had a bad feeling that wasn’t going to be the end of it.

 
    Chapter 4
    â€œA LRIGHT , WE ’ RE OUT . Where to now?”
    The female Cres tilted her chin up. “What options do we have from our current position?”
    Jalia turned and brought up a navigation chart. “My name is Jalia, by the way.”
    â€œYes, I know,” she said matter-­of-­factly. “Those in the cargo hold are Orrona, Lornas, and Ella. I am Ivara, and this is Marren.”
    Jalia frowned slightly as a small holographic map appeared over the navigation console. “You’re telepathic?” she asked, still not wanting to believe it.
    â€œYes,” Ivara said simply.
    â€œSo I don’t really need to say anything . . . because you already know what I’m thinking?”
    Ivara slowly shook her head. “You still need to speak to us. Don’t assume that we know anything.”
    â€œBut you do . . .” Jalia argued slightly.
    â€œSometimes,” Ivara offered.
    â€œAlright,” Jalia said, letting it go and facing the map. “We’re in the Hellis System. Twenty one planetoids, three inhabited worlds, four colonies, two mining settlements, and one large Gorovan mining station in the system’s asteroid belt. Several other minor installations spread through the system. I don’t suppose the Cres have anything here?” she asked doubtfully.
    â€œWe do not,” Ivara stated flatly.
    â€œWell, there are four nearby systems within range. We can try and make one of those on our own, but it’ll take us several weeks to get there.”
    â€œShow me,” Ivara said.
    Jalia zoomed out and the Hellis System became a small dot within the hologram. There were four other dots circling it at the edges, one nearly on top of it, two far below, and one far right.
    â€œAm I correct in assuming there are no jumpship routes to these systems? Ivara asked.
    â€œWell, they’re too small for the megacorporations to bother with running a jumpship line to, but on occasion you’ll see a private line go through Korfax.”
    â€œExpand the map, please,” Ivara asked.
    Jalia zoomed out and sixteen more systems winked into view. She pressed another button and the jumpship lines appeared, connecting Hellis with Rudia and Portix. Another V-­shaped line appeared intersecting only the Iras System from somewhere outside the edges of the map.
    â€œHere,” Ivara said, pointing to Iras. “That is where we need to go. Yiori jumpship lanes intersect with Cres territory. Once there we can be at Illora within half a cycle.”
    â€œIllora?” Jalia asked.
    Ivara looked her in the eye gently, as if she were instructing a child. “Illora is our homeworld, far from here, but you only need to see us into Cres territory. Our fleet will carry us the rest of the way.”
    â€œWhy aren’t you traveling on one of your own ships now?”
    When Ivara hesitated, Marren answered for her. “Our warship engaged the enemy while we escaped with our cargo. Since then, we’ve had to utilize commercial transport.”
    Jalia spun her chair around