Taz picked up two small contacts on his tactical scope. He widened the field to keep Lyra's Striker in view.
"Weapons free," Sera called from the gunnery station behind Taz. She squeezed Reiko's hand. "I'm sorry about Yuzu, Rei-sha, but I need you to be sharp. Can you do that?"
Rei nodded, looking terrified and bereaved.
"That's my girl," Sera said with a soothing smile. She poked the intercom key. "Kalli, get on the ventral turret."
"But Captain, I'm not programmed for starship gunnery," she replied from the circuit bay.
"You have executive protection skills, right?"
"Of course."
"Varun and Tess are your principals and this ship's guns are what you've got to work with. Protect them."
There was a pause on the channel, then Kallista answered. "Understood, Captain Rendix."
"Two TIEs inbound by seven," Taz called as the fighters closed from below them. "Kallista, don't shoot Lyra. I'm painting her ship in blue." He tapped at the controls and Lyra's fighter glowed with an azure outline on the targeting scope.
"I'll do my best, Master Taz," Kallista replied with less than her normal sultry confidence.
As the TIEs swarmed, Taz, Sera and Kallista worked their weapons. Allegra rocked under the impacts from the Imperial fighters' lasers, but Lyra did a good job of splitting their attention. Her ship was better than theirs in atmospheric combat, but that advantage fell off in space, and despite her academy training, she wasn't a starfighter pilot.
Taz knocked one of them out with a blast from the forward ion cannons. He lined up another when he felt the familiar shock behind his eyes. "Something big's coming," he grunted. A second later warning alarms blared in the cockpit. A wedge-shaped vessel appeared from behind the planet's limb, burning hard for them. It launched a pair of fighters.
Taz fired an ion burst at the TIE buzzing them. It turned out of the way, right into the path of Lyra's lasers. The Imperial fighter ship exploded in an expanding cloud of debris. Tess flew away from the larger craft.
"That's a Raider-class. Looks modified," came Lyra's voice over the comm. Indeed, as the corvette closed the distance they could see an enormous cannon had been fitted atop the narrow dagger-like hull. No sooner had they seen the big gun than it began to glow with energy. A half second later a brilliant emerald beam cut through space, missing Allegra's Heart by only a few hundred meters. Instead of a pulse, the Kantorius's gun fired a concentrated beam with substantial dwell time.
Taz got a sickening feeling. That beam looked just like the one he'd seen in after-action reports from Endor when the Alliance had battled the second Death Star. The corvette's pilot steered the nose of the ship, slicing the beam through the vacuum. Tess jerked the controls hard, ducking Allegra under the lance of destruction.
Sera swore loudly. "If we get hit by that thing we're finished!"
Taz's mind swirled. He wondered how fast it could fire. It outranged them by a lot. "Stay away from that beam, Lyra," he called.
"Worry about yourselves," she responded tersely, sliding behind one of the new TIEs and squeezing off a burst. It climbed out of the way at the last instant and made a tight turn. Sera chased it with the fast-firing dorsal cannon.
A sudden thought occurred to him. "I can tell you when they're going to fire, Tess... I think." He could use the Force and reach into whatever minds he could find on the enemy ship.
He slipped into it, letting its gray haze seep into his perception. He pushed his senses through the space ahead, felt the cold bulk of the Imperial corvette and the score of souls on board. He touched each mind in turn, examining the surface thoughts, until... Vaniel Ruatha.
He probed deeper, attuning his senses to hers. More than that, he heard her thoughts, sensed the cruel jubilance and her anger at having missed with her first shot. He was certain she was in command.
"Tess," he said in a languid voice, careful not to break the connection, "when I tell you, move the ship."
"Move where?" she asked, sparing a glance at him.
"Anywhere but where we are."
Tess nodded uncertainly but said, "Okay Taz."
They didn't have to wait long. The Raider made an agile turn, lined up the shot, and Taz felt Ruatha give the order. "Move."
Tess dropped Allegra a few hundred meters as the thin green ray of the superlaser passed above them. She rolled away from the beam and steered a tight arc, using the lateral thrusters to kick Allegra's aft around. The freighter wasn't a combat vessel but the YV-929 was designed to fight off pirates and it was nimble enough, especially when unencumbered by cargo. She squeezed the triggers on her controls, launching a pair of concussion missiles; the Raider was just in range. She was pretty sure they wouldn't be effective, but maybe they'd give the Imperials something else to worry about.
They continued their deadly dance with the corvette. It fired about every forty seconds but Taz could recognize the feeling of Ruatha giving the command. Her mind was quick, disciplined, and focused on the only task that mattered to her—destroying the little freighter and the Rebels aboard it. He caught flashes of other thoughts; a fleet near Eadu with dozens more ships waiting to be fitted with miniature superlasers; contempt for Tafo, for the breach of security that might bring their entire operation crashing to the ground, yet still calculating a path to a renewed Imperial throne.
"Move," Taz said. Tess pushed Allegra aside then pitched over into a tight spiral.
Ruatha's furor grew with every miss. How could the Rebels in their pathetic little transport dodge shot after shot? She lashed out at her crew while she ordered the cannon recharged.
Taz opened his eyes. He pushed just enough of his attention into his link with Ruatha to be sure he wouldn't lose it. "We need to get closer."
"Our missiles just bounce off their shields," Sera reported. I doubt the turbolasers'll do any better."
"We need our own superlaser," Tess complained as one of the enemy TIEs scored hits on the ship. Allegra's Heart quaked under the impact. She had good shields and a tough hull for a ship of her size, but they wouldn't be able to take punishment like that forever.
Lyra streaked in, giving chase. The second TIE got on her tail; Sera swung the turret around and triggered a blast from its trio of rotating barrels. A bolt ripped into the fighter's solar collector, sending it careening out of control.
Suddenly Taz remembered the kyber crystal in his pocket. "Reiko, I have something for you."
"What is it?"
"Move, Tess!"
She pulled up, then rolled out and flipped Allegra perpendicular to the corvette as it fired again. The Imperial ship turned to follow and Tess was forced into more evasive maneuvering.
Taz dug into his pockets. "They're using kyber crystals to enhance the power and range of their weapons. Maybe we can do the same." He handed the items to her. "Technical specs for their superlaser and a kyber crystal. Think you can do something with one of our turbolasers?"
"I don't know," she said, looking frantic and scared.
"Rei-sha," began Sera, "sooner or later we're going to catch a hit from that beam, a fighter, or one of the Raider's other guns. Do what you can."
As if on cue, someone on the corvette began firing one of the laser turrets. The Raider was made for combatting starfighters; its fast-tracking guns had more than enough punch to take down Allegra with a sustained burst. The particle beams were already finding their range; Allegra's shields began to shimmer from laser hits as Tess nudged them in closer.
"Move!" Taz called. Somehow they'd managed to reload much faster that time.
Kallista took Reiko's seat at the gunnery station. She spun the lower turret and fired a rapid blast that trailed just behind the remaining TIE as it made a low strafing run and passed out of range. Kallista made a note to adjust her lead for the next attack. Beside her, Sera offered advice for fine-tuning the targeting scope between firing bursts of her own. She chased the TIE below Allegra and Kalli's next shots clipped the Imperial snub fighter. It wasn't a fatal shot, but the wounded ship peeled away with alacrity.
Reiko studied the beam cannon schematics at her engineering panel in the circuit bay as Allegra's Heart took another round from one of the fighters. She figured she'd need to reroute most of the ship's power to the turbolasers, reconfigure the actuating module, and supplement the focusing array with the kyber crystal. She grabbed her tool bag and raced to the portside cargo bay.
The maintenance hatch was small; The former crew of smugglers had swapped out Allegra's civilian-grade light turbolasers for more potent models that weren't legal for civilians to own. They were meant to be serviced from the outside but she wriggled her head and arms into the cramped space, switched on her headlamp, and got to work, shutting out the rest of the universe. She only hoped that the pounding they were taking wouldn't destroy them before she had a chance to complete her modifications.
They were close enough to the corvette now to slug it out with lasers. Taz fired the ion cannons but his focus was elsewhere. Sera split her attention between the missiles, her laser turret, and Kallista. Even up close though, a solid salvo of missiles and fire from their starboard guns made little impact against the corvette's tough shields and thick armor.
Tess steered clear of the corvette's bow where its powerful turrets and the superlaser could be brought to bear, but that exposed them to the Imperial ship's anti-starfighter guns. Plasma bolts peppered Allegra. "Shields at forty-eight percent!" Sera called, launching their last four missiles from the aft tubes.
Tess started to think they might not make it. She quickly dialed up a frequency on her comm. A moment later her mother's voice filled the speaker.
"Mom, it's Tess. Are you both okay?" Sudden joyful tears flooded her eyes.
"Tess, we're fine, sweetheart. Where are you? It's pandemonium here! Are those explosions I hear?"
"Mom, listen, I… don't have much time to talk." A barrage of fire smashed into Allegra's side, jolting her wildly. Sparks and the crackle of fried circuits filled the cockpit with smoke. Tess ducked reflexively. She pulled Allegra back from the corvette and tried to swing behind it but their pilot knew his ship's weak spot and kept the bigger ship turning to deny her that firing angle.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I know you think the rebellion was wrong but the weapons they're building with your crystals are just like the ones on the Death Star. They used that to kill two billion people, mom. Two billion innocent people died just so the Empire could make a statement. They don't need those to fight terrorists, they need them to make their own terror."
"Honey, I—we never wanted the war. That's not what we're working for."
"I know mom and I'm sorry we brought it to you. But I can't let them have their way. We're going to do everything we can to stop them before it's too late. I'm sorry I couldn't spend more time with you and dad." She blinked the tears out of her eyes.
Reiko's voice came over the intercom. "Taz, I've done what I can. You'll probably only get one shot before the whole thing blows up. Make it a good one, for Yuzu!"
Lyra piped in, "If you can get their shields down, even if it's just a couple of seconds, I'll unload the three proton bombs I've got left."
"Lyra, no! Their turrets will tear your ship to pieces!" Taz cried over the comm.
"Tess, let's do this," Lyra replied, sounding grave. "Taz, thanks... for being there for me." Then she cut the channel.
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Taz started to call after her but Sera cut him off. "Doc, we've all got a job to do. Let's get it done." Then on her comm she said, "Reiko Hudson, I love you."
"And I love you, Serasana Rendix, with all my heart, until the universe ends." came the engineer's sobbing reply.
"Mom, I've gotta go. I love you both so much. Tell dad for me."
"Wait, honeygirl—"
Tess switched off the comm with a furious, heartsick cry, waited for Lyra's ship to line up behind her, then dialed the throttles to maximum. "Reserve power to forward shields," she ordered as Allegra bounced violently from the corvette's fusillade. She adjusted her aim for what she figured would be a single shot.
"Firing!" She yelled and squeezed the trigger for the portside cannons. A blinding, screeching gout of super-energized particles exploded from the turbolaser and smashed into the Kantorius.
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Lyra threw her arm up to shield her eyes from the dazzling cascade as Allegra's turbolaser fired. She could just make out the telltale glow around the Kantorius that indicated a shield on the verge of overload. She fired all of the Striker's cannons, aiming for the same point Tess had hit, and opened her ion drives to maximum thrust. Her green beams splashed against the corvette's shields, but the next volley pounded the ship's hull. Lyra yelled, feeling unexpectedly triumphant. Whatever they'd done to Allegra's Heart had worked!
She dove low over the corvette, firing as she went, and triggered the bomb chute. The last three of her powerful proton charges dropped from the Striker and impacted the corvette, their antimatter warheads blasting a huge chunk from the ship's midsection. She hugged the Raider's hull as close as she dared, cutting a zig-zag course and firing her lasers. A turret tracked her, spinning as she passed by, spitting bright green plasma bolts.
Lyra banked, turning for the ship's starboard side. If I can make it beneath their firing arc...
A deafening explosion erupted in the cockpit as a shot hit the Striker squarely between the engines. The fighter tumbled wildly, its solar collector wings ripping free and flying off into space. The gray capsule slammed against the corvette's hull and cracked against the bigger vessel's durasteel armor.
Lyra yelled and flailed, thrown askew by the hard impact. She wrestled for control, her surprise turning into furious curses, but the repulsors and thrusters wouldn't respond. Her hands flew over the controls, tying in backup power. The ship began venting what little atmosphere she had. A sudden chill wracked her body and she felt the bottom fall out of her stomach. A reactor overload warning blared in the cockpit. Behind her a coolant line fractured, spitting noxious gasses that flared into a hissing conflagration. She struggled with the mutilated, broken ship, her hands shaking.
Lyra could feel the terrific heat from the fire at her back. Her mind raced back to the dizzying crash on Jakku, her cockpit smashed and choked with smoke; the copilot who's name she hadn't even learned slumped over the controls and decapitated by a jagged piece of hull plate. And over it all, the searing heat of the fire.
Burning to death scared her more than just about anything, and rising panic staggered her for a moment. Better to die in the cold vacuum of space.
"I wish I could have had another night in the ruins with you, Taz", she uttered, tears stinging her eyes. "Allegra!" she sobbed as she reached over her head and pulled the ejection handles.
The tiny rocket motor fired, subjecting her spine to traumatic compression as the hatch blew overhead. Lyra felt an instant of agony. She expelled all her breath but as the pressure seals gave way to vacuum, her blood began boiling. She caught a bare glimpse of Beta Fonidian II before she blacked out.
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Taz watched helplessly as the TIE Striker broke up over the top of the corvette. He screamed, rippling with fury, and triggered his guns but nothing happened. The shot from Reiko's modified turbolaser had overloaded the freighter's power mains and destroyed the cannon, ripping a three-meter hole in the hull and wrecking the portside weapons pod.
Allegra's Heart floated in space, carried by inertia but otherwise barely functional. Outside, the big fissure in the corvette's hull only grew as explosions tore through the ruined ship one after another. Allegra's cockpit was pitch black save for the haunting glow from the detonations. Panel lights flickered back on after a few seconds as the scrambled systems rebooted and backup power began flowing from the APUs.
Snarling terrible curses, Taz probed with the Force and found Ruatha again. The ISB agent felt as enraged as he did. She was thinking of escape but Taz wasn't going to let that happen. He'd just watched Lyra's ship come apart. Rage and despair wracked him and he turned all of it on Vaniel Ruatha.
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Ruatha hurried aft. The Kantorius was doomed but she was a survivor. They were still close enough to Beta Fonidian for her to make an emergency re-entry in an escape pod. As she scrambled off the bridge toward the pods, she found Tafo clambering into one. He'd left ahead of her with his tail tucked between his legs.
"You! Fool of a man!" she sneered. "Your soft heart and weak spine have ruined everything!"
"My team did its job," Tafo seethed. "It was your incompetence that led to this!" He turned to seal the pod's hatch. "I'll get back to the surface, contact Jellick for more ship—"
Ruatha had heard enough. She snatched her blaster from its holster and squeezed the trigger. The side of Tafo's skull exploded, splattering brain matter inside the pod. The director jerked, then crumpled to the deck. Vaniel grabbed him by the shoulders and struggled to drag his corpulence from the escape pod.
Those terrorists had unleashed something impossible that had overwhelmed their shields. No matter, though. Jellick had more than two dozen corvettes that they could fit with the new beam cannons, kyber-enhanced reactors, and shields. There were enough high-grade crystals for scores more. Once they established control of the Dominus sector with its resource-rich worlds, they'd turn their attention to nearby Mon Cala, then build a real fleet and reestablish Imperial order in the galaxy.
She only needed to get back to Rho-277, impose proper order on the workforce, and continue the mining and manufacturing work. They'd still be able to build their war machine to sweep away the nascent New Republic; it would just take a little longer than planned.
She finished dragging the director's corpse out of the hatch and started to slide in as the Kantorius heaved under the effect of enormous explosions. Time was short; the corvette was in its death throes. No more time to waste on a dead ship.
Why is it so hard to breathe all of a sudden?
Vaniel began wheezing; it felt like her neck was caught in some invisible vise. Panicked fingers tugged at her uniform collar. Ruatha tried to force air into her lungs but the constriction around her neck only got worse. She gagged, sputtering and reaching for the intercom. That was useless though; all of the crew were dead or incapacitated. She collapsed beside Tafo, diaphragm spasming while she tried in vain to gasp for air. Ruatha could only stare in wide-eyed terror as a raging fireball tore through the corridor, incinerating everything.
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Sera watched Taz stretch his arms toward the burning Kantorius, his hands clawing at the air. His face was twisted into a mask of hateful furor like she'd never seen from him, even in his darkest hours on Jakku. His eyes, usually blue and gentle, burned with malice while enraged, primitive sounds issued from deep in his throat. A palpable feeling of savage terror radiated from him.
"Doc?" called the commando, putting a hand on his shoulder. He turned his dark, red-rimmed eyes on her, but didn't seem to see her. Flares from the detonations aboard the Kantorius flashed across his face, rendering him even more sinister. Sera had the overwhelming feeling that he was sinking toward something awful, something she might not be able to save him from.
She grabbed his stiff shoulders and turned him in the copilot's chair. "Doc! Whatever's happening, you have to stop!"
"TAZ!" cried Tess from the pilot's seat, her horrified expression magnified by shock and dread. She'd never seen him look so terrible with his inhuman stare and dark, twisted visage.
Taz snarled, his clawed hands clenching tight.
YES! Your destiny lies not with these vermin. Kill them all!
The voice spoke directly to his darkest instincts, powerful, seductive, and urgent.
Sera kept shaking him, calling out his name along with Tess. After a few seconds he flinched. His arms dropped and his body slumped. He blinked—once, twice—then recoiled sharply, throwing his arms before his eyes like he'd just witnessed some unimaginable abomination. Emergency power blinked on and the air handlers began clearing the smoke in the cockpit.
Taz stumbled out of his chair and staggered from the cockpit. He tripped, fell to his knees, and vomited. He'd felt Ruatha's death as clearly as if he were the one whose life had been choked out. The darkness and rage that he'd fought against before had nearly consumed him. He felt its incredible power flowing through him, but it demanded so much in return for what he'd done. His body shook and his head pounded unceasingly. Blood trickled from his nostrils and ears and he felt like his bones were cracking. He groaned and pushed the Force away, cutting it off like a diseased arm, screaming with the pain of it.
Limbs shaking, he got to his feet. Tess looked horror-struck. Sera followed him out of the cockpit, bleeding from a laceration on the side of her head, her face drawn. He waved her away. "I'm okay now, I'm okay," he rasped, wiping the blood from his face. "Thanks for pulling me back, Sera."
"Pulling you back? From what? What was that?"
Taz felt sick, aghast and disgusted. "Something I shouldn't have done." Tears filled his eyes as he leaned against the wall. Panting, he tried relaxing his tortured mind. His knees refused to hold him and he slid to the deck. The Force felt far distant; he'd abused it and cast it aside, after all. There'd be a price to pay for that, he was sure of it, but for now he only wanted some calm. The terrible sensations he'd felt as he took Ruatha's life overwhelmed him, and in that moment Taz found himself yearning for the dispassionate Force he'd always known.
Reciting the familiar Dahannist meditation, he sought it out. After some time he found it, and gradually gained a measure of quiet. The gray mist of the Force formed around his consciousness. He was weary, in pain, and so devastated that he almost missed the little sparkle in the gauzy fabric of his perception.
He examined it closer. It felt tiny and fragile; the slightest disturbance would crush it. Even now, time was extinguishing it with each passing moment. But he knew that sparkle. It was warm and familiar. It felt like...
"Lyra." He breathed her name. She was out there, somehow clinging to life, however tenuously.
"What?" Sera asked. "Listen, Doc—"
He pushed past his friend and shuffled back to the cockpit on wobbly legs that didn't want to carry him. "Lyra's alive! I can still feel her in the Force." He pushed himself into the copilot's chair, color slowly returning to his ashen face.
"Where?" Tess's face was stiff with pain. She cradled her left arm; her shoulder looked like it might be dislocated.
Taz delved into the Force again, seeking more clarity in the murkiness. The sparkle was so dim now, but he found it out there in the void. "Can we move?" he asked, eyes fluttering with the effort he was expending.
"Just maneuvering thrusters," Tess groaned. She bit her lip to stifle a cry while Sera applied a sling to her injured arm and immobilized it with bandages.
Taz prayed the thrusters would be enough. He grabbed the control column and started turning the crippled freighter. They passed over the ruptured and mortally wounded corvette, Lyra's dim spark growing ever more solid in his perception as they approached.
They'd gone nearly two kilometers when Tess called suddenly "I see her!"
Taz opened his eyes. Lyra's body floated in space, spinning slowly a few hundred meters away. "Get as close as you can, Tess," he urged. "I'm going to pull her in." He ran from the cockpit to the portside airlock as fast as his heavy legs would go, grabbed a breathing mask off the wall, and threw it over his face.
He stretched out with the Force, finding Lyra's spark now only a bare ember. He wrapped himself around her, felt the mass of her still body, and pulled. She tumbled slowly toward Allegra's Heart. Taz remembered to clip onto the safety hook, sealed the bulkhead behind him, and forcefully expelled all the air from his lungs as he opened the outer airlock door and squeezed his eyes shut. Straining from the effort, he pulled faster while the atmosphere flew from the small chamber in a flash of vapor ice.
Lyra's body floated inside the ship and Taz caught her in his arms. He pressed his shoulder against the door switch, sank to the floor with her, and started to panic. She was so stiff, her lips blue, her skin ashen. He checked for a carotid pulse and signs of breathing. He found neither.
Sera emergency-cycled the airlock, letting Allegra's atmosphere flood into the tiny space rather than waiting for the normal pressurization sequence. Painful pressure jabbed his ears as Taz cradled Lyra in his arms, tears spilling down his cheeks. He pressed her body close and let the Force flow around both of them. He pushed the hurt and anguish aside and poured his vitality into her, whispering to her through the Force.
Don't leave me, Lyra. I need you.
Taz kept at it. He was so tired but he knew if he stopped now she'd never return. He focused only on bringing her back to him and let time slip away. Slowly, delicately, he nurtured her little sparkle of life.
I love you, Lyra Nimor. Don't make me live without you.
He couldn't tell how long, but after a while Taz heard a soft sound and opened his eyes. Lyra stared back at him. Her lips were still blue but she was breathing. Taz let out a long shuddering sound, relief cascading over him in wave after cold wave.
Rei, Sera, and Tess stood in the passageway, dumbstruck by the miracle they'd just witnessed. Reiko hooted in jubilation and threw her arms around Sera's shoulders. Lyra whispered something, then closed her eyes.
Taz uttered a strangled, ecstatic cry of his own and held her tight to him. He got to his feet, cradled her in his arms, and took her to the medbay. He fitted an oxymask, tucked a heated blanket around her shoulders, then brushed a lock of hair from her beautiful, placid face.
He took deep, steadying breaths. Now that she was safe, every agony he'd ignored assaulted him with unrelenting, reinvigorated fury. He hunched, nearly doubling over from pain and fatigue.
You think such power comes without cost?
Taz did his best to ignore the voice but he felt it seeping into his soul, seeking purchase with cold, insidious tendrils. If Lyra hadn't been so close to death he might have listened, but for now all he could think about was how he'd almost lost her. He pushed it to a back corner of his consciousness, not without effort.
Tess came in, Sera and Reiko crowding the doorway behind. Taz forced himself upright despite the paroxysms rampaging through him.
"Nice work. Unbelievable, but nice." Tess smiled at him, then winced again.
"You're hurt," he said, though it came out more like a groan.
"It's alright, you're exhausted, Taz."
"Let me help." He couldn't manage much more than a hoarse whisper, but he slipped into the Force again, so easily it seemed when it was for the people he loved. He flowed energy through his hand into her injured shoulder, breathing hard with the strain of it, like drawing honey through a straw.
Tess let out an extended sigh; her face relaxed as the pain fell away, replaced by warmth and peace. "That's… amazing," Tess said, slipping out of the sling and testing her shoulder.
"Good," he sighed, nearly collapsing on the stool. "I'm pretty much spent."
She squeezed his hand tightly in both of hers. "I don't know how to thank you, Taz."
He shook his head and looked past her, nodding toward the bacta bed. "Your boyfriend's going to be jealous if he sees you holding my hand. Isn't that right, Numarkos-grasha?"
Tess looked over her shoulder and uttered a gleeful cry. Suspended in the bacta, Varun stirred. Behind the breathing mask, it looked like he was smiling. Tears in her eyes, Tess slipped her arms into the long gloves attached to the clear polymer enclosure and took his hand.
Taz grunted, "I know you don't like the bacta but bear with it a while longer. We'll have you out of there tomorrow," His voice fell off as the physical and emotional exhaustion overtook him.
Taz glanced at Sera and Rei standing in the doorway, hand in hand. "You two okay? Need me to do anything?"
"We're good," Sera assured. "You don't need to do anything except rest. That's an order, Mister Oktos."
"Yes, Captain," he said, barely audible. He laid his head next to Lyra's shoulder, entwined his fingers with hers, and finally let consciousness slip away.