# Chapter 37: Manual Alignment

**4 hours until keyhole crossing**

Manual alignment was not heroic while it happened.

It was lists. Angles. Heat loads. Jonas calling out timing corrections in a voice so calm Mira wanted to scream at him. Mira feathering thrusters against a body large enough to turn their ship into a brief chemical fact. Hana counting from Argo. Sira and Ilyon silent on the line because someone had ordered them to be silent and for once they obeyed.

The first standoff device misfired.

It detonated late and shallow, vaporizing less surface material than planned. The thrust vector wobbled. The keyhole probability jumped.

Hana said something in Arabic that the translator wisely ignored.

Jonas recalculated by hand and machine together. "We can recover."

"How?"

"Move closer."

Mira looked at the thermal map. Closer meant shields would fail before the sequence ended.

She moved closer.

On Earth-2, people watched the sky without broadcasts because broadcasts had become too slow for hope. Aravel stood in the valley. Kael stood beside former Kharos officers. Seska held Tavi's mother's hand. Liora whispered the corrected prayer.

The second device armed.

Jonas said, "Now."

Mira fired.

The Wanderer's surface bloomed white.