BODHI ROOK couldn’t remember a time he’d been so terrified, and the past few days had been filled with all sorts of nerve-racking things. He’d escaped from the Empire with a secret message from Galen Erso, one of the top scientists in the galaxy. He’d delivered the message to Saw Gerrera—and been tortured for it.

Maybe he’d been more scared when Bor Gullet had ripped his mind to pieces to make sure he wasn’t lying, but truth be told, Bodhi couldn’t remember most of it. He was grateful for that. He wasn’t sure he was entirely over the effects, but he was eager to put the experience behind him either way.

Through most of that, though, he’d held his fate in his own hands. Now, as a pilot himself, he had to watch a rebel and a reprogrammed Imperial security droid try to land a U-wing in a horrifying storm that took them through a series of gigantic rock formations that seemed to stab at them from out of nowhere.

He couldn’t help coaching from behind. He understood why they didn’t yet trust him to fly the ship, but he wondered if he should have insisted on taking the controls anyhow.

Did they think he planned to crash the ship into one of those spires, killing them all at once? He was desperate to make up for having worked for the Empire for so long, not suicidal.

“Go low!” Bodhi shouted at them. “Lower!”

The crazy droid argued with him. “This ship was not meant to be flown this way.”

At least he bothered to respond that time. Bodhi brought down his tone. “They have landing trackers. They have patrol squadrons. You’ve got to stay in the canyon. Keep it low.”

Otherwise, the Empire was sure to spot them, and then their little trip to Eadu would end fast—and probably in a big ball of fire.

“Watch the right!” Cassian shouted at the droid.

For a machine that supposedly had lightning-fast reflexes, the droid was not making Bodhi feel good about his flying skills. He wondered if it was too late to try to take the controls away.

Right then they hit an air pocket and dropped hard enough to lift Bodhi out of his seat. He gave up sitting and tried crouching behind them instead.

The droid didn’t seem bothered, but he did update their odds. “There is a twenty-six percent chance of failure.”

Cassian glanced back at Bodhi. “How much farther?”

Bodhi gave him a frustrated shrug. “I don’t know—I’m not sure. I never really come this way.” And why would he? As an Imperial cargo pilot, he’d always had clearance in the past. He hadn’t had any reason to risk his life this way—until now.

“We’re close,” he said anyhow. “We’re close—I know that.”

“Now there’s a thirty-five percent chance of failure.”

Bodhi felt like smacking K-2SO in the back of his metal head, but Cassian shouted the droid down first.

“I don’t want to know! Thank you.”

“I understand,” the droid said. Bodhi wasn’t sure he really did though.

He tried to ignore the droid and kept his attention focused on the U-wing’s viewport instead. The rocks seemed familiar, although he’d never seen any of them from that angle before. He knew they were getting close, but exactly how close were they?

Too close!

“Now! Put it down now!”

“The wind—” The droid started to protest, but Bodhi wasn’t having any of it.

“If you keep going, you’ll be right over the shuttle depot!”

Bodhi hoped he didn’t have to describe exactly how much that would be a bad thing. If anyone in the shuttle depot spotted the U-wing, they’d instantly raise the alarm. The six of them didn’t have a chance of taking on an entire Imperial base.

The lights of the shuttle depot speared up through the rain, as if to prove Bodhi right. K-2SO recognized the threat they posed and swung the ship into a hard turn.

The side of the U-wing clipped a column of rock as the droid brought it back. The impact jolted the entire ship and threw Bodhi off his feet.

He floundered about for a handhold as the ship fell into a steep dive. He couldn’t tell if K-2SO still had control of it or if they were all about to die.

“Hold on tight!” Cassian shouted. “We’re coming down hard!”

Bodhi wanted to snap off a sarcastic reply to that announcement of the obvious, but he couldn’t catch enough breath to manage it. Then he ran out of time.

The starship smacked into the ground, and Bodhi did the same to the ship’s floor. From the sound of it, one of the struts on the landing gear failed on impact, and from the way the ship angled forward onto its nose, it was the one up front.

Bodhi had seen starships crash like that before. Sometimes—if there was a friendly port nearby with a fast and resourceful team of mechanics—the ship might be made space worthy again.

But they were essentially rebels stuck behind Imperial lines. No help was on the way.

Bodhi was more scared than ever.