by Claudia Gray
She looked around and saw, embedded within the various arches of the outer ring, what looked like emergency doors, probably put there in case of atmospheric breach. Their structure appeared compromised by both the explosion and time; the centuries-old frame was showing strain and even fine patterns of small holes. They wouldn’t keep anything airtight any longer. But that didn’t mean the doors couldn’t be put to use.
She’d need the manual controls, which she spotted near the ceiling. A small service ladder provided a way for Orla to get up there without spending the energy to jump directly; from the looks of things, she needed to reserve her strength. The ladder was close enough to one of the controls for her to reach. Unfortunately, it was also high enough to make her a perfect target for the blasters of the Nihil. Reigniting her saber, she spun its two white blades to create a kind of shield, like a shimmering circle, that deflected the blaster fire. To judge by the yelps and curses she heard, the fire was ricocheting straight back at the Nihil. With her free hand, she reached for the controls—they were just past the tips of her fingers—but it took only the slightest tug with the Force to pull them free.
The walls began to shudder. She cried, “Look out below!”
With a mighty crash, the long-dormant emergency doors shot out and slammed shut. They created a three-meter-tall wall that nearly blocked the entire length and width of the ring; a few holes betrayed time and damage, but they weren’t easily breached. The barrier was hardly impregnable, since the Nihil could go around the long way, but it would slow them down. Maybe it would also make them think twice before escalating the conflict.
Sliding down the ladder got Orla back to the floor before the dust had settled. Cohmac stood there panting, only just beginning to lower his lightsaber, and gave her the shadow of a smile. “You always were excellent at improvisation.”
“It’s my specialty.” Orla put one hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Cohmac held up a hand as he coughed. “Fine. I inhaled a few particulates. Nothing a kolto rinse can’t fix.”
Next they needed to come up with a plan to not only keep the Nihil out of the station at large but also drive them away completely. Or so Orla thought, before she heard the scream. “Who’s that?” she said. “Not one of the Nihil—”
“It’s Affie,” Cohmac said, his face falling. “She’s in trouble.”
Orla finished for him. “And I just trapped her on the other side.”
The electric-blue swirl of hyperspace visible through the transport pod windows might’ve been comforting if Reath hadn’t known the Drengir were seeing it, too.
At least there’s no debris on this path, he told himself. It wasn’t much of a bright side.
Dez slumped on his shoulder, weak but conscious—more or less. He murmured, “Are they gone?”
“The Drengir? They’re gone for now.” Reath checked Dez’s eyes, saw that they were bloodshot and his pupils slightly dilated. His condition hadn’t improved, but at least it hadn’t gotten worse, either. “They might catch up to us at the station, but we’ll have the others there to help us. Master Cohmac will be there, remember? Orla Jareni, too. Plus the crew of the Vessel—remember them? Leox and Affie and the rock guy?”
With a shake of his head, Dez seemed to wake himself up a little more. “We’ll have help.”
“Right. Exactly.” Probably this wasn’t a good time to mention that Hague and Nan had turned out to be Nihil. It was definitely not the time to get deeper into Master Jora’s death. It was possible Dez didn’t even remember that she was gone; if so, Reath envied him. Anyway, they already had enough to deal with, especially given that the Drengir were absolutely, positively going to catch up to them at the station.
Homicidal warrior plants, he thought. Never read a single thing about those. Just one more thing I need to write up for the Archives.
With a subtle shimmy, the transport pod slipped out of hyperspace. Pressing his face to the hatch, Reath caught a glimpse of the station ahead, which they were approaching at high speed. Were the return mechanisms working as well as the launchers had been?
“Well,” he murmured to himself, “we’re about to find out.”
Once again, a tractor beam took hold of the pod. Reath exhaled in relief as they slowed; at least they had a chance of landing alive. Then, through the skinny windows of the hatch, he glimpsed something alongside the station’s equatorial ring—was it a ship? If so, it was a whole lot larger than the Vessel. But then the angle shifted, the station dropped out of view, and he wasn’t certain he’d seen anything at all.
Darkness swallowed them as the pod entered the launch tube. In only seconds, it came to a stop. Immediately Reath shoved the hatch open.
“C’mon,” he said, tugging Dez’s arm around his shoulders so he could tow him back to safety. “Let’s go. One foot in front of the other.” It wasn’t clear whether Dez understood any of that, but he stumbled along.
They made their way into the tunnels of the lower ring. In the darkness, their labyrinthine twisting had never been more confusing. Reath had just determined the way out when he heard what he recognized as a transport pod docking. The Drengir had arrived.
He did his best to hurry, but that was a mistake; Dez got tangled up in his own steps and tumbled to the floor. Reath leaned over him, grabbing Dez’s robes in his hands. “You’ve got to get up—you’ve got to—”
Dez stared up at him slackly. He was in no shape to climb up through the treacherous tunnel that led to the main part of the station, even if the 8-Ts didn’t attack—and there was no guarantee of that. Although Reath had the strength and the ability in the Force to bring Dez up with him, he wouldn’t be able to do so quickly enough to escape the pursuing Drengir.
He refused to leave Dez—even though that meant they were trapped.
Move, move, move!
Affie pushed herself onto her feet, desperate to run away. In what direction, she couldn’t tell; the world had turned to smoke and ash, almost devoid of light. But she had to get out of there before the Nihil found her.
She braced herself against the walkway rail, trying to catch her breath—then gasped as a gloved hand grabbed her hair.
“It has to be her!” One of the Nihil dragged her close to him. His many-tubed breathmask had the greasy sheen of an oil slick. Through the visor Affie met his narrowed eyes. “She threw the explosive—she may have more!”
He was rabid with fury, which was probably why he didn’t think to check her for a blaster right away. His hand shifted to the place at her holster the moment after she’d drawn. Affie shoved the muzzle into his gut, hard, hoping it would hurt.
“Let me go,” she said. Her voice was scratchy from all the cinders in the air. “Now.”
Instead he hurled her sideways, violently. Affie hit the railing hard, lost her balance, and tipped over.
She screamed as she fell, certain she’d plummet onto metal and dash her brains out. Instead, she landed on some other Nihil, sending all of them sprawling. The landing still hurt, but Affie ignored her injuries as she tried to escape from the tangle of arms and legs and weapons below her. But the Nihil were recovering even faster than she was, and when one of them seized her forearm she realized she’d lost her grip on her blaster in the fall. She was surrounded by helmeted figures, all of them angry, all of them armed, and there wasn’t a single thing she could do about it.
At that moment, through the sooty smoke came a swirling circle of brilliant white light shining in the darkness. Panels of heavy metal slammed across the tunnel with a thud, and then three rays of light shone out—one blue, two white.
Lightsabers, Affie realized. She just hoped the Nihil recognized them, too.
They must have, because her attackers instantly released her and stormed toward the Jedi. Affie ducked down to avoid getting clobbered by their weapons, but once she was down, she realized how hard it was to catch her breath. The smoke was getting to her.
Her comlink buzzed. “Affie?” S
he’d almost never been gladder to hear Leox’s voice. “We just picked up some serious shock waves—”
“I threw the thermal detonator at the Nihil,” she said. She was crawling across the floor, down low where the air was cooler and marginally clearer. Inhaling had gotten a lot easier.
“An understandable impulse, even if I might express some quibbles with its strategic value. Can you get back to the ship?”
“I don’t think so. Besides, I’m not done yet.” Affie felt her bag; while a few devices had rolled free during her tumble from the walkway, she still had the majority of what she needed to take the records she sought.
“The hell you aren’t.” It was so weird hearing Leox sound stern. “The Nihil change our whole strategy, in that our only strategy is now ‘Get the heck outta here.’ We need you on board.”
They didn’t need her. Leox was just worried because the situation had become more dangerous. Maybe Affie should’ve been concerned, as well, especially since the Jedi and the Nihil were battling furiously only meters away, the frenzy of it not entirely obscured by smoke.
But her parents would’ve been frightened, too. Frightened for their own lives, frightened about what would become of their little girl. Scover had taken their choices away. Affie intended to make sure everybody had a choice from that moment on.
“Hold down the ship,” she said. “I’ll be back soon.” And she shut off her comlink before Leox could say one more word.
Reath couldn’t center himself. If he could, maybe he’d be able to levitate Dez, ease him out of the tunnels into the station at large, and get him to the rest of the Jedi. Maybe he’d be able to levitate his own body, save them both. But he was too scattered to do it, the adrenaline in his blood at war with his better instincts.
“When you cannot achieve balance within yourself,” Master Jora had said, “simply lean toward the light and do your best. There’s no point in reacting to a lack of calm in a way that makes you even less calm.”
“Okay,” Reath muttered as he balanced Dez against him, Dez’s arm around his shoulders. “For light and life. Here we go.”
“What did you say?” Dez looked over at him groggily.
“Keep walking forward, all right? We’ll try climbing up through the roots in a few minutes. Maybe you can hang on to my neck.” Reath managed a smile. He wanted to reassure Dez, though there was very little that was reassuring about their current situation. But when he thought about what Dez must’ve endured over the past several days—delirious, in pain, surrounded by creatures who tortured him for information he wasn’t even in a state to give them—it was impossible not to want to give some comfort.
All thoughts of comfort fled when Reath heard the telltale thuds of the Drengir pod settling into its base.
In just a minute, they’ll be loose. Coming after us.
So I won’t give them a minute.
“Stay here,” Reath said unnecessarily, allowing Dez to slump onto the floor. Then he ran toward the Drengir pod.
The Force led him to their hatch, which they would open at any second; already he could see green frond-like hands grappling with the handle. Reath held out his hand and mentally pushed the Drengir away from the door. They went toppling backward. That was the easy part.
He closed his eyes and reached out again with his feelings. This time he wrapped his mind not around the Drengir but around the pod itself. Its shape became real to him, tactile, almost as if he were holding it in his palm.
Finally he pushed the entire pod backward down the launch tunnel. It felt as though he were physically shoving pure heavy metal backward, straining every muscle in his body—but he managed to move it a couple of meters. That would be enough, if his plan worked at all.
Despite the thick hatch door, Reath could hear the Drengir emerging from their pod, simply crawling out into the tunnel. They were heading for the hatch, coming to confront him—
Brilliant white light flashed in the tunnel, and howls of pain echoed for just one instant. Then the tunnel fell dark; all was silent.
Lightsaber in one hand, Reath used the other to swing the hatch door open. Instantly he was greeted by the scent of charred plants—slightly pleasant, actually, like woodsmoke or fragrant herbs.
By the glow of the saber, he could see limp, blackened leafy scraps on the bottom of the tunnel, smoldering just over the helix rings. Their energy had destroyed the Drengir in a split second. There was a sense of rightness in knowing that the rings had spared Dez, instead killing the ones who had tortured him.
There is no rightness in slaying an enemy, Master Jora scolded within Reath’s mind. Killing is never true victory. At best it is the knowledge that you have done what you must.
“I’ve done what I must, master,” he whispered. It seemed possible that perhaps, in the cosmic Force, she could hear.
“Affie?” Orla cried out. She couldn’t see the girl in all that mess; she could barely see her own lightsaber in front of her face. Deep within she sensed that the girl remained alive, but she couldn’t yet spare the mental energy to search any farther.
Not until she’d driven back the Nihil.
Orla faced off against two Nihil warriors, one for each of her blades. They bore energized polearms that could parry a lightsaber’s thrust—but it cost them, every time. They slashed at her, their attack savage but uncoordinated. She let the Force flow through her, sensing all their moves the instant before they were made, her saber moving almost of its own accord to block each one. They were shifted back with each strike, not far, maybe not even enough for them to notice, but enough for Orla to know she was the master of the situation.
Next to her, Cohmac was extinguishing his lightsaber. Before Orla could even consciously wonder why, Cohmac reached out with the Force toward a metal beam lying on the floor, dragging it toward the Nihil. It never entirely rose into the air, but he didn’t need it to; as it was, the beam swept under the Nihil, knocking them off their feet and sending blaster bolts flying in random directions.
But one of those directions might be the place where Affie Hollow was trying to hide.…
Almost as one, the Nihil turned and ran away from the Jedi, back toward the airlock ring. The movement was too coordinated to be a simple flight or surrender; it was a strategic retreat. The Nihil would regroup and attack again, stronger than before. All the more reason to wrap up their business on this Force-forsaken station and leave.
Cohmac gestured after the Nihil. “They will return with more firepower.”
“Undoubtedly,” Orla said. “Do you see Affie?”
“No. The girl has moved deeper into the station.” Cohmac gazed into the middle distance. “We must find her, and Reath, and remove them as soon as possible.”
Orla nodded. “We know Reath’s in the tunnels. Cohmac, why don’t you head down there while I search for Affie?” He ran toward the nearest access point for the lower rings, which would have to serve as a yes.
Already Orla sensed that Affie was missing on purpose. She was trying to do something she thought the Jedi shouldn’t know about. Orla didn’t know what it was and didn’t care. She just had to get Affie and get out before the Nihil attacked again.
Dez swayed on his feet, leaning against Reath as they walked through a jungle.
It’s the arboretum of the Amaxine station, he told himself. The farther away from the Drengir he went, the more Dez could remember. But he could still feel the toxins in his blood, making his body and thoughts sluggish, and everything remained dreamlike and surreal.
In the center of the arboretum, he could dimly make out shapes that he recognized as the Drengir. They’re here, too. They’re everywhere. I can’t get away.
Before panic seized him, however, Reath murmured, “It’s all right. We brought the idols back to imprison the dark side again. They must have trapped the Drengir, because look—they can’t get away.”
Dez realized the Drengir weren’t moving. Once again the four idols stood sentry, watching over them all.
That helped the fear, though the burning strangeness in his blood continued muddying his mind.
“Do you think that would stop the Drengir from ever using this station again?” Reath said. “The power of the idols? Because we can’t let them take possession of this place. It’s too dangerous.”
Dez managed to say, “Am I supposed to actually come up with an answer? Or are you just trying to get me to talk?”
“The second one. You’re doing better!” Reath grinned.
Dez might’ve smiled back, except that then he saw a figure approaching them from the darkness. Fear spiked within him, crushing and complete—until his blurry vision cleared enough for him to make out the person’s face. “Master Cohmac?”
Cohmac hurried toward them, eyes wide with wonder. “How is this possible?”
“The lower rings are a transport area,” Reath said. That made sense, Dez thought. They’d been in hyperspace. Hadn’t they? His head still hurt. “They’re outfitted with automated hyperspace pods. Dez wasn’t killed; he was sent from here to the home planet of these evil plant guys called—”
“The Drengir,” Cohmac finished. “We’ve made their acquaintance. By the Force, Dez, what did they do to you?”
How bad do I look? Dez thought. Probably I don’t want to know.
“They were interrogating him,” Reath said quietly. “They drugged him with something, sent him out of his mind for a while. But I don’t think he’s critically injured. We just have to get him off this station.”
“Easier said than done. The Nihil have boarded. They may suspect the transport capacities of this station.”
“Oh, no.” Reath’s eyes widened. “Right now the controls are programmed for the Drengir homeworld—at least, I guess it’s their homeworld. Maybe it’s just a planet some of them live on—never mind. Those controls could be reprogrammed to direct the transit pods anywhere. To Republic shipyards, to frontier planets, even to Coruscant itself.”
“They are only pods—” Cohmac began.
