He looked through the thin hatch windows and saw nothing but greenery: trees, bushes, a sort of marshy landscape. In fact, he recognized the vines from the station; some seeds must’ve made the same journey in the past. This strongly suggested that the atmosphere was breathable by humans. Nobody was waiting to kill him, either, which was always a good sign.

Reath pushed the hatch door open and stepped outside. Thick clouds filtered, but didn’t conceal, a white sun’s light. The air was warm and damp, and it smelled like loamy soil, salt water, and thick green marsh plants. Wet ground had to be nearby. However, the pod had come to rest on a spar of rockier land.

A spar that must have been chosen, very long before, as the base for this hyperspace pod.

As Reath stepped farther back from the pod, he got a better look at the mechanism. The small, almost spherical pod he’d been in was only part of the whole—the “cabin,” as it were, at the head. Behind it stretched the rest of the mechanism, long and slender, what he had to assume was the hyperdrive. Another such pod, identical to the one he’d traveled in, rested farther along the sinuous track. It curves through the tunnels, he realized. It’s an ancient, fully automated mechanism. There must be multiple pods still within the Amaxine station. People step inside a pod, and it travels to predetermined coordinates.

So where have these coordinates taken me?

He paid attention to his immediate surroundings first. He recognized the circular motifs of the Amaxines in the landing platform, which coiled around, clearly setting up the hyperspace pods for their return trip. Helix rings hung in place there, too, which meant there was probably power and fuel enough for more than one voyage. Reath had to hope so; otherwise, this was his new planet of residence. Although moss had grown over some of the central hub—the controls?—all the equipment appeared to be in working condition.

Which meant he probably had a way to get back to the Amaxine station. He just had to figure it out.

Then he heard rustling in the leaves, in the reeds. Reath whirled around, lightsaber in hand, to see…nothing. Just trees. Just plants.

Yet as he stood there, he could feel an oppressive weight settling over him—the presence of the dark side, powerful, acute, and focused. Someone was approaching him with ill intent, seemingly from every direction at once.

It occurred to Reath that he could make a run for the pod controls. This technology appeared to be highly automated; he might be able to launch a return trip to the Amaxine station within only a few minutes. Another pod had been waiting for no telling how long. That meant he had two chances to get himself out of there, to return to the others and the important mission at hand.