A barely audible thump seemed to be coming from the airlock ring. Affie hesitated—get to the fight or head to the airlock, where apparently the Vessel had just docked? They’d have better odds in a fight if Leox and Geode were with them. The airlock ring it was.

Bag scraping along the wall behind her, Affie made her way around the corner, into a corridor that opened up into the main arboretum. So far as she could see, nothing had changed; the idols were back more or less where they’d been before and the 8-Ts were gardening as usual. But some of the greenery down there—trees and logs and such—had it moved? Since when did plants wander?

Affie gave herself permission to keep going and ask questions later.

She continued down the long spiral walkway into the path that traced the circumference of the airlock ring, where, apparently, the Vessel had not docked. Instead, several dark-clad figures were emerging from what had to be a massive ship. As Affie’s eyes adjusted, she could make out the blue streaks painted into their hair and across the ghoulish breathmasks they wore.

Those masks were all too familiar.

“The Nihil,” she whispered. Their huge warship had docked with the station after all. They were invading the station en masse. What chance did she and her friends have?

None…unless she stopped the war party from boarding.

Affie didn’t see the Jedi below her. For their sakes, she hoped they weren’t too close by. No time to check. She took the thermal detonator from her bag. Its heft felt strange in her hand, unfamiliar and frightening; Affie knew how dangerous a weapon it was. She’d never actually used one before.

But she’d brought it to save her friends, and that’s what she intended to do. Affie set its timer to ten seconds and then hurled it straight toward the airlock connected with the Nihil ship.

Dropping to the walkway floor, she had just enough time to cover her head before the explosion.

BOOM! The shock wave hit her, a physical impact that knocked her onto her side. Even though her arms had been over her ears, she was momentarily deafened to anything but a high-pitched static sound. Blinking, Affie stared up at air thick with swirling dust and small scorched pieces of what might have been fabric, armor, or skin.

Nausea gripped her. Affie’d had to defend herself and her ship before, but actually killing multiple people—even if they were Nihil—

Then she felt, rather than heard, feet marching up the metal steps of the walkway.

Someone had survived the blast, and that someone was coming directly toward her.