“Doesn’t matter anymore. See, the Drengir want this station. The Nihil want this station. Once they find out about it, my guess is the Republic’s gonna want this station, too, and if not, they’ll blow it to smithereens. Regardless, this place isn’t Byne Guild territory anymore. Even if the Republic leaves it intact, there’s no way Scover can keep using it. Code or no code, no other pilots are going to be forced through here, not ever.”

That should’ve made Affie feel better, but it didn’t. “That’s not enough.”

“Why?”

She ignored this. “I have to keep going.”

“You’re not trying to save the other pilots any longer,” Leox said. “If that was all this is about, you’d have started down that ladder already. What you’re trying to do is save Scover’s soul. That’s not your job, Affie. Only Scover herself can do that.”

Affie leaned her head against the nearest rung of the ladder. Her hands itched; the sap irritated her skin. Leox wasn’t wrong about her reasons—she could see that—but turning back still felt so wrong.

“Affie, please.” The raw pleading in Leox’s voice got to her. “Your life’s not worth one bit less than hers. If you ask me, it’s worth a whole lot more. So will you get back down here?”

She held on for one moment longer, envisioning her long-lost parents in this same tube. If they’d had a way out, they would’ve taken it. They would’ve wanted her to be safe.

It was for them—not for Leox, not even for herself—that Affie finally began descending toward safety.

Recon around the station had only darkened Orla’s take on their chances. She saw no strategic areas to take that would give them an advantage over the Nihil. It took only a few scans to confirm the enormous scale of the Nihil ship; the Vessel would stand no chance in a space battle against it. They literally had no option but to run away and hope they weren’t seen—and with access to the Vessel so limited and hazardous, she wasn’t even sure they’d get a chance to run. And where the heck was Affie?

You need more time, she told herself. So you have to buy some, somehow.

The best way of buying time from an enemy was usually to create a distraction, by making a mess so big that the Nihil would keep themselves busy cleaning it up while the Vessel got away from the Amaxine station.

Exactly how much bigger a mess can I make? The place is already on fire.

Then it hit Orla. I take a mess we already cleaned up and make it messy all over again.