If the Jedi had had so much trouble fighting the Drengir and so much trouble fighting the Nihil, Orla could hardly imagine the trouble they’d have fighting each other.

Sometimes bottling up the darkness only made it stronger. Sometimes you had to let it go.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Running through the broad airlock ring of the Amaxine station, Reath thought, I actually came back to this place of my own free will? I defied orders to do it? Maybe Drengir pollen warps minds.

Once he’d finally gotten within a couple dozen meters of the Vessel without running into any more of the Nihil, he felt encouraged. Better yet was when he caught a flash of white moving amid the shadowy columns of metal—Orla Jareni’s telltale robes.

She looked equally relieved to see him. “Thank the Force. I thought the Nihil might’ve caught up with you,” Orla said, putting one hand on his shoulder.

“They did. Or, actually, Nan did. But she said that since I’d returned her to her fleet once, she’d give me one break. So here I am.”

“At least one of them has a sense of honor, then.” Orla’s expression was skeptical. “But I’m not convinced that’s a value of the group as a whole.”

“Me either,” Reath said. He remembered the way Nan’s finger had remained firm against her blaster’s trigger; she’d wanted to kill him badly enough that letting him go had been hard. It would be a mistake to test her “honor” again. “The Nihil want to use this station as a base of operations for raiding this entire area of space. The Republic has to either hold the Amaxine station as its own property or destroy it.”

“I’d gathered as much,” said Orla.

Reath tried not to feel disappointed that she’d already reached that conclusion without him. “At least we’ve got the Drengir taken care of.”

“About that.” Orla winced. “We’re about to set the Drengir free again.”

“Wait, what? Why?” But Reath instantly realized the only reason that would ever be under consideration. “Is there no other way to sneak off the station without the Nihil seeing us?”

She shook her head. “Not a chance. We have to distract them on a scale that will have every single warrior on that massive ship hurrying onto the station to fight. Otherwise, they’ll blow us to pieces as soon as we’re free of the airlock.”