Geode stood above him, reassuringly calm and steady. And Reath could feel that now—a connection to a life-form profoundly alien, and yet as vividly alive as any being he had ever encountered.

Reath’s comlink buzzed. “What just happened?” Affie’s voice rang out. “The readings we’re getting—Reath, are you still out there?”

He managed to reply in a raspy voice: “Thanks to Geode, yeah. Still here. We’re still here. But the Nihil and the Drengir are long gone.”

“You’re going to have to explain that later,” Affie said. “Hang on. We’re coming to get you.”

He flopped back onto the floor and stared up at Geode. “My hero.”

Geode made no reply, but Reath knew he understood.

Vines had begun tracing their way across the cockpit, signaling the complete enclosure of the Vessel, when their sensors had lit up red. The ensuing panic about the decompression inside the station had distracted them all. But when Orla and the others finally knew Reath was safe and the station was intact, they turned back to see that the vines had not only stopped growing but had also begun turning black. They’d died when the Drengir did.

After that, getting away from the Amaxine station wouldn’t be that difficult. Yes, it took them a long while to cut away all the thick, ropey dead vines entrapping the Vessel, but they had time to work, with no Drengir or Nihil to worry about.

(At least some of the Nihil had survived; their ship remained operational. Probably most of the survivors had been on board when Reath blew the airlock, rather than on the station. But there couldn’t be that many of them—scans indicated that they’d shut down most areas of their spacecraft and were taking stock of the damage. Orla had no doubt the Nihil would want revenge for this someday, but they knew better than to try to take it that day.)

“Is the station completely emptied out?” Affie asked as Leox and Geode ran final systems checks. “Broken? Useless?”

“Honestly, most of it survived in pretty good shape,” said Orla, who had just completed a quick search to check on things. “Several plants had grown outside the arboretum—I imagine they’ll find their way back in, with the help of the Aytees that were in outer sections of the station when Reath blew the lock. All the major systems are intact. However, it has no hyperspace pods any longer, all of which were launched away from their return mechanisms, meaning this place has no more tactical value. It’s just an arboretum now.”

Affie nodded. The girl seemed oddly satisfied by the station’s depowering for some reason, but Orla chose not to pry. It was enough to know that they were all alive—even Dez!—all more or less well, and able to go home.