Instead Reath said, “I understand prosthetic arms are more advanced than prosthetic legs. More comfortable, too.”

No flicker of understanding showed in the man’s face, not until the moment after Reath’s lightsaber had swept through his arm, severing it at the elbow. A forearm tumbled down onto the ground. The red-scarved man’s expression shifted from smugness to disbelief, then crumpled into a grimace as his shocked nerve endings finally broadcast pain.

Immediately the bigger guy dropped Nan and ran into the shadowy jungle surrounding them. Nan put her hand to her mouth as she stared at the abandoned forearm. Reath said, “I have to stand guard at the airlocks. Come with me.”

The red-scarved man finally fell to his knees and howled. “What have you done to me?”

Reath holstered his lightsaber. “We’ll give you a full medical checkup as soon as the situation calms down.”

With that he pulled Nan against his side. He wasn’t sure how to balance himself for the leap while carrying someone else, so he recalculated swiftly. “Hang on.”

Her arms went around his neck. Reath jumped forward and upward in a sharp arc—until his free hand clutched one of the longest vines. Their momentum and weight did the rest, sending them swinging in a long curve back to the airlock ring.

No sooner had they landed than Nan dashed toward the lock where her ship, and Hague, awaited. Of course she’d want to find her guardian. But she glanced back over her shoulder and called out, “Thanks!”

Reath managed a brief smile for her before he took up his lightsaber again.

The Orincans leveled their blasters at Cohmac as he leapt onto their deck of the station. Magnetically sealed? he wondered of the station. Possibly.

The blue blade of his lightsaber ignited, its gleam slicing through the murky dark. As the Orincans fired, he spun his saber, expertly deflecting the beams into the trunks of the larger trees that could bear it, or into some of the boxes and trunks of abandoned cargo. None hit the walls, which was his main objective.

Squealing in consternation, the Orincans beat a hasty retreat. He glanced down just in time to see Orla hold out her lightsaber and ignite it—two blades, shining white, piercing the shadows. The Mizi began backing off immediately. But it was too easy for the looters to escape; the layout of the station meant he and Orla would literally be running in circles trying to pursue them all.

The Vessel lacked the military heft to forcibly stop the looters from leaving with their ill-gotten gains. Therefore, stopping the ransacking would have to be accomplished through more than sheer strength. Reason and persuasion hadn’t worked, either.

Time for awe.

Cohmac climbed the rungs of the atrium railing. His eyes detected Affie Hollow cleverly concealed behind a greenery-overgrown barrier, but that hardly mattered—except that this girl, too, would finally learn what the Jedi truly were.