The Nihil had to evolve now, before it was too late and the Republic brought their law and order and control to the Outer Rim. And of course, the Jedi. Couldn’t forget about them.

“My plan is…ongoing,” he said, answering Mari’s question. “Some stumbling blocks along the way, and the next steps will require some serious subtlety. It’s a dangerous time for me, in some ways. Actually, I was hoping you might help me with something.”

Mari lifted a frail hand, and her smile faded.

“Oh, you want some Paths. Do I have to? I just did so much work finding that new route…it wore me out, it surely did. Can I do it later? After a nap?”

Shock her, Marchion thought. Shock her again and again until she burns inside that blasted pod.

“No,” Marchion said. “It’s just a question. I just wanted you to think about something. The chef made your favorite for dinner—we can have it brought in, if that helps.”

Mari sighed.

“All right, Marchion,” she said. “If you really need it. You know, your father never worked me as hard as you do. I miss him.”

Marchion Ro’s finger twitched toward the button that would trigger another shock to the medical pod. His father was dead. Marchion did not and would not walk that man’s path. Mari San Tekka and the Tempest Runners could make as many little jabs as they wanted, suggest he could never measure up. It didn’t matter. His father was dead.

He took a deep breath and clenched his gloved hand into a fist.

“Thank you, Mari,” Marchion said. “Here’s what I’d like you to do.”

He pulled a datachip from his belt and plugged it into a reader on Mari’s medical pod. Information displayed on the inside of the canopy in bright blue—rapidly scrolling lines of data that described the last moments of what was once the doomed Legacy Run as it scattered through the Hetzal system. Mari San Tekka’s eyes sharpened, scanning the information, missing nothing.

“Oh dear,” she said. “That poor ship. What a tragedy.”

“Mm,” said Marchion Ro. “It didn’t stop here, either. Pieces of that ship have been popping up out of hyperspace all over the Outer Rim. They’re calling them Emergences. There’s one part in particular—a section of the bridge that contains the ship’s flight recorder. The Republic is looking for it, because they think it will tell them things they want to know about what happened to the Legacy Run.”

“Yes, I see,” Mari said, still tracking the data as it rolled along her medical pod’s canopy.