“We will,” Loden said, his voice confident—whether real or for the woman’s benefit, Bell did not know. “What is your name?”

“Erika,” she said. “Erika Blythe.”

Loden reached a hand toward her blaster wound.

“Erika, I can help with your injury, using the Force. I can stabilize you long enough to get you back to our outpost—there’s medical treatment there.”

“But my family,” she said, her voice getting stronger as Loden did what he could for her wound.

“We’ll save them,” he said again.

Across the hardpan, all three heard the same sound—the Nihil ship’s engines activating.

“No!” Erika Blythe cried, trying to struggle to her feet. Bell didn’t know what she thought she could do, but the despair in her voice was deeper than any pain she might still be feeling.

Loden stood, taking his lightsaber from its holster.

“What is it, Master?”

The Nihil ship took to the air, moving up and away quickly. Loden ignited his blade.

The ship curved in the air, turned, and headed back. Straight for them.

“Are they going to kill her?”

“No,” Loden said. “She was bait. They knew we would stop to help her. They’re going to try to kill us.”

The Nihil starship whipped toward them, ugly and brutish, the three lightning strikes painted on its hull in reflective paint gleaming in the harsh glare of Elphrona’s sun.

“Get behind me, Padawan,” Loden said. “Protect Erika.”

How? Bell thought. That’s a starship.

But he was dutiful. Lacking any other ideas, he placed himself between the Nihil ship and the injured woman, and reached for his lightsaber.

Loden changed his stance, putting himself side-on to the approaching starship. His front knee was bent, and he held his saber hilt in both hands. He looked like a durasteel wall. Unbeatable.

But that’s a starship, Bell thought again.

The Nihil fired, a rain of blasts from their ship lasers. Most went wide—a person was a small target for a starship—but a few were dead-on.

Loden Greatstorm roared, a battle cry echoing out into the empty deadlands of Elphrona. His lightsaber flashed, too fast for Bell to understand what he did, and the laser bolts wicked away. Loden’s feet skidded back, kicking up rust-colored dust, and he grunted, as if he had been hit hard in the stomach by a huge, heavy maul.

He fell to his knees, his saber blade flickering out, as the Nihil ship whipped past overhead.

“Master!” Bell cried.

“I’m…all right,” Loden said. “But…I don’t think I can do that…again.”

Bell looked up. The Nihil ship was coming around for a second attack run.

He lit his lightsaber, the green blade flicking into humming, buzzing life.

He turned side-on to the starship. He bent his front knee. He made himself a wall through which no evil could pass.

There’s no way, he thought. If Loden could barely do it…