Bright gave himself a moment, just one, to think about his life, the things he’d done and the things he thought he might do. He thought about the Republic, and what it meant, and his own oaths to serve it and all its people.

And then he ran back to the reactor.

“I’ve got this,” he said, pushing the pill droid out of the way and taking its position at the control console. He pointed his thumb back over his shoulder.

“You’ve got a patient, about nine meters past the deck ladder. Get him back to the ship. Now.”

The droid rotated, swooshing quickly away.

Bright tapped in the command sequence, and the gauge slipped back a little—but less than it had the last time.

He spoke into his comlink.

“Innamin,” he said. “You make it?”

“Yes, Captain,” came the reply. “But where are you? You were supposed to be right behind me.”

“Change in plans,” Bright said. “I’m sending the pill droid up with one more evacuee.”

“But we already got all seven crewmembers.”

“Guess there were eight,” Bright said.

“But the reactor,” Innamin said, trailing off. Bright could almost hear the kid’s mind working, coming to understand the reality of what was about to happen.

“Take off the minute you have the droid aboard. Don’t wait. Get out of the system’s gravity wells and jump away. Rendezvous with the Third Horizon, if you can. If not, get back to Coruscant. It seems like things are falling apart all over the system, not just here.”

“But Captain, maybe—”

“No. Look. I’ve been easy on you as long as we’ve flown together, Innamin. The insubordination, the joking around…life’s too short, and the ship’s too small, I always figured. But all that ends now. Life is short, Petty Officer, pretty damn short indeed. I gave you an order, and if you do not follow it, I will see you court-martialed.”

A long silence from the comm. They both knew how empty that threat was. Not the point. At last, Innamin spoke, his voice subdued.

“I can see the droid. It has the crewman. A Twi’lek?”

“That’s right.”

Bright entered the sequence again. The gauge slipped back. A little less.

The tremors on the station had risen to the level of a seismic event. The array was tearing itself apart.

“Go, Innamin!”

“We’ve…already undocked, Captain. Reversing thrusters now. Getting to minimum safe distance. Shouldn’t be long.”

“Good,” Bright said.

The gauge was in the red again. Bright entered the sequence. This time, the needle didn’t move. It just stayed in the red.

Bright sighed.

“Captain, we are away,” Innamin said. “We are all the Republic.”

“Damn right,” Bright said. “We are all the—”

Heat and light and nothing more.

Chapter Seventeen

“Master Jedi, are you certain this is the correct choice?” Admiral Kronara asked.