Avar Kriss could sense his concern. He was a good commander, and although she was not technically part of his crew, she knew he felt responsible for her safety. Especially considering that if he did what she was asking him to do, he was probably condemning her to death.

“I am certain, Admiral,” she said. “We’ve loaded as many refugees as we can hold, and more besides.”

She glanced around the hangar. It was true. This room alone held hundreds of beings, with nothing other than the clothes on their backs. No one had been allowed to bring anything else. Every bit of available space on the huge cruiser had been allocated toward saving lives. And even then, people were still trapped on the planet’s surface. Admiral Kronara and his crew had done their best, but the Third Horizon was just a machine, and there was a point where taking on additional mass would mean the ship could not take off, and no one would be saved at all.

“These people are afraid,” Avar said. “I can sense it. You need to get them to safety.”

“But if you fail, you will die,” Kronara said, making one last attempt.

“I know that, Admiral, but there are billions of people down there who couldn’t find a way off Hetzal Prime.” Here she pointed, at the open sky visible outside the hangar’s exit ramp.

The ship was a hundred meters up, stationary above the cropland outside Aguirre City, having left the starport after taking on as many refugees as it could.

“If I don’t try this,” Avar continued, “they will definitely die. Every last one.”

“But can you actually save them? I’ve never heard of anything like this being possible—even with the Jedi.”

Avar smiled at him.

“All things are possible through the Force,” she said. “Now take the Third Horizon and go. I have work to do, and it’s important that you deliver a direct report to Chancellor Soh about what you witnessed here. It’s not enough to tell her over the comm. None of this should have happened. There’s something wrong. I can sense it. Hyperspace is…sick, for lack of a better word.”

“Of course, Master Jedi,” the admiral said. “But you should deliver that report yourself. I still don’t understand why you can’t perform your task from open space? I don’t know much about the Force, but I do know it works across great distances, and if you’re safe on the ship, at least you’ll have a way to escape if—”