“That, Ms. Dairo, is what we need to find out. Of course, even if it does we’ll still need to bypass the Nihil’s jamming signal, but that’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

“You are our resident communications expert.”

He paused, realizing she was no longer following. “Ms. Dairo?”

“Rhil,” she said, looking down at the holoprojectors that had wowed the chancellor’s reception with the top-of-the-line, three-dimensional image of Starlight Beacon. “Call me Rhil.”

“What is it, Rhil?” he asked, moving back to join her. She nodded down at the projector cradle. The lenses weren’t just dim, they were missing, yanked out roughly, leaving only a tangled nest of cables.

“The Nihil,” she said quietly. “They’ve been here.”

A crash sounded from the exhibition room. OrbaLin spun around to face the smashed doors. “And maybe they never left.”

The archivist flicked out his wrist and a short lightsaber appeared in his waiting hand, delivered from a secret compartment in his suit. For all his quirks, the archivist had class, but would it be enough to keep them both alive?

“Where is the storeroom?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

The archivist pointed at the smashed doors with his lightsaber hilt.

“On the other side of the exhibition, eh? How did I know you were going to say that?”

“Maybe it was the Force.”

“Or maybe I worked out that the galaxy never makes things easy.”

“That does seem more likely, yes.”

More clatters and crashes rang out, followed by the sound of a shattering display case.

The archivist turned to face her. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be. I just wish I could send Tee-Nine to see how many Nihil are in there.”

“No need,” OrbaLin replied, igniting his blade. “Whether there are five or fifty, I’m getting you to that transmitter.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

The Unity Arc

“This way,” Ty shouted, racing into the Nihil’s war-cloud.

“We need to get to the Dynamo,” Mantessa yelled after her. “Klerin could be in danger.”

Try as she might, Ty had trouble seeing Mantessa as a caring mother. Still, dodging laserfire and explosions could force you to reconsider your priorities.

“Ty—we’re going the wrong way!”

Ty wanted to scream at the woman that they weren’t, but she needed to concentrate. The smoke was thick, and Ty hadn’t had time to recover the rest of her belongings, which had been taken as evidence, including her respirator. All she had was the Nihil’s carbine and the Force, and she couldn’t listen to the latter’s leadings with Mantessa’s constant whining.

A scream rang out ahead.

Behind her, Mantessa gasped. “That’s her. That’s Klerin. You found her.”