The guy was on the level. He could have killed her where she stood, but needed her … really needed her in a way that bordered on overwhelming.

Ty snatched her lightsaber from the air, checking to see if he had disabled it. Everything looked in order. Now the tables were turned. She was the one who was armed, and he was vulnerable, in more ways than one.

She looked up and met his pained, haunted eyes.

“Well?” he asked, his empty hands turned toward her.

“Thank you for this,” she said, tapping the hilt against her hand, and made another decision. “But it’s not my fight. I’m sorry. About everything.”

Ty Yorrick turned and ran into the fog before she could change her mind.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

The Starlight Pavilion

Rhil had been using communications equipment for years and yet had never seen something as sophisticated and just plain beautiful as the Jedi comm relay with its gilded panels and antique dials. Of course, it didn’t look half as elegant now that Rhil had jury-rigged it with cables she’d yanked from a nearby computer terminal. She hoped OrbaLin would forgive her, although judging by the various crashes and yells, the archivist still had his hands full in the ruins of his beloved collection. T-9 hovered at the door, watching the fight, ready to bleep a warning if anyone came their way. Their link may have been severed, but the cam droid could still be helpful.

Which was more than could be said for the relay booster. Turned out the antique unit was as useless as it was exquisite. It was hardly surprising considering its age and the fact that communications lines were down everywhere; on the ground, in the air, even, as far as she could tell, out in space.

Then something caught her eye. She had cast her net wide, and the gilded terminal, ancient though it was, had picked up something, the merest hint of a signal. Was that an echo or someone else desperately trying to get a message out to the stars? Rhil turned a dial, trying to lock onto the frequency. There was another blip. Yes. Something was definitely there, although the relay couldn’t lock on. That didn’t matter. She knew something that probably could.

“Tee-Nine? Over here.”

The cam droid obeyed instantly, whizzing over to her.

“Can you get this panel open?” she asked, tapping a silver-edged access point.

The cam droid went to work, extending a hidden manipulator arm to pry open the panel that had so far confounded Rhil.

It was the work of a moment for the cam droid’s arm to flip the panel open, revealing a nest of wires below.

“Yes,” she said, examining the inner workings of the unit. “This is exactly what I need.”