Клаудия Грэй - Into the Dark

More thuds sounded from the back, and a harried Orla Jareni appeared in the doorway, bracing herself against the jamb. “What in the seven hells is going on?”

“We’re evading a solar flare,” Reath said. “Another ship needs help to get to safety.”

“Got it.” Orla had instantly snapped out of her mood. “What can I do?”

Leox answered her. “Solar radiation’s about to soak this whole system. For everybody except the Mizi, that station’s the only safe place to be. So we need exosuits at the ready.”

Affie chimed in, “And an order of boarding for all the ships, so not everybody’s trying to hitch themselves to an airlock at once.”

Immediately Orla got to work. Reath could only hang on and watch as they drew nearer to the pitifully small ship belonging to Nan and her guardian. It looked even more slapdash up close, obviously pieced together from other ship fragments. Like a rainy-day craft project for Ugnaughts , Reath thought, then mentally took it back. These people were doing the best they could with what they had. They deserved respect for their ingenuity.

He asked, “How close do we have to get for the towline?”

“Not too close,” Leox said, then proved it by firing the tow. It lanced through empty space before colliding with the hull of Nan’s ship. With a shimmer of energy, the electromagnetic clamp kicked in. “All righty. Now we just have to get to the station before being incinerated to atoms.”

Reath tried not to let his reaction show, but he must not have done a good job, because Affie said, “Don’t scare the landlubbers.”

“We’ve only got forty-five seconds left,” Leox said, and Affie’s jaw dropped. Apparently the situation was just as scary as Reath had thought.

But Leox (and, possibly, Geode?) took them around the curve of the spherical station a full two seconds before outer space filled with a flash of brilliant white light. Reath shielded his eyes with his arm and was still nearly blinded for a moment.

When he could sort of see again, he said, “That means we made it, right?”

Leox put his hands behind his head. “Am I good or what?”

Before anyone could board the station, a landing party had to make certain the interior was safe. Dez had asked to lead the way; Affie agreed to go on behalf of the Vessel crew.

Reath volunteered readily, though he had questions. “Should we conduct more scans first? There could be dimensions to this station we don’t understand. Risks we haven’t guessed.”

“That’s why they call it adventure.” Dez was already double-checking settings on his wristband equipment, pacing near the airlock. “We already checked the atmosphere, so we know we can breathe. Anything else, we’ll handle as it comes.”

As Leox carefully maneuvered the Vessel into docking position on the central ring, Reath asked Affie, “Have you explored lots of abandoned old places? Are there tons of things like this out here?”

“First time,” she said brightly, like there was zero chance they were about to die.

Maybe that was true. Look at it this way , he told himself. You’re doing research with primary sources. Getting the information straight from the source, to share with others later. It helped, thinking that the last phase of this task would be simply writing it all down.

Their airlock spun open. Light streamed in, almost blinding at first, and Reath momentarily feared another solar flare. His eyes must have adjusted to the light more slowly than Dez’s, because he whispered, “Would you look at that ?”

An instant later, Reath could see it, too: a tunnel leading from the boxy, utilitarian ring straight into the central globe of the station itself. As the three of them walked through the tunnel, he realized it was transparent, creating the illusion that they were suspended in the blackness of space. He’d never experienced anything like it, strolling through a sea of stars. Vertigo threatened him for a moment, but it soon vanished in sheer fascination. Reath was drawn by both the spectacular view around him and what he saw ahead—an abundance of green.

They emerged into the central globe, which included booths and kiosks on multiple layers of walkways. They might’ve once been shops, laboratories, all open to the glassy sphere that formed the body of the station—and all covered in vines.

And ferns. And moss. Even a couple of trees. Plant life spilled over every beam, climbed up every wall. This was more flora than Reath saw in a year on Coruscant.

“How—” Reath murmured as they stepped out, stems crunching beneath their feet. “How is this possible?”

Dez gestured toward the blazing light at the core—a small array of supercharged hexagonal power banks, suspended in energy fields. “Self-generating light and heat, fueling the station. The plants took care of the rest themselves.”

“It’s beautiful,” Affie breathed, walking forward with her face turned up to the light.

Reath couldn’t disagree. Instead of something menacing and diabolical, he’d strolled into an orbiting garden. “I bet the station had an arboretum,” he mused as they walked forward. “To supply oxygen and food, and help travelers relax—all those things—and after the station was abandoned, the plants took it over.”

“Sounds about right to me,” Dez said, then inhaled deeply and smiled. The air was not only breathable but also smelled wonderful—fresh, sweet. “Look there. Turns out the plants have had some help.”

Following Dez’s pointing finger, Reath glimpsed movement within the greenery. A small droid emerged—an antique 8-T gardening model, which looked a lot like the “head” dome of an astromech let loose on its own. The thin metal instruments protruding from one of its panels appeared to be busy pollinating some bell-shaped flowers in shades of orange and violet. Another 8-T appeared, closer by, busy at the same task. They took no notice of intruders; their programming was solely about taking care of plants. It appeared the droids had done their job admirably.

“Should we do a botanical survey?” Reath asked. “Catalog all the life-forms here, find out if any are unknown to us at present?”

“Eh, that’s droid work,” Dez said. “And not particularly urgent. Personally, I’d like to get a better look at the other things sentients left behind…starting with that .”

He gestured toward a particularly thick patch of fronds, revealing a shape that had been almost obscured behind them: a statue of a figure, human or at least humanoid, carved of some kind of stone and gilded with something dully golden that reflected the light. The vaguely feminine figure wore an elaborately carved headdress set with either colored glass or actual jewels, and it held its arms crossed over its chest. It resembled no mythological deity or folkloric hero Reath knew of, but he felt a thrill anyway. This was a window into history—into legend.

But behind that thrill lurked a shiver. A shadow.

Staring at the statue, he said, “Do you feel that?”

“Yes,” Dez said. His voice had grown more thoughtful. “The shadow. It might not mean anything.”

Or it might , Reath couldn’t help thinking.

Affie Hollow neither understood what “shadow” Dez and Reath were talking about (which made no sense, since they were all bathed in light) nor cared. Whatever mysticism this brand of wizard-monk peddled was only mildly interesting to her. The station, however, was fascinating.

Not because of the antiquities the Jedi were already fawning over.

Because of objects far more recent than that.

Affie’s sharp eyes picked out the spanner first, then the anx. A handful of spacer’s tools, strewn in one corner—obviously abandoned for a while but not long enough for any vines to grow over them. The moss beneath them still seemed healthy and green, so they couldn’t have been there longer than—a few months. A couple of years? She wasn’t exactly an expert on moss. Maybe Geode would know. However, she was certain that it hadn’t been very long since other travelers had come through the station.