Клаудия Грэй - Into the Dark

“What did you say?” Dez looked over at him groggily.

“Keep walking forward, all right? We’ll try climbing up through the roots in a few minutes. Maybe you can hang on to my neck.” Reath managed a smile. He wanted to reassure Dez, though there was very little that was reassuring about their current situation. But when he thought about what Dez must’ve endured over the past several days—delirious, in pain, surrounded by creatures who tortured him for information he wasn’t even in a state to give them—it was impossible not to want to give some comfort.

All thoughts of comfort fled when Reath heard the telltale thuds of the Drengir pod settling into its base.

In just a minute, they’ll be loose. Coming after us.

So I won’t give them a minute.

“Stay here,” Reath said unnecessarily, allowing Dez to slump onto the floor. Then he ran toward the Drengir pod.

The Force led him to their hatch, which they would open at any second; already he could see green frond-like hands grappling with the handle. Reath held out his hand and mentally pushed the Drengir away from the door. They went toppling backward. That was the easy part.

He closed his eyes and reached out again with his feelings. This time he wrapped his mind not around the Drengir but around the pod itself. Its shape became real to him, tactile, almost as if he were holding it in his palm.

Finally he pushed the entire pod backward down the launch tunnel. It felt as though he were physically shoving pure heavy metal backward, straining every muscle in his body—but he managed to move it a couple of meters. That would be enough, if his plan worked at all.

Despite the thick hatch door, Reath could hear the Drengir emerging from their pod, simply crawling out into the tunnel. They were heading for the hatch, coming to confront him—

Brilliant white light flashed in the tunnel, and howls of pain echoed for just one instant. Then the tunnel fell dark; all was silent.

Lightsaber in one hand, Reath used the other to swing the hatch door open. Instantly he was greeted by the scent of charred plants—slightly pleasant, actually, like woodsmoke or fragrant herbs.

By the glow of the saber, he could see limp, blackened leafy scraps on the bottom of the tunnel, smoldering just over the helix rings. Their energy had destroyed the Drengir in a split second. There was a sense of rightness in knowing that the rings had spared Dez, instead killing the ones who had tortured him.

There is no rightness in slaying an enemy , Master Jora scolded within Reath’s mind. Killing is never true victory. At best it is the knowledge that you have done what you must.

“I’ve done what I must, master,” he whispered. It seemed possible that perhaps, in the cosmic Force, she could hear.

“Affie?” Orla cried out. She couldn’t see the girl in all that mess; she could barely see her own lightsaber in front of her face. Deep within she sensed that the girl remained alive, but she couldn’t yet spare the mental energy to search any farther.

Not until she’d driven back the Nihil.

Orla faced off against two Nihil warriors, one for each of her blades. They bore energized polearms that could parry a lightsaber’s thrust—but it cost them, every time. They slashed at her, their attack savage but uncoordinated. She let the Force flow through her, sensing all their moves the instant before they were made, her saber moving almost of its own accord to block each one. They were shifted back with each strike, not far, maybe not even enough for them to notice, but enough for Orla to know she was the master of the situation.

Next to her, Cohmac was extinguishing his lightsaber. Before Orla could even consciously wonder why, Cohmac reached out with the Force toward a metal beam lying on the floor, dragging it toward the Nihil. It never entirely rose into the air, but he didn’t need it to; as it was, the beam swept under the Nihil, knocking them off their feet and sending blaster bolts flying in random directions.

But one of those directions might be the place where Affie Hollow was trying to hide.…

Almost as one, the Nihil turned and ran away from the Jedi, back toward the airlock ring. The movement was too coordinated to be a simple flight or surrender; it was a strategic retreat. The Nihil would regroup and attack again, stronger than before. All the more reason to wrap up their business on this Force-forsaken station and leave.

Cohmac gestured after the Nihil. “They will return with more firepower.”

“Undoubtedly,” Orla said. “Do you see Affie?”

“No. The girl has moved deeper into the station.” Cohmac gazed into the middle distance. “We must find her, and Reath, and remove them as soon as possible.”

Orla nodded. “We know Reath’s in the tunnels. Cohmac, why don’t you head down there while I search for Affie?” He ran toward the nearest access point for the lower rings, which would have to serve as a yes.

Already Orla sensed that Affie was missing on purpose. She was trying to do something she thought the Jedi shouldn’t know about. Orla didn’t know what it was and didn’t care. She just had to get Affie and get out before the Nihil attacked again.

Dez swayed on his feet, leaning against Reath as they walked through a jungle.

It’s the arboretum of the Amaxine station , he told himself. The farther away from the Drengir he went, the more Dez could remember. But he could still feel the toxins in his blood, making his body and thoughts sluggish, and everything remained dreamlike and surreal.

In the center of the arboretum, he could dimly make out shapes that he recognized as the Drengir. They’re here, too. They’re everywhere. I can’t get away.

Before panic seized him, however, Reath murmured, “It’s all right. We brought the idols back to imprison the dark side again. They must have trapped the Drengir, because look—they can’t get away.”

Dez realized the Drengir weren’t moving. Once again the four idols stood sentry, watching over them all. That helped the fear, though the burning strangeness in his blood continued muddying his mind.

“Do you think that would stop the Drengir from ever using this station again?” Reath said. “The power of the idols? Because we can’t let them take possession of this place. It’s too dangerous.”

Dez managed to say, “Am I supposed to actually come up with an answer? Or are you just trying to get me to talk?”

“The second one. You’re doing better!” Reath grinned.

Dez might’ve smiled back, except that then he saw a figure approaching them from the darkness. Fear spiked within him, crushing and complete—until his blurry vision cleared enough for him to make out the person’s face. “Master Cohmac?”

Cohmac hurried toward them, eyes wide with wonder. “How is this possible?”

“The lower rings are a transport area,” Reath said. That made sense, Dez thought. They’d been in hyperspace. Hadn’t they? His head still hurt. “They’re outfitted with automated hyperspace pods. Dez wasn’t killed; he was sent from here to the home planet of these evil plant guys called—”

“The Drengir,” Cohmac finished. “We’ve made their acquaintance. By the Force, Dez, what did they do to you?”

How bad do I look? Dez thought. Probably I don’t want to know.

“They were interrogating him,” Reath said quietly. “They drugged him with something, sent him out of his mind for a while. But I don’t think he’s critically injured. We just have to get him off this station.”

“Easier said than done. The Nihil have boarded. They may suspect the transport capacities of this station.”

“Oh, no.” Reath’s eyes widened. “Right now the controls are programmed for the Drengir homeworld—at least, I guess it’s their homeworld. Maybe it’s just a planet some of them live on—never mind. Those controls could be reprogrammed to direct the transit pods anywhere. To Republic shipyards, to frontier planets, even to Coruscant itself.”