Nix couldn’t feel anyone waiting for them on Selvus. The Force wasn’t indicating that anything important was there, or that there was any reason she should be heading towards the 52nd largest city on the planet as opposed to any other location there or in the wider galaxy.

In part that was because the Force couldn’t read.

Zin’s informant had been good about giving not only the exact location of the Enclave’s temporary berth but also the transponder codes of the various ships in their tiny armada.

“Dolos Station is asking for landing permits,” Ayli said.

“They’re just coming in from Zin’s guy on the ground,” Nix said, giving the documentation a quick review before transmitting it to Dolos Station’s air control.

The documents had their ship’s actual transponder could, which Nix hadn’t bothered to spoof to another one, but the rest of the information was pure fancy. It would have been nice if she and Ayli were beverage procurement agents for the Zardewill Consortium, and were on a fact finding trip of the local distilleries, but Nix wasn’t even sure if the Zardewill Consortium was a real entity at all much less whether they employed beverage procurement agents. With the galaxy being as large as it was though, no one was going to bother trying to drive off potential business unless she or Ayli tried to lean on their “connections” for favors.

“Permits accepted. Excellent,” Ayli said. “They are warning us of a judicial lockdown on ships leaving the port though. Apparently its in force for another twelve hours.”

“Wow. Zin’s guy really came through there!” Nix hadn’t expected Zin’s informant to be able to provide much of a delay against the Enclave leaving. From the reports it seemed like any items they’d been looking for that had a longer procurement window than a few hours had been ones they’d canceled their orders for.

“That might be slightly inconvenient for us if things go sideways with the Enclave,” Ayli said. “I usually hope the judicial lockdown for my crimes gets put in place well after I’m out of the system.”

“That just means we’ll need to hide the bodies pretty well,” Nix said, mostly, but only mostly joking.

“Have I mentioned how happy I am you came for me?” Ayli said.

“I’m happy you weren’t stuck with the Lich for even a minute longer,” Nix said.

“That too, but I was thinking back to Canto Blight,” Ayli said. “If you hadn’t been there, if you hadn’t answered a call I didn’t even know I was making? I’m glad that wasn’t how things went.”

Nix spun around in her chair and placed a kiss on the top of Ayli’s head, and then trailed a handful more down her lekku.

“Me too.”

“You know,” Ayli said. “They’re locked in for at least twelve more hours. We don’t have to rush to catch them once we land?”

Nix found that to be an appealing idea. A rather appealing one in fact.

Which was, of course, the moment the klaxons started sounding.

“Are they shooting at us?” she asked, spinning back to her own console.

“Nope,” Ayli said, banking hard to the right. “But they are shooting.”

“At who?” Nix asked, perplexed for all of two whole seconds.

And then she sighed.

“Let me guess,” she said, the weight of dejection settle on her like a planetary mass.

“A ship broke the judicial lockdown,” Ayli said. “All other vessels are being instructed to clear the airspace.”

“And that’s what we’re doing?” Nix asked, noting the continued evasive maneuvering Ayli was doing.

“Nope.”

“Because it’s the Enclave’s ships that are breaking containment?” Nix asked.

“Just one of them,” Ayli said. “Power up the hyperdrive would you?”

“We’re still in the atmosphere,” Nix warned her, knowing the warning was both unnecessary and useless. If Ayli was planning to jump to lightspeed into the planet’s gravity well, then Ayli would be jumping to lightspeed, regardless of the inevitable damage it did to the ship.

She would also, very likely, have a good reason for doing so.

“Only one ship? Did they cram everyone onboard it?” Nix asked.

“Don’t think so,” Ayli said. “This one’s a not their flagship. It’s a racing yacht.”

“What the hell is the Silent Enclave doing with a racing yacht?”

“Currently? Evading all the anti-aircraft fire like a demon,” Ayli said as she, herself, also evaded said fire like a demon. Or an angel possibly, though if so, she was certainly one that it was worth being afraid of.

“Zardewill Shuttle, clear the interdicted airspace immediately,” the comms from the air controller announced.

“Looks like you’ve got an escaping criminal,” Ayli commed back to them.

“Yes. Do not impede retrieval efforts or you will be charged as well.”

“Not going to impede anything Dolos Control,” Ayli said. “Thought we’d give you a hand with bringing them down.”

“Civilian assistance has not been requested at this time.” The air controller wasn’t a droid but he did a remarkable impersonation of one.

“Acknowledged Dolos Control. Also please record a formal release of Dolos Defense Forces from all safety obligations for Zardewill Shuttle. Captain’s mark transmitting now.”

“Transmission received. A violation of airspace control has also been recorded.”

“If we bring your perps back can we exchange that for clemency?” Ayli asked, carrying on the conversation effortlessly as the incoming hail of defensive fire increased.

“Judicial negotiations are the purview of Dolor Air Control,” the controller said, before adding, “I will however personally testify on your behalf. That is some mighty fine flying there Zardewill Shuttle!”

“You should see what I can do in something other than this barge,” Ayli said. “We’ll bring your perps back, or at least whatever identifying pieces of that ship are left.”

“Not sure you’ve got enough time to do that,” the air controller said. “They’re going to breech atmosphere in fifteen seconds.”

“Not going to be a problem,” Ayli said with a smile of wolfish delight on her face which suggested she was recovering from the fight her Dark Side had lost to the Lich.

“Their hyperdrive is coming on line,” the air controller said, as though that was going to be the end of the encounter.

“Not going to be a problem,” Ayli said and threw their shuttle into hyperspace a fraction of a second after the Enclave’s yacht jumped.

“Where are we going?” Nix asked, sensing, as usual, nothing special about the yacht which was a light year ahead of them but whose path Ayli was somehow following nonetheless.

“No idea. Probably into a trap.”

“Any thoughts on why only one of their ships broke containment?” Nix asked.

“It’s the leaders, their Elders,” Ayli said. “They’re cloaked in the Force but organizations like that? Where they leaders are used to being in complete control? They tend to value their own survival a lot more than the people under them.”

“You don’t think any of them stayed behind?” Nix couldn’t feel anything special about the ship they were following. In hyperspace the sensors couldn’t even pick it up. She was starting to feel a pull from the Force though in the direction they were travelings. Some tiny bit of destiny was awaiting them there.

“Maybe some did. Those aren’t the ones we need to worry about though.” Ayli was making constant minuet adjustments to their course to keep them behind the Enclave’s ship. In the process she was also steering them towards one of the minor hyperspace routes which led away from Selvus.

“Why’s that? They were still part of the control structure of the Enclave and they almost certainly know the Expunging ritual.”

“If they stayed behind that means they care more about their people than they do about escaping the Death Shadows that are coming for them,” Ayli said. “It also means they’re going to be the less vindictive ones of the bunch. When the group we’re pursuing gets done fleeing, they’re going to spend a bunch of time shoring up their defenses until they feel safe and then they will start coming after anyone at all that they can blame for what happened. Or even just anyone who made them feel weak.”

“Which would make me target number one, at least if Dolon’s still alive,” Nix said.

“You know he is. Even if we can’t sense him, you know he’s still out there and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that you don’t give people who are going to come gunning for you time to setup the perfect plan.”

“I doubt Dolon’s capable of even coming up with a competent plan,” Nix said. “But I’d rather not let him take the initiative with an incompetent plan.”

“I know I’m still a little off because I’d usually be feeling a bit of bloodlust in a situation like this,” Ayli said. “This time it’s like I know killing them would be the cleanest, most permanent solution available, but I don’t feel terribly drawn to that option.”

“That might just be a sign that we have better options available to us.” Nix wasn’t sure what those options might be, but the general shape of something besides murder was skirting around the edges of her awareness.

“If we do, I don’t know if I can promise to take them,” Ayli said. “Depending on how Dolon and the others respond. If they threaten you again for example…”

“Or you. And it’s credible threat. I expect a lot of blustering, but a real threat? I don’t need my life to have people like that in it.”

“Let me do it if it comes to that,” Ayli said. “It wouldn’t be the first time for me.”

“Me either,” Nix said, recalling how easy it was to press one button to close an airlock and another open the door to space. She’d expected to have nightmares about that, but all it had taken was one smile of gratitude from one of her fellow mechanics and she’d slept as soundly as a baby afterwards.

“With you it would be personal though,” Ayli said. “It would change how you approach the Force. I’ve already gone as overboard as I can. I know I can make it back if I need to.”

“There’s no ‘making it back’,” Nix said. “You weren’t lost when you lost control, or when your eyes were changed. The Dark Side isn’t something that’s apart from us. It’s always our choice whether we want to be calm and in balance, or to lash out.”

“Once you choose to ‘lash out’ with the Force though, it’s hard to stop. I’ve been trying to maintain my balance for a year now and even like this, even with Dark Side all beat up and unconscious, I can still feel the temptation to just give in.”

“That’s still part of you, and me,” Nix said. “Neither of us will ever be ‘free of our Dark Sides for good.’ The choice to diminish the light we have as luminous beings is part of what makes us who we are. Being out of balanced sucks, but we can’t be balanced without the ability to change, and that includes being able to change ‘too far’ in response to situations which have gone too far.”

“Are you arguing in favor of using the Dark Side?” Ayli asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Not at all,” Nix said, trying to find the right words to net the idea she was constructing as they spoke. “I think my point is that your not broken for having given into the Dark Side, and that your not ‘less worthy’ than me because you’ve had to kill people before. You were placed in an unbearable situation and you made it through. If there were better choices you could have made the answer isn’t to think less of yourself, it’s to learn from them and make better choices going forward.”

“What if those better choices involve protecting the woman I love?” Ayli asked.

“Then know that woman wants you to protect yourself too, and that she can handle more than you might think.”

The lights of hyperspace slammed back into the starry void of real space.

“I guess we’ll be putting that to the test then,” Ayli said as the sky filled with an armada of warships in front of them.