Ayli’s calm had nothing to do with her Force training. When a ship is catastrophically damaged, an experienced combat pilot’s reaction is to remain calm. It’s how one survives the experiences required to become an experienced combat pilot.

Surviving the loss of half the shuttle she was piloting, along with, unfortunately, the shuttle’s entire drive system did present some unique challenges to her survival though.

“Hang on,” she said, as though she or Nix had any choice in the matter.

They’d been knocked into a spin and were, from what Ayli could sense, hurtling towards the Star Destroyer the Silent Enclave’s Elders were on. That was adjacent to good news, but it was where the good news ended.

Rather than the docking bay Ayli had intended to land in, it looked like they were probably going to collide with the super structure, likely in some particularly armored spot where the Star Destroyer wouldn’t even notice the impact.

“Damn it,” Ravas said. “This should have been fixed.”

“It was,” Nix said. “We’re not dead yet.”

Which suggested several questions to Ayli. First, why weren’t they dead?

The answer there was fairly obvious. The shuttle they were flying was a pirate’s shuttle and Sali was used to being attacked often enough that her equipment was top notch. The blast which had exploded the back half of the shuttle had done tremendous damage but the shuttle was designed to survive that sort of thing, with pressure locks that sealed the ship into five independent compartments so that the loss of one wouldn’t endanger the rest, to an engine compartment which vented explosions outward rather than allowing them to obliterate the shuttle itself.

Had she been flying a cheap corporate shuttle, Ayli was reasonably certain she and Nix would be dead already.

Possibly.

The other major question that arose in her mind was why the Force hadn’t warned her of the incoming shot that wrecked her ship.

There the only answer Ayli could find to that question relied on intuition more than reason, but in dealing with the Force that seemed like the best path anyways. Intuition told her that the Force hadn’t warned her of the shot that disabled her craft because it was busy warning her of all the shots which would have atomized it.

The Force was a powerful shield, but all shields had their limits.

And it hadn’t failed to warn her of any immediately deadly attacks.

Not yet anyways.

Aly was keenly aware that the limits of her awareness were significant and that the Jedi Order had been wiped out en masse by regular soldiers with regular blasters when they were distracted and the conditions were right for the Force’s warning to be missed or misinterpreted.

She wasn’t a Jedi, but she was reasonably sure that she could still die like they had.

Especially with the confounding presence of the Silent Enclave Elders and their ability to artificially smooth out the Force and dull the impression Ayli could receive from it.

As if in confirmation of that, Ayli reached out and found once more that she couldn’t feel the Force reacting to their predicament, or to the rest of the battle which was unfolding around them. The cloak the Elders were projecting was powerful enough that no ripples of the destruction where showing up at all.

“Impact in two minutes,” Ayli said, aware of her impending demise but ignoring that in favor of working the problem before her.

No thrusters was bad.

No hyper drive was also bad.

On the plus though, the shuttle weighed considerably less.

And the pressure compartment seals hadn’t been damaged so the bridge still had a standard atmosphere.

The spin was disorienting, but enough of the inertial dampening system’s remained online that it amount to a slight swaying sensation and the stars spiraling by outside the viewport.

“Nix we need to adjust our course, can you help me with that?” Ayli asked. Either answer would work for her, she just needed to know what resources she had available.

“Yes. I can stop our spin if you want?”

“No. Leave that alone. We look like debris at the moment. The Star Destroyer’s targeting systems won’t lock onto us.”

“Do you think we can land like this?” Nix asked, her eyes closed as she reach for a meditative state.

“Yes. This shuttle won’t be flying again afterward, but that’s pretty much a given at this point.”

“Fair enough. The docking bay then?”

“That was my thought, but they’ll have debris deflection systems in place there. I think we want to target one of the officer’s lounges.”

“Yeah, the viewing windows won’t be able to take the impact will they?” Because of course Nix was familiar with the design specs on a ship she’d never flown on.

“I’m hoping for that, but I’ll trust my mechanic if she thinks otherwise,” Ayli said.

“They can deploy barriers over the viewing windows, but those have a habit of sticking because they’re not used often and they need to be maintained from the outside,” Nix said. “There will be a pressure lock on the door into the lounge that’ll seal if the windows are breeched but if we don’t slow down we should crash through that too.”

“Good. That means the only trick we need to worry about is surviving the crash,” Ayli said.

“Let us worry about that,” Ravas said and Kelda nodded in agreement.

As plans went, it wasn’t the worst one Ayli had been a part of. Under normal circumstances, it was one that would absolutely prove to be fatal but then Ayli had never been in anything that could be considered ‘normal circumstances’.

She nodded her agreement and signaled that she was ready to begin by taking her hands off the now-useless controls.

Reaching out to the Force was still a unique experience for Ayli. Unlike Nix for who it was merely a conscious awareness of something she’d been doing all her life, Ayli’s relationship with the Force held so many vestiges of other people in it. From Ravas who she’d absorbed her initial skill with the Force from, to the Jedi of old who’d left their imprint on Ravas, to the echoes of the people who’d crafted the various holocrons she’d spent a year learning from.

Somewhere in there too was the tumult which she’d labeled as her own Dark Side. It seemed to only appear as a separate entity within Dark Side nexuses, and Ayli knew she should be concerned that she could compare and contrast the feel of multiple locations which were overwhelmed by the Dark Side, when the overwhelming majority of the galaxy went their whole lives without visiting a single one.

In a startlingly un-Jedi-like turn, Ayli found she’d developed a fondness for her Dark Side though. She wasn’t going to listen to it of course. Her Dark Side wasn’t exactly a bastion of reason after all. It did want to protect her though.

Which was probably why, despite the beating it had sustained, it was beginning to thrash around restlessly the closer they got to the Star Destroyer.

Ayli breath in, held it for a moment, and released it slowly.

She was going to be okay.

She and Nix had this.

And Ravas and Kelda where here to help them.

She wasn’t alone.

And the people she was with were more than capable of protecting themselves.

Except her memories were all too ready with a full sensory vid and audio show of the times when very competent people in the Rebellion had still failed to save both the people they were trying to protect and themselves.

There were no guarantees in life.

No safety.

Her Dark Side made its best arguments, resurrecting old fears and older heart breaks.

Ayli breathed slowly again.

Her fears were old companions. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to any of them yet – they’d saved her life more often than she could count – but she was also beyond letting them overwhelm her.

The Force felt both the conflict within her and the moment she moved past it. It was there for her as either a storm of lighting to lash out with or the gentle hand she needed to guide the remains of the shuttle with. 

On the other side of shuttle, the Force responded to Nix’s request for a similar helping hand and together Nix and Ayli gently guided the shuttle on its path.

Right into a cataclysmic collision with a wall of glassteel.

The impact happened too fast for Ayli to fully perceive, even with her Force heightened senses. One instant they were tumbling through the space with the Star Destroyer looming ever large and the next there was a fading echo of a titanic crash and emergency klaxons screaming everywhere.

Ravas and Kelda both sagged in place as the wreckage of the shuttle sloughed off the shield they’d conjured into place to protect their two living charges.

“Let’s not do that again,” Ravas said.

“We said that last time too,” Kelda said.

“We really had people fooled when they called us quick learners didn’t we?” Ravas asked.

“Oh good,” Nix said. “The atmosphere shield wasn’t destroyed!”

Ayli followed Nix’s glance over to the gaping hole in the Star Destroyer’s hull where a thin, flickering forcefield was keeping almost all the atmosphere that remained in the room from venting into space.

“If they’re smart they’ll turn that off right now,” Ayli said. “Which means we’ve got plenty of time.”

Underestimating Imperial Intelligence wasn’t a terribly safe thing to do, but Imperials tended too be so certain of their own superiority that they routinely made the most idiotic mistakes imaginable.

Which was great.

Right up until they didn’t make the mistake you were counting on.

“We need to move,” she said.

“I still can’t find the Elder. They’re too well hidden. Do we have an alternate destination in mind?” Nix asked.

“Yes. The Bridge.”

“That’s going to be well guarded won’t it?” Nix asked.

“Most secure part of the ship.”

“Ah, and also where the fleet leadership will be.” Nix had grasped Ayli’s intent but Ayli felt that clarity was important.

“They don’t get to leave this ship.”

She expected some pushback on that. As a Rebel plotting the murder of an Imperial Officer was part of the days that ended in ‘y’. She wasn’t a Rebel anymore though. In fact she very much wanted to put that chapter of her life behind her, but she knew her ghosts would never forgive her if she let the cancer that was an Imperial command staff remain in the galaxy.

In place of pushing back on Ayli’s plan for bloody homicide though, Nix simply chuffed a little laugh.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” she said.

“What do you mean? You’re okay with this?” Ayli wasn’t sure anything about this was okay, and Nix was one of the least bloodthirsty people she knew.

“No, no, this situation sucks. The only good thing is that I’m not in it alone,” Nix said.

“But you see why eliminating them is necessary?” Ayli asked, again unsure if murder really was necessary. Her Rebel heart said yes, but the Force…

What was the Force saying?

“Not so much necessary as inevitable,” Nix said. “It was our idea to come here, but I’ve been following the Force like I usually do and if the Force decided it was going to send us four to deal with this, I think it’s pretty much done with both the Elders and these Imperial buttwipes.”

“So you think the Force is going to kill them for us?” Ayli asked, not sure if that was better or worse than what she had in mind.

“I think I’m willing to play it by ear, and if my wife says the Imperials don’t get to leave her, then I know several methods of making sure that happens.”

Nix wiggled her fingers and Ayli saw tiny but highly worrying sparks dance from digit to digit.

Solna was out of time. Her people, if she still wanted to call them that, were out of time. So why, she had to ask herself, was everything moving so slowly?

Sister Zindiana had dropped her, Rassi, and Tovos’ crew off outside the private landing facility which was serving as the Silent Enclave’s encampment and blasted back off to get Queen Saliandrus into space where she could help save Nix and Ayli.

Ravas and Kelda were gone as well, though they thought they might be able to make it back again if Solna or Rassi called for them, even if the Enclave’s cloak was still in effect.

That left Solna and her team with a clear view of their destination and nothing holding them back from approaching it.

“Waiting is going to get people killed,” she said, keeping her annoyance and impatience from her voice.

“The guards have arc-repeaters and thermal detonators,” Tovos said.

“They’re expecting a fight,” Rassi said. “They can feel the Death Shadows that are coming in the same as we can.”

“You’re right about them being ready for a fight,” Osdo said. “But arc-repeaters and thermal detonators won’t damage a Death Shadow. And they know that.”

“You think they’ve sensed us?” Solna asked.

“They saw the ship land,” Tovos said. “They know someone is here.”

“But we don’t greet strangers with heavy firepower,” Rassi said. “It makes too much noise.”

“We do when we know they’re hostile,” Tovos said. “The Enclave is on lockdown and they’re all bound into the cloaking field. I don’t know of any plans that call doing both.”

Solna considered that for a moment and tried to clear her mind. Worry was not going to see her through this. 

“You’re right,” she said. “Those are counterproductive to each other. The heavy weapons and high alert have to be making the cloak more porous. There’s too much killing intent with carrying them, and too many heightened emotions from just seeing one in someone’s hands.”

“And maintaining the cloak would have to require attention from everyone. Even the people who are handling the high explosives,” Rassi said. “So the question is, who are they expecting they’ll have to fight?”

Solna considered that too but Tovos found the answer before she did.

“Nix,” he said. “They’ve lumped her into the pile with ‘the Jedi’. When they sent us to bring her back, they told us to treat her exactly like one, including killing her before she could use her powers if she resisted. We never made it back but a strange ship shows up and takes off? They have to think that she broke us and tracked the Enclave down for revenge.”

“Then shouldn’t we walk in there right now and show them that you’re okay?” Rassi asked. “I mean they won’t want to see Solna or me, but you folks are still in good favor, right?”

Solna looked over the other former-Enclave members and saw varying looks of regret or disgust at Rassi’s statement.

“They left without us. Twice,” Osdo said.

“If we show back up now, without Nix in shackles, they’re going to know that we’re not on their side anymore,” Felgo said.

“They want us to be Lost?” Polu asked, his eyes pleading for the lie that his mind would no longer accept.

“They want us to be dead,” Yanni said, her voice quiet and still for a moment before she carried on. “It’s simpler if we are. They don’t have to explain anything. They don’t have to wonder why we didn’t come back on time. They don’t have to justify leaving us.”

“And there’s no worry that we’ve learned their secrets,” Tovos said.

“That’s not going to change though, is it?” Rassi asked. Meaning that waiting wasn’t helping them.

“It won’t,” Osdo said. “But the guards should be about to switch shifts since it’s almost sundown.”

“And the new guards will be better?” Rassi asked.

“See Muktong up there? He’s the one who gave us our weapon’s training,” Felgo said. “If Queen Sali is right, he’s got to be on one of the other assassin teams.”

“Which means the five other guards with him are probably the rest of his team,” Tovos said.

“We’re going to have to deal with him soon or later though, right?” Rassi asked.

“I’d prefer later,” Yanni said. “Especially if it’s after the rest of the Enclave knows that we’re there.”

“Harder to make us disappear,” Polu said.

“They’re leaving,” Tovos said.

“And being replaced with Degu’s team.” Felgo said the name as though it were a curse.

“Degu’s probably the leader of the other assassin team, isn’t he?” Solna asked.

“Has to be,” Tovos said. “The one that’s just ahead of us according to Queen Sali.”

“Which means he’s got less experience than Muktong,” Osdo offered hopefully.

“But still more than we do,” Felgo said.

“We’re out of time,” Tovos said, his eyes closed and his hands folded together in front of his face. “We’ve been out of time, but the Death Shadows will be here in minutes. We have to go.”

He rose from behind the embankment they’d crept up to and began to walk forward with purpose and a certainty that had to be at last half illusionary in Solna’s estimation. His team wasn’t put off by that though and rose to follow him.

“Let us deal with Degu and his people,” Osdo said. “You two need to get to whoever’s in charge now and tell them what they need to do.”

Solna still had no idea how they were going to make that happen.

She’d reached out to the Force, flagrantly violating the Enclave’s customs, only to feel a reassuring certainty that marching forward was the best action she could take. Maddeningly however, the Force was rather lacking in specific details for how or why things would work out well in the end.

“We’ll handle it,” Rassi said. “And if Degu’s team give you trouble, just shout for us. I’m not used to you jerks being nice to me and I’d like to see more of it.”

Tovos turned his head and flashed Rassi a rueful smile before turning to his comrades, “looks like we have our marching orders then.”

“Never orders,” Rassi said. “Just a request.”

Solna understood. They’d been forced into doing and being whats someone else wanted for too long. They need to work together, but that didn’t mean any of them should turn themselves into puppets of another.

Rassi held out her hand for Solna, a gesture that had never been unusual or them but was becoming more common and consistent with each new crisis they faced.

Solna nodded, took Rassi’s hand and rose, pulling their cloak in tighter and deeper than before.

The people of the Silent Enclave knew someone was out there – someone living – whether they had any sense of how many people that was remained an open question. As Rassi and Solna ghosted up to the frankly indefensible perimeter wall and leapt it with purely mundane effort, it became clear that noone was considering that anyone like them was a threat to watch for.

A short distance away, at the gate the private landing facility had put in the cheap fencing, Tovos and his team were greeting Dengu’s team. That Dengu radiated surprise loudly enough for Solna to catch a whisper of it was in part due to her actively working with the Force to enhance her senses, rather than passively absorbing information like she’d been trained too. 

More than that though it was a signal that Tovos had been right. His team was not expected to return. Wasn’t supposed to return. What was happening at the gate was not a joyous reunion. It was the opening round in a battle where the first blow was foregone conclusion and only who landed the final strike was at all uncertain.

Going to their aid was the last thing Solna wanted to do – she’d spent too long being angry with them for that to feel natural. And she had an important mission to do. And leaving Rassi was unthinkable.

So why was her stupid heart lingering on the whispers of her old enemies’ fates that she could still hear?

She scowled.

They’d better make good on their promise to Rassi and survive.

She’d kill them otherwise.

Rassi paused at a corner and cast a quick smile in Solna’s direction. They were so quiet that even with the connection they shared they weren’t leaking emotions to distract the other.

Which didn’t matter.

Rassi could still tell what Solna was thinking it seemed.

Rassi who was so incredibly quiet?

Rassi who couldn’t be calm and peaceful about returning to the Enclave? Who had to have a thousand worse memories of the place than Solna did.

Rassi who was not at all fighting the turmoil within herself that she normally had to?

No one had said Rassi was beautiful in Solna’s memory. Even Solna didn’t try to call attention to Rassi’s looks since she knew Rassi wouldn’t believe her and was sensitive to any comments about a body that people had said countless times was too large, too clumsy, and too unappealing for anyone to ever love.

Those people had been wrong. So very wrong.

Seeing the peace and confidence in Rassi’s eyes and the grace she moved with, Solna’s breath caught in her throat.

Her friend was beautiful beyond any words Solna had.

Which was a wonderful revelation at an absolutely terrible time.

“We are not alone,” Honored Jolu said from around the corner of the habitat they’d been sneaking past.

Rassi gave Solna’s hand a squeeze that made Solna’s heart skip a beat.

Also inconvenient.

What was her stupid brain doing to her?

“We are never alone,” Rassi said, sweeping their shared cloak aside and walking forward, without dropping Solna’s hand in embarrassment as they usually did.

“You?” Jolu’s look of surprise vanished behind an icy and emotionless wall.

“The betrayers! They’ve brought the Shadows to us again!” The cry came from a woman who’d never said more than three words to Solna or Rassi. Solna thought her name was Logi, or Lusa. She knew the two were sisters but she’d never bothered to work out which was which.

“Is that what you told them?” Rassi asked, looking only at Honored Jolu and ignoring the crowd who had gathered in the landing site’s central square.

From the voices which were rising in alarm, Solna’s guessed a good three quarters of the Enclave was present. From the absence of anyone on the central dias, she also guessed that the Elders had indeed abandoned the rest of the Enclave.

That Jolu had stayed behind was interesting, all the more so because Solna couldn’t sense anything from her old mentor and had no idea what Jolu’s true feelings were.

“Why are you here?” Jolu asked, her gaze firm and unrelenting.

“Because they need to know,” Rassi said, meeting Jolu’s gaze evenly.

“Get them!” someone called from the crowd and Solna felt a spike of killing intent rise.

But not from the crowd.

Atop one of the buildings, an air traffic control tower, a man was rising and bringing a blaster to his shoulder.

She acted without thought or hesitation.

She needed to protect Rassi.

And the Force was her ally.

She’d only meant to drag the rifle off course. To pull it from the man’s hands.

The Force however is a powerful ally and the man’s grip was quite a bit stronger than it should have been.

Everyone heard his cry.

Everyone felt the sniper’s shock of fear.

Everyone watched him fall, and some of them even saw what happened when he hit the ground.

There’d been no malice in the act. Solna hadn’t given in to her Dark Side (which was not at all unhappy with the results), but the fact that she’d killed a man wasn’t what sent a wave of undisguised terror through the crowd.

“Corrupt.” The word was whispered rather than shouted.

Everyone in the Enclave had grown up with the terror of the Jedi constantly hanging over their heads. Everyone had guarded themselves zealously against the slightest signs that they were changing the Xah at all.

And so all of them knew exactly what Solna had done.