![]() He tried to remember the particulars of a Star Destroyer’s safety features: If he got caught in its grip, would it release him or crush him into a bleeding mess? He prayed for strength as he lunged. The blast door, from what he could see of it, was nearly closed. But he heard a garbled, electronic noise and smelled something like melted plastoid as he whipped back around, racing into the wind. The flare of the bolts would’ve blinded him if he hadn’t already been squinting against the sparks as it was, his vision was spattered with blotches that only occasionally afforded him a clear view. He brought up his blaster and squeezed three times without aiming, feeling the weapon pulse and jerk. The rings spun lenses adjusted and for an instant Nath felt like he’d returned to Cerberon, gazing again into the black hole looming over that wretched system. From the center of the rift stared a single crimson eye surrounded by concentric metal rings. He let the air turn his head-Stupid! he thought, don’t look at the sparks!-and saw that the crack in the metal had widened to a rift framed by jagged molten cuts. Nath felt a blast of sparks against his cheek and stumbled away from the bulkhead even as the breeze became a gale. The blast door would seal off the compartment and stop the oxygen loss, which was good-and it was a good sign that it was still functioning-but it would also seal Nath and Stornvein into an airless tomb if they weren’t quick. He swung the man around with both arms and hurled him toward a blast door irising shut a dozen paces away. He was up again in nearly the same motion, hauling the man to his feet and swerving away from the spark-belching wall. But he slid to one knee like a smashball player, gliding the last meter to Stornvein on the polished deck. He felt out of shape from weeks aboard the Star Destroyer sitting in stiff-backed chairs the skirmish at the Circus of Mortal Appetites was the most active he’d been in ages. Sparks rained from a glowing crack in the metal, but almost none touched the man-the bright motes were swept back up by the wind and splashed against the cracked wall. Not twenty meters away he spotted Syndulla’s aide-Stornvein, he thought, his name’s Stornvein-on the floor, clutching his arm and staring at the bulkhead in horror. ![]() He ran toward the sound as the deck steadied. Nath knew now what was going on but not why, and he didn’t have a moment to work through it all before he heard a scream down the corridor. He was trying to remember which branch in the hallway to take-everything on a Star Destroyer looked the same-when the wail of an alarm shredded his ears and he felt the deck juddering harder.“The hell is going on?” he asked.The alarm was joined by the steel-drum roar of tearing metal and the sensation of a gentle breeze. The deck plating jumped as the Deliverance emerged from hyperspace for a scheduled course correction. ![]() It wasn’t his job to crawl inside her brain, but someone had to and she’d help him forget the image of Nath Tensent, Brave Hero of the Ssori.The droid gurgled ambiguously. “Kairos still sleeping on the U-wing, last you heard?” he asked T5. The sincerity of it all exhausted Nath until he excused himself, strolling away from the mess hall. ”They cheered and asked him for more, and he made them all feel like galactic saviors. Now we’re going to come down on them hard. “Hell, I think they should’ve stayed in hiding. ![]() He had the routine down, though it hadn’t been how he’d wanted to spend dinner.“You want to know what I think about Shadow Wing running around burning planets?” he offered when they prompted him. T5 rolled awkwardly through the mess as more pilots and crew drifted in off their shifts, and a dozen gathered around Nath to hear more from the Hero of Troithe. The meal smelled like wilted vegetables and tasted like cleaning fluid. Nath Tensent settled at a table with a tray of gray meat braised in orange sauce. This passage focuses on one of the series' main protagonists, Imperial defector Nath Tensent, as he tries to fend off a group of buzzdroids attacking the Deliverance, a former Imperial Star Destroyer retrofitted by the New Republic. Play First, a little context before we get into the excerpt. ![]()
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