Nevertheless, Avar reached for it now. And she felt it respond. The music was there, but the notes were jagged, unnatural, de-syncopated. Yet still she closed her eyes, embracing it, her fingers wrapping tightly around the flight controls.

Somewhere in the distance she heard Belin screaming, but she allowed the sound to wash over her, just another note in the violent cacophony that had become her world.

The transport ship swept into the mass of asteroids. Avar’s hand guided their path unconsciously as she heard more than saw the shape of their route in her mind. Following instinct, trusting in the power of the Force.

A loud, dissonant clang. And then another, and another. More screeching from Belin. Asteroid fragments were striking the ship. But they were impacting the scav droids, prizing them violently from the hull as Avar swept the vessel on, through tighter and tighter turns, carving a path through the chaotic storm of rocks.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

More scav droids obliterated by the rocks. Still Avar maintained her place at the controls, her eyes shut tight.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

And then the timbre of the music changed. A variation. A new reprise. Still discordant, still faint, but there all the same.

She opened her eyes.

They’d cleared the asteroid field and were out the other side. Impact alarms were blaring. The damage reports were all in the red. And yet the ship was still intact. A trail of broken scav droids, glinting in the solar glare, floated in their wake, mangled by the crushing rocks.


Star Wars The High Republic The Eye of Darkness Chapter 21