And then it snapped. Starlight Beacon’s upper half fell apart entirely in a burst of flame. The spire twisted violently as it turned into a plume of sparks and ash. Then Elzar spotted the glowing egglike shape that had to have been the Hub—people in there were still alive as the fire consumed them. Amid it all, Starlight’s beacon pulsed one last time, the light nearly lost in Eiram’s dazzling sky—then fell dark forever. The pain within the station intensified, fractured, died out. Tears of pain and even rage welled in Elzar’s eyes as the last of it faded away. No one had survived.
