The Fallen Star (Star Wars: The High Republic)

by Claudia Gray

Elzar sank into a seat, staring at the nightmare vision before him. Starlight Beacon was burning. The top half of the station arced through Eiram’s atmosphere like a meteor, leaving behind a long trail of glowing, incinerating debris. By this point the structure was shaking so violently it could be seen even from this great distance, and there was no way it could hold together much longer. Already parts of it were ablaze. Elzar could feel those people’s pain almost as though it were his own—and those who were Jedi were even more vivid to him than the rest, stabbing into his awareness like red-hot knives. The temple spire. The Hub. The beacon itself. They were all immolating. Avar, please, please don’t be there, he thought. They’d already had readings suggesting the Ataraxia had made its escape, but Elzar couldn’t help worrying. It was wrong to wish for one person’s survival more than any other’s—a sign of “attachment”—but at the moment Elzar didn’t give a damn. Somewhere in the heart of all that pain, he sensed an incredible power of will—someone exerting the kind of effort through the Force that could very nearly drain one’s own life. Elzar didn’t know who it was, but he knew that this act of heroism was saving lives every second it could be sustained. 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 h...