Star Wars

New Jedi Order

Dark Tide

#1

Onslaught

by Michael A. Stackpole

To Timothy Zahn For all the obvious reasons,

and a few more.  (Next  time we're in Tasmania,

I want to try driving.)

This book could not have been completed without the tireless efforts of a

host of folks. The author wishes to  thank  the  following  people  for  their

contributions: Sue Rostoni, Allan Kausch, and  Lucy  Autrey  Wilson  of  Lucas

Licensing Ltd.; Shelly Shapiro, Jennifer Smith, and Steve Saffel of  Del  Rey;

Ricia Mainhardt, my agent; R. A. Salvatore, Kathy Tyers, and  Jim  Luceno,  my

partners in crime; Peet Janes, Timothy Zahn, Tish Pahl, and Jennifer Roberson;

and, as always, Liz Danforth for keeping me sane through the whole process.

PROLOGUE

Standing there, on the bridge of his Nebulon-B frigate, the pirate  Urias

Xhaxin clasped his cybernetic left hand to the small  of  his  back  with  his

right hand. He stared straight ahead at the tunnel of  light  into  which  his

ship, theFree Lance, flew. Given the nature of the frigate's design, with  the

bridge far forward, he felt as if he were flying there alone, making  his  way

deep into the territory of the Outer Rim where no one in his right mind  would

be found.

He glanced back over his shoulder at the Twi'lek working  the  navigation

station. "Time to reversion, Khwir?"

The Twi'lek's long lekku twitched. "Five minutes."

Xhaxin turned on the comlink clipped to his jacket's collar. "All  hands,

all hands, this is Xhaxin. Red and Blue Squadrons,  prepare  for  launch.  You

will be moving to the outbound  vectors  and  disabling  the  smaller  yachts.

Gunners, we will aim for the escorts. Everyone look sharp and this may be  the

last run we ever need make. In and out, clean and easy. You'll all do well,  I

know. Xhaxin out."

A dark-haired woman stepped up beside Xhaxin. "You really think this haul

will earn us enough to retire?"

"It depends upon the quality of retirement you  desire,  Dr.  Karl."  The

white-haired, white-bearded man turned and smiled at her.  "Your  skills  will

earn you a good living almost anywhere in the New Republic, and your share  of

this raid should be enough to buy you a new identity or two."

Anet Karl frowned. "Ever since the peace between the Imperial Remnant and

the New Republic six years ago, we've been forced  to  go  after  smaller  and

smaller targets. The New Republic never condoned what we did, but they  turned

a blind eye to it while the Imperials were still a threat. Pickings were  good

as unreconstructed Imperials fled out here to the Remnant, but that trade  has

been trickling off. Is this raid going to be different?"

Xhaxin pursed his lips for a moment, then lowered his voice. "It's a fair

question you ask. The answer is yes, I can feel it in my bones. This raid will

be like nothing we've seen in the last five years."

Anet smiled mischievously, her brown eyes sparkling.  "You're  not  going

Jedi on me, are you? The Force tells you about this raid?"

"No, I'm far more practical than the Jedi, and more dangerous,  too."  He

spread his arms. "We've nearly nine hundred crew on this ship-nine  times  the

number of Jedi in the whole of the galaxy. And while they have  the  Force  to

aid them, I have two powerful allies with me: greed and arrogance."

"Oh, your plan was good."

"Correction, my plan was brilliant." Xhaxin laughed. "We let a couple  of

ships go free because they're traveling together, then I set up a guy who says

he can organize convoys through deep space  to  the  Remnant.  We  had  people

demanding positions in our convoy. In fact, they paid well for  the  privilege

of traveling safely."

"But no refunds, correct?" The doctor smiled. "The credits they've  spent

are just a down payment?"

"Exactly. They gathered at Garqi, have headed out, and the last  of  them

should be hitting the rendezvous point in ten minutes. We'll round  up  what's

already there, then pick off  the  last  one  and  go."  Xhaxin  smoothed  his

mustache with his flesh-and-blood right hand. "It's been  a  grand  run.  This

last raid-it will be remembered. I would have had history recall me  in  other

ways, but this will be good enough, especially if all of you can  be  rewarded

for your hard work."

Anet Karl looked at the various humans and  aliens  busy  at  their  duty

stations on the bridge. "We had no love lost on the Empire either, Captain. We

owe you our thanks for keeping us alive and allowing us to pay them  back  all

these years. We'd keep going, too-"

"I know, but the New Republic has made peace with  the  Remnant."  Xhaxin

sighed. "One cannot underestimate the allure of peace. I think, perhaps, we've

finally earned some ourselves."

"Ten seconds to reversion, Captain."

"Thank you, Khwir." Xhaxin waved a hand  toward  the  viewport.  "Behold,

Doctor, our destiny."

The tunnel of light shattered  into  countless  stars  of  varying  hues.

They'd come out into the middle of nowhere, literally-a point  in  space  that

had been selected only  because  gravitational  forces  made  it  perfect  for

speeding the way from Garqi to Bastion in the Imperial Remnant.This  place  is

supposed to be empty.

Empty it was not. Aside from the burning wreckage of a twisted  freighter

spinning madly, life pods and yachts darting about, a large object hung  there

in space. Xhaxin thought at first it had to be  an  asteroid  because  of  its

appearance, uneven surface, and torpid pace. Other smaller asteroids seemed to

orbit around it, then streaked out on attack runs on the yachts.

And now they're orienting on us!Xhaxin spun away from the viewport. "Full

shields up, now! Deploy the fighters. I don't know how some  fool  managed  to

fit a hyperdrive core to  an  asteroid,  but  he's  not  stealing  our  ships!

Gunnery, get a firing solution on that big rock and open it up."

"As ordered, Captain!"

Even as he issued orders and pondered making a planetoid somehow  mobile,

Xhaxin knew that that line of reasoning did not explain the smaller rocks that

moved like starfighters. "Sensors, what's going on out there?"

A Duros looked up through holographic displays of  data,  his  long  face

wearing an  expression  that  was  even  more  morose  than  usual.  "Gravitic

anomalies, sir, everywhere."

"Tractor beams? Gravity-well generators?"

"Different, sir." The  Duros  frowned  as  a  wash  of  data  filled  his

holograph with overlapping spheres of color.  "Focused,  tighter  beams,  more

powerful."

TheFree Lance 's turbolaser batteries opened up, sending long streams  of

sizzling red bolts at the asteroid. The shots looked to  be  on  target,  then

deviated sharply in their flight. The bolts sharpened their angle  of  attack,

coming together nearly half a kilometer before they hit the  asteroid.  Xhaxin

expected the beams to flash through that new focal point  and  still  hit  the

target, but instead they vanished.

"What happened? Guns, sensors, what happened?"

His gunner, an Iotran named Mirip Pag, shook his head in  disbelief.  "We

had firing solutions, Captain. We were on target."

The Duros, Lun Deverin, stabbed a quivering finger at a small sphere in a

holograph. "A gravitic anomaly pulled the shots in. It's as if they're using a

black hole to shield themselves."

Xhaxin turned to look at the data and watched as the sphere  in  question

expanded and moved toward the frigate. At the moment of contact,  a  jolt  ran

through the ship. Alarms began to sound, announcing that the starboard  shield

had collapsed.

"Come about to a heading of 57 mark 12, ahead full.  Shear  off  whatever

that beam is."

"Another one coming in, Captain. It will take the aft shield..."

Pen Grasha, theFree Lance 's starfighter control officer,  shouted  above

the warning sirens. "Captain, our fighters are having their shields  stripped.

Their blasters and lasers are not getting through to the enemy."

The Duros waved a hand, then grabbed his sensor station in a tight  grip.

"Brace for impact. They've fired upon us."

Impact?Xhaxin turned toward the viewport and saw a sizzling  golden  ball

of something-plasma? - flash past.  It  caught  the  frigate  in  midmaneuver,

hitting just port of center. The port shield caught the blast,  but  collapsed

in seconds, sending a shower of sparks through the bridge and  skittering  one

crewman across the floor. A heartbeat later whatever had  gotten  through  the

shield slammed into theFree Lance 's armored hull.

Thank goodness we have extra armor.Xhaxin had devoted a lot of  resources

to reinforcing the armor on the frigate. It had stood  up  to  shots  from  an

Imperial Star Destroyer before, and they'd lived to tell about it.We also  ran

away so we could tell about it.

The impact momentarily knocked the ship's artificial  gravity  generators

out of phase, so Xhaxin flew from his feet and into Dr. Karl. Within a second,

gravity returned, dropping both of them to the deck, but  neither  landed  too

hard. Xhaxin rose to one knee and helped the doctor up into a sitting position

as he turned to look at the Duros. "What was that?"

"I don't know, Captain, but it's still eating into the hull."  The  blue-

skinned alien paled. "I project a hull breach on deck seven in twenty seconds.

"

"Evac the area and close the bulkheads."

"More shots incoming!"

No! This  can't  be  happening!Xhaxin's  hands,  both  flesh  and  metal,

convulsed into fists. He pushed aside the despair  and  panic  raging  through

him.Time to be the sort of man that causes a crew to be so loyal.

"Pen, recall our fighters. Load those without hyperdrives  first.  Khwir,

plot me a jump out of here."

The Twi'lek's lekku  palsied.  "The  gravitic  anomalies  are  constantly

shifting. Calculating a jump solution is impossible."

"Are they enough to prevent us from jumping?"

"No, but-"

Xhaxin snarled, then staggered  to  a  knee  as  another  shot  from  the

asteroid shook the frigate. "Then jump blind.  Send  the  coordinates  to  our

fighters, but jump blind."

"Captain, a blind jump could kill us."

"A blind jumpmight kill us." Xhaxin stabbed a  finger  at  the  viewport.

"Theywill kill us. Do it, Khwir, do it,now!"

"As ordered, Captain." The Twi'lek started punching coordinates into  the

navicomputer. "Ready to jump in five seconds, Captain. Four, three..."

Xhaxin looked at the viewport and saw a glowing golden ball expanding  to

fill it. He didn't know who his attackers were, why they were  there,  or  how

their weapons functioned. As he  pondered  those  things  the  view  of  space

exploded. In that moment, somehow he knew that while having the answers to his

questions might bring him some inner peace, the same would not be said of  the

New Republic.

CHAPTER ONE

Standing near the head of the senate chamber, waiting to  be  invited  to

the dais by Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya, Leia Organa Solo found herself a bit

nervous. Years rolled back-decades, in fact-reminding her  how  she  had  felt

when she first entered the Imperial Senate as the youngest person ever elected

to such high office. She'd stood as a  candidate  to  help  her  father,  Bail

Organa, continue his opposition of Palpatine and the madness that would permit

things like Death Stars to be created.

I was young then,  very  young,  and  understandably  nervous.She  looked

around at the massive chamber and across the sea of senators  filling  it.  It

didn't have the grandeur of the old chamber, the one in which  she  had  first

served, but she felt a rich sense of tradition in it from the  New  Republic's

days. Back in the Imperial era-after Palpatine  had  seized  full  power-there

were no more than a handful of nonhumans in the chamber, and  then  they  were

just aides to human senators. Now the humans were in  the  minority,  much  as

they had been in the Old Republic. She could see Senator Viqi  Shesh  of  Kuat

and one of her telbuns, and Senator Cal Omas from Alderaan,  but  beyond  them

she had a hard time seeing more humans.

And it's not just age catching up with my eyes.She smiled to herself, not

wanting to be reminded of how much of her life had already passed by. Much  of

it had been spent here on Coruscant, helping form the New  Republic  into  the

star-spanning confederation of worlds  that  had  emerged  from  the  Empire's

shadow.Or I was out fighting the Empire, being shot at. In  here  the  attacks

were more subtle, but almost as lethal. She shivered as she recalled  the  old

senate chamber even being bombed once.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw Danni Quee, the young woman  who

barely two months ago had survived an attack  and  capture  by  an  aggressive

alien group that had assaulted several worlds on the galaxy's Outer Rim. Danni

had been working at a research site used to monitor space beyond the  edge  of

the galaxy and had  collected  some  evidence  to  suggest  the  invaders  had

actually come from another galaxy. Their ruthless tactics,  coupled  with  the

sheer economics of mounting an invasion from a distant  galaxy,  suggested  to

Leia that the aliens had to be intent on taking a great portion of this galaxy

for their own. She'd come to the senate to apprise the New  Republic  of  this

threat and enlist aid for the Rim worlds that would be facing the brunt of the

alien onslaught.

Beside the petite, brunette woman stood Bolpuhr, Leia's Noghri bodyguard.

The Noghri were devoted to Leia  and  her  brother,  Luke,  because  of  their

efforts to repair the damage done to the Noghri homeworld of  Honoghr  by  the

Empire. In their gratitude, the Noghri warded  Leia  and  her  family  with  a

fierce loyalty that was second only to that of a Wookiee with a life debt.

The pitch of Borsk Fey'lya's  voice  shifted  out  of  a  deep  drone  to

something a bit higher. Leia remembered how his voice would rise when he  felt

stressed. It brought her head up, and she focused her attention  on  what  the

Bothan was saying.

"... And so, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome back to this chamber a

woman who has been more at home here than anyone else in the senate's history.

I present to you Leia Organa Solo, envoy from Dubrillion."

And about time, too,Leia thought.You've been giving me the runaround long

enough. She'd been trying to get this audience for weeks.

Fey'lya turned away from the podium and waved her forward. The Bothan had

chosen to wear a sand-colored robe that was only a shade or  two  darker  than

his cream-colored fur. Violet piping that matched his eyes  trimmed  it.  Leia

found the robe reminiscent of the simple garments Mon Mothma used to wear when

addressing the senate or the people, but somehow it failed to grant the Bothan

the air of simple nobility it had given Mon Mothma.

Leia had chosen to wear black boots and slacks, with  a  cerulean  tunic.

She also wore her hair up, letting her entire outfit and demeanor hint at  the

martial encounters that were the basis for her report. She knew  it  made  her

distinctly underdressed for the opulent senate, but she also  hoped  it  would

make some of those present harken back to the days when battle dress  was  the

order of the day and decisions had to be made quickly.

"Thank you, Chief Fey'lya. Esteemed senators and honored guests, I  bring

you the greetings and well wishes of the people of  Dubrillion.  It  is  their

wish I inform you of a grave crisis in the Outer  Rim.  A  previously  unknown

species has launched a series of attacks in the Rim. They wiped out the ExGal-

4 station on Belkadan, attacked the world of  Dubrillion,  destroyed  the  New

Republic shipRejuvenator at Helska, and annihilated  the  world  Sernpidal  by

crashing its moon into it. We managed to locate the alien base at Helska 4 and

destroy it, but this does not end the threat."

Leia looked up at her audience and was surprised  at  how  many  senators

seemed to be bored, as if she were the narrator for some  Kuati  manners-play.

Well, I've not told them anything they don't already know, but now  they  have

to acknowledge it and deal with it. She cleared her voice and glanced  at  the

datapad on the podium for her notes.

"On Belkadan, Luke Skywalker found evidence  of  an  ecological  disaster

that radically altered the atmospheric composition of the world. This disaster

has been traced to an alien agent who was present on the world and slain there

after he attacked Mara Jade Skywalker and my brother. The  evidence  seems  to

suggest that the aliens were preparing the world to be  used  as  a  base  for

invasion."

Before she could continue, a hunchbacked,  saurian  senator  representing

the various Baragwin communities stood slowly. "If it would please the senate,

I would ask the speaker if she is the same Leia Organa Solo who  undertook  to

mediate the Rhommamool-Osarian dispute."

Leia's eyes narrowed as she lifted her chin. "Senator Wynl is well  aware

that I am the same person who went to try to broker peace in that conflict."

"And was it not the action of a rash Jedi Knight that forced the Osarians

to launch the attack that embroiled the system in war, killing Nom  Anor,  the

Rhommamoolian leader, in the process?"

Leia held her hands up. "With all due respect, Senator,  the  Rhommamool-

Osarian conflict has little or nothing to do with  the  invasion  I'm  talking

about."

Borsk Fey'lya turned toward Leia from his position on  the  dais  to  her

right. "Little or nothing? This would suggest theremight be  some  sort  of  a

connection."

She nodded uneasily. "When the invader attacked Mara, he first  tried  to

destroy Artoo-the R2 astromech droid my brother uses. The alien  was  shouting

the same sort of antidroid rhetoric that the Red Knights of Life on Rhommamool

used in their crusades."

The Bothan blinked his violet eyes. "So you are suggesting that these Red

Knights are behind the poisoning of Belkadan, the  destruction  of  Sernpidal,

and the attack on Dubrillion? And they had weapons sufficient to drag  a  moon

from orbit, yet were not able to defend their leaders against an attack by the

Osarians? Am I understanding you correctly?"

"No, I don't believe you are, Chief Fey'lya." Leia let a hint of  iciness

enter her voice. "I don't believe the alien on Belkadan was influenced by  the

Red Knights, but it is possible that the Red Knights are part of a covert plot

to disrupt the New Republic."

Another senator, this one a Rodian, stood. "You would  have  us  believe,

Envoy, that your effort failed because of a conspiracy born from  outside  the

galaxy?"

"That's not what I'm saying."

Niuk Niuv, the senator from Sullust, rose to his feet. "I  don't  believe

it is, either. I believe you are trying to deflect us from the threat the Jedi

present to the New Republic. It was a Jedi who raised the tension level of the

Osarians, triggering that war. You tell us a Jedi reported to you  about  this

alien, and about what he said. I am not so stupid that I cannot see the effort

of a Jedi to turn us away from trouble their order has spawned."

"The Jedi on Belkadan was my brother, Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master!"

"And who would more want to have the errors of his disciples forgotten?"

Leia forced her grip on the podium to slacken. "I am well  aware  of  the

controversy surrounding the Jedi, but I ask you, in all  good  conscience,  to

focus beyond that debate and concentrate on what I'm telling you. An  invasion

has been mounted from outside  this  galaxy,  and  it  will  destroy  the  New

Republic if you do not act to stop it now."

A human senator Leia failed to recognize rose to speak. "Forgive me,  but

it is a well-known and long-established fact that a hyperspace disturbance  on

the edge of the galaxy makes travel into or out of the galaxy impossible. This

supposed invasion could not have taken place."

Leia shook her head. "If that barrier does exist, they found a way around

it. They were here, and there is ample evidence of their invasion in the Outer

Rim."

The Quarren, Pwoe, rose and brushed fingertips over his pointed chin.  "I

am confused, then, Envoy. You told us that you had been part of an  effort  to

destroy the invading force. I was led to believe you had been successful."

"We were."

"So there have been no more sightings of these invaders since then?"

"No, but that-"

"And do you have evidence to link them to  the  Red  Knights  other  than

hearsay about comments by a creature that is now dead?"

"No, but-"

"You do have physical evidence of the invaders?"

"Some. A couple of bodies, a couple of their coralskippers."

Fey'lya smiled, flashing sharp teeth. "Coralskippers?"

Leia closed her  eyes  and  sighed.  "These  aliens  appear  to  rely  on

genetically engineered biomechanical creatures. Their fighter craft are, well,

grown out of something called yorik coral."

The Bothan shook his head. "You're telling us that  they  used  rocks  to

kill a Star Destroyer?"

"Yes."

Pwoe glanced down at his desk, then looked up with a malevolent glint  in

his black eyes. "Leia, as one who has looked up to you in the past, I beg you,

please, stop now. You cannot know how pathetic you appear to be. You chose  to

leave public life. For you to come here now, with this story, in such  a  bald

attempt to take back control from our hands, is a pitiful thing."

"What?" Leia blinked her astonishment away. "You think  I  came  here  to

make a power grab?"

"I am given nothing else to think." Pwoe opened his hands and took in the

whole of the chamber. "You want to protect your brother,  your  children,  for

they are all Jedi, and I can understand that. It is  also  clear  you  do  not

think we are capable of surviving any catastrophe without you, but  the  plain

fact is that things  have  gone  well  since  the  resolution  of  the  Bothan

situation. We all understand the human lust for power, and we have admired you

for suppressing it for so long, but now, this-"

"No, no, that's not my intention at  all."  Leia  looked  aghast  at  the

senators. "What I am telling you is true, it's real. We may have thrown back a

vanguard, but they're coming."

The Sullustan senator covered his ears with his hands. "Please, Leia,  no

more, no more. Your loyalty to the Jedi is laudable, but this attempt to  make

us think they might be useful because of some nebulous  threat-it  is  beneath

you!"

"But veryhuman of her," the Baragwin sniffed.

An invisible fist seemed to close around Leia's heart and  squeeze  hard.

Her elbows bent and she rested her forearms on the podium. "Youmust listen  to

me!"

"Leia, please, do what Mon Mothma has done."  Pwoe's  voice  filled  with

pity. "Fade away quietly. The government is ours  now.  Let  us  remember  you

fondly, as someone who transcended her humanity."

Leia looked out at the senators and wished age had dulled enough  of  her

vision so she couldn't see the looks of contempt being  directed  at  her.They

won't see because they can't allow themselves to  see.  They  need  to  be  in

control so badly they will ignore danger  instead  of  admitting  there  is  a

crisis. They will lose everything just because they want to prove they are  in

control. Their willful ignorance left her drained  and  speechless,  with  the

weight of their pity and contempt crushing her down.

This can't be happening. Everything we have gained to be thrown  away  so

foolishly.Leia's grip on the podium slackened as she began to back  away  from

it.To lose everything...

A strong, sharp voice  cut  through  the  low  murmuring  in  the  senate

chamber. "How dare you? How dare any of you speak to her  this  way?"  In  the

middle of the room, a golden-furred alien, long and lean, with purple striping

rising up and back from the corners of his eyes, rose to his full height.  "If

not for this woman and the sacrifices of her family, none of us would be here,

and most of us would be dead."

Elegos A'Kla opened his three-fingered hands. "Your  blatant  ingratitude

lends credence to the Imperial vision of our being mere beasts!"

The Rodian senator stabbed a sucker-tipped finger at the Caamasi.  "Don't

forget, she was one of them!"

Elegos's eyes narrowed, and Leia felt a wave of pain wash off  him.  "Can

you say that without realizing how feebleminded it makes you  sound?  To  lump

her with Imperials is pure prejudice-prejudice of the sort that the  Imperials

flaunted when they oppressed us."

Niuk Niuv waved away the Caamasi's comments with  a  flip  of  his  hand.

"Your criticism would bear more weight, Senator A'Kla, were you not  known  to

have collaborated with Jedi before. Your sympathies for them run deep. Was not

your uncle one of them?"

Elegos drew his head back, emphasizing his height and slender  form.  "My

loyalties to friends and relatives who were Jedi do not blind me to what  Leia

has tried to say here. You may choose to see the Jedi as a threat-and  even  I

would acknowledge that the  activities  of  some  leave  me  cold-but  she  is

reporting a new threat, perhaps  a  greater  one,  to  the  New  Republic.  To

willfully ignore it so you  may  pursue  your  own  glory  is  the  height  of

irresponsibility."

Pwoe's tentacles curled up in anger. "This is well and good  for  you  to

say, A'Kla, but your people and their survival  owes  much  to  Leia  and  her

family. Many of you died on Alderaan, and it has been human guilt and  charity

that has protected you  for  decades.  Your  rising  to  her  defense  is  not

surprising, akin to a nek battle dog licking the  hand  of  the  trainer  that

beats it."

Leia felt that comment sink home and returned to the  podium.  Her  voice

remained low and placid, despite the anger spiking inside of her.  Though  she

resented calling upon a Jedi calming  technique,  she  did,  allowing  her  to

focus. Her expression sharpened and her gaze  swept  out  over  the  assembled

senators.

"You will choose to project on me all manner of sinister motives. This is

your right. I can even understand old resentments  being  transferred  to  me,

though I would have thought my history would have shown you where my heart is.

Now I don't even expect you to listen to me, I guess. You see the New Republic

as your own, and I applaud your rising to take responsibility for it.  Despite

what you might think or want to believe, you make me very proud.

"Where you disappoint me is in turning on yourselves. The New  Republic's

strength has always come from its union of  diverse  peoples."  She  shrugged,

then straightened up. "I will leave for you all that  we  have  learned  about

these invaders. I hope you will find the information useful when  you  find  a

time to employ it."

Borsk Fey'lya regarded her closely as she stepped back from  the  podium.

"What will you do now, Leia?"

She huffed quietly and stared at him for a moment.Afraid I will  stage  a

coup to get my way, Borsk? Do you think I have that much power? "I'll do  what

I need to. The New Republic may have abandoned me, but I've not abandoned  it.

This threat must be stopped."

The fur on the back of the  Bothan's  neck  rose  slowly.  "You  have  no

official standing. You can't just commandeer equipment, issue orders, and  the

like."

She slowly shook her head, then smiled as Elegos appeared at her side. "I

know the rules, Chief Fey'lya, both those publicly codified and those by which

the game is truly played. I have no desire to pit myself against you, so don't

make it necessary."

Elegos rested a hand on Leia's shoulder.  "Thissenator  wishes  to  learn

more about the threat. I trust, Chief Fey'lya, there will be  no  interference

with my investigation."

"Interference, no..." The Bothan's violet eyes became slits. "Be careful,

however. Curiosity will be permitted, but treason will  be  punished.  Do  you

understand?"

Elegos nodded and Leia joined  him.  "Your  message  is  received,  Chief

Fey'lya. Senator A'Kla and I will be very careful, and so  should  you  be.  A

judgment of treason in a time like this could haunt you through history,if the

invaders leave anyone alive to care."

CHAPTER TWO

Snug in the X-wing simulator cockpit, Colonel  Gavin  Darklighter,  Rogue

Squadron's commanding officer, flicked his right thumb  against  the  ring  he

wore on that hand. Apprehension gripped him, but he knew there was no sense in

stalling a second longer.  He  glanced  over  his  shoulder  at  the  R2-Delta

astromech  droid  sitting  behind  him.  "Okay,  Catch,  run  the   simulation

designated 'skipchaser.' "

The little gold-and-white droid tootled  pleasantly,  and  the  simulator

cockpit came alive with lights and  data  scrolling  on  the  primary  screen.

Despite the years of refits the little droid had undergone in Gavin's service-

including requisite memory wipes and programming  upgrades-it  always  greeted

him with a brief summary of the  weather  on  Tatooine  and  Coruscant.  Gavin

appreciated that little bit of pleasantry, which is why he'd  not  traded  the

droid in for a newer model-though the Delta upgrade had been most welcome  for

speeding up navigational computations.

The biggest change in his relationship with the droid had been its  name.

In the early days he'd called it Jawaswag, figuring that any Jawa  would  love

to have the droid. Later, after the Thrawn crisis, a group of Jawas had  tried

to steal Jawaswag, but the droid had fended them off and  actually  hurt  one.

From that point forward Gavin had taken to calling the droid Toughcatch, which

had just become shortened to Catch.

The simulator's visual field filled with stars and then an asteroid belt,

into which Gavin guided the X-wing. It felt much  like  the  old  T-65s  Rogue

Squadron used to fly when he'd first joined  the  Rebellion,  but  the  T-65A3

model was a couple of generations advanced over the original models. While not

as slick as the new XJ model, the A3 had  improved  shields  and  lasers  that

boasted improvements in  accuracy  and  power.  The  peace  reached  with  the

Imperial Remnant meant that there were few competent  foes  to  test  the  new

fighters against-and the fighter had proved quite  lethal  when  unleashed  on

pirates in the Rimward regions of the New Republic.

Gavin glanced at his primary monitor, but nothing was  popping  up  as  a

threat. He punched up a supplemental data plug-in that expanded the  available

target profiles. "Catch, give me biologicals down to the size of  mynocks  and

anything that appears to be moving erratically or on a course that  is  beyond

norm for orbital debris."

The droid whistled an acknowledgment, but still nothing showed on Gavin's

screen. He frowned.What is it I'm supposed to be seeing? It makes no sense for

Admiral Kre'fey to have given me access to this simulation if there is nothing

out here.

Gavin hesitated for a moment. He knew that his idea of  what  made  sense

and a Bothan admiral's idea of same could be vastly different. Many times he'd

had to deal with Bothan manipulation of himself or his command,  and  most  of

those times had been a disaster.  Yet,  despite  the  Kre'fey  clan  having  a

negative association with Rogue Squadron because of events  over  two  decades

old, Gavin had found young Traest Kre'fey to be remarkably straightforward  in

general, and very much more so when dealing with the Rogues.

The primary console beeped, and a small box  appeared  around  a  distant

object on the X-wing's heads-up display. Gavin selected the object as a target

and glanced down at its profile and image on the secondary monitor. At a quick

glance it could have been mistaken for an asteroid and dismissed  easily,  but

to Gavin it looked far too symmetrical. It reminded him  a  great  deal  of  a

seed-a bit bulbous in the middle, but tapered at both ends.  The  rear  had  a

couple of recesses in it that could have hidden propulsion exhaust units,  and

a couple more up front that could house weapons.

Gavin shivered, then nudged the X-wing's throttle forward. "Catch,  start

recording this run. I want to be able  to  study  the  playback."  Applying  a

little etheric rudder, Gavin pointed the X-wing's nose on a course that  would

cut behind the seed. Reaching up to his right, he flipped a switch that locked

the S-foils in attack position. With a flick of  his  thumb,  he  shifted  his

weapons control to lasers and quadded them up so all four would  fire  with  a

single squeeze of the stick's trigger.

The seed shifted itself around so its  nose  swung  into  line  with  his

approach vector. Sensors gave him no read on energy weapons powering up, which

disturbed him less than getting no power readings for propulsion.How  is  that

thing moving?

Before any answers suggested themselves, Gavin quickly kicked the  X-wing

into a barrel roll to starboard and leveled out with his  crosshairs  covering

the seed. He triggered a quick blast and waited for the seed to  explode,  but

that didn't happen. As the quad burst neared the target, the bolts all whirled

into an invisible vortex and vanished into a pinpoint of white light.

Emperor's black bones...

The seed jetted forward, swinging around to bring its nose to bear on the

X-wing. Gavin started to roll port and dive, but something shook his ship.  In

a  heartbeat  Catch  started  screeching  and  the  X-wing's  forward  shields

collapsed. Something dully red blossomed on the seed's nose, then shot  toward

the X-wing. It hit hard and splattered a bit, then what appeared to be  molten

rock started melting through the fighter's metal flesh.

Warning sirens blared, drowning out Catch's  panicky  tones.  Bright  red

damage flags began to scroll up over the primary monitor, all but one of  them

moving too fast for Gavin to read. The one he could see reported  a  premature

ignition of a proton torpedo's engine, which lit up the  whole  port  magazine

and tore the X-wing apart.

Stunned, Gavin sat back in his seat as the screens  went  black  and  the

cockpit's hatch cracked open. He glanced at  his  chronometer  and  shook  his

head. "Catch, we lasted twenty-five seconds. What was that thing?"

A  human  orderly  appeared  at  the  edge  of  the   cockpit.   "Colonel

Darklighter, the admiral sends his compliments."

Gavin blinked and stroked a gloved  hand  over  his  brown  goatee.  "His

compliments? I lasted less than half a minute."

"Yes, Colonel, very true." The orderly smiled. "The admiral said he would

meet you in your office in an hour and explain why you are to be congratulated

on doing so well."

Gavin sat behind his desk, idly punching up  holographic  images  on  his

holoprojector plate. The first picture showed him and  his  two  sons-orphaned

boys who had lived near the Rogue Squadron hangar after the Thrawn  crisis-all

smiles. The next showed the boys two years older, still smiling despite  being

all dressed up, standing with Gavin and his bride, Sera Faleur.

She'd been the social worker who had  helped  him  through  the  adoption

process for the boys. Gavin smiled as he remembered squadron mates telling him

that their mixed marriage couldn't last. They were both human,  but  she  came

from Chandrila, having grown up on the shores of the Silver Sea,  and  he  was

from Tatooine, yet despite the differences in their  homeworlds,  they  easily

made a life together.

The next image showed Sera and Gavin with  their  first  daughter;  after

that came shots of them with their new son and then another daughter. An image

made as a New Year's greeting card showed all seven of  them  together.  Gavin

easily remembered how happy they'd all been together. Prior  to  meeting  Sera

he'd pretty much resigned himself to never finding someone to love, but  she'd

been the balm to heal his broken heart. She'd not made him forget the past and

the lover he'd lost, she'd just helped him recapture the joy of life  and  all

its possibilities.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Colonel."

Gavin looked up through the image of his family and shook his head.  "No,

Admiral, not at all." He shut off the holoprojector, relieved that the  Bothan

admiral's arrival had stopped the cycle of pictures right there, at the  happy

times.

Admiral Traest Kre'fey bore a striking resemblance to the  other  members

of the Kre'fey family Gavin had seen: the  late  General  Laryn-the  admiral's

grandfather-and the admiral's brother, Karka. Despite having spent  a  certain

amount of time in the company of Bothans, Gavin couldn't remember any  outside

the Kre'fey family whose fur was pure white. Traest  didn't  have  the  golden

eyes the other two had; instead his were mostly violet with  flecks  of  gold.

Gavin assumed the violet came from Borsk Fey'lya's line, since he knew the two

of them were related through some complicated tangle of marriages between  the

two families.

Traest wore a black flight suit that he'd unzipped down to  midchest.  He

closed the door to Gavin's office, then unceremoniously plopped  himself  down

on the couch to the left of the door. Gavin moved from behind his desk to  one

of the two chairs making up the conversation nook in his office.

He sat and rested his elbows on his knees. "It killed me  in  twenty-five

seconds. What was it?"

The Bothan smiled. "Congratulations.  I  died  in  fifteen  in  my  first

engagement. Pulling the biological targeting data on-line  is  what  gave  you

some warning."

"If I weren't dead, I'm sure that  would  make  me  feel  better."  Gavin

frowned. "Do we know what it was?"

The Bothan admiral raked claws back through his pale mane. "Two days  ago

Leia Organa Solo spoke to the senate and tried to warn them about  an  unknown

alien force that had attacked several worlds on the Rim, out beyond Dantooine.

She didn't get a very warm reception. She left data  behind,  from  which  the

simulation was created."

Gavin sat back in his chair. "You're telling me that seed, that  'thing,'

is a starfighter being used by folks who attacked the Outer Rim?"

"Yes. Technically it's called a coralskipper by the species that  created

it. They grow them out of something called yorick coral. I know  the  name  is

not terribly inspiring of fear,  but  I  assume  it  loses  something  in  the

translation from their tongue. I've designated them 'skips' for our purposes."

"And the princess brought this to the senate's attention, and they didn't

listen?"

Traest shook his head. "Opposing forces  have  been  gathering  power  to

fight over the whole Jedi question. It's heated up because of the charge  that

a Jedi's rash action sparked the Rhommamool conflict.  A  number  of  powerful

senators saw the princess's story as an attempt to divert attention  from  the

Jedi question. It didn't help that Jedi were key to defeating the invaders."

Gavin nodded. He'd never had a problem with Jedi and,  in  fact,  counted

one of them, Corran Horn, as a very good friend. There were  some  high-handed

Jedi, but Gavin had seen those sorts of ego cases  among  fighter  pilots,  so

their existence didn't surprise him at all. The fact was that there were  some

tasks only Jedi could perform, and he'd been  too  long  in  the  military  to

discard a force just because some of the elements were disruptive.

"Is there any evidence that the invaders are still coming in?"

"Actual, no, but logic suggests that the expenditure of resources  needed

to travel from galaxy to galaxy necessitates gaining a foothold through  which

those resources can be replenished." The Bothan smiled. "If you  spend  enough

credits to get somewhere, you usually plan to stay for a while."

"Right, and the Rim worlds really aren't the sorts of places  you'd  drop

in for a vacation." Gavin rubbed a hand over his mouth.  "These  skips-they're

fairly formidable. How do they move? How did they take my shields down?"

"We need more research to be certain,  but  it  appears  that  they  have

creatures called dovin basals that  are  part  of  the  fighter  itself.  They

manipulate gravity, which is how they were able to soak off your shots and rip

down your  shields.  We  think  that  boosting  the  sphere  of  the  inertial

compensator can actually prevent shields being taken down. I also  think  that

cycling more, lower-power shots through the lasers  will  force  the  skip  to

expend a lot of energy creating those black-hole  shields.  As  long  as  it's

worried about catching shots,  its  maneuvering  ability  is  degraded.  These

strategies are hypothetical, however, and can really only be tested in combat.

"

"I see." Gavin pressed his hands  together.  "I  can  have  the  squadron

simming against these things, then you can point us at them  in  the  Rim  and

we'll try it."

"I knew you'd be game for that,  which  I  appreciate.  We  have  another

problem before that, though."

"And that is?"

The Bothan sighed. "Because of the way Princess Leia was  dismissed,  any

action that even hints that she might have been right is frowned upon.  Though

my command is out in the Rim right now, I can't order up sweeps of any of  the

battle sites, I'm not allowed to help others  look,  nothing.  It's  political

suicide to act as if her report has any credence to it."

"Yeah, but isn't itreal suicide to assume it doesn't?"  The  man  glanced

down at the floor and then back up into  Traest's  violet  eyes.  "Given  that

Borsk Fey'lya now leads the New Republic, this can't be easy for you,  but  to

ignore-"

Traest held a hand up to forestall Gavin's comment. "Colonel, because  of

my grandfather's failure at Borleias, my family's power waned around the  time

I entered the Bothan Martial Academy system. I went  to  one  of  the  smaller

satellite schools, and I had an instructor there who pointed out certain flaws

in the way Bothan society functions. I would hope you've  seen  enough  of  me

through the years to know that being of a newer, younger generation,  I'm  not

one to follow exactly what my superiors think I should be doing. For  example,

if they knew I'd run you through that  sim,  I'd  be  busted  down  to  flight

officer and have to work myself back up to flag rank again."

"You did it quickly enough the first time, Admiral."

"Having key personnel in the upper echelons of the Bothan military resign

as a result of the Caamasi problem sped me on  my  way.  I  don't  mind  using

politics when it moves me in a direction I want to go, but I resent it when it

prevents me from doing what  is  right."  Traest  opened  his  hands.  "I  was

thinking, Colonel, that I'd like to use Rogue Squadron in the Rim, having  you

simulate a pirate group in attacks on outlying systems. My  forces  out  there

will pursue you, but you'll be free to run and hide and explore  anywhere  you

want to go."

"And if we happen to run across a force of skips while we're out there?"

"I hope, for all of our sakes, you don't." The Bothan smiled grimly. "But

if you do, we'll take them apart and give the senate evidence it will never be

able to dismiss."

CHAPTER THREE

Luke Skywalker stood at the edge of the grove, allowing Yavin  4's  light

breeze to tease and snap the corner of the dark cloak that  shrouded  him.  In

the circular opening of the grove stood a number of  gray  plinths,  one  each

serving as memorial for fallen Jedi and students. Gantoris had been the first,

then Nichos Marr, Cray Mingla, and Dorsk 81. Others had followed them, and now

the latest was Miko Reglia.

Luke felt conflicting emotions tear at him as he studied  the  memorials.

He felt great pride in the sacrifices these Jedi had made. Even  half-trained,

they had accepted the responsibilities of Jedi and  had  acquitted  themselves

admirably. They were welcome examples to the new students about how  difficult

it could be to be a Jedi.

Regret also gnawed at him.I would not be human if I did not wonder  if  I

could have done something to prevent their deaths. The early days of the  Jedi

academy had been difficult because he was still finding his way as a Jedi  and

a teacher. His experience of going over to the  dark  side  when  the  Emperor

returned had also blinded him to some of the things his students needed. While

he acknowledged that he may have taken on students a bit prematurely, to  have

failed to do so would have meant there would be even fewer of them to face the

Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

"We'renot going to be putting one of those memorials there for Mara,  you

know."

Luke raised his head and felt the hint of a  smile  touch  his  lips.  He

glanced back at the dark-haired Jedi Knight in green robes behind  him.  "That

isn't what I was thinking, Corran."

Corran Horn shrugged. "Maybe not at the moment, but it had to be  lurking

there somewhere. Pops for me every time I look at the place, since I  heard...

But there won't be a marker for her there."

Luke arched an eyebrow at him. "That could be taken two ways,  you  know.

One suggests this disease won't kill her. The other suggests  there  won't  be

any Jedi around to plant the marker."

The green-eyed Jedi nodded, then scratched at his  beard-which  had  been

brown once, but now was shot through with white. "I'm betting on  the  former,

though I know there are lots of folks in the New Republic that wouldn't shed a

tear about the second case."

"Unfortunately true." Luke sighed and glanced at the markers again. "They

were all so young."

"Ah,  Luke,  compared  tous,everyoneis  young."  Corran  smiled   easily.

"Measured by life events, you should be, what, about a thousand years old?"

"Being married to Mara has slowed that process, I think."

"Yeah, but the years she put on you before you two finally  got  together

still count." Corran jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. "Before we get any

older, I thought you'd want to know they're all here. The last shuttle came in

ten minutes ago or so. Kyp Durron was on it. He  made  a  grand  entrance,  as

always."

Luke shook his head slowly. "I don't doubt he made an entrance, but  your

'as always' comment was unwarranted."

Corran raised his hands. "Perhaps it was, but his arrival excited  a  lot

of the younger Jedi Knights and apprentices."

"Including your son?"

The Corellian hesitated, then bowed his head. "Valin was certainly  among

those who were impressed, but I'm more worried about the cadre of  young  Jedi

Knights who are looking at Miko as a martyr. Too many seem to want to take his

place. Ganner Rhysode and Wurth Skidder were right there with Kyp, as  were  a

number of the other bright young Jedi. If not for  Jacen,  Jaina,  and  Anakin

holding themselves back, I'd have thought everyone would have swarmed Kyp with

greetings."

The Jedi Master exhaled his anxiety in a long, slow, calming  breath.  "I

know your concerns, and you're not alone in expressing them.  Kam  and  Tionne

have worries about the academy. Teaching the children here as a group has been

good. Opening the older apprentices up to  mentoring  experiences  with  other

Jedi Knights has sharpened their skills immeasurably.  Of  course,  that  does

mean that some of the Jedi Knights who are taken with Kyp's proactive view  of

the order do end up instructing our senior apprentices."

"I'm not arguing the methods, Master  Skywalker,  and  I  see  the  risks

inherent in them." Corran sighed. "What worries me  is  that  Kyp  is  clearly

aware of the political storms his actions are creating, but  he  just  ignores

them. We've discussed this before, all of  us,  but  the  problem  has  really

become acute because of Skidder's actions at Rhommamool."

"I know. This is the primary  reason  I  recalled  everyone  here."  Luke

noticed a smirk tug at the corner of Corran's mouth. "And, yes,  I  know  that

issuing a recall lets everyone know who is in charge.  I  may  not  have  been

raised on Corellia where that sort of stuff comes naturally, but I am aware of

it."

"Good. And you know Kyp's choosing to be the  last  to  arrive  means  he

fought you to the last."

"Yes, caught that." Luke turned from the grove and waved  a  hand  toward

the Great Temple. "Shall we?"

Corran nodded and started off, with Luke catching up  easily  enough.  He

watched Corran for a moment, then smiled. When Corran had first  come  to  the

academy, to train as a Jedi to save his wife, Mirax Terrik, he'd been  willful

and arrogant-all the things Luke expected out  of  a  fighter  pilot  and  law

enforcement officer.And a Corellian. Through the process of learning  what  it

was to become a Jedi, however, Corran had matured and changed. While it wasn't

until the peace with the Empire some six years earlier  that  Corran  resigned

from Rogue Squadron to become  a  full-time  Jedi,  the  Jedi  philosophy  and

demands had become fully integrated into his life.

Oddly enough, while Corran had let go of his arrogance,  Kyp  and  others

were being dangerously misguided by their pride in  being  Jedi.  Luke  easily

recognized how it could happen. When one was attuned to the  Force,  life  and

reality became rendered much more sharply. Options others  could  not  see  or

fathom became painfully clear. While when solving a  problem  Luke  and  other

Jedi took care to explain what they were doing and why, Kyp and his  followers

tended just to act, confident that they knew the best  solution  for  whatever

problem it was they were facing.

Luke didn't doubt that  the  Jedi  probablydid  find  the  best  solution

available in most situations, but the consequences of that solution  might  be

hard for others to take. Ultimately it would be others who had  to  live  with

those results, not the Jedi who caused them,  and  resentment  at  high-handed

Jedi actions was really inevitable.

The Jedi Master  reached  out  and  rested  his  left  hand  on  Corran's

shoulder. "Before we get into the meeting, I do want to thank you for stepping

in and helping here since Mara became ill."

"My pleasure. I get to see Valin and Jysella. She's  spent  more  of  her

life here, at the academy, than with her mother and me. I do want to  maintain

ties."

Luke gave Corran's shoulder a squeeze. "In the old  days,  all  potential

Jedi were taken from their families as children to be trained. I can't imagine

it was easy even then, though. There's so much we don't know..."

"True, but we can't allow ourselves to think what you've created here  is

wrong or bad or that the old Council wouldn't approve. After all, Obi-Wan  and

Yoda stilldid take you on. Training an older Jedi isn't impossible, just  more

difficult." Corran shot his Master a sidelong glance. "And  despite  my  early

differences with you over training, I do think you've done a  superb  job.  We

have a hundred Jedi traveling the galaxy, and more ready to serve  each  year.

It's quite an accomplishment."

"It will be if we are allowed to go forward." Luke followed  Corran  into

the turbolift. "Leia's report on the climate on Coruscant was not good. I  was

there only a short time ago, and the senate has soured  decidedly  because  of

Rhommamool. This may not be the best time to propose a new Jedi council."

"The hand's been dealt. We have to play it and hope the  flux  won't  get

us." The turbolift door opened, and Corran hung  back  so  Luke  could  emerge

first. "Your students await, Master."

Luke strode from the turbolift and felt his heart swell in his chest. The

Jedi had been arrayed in ranks in the Great Temple's Grand  Audience  Chamber.

They were neither as numerous nor as colorful as the Rebel  soldiers  who  had

similarly been gathered after the Death Star  had  been  destroyed,  but  Luke

still felt the return of the same giddy emotions he'd known then. Just  seeing

the Jedi there-good mix of humans and nonhumans, male and  female-peeled  back

the years and reminded him of the heroic efforts that had  been  necessary  to

stave off the Empire.

He paced down the red carpet that split the hall  lengthwise  and  slowly

mounted the steps to the dais at the far end. He nodded  to  Kam  Solusar  and

Tionne, the academy's husband and wife administrators, then turned and  caught

sight of Corran slipping into place in the rank behind his  son.  The  younger

students had been positioned closest to the dais, with Jedi Knights and  their

apprentices arraying themselves back through the hall, grouped  by  their  own

choice.

If those on the left side have aligned  themselves  with  Kyp,  then  the

division is more marked than I thought.The left side of the room  held  nearly

two-thirds of the adult Jedi and half of the nonhumans.  On  the  right  side,

along with Corran, Luke recognized Streen and several others who had staunchly

opposed Kyp's stance. The Jedi Master sensed no  hatred  flowing  between  the

groups, but the level of tension in the chamber was slowly increasing.

He noticed that Jacen stood alone, aloof, in the  backmost  rank.  Though

the boy stood on Kyp's side of the room, Luke felt no connection  between  his

nephew and Kyp's faction. Anakin, on the other hand, stood three  places  away

from Streen and, while subdued, had a fierce  loyalty  to  Luke  burning  deep

inside him.

Luke made himself smile at the younger students. "I am glad  to  see  you

all here. Your bright, shining faces are lit with  the  Force.  You  all  work

hard, and someday, you young Jedi will stand here with us as Jedi  Knights.  I

look forward to that day, and I know you do, too."

"We can be out fighting the bad guys," a young Twi'lek piped.

The innocently enthusiastic comment brought smiles to many faces,  Luke's

included. "Yes, that will be it. However, for now, I would ask Tionne to  take

you away to continue your studies. There are things I need to discuss with the

others that you need not know about at the moment. Thank you for greeting  all

of us, and may the Force be with you."

The children marched out in even rows, with the  eldest  helping  conduct

the youngest out and down the stairs. The adult ranks broke as  people  closed

in on the dais, though the left and right division remained.  Kyp  worked  his

way toward the front of the pack, placing  him  opposite  Corran  and  Streen.

Expectations of a confrontation filled the air.

Luke held a hand out, palm down. "We face two very grave problems. Either

one of them could destroy the Jedi. Together, they most certainly will  unless

we put aside any differences and work together. Kyp, perhaps you  would  share

what you know of the Yuuzhan Vong."

The request clearly surprised the dark-haired Jedi. Kyp had come  to  the

Jedi academy as a gangling youth of sixteen. At thirty-two he had grown into a

strong, slender man with sharp features and angry eyes. He had been the  first

among the Jedi to encounter the  Yuuzhan  Vong,  and  his  escape  from  their

clutches spoke volumes about his skill as a pilot and with the Force.

"As you wish it, my  Master."  Kyp's  low  voice  filled  the  hall.  "My

Avengers and I were ambushed by these Yuuzhan Vong.  They  fly  living  ships,

made of something like coral. The ships can collapse the shields on an X-wing,

or cause laser shots to be sucked into a small black hole. We can  kill  them,

of course, but it is not easy. They wiped out my Avengers, capturing and later

killing Miko. I barely escaped with my life."

"What was the most important thing you learned about the Yuuzhan Vong?"

The younger man frowned. "I don't understand the question."

"You said you were ambushed by the Yuuzhan Vong. How is it  that  a  Jedi

Knight is ambushed?"

"They looked like rocks in their fighters-pieces of asteroids, really..."

Kyp's voice trailed off as his face closed. "I registered  no  hostile  intent

from them. I didn't even sense them through the Force."

His admission started conversation buzzing through the room. Luke let  it

go, permitting the surprise and anxiety to  replace  the  sense  of  impending

confrontation before he spoke. "Yes, exactly. I engaged the Yuuzhan  Vong,  as

well, and could not sense  them  in  the  Force.  They  seem  disconnected  or

shielded from it."

Streen, the old Bespin miner, frowned. "If they are  not  connected  with

the Force, how can they be alive?"

"That's an excellent question, Streen. I have no answer for you.  I  just

don't know." Luke folded his arms across his chest. "The New  Republic  is  of

the opinion that the Yuuzhan Vong threat has been eliminated,  but  I  believe

they have come from outside our galaxy, and therefore, all we've dealt with so

far is a strong probe. They will continue to come."

Kyp snorted. "Once again the New Republic  remains  blind  to  a  threat,

leaving us to deal with it."

Corran narrowed his eyes. "But this is a threat we may  not  be  able  to

handle without help from the New Republic. If we say we can handle the problem

and they're right, that none exists, then we  look  to  be  fools.  If  itdoes

exist, and wefail, that could be the end of the order."

"We won't  fail."  Kyp  looked  around,  and  numerous  heads  bobbed  in

agreement with his statement. "With the Force as our ally and  lightsabers  as

our tools, we'll destroy the Yuuzhan Vong."

Jacen Solo stepped forward, coming down  along  the  carpet.  "Listen  to

yourself, Kyp, and think about  what  you're  saying.  The  Yuuzhan  Vong  are

camouflaged against the senses we rely on. They've got armor and weapons  that

a  lightsaber  can't  cut  instantly,  and  they're  trained  warriors.   More

importantly, if Master Skywalker's thinking is correct, they will be coming in

numbers suitable for conquering agalaxy. Even if each of us stands  against  a

thousand of them, we will be too few."

Kyp's head came up. "Then what do you suggest, Jacen?"

Before  his  nephew  could  answer,  Luke  raised  a  hand  to  stop  the

discussion. "Our situation is this: We've got a foe who is able  to  blindside

us coming forward in unknown numbers, at unknown sites, for  reasons  unknown,

and a galactic government that has  decided  to  do  nothing  about  it.  That

government also does not trust us. I think, no matter  which  way  this  turns

out, we will be in for a lot of blame."

"All the more reason we shouldn't care what the government thinks." Wurth

Skidder tucked his thumbs in his belt.  "They're  clearly  not  interested  in

what's best for the galaxy."

"Meaning we are?" Streen fixed  the  younger  Jedi  with  a  hard  stare.

"That's what you're saying, isn't it?"

"What he is saying, Streen,  is  that  disaster  has  struck  the  galaxy

whenever the Jedi order has been weakened." Kyp pointed a  hand  toward  Luke.

"If we will be blamed for what happens, I would rather  be  blamed  for  being

zealous in attacking this problem, than timid in waiting for developments."

Luke closed his eyes for  a  moment  and  studied  the  danger  in  Kyp's

comment. The Jedi Knights were always meant to be defenders of peace, but  Kyp

encouraged offensive action, proactive and preemptive strikes. He'd called his

squadron the Dozen-and-Two Avengers, instead of something more  suitable  like

the Defenders. Now he spoke ofattacking the problem.To some it might  be  word

games, but the words he uses to express his  ideas  and  communicate  them  to

others show me how close to the edge he is.

The closeness to the edge did not surprise Luke, for he'd seen it develop

in Kyp over the years. While still an apprentice, Kyp had been  influenced  by

the spirit of a dead Sith Lord. He'd stolen a superweapon  and  destroyed  the

planet Carida, killing billions. Kyp had worked tirelessly to atone  for  what

he had done, but had chosen more difficult and visible campaigns as time  went

on, so more people could see that hewas making amends.This invasion must  seem

to Kyp as a grand crusade through which he can win the acceptance of even  his

most harsh critics.

Luke opened his eyes again, then took a step down  toward  the  crowd  of

Jedi before him. "It is premature to speak of any  attacking  of  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. Jacen is right-we cannot stand against them alone. Our job,  right  now,

is to prepare for the worst and to learn as much about the Yuuzhan Vong as  we

can. We have to have good and useful data the New Republic can use to  plan  a

defense or an offense. Our role here is as guardians, and our skills can allow

us to scout out this threat. Once we have good intelligence about the  Yuuzhan

Vong, then we can plan what we will do."

He looked around at the Jedi Knights arrayed there: male, female,  human,

and nonhuman. "Over the next week or so I will give you assignments. I will be

sending you into dangers I cannot even guess at knowing. I  hope  all  of  you

will return unhurt, but I know that will not happen. While the  outside  world

may be divided about us, we cannot afford to be divided against ourselves.  If

we do not stand together, we will be torn apart, and with  us  will  fall  our

galaxy."

CHAPTER FOUR

Leia turned from her packed luggage and glanced at the suite's doorway as

C-3PO opened the door and admitted Elegos A'Kla. The Caamasi wore a gold cloak

over his shoulders, and subtle weaving of purple threads into it mimicked  the

striping on his face and shoulders. The Caamasi gave her a quick  smile,  then

waved off C-3PO's invitation to take his cloak.

She sighed. "I thought I'd be ready by now, but  I'm  just  finishing  my

packing. Don't know when I'll be back here, and I wanted to take a few  things

with me."

"Please, take  your  time."  Elegos  shrugged  simply.  "If  not  for  my

senatorial duties, we would have been away from here a week ago."

Leia waved him into  the  two-level  suite's  central  chamber,  and  the

Caamasi settled himself into one of the nerf-hide chairs angled toward the big

viewport that looked out over Coruscant's cityscape. A hallway heading back to

the south led to her study-which had once been the boys'  room-and  a  smaller

bedroom they'd given to Jaina and then, during her time at  the  academy,  had

turned into a guest room. The master bedroom lay in the second level, accessed

by a curving stairway built  against  the  far  wall.  The  kitchen  had  been

installed to the north of the living room, with a small dining area between it

and the living room.

Leia stuffed a  small  holocube  into  a  bag  and  started  closing  the

fasteners. "The senate didn't want to let you head out immediately?"

"I doubt they wanted me to head out at  all,  but  they  had  no  choice.

Instead I was given committee assignments and work to clear.  My  daughter  is

dealing with most of it for me. Releqy will  serve  as  my  liaison  with  the

senate in my absence. This is why I've not been in closer  communication  with

you."

"But your daughter has, so I've  been  apprised  of  your  delays."  Leia

straightened up and looked at the three red fabric bags  she  had  stuffed  to

bursting with clothes and other things she couldn't  bear  to  leave  behind.I

left Alderaan with even less than this. Here I am,  a  quarter  of  a  century

later, a refugee once more-this time of my conscience rather than any external

act. "I should have been ready before this, but things keep cropping up."

Before she could even attempt to explain, she saw Elegos's nostrils flare

and his gaze flick past her to the upper landing for the  stairs.  She  turned

and found her husband, Han, hanging there in the doorway, his hands on  either

side of the jamb. She shivered because the haggard look on his  face  and  the

position of his hands reminded her far too much of when he had been frozen  in

carbonite. She wanted to believe the darkness under his eyes was just  shadow,

but she couldn't deceive herself that way.

She heard Elegos rise from his chair. "Captain Solo."

Han's head came up slowly, and his eyes narrowed as he faced  the  voice.

"A Caamasi? Elegos, isn't it? A senator?"

"Yes."

Han staggered forward and almost fell down the stairs. He caught  himself

on the banister, made it down a couple more steps, then slid  his  way  around

the curve. He got his feet under him again, leapt the last few  steps  to  the

floor, and strode past Leia. With a grunt, he  flopped  down  almost  boneless

into one of the chairs opposite Elegos. In the viewport's light,  the  rainbow

of stains on Han's once-white tunic was evident, as was the  grime  at  cuffs,

collar, and elbows. His boots were badly scuffed, his trousers  wrinkled,  and

his hair utterly unkempt. He ran a hand over  beard  stubble,  flashing  dirty

fingernails as he did so.

"I have a question for you, Elegos."

"If I can be of service."

Han nodded as if his head were balanced on his spine instead of connected

by muscle. "I understand you Caamasi have memories, strong memories."

Leia extended a hand toward Elegos. "Forgive me, Elegos. I learned  about

that from Luke, and I thought, my husband..."

The Caamasi shook his head. "I have no doubt you all are  to  be  trusted

with the information about our memnii. Momentous events in  our  lives  create

memories. We are able, among our kind, and  with  certain  Jedi,  to  transfer

these memories. They have to be strong  memories,  powerful  ones,  to  become

memnii."

"Yeah, the strong ones do stick around." Han  focused  somewhere  between

the wall and the edge of the viewport. He fell silent for a moment, then fixed

Elegos with a hard stare. "So what I want to know is this: How do you get  rid

of them? How do you get them out of your head?"

The tortured tone of Han's voice drove a vibroblade through Leia's heart.

"Oh, Han..."

He held up a hand to keep her back. His expression sharpened. "How do you

do it, Elegos?"

The Caamasi lifted his chin. "We cannot get rid of them, Captain Solo. By

sharing them we share the burden of them, but we can never be rid of them."

Han snarled, then curled forward in the chair, grinding the heels of  his

hands against his eyes. "I'd tear them out if that would stop me from  seeing,

you know, I would, I really would. I can't stop seeing it, seeing him,  seeing

him die..."

The man's voice sank to a bass rumble; rough, raw, and ragged  as  broken

ferrocrete. "There he was, standing there.  He'd  saved  my  son.  He'd  saved

Anakin. He tossed him up into my arms. Then, when I saw him again, a  gust  of

wind knocked him down and collapsed a building on top of him. But he  got  up.

He was bloody and torn up, but he got up again. On his feet, he got up and  he

raised his arms toward me. He raised his arms toward me, so I could save  him,

the way he'd saved Anakin."

Han's voice squeaked to silence. His larynx bobbed up and down.

"I saw him, don't you get it? I saw him standing there as  the  moon  hit

Sernpidal. The air just combusted. He was standing there, roaring,  screaming.

The light turned him black. Just a silhouette. Then it ate into him. I saw his

bones. They turned black, too, then white, so white  I  couldn't  watch.  Then

nothing." Han swiped at his nose with a hand. "My best friend,  my  only  true

friend, and I let him die. How am I supposed to live with that? How do  I  get

that out of my head? Tell me."

Elegos's voice came softly, but with a strength that  belied  its  gentle

tone. "What you remember is partly what you saw and partly your fears. You see

yourself as having failed him, and you think that's how  he  saw  you  at  the

last, but can't be sure. Memories are not always that clear."

"You don't know, you weren't there."

"No, but I have been in similar situations."  The  Caamasi  sank  into  a

crouch, with his cloak pooling to the floor around him. "The first time I used

a blaster, I shot three men. I watched them dance and collapse. I watched them

die, and I knew I would carry that memory with me forever, the  memory  of  me

killing them. Then it was explained to me: the blaster had only  been  set  to

stun them. My belief was wrong, as, perhaps, is yours."

Han shook his head defiantly. "Chewie was myfriend. He counted on me, and

I failed him."

"I do not believe he would see it that way."

Han snarled. "You didn't know him. How would you know?"

Elegos laid a hand on the man's knee. "I didn't  know  him,  but  I  have

known of him for decades. Even what you just told me now, that he  saved  your

son, tells me how much he loved you."

"He couldn't love me. Chewie died hating me. I abandoned him, I left  him

there to die. His last thoughts were filled with hatred for me."

"No, Han, no." Leia dropped to her knees beside Han's chair and  clutched

his left forearm. "You can't believe that."

"I was there, Leia. I was close to saving Chewie, and I  failed.  I  left

him there to die."

"Regardless of what you believe, Captain Solo, Chewbacca  did  not  share

that view."

"What? How can you know what he was thinking?"

"The same way you will." The Caamasi blinked his violet eyes.  "He  saved

your son. In Chewbacca's eyes, Anakin  saved  you  by  piloting  theMillennium

Falcon to safety. Yet one more time Chewbacca saved  you,  this  time  through

your son. You don't know that now, but you will come to see that is the truth.

When you relive this memory, think about that. As noble a  hero  as  Chewbacca

was, he could not have had anything but joy at knowing you survived. To  think

anything less demeans him."

Han shot to his feet, pitching the chair over backward.  "How  dare  you?

How dare you come into my home and tell me I'm demeaning my friend? What gives

you the right?"

Elegos slowly rose and spread open hands before him. "I apologize for any

offense, Captain Solo. I have intruded on your grief. It was unthinkable."

He bowed to Leia. "My apologies to you, as well. I shall leave you."

"Don't bother." Han stalked forward between them, then headed toward  the

door. "Threepio, find out from Coruscant's constabulary which tapcafs lead the

list for incident reports. Comlink me the list."

Leia got up. "Han, don't go. I'm going to be leaving soon."

"I know. Off to save the galaxy again, that's my Leia." He didn't turn to

face her, just hunched his shoulders. "I hope you have better luck.  I  failed

to save even one person."

The suite's closing door eclipsed Han Solo's back.

C-3PO, his head cocked at an angle, looked at Leia. "Mistress? What do  I

do?"

Leia closed her eyes and sighed. "Get the list, give  it  to  him.  Maybe

call Wedge or any of the other retired Rogues. Hobbie  or  Janson  or  someone

ought to be at loose ends and could keep an eye on  him.  And  when  he  comes

back, take good care of him."

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Leia, I can head out to the Rim  on  my

own. You can stay here to care for your husband. I can report to you."

She opened her eyes, then  covered  Elegos's  hand  with  her  own.  "No,

Elegos, I need to go. Even that deep in grief, Han's right. I  want  to  stay,

all of me wants to stay, but I have to go. Others can't, so it is up to us  to

rescue them. Han can take care of himself-he'll have to."

CHAPTER FIVE

Luke looked up and smiled as Corran escorted his  two  nephews  into  the

briefing room.

"Did you see your sister off on the shuttle?"

"She's on her way." Jacen, the older one, glanced around the room, always

looking to see if anything had changed since the last time  he'd  been  there.

"She wishes she had a better assignment."

"I'm sure she does." Luke watched Jacen for a moment.Always checking  the

world, verifying what he could assume,  not  trusting  until  he  is  certain.

"Right now, I need her picking up Danni at Commenor, then  meeting  with  your

mother and Senator A'Kla."

Anakin, the younger nephew, toyed with an ancient piece of equipment left

in the corner since the time when the Rebels fought the Empire  in  the  skies

above Yavin 4. "If Danni had just stayed with our  mother  on  Coruscant,  she

could have come out with her and not needed Jaina."

Jacen frowned. "Jaina's going to help Danni work  on  her  Force  skills,

that's why she's going. They'll be traveling for a few days with nothing  else

to do, and Jaina's a good teacher."

Luke nodded. "And, after her ordeal, Danni did need time to meet with her

family and assure them she was unharmed." He didn't  know  if  "unharmed"  was

accurate; the trauma of capture by the Yuuzhan Vong had to have  been  severe.

Still, Danni Quee had been intelligent  and  resilient,  so  Luke  felt  she'd

recover from her ordeal if given the proper support.

Anakin popped the panel off the old transceiver and peered inside.  "What

is it you have for us to do? Pretty much everyone else has  their  assignments

already. I bet it's something good."

Jacen snorted in his brother's direction, narrowing his brown  eyes.  "He

let the others go first because our assignments are going to be no better than

Jaina's."

Corran frowned. "How did you get a target lock on that idea?"

Jacen half turned to face the Corellian Jedi. "He  won't  play  favorites

because of his relationship to us, and realistically, we are young. At  least,

by saving us for last, he saves us some embarrassment."

Jacen's words didn't seem as full of disappointment as they should  have,

which reinforced a decision Luke  had  already  made  concerning  assignments.

"Anakin."

The younger boy, blue eyes bright, glanced over at his uncle. "What?"

"I'm going to have you accompany Mara to Dantooine."

"Huh? What?" Anakin straightened up. His brows furrowed, and just  for  a

second, Luke caught an angry expression that meant trouble whenever he'd  seen

it on Han Solo's face. "But I thought I'd be out doing something... I thought.

.." The anger that had flashed over his face drained away with his  words.  "I

understand."

Luke arched an eyebrow at him. "And what is it you understand?"

"You don't trust me." Anakin looked down at his  dust-smeared  fingertips

and whispered hoarsely, "You don't trust me because I killed Chewbacca."

The mournful tone of the boy's voice sent a  shiver  down  Luke's  spine.

Regret and hurt poured off Anakin, underscoring the turmoil he felt  over  the

Wookiee's death.Anakin has always wanted to be a hero, has  always  wanted  to

redeem his name, and suddenly finds himself drowning in a tragedy.

"There is something you must understand, Anakin, first and foremost:  You

did not kill Chewbacca." Luke walked over to his nephew and rested  his  hands

on the boy's shoulders. Using his thumbs, he tipped the boy's  face  up  until

their gazes met. "The Yuuzhan Vong caused Sernpidal's moon  to  come  crashing

down into the planet, not you. For you to accept blame for  Chewbacca's  death

absolves them of his murder and the murder of all those you couldn't save. You

can't do that."

Anakin swallowed hard. "It sounds logical when you say  it,  but,  in  my

heart, what I feel... What I see in my father's eyes."

Luke lowered his face  to  a  level  with  Anakin's.  "Don't  be  reading

something into your father's eyes that isn't there. He's a good  man,  with  a

good heart. He'd never blame you for Chewie's death."

The Jedi Master straightened up again. "Regardless of misunderstanding, I

don't know how you can think  I  don't  trust  you.  I  am  very  specifically

entrusting to you my wife, the person I hold most dear."

The boy frowned. "Are you sure it's not the other way around?"

"Ah, Anakin, do you think Mara would like an assignment  baby-sitting  an

untrustworthy apprentice?"

"Um, no."

"And do you think she'd give me an earful about it?"

Corran laughed. "An earful would be getting off lightly."

Anakin smiled a little. "I guess she would, Uncle Luke."

"I may be adept in the ways of the Force, but  there's  no  Jedi  ability

that'll take the sting out of the sharp side of her tongue." Luke stepped back

and gave Anakin a brave smile. "Mara needs some time to get her illness  under

control. Dantooine is a world teeming with life, so it's full of the Force.  I

want her there to be able to recover, and I want you with her to help her out.

If you'll accept this mission, I'll be very grateful."

Anakin hesitated for a moment then nodded. "Thanks for trusting me."

"I've never had any doubts about you, Anakin." Luke winked at  him.  "You

should go get your things together,  then  see  to  gathering  the  provisions

you'll need on Dantooine."

"Blasters and lightsabers included?"

Luke nodded. "Lightsabers, of course. Blasters because I  think  you  can

use the work concentrating and focusing the  Force.  Target  practice  demands

that sort of concentration."

Anakin's smile broadened. "Besides, Aunt Mara  wouldn't  be  caught  dead

without a blaster."

"Only one?" Corran laughed. "Run heavy on the power packs, Anakin."

The youth clapped his hands together. "I'll take good care of her,  Uncle

Luke, I really will. We'll come back ready to do whatever we need to beat  the

Yuuzhan Vong."

"I'm sure of it." Luke nodded to his nephew and watched the boy leave the

room. He waited until he could  sense  Anakin's  presence  descending  in  the

turbolift, then turned his attention to Jacen. "Do you really think  I've  got

some embarrassing duty planned for you?"

"No, Uncle Luke, I'm just afraid I might embarrass you."

Luke turned and walked toward the table that had been behind him. He gave

himself a moment to ponder Jacen's words. He turned and  leaned  back  against

the table. "I suppose this conversation has been coming for  a  while,  hasn't

it?"

"Probably." Jacen shrugged. "I've been thinking since  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

arrived, and since all the Jedi were here and talking."

"Sounds like this is a family talk." Corran levered himself away from the

room's back wall. "I'll return later."

Jacen held a hand up. "No, wait. Itis a family matter, but  one  for  the

entire Jedi family, not just us."

Corran looked at Luke. "Luke?"

"Do stay. I suspect more than two perspectives will be useful here." Luke

looked over at his nephew. "What have you been thinking?"

The youth sighed, and a certain amount of relief pulsed off him. "If this

sounds harsh, I don't mean it to be, but I've come to realize something pretty

fundamental about the Jedi order. We're all trained to use the Force to  allow

us to do things to keep the peace and stave off disaster. We do  that  because

we're following your teaching. You're following the teaching of your  masters,

Uncle Luke, but they had to instruct you in those things you needed to  defeat

the Empire. They did a great job forging you into a weapon, and you even  went

beyond their training to do things they probably didn't think you could."

The Jedi Master nodded. "I can accept that."

"Okay, the thing of it is that you  were  shaped  as  a  weapon  by  Jedi

Masters who were part of a tradition that had developed into  peacekeepers.  I

get the feeling, though, that's not how the  Jedi  began.  I  think  the  Jedi

philosophy started as something that strengthened people within. Thepowers  we

manifest-I think those are all outgrowths of the internal strengthening, but a

lot ofthose teachings were lost along the way. I mean, I  feel  the  need  for

something inside."

With anguish on his face, Jacen looked at his uncle. "I'm not sure  being

a Jedi Knight is my calling in life. I'd really prefer it if you  gave  me  no

assignment at all."

Luke shifted his shoulders involuntarily as a twitch shot up  his  spine.

"Wow, I'd not expected that."

Jacen glanced at the floor. "I'm sorry I disappointed you."

"No, it's not that." Luke frowned. "I was going to tell you that what you

wanted didn't matter right now because I need you. And as I was getting  ready

to say that, I heard Uncle Owen telling me the same  thing,  right  before  he

died."

Jacen's head came up. "Then you understand?"

"Oh, very well."

"Then you'll let me seek the answers I need?"

"No." Luke held his hands up quickly. "I mean, yes,  you'll  be  able  to

seek for your answers, but not as a replacement for an assignment. You have to

remember that absolutely key to the Jedi philosophy is a respect for all life.

For you to go off now means you'd be  putting  your  life  ahead  of  that  of

others, and that's not good."

"But, Uncle Luke, you've always put yourself last. You-and  Mom  and  Dad

and everyone else-are always being pulled every  which  way."  He  balled  his

fists and pounded them against his hips. "You don't have the  time  to  figure

out what it is you need to do to develop yourself further in the Force. You're

always distracted."

Corran scratched at his throat. "You've got a  point  there,  Jacen,  but

you're assuming that only by going off like a hermit to contemplate the  Force

and your integration with it are you going to be able to get anywhere.  That's

just not true."

"How do you know, Corran?" Jacen crossed his arms over his  chest.  "None

of the Jedi alive today have had that chance. For all we know, Yoda spent  the

first three centuries of his life as a hermit. Maybe that's what  we  need  to

do."

"Or, maybe, Jacen, that's just one path to get where  you  want  to  go."

Corran pointed a finger at Luke. "Your uncle and  I  differed  over  paths  to

becoming a Jedi Knight, but  we're  both  here.  And,  sure,  there  might  be

distractions out there, but there are lessons learned from  doing  things  and

succeeding or failing that aren't easy to learn from  tranquil  consideration.

You're right, having time to consider them and their consequences  is  useful,

but I find it hard to concentrate on introspection when folks out there are in

trouble."

Luke nodded in agreement. "Corran's point is  well  taken,  Jacen.  I  do

understand what you are saying, and I promise you that if you decide that your

path is one of introspection, I won't stand in your way."

The youth's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "There's a catch."

"There is. I reallydo need you. I've saved the most dangerous mission  in

all this for myself, and I want you with me. Because  you've  dealt  with  the

Yuuzhan Vong before, you have the experience I need. We're  taking  Artoo  and

going back to Belkadan, to see what that Yuuzhan  Vong  agent  was  trying  to

create there. This is a very important mission, and I really do need you  with

me."

Corran  snorted.  "Great,  I  guess  that   leaves   the   aforementioned

embarrassing mission for me."

Jacen glanced at him. "Trade you."

"No, you won't." Luke reached down and clutched the edge  of  the  table.

"You wouldn't like the assignment I'm giving him, and given what  you've  told

me, you're really not suited to it. The  Belkadan  mission,  however,  is  one

you're perfect for."

Jacen's face closed for a second, then he nodded, but stiffly.  "I'll  go

along with you for now, but I have such mixed feelings. I'm afraid I'll be  no

help to anyone."

"Fair enough."

The youth bowed his head. "If you will permit me, Uncle Luke, I'll  leave

you two to discuss Corran's mission."

"No, wait, listen to what you almost asked to do."

Corran rolled his eyes. "This is going to be worse than I thought."

Luke laughed. "Okay, so yours is the second most dangerous  mission.  Out

on the Rim there's a system designated MZX33291 by Imperial surveyors. It  has

a pulsar in the area that disrupts  communications  from  the  only  habitable

world in the system. The Empire had made the planet off-limits to everyone for

reasons  that  are  unclear.  There   is   some   evidence   that   they   had

xenoarchaeological teams out there, but no  trace  of  what  they  might  have

discovered."

"Okay. You think the Yuuzhan Vong are there?"

"I don't know." Luke shrugged. "The University of  Agamar  uncovered  the

records concerning the fifth world there, which they've  named  Bimmiel  after

the Imperial survey team leader. About three months ago they sent  a  xenoarch

survey team out as part of a for-credit course. No one has  heard  from  them,

which  isn't  wholly  unexpected.  We  were  sent  word  by   the   university

administrators, who thought, if we had Jedi in the area, we could swing by and

make sure everything was okay."

The Corellian smiled. "They think our budget for interstellar  travel  is

bigger than theirs?"

"Something like that. I also think they believe Jedi will  be  better  in

the rescuing department than students  they  might  send  out."  Luke  sighed.

"Initial reports from the team indicated the climate  had  changed  from  that

seen by the Imperial surveyors. The students arrived during the stormy  season

there. It's pretty severe."

Corran nodded. "Bad weather doesn't sound that dangerous."

"I want you to take Ganner Rhysode with you. He'll be your partner."

The Corellian hissed. "That trade offer still good, Jacen?"

"If it's any consolation, Corran, Ganner was no more  in  favor  of  this

pairing than you were when I told him what  he'd  be  doing."  Luke  gave  his

friend a simple smile. "Look, if there is nothing going on out there, then the

mission should be simple. You get in, you locate the university's  people  and

evacuate them."

"Ganner could do that by himself."

"Hecould, but if the Yuuzhan Vongare there, I think  he'd  be  likely  to

launch into them, and that would leave the folks he came to save in a very bad

position. You're in charge, and he will obey you, albeit rather reluctantly."

Jacen smiled at Corran. "Besides, Corran, you have  to  admit  that  your

lacking telekinetic abilities does put you at a bit of a disadvantage."

"Sure. I can't move a rock with my mind, but, boy, can I make  that  rock

think it's been moved." He sighed. "Ganner is pretty good with TK. Makes sense

to include him. And things could have been worse. You  could  have  paired  me

with Kyp."

"I'd not be so cruel to either of you."

"Hey, I'm not that bad." Corran arched an eyebrow at Luke.  "Or  are  you

thinking this is one of those from-a-certain-point-of-view things?"

"See, all that training did pay off." The Jedi Master  nodded.  "This  is

also a chance, Corran, to show Ganner that Kyp's approach to the  Force  isn't

the only way to do things."

"Got it." Corran smiled. "Well, may the Force be with all of us, I guess.

"

"Yes, please." Luke nodded solemnly. "You know, I like the fact that  the

Jedi are the galaxy's first line of defense, but what  I'm  dreading  here  is

that the Yuuzhan Vong will show us how very weak a line that is."

CHAPTER SIX

Corran Horn found Valin in a small clearing in the Yavin  4  jungle.  The

boy sat on the ground cross-legged, with his hands on  his  knees.  He  stared

intently forward, concentrating on a small rock a meter in front of him. Sweat

beaded up on his brow and threatened to trickle down into his hazel eyes.

Immeasurable pride and anguish roiled around  in  Corran's  heart  as  he

watched his son. The Horn-Halcyon line of Jedi Knights was notorious  for  its

lack of telekinetic abilities. Corran still recalled his complete  frustration

with  trying  to  move  objects  through  the  Force.  Except  under   extreme

circumstances, when he'd used the Force to contain energy that would have hurt

others, he couldn't so much as tickle drool from a Hutt's lips, much less move

a rock.

That Valin would try so hard to move the  rock  impressed  Corran.  Valin

already had surpassed his father's expectations. Though only eleven years old,

he already stood shoulder-height to Corran and clearly was going to take after

his grandfathers in terms of size.  His  dark  hair  and  hazel  eyes  were  a

compromise between his parents'  coloration,  while  his  features  were  more

Mirax, with hints of Corran's own mother in there, too.It's  good  he  doesn't

take after Booster Terrik in that aspect.

Like every father everywhere, Corran's chest tightened as he watched  his

son try a task he knew the boy would fail. He wanted to step in, to save Valin

from the disappointment, but held himself back. Learning the lesson might hurt

his son, but learning how to handle  disappointment  was  more  valuable  than

being able to move all the rocks in the galaxy.

And, to Corran's surprise, the  small,  ovoid  rock  began  to  move.  It

tottered on its base, then slowly flopped over on its side.

Corran whooped out loud. "Valin, that's great! You moved it."

"Dad?" The boy's head whipped around, his long brown hair flicking  sweat

away. One lock pasted itself under his right eye. "I didn't see you there."

"No, you were concentrating. That was great." Corran  advanced  into  the

clearing and helped his son up to his feet. "I mean, what  you  did,  I  could

never-"

"Dad, it wasn't what you think."

"I know what I saw."

Valin smiled and fingered the hair off his cheek.  "Remember  how  you've

talked about points of view?"

"Yes?"

"It's a point-of-view thing." Valin squatted down and  waved  his  father

down with him. "Look again."

Corran studied the rock. The ground at its base  was  alive  with  small,

purple insects. They were swarming up through the dirt and around the base  of

the stone. "I don't get it. You set the rock on the entrance to one  of  their

colonies?"

"No.  I  have  been  studying  the  garnants.  They  communicate  through

vibration and scent. I used the Force. I reached  down  and  made  them  think

there was a trail up. I made them think the  rock  was  food.  The  first  one

marked it with food scent." Valin  shrugged  sheepishly  and  pulled  a  small

morsel of food from a pocket. "I have a reward for them, so it's not like  I'm

forcing them to do anything."

Corran frowned for  a  moment.  Compelling  the  behavior  of  a  sapient

individual, especially if it was against the individual's  will  and  for  the

selfish benefit of the Jedi, undoubtedly would be of  the  dark  side.  Luring

nonsapients into doing something natural didn't fall into that class  at  all,

especially when the task was harmless  and  they  were  paid  back  for  their

actions by something that would replace the energy they'd expended.

"It's probably closer to the borderline with the dark side than you  want

to be playing with, but I'm very impressed." Corran reached  out  and  stroked

his son's head. "Communicating with another species isn't easy."

"Not really communicating, Dad." Valin rolled  his  eyes.  "They're  just

bugs. I make them think a rock is food."

"More than I could do at your age."

"But you weren't trained."

"True enough." Corran stood. "That notwithstanding,  I'm  very  proud  of

you."

"I'd like to make you prouder." Valin stood and sighed heavily. "I'd been

trying to move the rock with my mind for a while first. Then I decided to  try

that other way. I guess I'll never be a powerful Jedi."

Corran rested his hands on his son's shoulders and touched  his  forehead

to Valin's. "There are those among the Jedi that view strength as how far  you

can move something, or how easily you can break something. The  real  strength

of a Jedi comes from within, from his heart and mind.  Some  Jedi  move  rocks

just to prove they can move them, but the strongest Jedi don't see any  reason

to move rocks when that isn't going to solve the immediate problem."

His son sighed again and smiled. "So, what are you telling me, Dad?"

"He's telling you, boy, that being weak is something you'll learn to  get

used to, perhaps a handicap you'll even get over."

Corran's head came up as he turned toward the voice. "Ganner!"

The other Jedi nodded solemnly. The man stood a  full  head  taller  than

Corran. His broad shoulders tapered down to a narrow waist and hips,  but  the

man's body fairly rippled with muscle. Jet-black hair had been combed back  to

emphasize a widow's peak. The mustache and goatee he wore  combined  with  his

handsome features and piercing blue eyes to give him the sort of  rakish  good

looks that easily made the man the object of admiring  glances.  The  midnight

blue and black Jedi robes he wore set him apart from the jungle and  gave  him

the bearing of a government official.

Corran could feel the  Force  gathering  in  his  son.  He  gave  Valin's

shoulder a squeeze. "Don't do it."

The taller man opened his arms easily and let the hint of a  smile  twist

his lips. "Please, Valin, show me what you can do. Project whatever vision you

wish. I promise to be afraid."

The boy lifted his chin as the Force drained out of him. "Scariest  thing

I can think of is you standing there."

Ganner clapped slowly. "He has a lot of spirit, this is good." He  looked

at Corran. "Our ship is ready to go."

"I was just going to say good-bye to my son."

"We have some time. Not much, but a little yet."

Corran turned to Valin. "Go back to the Great  Temple.  Your  mother  and

sister are there. Tell them I'll be along presently to say farewell."

The boy arched an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure?"

Ganner laughed. "I won't hurt him."

Valin turned his head and spitted Ganner on a  hard  stare.  "As  if  you

could..."

"Go, Valin. Your mother will get impatient, and you don't want  that  any

more than I do." Corran ruffled the boy's hair. "Your mother will be  worried,

so ease her fears, okay?"

The boy nodded, then started sprinting off toward the temple.

Corran watched him go, then slowly looked back at Ganner. "Okay, and  now

thereal reason you wanted to meet me here, away from the others."

"Perceptive, good." Ganner's arctic eyes narrowed. "You're  nominally  in

charge of our expedition-"

"Correction, I'm in charge of it." Corran  folded  his  arms  across  his

chest. "You are my aide on this run."

"In the data files, yes, that's it. In reality..."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning you're an old-style Jedi, you and  your  dual-phase  lightsaber.

Meaning I'm a much more powerful Jedi than you are. Meaning I  know  that  you

don't care for Kyp Durron's philosophy-a  philosophy  that  I  think  must  be

embraced if the Jedi order is to fulfill its destiny in  the  galaxy."  Ganner

gestured easily, and the rock rose in the air as if lodged in  some  invisible

turbolift. "I will do what must be done for us to complete our mission, but  I

will not brook interference fromyou."

The rock shot straight at Corran. He dodged to the right. The rock veered

wide to the left, then tumbled and crashed back through the underbrush.

Ganner smirked at him. "Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Sure." Corran let his hands fall to his  sides  easily.  "You're  saying

that your philosophy is more important than the job we're being sent to do."

"That's not it at all."

"Sure it is, but I don't expect you to understand that." Corran shook his

head. "You and Kyp and the others that believe the way you  do-you're  working

very hard to establish what the Jedi mean to this galaxy. You're doing that by

wearing sharp uniforms and taking strong  stands.  Much  of  the  time  you're

probably right in the stands you take-I can't disagree with them. What I don't

like is how you make the stands, and how you work. You're all saying, 'Hey, we

are Jedi. We deserve your respect.' I happen to think we need to earn it."

Ganner's expression darkened. "Wehave earned it. The Jedi made order  out

of the chaos of the Empire."

"No,a Jedi did that,the only Jedi there was at the time who  was  willing

to stand up and fight the Empire. Luke Skywalker earned the galaxy's  respect,

not the rest of us. Our fight has to be waged each and every  day  out  there,

and here's a hologram you'd best study from all sides:  People  end  up  being

inherently suspicious and resentful of anyone who  sets  himself  up  to  sort

right from wrong." Corran gave him a half smile. "I saw it when I  worked  for

CorSec, and I've seen it as a Jedi."

The taller man threw his head back and laughed. "You, of all people, have

the least call to criticize us for trying to establish an image that makes our

jobs easier."

"How do you plot that course?"

"What  you  did  on  Courkrus.  You  terrorized  people.  Made  them  see

frightening things  that  weren't  there."  A  triumphant  smirk  played  over

Ganner's features. "You might have been going by the name Keiran Halcyon then,

but you used the methods we use. You know how effective they can be."

"No, no, no." Corran shook his head. "You're not going to use what I  did

at Courkrus to justify your actions. Courkrus was an outlaw planet,  ruled  by

pirates. I used their fear against them to break down their  confederation.  I

made those who deserved  to  fear  someone  bringing  justice,  actually  fear

justice having arrived. You all come into  a  situation  and  hold  yourselves

back, aloof, judging always. No one can feel safe around you-they always  have

to wonder when you will come to judge them."

"We deter them from turning to the dark side that way."

"Yeah, I've heard that argument before, from guys at CorSec and in  every

security service on any planet I've ever visited.  Fear,  regardless  of  what

good it might accomplish, is a stepping-stone on the path to the  dark  side."

Corran held his hands up. "None of that matters, though.  You  don't  want  me

interfering with you on this mission of ours, fine. Don't  give  me  cause  to

interfere with you. We're to go, find some academics,  and  bring  them  home.

It's very simple."

Ganner Rhysode snorted at his description of the mission, and Corran felt

just a glimmer of respect for the man's rejection of that  description.Perhaps

you are a little bit sharper than I am willing to grant.

"I do hope it will be simple, but these things never are." Ganner waved a

hand back toward the Great Temple. "Though some are taking refuge in the  idea

that the hyperspace disturbance around the galaxy will keep out  all  but  the

few Yuuzhan Vong who squirted through, I think the analogy that  it's  like  a

storm, a storm that may be abating, is more likely true. If so, we will likely

find Yuuzhan Vong on that world and many others. I'll be ready."

Ganner dropped a hand to his lightsaber. "I'll do whatever  it  takes  to

show these invaders why they never should have come here."

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" Ganner snarled a bit as he slapped at a garnant on his neck. "The

Yuuzhan Vong are invaders. We need to drive them back."

"Our mission is to save the academics." Corran smiled  carefully  as  the

larger man slapped at more insects. "It's a little detail, but you can see how

painful missing the little things can be."

Ganner growled again and brushed garnants from his clothes. "You did this

to me."

"Not me. Perhaps you stepped on a colony's main tunnel." Corran kept  his

mirth in check.I willhave to speak to Valin about this. He admired  his  son's

sense of family, but the Force wasn't a tool  for  playing  practical  jokes.I

think he knows that. I just have to remind him of it and make sure he  doesn't

make that mistake again.

Ganner angrily scratched at his clothes and slapped at garnants. "They're

everywhere."

A shiver ran down Corran's spine as he  caught  a  mental  image  of  the

Yuuzhan Vong swarming over Ganner the way the insects were. "Head back to  the

temple and hit a refresher station. They've painted you with a scent that will

draw more to you. We'll go as soon as you are rid of them."

"You may think this is funny, Horn, but I'm serious about what I've said.

Don't get in my way." The taller man tore his tunic off  and  started  running

toward the Great Temple.

Corran watched him go until he could no longer see the red bite bumps all

over Ganner's back. "I have no intention of being in your way, Ganner,  unless

you force me to be there," he muttered at the retreating figure. "If you do, I

guess we'll find out just who reallyis the stronger Jedi."

CHAPTER SEVEN

Through the doorway to the bedroom they shared, Luke Skywalker  caught  a

glimpse of his wife reclining on the bed. She lay there very comfortably,  her

red-gold hair spread around her head like a halo.  Her  chest  rose  and  fell

regularly and gently-peacefully, really-prompting him to  realize  how  little

peace they had known in their life together.

Beside her, on the bed, lay a few  folded  garments  that  needed  to  be

stuffed into the traveling bags at the foot of the bed. Hers were mostly full,

and two bags  had  been  set  out  for  him.  Luke  smiled,  appreciating  her

thoughtfulness, and admiring her for taking the extra effort to get  his  bags

out, despite the draining fatigue that was part of her illness.

He entered the room quietly, hoping not to  disturb  her,  but  her  eyes

flickered open. "Luke. Good, it's you."

"Who else would you have expected?"

She smiled, a bit haltingly, but with enough strength to  send  a  thrill

through him. "Anakin. I don't want to be late for our departure."

"Don't worry about that. Anakin is a very understanding  boy."  Luke  set

aside the folded garments and seated himself at Mara's feet. "How are you?"

One corner of her mouth tucked itself into  a  smirk.  "You're  the  Jedi

Master, you tell me."

Luke reached out through the Force toward her and quickly encountered the

defenses she'd set up. It felt as if she'd wrapped  herself  in  thorns,  then

cobbled together body armor  from  starship  hull  plates.  Beyond  that  were

kilometers of wrappings holding her in all tight. Each line of defense brought

his probe up short, then a little, tiny  gap  opened,  allowing  him  to  move

deeper and deeper.

Finally, beyond the wrappings and past an ocean  of  images,  hopes,  and

fears, he reached Mara's core. When he experienced her through the Force  this

way she always appeared to him to be white-hot, flaring brilliantly.  She  was

the most vibrant and alive person he'd ever known-something made all that much

more remarkable since the Emperor would have tried to dampen down her vitality

while she was in his service.

The illness she had contracted had sapped some of her strength,  but  her

resilience kept it at bay. He  could  feel  the  Force  flowing  through  her,

constantly rebuilding the damage done and keeping  the  disease  beaten  back.

While the initial encounters with the Yuuzhan  Vong  had  distracted  her  and

allowed the disease to advance, she had made a major effort toward recovery.

She is not yet whole again, but she is gaining in strength.Luke gave  her

a smile. "I'd say you are doing very well, my love."

Mara sat forward and reached out  to  stroke  Luke's  cheek.  "I'm  doing

better, but not well enough."

"Give it time,  Mara."  He  kissed  her  on  the  wrist.  "Impatience  is

handmaiden to despair."

"And despair is of the dark side." Mara nodded slightly.  "I  understand,

Master Skywalker."

Luke shook his head. "You know what I mean."

"I do, Luke, and I know why you  warn  me  that  way.  Your  empathy  and

caution are two of your more endearing qualities." She lay back down,  drawing

her knees up to give Luke more room.

Luke rested his chin on her right knee. "You  don't  mind  having  Anakin

accompany you to Dantooine?"

She shook her head. "Ican go it alone, if you need him elsewhere."

"If you don't want him with you, I can find another assignment for  him."

The Jedi Master kissed her kneecap. "I don't want you burdened with  something

that's really my problem."

"Luke!" Mara's voice gained in volume and developed a little of an  edge.

"When we married, your problems became my problems."

"Yes, but Anakin is part of my family, and  the  way  you  grew  up,  you

didn't have a chance to-"

Mara spitted him with a green-eyed stare. "Want to  consider  again  what

you're saying there, Raised-as-an-only-child Skywalker?"

Luke laughed silently for a moment. "Point taken."

"Take this one, too. When I agreed to  marry  you,  I  knew  what  I  was

getting into. We agreed to share our lives, which means we agreed to share all

of the problems as well as the joys." Mara closed her eyes for  a  moment.  "I

like Anakin. I can sympathize with what he is going through." She  opened  her

eyes again. "He feels responsible for Chewbacca's death. At one  time  I  felt

responsible for the Emperor's death. Both of us have lost someone who was part

of the foundation of our lives. If I can help him through that, well, he won't

have to go through the things I did to find his way back out again."

She glanced up at Luke. "Of course, I imagine he's not thrilled at  being

saddled with a sick old lady heading to a backwater world for a rest cure."

"Actually, he accepted the assignment very willingly. I told  him  I  was

entrusting you to his care. He shouldered that responsibility very positively.

He's done a good job requisitioning all the things you'll need on Dantooine."

Mara's eyes flashed. "I caught that burst of caution from you, Luke. What

is it?"

"I clearly need to work on control more." He sighed. "You know  the  star

charts. Dantooine is fairly well Rimward. It could  be  in  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

invasion corridor-if there is one. Sending you and Anakin out there all alone-

"

"Is probably the best shot you have at getting some scouting done so  you

can assess the scope of the invasion."  Mara  scooted  back,  sitting  up  and

piling pillows behind her back. "As we've discussed, the attacks we've already

dealt with were decidedly unmilitary. There was no reconnaissance in force, no

establishment of forward bases that could be supported,  none  of  the  things

we'd expect from an invasion. Whatever is going to be following this  up  will

now have to work more cautiously because they know we're alerted."

"I can't fault your logic, but I don't like the idea of having you on the

front line."

"But Dantooine isn't a serious military target.  That's  why  the  Rebels

chose it as a base, only to abandon it later. And  that's  why  Tarkin  didn't

destroy it with the Death Star."

Luke shrugged uneasily. "That's assumingtheir sense  of  targets  is  the

same as ours. You remember what they did on Belkadan.  Maybe  their  selection

criteria are different from ours."

"All the more reason we need to have people scouting  far  and  wide,  to

figure them out."

The Jedi Master shook his head. "There's basically no way that you  won't

be able to twist my concerns around into proof that you  and  Anakinshould  be

sent to Dantooine, is there?"

"It is only because I know you so well, my love." Mara crooked a  finger,

beckoning him closer.

Luke stretched out on the bed, resting his upper body on his elbows. "You

do know me, Mara, better than I know myself."

"But not as well as I will know you when we're old  and  gray  together."

She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. "And I  know  your  concern

for me, and for all the other Jedi heading out, is simply a mechanism you  use

to avoid thinking about the dangers you will face. After all, we are going  to

worlds where the Yuuzhan Vongmight appear.You are going to a  world  where  we

already know they've been, and we have no clue as to what  you  will  find  on

Belkadan."

"All I want to find there is something to help cure  you.  You  said  you

felt a connection between the plague there and your illness. If  I  can  track

down something that will be more helpful-"

She pressed a finger against his lips. "You will, Luke. Facing all  we've

faced, there is no way I'm letting some ague kill me. If the cure  comes  from

Belkadan, great. If we have to find it elsewhere, that's fine,  too.  The  key

thing is to find out for certain if my illness is  connected  to  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. If it is, when I get healthy, the Yuuzhan Vong will pay."

Luke raised his face and kissed her on the lips. "When,  ah,  you  and  I

were on the opposite side of things, that sort of spirit made me a bit fearful

of our finally having to face each other in combat. Now I  almost  feel  sorry

for the Yuuzhan Vong."

"They brought it on themselves. No one invited them here." Mara  returned

his kiss, long and fiercely. "Don't you worry about me,  Luke.  Take  care  of

yourself and Jacen. Anakin and I will do just fine."

He nodded. "I know you will." He kissed  her  again.  "I  will  miss  you

terribly, you know."

Mara ran her fingers back through his hair. "And I will  miss  you,  too,

husband. But, our being apart from time to time is something I  also  accepted

when I became your wife. We part now so we can be together  forever.  Not  the

best bargain in life, but not the worst, either. And, for now,  husband  mine,

it is a bargain I am more than happy to accept."

CHAPTER EIGHT

As his X-wing cleared  the  dorsal  launch  bay  on  the  Bothan  Assault

CruiserRalroost, Gavin Darklighter tugged back on  the  stick  and  rolled  to

starboard to watch the rest of the squadron emerge. The Bothan Assault Cruiser

was one of the latest additions to the  New  Republic  fleet.  While  slightly

smaller than aVictory - class Star Destroyer, and possessed of leaner and less

angular lines, theRalroost boasted 20 percent more firepower than  a  Vic  and

almost half again as much in terms of shielding and armor. The ship  had  been

designed to take a severe pounding and still hammer an enemy.

Gavin recalled the discussion he'd had with his wife and his sister  when

the Bothans announced plans to build the  Assault  Cruisers.  Peace  had  been

declared with the Imperial Remnant, so the ships were seen as either a foolish

allocation of resources, hints at future Bothan aggression, or, as far as Sera

and Rasca were concerned, a gross waste of money. Given that peace reigned  in

the galaxy, both of them thought the money needed to build one  of  the  ships

could be better spent on healing the scars of decades-long war.

Their arguments had been persuasive, but Gavin had reserved judgment, and

as he looked down at the ship, he was glad  the  Bothans  had  built  it.  The

fighter hangars were amidships and had launch apertures  that  would  let  the

fighters head up or down, as needed, to get into battle. The dual launch paths

also meant recovering fighters after a battle was faster, and Gavin very  much

appreciated that detail.

He keyed his comm unit. "One flight on me. Five, you have two, and, Nine,

you have three."

His two subordinate commanders, Major Inyri Forge and Major Alinn  Varth,

acknowledged his command, and not for the first time did  the  incongruity  of

having female voices linked to those flight designators strike him. For almost

the whole of Gavin's time in the squadron, Nine had been Corran Horn, and Five

had been Hobbie or Janson or Tycho Celchu.Then again, Lead was  almost  always

Wedge, but now I'm the leader.

The flights spread out and turned toward the center of the  star  system.

It wasn't much to look at, with an asteroid belt separating  two  small,  very

hot planets from three larger gas  giants.  None  of  the  planets  themselves

supported life, though the largest gas giant did have  some  moons  that  were

almost hospitable-if one could tolerate a low-oxygen,  high-nitrogen  mix  for

breathing.If not for some mining done in the  asteroids,  and  the  fact  that

traffic from Bastion uses this as a nav point to the  Corporate  Sector,  this

would be another dull spot on star charts.

The system didn't even have a name, which struck  Gavin  as  appropriate,

for it had been largely without any notoriety for as long as folks had visited

it. That had changed within a week, when a  freighter  stopped  to  scout  the

asteroids for any salvage. Fighters of unknown origin had jumped the ship, but

the freighter got away and reported the incident. Admiral  Kre'fey  had  taken

hisRalroost out to investigate. Rogue Squadron shifted from playing pirates to

becoming pirate hunters and shipped along.

Gavin punched up an analysis program and loaded  it  into  his  targeting

computer. "Catch, push sensors. We know there were snubfighters out here,  but

I need to find their base."

The droid warbled his understanding quickly.

Inyri's voice crackled through the comm speakers in his helmet. "Lead, we

have transient contacts in the asteroid belt, 247 mark 30.  They're  shadowing

us."

"I copy. Got enough to identify them?"

"Matches aren't coming up easily, so I'm guessing uglies."

"Keep an eye on them."  Gavin  thought  for  a  second,  then  nodded  to

himself. "On my mark, all Rogues will break onto course  270  mark  27.  We're

aiming for the big asteroid there, the one that's slowly rolling."

Confirmations of the orders came back to him over the comm unit.

Gavin reached up and flicked a switch that locked the  fighter's  S-foils

in attack position. He studied his sensor scopes but got nothing.Well, if they

won't show themselves easily, we'll just have  to  root  them  out  ourselves.

"Rogues, on my mark, three, two, one,mark." He kicked his  X-wing  up  on  its

port stabilizers and eased the stick back, then leveled out and saw  the  rest

of his flight cruise in behind him.

He switched his comm unit over to the command frequency  he  shared  with

theRalroost. "Rogue Leader here. We have contacts and are investigating."

"Understood, Rogue Leader. Good hunting."

Gavin forced himself to take a deep breath, then to exhale slowly.  While

he trusted Inyri's judgment about  the  ships  they'd  be  flushing  from  the

asteroids, he couldn't shake the sense of dread that came with the  memory  of

his first sim encounter with the  coralskippers.Even  though  we've  run  sims

against skips, coming up against them for real will be very dangerous.

From behind the big asteroid burned  opposition.  Catch  painted  contact

after contact on Gavin's secondary monitor. All of the ships  were,  in  fact,

uglies, cobbled together from parts of  older  fighters.  They  included  TIE-

wings, which were TIE fighter cockpits married to Y-wing engine  nacelles;  X-

ceptors, which were X-wing bodies with  TIE  interceptor  wings;  and  triple-

finned tri-fighters, nicknamed clutches because the ball cockpit was  held  in

the grip of the three fins' forward edges. All the ships  were  as  common  in

pirate fleets as hydrogen was in the galaxy, and all of  them  could  be  very

deadly.

Gavin dropped his targeting reticle on the lead clutch  and  flicked  his

weapons over to lasers. He linked them for dual  fire,  then  glanced  at  his

targeting monitor. The  range  to  target  scrolled  down  quickly,  but  that

concerned him less than another detail the sensor scan provided him.

The clutch had no shields. There was  no  reason  any  pilot  going  into

combat wouldn't bring his shields up to full power. The tri-fighter was  known

to possess shields-which was one of the reasons it  had  become  a  successful

pirate-ship design. Without shields the pirates would  never  stand  a  chance

against the Rogues.

"Catch, get me their tactical frequency." Gavin nudged his stick  to  the

right and triggered a burst that burned red past the clutch's nose. "Five, you

show any shields on these guys?"

"Negative, Lead. Hulls are weak, too."

What's happening here?Gavin lined up  another  shot  at  the  clutch  and

waited for it to fire first. The  clutch  kept  coming,  closing  well  within

optimal range, then finally shot a green laser bolt  at  Gavin's  X-wing.  The

energy sent a static hiss through the comm unit's speakers  as  it  dissipated

against the shields. It had done less damage to them than it should have,  and

only one of the two lasers on the clutch had fired.

And the only reason a pilot has to get that close  is  if  he's  shooting

with visual data-his sensors must be out.

The clutch flashed past, and Gavin rolled to starboard, then hauled  back

on the stick and started chasing the  clutch.  He  inverted,  then  dived  and

goosed his throttle to follow the tri-fighter through its  evasive  maneuvers.

He switched his lasers over to quad fire, then settled his  middle  finger  on

the stick's secondary  trigger  button.This  modification  was  meant  to  use

against the skips, but could be of use here, I think.

He lined up his shot, then  pulled  the  secondary  trigger.  The  lasers

cycled quickly, producing a hail of down-powered  laser  darts  that  stippled

little burn marks all over the clutch's fins. The  fire  gnawed  away  at  the

pirate ship, burning off black-and-white droid-fist insignia emblazoned there.

The clutch rolled to  port,  then  climbed  sharply.  Gavin  chopped  his

throttle back, inverted, and started to climb after the  clutch.  He  let  the

pirate fighter climb into his sights, then sprayed  more  laserfire  over  the

ship. These bolts struck on the  forward  canopy  and  clearly  surprised  the

pilot. The clutch jerked to starboard, then one of the ion engines  belched  a

long jet of flaming exhaust. The other engine flared for a moment,  then  both

shut down.

Gavin started to cruise in for a closer look at the fighter when a  heavy

turbolaser bolt slashed through the void between him and it. Catch shrilled  a

warning, so Gavin rolled to port and dove toward the large asteroid  that  had

been his goal.

The climb after the clutch had taken him above  the  asteroid's  horizon,

exposing him to the ship that lay hidden behind it. He vaguely  recognized  it

as a Nebulon-B escort frigate, but that was only from the general profile. The

ship had been hammered badly, with  gaping  holes  opened  in  the  hull.  His

sensors showed some flickerings of shields, but they remained weak enough that

Gavin knew a strafing run by his X-wing would punch  through  and  do  serious

damage.

"Catch, put their tactical frequency on comm channel four." The requisite

button on his comm unit began to glow, so Gavin punched it,  intensifying  the

light. "This is Colonel  Gavin  Darklighter  of  the  New  Republic.  Identify

yourselves and stand down, or youwill be destroyed."

"This is..." The voice coming  through  the  speakers  started  bold  and

defiant, but faltered quickly, weakening sharply. "This  is  Urias  Xhaxin  of

theFree Lance."

"Lead, break port."

Without thinking, Gavin juked his fighter  left,  then  saw  green  laser

bolts blaze through the space  he'd  just  left.  A  TIE-wing  dived  through,

followed closely by Rogue Two. Kral Nevil's quad burst burned one  of  the  Y-

wing nacelles from the ugly, leaving the pirate fighter  to  spiral  down  and

explode against the asteroid's craggy surface.

"Thanks, Two."

"Just my job, Lead, watching your back."

"Captain Xhaxin, order your forces to stand down. They  can't  fight  us.

Your ships are all damaged. You don't want a slaughter any more than we do."

Weariness weighed heavily in the man's reply. "You're right,  of  course.

There comes a time when you have  to  stop  fighting.  I'll  give  the  order,

Colonel."

Gavin punched up the squadron's tactical frequency. "The pirates will  be

standing down. Fire only if fired upon."

Kral's X-wing came up on Gavin's port side. The Quarren pilot got a  look

at the frigate, then glanced in Gavin's direction.  "It  looks  reef-raked  in

high seas, Colonel. What could have done it?"

"I don't know, Two, but I don't think we'll like the answer when  we  get

it."

Gavin saw to the recovery of the  pirates  to  theRalroost,  then  joined

Admiral Kre'fey in his ready room. Aside from the two guards  standing  inside

the door, the Bothan admiral was alone with the pirate  leader.  "Ah,  Colonel

Darklighter, thank you for joining us. You've spoken with Captain Xhaxin."

"I have." Gavin turned to the seated human  and  offered  him  his  hand.

"Thank you for ending the fight so quickly."

The pirate glanced up, his dark eyes filled with exhaustion and something

else. The man looked haggard. His long hair  and  neatly  trimmed  beard  were

white. It and his pale flesh contrasted sharply with his  black  uniform,  and

save for the red of bloodshot eyes, the man could have been  a  simple  black-

and-white holograph. "I should thank you for letting me permit  my  people  to

live."

Traest Kre'fey waved Gavin to a chair. "You may not know this, but  Urias

Xhaxin has quite a history with theFree Lance.  He  operated  as  a  privateer

raiding Imperial shipping, then continued to prey on Imps during  the  warlord

period. Since the peace he's been  out  here,  on  the  Rim,  taking  off  the

occasional unreconstructed Imperial making a run  for  the  Remnant.  Pickings

have been slim, and his choice of targets has made him  a  low-priority  issue

for the New Republic."

Gavin nodded slowly. "I remember seeing a holodrama about him once."

Xhaxin snorted. "Purest fiction. A holojournalist came out to  report  on

my activities. She had some romantic idea of  what  we  were  doing.  She  was

disappointed, so she created her fantasy and someone committed it to holo."

Traest's head came up. "I take it what happened to you  recently  on  the

Rim wasn't a fantasy."

"Not mine." The man hugged his arms to his chest. "I set up an  operation

to lure in people wanting to travel in a convoy to the Remnant.  They  met  on

Garqi and departed on a schedule I'd devised, to a point  of  my  choosing.  I

intended to capture them all.  We  arrived  just  before  the  last  ship  was

supposed to get in, and found the  ships  already  under  attack.  The  things

hitting them-I guess they were ships... I'd  never  seen  their  like  before.

Gravitic anomalies all over. They  shot  plasma  that  ate  into  ships.  They

oriented on us almost immediately."

The man's eyes focused distantly and his voice shrank.  "I  did  what  we

could, but there were too many of them. We plotted  a  blind  jump  out,  then

another, which  landed  us  here.  My  hyperdrive  motivators  blew,  and  the

structural  damage-well,  I  don't  know  if  theFree  Lance  could  ever  hit

lightspeed again. I know I don't have the resources to salvage her."

Xhaxin looked up at Traest. "So, Admiral, you've caught me. I don't think

the old Imperial bounty is still good, but I'm certain someone will pay for my

carcass. Other than that, I'm useless. If I weren't,  I'd  not  have  lost  my

command."

"Oh, no, Captain Xhaxin, not at all." Traest nodded at  Gavin.  "Colonel,

if you would see Captain Xhaxin to guest quarters, I would be obliged."

Xhaxin raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."

"You met and fought with an enemy we're going to be seeing a lot more of-

much more than we want. Your understanding of  their  tactics  and  nature  is

worth far more than any bounty." The Bothan smiled carefully. "I need to  know

what you know. I need to understand what you understand. If we can't learn how

to deal with this threat, you'll find that, all too  quickly,  yourFree  Lance

could be left the most powerful ship  in  the  whole  of  the  New  Republic."

CHAPTER NINE

Leia Organa Solo smiled cautiously at Danni Quee and Jaina.  The  two  of

them had arrived at the temporary office she'd been  given  by  the  Agamarian

Council with enough time to spare so she could  inspect  their  clothes.  Leia

circled a finger, prompting a sigh from Jaina, but  both  young  women  turned

around to show off their attire.

Jaina wore a dark brown pilot jumpsuit, but had pulled a lighter tan Jedi

cloak over it. She wore no  gun  or  gunbelt,  but  did  have  her  lightsaber

dangling from her side. Her dark hair had been pulled back into a single braid

and fastened with a silver ribbon.

Danni, on the other hand, wore a simple dress,  functional  and  somberly

colored. The dark green of the vest she wore over the top  matched  her  eyes,

while the darker brown of the dress itself contrasted well with her pale  skin

and blond hair, which Danni wore unbound. She carried no  weapons,  and  while

she did not look helpless, she clearly was not a warrior by birth or training.

Leia glanced over at Elegos. "I think they will do."

The Caamasi glanced back over his  shoulder  at  the  two  women.  "Quite

presentable, indeed."

Leia frowned. "You don't think this will work, do you?"

Elegos shrugged, gathering his hands at the small of his back. He  stared

out through the balcony doors at the ocean north of Calna Muun, the  Agamarian

capital. "I think your reading of these people, of their respect for tradition

and family, is accurate. We know they contributed much to the  effort  against

the Imperials, and they suffered for it. Keyan Farlander was but one of  their

sons and daughters that flew from here to wage war against the Empire."

"But?"

Elegos turned away from the balcony. "Some  are  capable  of  shouldering

burdens for light-years, and others just kilometers."

An Agamarian appeared in the doorway to the office. "If  you  are  ready,

the council will hear you now."

"Danni?"

The young woman started for a moment, then looked at Leia. "Yes, I  guess

I am ready."

Elegos crossed to her and settled  his  hands  on  her  shoulders.  "Just

remember, Danni, what the ExGal Society set out to  do,  it  did.  You  are  a

witness to that fact. You are reporting to them what you know.  That  you  can

do, easily."

"Thank you. I know."

Leia let Elegos lead, with Danni in his wake. She slipped in  beside  her

daughter. Keeping her voice low, she glanced at Jaina. "Something the matter?"

Jaina's head came up a bit. "I've got better control than that."

"Of the Force, yes, but not the expression on your face."  Leia  composed

her own expression into  one  of  serene  confidence  and  nodded  to  various

Agamarians lining the high-ceilinged hallways of the Council Center. The open,

airy architecture that the Agamarians affected worked well for the  warm,  dry

climate, keeping things cooler than might otherwise have been expected on such

a bright, sunny day. Pillars and archways broke the  corridor  into  segments,

each featuring its own holographic tableaux of Agamarian history and culture.

Jaina sighed, clearly irritated. "I'm not a diplomat. I'm a pilot  and  a

Jedi Knight. I don't mind teaching Danni some things  while  we  fly,  but  my

talents are being wasted here."

"I see." Leia smiled at her daughter, and then looked sharply  at  Jaina.

"Jaina, tell me what's really going on."

Jaina's voice sank into a whisper. "Mother, you are good at this sort  of

thing, but if you'd completed your Jedi training, you'd be more effective."

"I worked hard at developing my skills."

"Mother..." Jaina faltered for a second. "Mother,  you  don't  even  wear

your lightsaber."

The disappointment in Jaina's voice drilled through Leia. For  years  she

had wanted to work more at becoming a Jedi. She saw it as a way to get to know

her brother, Luke, and to help him with his dream of reversing the evil  their

father had done by destroying the Jedi. She'd practiced as much as she  could,

but other demands on her, demands born of her training  as  a  politician  and

diplomat, always pulled her away.

I told myself I was doing my best by helping to  create  the  government,

then to run it. I let Luke train my children so they could  reach  their  full

potential, or so I thought. Did I also let them become Jedi to ease  my  guilt

over having failed to realize my potential with the Force?

Jaina reached out with her left hand  and  settled  it  on  her  mother's

shoulder. "I didn't mean it to sound the way it did. I... I  know  you  didn't

get to make some choices..."

"The choices I made, Jaina, were choices made to help others.  They  came

first. Your father. You. Your brothers. The New Republic."

"I know that, and I'm proud of you, Mom, for being who  you  are."  Jaina

shrugged. "It's just that you're not a Jedi, not really, and, you  know,  it's

just, well, weird when you play around with the Force."

"I see." Leia caught a flash of horror in her daughter's eyes,  and  that

gratified her.At least she knows there are boundaries she  shouldn't  overstep

yet. Then Leia sighed and raised her hand to hug Jaina's hand to her shoulder.

"You may be right, Jaina, that I never completed  Jedi  training,  but  I

don't play with the Force. I use it, perhaps not as well or fully as  you  do,

but I use it to get done the things I need to do."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"We'll discuss this more later, Jaina. Right now I need you  with  me  in

this chamber, being silent but strong, projecting confidence and benign power.

"

"Being everything that Kyp and the others aren't."

"Pretty much." She gave her daughter a wink,  then  stepped  through  the

doorway into the Agamarian council chamber.

Though Leia had seen holographs of the chamber, they had failed to convey

its breathtaking majesty. Wood had been used to finish the  floor,  panel  the

walls, and furnish the room; and incredible craftsmanship had  gone  into  the

project. An oceanic motif dominated everything-with the rows at which  council

delegates sat being arrayed like waves. Their desks flowed up and out  of  the

flooring like cresting swells, in fact. At various points  wooden  streams  of

water linked leaping fish to the floor, and birds were bound by  wing  tip  to

the ceiling or walls.

At the podium, which appeared to be a stone being washed at the  base  by

clashing waves, a tall, slender woman stood and turned  toward  Leia  and  her

party. She beckoned Leia forward. "I have briefed the council on those  things

we have discussed over the past couple of days, so they are prepared for  your

presentation."

"Thank you, Madam Speaker." Leia, herself wearing  a  dark  flowing  robe

whose only decoration was a wave motif embroidered at hem, collar, and  cuffs,

approached the podium. She nodded solemnly to the men and women seated  before

her.

"I thank you all for allowing me to address you. Before I begin,  I  want

to identify those people I've brought with me.  Elegos  A'Kla  is  a  Republic

senator conducting a fact-finding mission here in the Outer Rim. Next  to  him

is my daughter, Jaina, who has firsthand knowledge of the problem we face. And

last is Danni Quee. She was stationed at ExGal-4, based on Belkadan, when  the

Yuuzhan Vong invaded and held her captive."

Leia rested her hands on the podium. "The Agamarian history of service to

the New Republic is well known. I have no doubt that if not for the courage of

Keyan Farlander, I certainly would not be standing here  before  you.  I  know

that what I will present to you here, what you will have downloaded into  your

datapads, will be rather astounding, and yet, because it has been  reduced  to

clinical analysis and data, it will be easy to dismiss. To do  that  would  be

the sort of error that will hurt Agamar and the  New  Republic.  Please,  hear

what Danni has to say, read over the information, and listen to what  I  would

like you to do. I hate to say that, once again, the New  Republic  is  relying

upon you, but it is."

She waved Danni forward, and the scientist coughed into her  hand  before

beginning. "Please forgive me, I don't often address important people. I think

that if I took to this sort of thing, I would not have become a scientist.  In

my work at ExGal, I was involved in looking outside the galaxy, where  it  was

supposed nothing existed. Maybe I looked outside because looking back in meant

I would face crowds, and that scares me more than a little."

A mild bit of good-natured chuckling greeted Danni's overture and  seemed

to put her more at ease. "What scares me more, now, is a  combination  of  two

things. One is the fact that thereis something from beyond the galaxy. I  know

the stories you've all heard, the theories  that  have  been  taught,  that  a

disturbance in hyperspace makes travel outside the galaxy impossible. That's a

wonderful theory, but those who advanced it didn't think scientifically  about

it. A storm that lasts an hour for us would have been a lifetime of storm  for

an insect. Just because that disturbance has existed for as long as we've been

able to measure it doesn't mean that it always did, or always will.

"And it doesn't mean someone else couldn't find a way through it or  past

it or around it. And they have." Danni's chin came up. "They are  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. They are humanoid and capable of mimicking humans  well  enough  that  I

never penetrated the disguise of  Yomin  Carr,  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  agent  who

infiltrated our team on Belkadan. I see some of you  looking  around  at  your

fellows, wondering, perhaps, if they are Yuuzhan Vong. I  don't  think  so.  I

hope not, but I do know the Yuuzhan Vong will be coming, and when they arrive,

you will not like it at all."

Danni took in a deep breath, then let it go  out  slowly.  "I  was  taken

prisoner by the Yuuzhan Vong. I watched them torture another captive,  a  Jedi

Knight. They sought to break his spirit and mind. I  know  that  if  they  had

subjected me to the same tortures, I would have  just...  fallen  apart.  Miko

Reglia resisted and sacrificed his life so I could escape."

She pressed her hand  to  her  mouth  for  a  second,  then  blinked  and

continued. "The Yuuzhan Vong are a cruel people who employ biological  devices

the way we use machines. The reports you have will fill you in on the details.

Some of it may seem silly, like having starfighters grown out  of  coral,  but

the fact remains that these ships had capabilities we've not faced before  and

have no easy way to counter.

"Perhaps worst of all, we are unclear as to the Yuuzhan Vong  motive  for

invading our galaxy. We don't know if they will listen to reason, if they will

negotiate some sort of peace. They showed no evidence of that when  I  was  in

their power. They told me I wouldn't be sacrificed, which tells me others were

and will be, if they are not stopped."

Danni looked over at Leia and nodded. Leia approached and  ran  her  hand

down Danni's back. Leia glanced at her daughter, and  Jaina  came  forward  to

direct Danni back to her place next to her. Danni's retreat took place to  the

accompaniment of murmurs from the council members, though that  hubbub  tailed

off as Leia returned to the podium.

"As you already know, I am not here as a speaker  for  the  New  Republic

government. In fact, I am certain that you  will  all  find  waiting  for  you

messages from the local Republic envoy reminding you of this fact. I  have  no

official standing with the New Republic. I went to Coruscant to ask  for  help

for Dubrillion and  other  Rim  worlds  that  will  bear  the  brunt  of  this

onslaught. I was sent away, so I have come here, with my daughter and friends,

to alert you to the threat and to ask your help in dealing with it."

Leia frowned. "As I said before, I am well aware of all Agamar  has  done

in the past for causes I espouse. You have always  been  friends  of  the  New

Republic,  and  now,  I  am  afraid,  the  New  Republic  will  abrogate   its

responsibilities to you. The worlds of the Rim must look to themselves to deal

with this threat. In being driven away from Coruscant, I am now, like  you,  a

citizen of the Rim. Please remember that as you consider what I  am  going  to

say.

"The Rim worlds need to band together and muster their military might  to

fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. We don't know where they will strike next, but

we must all be ready to devote forces to that battle. Every victory  we  allow

them will make them stronger. I know that asking you to do this will cost  you

greatly, both in money and, potentially, in the blood of your men  and  women.

These are not sacrifices I ask you to make lightly."

As Leia  looked  out  over  the  assembly  she  began  to  sense  growing

resistance to her words. This did not surprise her, but  it  did  cut  at  her

spirit. She had hoped that if she could get Agamar to take  the  lead  against

the Yuuzhan Vong, other worlds could be convinced  to  follow  their  example.

Perhaps Elegos is right-they've carried their burden as far as they can.

She shifted her approach.  "Regardless  of  your  ability  to  contribute

forces to any military effort, as a neighbor, I urge you to prepare  for  what

the Yuuzhan Vong invasion will cause. Refugees will likely be coming this way,

fleeing in small ships and large. I know the Agamarian people  will  not  turn

them away, but the burden of caring for people who have been driven from their

homes is not one to  be  undertaken  without  preparation.  Gather  resources,

establish plans, do whatever you must to help those who will be helpless."

Leia hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I know I  am  asking  a

lot of you. I know you will do what you can, and even more than that.  In  the

name of the countless people who share the Rim with you, I thank you. We  will

be heading deeper into the Rim, back toward Dubrillion, to  face  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. Knowing that you, the people of Agamar, are here,  supporting  us,  will

brighten the darkest hour and lighten the heaviest load."

She took a single step back from the podium, then  lifted  her  chin  and

clasped her hands behind her back.  She  waited  for  questions  or  comments,

steeling herself for the sort of snide accusations she'd faced  on  Coruscant,

but none came. Here and there, starting at the back of the room,  but  quickly

moving to the front, council members stood and began to applaud.  Currents  of

sympathy and pride flowed  through  the  chamber,  swirling  around  her,  and

sweeping past to embrace Danni, as well.

The council speaker stepped over to Leia and shook her  hand.  "You  have

made an honest presentation to us, and we will give it all due  consideration-

more consideration than Coruscant offered. I cannot tell you what the  outcome

of our debate will be. I do not know what we can offer you,  since  there  are

those who do  want  to  rebuild  Agamar,  and  those  individuals  do  hold  a

considerable amount of power."

Leia nodded. "I understand."

"Well, understand this, too. We, the people of Agamar, have prospered  by

helping each other. Your refugees will find safe passage through  our  system,

and assistance. More than that I cannot say,  but  less  than  that  would  be

unthinkable."

Leia shook the older woman's hand solemnly. "Well,  then,  the  fight  to

stop the Yuuzhan Vong begins here. If other worlds are  as  brave  as  Agamar,

perhaps the fight will stop out there, beyond the Rim, and the peace we've all

earned will never again be threatened."

CHAPTER TEN

The freighterDalliance reverted from hyperspace smoothly and began a long

arc in toward Bimmiel. Corran Horn liked how easily the freighter handled.  It

was nothing like an X-wing, but  it  didn't  feel  as  if  he  was  driving  a

planetoid either. "Estimated time of arrival is thirty minutes."

Ganner barely grunted an acknowledgment of Corran's  comment.  He  stared

intently at a trio of overlapping holographically projected data windows.  One

showed Bimmiel as a khaki ball with slender stripes of blue radiating out from

a large ocean in the southern hemisphere. Ice caps covered either  pole,  with

the one in the south extending out into the ocean.  Atmospheric  readings  and

other data filled the space around the world. A second window showed  a  group

of images of flora and fauna native to the  world.  Third  and  final-and  the

window Ganner was studying hardest-was the image  of  a  communications  relay

satellite that appeared, to Corran, to have lost its antenna array.

"The satellite is damaged. The pulsar would make communications difficult

under the best of  circumstances.  Without  the  satellite,  though,  messages

aren't going to get out."

Corran nodded. "Do we have the codes needed to interrogate the  satellite

and dump its message cache to us?"

The other Jedi punched a button on the communications console, then shook

his head. "Either the codes don't work, or without the antenna  the  satellite

can't hear us. We could recover it. I can use the Force  to  load  it  into  a

cargo bay. From there we can run a wire in and make direct contact."

"Not that important at the moment." Corran glanced  at  his  navigational

data. "The satellite was placed in a  geosynchronous  orbit  over  their  base

camp, wasn't it?"

"Right. They're down there, below it, on the northern continent."

"What does the weather look like down there?"

Ganner frowned. "Tail end of sandgales. The air will be full of dust, but

definitely breathable, provided we use filtration."

"Not like Belkadan?"

"No indication of any atmospheric changes that are out of  the  ordinary.

Bimmiel has an elliptical orbit, and we're on the outward  leg  now.  The  Imp

survey came on the inbound leg, so we're not sure what  to  expect.  The  Imps

reported very little in the way of life down there, but  I  can  feel  a  fair

amount, can't you?"

"I can, yes."

"I get no evidence that the Yuuzhan Vong are down there."  Ganner  peered

at him ice-eyed  through  the  satellite  image.  "And,  before  you  ask,  no

indications if the damage to the satellite was caused by  some  coralskipper's

plasma blast or just a micrometeorite hitting the antenna."

Corran took Ganner's cautionary comment  in  stride.  "I  know,  not  all

trouble can be or should be attributed to the Yuuzhan Vong. We don't  know  if

they are here or not."Of course, since we can't feel them through  the  Force,

the only way we'll know if they are is when  we  see  them.  I'm  not  looking

forward to any such encounter. "Our mission is to find the academics  and  get

them out."

"Simple."

"Unless we make it complicated." Corran glanced at the forward  viewport.

"I'll take the ship in and try to land as close to their camp as is prudent."

The freighter, which was a modified Corellian YT-1210, had  a  flat  disk

shape that enabled Corran to slide it into the Bimmiel  atmosphere  without  a

lot of difficulty. The freighter's mass meant the dying storms  didn't  bounce

it around too much. Corran had dialed the  inertial  compensator  down  to  90

percent, just to give him a better feel for how theDalliance flew.  The  storm

did manage to bump and drop the freighter a little, but Corran didn't mind.

The fact that the turbulence made Ganner  a  bit  gray  also  worked  for

Corran. The trip out from Yavin 4 had taken a few days, and  his  relationship

with Ganner had become more cordial as the garnant bites faded from the larger

man's flesh. Even so, it was readily apparent to  Corran  that  Ganner  wasn't

going to back away from what he saw as  the  right  method  for  projecting  a

powerful Jedi image, and Corran, on the other hand, wasn't  going  to  embrace

using fear as a tool to coerce cooperation from people.

As they got closer to reversion and landing, Ganner had begun to  tighten

up again. He'd donned his blue and black robes, polished his  lightsaber,  and

been very precise in combing his hair and trimming his beard. Corran did  have

to admit that the man looked every millimeter a recruiter's  dream  and  that,

physically, the man was very impressive.He's overconfident,  overbearing,  and

abrasive, but he looks the perfect example of a Jedi.

Corran flicked a  switch,  lowering  the  freighter's  landing  gear.  He

glanced at the altimeter and cut in the repulsorlift coils to settle the  ship

down easily. He got a bump four meters above where he  felt  the  ship  should

have touched down, then theDalliance continued to descend. It sank  until  the

bottom hull pressed against the ground.

Wind-whipped sand hissed a tan curtain over the viewport. The  sand  slid

away, providing a brief glimpse of  a  distant  horizon,  then  another  layer

coated the transparisteel. Darker shadows loomed nearby, but the shifting sand

gave Corran no chance to see what they were.

"Looks like we've sunk into the sand, so we're not going out through  the

landing ramp." Corran pointed a finger up toward the ceiling. "Topside hatch."

Ganner nodded and handed Corran a pair of goggles and a  rebreather  that

had a comlink built into it. "There are sensor readings to the west,  about  a

hundred meters off. Probably their camp."

"No life?"

"Life, yes. Human, no." Ganner closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded.

"Fairly small life-forms. Nothing to worry about."

"Thanks." Corran rolled his eyes as he stepped past Ganner and  into  the

companionway that gave him access to  the  top  hatch  tube.  He  mounted  the

ladder, disengaged the interlocks, and shoved up on the round hatch.

A brown curtain of sand poured down over him. Corran  reflexively  ducked

his face away and felt a kilo of dirt stream down the back of his tunic, to be

trapped at his waist by his belt. Because the  rebreather  filtered  only  the

airborne sand, he could still smell the dry scent in the air.  What  surprised

him about the wind was how cool it was.Moving away from the sun has this world

cooling off, so it won't be  hot  like  Tatooine,  just  dirty.  So  much  for

Ganner's wardrobe.

Corran glanced down to see what sort of a  mess  the  sand  had  made  of

Ganner, but all he saw was sand around his feet, as if he was  standing  in  a

rapidly filling hole. He reached out with the Force and discovered the  shield

Ganner had erected with the Force to trap the sand in the tube.Oh, very cute.

He scrambled up the ladder, then watched the sand  rise  behind  him  and

slide off the Force dome that rose to cap the tube. Ganner expanded it  as  he

came up, but did not extend it to cover Corran.  As  he  emerged,  the  bubble

shrank, covering Ganner like a cloak. While Corran  admired  Ganner's  control

with the Force, he found employing it like an umbrella to be almost as bad  as

what Valin had done to Ganner with the garnants.

Corran walked to the edge of the freighter and looked down  at  the  sand

piling up against the craft's port hull. Beyond it, barely visible, he  caught

a hint of color-a small reddish pyramid-which he assumed marked the university

camp. He crouched and let a handful of sand dribble out through his fingers.

Ganner stood above him. "Not that far down."

"Be my guest." Corran tugged his tunic from his trouser waistband and let

sand pour out. "Show me how it's done."

The younger Jedi leapt from the ship's hull and immediately sank  to  his

waist in the sand. His fists clenched for a moment, then he leapt up and  rose

serenely from the sand and returned to the freighter's  hull.  His  boots  and

trousers were coated with dust.

"Little further down than it looks, isn't it?"

Ganner snorted. "Shall we break out the speeder bikes?"

"Nope. Dust is too fine for the engine filters to pull out of the air, so

they'll just stall."

"Then how do we get over there?"

"We walk."

"But..."

Corran leapt out from the freighter and landed in a crouch.  He  sank  to

ankles and wrists in a trough between two little sand dunes. Rising up a  bit,

he started walking toward the university camp.

"How did you... You don't have enough ability in the Force to..."

Corran looked back at Ganner and waved him  forward.  "Move  through  the

troughs. The lighter particles blow around, the heavier ones sink and are more

compact. Still slow going, but it's going."

He heard Ganner crunch down behind him, but a gust of wind raised a cloud

that obscured the younger man. Corran spread his senses  into  the  Force  and

found Ganner easily. All around them he found other hot spots of life, ranging

from small insects to more complex  creatures.  Fist-size  mammals  were  most

numerous, and something larger lurked at the fringes of his awareness.

He pushed on toward the camp and reached it with relative  ease  after  a

several-minute trek. A couple of rocky outcroppings defined the  western  edge

of the camp. Long, dark-gray plinths thrust  up  through  the  sand  like  the

fingers on a drowning man's hand. Below them were scraps of  fabric  that  had

once been part of tents.  They  flapped,  red,  blue,  and  green,  from  tent

structural supports that were almost entirely buried in shifting sand.

Reaching out through the Force, Corran  searched  for  life  beneath  the

sand. Again he found insects and the small mammals-with  many  of  the  latter

huddled together deep in a crevasse in the rocks. Others were  moving  through

the sand, into one of the tents and  back  out  again.  Their  course  was  so

regular that Corran assumed they were moving along a tunnel and raiding a food

store of some sort.

He looked at Ganner. "Aside from you, I get nothing very big."

"Same here. The small creatures are shwpi. The Imp survey team found them

fairly common. The report says they're herbivores and indicates they grazed on

the abundant vegetation."

"They've overgrazed it, then, very badly."  Corran  looked  around,  then

climbed up on one of the rocks. "There is a much larger rock formation to  the

northwest, maybe half a kilometer off. The openings in it could lead to caves.

Fly or walk?"

Ganner frowned. "Even I would tire if I had to float the two of  us  over

there."

"Not with the Force, with the ship."

"Oh." He shrugged. "Walk, I guess. I've seen enough of that  ship  for  a

while."

"Me, too." Corran climbed down and  started  off  toward  the  northwest.

Because the wind was coming from the west, he was able to cut along  a  trough

for a bit, then had to go over a dune crest and move along another trough.  It

was easier than trying to wade through an ocean, since the sand  waves  didn't

pound into him. Still, sand managed to get everywhere and was  decidedly  more

abrasive than water. The exertion also made him sweat, and the dry,  cool  air

sucked as much moisture as it could from him.

As he made his way toward the rocks, he relied on the Force to  tell  him

about his surroundings. He didn't sense many of the shwpi, and  those  he  did

encounter seemed paralyzed with fear. They  trembled  in  deep  burrows.  And,

still, at the very edge of his awareness, other life-forms moved and gathered.

Corran pushed on, then dropped to one knee about a  hundred  meters  from

their goal. He swiped a hand across his brow, then wiped his muddy palm off on

his trouser leg. "At least it's not hot like Tatooine."

Ganner came over the low dune and crouched beside him. "True, that  would

just compound our misery."

"I should have thought to bring water, though." Corran frowned, then  his

head came up as something tickled his awareness.Something is moving out there.

He glanced at Ganner. "Feel it?"

"Yes, coming in along  this  dune  line,  coming  fast."  Ganner  pointed

directly north. "The sand is shifting a bit there."

Corran turned and fingered his lightsaber. Sand moved, ever so  slightly,

falling from the crest of dunes and  down.  He  sensed  a  life-form  speeding

within the lighter, dusty layer of sand near the surface. It  burned  brightly

in the Force, almost blinding in intensity as it raced closer. Corran  took  a

half step back by reflex and tapered down his sense of the Force.

The thing burst from the dune. Nothing more than a gray and  white  blur,

it shot past Corran and dived into the  next  dune.  Its  powerful  flat  tail

snapped back and forth, then disappeared within the sand. The beast  shot  off

to the south, and both men watched the sand shift in its wake.

It wasn't until Ganner turned  to  look  at  him  that  Corran  felt  the

stinging across his left thigh. His dusty  black  trousers  had  a  neat  gash

slashed in them, and the pale flesh below was smeared with  blood.  The  wound

wasn't deep and didn't hurt that much, but if he'd not recoiled, it would have

taken a huge chunk from his thigh.

Ganner's eyes grew wide, and he pointed to Corran's leg. "Is it bad?"

"No, but it could be." Corran turned and  pointed  to  the  south.  "It's

coming back."

"Two of them, and another starting from the  north."  Ganner  pulled  his

lightsaber from his belt and ignited a sulfurous-yellow blade.  "We  can  stop

them."

"Yeah, maybe those three, but there are more  out  there."  Corran  could

feel the shwpi burrowing deeper. He rejected that as a plan that he and Ganner

could follow, which meant there was only one thing they could do. "Run for the

rocks! Now!"

Thethings - and that was about the best Corran could do in making up  any

sort of name for the gray blur that had slashed him-came on fast and  oriented

on the two Jedi as they made their dash for the rocks. Corran threw himself up

over a dune and did a shoulder roll down the  other  side.  He  saw  the  sand

rippling in a line toward him, so he dropped into a crouch.

The thing burst from the dune and dove straight at  him.  Corran  ignited

his lightsaber and brought it up and around in a parry.  The  sizzling  silver

blade caught the creature behind the jaw and right in front of its  shoulders,

at what should have been a neck. Gray fur  combusted  into  acrid  smoke,  and

black blood splashed over the sand. The creature's head  snapped  at  Corran's

leg, once, then kept snapping and rolling across the ground until life drained

from it. The body, stuck halfway  into  a  dune,  whipped  the  tail  back  in

slackening slashes.

The creature's snout was long and tapered back into a wedge-shaped  skull

that was entirely covered in chitin or keratin,  like  fingernails,  but  much

thicker and polished smooth by moving through the  sand.  Short  but  powerful

limbs sprouted long claws, clearly designed for digging. The  creature's  gray

fur was little more than down except for a fringe at the back  of  the  skull,

and the long flat tail was  covered  with  keratin  scales.  Its  side-to-side

undulation obviously helped propel the supple body through the sand.

As striking as the creature's physical presence was the horrid  stink  it

gave off. It smelled to Corran like vapor from rotting ronto meat  mixed  with

the sourest ale and harshest cigarra he'd ever tasted. He choked back a desire

to vomit and  didn't  terribly  mind  the  scent  of  his  gorge  burning  the

creature's odor from his nostrils.

Corran leapt past the thrashing body and sprinted as  fast  as  he  could

along the dune trough. He could feel two  of  the  things  pacing  him.They'll

catch me, unless...

He skidded to a stop, then lunged back at one dune.  As  he  did  so,  he

twisted the grip of his lightsaber, cutting in the  dual-phase  function.  His

lightsaber blade doubled in length and went from silver to purple. It  sparked

as he plunged it deep into the sand to skewer one  of  the  things.  The  sand

immediately boiled as the creature writhed out the last of its life.

Old-style Jedi, indeed!

The Corellian Jedi flattened as the second creature burst from  the  dune

to his right and dived at him. Its attack tore  a  strip  of  cloth  from  his

tunic, but missed scoring flesh. The creature's flight took it into  the  dune

where its fellow was dying, and the second creature attacked the wounded  one.

Its jaws closed hard, cracking  bones  and  making  wet  popping  sounds  that

inspired Corran to get up and run again without looking back.

He went over another dune, and another, with Ganner pacing  him  slightly

to the south, leaping dunes in prodigious bounds. Some of the creatures seemed

to still be following them, but a growing number broke off and oriented toward

the rolling bloody balls that were corpses being  worried  and  devoured.  The

beasts arced from dune crest to dune crest, like fish leaping from the  waves,

and let loose with undulating little cries that made them sound like feral  R2

units on a rampage.

Two men appeared on the rocky outcropping toward which the Jedi ran. Each

of them bore a blaster  carbine  and  started  triggering  off  random  shots,

scattering them across the most  direct  route  to  the  caves.  More  of  the

creatures moved away from the shots, letting Corran and Ganner come in fast.

Chests  heaving,  they  reached  the  rocks.  Corran   extinguished   his

lightsaber and bent over to catch his breath. He glanced sidelong  at  one  of

his saviors. "Thanks for the help."

The young man nodded, then raised the carbine's muzzle as an older  woman

emerged from the mouth of a cave. Thickly  built,  and  with  dark  gray  hair

pulled back in a tight bun, the woman had a hard look in her cobalt eyes  that

indicated she brooked no nonsense by those associated with  her.  For  a  half

second she reminded him of his father-in-law, Booster Terrik, then she scowled

and he realized he probably wasn't going to get along with her even that well.

Posting her fists on her hips, she shook her head. "Jedi. I  should  have

known."

Ganner gave her a hard stare. "What do you mean?"

She lifted her chin to indicate the dunes.  "Only  fools  or  Jedi  would

cross a slashrat killing field. You've got lightsabers. That makes you  Jedi."

Her eyes narrowed. "Of course, that  doesn't  mean  you're  not  also  fools."

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Jacen Solo felt turmoil gathering in him like the roiling clouds down  on

Belkadan. He knew part of it was simply impatience. He and Luke Skywalker  had

entered the star system out toward the fringe and R2-D2 had plotted  a  simple

course to Belkadan. It was designed to make them look like a piece  of  debris

being drawn into Belkadan's atmosphere by gravity. To augment  the  deception,

they shut down the engines and most sources of power, leaving the small ship a

bit cold and decidedly dark.

He sat alone on the bridge, watching the stars  slide  past  as  Belkadan

grew ever closer. Studying the planetary profile from Luke and Mara's previous

visit, and supplementing it  from  the  ExGal-4  survey  of  the  planet,  had

prepared Jacen for a yellow-green ball  with  an  atmosphere  made  mostly  of

carbon dioxide and methane, but new  readings  indicated  the  atmosphere  had

returned to near normal for Belkadan. The carbon dioxide level remained a  bit

elevated, and that contributed to it being warmer than archival data indicated

it should have been, but not unpleasantly so.

So says Uncle Luke, but he grew up on Tatooine.

Part of Jacen understood exactly  what  had  happened  to  Belkadan.  The

Yuuzhan Vong had released some sort of biological  agent  that  had  radically

altered the planet's ecology, and apparently had something else  in  place  to

restore it again to near normal. Jacen was well aware of other examples  of  a

population managing to alter a world's climate and ecology to  suit  them,  so

the Yuuzhan Vong's action wasn't unprecedented.

Whatwas stunning was the speed with which they accomplished the  changes.

Just over two months had passed since  Yomin  Carr  had  destroyed  the  ExGal

facility here, and already Belkadan was back to normal. Jacen allowed that the

readings his uncle and aunt had taken from before might have been artificially

high because of local concentrations of gases,  but  he  knew  that  to  be  a

rationalization and didn't believe it. He wanted to, however.

The reason for wanting to believe it touched on his  turmoil.  He  was  a

Jedi Knight, schooled and skilled in the  ways  of  the  Force,  yet  when  he

reached out and touched Belkadan, he didn't sense anything that  was  terribly

wrong. The world fairly pulsed with life, and none of it was malignant.

That latter fact bothered him because he'd seen the  Yuuzhan  Vong.  He'd

listened to Danni's stories of what they'd done to her and Miko. There was  no

doubt in his mind, no doubt whatsoever, that the Yuuzhan Vong  were  evil.Such

evil should be radiating off that planet like light from a glow panel.

The fact that the Yuuzhan Vong's evil didn't register through  the  Force

shook Jacen deeply. His life had been built on a foundation of good and  evil,

of light and dark. While he had never known the Emperor or Darth Vader,  hehad

been touched by evil. Recognizing that sensation-the feeling of fiery  needles

being scraped over flesh-had been a mechanism by which he had steered himself.

Now, all of a sudden, just like the blastboat, he was adrift and had no way of

avoiding trouble.

The second that thought occurred to him, Jacen knew it wasn't  true,  but

the Yuuzhan Vong's Force invisibility fed into the greater question of whether

or not his uncle had found the  correct  path  for  the  development  of  Jedi

Knights. Luke's training had been predicated on good and evil, yet here was  a

clear threat and  the  Jedi  Knights  were  at  a  disadvantage  fighting  it.

Everything that they had been taught would not help them confront  and  defeat

the Yuuzhan Vong.

He  wondered  ifhis  approach-the  idea  of  moving  off  into   solitary

contemplation of the Force-would provide him  the  means  of  recognizing  and

dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong. He couldn't bring himself to believe they  were

not part of the Force in some way. Jacen assumed that at  whatever  levels  he

had become attuned to the Force, the Yuuzhan Vong's presence did  not  somehow

register. Animals could hear sounds he could not; alien species could  see  in

spectrums he could not.Is it possible that the Yuuzhan Vong can be spotted  in

the Force if one's awareness of it is expanded?

He had no answer for that question, but he felt equally certain that  his

uncle's approach was going to be useless in handling the Yuuzhan Vong. He  had

no doubt that the Jedi Knights would fight long and hard, and he even  counted

on them being able to win some  battles.  Mara  had  succeeded  in  killing  a

Yuuzhan Vong warrior on Belkadan in a duel, but even she admitted  that  being

unable to sense him through the Force put her at a severe disadvantage.

Yet, as much as Jacen wanted to withdraw, he felt guilty and selfish when

he contemplated doing so. Danni's pained descriptions of how the Yuuzhan  Vong

had treated her tugged at his heartstrings. It also reminded him of  how  much

his parents had done to help those who were  helpless.  He'd  grown  up  in  a

family where taking responsibility for others was as much a part  of  life  as

breathing, and rejecting that ethic was something that just felt wrong to him.

By the same token, he'd seen what it had done  to  his  parents  and  his

uncle. Luke had fought the Empire for twenty years, and his mother had  fought

even longer than that. They constantly put their  lives  on  the  line,  never

having a moment that could be considered normal in their lives. If  it  wasn't

kidnappers and assassins trying to snatch or kill them, it was  some  planet's

population trying to wipe some other species out. His parents  and  his  uncle

never had time for themselves.

Jacen frowned and avoided descending to self-pity. Despite having to deal

with the problems of others, his parents had always done their best to nurture

their children. There might have been times when official  business  kept  his

mother away, but she always managed to make up for  it-not  by  bringing  some

gift from a faraway world, but by sharing time with him and his siblings.  And

his father had gone from being protector to good friend  and  confidant.  Luke

had been friend and mentor, and all of them meant more to Jacen than  he  knew

he would ever be able to express.

Which is why rejecting them and the way of the Jedi seemed wrong, and yet

so necessary. His hands flexed into fists, then he  forced  them  open  again.

Having grown up with an awareness of the Force, he understood it in ways  that

Luke never could. He had insights he could share with his uncle or mother, but

they would never come upon those insights by  themselves.They  see  things  in

large chunks, and I see the details on those chunks.

"It's almost time, isn't it?"

Jacen started, then looked over and saw his uncle hanging in the  cockpit

hatchway. "Yes. We're being pulled in  by  Belkadan's  gravity.  We  have  two

minutes to atmosphere. I can take it in, you know."

Luke nodded, then slipped into the cockpit and dropped into the copilot's

chair. R2-D2 rolled into the cockpit behind him  and  locked  himself  into  a

landing bracket built into the bulkhead. Luke smiled at the droid, then looked

at Jacen. "Just remember, we want as  little  nudging  as  possible.  We  want

everything to look natural."

Jacen nodded. His uncle had advanced the theory that if the Yuuzhan  Vong

used living creatures the way others used machines, then  the  patterns  those

creatures would be most  adept  at  noticing  would  be  the  sort  that  were

unnatural or panicked-prey behavior patterns. A smooth insertion with  minimal

course changes would seem unremarkable, or so he hoped. Jacen agreed that  his

idea made sense, but that was from a human  point  of  view.I  just  hope  the

Yuuzhan Vong concur.

He settled his hands on the control wheel and restarted the  engines.  He

kept thrust at zero, but fed a little power into  the  repulsorlift  coils.  A

little rudder and a gentle easing of the  yoke  forward  brought  the  Skipray

blastboat,Courage, into the atmosphere. It bucked at first, but Jacen kept his

hands steady on the controls. He glanced at Luke to see if his handling of the

ship suited his uncle.

Luke gave him  a  little  nod,  then  glanced  at  a  monitor  containing

navigational data. "We're ten thousand kilometers from the ExGal site. Heading

33 mark 30 at the moment, dropping as we go."

"Got it. I wanted to be over the mountains before I turn us to port."

"Good plan." Luke closed his eyes  and  started  breathing  very  slowly.

"Nothing amiss at the moment."

"Thanks." Jacen flipped a switch to reverse thrust and  then  nudged  the

throttle forward. Airspeed began to drop, and the blastboat with it. It didn't

fall so sharply as to be under control, but just enough to  suggest  the  ship

was about as aerodynamic as a meteorite burning into the atmosphere.

He brought the ship lower and lower until, over the heart of the northern

continent, he dropped beneath the level of a mountain ridge to the east.  Once

it hid him, he pumped power to the engines, killing his airspeed  quickly.  He

dropped the blastboat down low and killed thrust. He flipped the switch again,

setting the engines to propel him forward, then  he  stretched  out  with  the

Force and scouted ahead for signs of life.

He found plenty, and most all of it was within normal limits for what  he

expected to find. There was some  that  seemed  harsh,  almost  like  clashing

colors, and he steered away from these areas. He took  the  ship  north,  then

darted through a mountain gap and piloted the ship in toward the  ExGal  site.

He brought the ship down to the north and east, well  away  from  the  antenna

arrays attached to the facility's communications tower, then shut the  engines

down and unbuckled himself from the restraining straps.

"We're here."

Luke opened his eyes slowly, then nodded. "We  are.  You  recognized  the

sources of the Force out there, yes?"

"I caught something. It didn't feel right to me. What  do  you  think  it

was?"

"I don't know. Sentient  life-forms,  definitely  under  stress,  perhaps

diseased. They seem worn away, frayed somehow. What I do know is that I didn't

find them here weeks ago."

Jacen's head came up. "Does Mara ever feel like that to you?"

Luke's quick intake of breath suggested the question stung  a  bit.  "Not

that, no, but Mara is strong. If it's the  same  disease,  it  might  be  that

they're in the end phase of whatever she has, but we have no  way  of  knowing

that."

The younger Jedi led the way from the cockpit. He pulled on a  belt  from

which hung his lightsaber, a pouch with a rebreather, a canteen of water,  and

a blaster. His uncle joined him, taking a  similar  belt  from  the  equipment

locker, then handed Jacen a pair of goggles.

Jacen frowned. "What are these for?"

"You remember Mara's description of her fight with Carr? I don't know  if

the Yuuzhan Vong amphistaff can spit venom to blind you, or if they have  some

other sort of weapon that will accomplish the same end. Since we  can't  sense

them through the Force, sight is going to be our most powerful ally,  and  one

we shouldn't lose by chance." Luke pulled on his own  goggles,  then  loosened

his blaster in its holster. "Mara said their armor turned  blaster  bolts  and

even slowed down lightsabers, so shoot well and cut even better."

Jacen smiled. "Wow. For a second there you sounded like Dad."

R2-D2 hooted a quick comment.

Luke cocked his head for a moment, then nodded. "It seems  that  whenever

I'm in a situation where the odds against success are  pretty  substantial,  I

think about what your father would say or do. Doesn't mean I dothat,  but  his

example is one it's tough to forget."

Luke punched a big red button on the bulkhead, and the  landing  ramp  on

the blastboat slid open. He led the way down and crouched at the foot  of  the

ramp. He pressed his hand to the  ground,  rolled  some  of  the  dirt  around

between his fingers, then sniffed.

"What?"

"When I was here last, there was a lot of sulfur in the air, but I  don't

smell much at all right now. Something managed to drag it out of the air."  He

pointed at some creeping green ground cover that had spread over much  of  the

facility and its walls. "None of that was here, either. Perhaps  it  was  what

cleaned the air."

Jacen shrugged. "You were the one raised on a farm."

"That was a moisture farm on a desert planet." His  uncle  looked  up  at

him. "Anything like this in the data files you reviewed?"

"Nothing I recall."

Luke stood and started walking toward the  gate  in  the  ExGal  facility

wall. The gate itself stood open, but the leafy green plant had grown all over

it. Luke pushed the vines apart and ducked his  head  to  get  through.  Jacen

followed closely and quickly found himself in a green tunnel.

He was watching his feet, making certain he didn't trip, which is why  he

bumped into his uncle's back. "Sorry."

"No matter. Look at this."

Luke stepped clear of  the  vines  and  into  a  small  courtyard.  Jacen

followed him, and R2-D2 rolled up  between  them.  The  little  droid  started

bouncing from foot to foot and issued a low, mournful moan.

Luke rested a hand on the droid's dome. "I know, Artoo, I know."

The green plant overgrew everything save in a wide oval, the end of which

included the door to the ExGal facility. Equipment  had  been  placed  in  the

oval, only two meters from the door, and it took Jacen a couple of seconds  to

identify everything gathered there. He knew what it all was,  of  course,  but

he'd never seen it arranged the way it was.

The centerpiece of the display was an R5 unit that had been  decapitated.

Where its truncated-cone head should have been sat a  fleshless  human  skull.

Rainbow-colored wires came up and out through the eye sockets and  mouth,  the

latter having a wire ribbon roll out like a tongue. Scattered around  it  like

toys spilled from a broken bin lay computer  consoles,  holoprojector  plates,

food synthesizers, and a hair dryer from a refresher station. These items  had

been smashed to the point of uselessness, and the dents in their  metal  flesh

looked as if something had kicked or stomped them.

Jacen looked at his uncle. "What is it?"

Luke's expression sharpened. "A warning, clearly. What I wonder,  though,

is who it's directed at."

"Whoever it was that you felt out there?"

The Jedi Master sighed. "That would be my guess, but guesses aren't  what

we came here for. Learning the answer-that will be tough. I just hope it's not

too tough, or the answers we get will remain here, on Belkadan, and you and  I

could spend eternity like this poor fellow:  warning  others  to  stay  away."

CHAPTER TWELVE

Anakin Solo looked around the Dantooine camp site and slowly  nodded.  He

stood there with his back to the dying sun, watching his  shadow  stretch  out

before him. He planted his hands firmly on his hips and felt pleased with  his

effort. He'd hauled all their equipment  up  from  theJade  Sabre  while  Mara

rested after bringing the ship down in a narrow mountain canyon. He'd  located

the flat area at the top of a bluff, which made it very  defensible  and  gave

them a wonderful view of the lavender plains stretching out before a  distant,

sparkling sea.

He'd set up their tents, orienting Mara's larger  one  on  a  north-south

axis that would make sure that the dawning sun would warm  it,  as  would  the

setting sun. His own smaller tent he set up across  the  clearing  from  hers.

He'd gathered stones and set them around a depression he'd excavated, creating

a fire pit. He planned to head north, to a forest  of  thorny  blba  trees  to

harvest dead wood for their fires. While  the  ship  had  all  the  facilities

needed to prepare food, Anakin looked forward to eating food  cooked  over  an

open fire.

He knew that desire was kind of silly, but he  thought  it  was  fun  and

hoped Mara would, as well. The purpose of their trip to Dantooine was  to  let

her recover her strength on a world where technology and civilization had  not

overwhelmed nature. The native Dantari were a simple people,  traveling  along

the coasts in nomadic tribes with little more  than  primitive  tools.  Anakin

felt fairly certain that if any of the Dantari had seen Admiral Daala's attack

on a colony established when Anakin was barely a year old, they'd have put  it

down to a war between gods.

Given that the Imperials sent AT-AT walkers  against  unarmed  colonists,

whom the Dantari probably saw as intruders, it wouldn't surprise  me  to  find

the Dantari wearing emblems that remind them of the walkers  or  the  Imperial

crests emblazoned on the machines.That thought sent a shiver down  his  spine.

The New Republic's battle with the Empire had reached its final conclusion six

years earlier, but Anakin knew there  were  people  who  still  harbored  some

positive feelings for the Empire.And some, like the Dantari, who might  do  so

innocently.

He took one last look at the campsite and frowned. Back beyond  his  tent

he'd stacked the various equipment crates and cases. He'd lined  them  all  up

straight, but one had slipped out of alignment. Anakin reached  out  with  the

Force and nudged it back into place, then smiled.

"Anakin, don't do that."

He whirled and saw Mara, looking pale, leaning  heavily  against  a  rock

that stood near the path back to the ship. The jacket she  wore  was  buttoned

all the way up to the throat, despite the day's warmth. He steadied her  using

the Force, then slid a camp chair toward her. "You should  have  told  me  you

wanted to come up here. I would have gotten you."

Her brows furrowed, and he felt resistance to the Force. The  camp  chair

tipped and tumbled toward her, then bounced away as if it had hit an invisible

wall. Mara staggered toward it, bent down slowly, and turned it upright again.

She rested her hands on the rear posts. Her red-gold hair slid down  over  her

shoulders to curtain the sides of her face.

Her green eyes blazed with a strength  that  the  weakness  in  her  body

mocked. "If I had wanted help, Anakin, I would have asked for it."

His head came up at the chilly tone in her voice, then he swallowed  hard

and glanced down at the ground. "I'm sorry. I should have remembered that from

when we were landing. You didn't need my help."

Mara sighed, then slowly lowered herself into the chair. Her head  lolled

back for a moment, then she looked at him. "Don't compound  things  that  have

nothing to do with each other. I didn't want you landing theJade Sabre because

I wanted to do it."

The youth's blue eyes narrowed. "It was  a  tricky  landing.  You  didn't

trust me to do it. You didn't want me to destroy your ship."

Mara pursed her lips for a moment. "Given thatour ship is  the  only  way

off this rock, I didn't want it damaged, no." Her expression softened  a  bit.

"And the ship is special to me. Your uncle  Luke  gave  me  theJade  Sabre  to

replaceJade's Fire."

"But you crashedJade's Fire on purpose. You meant to."

"I did, and had good reason to do that, but that  doesn't  mean..."  Mara

paused for a moment as her voice sank to a dry whisper.  She  swallowed,  then

glanced down at the ground. "Your uncle Luke  understood  how  much  the  ship

meant to me. He knewwhat it meant to me. He  respected  what  I  had  done  in

sacrificing theFire. He had theSabre made for me to thank me."

Anakin felt his stomach tighten. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Mara  shrugged  her  shoulders.  "I  tend  to  hold  tightly  to  painful

experiences and not to share them, so you  couldn't  have  known.  I've  grown

attached to theSabre because of what it means. It's not  that  I  don't  trust

you, Anakin..."

"You trust yourself more?"

Mara actually smiled for a heartbeat. "Pretty perceptive."

"Even a blind hawk-bat finds a granite slug now and again." He glanced at

her. "I do want you to know you can trust me. I'm here to do whatever you want

or need. I won't fail you."

"I know." She sat forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "I  apologize

for being weak, for forcing you to be here with me instead of off  doing  more

important stuff."

Anakin blinked with surprise. "There's  nothing  more  important  that  I

could be doing. Uncle  Luke  has  entrusted  you  to  me.  Thereisn't  a  more

important job out there."

"Don't lie to me, Anakin. The desire to be out there saving the galaxy is

in your blood so thick I can hear it screaming from here."

"No, really, that's not true." Anakin glanced over his shoulder and  used

the Force to bring him the other camp chair he'd set up. "I am  here  to  help

you, Mara. What's wrong?"

Mara had frowned as he sat. "Stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Trivializing the Force."

"I don't get it. What do you mean?"

She heaved her torso erect and sat back  in  her  chair.  "Even  down  in

theSabre I could feel it. I admire your desire to make everything perfect  for

me, but the Force isn't something you use to pitch tents or stack crates."

"But the Force is the Jedi's ally. It's something we use." Anakin shifted

his shoulders uneasily. "Size matters not, you know. I mean, if I'd  not  used

it, I would have had to-"

"Break a sweat?"

Anakin's mouth gaped open. "Um, I guess so. I mean, the ship  is  half  a

kilometer back in that canyon, and hauling the stuff up here-"

"Would have been hard work." Mara's steady  gaze  bored  into  him.  "You

quote Master Yoda's aphorism that 'Size matters not,' but  that  was  used  to

tell Luke that he had to banish self-doubt. You're using it as an excuse, or a

challenge."

Anakin winced. "But Luke said that Yoda lifted  his  X-wing  out  of  the

swamp at Dagobah."

"To make a point, to  show  Luke  how  strong  the  Force  could  be,  if

mastered."

"And I've mastered it."

Her head came up and her gaze sharpened. "Have you, now?"

Anakin immediately flushed crimson. "Well, I mean, I've been  trained  to

it. I know how to use it."

"But knowinghow to use it is entirely different from knowingwhen  to  use

it. Think, Anakin, how often do you see  your  uncle  use  the  Force  in  raw

displays of strength?"

He frowned. "Well, not so much these days. Not since  the  war  ended,  I

guess."

"Correct, not since he realized that using the Force so directly cut  him

off from the more subtle aspects of it." Mara looked up,  her  gaze  searching

his face. "You can't hear a whisper if you're constantly shouting,  and  using

the Force the way you do is the same as always shouting. Do you see that?"

Anakin's brows furrowed. "I guess so. I mean, it  makes  sense,  but  I'm

still learning. I need that control. I need to be able to make things work."

"I agree." She glanced down at the ground. "But using the Force isn't the

only answer, you know. Chewbacca didn't use it, and he saved your  life,  your

father's life, and countless other lives."

His expression soured. "Don't be trying to tell me Chewie's  death  isn't

my fault."

"I suspect you've heard that a lot, haven't you?"

"Yes, and don't try reversing things around and talking me into defending

myself, either. I may still be young, but I'm not stupid."

"I know that. You're not stupid, but youare naive." Mara  looked  at  him

and let out a quick chuckle. "That expression of outrage, very becoming."

Anakin scowled. "I'm not naive. I've been in the thick of things since  I

was born. I've grown up on Coruscant  and  then  at  the  academy.  I've  been

around, you know."

"Not my point, Anakin." Mara gave him the hint of a smile that he found a

little bit intriguing and very frustrating.  "You've  spent  your  whole  life

involved with the Force. It's made you weak."

"But Yoda said-"

Mara held a hand up. "You don't know whatyou, Anakin Solo, are capable of

without the Force. You don't know if you could have humped all those crates up

here. You don't know how much you would ache or sweat in doing it.  You  don't

know how long it would take for you to pitch the tents. The fire pit, did  you

scoop that out with a shovel? Did you place the rocks by hand?"

"No, but-"

"You know, I was taught a long time ago that whenever  someone  uses  the

wordbut it means he's stopped listening. It also  means  those  he's  speaking

with tend to stop listening. I know what I'm telling you isn't easy  to  hear.

There's probably a reason for that, don't you think?"

Anakin squirmed in his chair a bit. "I 'spose."

"And why do you think that is?"

"I don't know. Maybe..." He fell silent as he thought. "I guess  part  of

it is that you're making it sound like I'm not a good Jedi  Knight,  that  I'm

doing things wrong. It means I'm a failure."And that  maybe  Chewie  would  be

alive if I'd not failed.

"You may not realize that my early training consisted of much  more  than

learning to harness the Force." Mara clasped her hands  together  and  pressed

them flat against her belly. "Running, climbing, fighting,  learning  to  move

silently, swimming, zero-g fighting and movement; everything could  have  been

made easier by using the Force. I didn't allow that,  though.  Why  not?  What

value was there in my learning to rely upon myself?"

"You learn your limits."

"Yes,and?"

Anakin closed his eyes and thought  hard.  The  answer  to  her  question

blossomed full-blown in his mind and dropped his jaw with its simplicity. "You

also learn what others are capable of, others who don't have the Force."

"Right, which means you can gauge how much you need to help  them."  Mara

nodded at him, and Anakin  smiled  proudly.  "Too  many  Jedi  Knights  become

wrapped up in the fact that they can use the Force, and they employ it  as  if

it were the solution to every single problem there is. This is why Kyp and his

followers are so stiff and cold. They come into situations without  having  an

appreciation of what the people can do. They come in and impose a solution. It

might be quick, it might work very well, but is it the best solution?"

She eased herself up out of her chair and turned to face the  dying  sun.

"Do you remember the Taanab exercise: the problem about  the  flood  that  you

were asked to attack as part of your training?"

Anakin nodded. "Sure, I got high marks on that simulation. I looked  over

the data we were given and realized that it was possible  to  trigger  a  rock

slide that would dump metric tons of rocks in position to shore up a levee. It

stopped the flooding from wiping out a village.  I  just  used  the  Force  to

loosen some rocks and start the slide, and everyone was saved."

Mara's eyes had closed, and her face was expressionless. She  opened  her

arms to the sun as if seeking to pull as much of its warmth into  her  as  she

could. "So, tell me, Anakin, in that example, why was the Taanabian village in

jeopardy of being flooded?"

He frowned. "Well, you know, it was built in a low place."

"Had it ever been flooded before?"

"I don't know."

"You didn't check the history?" She glanced over  at  him.  "I  know  the

local history was part of the files."

Anakin shrugged. "I guess I didn't think it was  important,  because  the

flood was the main problem."

"That's where you're wrong. The main problem was people building homes in

a floodplain. They were doing that  because  off-world  land  speculators  had

bought up their ancestral lands in the hopes of luring Alderaanians  there  to

establish a colony. Greed was forcing those people  to  build  in  undesirable

places. You might have been able to stop the flood this time, but  what  about

the next, or the one after that?"

"I didn't think-"

"No, you didn't." Mara turned toward him and folded her arms  across  her

chest. "And your solution, dumping the rocks, worked, but it left  the  people

in that village without any commitment to your solution. You saved  them,  and

they would have been grateful-at least until the next time a disaster  loomed,

and then they'd wonder why you weren't there to save them again."

Anakin stood. "Well, then, what was your solution?"

Mara laughed sharply. "Not one I think your uncle would consider suitably

Jedi, butafter I'd convinced the speculators that I was going  to  cut  deeply

into their profit margin, I'd have helped evacuate the village. Then  I  would

have been there and helped the people who wanted to fight the flood  to  shore

up the levees. I wouldn't have done it for them, but I would have helped  them

help themselves."

"But if you have access to the Force, and you can save  them,  don't  you

have a responsibility to do so?"

"Good question. Follow it, though, to its logical conclusion.  These  are

sentient beings. They know they've built their homes  in  a  floodplain.  They

know they will be flooded out. Are you responsible for  protecting  them  from

their own decisions?"

"I can't just let them die."

"So you know what is better for them than they do?"

"In this case, yes." He stared off at the distant ocean.  The  dying  sun

stained it the color of blood. "Don't I?"

"If you start thinking that you know the best for people and denying them

the chance to make their own errors..."

Breath hissed in between Anakin's teeth. "Using the Force  becomes  easy,

and if you are confident you know what is right, you're  making  yourself  the

center of reality. That's just selfish, and selfishness is the core  of  evil,

of the dark side."

Mara walked to him and threw an arm  over  his  shoulders.  "That's  very

good, Anakin. We have to  be  responsible  for  ourselves,  our  actions,  and

responsible to  society.  Usurping  someone  else's  personal  responsibility,

though, denies them their sentience. It's right and good to help  someone  who

cannot help himself, but forcefully shielding them from  the  consequences  of

their actions, no matterhow foolish, is wrong."

"But if someone is drunk and pulls a blaster-" Anakin stopped.  "Wait,  I

know! No matter what, he's still going to  have  to  be  responsible  for  his

action, but stopping  him  would  be  helping  those  who  are  helpless:  his

potential targets."

"That would be my read on it, yes."

Anakin sighed. "It's not easy to see that fine line there."

"No, it isn't, but the fact that you're willing to look is  a  very  good

sign." She pointed off to the north. "Now, I've decided I'm strong  enough  to

go help you lug back firewood. We'll actually be carrying it, right?"

"Right."If you think you're strong enough, Mara, I'll go with you.  If  I

need to help you, though...

She smiled down at him. "I think the idea of coming here to Dantooine  is

good, for the both of us. I'll learn my limitations, you'll learn  yours,  and

when we're done, we'll both come out of this stronger than anyone  could  have

expected."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Corran straightened up, then brushed dust from the shoulders of his green

Jedi overrobe. "I'm Corran Horn. My aide here is Ganner  Rhysode.  We've  come

to-"

The woman cut him off, and the two  young  men  with  her  leveled  their

blaster carbines at the Jedi. "I know why you're here, and I'm  not  going  to

let you get away with it."

Ganner laughed. "You think they could stop us?" Illustrating  his  point,

he flicked a finger upward, and the  two  young  men  suddenly  pointed  their

blasters at the sky. They struggled to bring them back down  on  target,  then

clung to the weapons as Ganner lifted the youths off the ground and left  them

with their feet dangling in the air.

Corran flicked a sharp glance in his direction. "Put them  down,now,  and

gently." He turned to the woman, noting that her expression had gone from sour

to incendiary. "I apologize for his enthusiasm, but I have to tell you that  I

don't have any clue as to why you think we're here."

The woman laughed. "I may  have  been  here  for  three  months  with  my

students, but I'm not entirely off the net. I hear things." She  narrowed  her

eyes behind her goggles. "You said your name was Horn, right?  You  were  with

Rogue Squadron?"

Corran nodded. "Only became a Jedi Knight after peace with the Empire."

"You weren't at Mrlsst, were you?"

"Before my time. I served with a  lot  of  the  people  who  were:  Wedge

Antilles, Hobbie Klivian, Wes Janson, Tycho Celchu...  They're  retired  now."

Corran got mixed signals coming off her as he recited the names. She certainly

recognized some of them, but pretty much anyone in the New Republic  could  be

expected to know some names from Rogue  Squadron.  "You  were  there,  at  the

university?"

"I was. I was working on my doctorate." The trace of a smile softened her

expression. "I didn't know the Rogues, but I had friends  who  met  them.  One

went on to work for the squadron."

"Koyi Komad? I've met her." Corran kept his  voice  even.  Annoyance  and

frustration were boiling off Ganner, but  the  woman  was  letting  her  anger

settle down. "She got married, must be fourteen  or  fifteen  years  ago.  She

married a Quarren from the squadron, as a matter of fact."

"I know, I was there at the wedding."

Corran smiled. "Really? I was an usher. Didn't have a beard then."

"I remember a lot of men in uniform." She offered him her hand. "I'm Anki

Pace. I'm running this archaeological survey of Bimmiel for the University  of

Agamar."

Corran noted stiffness in her grip and tension in her voice. "Why  is  it

you think we're here, Dr. Pace?"

"Various sites, archaeologically significant sites, have suffered thefts.

The items, though they've not been studied enough for us to be  certain,  have

been suggested to be related to the Jedi Knights, before  the  purge.  They're

priceless, of course, since the Empire  tried  to  destroy  as  much  of  that

material as they could. More importantly, though, they can tell us much of how

the Jedi used to be."

"And you think Jedi Knights have been coming to these  sites  and  taking

these things?"

One of the young men snarled. "I have a friend who was  on  a  dig.  They

left another student at the site to watch over it at  night.  When  they  came

back, stuff was gone, and she couldn't remember anything."

Corran's head came up. "The thief had induced  amnesia  so  she  couldn't

remember who had taken the items that were missing?"

"No," the man spat, "she couldn't  rememberanything.  All  she'd  learned

that year and the year before was all gone. It was  as  if  she'd  missed  two

years of life. The Jedi can do that. They can blank your memories or make  you

remember things you didn't see."

Corran shivered. He had no talent for telekinesis, but he  was  adept  at

projecting thoughts and images into the minds of others. He'd even  used  that

ability to dump people's short-term memories-the last ten seconds of what they

had seen-to blind them to covert entries and escapes.And I know Kyp used  that

ability to wipe the memory of Qwi Xux, the architect of the Death Star and the

Sun Crusher. He broke her, left her shattered. It was  years  before  she  was

able to put her life back together and move on after that tragedy.

He glanced over at Ganner. "What do you know of this sort of thing?"

Ganner reacted as if Corran had spit  in  his  face.  "Nothing.  I've  no

knowledge of thefts, and I would not stoop to same."

"Still, you are aware that certain artifacts have shown  up  on  Yavin  4

that are being studied for  their  significance  concerning  the  old  order."

Corran looked back at Dr. Pace. "Some of these items, I know, have  come  from

collectors. My wife has brokered the deals  for  many  of  them,  and  if  the

provenance was at all suspicious, I would know."

Pace snorted. "All well and good for you to say. Just the sort of thing a

Jedi would plant in my mind so I couldn't suspect you of stealing  what  we've

found."

"That's ridiculous." Ganner folded his arms across his chest.  "How  dare

you accuse us of being thieves?"

The other young man barked a quick laugh. "My parents came  from  Carida.

There are other things I could call Jedi Knights."

Corran held his hands up. "Stop. This isn't going to get us anywhere. Now

me, I'm getting cold and I'd like to get  inside  your  cave  there,  but  you

aren't going to let us in until I can convince you  that  we're  not  here  to

poach your find. I think I can assure you that we aren't, if you'll answer one

question."

Dr. Pace cocked her head to the side. "And that is?"

"Have you sent out any messages about this find?"

She frowned for a moment, then  shook  her  head.  "No.  We  drafted  the

messages, but couldn't raise the satellite. No way you could have  known  what

we found."

The first youth shook his head. "That's not right,  Dr.  Pace.  The  Jedi

have visions. They can see into the future. That's how they  knew  we'd  found

it."

Corran glanced at Ganner. "You want to take it?"

"If I must." The taller Jedi shrugged, spilling dust from his  shoulders.

"That ability is rare, and one we have little control over. Logically,  if  we

could peer into the future, don't you think we would have come here before you

found whatever you found and would have removed it?"

The young man frowned. "Well, I don't know."

Corran winked at the kid. "Don't think too long on it, or  you'll  figure

we've planted the memory of this conversation. You'll end up going around  and

around in your mind and drive yourself to distraction."

Dr. Pace patted the youth on the shoulder. "Vil, you and Denna go back to

your posts. I think the slashrats are all tied up  in  a  killball,  but  they

might come for us, so you'll discourage them."

"Yes, Dr. Pace."

Pace looked at Corran. "So, whyare you here?"

"We've had reports of some raiding along the Rim. The  university  hadn't

heard from you and asked if we could check in on you.  We  were  afraid  you'd

been raided, so we came out."

Dr. Pace frowned. "What sort of raiding? Humans?"

Ganner shifted his shoulders. "Nonhuman, we think."

"Interesting." She turned toward the cave, then waved Corran  and  Ganner

in her wake. "Come with me."

They followed and passed between tarps that had been  hung  to  seal  the

mouth of the cave. Beyond the first set Corran saw another about  five  meters

deeper into the cave. The area between them had been  set  with  a  number  of

buckets filled with a dark, frothy  liquid  that  reminded  Corran  of  engine

coolant. It stank horribly.  The  cloying  scent  wafted  easily  through  the

rebreather's dust filters and coated the back of his throat.

Pace unsealed the second tarp wall,  then  closed  it  behind  them.  She

pulled off her rebreather and took a deep breath. Corran  did  the  same,  and

even though he could still smell some of  the  liquid,  the  air  tasted  much

sweeter.

He jerked a thumb at the tarps. "Whatis that stuff in the buckets?"

Pace looked over at a knot of students deeper in the caves. "Trista, come

here, please."

A slender, black-haired woman that Corran judged to be half his age  came

walking over. She had a pert nose and just a touch of dirt on  her  face  that

somehow enhanced her beauty rather than detracted from it. "Yes, Dr. Pace?"

"These... Jedi are interested in  your  theories  about  the  ecology  of

Bimmiel." Pace waved her forward. "This is Trista Orlanis, one of my  graduate

students."

"Pleased to meet you." The young woman smiled, letting her  smile  linger

more  in  Ganner's  direction  than  Corran's,  which  Corran  found  a  minor

annoyance. "Are you familiar with the Imperial survey?"

Ganner nodded. "I read it and briefed Corran."

Trista's smile broadened. "Well, then, you know that  the  Imperial  team

came here as Bimmiel was inbound in its elliptical orbit. As the planet  nears

the sun, it warms up, naturally, and the ice caps begin to melt. The resulting

moisture triggers an abundance of plant growth. The heat also brings the shwpi

out of hibernation. They are herbivores, so they eat, multiply, and eat  more.

They don't digest most of the seeds, so they excrete them, sheathing the seeds

with organic fertilizer.

"Certain other animals cannot tolerate the heat, so they  retreat  toward

the polar regions while the shwpi population explodes.  Then,  as  the  planet

begins to move away  from  the  sun,  the  planet  cools,  which  frees  these

creatures from their ranges to sweep into the equatorial areas. The shwpi have

overgrazed the world, allowing the storms to pick up and redistribute a lot of

soil through wind erosion. Moisture collects in ice caps at the poles  as  the

world cools, which is why it is so dry now. The predators,  most  notably  the

slashrats, are adept at moving through the  resulting  dunes.  They  hunt  the

shwpi that have not found burrows in which to hibernate."

Ganner nodded sagely. "The Imperial survey never saw the slashrats  since

they were not in the survey area."

"True. They postulated the existence of such creatures, but  didn't  have

enough time here to confirm that theory." Trista  pointed  toward  the  tarps.

"What we have back there is the essence of  rendered  slashrats.  That's  what

they smell like after being several days dead. The slashrats move through  the

sand, tracing the scent that shwpi leave behind as they move through  or  over

the sand. The death scent keeps slashrats back; most  creatures  consider  the

rotting scent of their own kind to be a sign of danger. We're safe  enough  in

here because they can't come up through the bedrock that makes up these caves.

"

Corran slipped his goggles up on his forehead and let his rebreather hang

at his throat. "I'm glad to know you're safe, but you didn't bring us in  here

for a lesson in Bimmiellian ecology, Dr. Pace. You reacted to  the  fact  that

the raiders weren't human."

"Perhaps you're not a total fool, Jedi." Dr.  Pace  waved  Corran  deeper

into the cave. Ganner started to follow, but she held a hand up. "No, you wait

here. Him, I trust. You, I'm not sure."

Ganner snorted, but said nothing.

Corran tossed him a wink, then headed deeper into the cave.  The  passage

began to shrink, so Corran stooped as he descended into  the  planet's  flesh.

The passageway also began to narrow, then broadened out abruptly and  provided

access to a large, round chamber. Lights had been set up in it,  and  a  half-

dozen students were working with brushes  and  small  trowels  to  shift  sand

around. Two other students were at a table running a digitizer over  artifacts

and monitoring the data coming up on their datapads.

Dr. Pace stopped beside Corran. "Until the  storm  trapped  us  in  these

caverns, we'd not looked much into them. We cleared sand from the passage  and

discovered this chamber. The sand in here was washed in with the rains, so  it

was laid down in even layers over the years at  a  fairly  constant  rate.  We

don't have a solid chronology, but as we began  poking  around  we  discovered

something that we think has been here for forty years, maybe fifty."

She led him over to the computer table. "Jens, call up scan AR-312."

As the young woman punched up a request for that  data,  Dr.  Pace  faced

Corran. "We've recovered a body, the mummified remains of  some  creature.  As

nearly as we can make out, it retreated here and was felled by slashrats.  The

teeth marks on the long bones and ragged edges of dried flesh were  consistent

with..."

Corran stopped listening as the holographic image  of  a  skull  appeared

above a holoprojector plate. It had a low cranial ridge, but was longer than a

human skull. The features appeared sharper,  and  the  computer  enhanced  the

fracture lines and deformities on the face. The cheekbones had been broken and

set oddly, so the face had a slope from right to left, and the nose bones  had

clearly been shattered.

"Emperor's black bones!"

Dr. Pace nodded. "Not very pretty. Bony, with  hooks  and  claws  on  the

hands, elbows, shoulders, toes, heels, and  knees.  It  killed  at  least  two

slashrats. It also had some artifacts that we recovered-armor,  some  weapons.

It's a major find. I've never seen anything like it."

"That's the problem, Doc, I  have."  Corran  shuddered,  remembering  the

images of the Yuuzhan Vong corpses he'd seen in Luke  Skywalker's  report.  "I

think you've got one of the raiders there, and  if  they've  been  here  once,

there's little reason to think they won't be back."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A quick examination of the ExGal facility  proved  the  efficacy  of  the

Yuuzhan Vong warning at the door. Luke found no signs of life  in  there,  but

there was a lot of evidence of the sheer virulence with which the Yuuzhan Vong

hated technology. Machinery had been smashed into bits, and enough dark  fluid

formed footprints or was sprayed over the walls to suggest  that  the  Yuuzhan

Vong had been heedless of personal injuries during their orgy of destruction.

That realization, which crystallized itself in his mind  as  he  bent  to

trace a bloody footprint with a finger, sent a  shiver  down  his  spine.  His

inability to detect the Yuuzhan Vong through the Force had disturbed him,  but

he'd counted on their invisibility to be the only odd thing about them.  Their

apparent fanaticism, as evidenced by the willingness to hurt themselves  while

pursuing their beliefs, took them well outside the ranges for normal  behavior

as he knew it. Luke did know of species that valued stoicism in  the  face  of

pain, but the Yuuzhan Vong seemed to go beyond even that.

He also knew that his impression of their fury had probably grown  beyond

all reasonable measure because it was devoid of the input  he  normally  found

through the Force. In the past, at other sites of  such  destruction,  he  had

been able to pick up background traces of the anger. It allowed him  to  gauge

the depth of  the  perpetrator's  emotions,  reinforcing  or  discounting  the

destruction he saw. Corran had once pointed out  how  the  difference  between

that sort of impression and the physical evidence of violence  could  indicate

if a crime scene had been dressed up to make  a  simple  murder  look  like  a

botched robbery.

This was more than dressing up a  site,  though.The  Jedi  Master  slowly

stood, then glanced over at Jacen. "Find anything useful?"

His nephew held up a headless doll. "This is one of those toys  that  has

circuitry inside it to make it respond to phrases and things.  It's  harmless,

but they smashed it just as bad as any of the computers."

R2-D2, rooting through a pile of smashed circuit boards, played a nervous

twitter softly.

"The Yuuzhan Vong clearly didn't see the toy as harmless." Luke shook his

head. "From their point of view, it might be more of an abomination  than  any

of the other equipment here."

Jacen's brows arrowed together for a second, then  his  expression  eased

and he nodded. "If they  think  of  machines  as  evil,  then  this  would  be

something designed to corrupt the very young. Instead, now, it's just a broken

toy meant for a child who will never enjoy it." The doll's crushed  body  fell

from his fingers and landed amid a pile of debris.

Luke stroked a hand over his jaw. "What I don't see here is  anything  in

the way of changes resulting from the environmental holocaust the Yuuzhan Vong

triggered. That green plant hasn't made it inside here..."

"May not have had enough time." Jacen toed  more  broken  debris.  "There

seemed to be an enclave of the diseased, frayed life-forms to  the  south  and

west. It would put this facility between them and our ship."

Luke thought for a moment and suppressed  a  smile  as  he  did  so.  The

nonchalant way Jacen had referred to the  blastboat  as  "our  ship"  casually

included him in on any scouting mission. Luke would have  preferred  to  leave

him behind with R2-D2, but, he realized, he had  no  way  of  knowing  if  the

Yuuzhan Vong were close and, therefore, couldn't guarantee Jacen would be  any

safer at the station than he would be on the mission.

"Okay, but we take a precaution first.  We'll  check  the  communications

tower and see if it can transmit data. If it can, we'll link it  to  the  ship

and use our comlinks to be able to make a running report on what we  see.  The

ship will cache the data. Artoo will transmit everything if we're cut  off  or

we utter some code words."

Jacen smiled cautiously. "I wouldn't have thought of that precaution."

"We're here to learn what we  can  to  safeguard  the  rest  of  the  New

Republic."

His nephew's head came up. "And to see if we can find anything that  will

help cure Mara, right?"

Luke nodded. "That, too. Our mission is more important than  we  are.  We

take no stupid chances, but we don't shrink from duty, understand?"

The young man nodded. "I do, Master Skywalker."

After arranging the communications relay setup with  R2-D2,  the  two  of

them changed from their Jedi robes into  A/KT  combat  jumpsuits.  The  close-

fitting, single-piece garment reminded Luke  a  lot  of  his  pilot  jumpsuit,

though this one was colored a green dark enough to be almost black. The elbows

and knees were well padded, and stiff trauma pads were inserted breast,  back,

and along the arms and legs to provide added  protection.  Having  heard  from

Mara just how savagely the  Yuuzhan  Vong  fought,  Luke  wanted  to  take  no

chances.

If they're going to be armored, so  are  we.He  tugged  on  some  straps,

tightening the suit up, then pulled on a helmet and gloves. He also donned his

goggles. Lastly he fastened a blaster around his waist and hung his lightsaber

from a clip on the suit. "I'm ready."

Jacen nodded. "I'm good to go."

Jacen's suit appeared to be identical to Luke's, save for the  color.  It

was a deep dark red, much darker than the color of dried blood. Luke  realized

that the suit's color would hide any blood  that  might  leak  out  of  Jacen,

sending a jolt through him. He allowed calm to flow in to  the  wake  of  that

thought, though, knowing that he'd be aware through the Force  if  Jacen  were

hurt, and taking comfort in the fact that his nephew wasn't stupid.

"We're just out to gather some facts, Jacen. Nothing heroic on this trip.

"

"I got it."

The two of them slipped from the ExGal  compound  and  headed  southwest,

through a region of low hills. The green ground cover had  spread  fairly  far

and wreathed many a tree that had died under the  Yuuzhan  Vong  environmental

assault. There were some signs of native plants trying to make a comeback, but

what they had decided was alien foliage seemed poised to move in  and  smother

them. Through the Force Luke gained an impression that  was  perfectly  normal

and healthy concerning the Yuuzhan Vong plant;  yet  everywhere  was  evidence

that its spread was anything but benign.

The other plants here aren't prepared to deal with this  invader,  so  it

just spreads and spreads, doing what it  does  naturally.The  implications  of

that idea tightened his shoulders. The Yuuzhan Vong were  certainly  analogous

to the plant they'd brought to Belkadan. If the New Republic wasn't  ready  to

repulse them, the Yuuzhan Vong would spread throughout the  galaxy.Doing  what

they do naturally.

What the Yuuzhan Vong did naturally became more clear as Luke's sense  of

the frayed ones grew. He and Jacen moved through what had once been a  forest.

The toppled trees had been carpeted with the green vines, creating  more  than

enough shadow to hide the two of them. They crept up  a  hill,  to  the  crest

line, then carefully slipped over and hid behind the bulk of a fallen log.

They looked down into a broad, shallow valley that had a  decently  sized

stream running through it. The green vines grew throughout,  though  they  did

leave circular openings of black sand at various  points.  In  the  center  of

these circles were small plinths, all pointing needle-sharp noses  toward  the

sky.

In the center of the valley lay a small cluster of buildings.  The  green

plants grew around the perimeter of them and took on a  shrublike  quality  at

the edges. Aside from where bare paths would allow people  to  move  from  the

shacks to the plinths, the plants would make  it  tough  for  passage.  Anyone

running from the village would undoubtedly get their feet tangled and would go

down.

Not that the folks in the village look as if they are  capable  of  doing

much running.Luke slipped a pair of macrobinoculars from a pocket on his  left

thigh and focused them on the heart of the village. He saw what looked to be a

pair of Trandoshans, a Rodian, a half-dozen humans, and  a  Twi'lek  shambling

listlessly along. All were barefooted and walking awkwardly, as if their knees

had been broken and then only partially repaired.

He looked closer for signs of trauma and saw nothing as obvious as scars,

but there were odd calcifications on the legs, exposed areas of the arms,  and

even the skulls of these creatures. Concentrating, Luke got a  sense  of  them

through the Force and could see the life energy flowing in  them  in  a  muted

fashion; these people were the stressed life-forms  he'd  sensed  before.  The

energy seemed to eddy around these odd formations, revealing that, at least on

some of them, the bony protrusions also extended deeply into their skulls  and

body cavities.

He passed the macrobinoculars to Jacen. "Tell me what you see."

Jacen focused and watched. Force  energy  gathered  as  he  concentrated.

"Those things, those growths... they work like restraining bolts on a droid?"

"That would be my guess." Luke's blue eyes narrowed. "And the  people-any

idea where they came from?"

Jacen looked again. "The clothing is pretty  bad,  but  some  of  it  has

pirate insignia on it. Rim raiders that the Yuuzhan Vong  ran  into  and  made

into slaves?"

"I think so, too."

His nephew shivered. "The way they feel in the Force is just not right."

"I know. It feels almost as if they're dying by degrees."

"What is the sense of killing your labor force?"

Luke shrugged. "If they were able to pick them up so easily on  the  Rim,

perhaps they think the supply is infinite.  It  might  also  be  that  they're

adapting their slave control technology to the  inhabitants  of  this  galaxy.

Maybe they don't mean to kill them, but they need more work on  their  control

devices. I don't know."

"It's definitely creepy, no matter what is  happening."  Jacen  stretched

out on his belly, lowered the macrobinoculars, and looked at his uncle.  "What

are they doing here?"

Luke pointed at the plinths. "Anything familiar about them?"

"Not really."

"Okay, use the Force. Concentrate on the flow of life within the valley."

Jacen closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, then  let  it  out  slowly.

"Everything is moving in, toward the plinths, along the vines." His  jaw  hung

open for a second, then he looked at his uncle. "These plants are like  a  big

solar collector. They're channeling energy and the nutrients  they're  sucking

up back into the valley, toward the things. That sand is black  because  of  a

nectar the plants are flooding into it."

"That's what I sensed." Luke pointed a finger at the plinths.  "Unless  I

miss my guess, I'd say those plinths are coralskippers in their infancy. We're

looking at a shipyard. They're  growing  a  squadron  right  down  there,  and

they're using slave labor to help do it."

The youth studied  the  valley  again,  then  shook  his  head.  "Growing

fighters? How efficient can that be?"

Luke accepted the macrobinoculars  back  from  him  and  opened  a  small

compartment on the device. He snaked out a small cable and connected it to his

comlink, then focused on the plinths. "The ships look fairly well  along,  and

Belkadan has been under Yuuzhan Vong control  for  less  than  a  month.  That

output would rival an Incom factory turning out X-wings, and since these ships

are living and can heal, the wastage rate  is  lower  than  we  get  with  our

machines. What's stunning here is the speed with which they're  able  to  grow

these ships. This is serious trouble."

He turned off the macrobinoculars, unhitched them from the  comlink,  and

returned them to his pocket. "We got some good visuals. Come on."

Jacen looked puzzled. "Shouldn't we wait until dark to free the slaves?"

"We have other things we have to do first." Luke pointed toward the west.

"There are more slaves over there. Either they're growing more  coralskippers,

or they might be growing other components for the ships. We need to  see  what

is going on."

Jacen followed him as they worked their way west. They  came  across  one

valley that resembled the one they'd just vacated, save  that  what  had  been

plinths were simply small rocks in the  ground.  The  village  was  completely

overgrown, and Luke caught no evidence of slaves in the area.

One difference he did discover was a dozen-meter-long bit of  stone  that

appeared to be lifeless obsidian. It had the outline of  a  coralskipper,  but

where there had been a cockpit opening on the one he'd examined on Dubrillion,

this one remained sealed in stone. Luke ran his hand over the fighter, letting

his fingers play over the irregularities in its surface.

Jacen frowned. "I don't get it. Why did they leave one behind?"

"Birth defect?" Luke raced a finger along the line of the cockpit canopy.

"It grew without  a  separation  here.  Could  have  been  a  local  microbial

infection, or just lousy genetics. Perhaps the xenoforming of the  planet  was

intended to sterilize the nurseries, then free up the sort of  nutrients  that

the plants need to feed the ships. Something went wrong with this one, so they

dumped it. Still,  this  indicates  they  must  be  growing  other  components

elsewhere, because the propulsion creatures aren't here."

Jacen squatted in the coralskipper's shadow and parted the  alien  ground

cover's leaves to expose the  soil.  "Look  at  this.  The  dirt  isn't  black

anymore." He took some up in his left hand and smoothed it  against  his  palm

with his thumb. "It's completely sterile."

Luke dropped to his knee beside Jacen. "I wonder..."

"What?"

"An Ithorian once explained to me that there are some crops that  exhaust

the soil in which they are raised. Perhaps the Yuuzhan  Vong  have  done  that

here, raising a crop of coralskippers too fast."  He  nodded  to  his  nephew.

"Take a sample of the soil, and we can have Artoo check it later."

Once Jacen got the sample, they continued  their  reconnaissance  mission

and discovered a small lake with water thickened  by  the  presence  of  brown

algae. On the water, which lapped weakly at the shores,  floated  plants  with

three large blue triangular leaves. From the center grew a stalk, and from  it

hung two round berries, about the size of a human's head. Some plants did have

more than just two, and by the far shore, Luke  spotted  a  different  species

with slightly smaller berries growing in bunches.

Jacen frowned. "Villips? Their communications devices?"

"I think so. Different sizes for different needs, I suppose." Luke sighed

quietly. "So much to learn about them."

From the cover of large rocks, they watched as slaves waded  through  the

turgid water, using ladles to pour water over the villip plants. One, an older

man whose spine sprouted horny growths, could barely lift a dripping ladle  to

bathe a villip. The ladle slipped from his fingers, and he tried to catch  it.

He lunged forward to grab it, but lost his footing and went down in the water.

The man started splashing in a panicked manner, churning the water into a

yellow-brown froth.  Several  of  the  other  slaves  started  shouting.  They

vocalized in a high range that rose above Luke's ability to hear,  though  the

anxiety pouring off them slammed into him in waves. Several  started  for  the

drowning man, high-stepping through the  gelatinous  fluid  as  fast  as  they

could.

A harsh whip crack froze them in their places. Appearing at  the  western

edge of the lake, backlit in the dying sun, stood a tall and lean figure.  His

right hand snapped out and forward again, cracking the whiplike weapon in  his

hand. After the  second  snap,  the  whip  became  a  staff,  and  the  figure

brandished it over his head, pumping it upward the way one of the Sand  People

would triumphantly pump a gaffi stick.

The Yuuzhan Vong-Luke knew it was one because  the  figure  didn't  exist

within the Force framework-dashed forward, splashing his way into the lake. He

artfully cut between villip stalks and reached  the  row  where  the  man  was

striking for the surface. The man reached out as the Yuuzhan Vong extended the

amphistaff toward him. The man grabbed at it, then  recoiled,  with  his  hand

sliced open. He started to scream, but fluid boiling up out of his throat sank

it into a gurgle.

The Yuuzhan Vong lunged with the amphistaff, driving the sharp, flattened

end through the man's chest. As he pulled the amphistaff back,  the  man  came

halfway up out of the water, then slipped from the  staff.  The  Yuuzhan  Vong

stabbed him twice more, then stepped back away as the  man  flopped  into  the

water one last time. The body bobbed there for a  second,  then,  leaking  air

from lungs and mouth, slowly sank from sight.

The Yuuzhan Vong raised the amphistaff and shouted something. The  slaves

understood enough of it to cower. The amphistaff then  slacked  for  a  moment

before coiling itself around its owner's arm. The Yuuzhan Vong strode from the

water, then beckoned over two slaves, a man and a woman. They pulled  off  the

rags they wore and dried the Yuuzhan Vong's legs.

A siren of sorts echoed through  the  hills.  The  Yuuzhan  Vong  shouted

another order, and the slaves formed themselves into a rough line. They  began

to trudge off to the south. The Yuuzhan Vong took one last look at the  villip

paddy, then strode off along the path his slaves had taken.

Luke felt an emotional chill coming  from  his  nephew.  "I'm  sorry  you

witnessed that."

"I'm sorry for the man who  died  there."  Jacen  shook  his  head.  "The

Yuuzhan Vong I faced when rescuing Danni-they  were  formidable,  but  nothing

like that one. He had no mercy at all in him."

"No, just a cold, efficient killer. He  was  bigger  than  the  one  Mara

fought, longer and leaner. I wish I had seen more than just a silhouette."

Jacen smiled. "We'll get to see them up close soon enough."

Luke shook his head. "I certainly hope not."

The younger Jedi blinked. "But we have to do something for the slaves."

"Do we?" Luke's expression sharpened as disbelief rolled out from  Jacen.

"Remember why we're here."

"To save the New Republic, and those people are part of the New Republic.

" Jacen pointed to the south. "You can feel how much pain they're in, how much

damage the Yuuzhan Vong have done to them. How can you not think of moving  to

free them?"

"I do think of it, but I also know it's not practical, not at this stage.

We have a lot to learn here. It's not a satisfactory choice, but  a  necessary

one."

Jacen's head came up. "Freeing them will doom the New Republic?  Or  will

it merely make your mission to save your wife that much tougher?"

Luke stiffened, but choked down the outrage  his  nephew's  question  had

sparked in him. It helped that he could read the horror in Jacen's  eyes,  but

the question had still stung bitterly. "Is that what you think the real reason

for our being here is? You think I would come here just to save Mara?"

"I think, Uncle Luke, that you love her so much that you'd doanything  to

save her." The youth glanced down. "I'm sorry for saying what I did. I  didn't

mean it."

"Actually, Jacen, you did mean it. It is a paradox. We have to allow some

people to be in pain so others can avoid it. It's an easy choice  when  you're

the one who will be hurting, but tougher when others have to suffer. You  have

to agree, though, that we can do nothing right now. We don't know enough about

the Yuuzhan Vong presence here; we don't know  enough  about  the  slaves;  we

don't even know if theycan be saved. For all we know, they've agreed  to  this

treatment."

Jacen glanced out at where the man's body had returned to the surface and

floated there placidly. "I can't imagine his death was part of any bargain."

"You're probably right, but we are not in a position to do  anything  for

the slaves."

"But, to do nothing, that's not... not being a Jedi."

The flesh around Luke's eyes tightened. "I thought you were the  one  who

didn't want any part of these missions. I thought you were the one who decided

the essence of being a Jedi was to go off and study your relationship with the

Force."

"I... I did, but-"

The Jedi Master cut him off. "Jacen, you have  to  understand  something,

something very important. As smart as you are, as much training as  you  have,

as much of the galaxy as you've seen, you still are only  sixteen  years  old.

You only have sixteen years of experience."

Luke sighed.  "Having  more  experience  doesn't  mean  making  difficult

decisions are easier, but it does  let  you  know  that  sometimes  the  tough

decisions must be made."

Jacen's expression  hardened  into  an  impassive  mask.  "I  understand,

Master."

You use the wordMasterwith the same tone a slave might use to address his

owner. Luke shook his head. "We need to get back to the ExGal facility  before

darkness falls completely. Without  being  able  to  sense  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

through the Force, we're more vulnerable at night. Besides, going  back  there

will give both of us time to process what we've learned today, and think about

what we need to find out in the future."

Jacen shrugged. "It's a plan, Uncle Luke. A plan."

A ripple of dread ran through Luke at the tone of his nephew's voice, but

the Force brought to him no vision of what might yet happen  on  Belkadan.  He

reached out and settled a hand  on  Jacen's  shoulder.  "Just  remember,  some

problems have no easy or elegant solution. The Yuuzhan Vong  are  clearly  one

ofthose problems."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Trapped in the cockpit of his X-wing as it  hurtled  through  hyperspace,

Gavin Darklighter had nothing to do but sit and wait. For as long as he  could

remember, he'd never liked having  to  wait  for  his  fighter  to  revert  to

realspace.  That  dislike  had  increased  when  he  became  Rogue  Squadron's

commander.Prior to assuming command I only had myself to worry  about.  Now  I

have a lot more to concern me.

Unconsciously he twisted the silver ring on his right ring  finger,  even

though it and the fingers that moved it around were sheathed in  heavy  flight

gloves. The ring had the Rogue Squadron crest on it-a crest he'd designed when

he first joined the squadron. It also sported the quadruple-dot rank  insignia

of a colonel on either side.

Tycho Celchu and Wedge Antilles had given it to him upon  his  assumption

of command. They had chosen to retire  after  peace  had  been  won  with  the

Imperial Remnant, and both had evidenced great pride in welcoming Gavin into a

position that only they and Luke Skywalker had held in Rogue Squadron.  They'd

had the ring made up specifically for him,  and  presented  it  to  him  on  a

special "commander's night out."

Gavin smiled as he  remembered  the  quiet,  elegant  dinner  in  one  of

Coruscant's better restaurants. The three  of  them  comported  themselves  as

would gentlemen, not at all living up to  the  reputation  of  fighter  pilots

everywhere. The calm dignity with which Tycho  and  Wedge  spoke  to  him  and

discussed various issues told him that they had accepted him as a peer and had

full confidence in his abilities to lead the Rogues.

Wedge had looked at him over the rim of a snifter  of  Corellian  brandy.

"Biggs was with us at the start, and you were with us when we restarted  Rogue

Squadron. In many ways the Darklighters and their victories and sacrifices are

more emblematic of Rogue Squadron than anything Tycho and I  have  done.  It's

certainly the right thing to have you in charge."

Wedge's pride and faith in him had seen Gavin through  some  early  rough

spots. With peace came the retirement of many of the pilots.  In  addition  to

Wedge and Tycho, Corran Horn, Wes Janson, and Hobbie Klivian had all opted  to

retire. Peace also brought with it an economic boom  that  lured  pilots  away

with offers of lucrative pay for interstellar goods transport. Still, a lot of

new young pilots vied for positions in the squadron, and weeding them out made

for a very difficult job.

And let me know what Wedge faced when he rebuilt the squadron back when I

joined.Luckily for Gavin he had a good command staff to help  him  out.  Major

Inyri Forge had been with the Rogues almost as long as  he  had.  Major  Alinn

Varth came from a military family and had been flying most of her  life.  With

each of them in command of one of the flights, the  new  pilots  were  quickly

molded into a superior fighting team. Gavin wasn't certain if his Rogues could

have defeated the old Rogues in a head-to-head simulation, but he knew  they'd

give them a run for their money.

But will that be good enough?

A cold lump sat  in  Gavin's  stomach.  Based  on  Xhaxin's  information,

Admiral Kre'fey took theRalroost out toward the  rendezvous  point  where  the

pirate said his people were ambushed. They launched a probe droid toward  that

point, but the data it sent back was  inconclusive.  Gavin  pointed  out,  and

Kre'fey had agreed, that the droid  really  didn't  have  the  programming  or

database necessary to be able to analyze the area  for  the  presence  of  the

Yuuzhan Vong. "If there isn't something big  and  anomalous  there,  it  isn't

going to see anything to report."

That fact really left them  with  no  choice  but  to  send  in  a  T-65R

reconnaissance X-wing. While it would collect data in all of the  ranges  that

the probe droid did, the living pilot  would  be  able  to  direct  it  toward

anything that felt suspicious. Rogue Squadron  was  flying  along  to  provide

cover; they had spent most of the time outbound in theRalroost running through

simulations of battles with the coralskippers.

When it came down to it, Gavin was of two minds concerning  the  mission.

Returning to an empty point in space where some pirates and fleeing  Imperials

had been ambushed weeks ago was probably an exercise in futility. There was no

logical reason for the Yuuzhan Vong to maintain a presence in that area  since

it had no resources, no planets-nothing to see, nothing to conquer, nothing to

hide behind. All of that had argued against the mission.  The  fact  that  the

point in space from which the task force was traveling provided  access  to  a

number of inhabited worlds both in the New Republic and the Remnant-where  the

Rogues would be far more valuable in helping evacuate  people-also  diminished

the mission profile.Why go somewhere that is out of the way when we  might  be

needed to respond to trouble quickly?

A vague argument for the mission could be made  on  the  slender  chances

that some people had somehow survived  the  attack  and  remained  trapped  in

drifting hulks. More likely was the idea that by collecting data on  any  ship

hulks in the area the New Republic would be able to assess the capabilities of

Yuuzhan Vong weaponry. What little they knew already trickled some dread  into

Gavin's guts, but the strategies they'd  come  up  with  to  work  around  the

Yuuzhan Vong defenses worked well in simulation.

Catch whistled and started a ten-second  countdown  to  reversion.  Gavin

settled his right hand on the stick and positioned his left  on  the  throttle

lever. He watched the white tunnel of light that extended beyond his fighter's

nose suddenly develop cracks, then disintegrate into a black field with  stars

studding it.

"Rogues, report."

All the pilots reported in and formed up  in  their  three  flights.  The

recon X-wing, which had the designation Snoop, climbed  above  the  squadron's

flight plane and slowly deployed the twin sensor pods from  the  rear  of  the

fighter. The T-65R had no weapons because sensors  filled  all  the  available

space in the craft, but in a fight the pilot could jettison the pods  and  end

up with a very fast and maneuverable ship that could keep him out of trouble.

"Pods deployed. Sensor run commencing now."

"I copy, Snoop."

Without a word being said the rest of Rogue Squadron fanned out,  leaving

One flight trailing behind and below the recon ship. Two flight, under Inyri's

command, moved to starboard and up, while Major  Varth's  Three  flight  moved

ahead and down to port. The Rogues kept the comm chatter to a minimum  so  the

computers on Snoop wouldn't have to filter their calls out.Unless there is  an

emergency, this run should be silent.

Gavin looked ahead and dialed up the gain on his sensors  to  see  if  he

could spot any debris from the ambush. Because there was no large mass-star or

planet-in the area to pull the debris toward it, he expected to see plenty  of

wreckage. In the distance, nearly ten kilometers away,  he  did  catch  sensor

blips, but nothing his targeting computer could recognize as being a ship.

Catch gave out with a low moan, and new targets started to scroll  up  on

Gavin's secondary monitor. The half-dozen targets were spilling like  droplets

of water from a cracked cup, appearing from  the  blips  that  were  all  that

remained of the ships that had been  ambushed.  Gavin  shivered,  thinking  of

times he'd seen insects crawling from within corpses.

"Heads up, Rogues, we have contacts at 354 mark  20.  S-foils  in  attack

position." Gavin checked his sensors. "Snoop, come about and orbit here,  pull

in all the data you can on the fight, then hyper out if  we  can't  stop  them

from coming after you."

"As ordered, Lead."

The new sensor database package on the X-wings allowed them to target the

coralskippers, but not very easily. Since each ship was grown in  a  different

environment, it had different characteristics. Not all of them  had  the  same

chemical composition in the hull, nor the same shape  exactly.  The  computers

had to account for a wide range of variables, and Gavin  couldn't  be  certain

that his computer might not lock onto some chunk of rock and  designate  it  a

target.

Which means we have to move in close.Gavin nudged  his  throttle  forward

and saw his wingman, Captain Kral Nevil, come up on his port wing,  then  they

both nosed their ships down and cruised in at the coralskippers. Gavin brought

his aiming reticle over one of the coralskippers heading toward him,  but  the

computer refused to give him a proton torpedo lock until  they  hit  the  one-

kilometer range. It went from red to green instantly, accompanied  by  Catch's

shriek, so Gavin hit the trigger, then pulled up and inverted the craft.

The  proton  torpedo  rode  an  azure  flame  to  the  target,  and   the

coralskipper made no attempt to evade it. Instead, nearly ten meters away from

the target, the torpedo shrank from a dot of light to something smaller,  like

a distant star, and the supernova of light Gavin had  expected  to  see  never

showed up.

A quick glance at his secondary monitor  did  show  a  gravitic  anomaly,

which confirmed that the coralskipper had somehow created a small black  hole,

which it used to swallow the missile. The energy from the  explosion  couldn't

escape the void; hence the coralskipper  remained  undamaged.  Being  able  to

generate black holes wasn't the same as having  shields,  but  in  some  cases

could be even more effective.

"Lead, the black-hole idea seems to be right. Do we tip our hand?"

"Yes, Deuce. Rogues, new combat programming now." Gavin hit a  switch  on

his combat console. "Catch, start allocating the power."

The droid dutifully tootled as Gavin rolled out to the right,  then  came

around for another run at the coralskippers. He flicked his  weapons  over  to

laser fire and quadded them up, so all four would fire at once. As he came  in

at one of the rocky pods, he hit the trigger once and pulsed a red-gold  burst

of energy at the fighter, but another black hole blossomed and  swallowed  the

laserlight.

Smiling, Gavin tightened down on the auxiliary trigger button beneath his

middle finger on the stick. The X-wing's lasers began cycling very fast-faster

than they would have in single-fire mode. Each  bolt  burned  with  a  scarlet

intensity, yet was shorter and decidedly less powerful that those in the first

burst he'd fired. As long as he held the auxiliary trigger down in quad  mode,

the lasers would produce a cloud of shots that wouldn't do  much  damage,  but

were next to impossible to distinguish from the heavier bolts.

His target positioned a void to pick off the  scattered  shots  from  his

fighter, then another  to  absorb  the  damage  Nevil  was  pumping  out.  The

coralskipper began some evasive maneuvers, rolling to port and  climbing  back

against the angle of their attack, but it didn't  fly  as  gracefully  as  the

coralskippers had in simulation. Gavin let his own fighter  flash  past,  then

pulled back on the stick and came over in a loop, before he rolled out to port

and came back around on that same ship.

He came in on its tail and triggered off a long burst  of  flickers.  The

coralskipper positioned a black hole above its tail, but Gavin  noticed  that,

this time, the hole was closer to the coralskipper and  had  a  smaller  focal

point. Some of the splinter shots that were  headed  long,  past  the  craft's

nose, were bent down by the force of the black hole, but not  trapped  by  it.

They struck the coralskipper's nose, burning tiny pits in it.

The coralskipper shifted to port and started to  roll  as  more  flickers

scored it. Gavin rolled to port, as  well,  and  chopped  back  his  throttle,

matching his speed to that of the coralskipper. He dropped his  crosshairs  on

its tail, then hit his main trigger and delivered a full-powered  quad  volley

at point-blank range.

The quartet of bolts converged on the coralskipper, and only one of  them

got sucked into the diminishing black hole. The other three  burned  into  the

cockpit assembly. They reduced the crystalline canopy  to  molten  stone  that

melted through the pilot. Their energy unabated,  the  bolts  superheated  the

coralskipper's mineral flesh, producing a geyser of  rock  vapor  that  jetted

back out of the cockpit and propelled the dead fighter deeper into space.

Gavin rolled to starboard and away from the dying ship, then felt a  jolt

run through his fighter. Another gravitic anomaly had hit him  and  tugged  at

his shields.That's how they strip shields off ships. He punched  a  button  on

the life-maintenance system controls. "Boost it to 100 percent and expand  the

field to thirteen meters, Catch."

The droid did as commanded, and the shiver that had gone through  the  X-

wing quit. Gavin smiled broadly. To avoid the wear and  tear  of  gravity  and

inertia on the  pilots  and  fighters,  each  X-wing  came  with  an  inertial

compensator built in. It allowed the X-wings to perform very high-speed, high-

inertial maneuvers without structural damage to the ship and  physical  damage

to the pilot. By expanding the area covered by this field to thirteen  meters-

putting it out beyond the shields-the compensator  treated  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

gravity beams like anything else stressing the fighter.

If enough ships locked onto the fighter,  they  would  eventually  demand

more energy output than its engines could manage, causing the field to implode

and the ship to be ripped apart. Gavin goosed the throttle forward  and  broke

to port, pulling away from the coralskipper that had tried to lock  onto  him.

Suddenly a bright light flashed and the coralskipper disappeared from his rear

screen.

"Who got it?"

Nevil answered. "Locking onto you and having  you  slip  away  must  have

tired it or confused it. I dropped a proton torpedo in. Coralduster."

"Good, on me." Gavin brought his X-wing around and back up  to  the  main

body of the dogfight. A glance at his  secondary  monitor  showed  two  Rogues

failing to respond on the comm frequency. A flash of orange confirmed at least

one pilot was outside his ship. Elsewhere he saw a coralskipper tight on an X-

wing's tail, lacing the shrinking aft shield with plasma blasts.

"Snoop, report."

"Good here, Lead. I'm clear. Got it all,  including  the  one  that  took

Eleven and Twelve."

"Which one?"

A pulse of data from the T-65R brought a specific coralskipper up on  his

targeting monitor. It didn't look that different from the others,  but  as  he

flew toward it, he could tell by the way it moved and maneuvered, it had a hot

hand on the stick.

"With me, Deuce?"

A double click coming back through the  comm  channel  confirmed  Nevil's

understanding of his role. Gavin came up on the port S-foil and pulled back on

the stick to run his X-wing in at the killer coralskipper. He plotted a course

that would pass behind it and  kept  adjusting  it  to  tighten  the  distance

between them without arrowing straight in at it.

The coralskipper was  intent  on  tracking  one  of  the  X-wings.  Gavin

identified the ship as belonging to Lieutenant Ligg Panat, a Krish female  who

had just joined the squadron. The Krish were well  known  for  their  love  of

games, and the way she was flying made Gavin think she was taking the  Yuuzhan

Vong on her tail a bit too lightly. She was managing to juke her ship  around,

making it hard to hit, but she still couldn't break away cleanly.

"Seven, this is Lead. On my mark, reverse throttle, break port."

"Lead, I can handle-"

"This is an order, Seven. On my mark. Mark."

Ligg reversed her thrust and rolled to the left, making  it  look  as  if

she'd just  nudged  her  ship  out  of  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  pilot's  way.  The

coralskipper shot past her, then rolled out right and  came  up.  The  Yuuzhan

Vong ship's nose came around, and the coralskipper lined up for a head-to-head

run on Gavin's fighter.

That sent a jolt through Gavin.Why would it do that? If it uses its black

holes to shield itself, it can't take down my shields,  so  its  plasma  shots

won't get through. If it takes down my shields, I can dump  a  torp  down  its

throat. Makes no sense.

Realizing that if he couldn't tell what the  enemy  was  planning,  going

along with the enemy's plan was stupid, Gavin triggered a burst of flickers at

the incoming target. The cloud of red energy  needles  flew  out  and,  as  he

expected, curved in together into the black hole the coralskipper had  erected

to protect itself. What he hadn't expected is that the  void  would  intercept

them that far forward.

Gavin kicked his fighter into a snap roll to starboard, then  jammed  the

throttle full. Sparks shot from the inertial compensator panel as  the  X-wing

grazed the edge of the black hole. Catch screamed, and Gavin hugged the  stick

back to his chest. The X-wing shuddered and  engines  whined,  but  his  speed

started dropping.I'm getting sucked into that thing!

Gavin reversed thrust on his fighter, then ruddered the  nose  around  to

point at the black hole. The screaming engines fought the black  hole's  pull,

but surrendered precious centimeter after centimeter to  it.  He  flicked  the

weapons control over to proton torpedoes and emptied his magazine of six  into

the black hole. One after one the torps dived into the gravitic  anomaly,  and

somehow the black hole managed to contain the  vast  energy  their  explosions

released.

But, Gavin noticed, his rate of descent into the black hole slowed.

He flicked his thrust forward. The fighter picked up speed, attracted  by

the black hole and pushed by the engines. Then he pulled back on the stick and

used the velocity he'd acquired to shoot past the black hole's edge.

More sparks shot through the cockpit,  and  his  shields  collapsed.  His

sensor screens blinked for a moment, then came back on full, but  he  couldn't

see the coralskipper. "Catch, where is it?"

Nevil's voice came through the comm speakers in his helmet.  "Thanks  for

distracting it, Lead. Seven and I angled in and got it. Not a pretty kill, but

a kill."

"Thanks, Deuce. Flight leaders, report."

"Five here, Lead. Eight lost an engine and will have  to  be  picked  up,

otherwise we're fine."

"Good, Five. Nine, what about Three flight?"

Alinn Varth's voice came through heavy with emotion. "Lost two, Lead. The

one that almost got you dropped that big black hole on his tail as Eleven  was

closing. Dinger flew into it and never knew what hit him. Twelve got ripped up

by it. Tik is extravehicular, negative life signs."

"Do a tight flyby to check. We'll have theRalroost  recover  him."  Gavin

glanced at his sensors again. "Snoop, got any more skips in the area?"

"Negative, Lead, but those hulks could be full of them."

"I copy that, Snoop. Reel in the pods and go back to  the  admiral.  Give

him the data, have him send someone back for us."

"As ordered, Lead. May the Force be with you."

"Thanks, Snoop." Gavin watched the X-wing recover the sensor  pods,  then

accelerate and vanish into a bright flash in the sky. "Listen up, the rest  of

you. Keep your eyes open and sensors scanning. We don't know  why  there  were

only a half-dozen skips here, or if there are more in hiding. I don't want  to

be surprised. We did okay for our first engagement with them, and I don't want

Admiral Kre'fey to show up here to discover  we  somehow  managed  to  turn  a

victory into a defeat."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Leia intended to be the first person to disembark from theLambda -  class

shuttle,Fond Memory, when it  touched  down  on  Dubrillion,  but  her  Noghri

bodyguard, Bolpuhr, beat her to it. He growled at the two men  in  body  armor

who came running at the freighter along the narrow causeway that  led  to  the

main landing tower. Ignoring him, the two of them turned and set up a position

on the causeway to hold people back, then they parted and let a harried  Lando

Calrissian slip past.

Leia ran down the landing ramp and hugged Lando fiercely. "I'm  so  happy

to see you're not hurt."

"I'm not, but my world is." Lando freed himself from her arms, tossed his

cape back over his shoulder, and waved a hand out over  the  cityscape.  "It's

all over, Leia."

The pure anguish in his voice arced pain through her heart. She  followed

his gaze and looked out over a city that  she  remembered  as  being  pristine

during her first visit, with high towers that made this portion of  Dubrillion

look as if it had been  transplanted  from  Coruscant.  The  gentle  sweep  of

archways and the elegantly worked decorations on the  buildings  had  reminded

her of images from Coruscant while her father was yet a child.

Now it is Coruscant after  Thrawn  and  the  Emperor's  return.The  proud

towers had been shattered,  with  fires  guttering  from  the  tops  of  some.

Buildings had holes  melted  and  blasted  into  them.  Faint  breezes  teased

draperies that hung out through  broken  transparisteel  viewports,  and  down

below, on the various causeways and streets,  people  moved  listlessly  along

carrying their most precious possessions on their backs or in their arms.

Lando sighed. "The Yuuzhan Vong returned a week  and  a  half  after  you

left. They took up a position near the asteroid belt and watched us. Every  so

often a squadron  of  their  coralskippers  descends  and  hits  a  particular

location. We fight back, of course, and get some of them, but  less  and  less

with each strike. It feels like they're using us to cull the weak  and  stupid

from their ranks, leaving only the best and smartest  and  bravest  behind  to

fight again."

He slammed his right fist  into  his  left  palm.  "I  don't  like  their

attacking us, but I like even less being mocked."

Elegos appeared beside Leia. "Administrator Calrissian, what you  see  as

mocking you could be a healthy respect for your defenses here. Your  peopledid

stop an earlier assault."

Lando nodded grimly. "We did, butthese Yuuzhan Vong fight differently. It

was the difference between dealing with crack Imperial troops and  some  local

Imp-wanna-be militia. These fighters are much better and, yes, more  cautious,

but they're just putting the polish on the force pike  before  they  drive  it

into our guts."

Leia put a hand on Lando's shoulder. "They didn't harry us as we came in.

"

"They don't. They pick off a few of the outbound ships,  but  mostly  let

them run, too. At least, they do now. I think they  expected  a  New  Republic

response by now." Lando gave Leia a sidelong glance. "You've got nothing  from

Coruscant to offer us, right?"

She jerked a thumb toward Elegos. "Meet Senator Elegos A'Kla.  He's  here

on an official fact-finding mission."

"Better find your facts fast, Senator, before the Yuuzhan Vong melt  them

down with plasma blasts."

Leia shivered. In all the time she'd spent with Lando,  even  when  Darth

Vader had usurped his command of Bespin, she'd never heard him so  frustrated.

She was willing to put part of it down to his not wanting  to  have  to  start

over yet again, but she knew that was only a tiny piece of what was  going  on

inside him.Lando always looks for ways to work  around  the  system,  whatever

systemthat is, but with so little data on the Yuuzhan Vong, he can't  find  an

opening to defeat them.

Leia glanced around at the other spaceport towers.  "Things  look  pretty

empty. Everyone fleeing?"

"Those who can, have." Lando shook his head  impotently.  "I  had  guards

come up on the causeway here because your arrival will draw a lot of folks who

want to get away."

"How are your defenses holding up?" Elegos craned  his  neck  and  looked

around. "I don't see much in the way of  turbolaser  batteries  or  concussion

missile launchers."

Lando's face brightened a little. "Nor will you. The Yuuzhan Vong hit the

fixed sites pretty early on. Everything else is mobile  and  in  hiding.  When

they come in we try to harass them with fighters and  steer  them  into  areas

where our mobile guns can engage them. They're learning, so they're making  it

tough, but we can shuffle things when they're not looking down on us  and  set

up new ambushes."

"That's good as a stall tactic, but it won't win  a  war  against  them."

Leia's eyes narrowed. "We can do better."

"Really? That mean you have a spare Death Star lurking around  that  will

pulverize the asteroid belt and their command ship?"

"Command ship?" Elegos's head came up. "You've seen a big ship from them?

"

"Yes, lurking near the asteroid belt." Lando waved them on to follow him.

"Come on down to my central defense facility. I can show you as much  holo  on

that ship as you want. Wedid make  an  attempt  at  taking  it  out,  but  our

fighters never got close enough."

Leia dropped into step with Lando, leaving Elegos to  trail  behind  them

and Bolpuhr leaping ahead to lead the way. "It's got to have  a  weakness.  We

can find it and exploit it."

"I hope so."

"We will, Lando. We must." Leia sighed. "It's the only chance  Dubrillion

has."

Jaina pulled a comlink from the bulkhead  recharger  station  on  theFond

Memory. She handed another to Danni. "My mother has headed off with Lando.  We

can explore a bit, if you want, stretch our legs."

The blond woman accepted the device and clipped it to the  lapel  of  the

blue jacket she wore. "Sorry to take so long to find  my  jacket.  You  should

have gone with her."

"That's okay. Being cooped up with her for the trip out here  was  enough

for now. I don't need to be there while she's being 'Princess Leia.' "

Danni blinked with surprise. "But, your mother, she..."

Jaina nodded and led the way down the landing ramp. "I know, she defeated

the Empire and kept the New Republic safe. Oh, don't look at me  that  way.  I

know what she did, and I love her dearly."

"Sounds as if there is abut coming in there somewhere."

Jaina sighed as they stepped past the guards  on  the  causeway  and  cut

toward a set of stairs that would take them lower in  the  city.  "Didn't  you

want to move out of your mother's shadow?"

"My mother cast a very small shadow, I guess."  The  woman's  green  eyes

sparkled. "She is an astrophysicist who got me to be looking  out  toward  the

stars. She kept a low profile, trying to pass beneath the sensors of the local

government or the Empire or whichever warlord claimed our world in  any  given

week. From her I learned to marvel at distant worlds and systems. That's a big

chunk of the reason I joined the ExGal Society."

"Your mother must be proud."

"She is. I think she's pleased I chose to follow in her footsteps."

"Taking after your father didn't interest you?"

"They split up when I was young. He was  a  bureaucrat,  very  much  into

rules and regulations that seemed pointless." Danni shrugged. "At least,  with

science, the rules you have to follow have  reason  behind  them  and  produce

results. I don't much care for bureaucracy, which was part of the fun of being

with ExGal: the edge of the galaxy was about  twenty  times  closer  than  the

nearest bureaucrat."

Jaina exited the stairs and stepped over a small pile of debris that  had

spilled into the street from a nearby building. She could have shifted it  out

of the way with the Force, but she didn't. In fact, she found herself  pulling

the Force back in because the pure misery of the people of  Dubrillion  clawed

at her spirit. She understood their fear and pain, but  the  sharpness  of  it

threatened to rend her.

"At least you had some sort of choice, Danni. With my parents I could  be

a smuggler who saved the galaxy or a diplomat who saved the galaxy."

"And you chose to become a Jedi."

Jaina shifted her shoulders uneasily. "That choice was pretty  much  made

for me. My brothers and I are very strong in the Force."

Danni arched an eyebrow as she pulled abreast of Jaina. "You regret being

a Jedi?"

"No, not at all." Jaina hesitated, then sighed. "It's  something  neither

of my parents became, so it let me have something to myself.  That's  part  of

being a twin too, I guess; everyone expects we'll be alike even  though  we're

fraternal, not identical."

"I think I begin to see what you're  saying."  Danni  offered  her  hand.

"Pleased to meet you, Jaina Solo. So, tell me, just who are you?"

Laughter erupted from Jaina. "I don't know who I am. I'm only sixteen.  I

know parts of it. I know I'm a really good pilot, and I'm not bad as a Jedi. I

know I'm getting tired of being my mother's daughter and my father's daughter;

and part of me even knows that it will take time for me to emerge  from  their

shadows. I also know that there are folks out there who think I'm going to  be

the salvation of the galaxy because I'm a Jedi, and others who think I'm  doom

on two feet for the same reason."

The older woman hooked an arm through Jaina's right  elbow.  "I  remember

when I was sixteen. I was all elbows and knees and  pretty  sure  I  knew  all

there was to know about anything worth knowing."

"Uh-huh. And now, at the ripe old age of, what, twenty-one, you know  how

foolish you were back then?"

"Twenty-one, yes. And, yes, I do think I was not as wise  then  as  I  am

now. Jaina, I remember not wanting advice."

The younger woman smiled. "So you'll give it to me anyway."

"My point is, Jaina, that people have a choice when they start to look at

who they are. Some people decide they want to be like others. They use them as

examples, try to do the things they do, and do their best to follow  in  their

footsteps." Danni smiled. "I was like that with my mother."

"And the other type of people, they try to be the opposite of someone?"

"Right, and the problem with that strategy is simple: There are a million

ways to be unlike someone, and the potential for disaster is unlimited because

instead of choosing a path and adjusting it to make it right for you  and  the

circumstances, you push all that away." Danni gave Jaina's arm a squeeze. "You

may not want to be your mother, you may ache for the day  when  you  won't  be

seen as her daughter, but that doesn't mean your mother doesn't have a lot  of

admirable qualities that you might want to embrace."

Jaina nodded, letting Danni's words bounce around inside her mind  for  a

bit. She knew she was both disappointed and relieved by her  mother's  failure

to learn more about the Force. Being a  Jedi  already  gave  her  a  piece  of

identity that her mother didn't have. And, in being a pilot, she did  seem  to

have picked up one of her father's better traits.And Mom's commitment  to  the

causes that catch her  up  is  certainly  admirable.  Her  relentlessness  and

willfulness, while annoying to me, are good traits, too.

Jaina shot Danni a sidelong glance. "So, this wisdom thing, that kicks in

when, about seventeen or eighteen?"

"Maybe, with a good role model."

"Good. I guess I can take my pick from some of the best."  Jaina  smiled.

"I may not know who I am, but I think you've pointed me to  a  good  path  for

finding out."

"It's the least I can do for half the team that saved me from the Yuuzhan

Vong."

The two of them stopped as they rounded a corner and came upon a crowd of

people gathered before a government food  storehouse.  Armed  security  troops

stood at the doorway. A couple of  frantic  clerks  beseeched  the  people  to

disperse. They announced they were waiting for  a  shipment  of  supplies  and

would be setting up local relief centers in neighborhoods. They  said  no  one

would be getting food directly from the storehouse, but the  sentiment  voiced

by some in the crowd supported the idea that the troops and bureaucrats wanted

to keep the food only for themselves.

Danni shivered. "These people-there's such need."

Jaina slowly opened herself to the Force and felt the desire and  urgency

pouring off the crowd. She abruptly turned Danni around and headed back toward

the spaceport. "I know you're Force-sensitive. I should have steered you clear

of here."

"Did you feel it, Jaina?"

"I did, when I opened myself to it. I'd shut some of it out just  because

it hurt so much, which is why I didn't skirt this place."

"You can do that? You can shut things out?" Danni  frowned.  "I  mean,  I

thought the Force was vital for the Jedi."

"The Force is vital for everyone, but negative emotions are the  bane  of

the Jedi Knight. Too much of that can frustrate you, lead you to  despair  and

rash acts that are of the dark side."  Jaina  stretched  her  senses  out  and

located the distant spark that was her mother. "I can show you how to screen a

lot of the negative stuff and teach you a few more of the  simple  telekinesis

exercises, but first I want to find my mother. She ought to have a clue as  to

how desperate things are getting here."

"You're right. Thanks for getting me out of there."

"No problem." Jaina gave her a quick  nod.  "That's  for  calibrating  my

compass. Now that I've got a better  idea  where  I'm  going,  perhaps  I  can

actually get there."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The University of Agamar students had been very  resourceful  in  dealing

with the conditions they discovered on Bimmiel, Corran decided. Once the  sand

started to fly, they developed broad, flat footgear that could be  buckled  to

the  bottom  of  boots,  expanding  the  size  of  a  walker's  footprint.  It

distributed enough of the walker's weight that he didn't sink into the sand. A

second iteration of the design included a compartment beneath  the  heel  that

could be filled with the dead-slashrat scent-referred to,  rather  accurately,

asstink - so slashrats wouldn't track folks out scouting around.

The sandgales picked up again shortly after the Jedi's arrival,  trapping

them in the cavern with the field team. Corran quickly established that he and

Ganner would take watches at the cave mouth, especially at night,  when  their

Force senses could make picking out the approach of slashrats much easier. The

fact that these watches also tended to be cold  meant  none  of  the  students

lamented  giving  them  up.  Because  the  students  had  infrared  monitoring

equipment that allowed them to spot the heat that slashrats  gave  off-thereby

rendering them technologically visible at night-an  undercurrent  of  comments

started about how stupid the Jedi were to rely on archaic  practices  and  the

Force when technology worked just as well  and  allowed  a  full  division  of

labor.

The criticism annoyed Ganner, but Corran didn't mind it. As he  explained

to Ganner in the dead of the night, "If they think we're a bit  slow,  they'll

believe themselves superior. This makes us much less  of  a  threat  in  their

eyes. Since we'll be living with them for a while, having them think  us  more

buffoon than brute won't be bad."

Ganner had his  own  ideas  about  how  to  improve  relations  with  the

students, which resulted in Trista spending part of the watches  talking  with

him in hushed tones that were punctuated by far  too  many  giggles.  Ganner's

getting along with Trista did have  a  curious  effect  on  the  rest  of  the

company. Males in the group who found her desirable didn't pick  on  the  Jedi

too much, lest they risk offending her. Her female  friends  remained  neutral

toward the Jedi, or at least toward Corran. The others,  including  Dr.  Pace,

seemed to take the  budding  romance  as  a  sign  that  Ganner  was  human-or

manipulable-and that eased some tension.

The week of storms did allow Corran to learn more about the Yuuzhan  Vong

body and artifacts the team had discovered. At his suggestion they  looked  at

the artifacts and confirmed that the weapons and armor were, or once had been,

living creatures.

The fact that the Yuuzhan Vong had been on Bimmiel  before  and,  perhaps

significantly, during the exit half of the orbit, suggested to  Corran  thatif

they returned, they would be very well suited to local conditions  since  they

knew what to expect. He felt certain theyhad returned and were in the area: as

martial a people as they seemed to be, he could easily imagine them coming  to

recover the remains of their fallen comrade. Corran had no idea  why  it  took

the Yuuzhan Vong fifty years before returning to  recover  the  body.  Perhaps

this one was an early scout. However, if his hunch was true, everyone  in  the

university field team was in serious jeopardy.

As the gales died down, Corran made plans for himself and Ganner to recon

the area. They waited until nightfall, strapped on sandshoes, and  headed  out

to the east, toward the shores of  what,  during  the  time  of  the  Imperial

survey, had been a lake. Their progress was not fast, but  the  sandshoes  did

allow them to keep moving without having to dig themselves out of deep sand.

Corran and Ganner crouched downwind  of  a  discovery.  Two  dunes  over,

painted in silver and gray by  the  moon's  light,  there  boiled  a  ball  of

slashrats savaging some other creature. The predators made angry little growls

as they shot up through the sand and dived back down  into  it,  or  slithered

back and forth, wagging their heads in fights over scraps of carrion. Watching

them feed, Corran almost felt sorry for the Yuuzhan Vong they'd attacked.

More curious than the battling was a sharp, sour  scent  that  wafted  to

them on the wind. Corran wrinkled his nose. "That's worse than stink."

Ganner nodded. "That's killscent. Trista says the slashrats exude it when

they're making a kill. It lets others know food is in the area. They'll  close

in, herding the shwpi back toward the main kill site. Some experiments  showed

that the slashrats will ignore stink to get at killscent. While  the  students

could synthesize it, they don't for fear of inviting a feeding frenzy."

"Wise idea." Corran got up and started moving around to  the  south.  "We

skirt the killball and keep going. I'm  getting  faint  glimmerings  of  stuff

farther on."

"As am I. Strange things."

The two Jedi continued on in silence-at least, audio silence. When one is

attuned to the Force, the emotions playing through another can feel  as  sweet

as music sounds, or as harsh  as  breaking  transparisteel  looks.  Excitement

tinged with resentment trailed off Ganner, so Corran  decided  to  give  fewer

orders and invite Ganner's input on little choices, like how to work around  a

rising line of stony outcroppings that capped the hills overlooking the  lake.

Ganner gladly took the lead, and once they had removed their  sandshoes,  they

made good progress through the rocks.

At the pinnacle they paused, then  slipped  into  shadows  and  descended

toward the sand-strewn lake bed. They kept behind cover as much  as  possible,

assuming that if the  Yuuzhan  Vong  were  there,  they  would  have  had  the

equivalent of infrared monitors available to them. At the base  of  the  rocks

they stopped and studied the flat expanse before them.

A village of sorts had been laid out on the lake  bed,  but  clearly  the

designer had been working with some logic  that  Corran  couldn't  understand.

Closest  to  their  position  were  small  rounded  buildings,  bowl-like  and

inverted, with any opening in them pointing farther east, away from the  Jedi.

Corran counted two dozen of the stone huts, gathered in four  rough  ranks  of

six each. Beyond them came a trio of larger buildings, on the same design, and

closest to the rising sun was  a  single,  very  large  building-easily  large

enough to house a freighter and have room left over for storing cargo  between

trips.

Two things struck Corran about the buildings. The  first  was  that  they

reminded him of mollusk shells. He knew of  sea  life  that  appropriated  the

castoff shells of other creatures, and found  it  easy  to  imagine  that  the

Yuuzhan Vong had just come down and grown domiciles for themselves. He had  no

idea what they did with the creatures  that  actually  grew  the  shells,  but

assumed they either moved on to grow the larger ones, or likely were  a  prime

source of food.

The second thing that he noticed  was  that  he  got  a  Force  sense  of

inhabitants only in the smallest of the shells. He  glanced  over  at  Ganner.

"Something is wrong with the people."

The other Jedi's eyes narrowed. "It is  as  if  there  is  static  coming

through the Force from them. Their link to the Force  is  weakening.  I  think

they're dying."

"Good insight. And you get nothing from the larger shells?"

"Shells? Of course, that's what they are. No, I don't."

"So, if there are Yuuzhan Vong around, they're  likely  in  those  bigger

ones."

"That would be my assumption." Ganner pointed a finger at the village and

circled it around. "Notice anything about the slashrats?"

Corran stretched out with the Force. He found  slashrats  easily  enough,

but they were all twenty meters from  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  village.  They  were

active and would move toward it, directly or at an angle, then turn back. Some

would even tunnel deep under it but never come up through the heart of it. "Do

you think they're able to repel the slashrats?"

"I don't know." Ganner pulled his sandshoes from where he'd fastened them

over his back to climb, and started to buckle them to his boots. "A quick look

might tell us something."

The older Jedi frowned. "We're not very agile in these things. Going down

there could be suicidal."

Ganner smiled coldly. "I have an assist that makes me more agile."

"You're not going down there alone."

"You will be too slow. If we get into trouble, you'll be-"

"I'll be waiting for you to use your assist to get me out." Corran pulled

on his sandshoes. "Trista should have you  all  knowledgeable  about  what  is

normal on this rock, so keep your eyes open for anythingun usual  down  there.

Let's get samples of the sand and figure out what keeps the slashrats back."

"I'm not stupid, you know."

Corran arched an eyebrow at him. "You say that,  butyou're  the  one  who

suggested going down there."

"How smart are you for going with me?"

Corran rolled his eyes. "Just move it."

Ganner led the way, and the slashrats gave them a  wide  berth.  The  two

Jedi slipped into the Yuuzhan Vong village at the western  end,  and  each  of

them crouched in the shadow of one of the shell  huts.  From  inside  the  hut

Corran expected to sense the peaceful flow of the Force he related to sleeping

creatures, but jagged breaks in it disrupted the pattern.

He shuffled his way forward and discovered an opening on the eastern side

of the shell. The creature that had  originally  grown  the  shell  must  have

coiled about a central axis as it grew its armor home. The shell had been  set

in the sand so the lip of the opening dug into the sand a little. It  appeared

to Corran, given his sense of  where  the  inhabitant  lay,  that  the  person

crawled into the shell, then pulled himself deeper into it,  sleeping  in  the

small section that lay above the opening itself.

Paralleling Ganner, he moved deeper into the village. His sense of things

remained the same. He stopped and pulled from a belt pouch a  small  duraplast

cylinder, then dug it into the ground  to  take  a  sample  of  the  sand.  He

stoppered it, then noticed movement in the sand. A beetle climbed to  the  top

of the sample and started circling around the glassy wall, looking for  a  way

out.

Corran slipped that cylinder back into his pouch and pulled  out  another

empty one. He dug down a little bit into the sand and noticed a beetle  emerge

into the hole and inspect it. He scooped that beetle  up  in  a  cylinder  and

discovered, by dint of the twin horns on its head, that it was different  from

the first beetle he'd captured. He dug around some more and found a third type

of beetle, much smaller than the first  two,  and  caught  it  up.  He  wasn't

certain if it was just young or an entirely different species.

More test holes produced nothing, so Corran started to  move  on.  Ganner

had gotten ahead of him and was huddled behind a shell hut in the first  rank.

Corran immediately cut over to his left,  putting  him  directly  on  Ganner's

track.He shouldn't have gone that far ahead. The fact that Ganner appeared  to

be fingering his lightsaber and had a rising sense of anxiety about him  began

to alarm Corran.

All of a sudden something shrieked from  within  one  of  the  shells.  A

desperate creature crawled from a shell between the two Jedi and  stumbled  to

his feet. He looked vaguely human, but was knock-kneed and had growths on  his

arms and legs and spine that looked like coral outcroppings. He  clawed  at  a

big coral spike growing from his right cheek and shrieked in  a  hoarse  voice

that was more animal than man, and more pain than anything else.

The creature ran past Ganner, then fell in the sand and struggled to  get

up again. The sand itself around the creature began to vibrate, with  a  dusty

mist rising from it as if it were steam boiling  off  water.  Corran  couldn't

figure out what was causing  the  sand  to  shiver,  but  he  felt  a  curious

vibration from his own belt. He pulled out the beetles he'd captured, and one,

the horned one, was beating wings furiously.

Two long and lean Yuuzhan  Vong  warriors  emerged  from  the  first  two

medium-size shells-which had openings large enough so the tall aliens did  not

have to stoop as they came out. Neither of them seemed surprised or  concerned

about the slave. With a fluid grace that would  have  seemed  almost  sensual,

were they not cadaverously slender, the Yuuzhan Vong split up  and  approached

the slave from either side. One, then the other, taunted him  with  harsh  and

sharp comments, causing the slave to cower for a moment, and  dart  away  from

one, then back toward the other.

All the while the sand around his feet  danced  as  the  beetles  flapped

their wings in alarm.

Corran felt the slave's fear spike through the Force, then a severe burst

of static rattled through Corran. The slave's fear vanished to be replaced  by

fury. With fingers hooked into claws and a feral scream falling from his lips,

the slave charged headlong at one of the Yuuzhan Vong.

The alien warrior barked abruptly in what  Corran  took  to  be  a  cruel

laugh. The warrior dodged to the right, then brought his left  fist  up  in  a

punch that caught the slave over his heart. The slave arced up  into  the  air

and flew back a meter or so, then landed on his heels  and  flopped  onto  his

back. Corran felt certain he'd heard ribs crack, but the slave rolled  to  the

left and stood again, then charged the other Yuuzhan Vong.

The second warrior stopped the charge with a straight right hand  to  the

slave's face. The sharp pop of  bones  breaking  overrode  the  slave's  muted

whimper. The Yuuzhan Vong took a step back, then dropped  another  right  hand

onto the same cheek. The bony  knobs  on  his  knuckles  came  away  dark  and

glistening. Then he swept his left leg up and around in a  kick  that  slammed

into the slave's ribs and pitched him back toward the first Yuuzhan Vong.

The first Yuuzhan Vong warrior opened his arms,  almost  in  a  welcoming

gesture. He said something to the battered slave. It seemed like  a  question,

and the reaction from the slave was one of disbelief. The slave spat,  hugging

arms to his ribs, then snarled and dashed at his interrogator.

The first Yuuzhan Vong warrior hammered the slave with a left  hook  that

snapped off the coral spike on the  man's  right  cheek.  The  blow  spun  him

around. The Yuuzhan Vong then drove his right  fist  into  the  slave's  back,

precisely over the kidneys. Corran winced in sympathy as the slave went to his

knees.

A quick burst of fury alerted Corran to a new problem. Ganner had brought

his lightsaber to hand but had not yet ignited it. Knowing what Ganner  wanted

to do, but also knowing it would get them  and  the  students  killed,  Corran

acted. He used the Force to drill through Ganner's sense of outrage and pumped

the acrid scent of stink straight into his brain.

Ganner immediately dropped to his knees and doubled over. He covered  his

mouth with his gloved hands as his chest convulsed. What little  was  left  of

his supper leaked out through his fingers and puddled in  the  sand.  He  shot

Corran an incendiary glance, then his body heaved again.

Beyond him, in the space between the huts, the two Yuuzhan  Vong  towered

over their slave. Both of them barked questions at him. Confusion  rolled  off

the slave, then outrage. He coughed out an incoherent comment and composed his

face into a mask of defiance. He pushed off the ground with one hand and tried

to rise and run, but his captors never gave him the chance to escape.

A kick to the stomach jetted dark fluid from  the  slave's  mouth.  Blood

rolled down from his cheeks like a flood of  black  tears.  The  Yuuzhan  Vong

circled the slave, their punches and kicks knocking him back and forth between

them. If not for the sheer violence of their assault, he would have fallen  to

the sand. They kept him upright despite the fact that  their  blows  shattered

his skeleton and made it impossible for him to keep himself on his feet.

Finally the slave sagged to the ground. He was so far  gone  that  a  few

more kicks couldn't even send a spark of pain from him to Corran  through  the

Force. The Yuuzhan Vong looked at one another, traded laughter  and  comments.

They mimed blows they had struck and used their hands to  mimic  the  way  the

slave had bounced between them. Then they stooped and grabbed the slave, wrist

and ankle, and carried him to the edge of the village. Swinging him  back  and

forth four times, they lofted him out  into  the  sand,  and  very  quickly  a

slashrat killball marked the place he landed.

The Yuuzhan Vong picked up handfuls of sand and used it  to  scrub  blood

from their bodies, then wandered back  to  their  huts  and  disappeared  back

inside.

Corran projected the image of the hills into Ganner's  mind,  then  began

his own retreat from the village. He took it  slowly  and  monitored  Ganner's

progress. He waited close by until the younger Jedi actually got  out  on  the

sand outside of the village. He hoped  the  tang  of  killscent  would  remind

Ganner how close death lay to them.

Again nestled in the rocks of the  hills,  the  two  Jedi  removed  their

sandshoes to begin their ascent. Ganner sullenly strapped the shoes across his

back, then turned on Corran.

"If you ever do anything like that again, I will kill you."

"At least then death will be deferred, not immediate, as  it  would  have

been here."

"That man, you watched them beat him to death, and you did nothing."

"That's right, I did nothing because our tracks could be followed back to

the students. We saw only two of the Yuuzhan Vong, but there could  be  dozens

more, maybe hundreds in the big shell. Cutting those two down, right  there,if

you could have done it, would have doomed Dr. Pace and Trista and the others."

Ganner snorted angrily. "Not if they were the only two Yuuzhan Vong here.

"

"And what do you think the chances of that are?"

The younger man arched a dark eyebrow. "There are only two Jedi here."

"Unassailable logic, that, Ganner." Corran settled the  sandshoes  across

his back, then tugged on the cuffs of his gloves. "Maybe there are two,  maybe

there are two thousand. I don't doubt that before we get off this rock,  we're

going to have to kill  some  of  them,  but  the  longer  we  can  delay  that

confrontation, the better."

"So more people can die?"

"No, so we have a good chance  of  stopping  the  Agamarians  from  being

captured. What we saw here is a data point, and one  I  want  to  study.  That

wasn't just a beating."

"It was sport, cruel sport."

"Maybe, at the end, yes, but there was something else."  Corran  frowned.

"The way they spoke to him, they expected something from him. Their  contempt,

their anger, as shown by the frenzy at the end-something  else  was  going  on

there."

"Fine, you think about the motives of our murderers. I don't  think  that

data point will do you any good."

"Maybe not, but it's not all we've got. Our soil samples  are  more  data

points-"

"Killing Yuuzhan Vong will generate precious data points for you."

"Maybe. Dead Jedi would make for even more data  points."  Corran  tapped

two fingers against his right temple. "The vital thing right now  is  that  we

get back to the students, see if they can help us figure out what's  going  on

here, then see if we can get away safely with what we know."

"And, if we can't?"

Corran shrugged. "The first few times the Yuuzhan Vong  fought  Jedi,  we

won. We'll just have to see how  far  we  can  extend  that  streak."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Jacen Solo's eyes snapped open, and for a moment, he  wondered  where  he

was. He knew he was on Belkadan, but he found himself surprised to be back  at

the ExGal facility. Why that surprised him he couldn't  immediately  identify.

He kicked off the light blanket covering him, then swung  his  legs  over  the

edge of the cot and sat up.

Jacen raked fingers back through long brown hair, then pressed the  heels

of his hands against his eyes. Before he had awakened, he'd been in a  Yuuzhan

Vong village, the one where the villips were being grown. He'd gone  there  to

free the slaves. He'd waded into the water and  called  them  to  him.  They'd

come, and their master had come after them. As the slave master had done  with

the old man, Jacen had left the Yuuzhan Vong warrior  slowly  sinking  in  the

murky, still water.

It feels so real.Jacen pulled his hands away from his eyes, then  focused

until his hands emerged as ghostly shadows in the dim light. His  hands  still

tingled with the sense of having held  his  lightsaber  in  a  duel  with  the

Yuuzhan Vong warrior.  He  shifted  his  shoulders  and  stretched  his  back,

searching for any trace of pain to somehow validate the reality of  what  he'd

seen.

He knew it probably had just been a dream. In the week since they watched

the murder of the old man, they had done quite a bit of scouting. The  Yuuzhan

Vong had indeed  turned  Belkadan-or  at  least  this  section  of  it-into  a

shipyard. They were growing villips, coralskippers, and dovin basals all  over

the place. The laborers were slaves all, by the look of it, though some of the

overseers had aides who appeared, to Jacen, to be human and cooperating.  They

all had the growths on them, too, but the Force was  not  filled  with  static

from the collaborators, just greatly diminished.

The vision's being just a dream made sense.  It  was  clearly  a  fantasy

being fulfilled to let him drain away his frustration. He was  almost  willing

to accept what he had seen as a dream, then to drop back off to sleep.

Two things prevented him from doing that, however. One  was  a  sense  of

urgency wrapped around the vision. While he was willing  to  accept  that  his

frustration was enough to give birth to the dream, his  frustration  had  been

strongest the night after watching  the  murder.  Since  then,  they  had  not

returned to that place.

The second thing was the sheer reality of the vision. It wasn't something

he was remembering, per se, but felt as if it was a glimpse  at  something  he

had to do. He knew, very well, that if a Jedi was open to the Force, bits  and

pieces of the future might be revealed to him. His uncle's Master,  Yoda,  was

known for his wisdom and ability to see pieces of the future. Jacen had  never

really felt he'd been gifted a vision by the Force, but it did seem to him  as

if this was just the sort of thing a vision like that would entail.

He got up from his cot and staggered out of the room that had  once  been

Danni's. Pretty much everything in it had been smashed, but he'd been able  to

recover a few static holographs and a couple of  other  little  mementos  he'd

carry back to her. He shuffled his feet to move  aside  the  detritus  in  the

hallway, then leaned against the door jamb to the room his uncle had taken.

A small glow lamp filled the far corner of the  room  with  warm,  golden

light. His uncle sat on the floor facing the doorway, all  but  reduced  to  a

silhouette by the light. Jacen started to say something, but then the sense of

peace and concentration he got from his uncle stilled his tongue.

This was not the first time Jacen had seen his uncle enter a Jedi  trance

to tighten his bonds with the Force. After the peace with  the  Remnant,  when

Luke had made changes in the structure of the academy, other  apprentices  had

joked that the Master had become old and needed  his  Force  naps.  Jacen  had

laughed at that, but he envied his uncle's connection to the Force. He  wanted

that intimacy himself, and he knew what sort of a price his uncle had paid  to

earn it. While he knew that such a bond could not be won easily, he  fervently

hoped his course to attaining it would be neither as long nor  as  twisted  as

his uncle's.

He turned away from the door and stood there with his back  pressed  flat

against the wall. His uncle had said that experience allowed one to know  that

hard decisions needed to be made, and deciding if what he had seen was real or

not certainly qualified as a hard decision. While his head told him  to  doubt

what he had seen, his heart urged him to go.

That choicefeelsright, and the Force is more about feeling than thinking.

Jacen slowly exhaled, then returned to Danni's room and slowly pulled  on  his

combat suit. He clipped a comlink to the lapel, so he could  record  the  data

about his mission.That way, Uncle Luke's goal will be served even if  I  can't

attain mine. He didn't warn R2-D2 that he was heading out, however,  since  he

knew the droid would wake his uncle, and the mission would be ended before  it

ever began.

As he walked past Luke's door, he bowed once to  his  Master,  and  then,

with a long Jedi robe shrouding him, he emerged from the  ExGal  facility  and

strode into the night.

With every step Jacen took, he found himself becoming further and further

enmeshed in the vision he'd had. Every leaf, every wisp of cloud, the buzz  of

insects, the rattle of gravel coursing down a hillside in his wake-all  of  it

matched what he remembered. He stopped thinking and  instead  concentrated  on

feeling, choosing his steps almost at random, yet knowing each  time  that  he

had made the right choice.

He stalked through the night, taking great care  certainly,  but  with  a

growing sense of invulnerability because of what he knew he was heading out to

do. His vision was coming  true.  He  was  drawing  closer  and  closer  to  a

confrontation that would free the slaves and begin to turn  back  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. He knew Luke might not understand, and probably would not  approve,  but

Jacen felt bound to fulfill the destiny the Force had presented to him.

Quickly enough he found himself descending to the shore  of  the  shallow

lake. Moonlight filled the troughs between ripples with silver, and more of it

pooled in the water on top of the villip  leaves.  Slaves  moved  through  the

stalks, anointing the villips with ladle after ladle of the  dark  water.  The

only sounds in the basin came from the splashing of  water  and  the  villips'

haunting whispers.

Jacen stopped at the water's edge and threw back his  cloak.  He  took  a

deep breath and let calm flow through him. He  smiled,  just  a  little,  then

composed his face in a benign expression. He opened his arms and  spread  them

wide.

"Come to me, people. I will save you."

The slaves, almost as one, brought their heads up and looked over at him.

A series of high whistles coursed back and forth, to be echoed by some of  the

villips. Jacen recognized the sound as the sort of thing R2-D2  did  when  the

droid was puzzled, so he broadened his smile and waved the slaves toward him.

"Come to me. Your time as slaves is over."

The slaves began to move, but out of sync with his vision.They're  moving

away from me! The slaves slunk away, crouching as  if  expecting  a  punishing

blow. Those in the front rank watched  him  while  reaching  out  for  someone

behind them. The others in the more distant ranks turned and ran  as  fast  as

they could, splashing water up over themselves.

Then, toward the center of the slave formation, a part formed. A  Yuuzhan

Vong warrior clad in armor and bearing an amphistaff  stepped  down  into  the

water and faced him. He spun the amphistaff in a circle, first  between  them,

then up over his head and finally around his back. He stopped in an eye blink,

with the staff trapped between  his  right  forearm  and  ribs,  then  lowered

himself into a crouch.

Jacen waded out to midcalf and produced his lightsaber.  He  thumbed  the

blade to life and let the hiss-crack drown out the frightened  mewing  of  the

slaves. His green lightsaber cast a ghastly  light  over  the  villips.  Jacen

whipped the humming blade around in a lazy infinity arc, first slicing through

the villip stalk, then slashing in half both falling villips.

The warrior bellowed  loudly  and  started  to  sprint  at  Jacen.  Water

splashed high, but hardly seemed to slow him at all. His amphistaff had  begun

spinning again, with the point dipping down to nip  at  the  water  with  each

circuit.

Jacen started to rush at his foe, but because he was smaller,  the  water

slowed him. The young Jedi set himself, drawing the blade up high and back  by

his right shoulder. Then, as the warrior closed, Jacen cocked  his  wrists  so

the blade pointed forward, then lunged.

Just as I did in my vision!

The Yuuzhan Vong warrior, however, did  not  share  in  that  vision.  He

twisted back to the right, sliding past the green energy  blade,  and  cracked

his amphistaff across Jacen's back. One of the armor's  trauma  pads  absorbed

much of the damage, but the force of  the  blow  still  sent  Jacen  stumbling

forward. He went to one knee, then spun, bringing his lightsaber up  to  parry

the next slashing attack.

The lightsaber's bladedid fend off the strike, but didn't have quite  the

effect Jacen had expected.My parry should have sheared thirty centimeters  off

that staff! The young man came to his feet, parried another attack low and  to

the left, then twisted his wrists and brought the lightsaber  up  in  a  slash

that should have opened the Yuuzhan Vong from right hip to left shoulder.

Sparks exploded and smoke rose from the alien armor. The warrior stumbled

back a step or two, then lunged with his amphistaff. Jacen batted that  attack

wide, then cut down at the Yuuzhan Vong's right wrist. More sparks and  smoke,

and even a sizzling sound to go with it, but the hand didn't come off.

Surprised, Jacen cranked the green blade up and around for another attack

on that arm, but the Yuuzhan Vong had already  pulled  it  back  wide.  Before

Jacen could shift his attack to  a  slash  across  the  warrior's  belly,  the

Yuuzhan Vong's left fist came around and caught the youth in the neck.

The heavy blow staggered Jacen and drove him back. He'd have fallen  into

the water except that he bumped up against a villip plant and it steadied him.

He shook his head to clear it,  then  ducked  as  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  arced  a

roundhouse kick at him. The  kick  missed  Jacen,  but  exploded  one  of  the

villips, drenching him in chunky, viscous fluid that burned  his  eyes,  nose,

and mouth.

Choking still, Jacen ducked behind the  villip  plant,  then  cut  behind

another. He splashed a handful of water up to wash his face off,  then  dodged

left and slashed twice quickly at the Yuuzhan Vong. The slashes backed his foe

off for a moment, but in the blade's light Jacen noticed that the furrow  he'd

cut in the Yuuzhan Vong's armor had become little more than a discolored scar.

They don't just grow the armor; it's living still!

The Yuuzhan Vong held his amphistaff  high  and  brought  it  down  in  a

crushing blow aimed at Jacen's head. The Jedi brought  his  lightsaber  up  to

block, but the amphistaff went from rigid  to  fluid  and,  whiplike,  wrapped

itself around his right wrist. A quick yank pulled Jacen forward, off balance,

and into the Yuuzhan Vong's right knee.  The  knee  caught  him  in  the  gut,

doubling him over.

Jacen felt the warrior's viselike grip close on the  back  of  his  neck,

then he had his face plunged into the turgid water. Water  boiled  around  his

lightsaber, but the whip controlled the movement of that arm  enough  that  he

couldn't strike.

The young man shunted away  the  panic  rising  in  him  and  immediately

summoned the Force. He reached out to pluck the Yuuzhan Vong  off  him-exactly

as he had done countless times with his  siblings  or  comrades  when  goofing

around at the academy. He discovered the flaw with his strategy about the same

time his lungs started to burn for lack of oxygen.

I can't sense the Yuuzhan Vong through the Force. And now I can't  affect

him.

It occurred to Jacen, as he sucked in the first mouthful of  water,  that

he could use the Force to lift himself out of  the  water.  The  concentration

necessary for that act died as his body gagged and coughed. The stale  air  in

his lungs bubbled out, then his body reflexively tried to inhale and  breathed

in more water, which started him coughing and gagging yet again.

Oh, no,Jacen thought, as the world began to go black,it wasn't a  vision.

Or a dream. Just a nightmare...

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Anakin crouched in the lavender grasses and  peered  through  them  at  a

small group of Dantari. The native nomads did not  appear  all  that  unusual.

Humanoid in form, they used a limited vocabulary of spoken words  supplemented

with hand signals and facial expressions to communicate. They made tools,  but

had not yet found the secret of working metal.  A  couple  of  them  did  have

knives formed from shards of AT-AT armor, but Anakin had never seen the knives

being used for anything. He gathered they were a sign  of  power,  since  both

were owned by large males whose hair was streaked with gray.

For a half second the boy wished C-3PO was there so  he  could  translate

the Dantari speech, but the image of the gold droid hiding in  the  grass  was

ridiculous enough that he almost laughed aloud.

The Dantari had made camp in a small clearing near a stand of blba trees.

One of the elder males had drawn a charcoal design-the Imperial  crest-on  the

upper left side of a younger male's chest. Using a blba thorn and a stick with

which to strike it, the elder began to  drive  the  coal-black  ash  into  the

younger male's chest, tattooing the design there forever.

The young Dantari was not the only one to be sporting that crest.  Others

had crude AT-ATs tattooed on them, or images of blasters, or the outlines  and

seams of stormtrooper armor marking their legs and arms.  Small  children  sat

and watched in fascination as the  tattooing  took  place.  Elders  looked  on

pridefully as the youth said nothing during the tattooing process.

Anakin looked away and tried to shut thetick-tick-tick of  stick  hitting

needle out of his mind. He glanced over at where Mara sat and caught her in an

unguarded moment looking very tired. He glanced down immediately, then  looked

up again. By that time she had composed  her  face  into  an  expression  less

haggard and much warmer.

That I could see her looking tired indicates how tired she must truly be.

She'd never have let me see her like that if there was any  other  way  around

it.Anakin gave her a smile and crawled quietly over  to  her  side.  "I  would

never want to get a tattoo," he whispered.

"Best to avoid identifying marks, I think." She  glanced  slyly  at  him.

"Never can tell when any of those Jedi will be after you and you want to  slip

away."

"You don't have a tattoo, do you?"

"I don't know, Anakin." Mara shrugged playfully. "A Jedi caught me, after

all, so maybe I do."

He started to ask a question, but thought better of  it  and  closed  his

mouth for a moment. "More than that answer I don't want to know."

Mara laughed, once, sharply, then covered her mouth with her hand. Anakin

reached out through the Force, not sure what he could do, and immediately  saw

the damage had been done. Several of the Dantari were moving toward them, with

three young boys in the lead, and an elder male charging  up  to  get  between

them and whatever had made that sound.

Without thinking, Anakin shot to his feet and interposed himself  between

the Dantari and Mara. The male coming toward them towered above Anakin, easily

half a meter taller than he was, almost  broader  across  the  shoulders  than

Anakin was tall, and outmassing him  by  nearly  sixty  kilos.  Shock  widened

Anakin's blue eyes for a moment, then he lowered himself  into  a  crouch  and

bared his teeth.

The charging Dantari male came up short. He raised  massive  fists  above

his head and bellowed, but Anakin stood his ground. He didn't ape the  motion;

he'd learned enough from watching the Dantari to know that would have  been  a

challenge to a dominance  fight.  Most  Dantari  confrontations  involved  the

largest male frightening his foe off, and never had Anakin seen a  Dantari  as

small as he was stand his ground before an elder male.

Still keeping his eyes locked on those of the male, Anakin  dropped  down

on his haunches and rested his elbows on his knees.  He  knew  he  could  have

gathered the Force to himself and compelled the Dantari male to  do  the  same

thing, but he left the Force alone. In the week they'd  been  on  the  planet,

he'd been relying less and less on the Force, and while  his  body  ached  and

blisters had formed and popped, he did feel good doing things for  himself.The

Force is an ally,not a crutch. If I learn nothing else from  this  experience,

that will be enough.

The Dantari male bellowed again, but Anakin did not react.  He  just  sat

and stared, keeping his body between  Mara  and  the  male.  The  male  leaned

forward on his fists for a bit, then sank to his haunches, too. Behind him the

younger Dantari did the same thing.

Anakin kept his voice a low whisper. "Okay, I have him seated and  quiet.

Now what do I do?"

"Take this."

Anakin reached his left hand up to his left shoulder and accepted a small

metal disk from Mara. He noticed her fingers were cold as he did so.  Then  he

got a look at the button she'd given him, and a smile blossomed on  his  face.

"I hope this works."

"Pity it only has the New Republic crest on it, not the Imperial one."

"It's shiny, so worth a try." Still watching  the  elder,  Anakin  leaned

forward and got on his hands and knees. He crawled forward, stretching out  to

halve the distance between them. On a bare  patch  of  ground  he  placed  the

button from Mara, then retreated and resumed his crouch.

The elder moved forward slowly, cautiously, and reached out a hand toward

the silver button. He extended a finger  and  slowly  poked  it.  He  recoiled

instantly after touching it once,  with  the  little  ones  leaping  back  and

screaming as he did so. He crept forward again and sniffed, then touched it  a

second time. After a half-dozen touches, each lasting longer than  the  first,

he picked up the button and stared at it, utterly enraptured.

Anakin glanced back over his shoulder at Mara. "Might need  more  buttons

if we have to bribe a bunch of them."

Anakin's aunt smiled and tugged at the wrist  of  her  right  sleeve.  "A

couple more on the cuffs. If we have to go more than that, I'll get cold."

"Let's hope we don't get there."

Anakin looked back at the Dantari elder and found him trying to  fix  the

button to a side-lock braid. The Jedi smiled at the  Dantari,  and  the  elder

returned the  smile.  The  Dantari  then  turned  and  galloped  back  to  the

encampment, scattering  squealing  children  and  earning  some  sharp-tongued

rebukes from the females in the group. He grabbed something from a fabool-hide

pouch, then scampered back to where Anakin sat. He opened his hand  above  the

spot where the button had lain and dropped five white tubers, not much  longer

than Anakin's thumb.

The young Jedi knew they were vincha  roots.  He  didn't  know  what  the

Dantari used them for, but he'd seen the Dantari get very  excited  when  they

found the plant and were able to dig up the roots. Anakin hadn't seen many  of

the plants around, so he took the offering to be very valuable as far  as  the

Dantari were concerned.

Anakin smiled and held his hands  up,  with  palms  facing  the  Dantari.

"Thank you, but I can't take these."

The elder looked at him, puzzled for a moment, then ran off and  returned

with another handful. He dropped them one by one on  the  pile,  doubling  its

size. He hung on to each one longer than the last, and Anakin could sense  the

pain of his giving them up.

"Help here, Mara?"

"You got yourself into this, you figure it out."

"It was your laugh."

"It wasyour joke."

"Point taken." Anakin scratched at the back of his  head  with  his  left

hand. "Okay, the button is more valuable to him than ten of the vincha  roots,

and I bet he'd go five more."

"That could be why some of the females are over there hiding the rest  of

the inventory."

"Right. He wants a fair exchange. Matter of pride and honor, I'd guess."

Mara patted him on the back. "Right course plotted, I think."

"Then I need to barter vincha roots back for something else, right?"

"Could be, that will work."

Anakin nodded. He waddled  forward  and  gathered  up  the  vincha,  then

brought them back to where he had been sitting. He got up and  jogged  off  to

the side to gather up some deadfall limbs from a blba tree.  He  returned  and

made a small pile of them. He pointed  at  the  elder  Dantari,  the  pile  of

sticks, and then back to the bluff where he and Mara had their  camp.  Finally

he tossed one of the vincha roots back to the elder.

The elder grabbed the root, then pointed at the pile of sticks and up  at

their camp. Anakin nodded. The Dantari smiled, then turned on his heel and ran

back to the small band he traveled with.  He  jabbered  at  them  quickly  and

gesticulated wildly, brandishing the vincha root proudly. The Dantari band all

started shouting and leaping about, getting carried away in a joyous frenzy.

Anakin scooped up the rest of the roots and put them in  his  pocket.  He

stood and helped Mara to her feet. "I don't think we want to be here  if  they

decide we should join in on the fun, you know?"

"I concur." Mara draped an arm over his shoulders and leaned on  him  for

support. "You did well there."

"And didn't use the Force once."

"Right, though youdid manage to get out of having to gather firewood."

The two of them chuckled  lightly  as  they  walked  along.  Anakin  made

certain to keep his pace slow so Mara wouldn't tire. They lapsed into  silence

for a bit. Anakin stopped by some rocks that marked the beginning of the steep

ascent to their camp and let Mara lean against one of them.

He swiped a hand across his brow. "I don't know about you, but I'm tired.

"

Mara gave him a quick smile. "You're very kind to say that, but you  know

I'm-"

"Aunt Mara, it's okay."

"I'm the tired one here..." The effort of saying those  words  seemed  to

take a lot out of her. "Tell me if I get to be a burden for you."

Anakin adamantly shook his head  and  swallowed  hard  against  the  lump

rising in his throat. "Never, Aunt Mara, you'll never be a burden."

"If your mother was here, she'd be proud of how polite and  mannerly  you

are."

"If my mother was here, she'd have negotiated a treaty for this planet to

join the New Republic, getting it all for a handful of vincha  roots."  Anakin

sighed, then looked up into Mara's green eyes.  "I  know  you're  not  feeling

well. I know it's a fight for you, but you keep fighting. I can't tell you how

much that impresses me."

He flashed for a moment on the fact that his father, in  his  grief,  had

scarcely drawn a sober breath.Why can't you be more like Aunt Mara, Father?

Mara stared at him and through him. "There are times, Anakin, when things

overwhelm us. There are times when you can't fight."

"But you are still fighting. You're being brave."

"It's because I know what  I'm  fighting.  Others  may  not  be  able  to

identify their enemy, so they can't fight."

My father's enemy is me.That thought sent a shiver  through  Anakin,  but

another thought followed on its heels.Or, perhaps, his enemy is the guilt that

he's assumed. If only things had happened another way.

Mara eased herself off the rock and leaned into him again. "Ready to make

it up the hill?"

"After you, Mara."

"Together, Anakin, together."

That evening the elder Dantari brought a big pile of  blba  branches.  He

returned with a second armload, and Anakin gave him a second vincha root.  The

Dantari retreated into the darkness, then a  frenzied  round  of  hooting  and

hollering began from the distant Dantari camp.

Snapping a branch in half, Anakin fed it into the  fire.  "Well,  they're

happy."

"Indeed, it sounds as if they are." Mara  nodded,  the  shifting  shadows

cast by firelight hiding the weariness on her face. "You did well."

"Thanks. I think so, too."

And Anakin continued to think so until the next morning when he found the

elder Dantari waiting for him in the camp as he awoke. The Dantari sat perched

in the middle of a ten-meter-long blba log. The elder wore a grin like that of

a Hutt that had a fix in on a Podrace, and extended an empty hand in  Anakin's

direction.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Gavin didn't pause in the doorway  of  the  office  that  Admiral  Traest

Kre'fey had been given on Dubrillion. He rapped on the jamb with his  knuckles

and swept into the room. He was a couple of steps in when he glanced  up  from

his datapad and actually saw two other people in the office with the admiral.

"I'm sorry, Admiral, I  didn't  realize  you  were  busy."  Gavin  pulled

himself to attention and saluted.

The  Bothan  returned  the  salute.  "It  is  not  a   problem,   Colonel

Darklighter. I believe you know Lando Calrissian and Leia Organa Solo."

Gavin felt himself blushing. "We have met, yes, but I don't know them..."

Lando and Leia had been heroes of the Rebellion along with his  cousin  Biggs.

He had been a child when he'd first heard of them and  had  even  developed  a

crush on Princess Leia. While he was well  past  that  feeling,  meeting  them

again reduced him to a little boy who felt like an impostor just being in  the

room with them. "I can come back, sir."

Kre'fey shook his head. "No, no need for that." The Bothan pointed to the

holographic display of data and tables. "The Agamarian ships that arrived when

we did have been moving people off planet with  their  shuttles.  The  Yuuzhan

Vong are doing nothing to stop them, so we assume  they  will  strike  as  the

refugee convoys start to move out. Rogue Squadron is going  to  have  to  keep

them off us."

"I've been working on that, Admiral." Gavin glanced at his datapad. "I've

got a full squadron of X-wings ready to go, and Dubrillion's population has  a

large number of uglies that they've modified for running the asteroid belt and

then armed. They should give us as much as a wing of fighters."

Lando smiled confidently. "The pilots here are  good.  They'll  keep  the

Yuuzhan Vong off the convoy."

"I'm sure they will. What concerns me, though, is that only a handful  of

those uglies have hyperdrives. We'll need to have a ship capable of recovering

the pilots and their ships heading out last. Rogue Squadron can keep the  Vong

off while the fighters are being recovered, then we can jump out ourselves."

Kre'fey stroked the snowy fur of his chin.  "I  had  assumed  theRalroost

would be the last ship out. We will recover the fighters."

Leia frowned. "We're loading refugees on theRalroost. If it is  the  last

ship out, the Yuuzhan Vong will concentrate on it. Do you want  to  take  that

risk?"

The Bothan snorted quickly. "Wantto take the risk? No. Do I think we have

no choice? Yes." He leaned forward on the table upon which  the  holoprojector

had been set. "We already know, even despite the generosity of the  Agamarians

in sending all the ships they have, that we can't save everyone here."

Gavin looked past  the  admiral  to  the  ravaged  cityscape.  After  the

squadron had been recovered, Kre'fey had acceded to an Agamarian request  that

theRalroost escort a convoy of ships to Dubrillion.  Gavin  actually  believed

that Kre'fey had engineered that  request,  which  brought  his  ship  into  a

theater where contact with the Yuuzhan Vong could not possibly  be  denied  by

Coruscant. When the convoy arrived, the Yuuzhan Vong  did  send  a  half-dozen

fighters to harry some of the ships, but the  X-wings  had  beaten  them  back

without getting blooded themselves.

In the four days since the convoy's arrival, the Yuuzhan  Vong  had  done

little beyond staging raids that seemed designed to test the response time  of

the X-wings and other fighters  theRalroost  had  brought  along.  Gavin  felt

certain his every move was being watched and cataloged.  He'd  not  felt  this

vulnerable since before Grand Admiral Thrawn had died at Bilbringi.

The people of Dubrillion had faced the impending invasion with a stoicism

that stunned Gavin. In light of the fact  that  everyone  couldn't  be  saved,

families were being asked to make hideous choices about who would  be  allowed

to live and who would be left behind. The best and brightest  of  Dubrillion's

children, along with historians, artists,  and  cultural  leaders  were  being

culled and processed for transport to Agamar. Children from  the  same  family

were split up to prevent the loss of a line in the event a particular ship did

not make it. Mothers let children go, lovers were parted,  grandchildren  said

tearful good-byes to relatives they knew they would never see again.

Kre'fey continued.  "The  people  of  Dubrillion  have  made  their  hard

decisions. For me to avoid one that is just  as  difficult  would  mock  their

heroism. I won't do that."

Leia nodded silently, imbuing that  silent  acknowledgment  of  Kre'fey's

words with nobility and pain. "I'll be on theRalroost, then."

The admiral shook his head. "With all due respect,  I  think  you  should

travel with Senator A'Kla in his ship."

Leia smiled. "I would have, but I  think  you'll  find  the  senator  has

demanded room on theRalroost for himself and his  traveling  companions.  He's

given theFond Memory to pilots who have already made a run to Agamar  and  are

back for another group."

"Then it will  be  my  pleasure  to  have  you  on  board."  The  admiral

straightened up and glanced at Gavin. "Is there anything else, Colonel?"

Gavin extended the datapad toward him. "I've found the pilots I  need  to

fill out Rogue Squadron. I took the liberty of looking over the records of the

fliers who've made asteroid runs here. I'm taking the best  of  them-of  those

who are still available."

Leia held her hand out. "May I see the list?"

The admiral nodded, so Gavin handed her the datapad. Leia studied it  for

a moment, then glanced up. "My daughter isn't on the list."

"No, Princess, she isn't."

"Why not? She was the best pilot to run the asteroids."  Leia  knew  that

Jaina was  restless,  annoyed  with  her  recent  assignments,  and  eager  to

contribute. Jaina would be outraged if she were not chosen as a Rogue Squadron

pilot because she was Leia's daughter.  And  they  were  all  in  danger  now,

whatever their assignments.

"I know that, but she's too young."

The princess's chin came up and her eyes narrowed. "Correct me  if  I  am

wrong," she said in a tone that made it obvious that she knew she wasn't, "but

my daughter is the same age you were when you joined Rogue  Squadron,  Colonel

Darklighter."

A wave of heat passed over Gavin as his face flushed red.  "That's  true,

yes, but those were desperate times-"

"And these aren't?"

"They are, but-"

Leia let some of the edge drain from her voice. "Let me ask  you,  Gavin,

if one of your sons was one of the best pilots, would you deny him a  spot  in

the squadron?"

"Don't ask me that." Gavin's stomach began to twist  itself  into  knots.

"I've flown against the Vong. I know how nasty  they  can  be.  I'm  not  sure

ifI'll survive  getting  out  of  here.  I  don't  want  to  have  to  subject

anyone'schild to getting killed out there. And especiallyyour child, Princess.

You've already done more than your share of sacrificing for the New Republic."

Leia took a step toward him and laid a hand on his shoulder.  She  looked

up into his eyes and gave him a brave smile. "Gavin, you and I both know  that

the people who are capable of dealing with trouble never really get  a  chance

to  pass,  to  rest,  to  live  a  normal  life.   People   like   us   assume

responsibilities so other people don't have their lives ruined. We can wish it

was otherwise, but it won't happen."

She handed him the datapad. "I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you

wanted to safeguard Jaina; but by letting her fly, we  can  safeguard  someone

else. She's a wonderful pilot, she can fly an  X-wing  like  no  one  else,and

she's a Jedi. The Force might be less effective against the Yuuzhan Vong,  but

if she picks up that one of your other people is in trouble, she can be  there

to help."

Gavin swallowed past the lump choking him. "Two of the top pilots in  the

squadron's past were from Corellia and Alderaan, so having someone whose blood

comes from both will probably be good. Do you want to tell her, or shall I?"

"You should tell her, Colonel." Leia smiled proudly. "I think being  told

of this assignment by her mother would tarnish it somewhat."

"You have my word, Princess, that she will be well taken care of."

"I know, Gavin. May the Force be with you."

"Rogue Eleven, check in, please."

Jaina blinked and kind of jumped in her cockpit seat  when  she  realized

the comm call was for her.I'm in Rogue Squadron! The realization had a surreal

aspect to it because, as she grew up, the part of her uncle's  life  that  had

gone before his becoming a Jedi Knight had receded into the  dim  past.  While

Luke was acknowledged as the founder of Rogue Squadron, Wedge Antilles and the

other pilots in it had really defined the squadron and made it a legend.

Even though she knew she was a good pilot, she didn't think she was  good

enough to join the squadron, especially not at her age.Still, desperate  times

require desperate measures.

"Rogue Eleven, check in. If your comm unit is giving you trouble, raise a

hand."

Jaina keyed her microphone. "Sorry, Nine, I'm all green here. Good to go.

"

"Have to be alert out there, Sticks. No spacing."

"As ordered, Nine." Jaina grinned, enjoying the fact that  she'd  already

been given a call sign. She knew it came from the fact that her X-wing  had  a

control stick, and she carried a  lightsaber,  which  the  pilots  derided  as

another stick.

Gavin's voice crackled through the comm channel. "All Rogues,  head  out.

We rendezvous at point Angel-One.  Orient  342  mark  55  and  go  to  station

keeping."

Jaina double-clicked her comm unit to acknowledge the command,  then  fed

power to the repulsorlift coils. The X-wing came up smoothly and hovered  very

still  while  she  retracted  the  landing  gear.  She  glanced  over  at  the

observation deck windows and thought she saw her mother flanked either side by

Elegos and Lando. She gave them a big thumbs-up, then as Rogue Ten  moved  out

of the hangar, she nudged the throttle forward and trailed after her  squadron

mate. Once out of the hangar, she pulled back on the  stick  and  boosted  her

throttle full forward, rocketing the X-wing toward the asteroid  belt  waiting

above.

Jaina still felt the way her flesh had puckered when Colonel  Darklighter

came to her and offered her a position in Rogue Squadron. Rogue  Squadron  had

been the people who liberated Coruscant from the Empire. They'd  helped  break

up the Bacta Cartel. They'd been part of Grand  Admiral  Thrawn's  defeat  and

played a key role in ending the long struggle with the Empire. As much as  her

uncle, mother, and father might have been heroes of the Rebellion, the  Rogues

became a symbol, a collection of heroes that most people could identify  with.

While she loved her family and cherished being a Jedi Knight, being  asked  to

join the squadron was something that she'd earned, not  something  granted  to

her by her ability with the Force or the reputations of her parents.

As she reached the rendezvous point, Jaina glanced at her primary  sensor

screen. The Rogues were set up  midway  between  the  asteroid  belt  and  the

Agamarian convoy. Other squadrons of fighters, made up of old TIE designs  and

a plethora of uglies, formed up behind Rogue Squadron. At the very end of  the

convoy sat theRalroost. A couple of last shuttles  were  coming  up  from  the

planet to board the Bothan Assault Cruiser. By stretching out with the  Force,

Jaina could feel her mother and Danni on board one of them.

They left the planet safely. Now we have to get them out  of  the  system

safely.

"Rogue Lead,  I  have  movement  on  my  scanners."  Rogue  Four's  voice

dominated the channel for a moment. "At 271 mark 30."

Jaina ruddered her fighter around in that direction and felt a chill  run

down her spine. "By all that makes a Hutt ugly..."

A Yuuzhan Vong warship drifted slowly down from the asteroid  belt,  with

little coralskippers buzzing around it like flies on carrion. The ship  itself

would have matched an Imperial Star Destroyer in length, but, being  something

of an ovoid shape, certainly massed  a  great  deal  more.  The  ship's  flesh

alternated in strips of smooth,  glassy,  black  rock  and  rougher,  craggier

patches that housed pits, which she  assumed  were  weapons  emplacements  and

homes for the dovin basals that propelled the ship.

Near the nose, along the spine, and at the aft of  the  ship  grew  huge,

long coral arms of deep red and dark blue.  Coralskippers  dotted  these  arms

like buds on a plant. Jaina assumed that some of the larger, unoccupied  holes

in the arms housed plasma projectors, and judging from their size compared  to

the coralskippers, a blast from one of them could easily  burn  a  snubfighter

from the sky.

The lead ships in the convoy started to move out. They used  Dubrillion's

gravity well to let them build up some speed, then came about on a course that

would let them make the first jump in the  journey  to  Agamar.  They  weren't

going directly, since they had no desire to lead  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  to  that

world. More importantly, by stopping at a way point  and  shifting  to  a  new

course, they'd cut days off the single-jump trip.

The coralskippers that had been orbiting around the big ship formed  into

squadrons and began their runs at the convoy. Combat  traffic  controllers  on

theRalroost started designating squadrons as targets and fed attack orders  to

the various Dubrillion  squadrons  nearest  them.  Jaina  studied  her  sensor

monitors intently, watching  as  little  lights  representing  fighters  moved

forward, split apart, and in the midst of fierce  dogfights,  suddenly  winked

out of existence.

After what seemed like an eternity, but really was all too soon,  Gavin's

voice broke through the low-level chatter on the comm  channels.  "Rogues,  we

have been given the target designated Rock-One. Keep moving fast, do  as  much

damage as you can. Everyone look out for everyone else."

Jaina's R5 droid, a maroon and white model, uttered a low moan.

"What's the matter, Sparky?"

The droid tootled and splashed the target on her primary monitor.

Emperor's black bones, we're going  after  the  warship.In  an  odd  way,

ordering an attack by a group of snubfighters  against  a  capital  ship  made

sense. The Empire's big ships had always been vulnerable to  close-in  actions

by small fighters. The  New  Republic's  tactical  commanders  knew  that  and

employed snubfighters very effectively against their enemies.

Jaina wondered, however, if the Yuuzhan Vong were  aware  of  how  afraid

they should be of snubfighters.

"As ordered,  Lead."  Jaina  smiled  and  jammed  the  throttle  forward.

"Sparky, hold on tight back there."

"Has your wing, Twelve does, Sticks."

"Thanks, Twelve." Jaina looked at her weapons board. "Nine, do we use our

proton torps, or just the lasers?"

"Got something else you're going to be saving the torps for, Sticks?"

"I copy, Nine." Jaina quadded up her lasers and settled a finger over the

stutter trigger. She figured she'd use the lasers  to  scope  out  the  ship's

defenses, then drop some torps in if she found a likely target.

The Yuuzhan Vong warship just kept growing bigger and bigger  as  the  X-

wings sped toward it. The big ship's aft end came up, allowing it to point its

dorsal spines forward, along its line of travel.  Golden  light  blossomed  at

their tips, then boiling gold balls of plasma shot out, arcing out toward  the

ships in the convoy.

The shots, taken at ranges of over five  kilometers,  were  not  terribly

accurate for hitting small freighters. Even so,  each  of  the  ships  in  the

convoy had a set flight path if it was going to escape the  system.  With  the

Yuuzhan Vong fire cutting across that flight path, a collision was inevitable.

The first freighter  hit  was  one  that  reminded  Jaina  very  much  of

theMillennium Falcon. The plasma  blast  caught  it  on  the  starboard  side,

burning clean through the cockpit and eating a crescent deep into it. The ship

started tumbling like a chip in a sabacc game, with people and debris spilling

out of it. It whirled away toward the brown bulk of Destrillion,  destined  to

burn up in that bleak world's atmosphere.

Jaina watched it die, and she  suddenly  felt  cold-not  physically,  but

emotionally. People who were fleeing, people who had not asked for their world

to be attacked, had just been murdered, and more would be murdered along  with

them if she did nothing. Without  conscious  thought,  just  feeling  her  way

through the maneuvers, she inverted her X-wing and dived in toward the Yuuzhan

Vong ship. She rolled the fighter up on its port stabilizers, then leveled out

and cruised along the ship's hull.

She kept a light hand on the stick, juking left and  right,  bouncing  up

and down as she went. The coralskippers  mounted  in  the  spines  shot  small

plasma bolts at her in golden streams, but her maneuvering kept  her  free  of

their fire. More importantly, she noted, the rough patches  on  the  ship  had

dovin basals that were projecting black holes to absorb stutter shots from her

lasers, and those voids also warped the plasma trajectories.

As her ship streaked  over  the  warship's  surface  she  started  firing

through plasma streams, letting her bolts cross the plasma paths the  way  the

plasma was cutting the flight path for  the  convoy.  The  dovin  basals  were

forced to project voids into  those  streams  to  pick  off  her  shots.  They

absorbed laser bolts as well as plasma shots. This not only  tired  the  dovin

basals, but put them in the  odd  position  of  providing  cover  for  Jaina's

fighter.

Hauling back on the stick, she came up and made  a  run  at  one  of  the

spines. Assuming that whatever mechanism the ship used to  direct  the  plasma

bolts was located in the tip, she clipped off a few shots at one. Dovin basals

around the tip absorbed all the shots save one. That single shot  burned  past

the tip a second before a plasma bolt raced out at the convoy.

Makes sense. The dovin basals shield the tip until  just  before  a  shot

comes out.Jaina keyed her comm unit. "Lead, the tips are vulnerable. We have a

window before they shoot. I'm taking one out."

"Careful, Sticks."

"As anyone, Lead."

Jaina felt a curious peace settle over her as she brought her  X-wing  up

and around in a spiral that rose along one of the spines. Golden plasma  bolts

flashed up past her. A couple nicked her shields, but she reinforced the power

there very quickly. At the tip of the shaft the bolts  curved  in  toward  the

gravity wells the dovin basals were creating. She shot past  that  area,  then

hit hard port rudder and reversed her ship's thrust. The X-wing swapped itself

end for end, then, when she cut her throttle  to  zero,  the  fighter  hovered

there in space, five hundred meters from the end of the shaft.

Jaina looked right down into it. The spine's tip had a triskele valve  at

the tip. It reminded her of heart valves. It would open up  for  a  second  or

two, just long enough to eject the plasma, then close again,  sealing  up  the

firing tube. It had an  elegance  about  it,  yet  seemed  so  primitive  when

compared to the fighter in which she sat.

She triggered the flicker shots and poured a steady rain of energy  darts

down at the valve. The plasma shots coming up at  her  curved  in  and  missed

because of the void shielding the tip. "Sparky, let me know when the  gravitic

anomaly starts to collapse."

The droid tooted an acknowledgement, then quickly keened a sharp whistle.

Jaina thumbed her weapons control over to proton torpedoes and  triggered

a pair. The pink missiles jetted blue flame and shot straight at their target.

A heartbeat before they reached it, the valve snapped open, revealing a golden

glow coming from deep down in the shaft. The  torpedoes  flew  on,  and  Jaina

pumped the throttle full forward and inverted as her X-wing dove  back  toward

the Yuuzhan Vong ship.

Somewhere in the middle of the spine, the torpedoes hit the plasma  bolt.

Cracks immediately appeared in the midnight blue shaft.  They  leaked  silver-

gold fire, then the shaft started to come apart. The center  of  it  vaporized

into an incandescent cloud of molten yorik coral. A great gout of fire clipped

the end of the shaft's upper half at an odd angle, starting  it  to  spin  and

wobble. It slammed into another spine, shattering both of them.

Another pair of proton torpedoes streaked in at the shaft she'd hit. They

came in at a sharp angle, and one skipped off the glowing, molten  edge,  then

impacted the hull. Its explosion gouged a deep scar in the ship and  scattered

yorik coral into space. The second one made it inside the shaft, and  when  it

exploded, the base of the shaft crumbled from the inside out.

"Nice shot, Twelve."

"Following your lead, Sticks."

Jaina laughed as she leveled out for a moment, then pulled  up  and  shot

away from the ship. "We showed them!"

"We did."

"Can the chatter!" Gavin's order coursed through the  comm  channel,  but

didn't bring with it any anger.

"As ordered, Lead." Jaina's grin grew larger as she  watched  theRalroost

get closer and closer to the point where it would begin its run to hyperspace.

We're doing okay.

Then something shook her ship. She glanced about, fearing a  dovin  basal

had somehow locked onto her shields, but there were no fighters anywhere  near

her. Her secondary monitor did show a gravitic anomaly in the system, but  the

readings were well beyond that which  any  of  the  coralskippers  could  have

generated.In fact, the only time I've seen readings like this  was  when  I've

simmed against an Interdictor cruiser!

Her heart immediately sank into her belly. The Yuuzhan Vong  warship  had

shifted its dovin basals away from driving  the  ship  and  instead  had  them

create a narrow gravity well that blocked theRalroost and a  half-dozen  other

ships from entering hyperspace along the route to Agamar.We'll  just  have  to

find another route out.

Just as that thought materialized, Sparks whistled to acknowledge receipt

of new navigational data. She glanced at it as Gavin's voice came through  the

comm channel. "Rogues, our exit vector to Agamar is blocked. You now have  our

new destination. TheRalroost  has  recovered  fighters,  so  head  out.  We'll

rendezvous there in twelve hours. Good fighting."

Jaina double-clicked her comm unit. She looked again at her  destination,

then pointed the fighter toward a distant star and  began  the  run.Dantooine,

eh? It'll be good to see Mara again. I hope she's gotten her rest because,  if

we're followed, I know she's going to need it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Jacen Solo awoke as a great, wracking cough lifted his  body,  then  left

him limp. Burning pain from his shoulders and  hips  formed  a  backdrop  into

which the pain from the cough faded. He opened his eyes and saw a  pearlescent

floor beneath him. While nowhere near  as  reflective  as  a  mirror,  it  did

provide him with a distorted image of himself, where he  was  blobby  at  some

points and pinched at others.Which is pretty much how I feel.

He determined he was hanging from some sort of rack mounted above him  in

the ceiling. He could feel the restraint bands  on  his  ankles,  thighs,  and

wrists. The wristbands were the worst, since they twisted his arms  enough  to

lock his elbows. His ankles were higher than his shoulders, and  his  position

made it difficult to get a  good  look  at  the  device  to  which  he'd  been

fastened.

He'd have been able to see nothing at all, but the sun had begun to  rise

on Belkadan, turning deep black night into a misty gray morning that  mimicked

the foggy sensation in his brain. He  estimated  he'd  been  in  Yuuzhan  Vong

control for at least four hours.More than enough time for them to backtrack me

to the ExGal facility, the ship, Artoo, and Uncle Luke. What was I thinking?

The vision had seemed so real to  him,  with  all  the  bits  and  pieces

feeling right as they fell together. He didn't want  to  think  he'd  deceived

himself, using a dream as a pretext to do something his uncle didn't want  him

to do. The fact that doing just that would be the sort of  thing  expected  of

someone his age gnawed at him.That makes me just like everyone else,  but  I'm

not. I'm special, I'm more responsible.

Another cough shook him, sharpening the  pain  that  had  dulled  in  his

shoulders. Jacen allowed himself a little smile.Of course, every sixteen-year-

old who's been convinced he's not like his peers  probably  thinks  this  same

thing after he's proved he isn't so unlike his peers as he thinks  he  is.  He

sighed. Even being trained in the Force  couldn't  insulate  him  from  making

mistakes.You can put powerful engines on a sloop racer,  but  if  the  chassis

doesn't have structural integrity, the whole thing falls apart.

And that's what Uncle Luke tried to tell me by reminding me I've not  had

enough experience.He shifted his shoulders to pull at the bonds on his wrists.

Lesson one from this experience: Realize just how much you don't know.  Lesson

two: Make sure to learn from lesson one.

Jacen reached inside to touch the Force and call it to himself,  but  the

pain in his shoulders and hips nibbled away  at  his  concentration.  A  third

cough didn't help the situation. Jacen did his best to try  to  let  the  pain

bleed away with Jedi pain-suppression techniques,  but  as  he  calmed  frayed

nerves, the bonds on  his  wrists  tightened.  They  twisted  his  arms  more,

grinding his shoulder sockets, making the pain spike.

Jacen gasped and hung there for a second. A cold  chill  sent  a  shudder

through him, pulsing more pain from his joints. In response the bonds  on  his

arms eased a bit, but Jacen hardly took comfort in that fact.

The device to which he had been attached clearly  could  sense  how  much

pain he was in. Intellectually he knew this was actually  very  easy.  Sensors

could monitor the amount of activity going  on  in  the  parts  of  his  brain

dealing with pain. Electronics could even  measure  the  output  of  the  pain

receptors in his shoulders-much in the same way they read neural  signals  and

allowed Luke's artificial hand to function normally.  He  was  even  aware  of

machines that inflicted pain, like those used on his parents by Darth Vader on

Bespin.

What surprised him was that there seemed no active  purpose  for  keeping

him in pain. No one was interrogating him. The pain wasn't sufficient to break

him down, just to keep him in a distracted state. While thatwas preventing him

from accessing the Force, somehow he didn't think the Yuuzhan Vong knew enough

about the Jedi to realize how useful this would be.

A raspy clicking entered the chamber, causing Jacen to raise his head. In

through the building's threshold came a small gray creature. It walked on  six

legs and sidled left and then right. It had four other appendages, all  raised

like flags at a parade. Two of these limbs were stout and two very  fine.  The

creature also seemed to have compound  eyes,  three  of  them,  hanging  in  a

cluster from a single central  stalk,  which  was  segmented  and  capable  of

movement. Because it was just coming in through the doorway, which faced east,

the rising sun backlit the creature, making it difficult for Jacen to see much

more in the way of detail, but what he'd seen already did not please him.

He felt panic rising in him, but he forced it away. On a  shelf  next  to

the door he saw his lightsaber and tried to reach  out  for  it.  He  knew  he

couldn't ignite it, but if he could pull it toward him and smash the dark  end

into this creeper, he'd feel much better. He sought to reach out to  grasp  it

with the Force, but couldn't focus his mind enough. The  realization  of  just

how defenseless he was ripped through him, leaving him exhausted and  drifting

toward despair.

The creature scuttled forward, and Jacen felt his guts begin to knot  up.

Tiny white bumps, looking like gravel and scattered like pimples,  dotted  the

creeper's dorsal carapace. The slender arms doubled back on  themselves,  with

little pincers and feathery fronds  brushing  over  them,  touching  them.  It

seemed to Jacen that the creature was taking inventory of its cargo.

The creeper came to a stop below  his  face.  The  two  stout  appendages

reached up, pincers held wide. Jacen pulled  his  head  back,  preventing  the

pincers from grabbing his ears or cheeks. With the creeper so close, he got  a

good look at the white stones and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that they

were the seeds of the calcifications he'd seen on the slaves.They plant  those

in me and I'm done for.

One of the slender appendages swept upward, slapping the  delicate  frond

across Jacen's exposed throat. Lightninglike agony slashed across his neck. He

would have screamed, but the pain paralyzed his vocal chords and  drained  his

neck muscles of all feeling and strength.  His  head  bounced  down  and  hung

there. Muscles in his face twitched, and a little blood dripped from his mouth

from where he'd accidentally bitten the interior of his cheek.

The stout claws caught his earlobes and clamped down  tightly.  The  only

good thing about the pain the frond had caused is that he barely  noticed  the

pressure on his ears. With the pain-frond pulled  back,  one  of  the  slender

appendages reached up and pinched the flesh below his right eye, exactly  over

the curve of his cheekbone. He heard a click and knew  the  little  claws  had

sliced through his flesh. Blood  dripped,  splashing  scarlet  dots  over  the

creeper's pale gray shell.

While one slender stalk opened the wound, the other brought up one of the

little bits of gravel and tucked it beneath his flesh. More pinching  and  the

bleeding stopped, but Jacen could feel the foreign  body  inside  of  him.  He

narrowed his right eye and could feel the thing grate against his cheekbone.

A shudder shook him. He knew of countless creatures, insects mostly, that

found suitable hosts for their broods. They  would  implant  eggs  into  these

hosts, allowing a crop of creatures to grow inside  the  victims.  The  little

creatures would mature and eat and eat, devouring their host from  the  inside

out until they were prepared to burst forth and seek new prey. The  host  that

had sustained them was left a withered husk, with its own life sucked out  and

spent on raising a clutch of its own murderers.

No, I can't let this happen to me!He redoubled his efforts to summon  the

Force, pushing past the  pain,  but  he  never  quite  felt  himself  connect.

Snarling, he tried harder and harder, refusing to give up. He pushed  for  all

he was worth, seeking that spark that would lead him to the Force, refill  him

and sustain him.

On the shelf by the door, his  lightsaber  rattled  against  its  resting

place.

The creeper released his ears and  scuttled  toward  the  doorway.  Jacen

stared intently at his lightsaber, willing it to twitch and dance.  He  wanted

it to rise up from the shelf, climb toward the ceiling, then he would drive it

down with such force that it would crush the creeper. He didn't know  what  he

could do after that to effect an escape, but that was enough for  the  moment,

and joy surged through him as the lightsaber drifted up off the shelf.

Then it spun away, out toward the east, becoming a black dot against  the

sun's ball. Jacen watched it vanish, his victory dissolving into astonishment.

He tried and tried to recall it,  tried  to  make  it  return  and  smash  the

creeper, but it vanished. He could not feel it, and great sadness slammed into

him. Jacen felt as if the Force itself had whisked away his lightsaber, taking

away from him the symbol of the Jedi Knight because  it  no  longer  felt  him

worthy of any place in the order.

Then, distantly, he heard the snap-hiss of a  lightsaber  being  ignited.

Almost as if an echo, the sound repeated itself. The youth raised his head and

looked out the doorway, past the creeper. Half the rising sun  burned  in  the

east, pouring molten gold light out over the horizon, and in the center of  it

came a dark form. It broadened slightly as it approached, and two green blades

flanked it. Closer it came and closer, resolving itself into  a  Jedi  Master,

dark cloak flowing behind him, twin blades held more like warning torches than

weapons.

While his uncle was distant enough to seem no taller than a toy figure, a

Yuuzhan Vong warrior darted at him from the left. The Yuuzhan Vong smashed his

amphistaff down at Luke's head. The Jedi Master raised his right lightsaber to

block the blow and could have  easily  stroked  the  other  blade  across  the

Yuuzhan Vong's unprotected stomach. Instead  he  pivoted  on  his  left  foot,

scything his right leg through the Yuuzhan Vong's legs, dumping the alien hard

to the rock-strewn ground. Luke then brought his right hand down  and  smashed

the pommel of his lightsaber into the Yuuzhan Vong's face, leaving the warrior

limp in the dust.

Another Yuuzhan Vong came in from the right and slashed his amphistaff at

Luke's middle. Luke leapt back from the tip, then caught  the  return  cut  on

both lightsaber blades. He raised the amphistaff high in a  parry,  then  spun

beneath it. As the Yuuzhan Vong warrior whirled to face the Jedi Master again,

a fist-size stone shot from the ground and clipped the warrior in the side  of

the head. It shattered his helmet, spraying pieces of it into  the  air,  then

another slammed into his shoulder. More stones stormed through the air  as  if

trapped in a cyclone, battering the alien warrior  relentlessly.  Finally  one

arced in at his forehead, skipped off  the  shallow  dome  of  his  head,  and

dropped him cleanly to the dirt.

A third warrior came at Luke, but he  displayed  more  caution  than  his

enthusiastic  companions  had.  He  twirled  his  amphistaff  around  like   a

propeller, arcing cuts in at Luke's feet or head. The Jedi Master dodged back,

then leapt above a slash. He used the Force to push himself high in  the  air,

then he twisted through a somersault and landed behind his foe.

The Yuuzhan Vong whipped around and snapped a kick through  Luke's  legs.

The blow caught Luke in the ankles, dumping him on his back. The Yuuzhan  Vong

continued his spin, then came up and  brought  his  amphistaff  around  in  an

overhand blow at Luke's head.

In the time it took for his foe to complete a revolution, the Jedi Master

rolled through a backward somersault and came up on one knee.  He  raised  the

lightsabers and crossed them, catching the amphistaff above his  head  at  the

green blades' nexus. Furious at being caught,  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  flexed  his

amphistaff, which opened a fang-filled mouth. It reared back, ready to  strike

at Luke's face. The amphistaff's hiss and the Yuuzhan Vong's triumphant  snarl

filled the air.

Then Luke slashed both lightsabers outward, drawing their glowing lengths

over the amphistaff's throat. While its flesh might have been dense enough  to

prevent a lightsaber from immediately shearing through it, the double  assault

snipped the first twenty-five centimeters from the amphistaff with no problem.

The rest of the amphistaff recoiled in pain, and the Yuuzhan Vong warrior, who

had been leaning heavily  on  the  amphistaff  to  keep  Luke  down,  stumbled

forward. Without rising, Luke brought his right lightsaber up  to  stroke  the

Yuuzhan Vong's belly, then spun and slashed the other against the back of  the

warrior's thighs.

The warrior collapsed to  the  ground.  The  remains  of  its  amphistaff

writhed in the dust beside him, gradually subsiding.

Luke rose to his feet and stalked forward. Several stones, as  if  little

rodents fleeing from his advance, rolled on ahead of him. They bowled over the

creeper and crushed it. The Jedi Master  stepped  over  the  oozing  mess  the

stones left in the doorway, then strode past Jacen without a word. Lightsabers

hissed and popped, then went silent. Jacen slowly floated to the ground.

He breathed heavily for a moment, then rolled over onto  his  back.  Luke

sank to one knee beside him, then touched the youth's face with his mechanical

right hand. Jacen felt some pain as Luke pressed the coral  seed  against  his

bone, then his uncle pinched flesh between thumb and forefinger. With a  flick

of his artificial thumb, the Jedi Master popped the bloody seed  free  of  his

nephew's face, letting blood streak Jacen's cheek.

Jacen stood and kicked his legs free of the bonds. "Uncle  Luke,  I'm  so

sorry."

"No time for that." Luke handed him his lightsaber,  then  took  hold  of

Jacen's right arm and hauled himself to his feet. "The ship is over there,  in

a depression, to the southeast. Artoo is waiting for us, sending out the  data

we've acquired. We have to go, now."

"What about the slaves?"

Luke shook his head. "What slaves?"

Jacen pushed past the aches in his body and reached out to catch a  sense

of the frayed ones. "I don't understand. There were slaves when I went to  the

villip paddy."

"They don't exist anymore. They are dead, or, I don't know, somehow  they

have gone completely over to the Yuuzhan Vong camp. Perhaps they accepted what

they are becoming." Luke leaned heavily on his nephew. "We have to get to  the

ship."

Jacen hugged his right arm around Luke's waist. "What's wrong?  Did  they

hurt you?"

"No, Jacen, it's just that..." Luke's chest heaved with  exertion.  "It's

just that using that much of the Force, using it that directly, is exhausting.

A Jedi may be able to control and use a great deal of the Force, but there  is

a price, a fearful price. Hurry, we have to go, quickly."

Jacen hustled his uncle along. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to where others need us, and we can't be late." Luke stroked

his right hand across his face, painting it  with  traces  of  Jacen's  blood.

"We're going to Dantooine."

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Dr. Pace shook Corran gently awake. He blinked his eyes.  "Yes,  what  is

it, Doctor?"

She straightened up and pointed  a  finger  back  toward  the  excavation

chamber. "Jens has got something on those beetles you brought back."

"Really? So soon?"

"She's good. What can I tell you?"

"I guess. Thanks. Give me a moment." Corran slowly sat upright and pulled

the soles of his feet together. Snugging his heels in as close as he could  to

his groin, he leaned  forward,  stretching  out  aching  muscles.  Using  Jedi

techniques to get rid of the pain was nothing, but that wouldn't give him back

the flexibility tight muscles stole away. The  hike  back  from  the  lake-bed

village they'd seen had been uneventful, and  Corran  hadn't  minded  Ganner's

silent brooding. It gave him time alone with his thoughts,  and  what  he  was

thinking demanded lots of brain sweat.

In his years with the Corellian  Security  Force,  he'd  seen  plenty  of

cruelty. Among the criminal classes, the strong tended to prey upon the  weak,

which really came as no surprise. In a world where the only rule was that  the

most lethal individual was at the top of the  food  chain,  cruelty  became  a

survival trait. Corran had seen the result  of  hideous  tortures  and  casual

cruelty. While all of it had been horrible, none of it quite equaled  what  he

saw with the Yuuzhan Vong beating that prisoner to death.

What got to Corran about the death was that the poor  slave  had  clearly

gone mad because of the growths on him-and  the  growths  were  something  the

Yuuzhan Vong had caused to become part of him. It  struck  Corran  thatif  the

growths were meant to be used as a means of control, one wouldn't  want  those

means of control to be  something  that  eventually  drove  the  slave  beyond

control. It would be akin to fastening a restraining bolt  to  a  droid  that,

eventually, started issuing random commands that  required  the  droid  to  be

destroyed.

From what he had witnessed, Corran began to get a sense of something else

going on with the Yuuzhan Vong and their slaves. The abandon and apparent glee

with which the two had killed the slave suggested  to  Corran  that  this  was

something they looked forward to. It almost seemed as if the small shells were

presents that would unwrap themselves and give the Yuuzhan Vong  a  chance  to

indulge themselves in something they found pleasurable. It also seemed  to  be

something beyond recreation  for  them,  which  disturbed  Corran.  While  the

growths were useful as a means of control, they were also meant to do more.

It is as if the Yuuzhan Vong want to inflict pain and suffering  just  to

see how long it takes for their slaves to break and run.The problem this  idea

gave Corran was that he primarily understood slavery in terms of greed. With a

slave, one got work with minimal compensation to  the  worker-very  economical

for the owner of the slaves, especially if  the  slaves  could  be  controlled

enough that revolt was impossible. Using the slaves as agony engines just made

no sense unless the pain in some way sustained the Yuuzhan Vong  or  had  some

other significance for them.If thatis true, this invasion is going to be worse

than any war of political or economic  gain.  Victory  for  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

demands that every sentient creature live in pain.

He shivered, then rolled to his feet. He pulled on his blaster belt.  His

lightsaber dangled at his right hip, just in front of the  holstered  blaster.

He adjusted the belt until it rode snugly on his hips, then descended  through

the passage to the excavation chamber.

In addition to Jens and Dr. Pace, Corran found Ganner and Trista  waiting

for him. Ganner just glared at him,  whereas  Dr.  Pace  turned  to  Jens  and

nodded.

The blond archaeogeneticist waved a  hand  at  a  holograph  that  showed

images of all three beetles. "Despite having only a  couple  of  specimens  of

each beetle to work with, I've been able to figure a  number  of  things  out.

Mostly I've been analyzing their excreta-"

Corran arched an eyebrow. "Bug dust?"

Jens rolled her blue eyes. "More than that. The sentinel beetle, the  one

that raised the alarm about the slave, is fairly unremarkable. The other  two,

though, are interesting. The littlest ones are excreting a  compound  that  is

being laced into the soil. Chemically it's a lot less complex than stink,  but

its molecular makeup is such that it  bonds  to  the  olfactory  neuroreceptor

sites in the slashrats. It's what is keeping them away from that  camp,  since

all the dirt there, as far as the slashrats are concerned, is  permeated  with

stink."

"The beetles are making synthetic stink?" Corran  frowned.  "That's  some

fairly advanced genetic engineering, isn't it?"

Jens shook her head. "Not really. These beetles,  along  with  a  lot  of

other  life-forms-ourselves  included-have  a  symbiotic   relationship   with

microscopic organisms in their bodies. We might chew  food  and  produce  acid

that breaks it down further, but it's the bacteria  in  our  guts  that  takes

complex molecules and chops them up into things our bodies  can  absorb.  They

nourish themselves on the food we provide, too, and give off  waste  products.

In this case, some of the bacteria in the beetle's gut produces this stinklike

substance. Engineering a bacteria is much easier than engineering the  beetle;

they're just the packaging for the bacteria."

Ganner nodded and pointed to the image of the middle beetle.  "What  does

it do?"

"I've been analyzing the gases it gives off, and it is producing a lot of

carbon dioxide. The content of carbon dioxide in the valley, based on the  air

in the sample bottles that you filled there, is elevated beyond  that  of  the

rest of Bimmiel. If I had to guess, since you've reported the growths  on  the

slaves are hard and rocklike, the elevated carbon  dioxide  content  might  be

promoting growth of the things on the slaves."

Trista bit at her lower lip for a moment. "If  enough  of  those  beetles

were let loose, could they raise the carbon dioxide content enough to help the

world retain heat during its outward orbit?"

The blond geneticist thought for a moment, then shrugged. "It's possible.

I don't have the sort of planetary data needed to figure out how long it would

take, but if these beetles  are  prolific  in  their  reproduction,  it  could

happen. Staving off the winter would utterly destroy the ecosystem here, since

we'd have moisture, but too little solar energy to let the  plants  grow.  The

shwpi come out  of  hibernation  early,  the  slashrats  nab  them,  then  the

slashrats die of starvation."

Corran tugged at his goatee for a moment. "Jens, you've  managed  to  use

the equipment here to manufacture stink,  and  you  know  how  to  manufacture

killscent, right?"

She nodded.

"Could you, with the equipment you have  here,  create  a  bacteria  that

would, instead of manufacturing that artificial stink,  create  an  artificial

killscent?"

Jens shook her head. "We don't have the right stuff  for  making  such  a

bacteria. That would take a lot more specialized gear than I have here."

Corran slammed his right fist into his  left  palm.  "Sith-spawn!  If  we

could get the slashrats to overrun the Yuuzhan Vong camp..." He  pointed  over

at the corner where the mummified Yuuzhan Vong remains had been recovered. "We

already know the little beasts have a taste for them."

Jens's face brightened. "Oh, ifthat's what  you  want,  no  problem.  The

equipment I have here would let me  create  a  virus  that  would  infect  the

bacteria that produces the stink, inserting new genetic coding that will  make

it produce killscent instead. For that matter, I can make  another  that  will

stop the carbon dioxide concentrators, too."

Corran smiled. "And could you produce a virus that would make the Yuuzhan

Vong themselves exude killscent?"

"Killer sweat? Possible. I can check the bones here for viral traces  and

work from them." Jens positively beamed. "Which one do I start on?"

Corran was about to answer, then Dr. Pace slammed her fist  down  on  the

table with the holoprojector on it. "None of them."

The older Jedi Knight blinked. "What?"

"She'll do none of them." Pace stared  hard  and  unblinking  at  Corran.

"Unleashing such viruses could trigger a worldwide calamity that  would  alter

Bimmiel forever."

"Unleashing them will counter the Yuuzhan Vong attempt to do exactly that

sort of thing." Corran pointed back toward the surface. "If the  Yuuzhan  Vong

succeed in making changes to the ecology of the planet, they will use it as  a

base to continue their conquest in our galaxy. We have to stop them, and given

the resources we have, using this sort of virus is  our  best  bet.  Jens  can

probably tinker with it so extreme cold will kill it, destroying  the  viruses

when the planet gets to the apex of its orbit."

"Not tough at all."

Pace turned and pointed at Jens. "You'll do nothing of the sort."

Trista weighed into the fray.  "You  seem  to  think,  Horn,  that  we're

somehow involved in your fight with the Yuuzhan Vong here."

Corran's jaw shot open. "You're up to your neck in it. Best case here  is

that they're just scouting. Worst case is that they've  come  to  recover  the

body of a lost explorer and you're sitting right on top of it. You dug it  up,

have measured  and  analyzed  it.  They  might  consider  that  some  sort  of

desecration, and they might be looking to destroy anyone who would do  such  a

thing."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. We're just here to study  this

world. We are just observers."

"Oh,I understand that attitude perfectly. I question whether or  not  the

Vong will understand it or will see the distinction  as  significant."  Corran

looked past her to Ganner. "Your thoughts?"

"Dr. Pace and Trista are correct. Your plan could  lead  to  a  planetary

holocaust that could render it sterile." Ganner's comment brought  an  adoring

smile to Trista's face. "Thereis another alternative."

Trista nodded. "There, you don't need the virus."

Corran's eyes narrowed. "And that choice is?"

"We go back and do what we should have done last night when  you  stopped

me." Ganner's hand dropped to his lightsaber. "We stop the Yuuzhan  Vong  very

directly."

Pace got a sour look on her face, and Trista's  face  drained  of  color.

"Ganner, you can't take that risk."

"It is what I do, Trista. You're right. You and the others here  are  not

combatants. Enlisting you in this  struggle  would  compromise  you  and  your

beliefs. Corran and I will protect you as you make your escape."

Corran turned back to Dr. Pace. "You've seen the flaw with his plan."

She nodded. "You can't kill all the beetles because you  don't  know  how

widely they've been spread. Even destroying the  Yuuzhan  Vong  won't  counter

their work. Still, I can't authorize this sort of action."

"I understand what you're saying." Corran sighed.  "I'd  also  point  out

that, like it or not, combatants or not, you're all right in the middle  of  a

war zone. While I respect your position, we might do well to bring everyone in

here, tell them what's going on, and let them vote on what we should do."

Dr. Pace fell silent as she considered  his  proposal.  Corran  purposely

shut himself to the mixed emotions pouring off her and instead  stretched  his

senses out to encompass the whole of the cave  complex.If  she  goes  for  the

vote, gathering up the twenty people here and polling them won't take long.

Corran suddenly frowned. "Ganner, counting us, how many people  are  here

in the cave complex?"

"Twenty." The quick sneer on his face dissolved.  "But  there  should  be

twenty-two here. Two people are missing."

Trista shook her head. "No one is missing. Vil and Denna just went out to

their meteorological station to fix the antenna.  They  stopped  getting  data

last night and headed out before you two returned."

Ganner blinked at her. "You let people go outside,  let  them  head  away

from the base?"

Her head came up defiantly. "Oh, so only you Jedi  are  brave  enough  to

escape slashrats and do your duty? We've been here dealing with  this  world's

perils for longer than you have."

Dr. Pace dug for  a  comlink.  She  switched  it  over  to  a  particular

frequency. "Vil, this is Dr. Pace. Report."

Only static came back through the open channel.

"Sithspawn!" Corran spun on the  ball  of  his  right  foot  and  started

pacing. "If the Vong have found the remote reporting station, they might  have

disabled it, given their hatred of technology. They could have left  something

in its place, something that those two disturbed. The Vong come  out  and  get

them-"

Trista shook her head. "There is no evidence to suggest-"

Ganner reached out and took Trista's shoulders in his  hands.  He  turned

her to face him. "I find you intelligent, passionate, and fascinating, but you

know, as well as we do, that the chances are excellent  that  your  companions

are now Yuuzhan Vong captives."

"No, no." She shook her head, lashing her shoulders with black  hair.  "I

never would have let them go if I thought-"

Corran held a hand up. "Doesn't matter. You let them  go  before  we  had

proof the Yuuzhan Vong were here in the present, not just in the past. We have

a problem, and we have to deal with it. Could be that Vil and Denna will  come

wandering back in with a comlink that had a bad power cell."

Dr. Pace swallowed hard. "And if they don't?"

"Someone will have to find them." Corran forced a  weak  smile  onto  his

lips. "And I think I know where our search will begin."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Mara's deteriorating condition had Anakin worried.  She  was  being  very

brave and very strong, but she  was  tiring  more  easily  and  had  begun  to

withdraw. He could feel her drawing on the Force  more  and  more  to  sustain

herself. It clearly fortified her, but demanded so much of her  attention  and

concentration that he was pretty sure she had no idea where she was or who  he

was a chunk of the time.

He did his best to see that she did not want for anything.  He  kept  the

camp clean and fixed all of the meals. By observing the Dantari, he  was  able

to find edible plants and spices, which he used to make  their  bland  rations

into somethingdifferent, if not always appetizing. Mara  seemed  to  take  the

failed experiments in stride along with the good  and  livened  up  a  bit  at

mealtimes.

Tuber-which was the name Anakin had given the elder Dantari root  trader-

clearly had some concerns about Mara. He kept bringing firewood  but  wouldn't

accept the last couple of roots Anakin had.  Instead  they  traded  for  other

things-most of them being trinkets, which Tuber braided into his hair to frame

the button Mara had provided.

Anakin set out from the camp just after a  supper  that  Mara  had  eaten

listlessly. She wandered back to  her  cot  and  started  sleeping  again.  He

cleaned up, then saw his supply of firewood wouldn't last through  the  night.

It struck him as odd that Tuber had not yet appeared, so he  headed  down  the

trail to the Dantari encampment.

He was still a good five hundred meters off when a spike of pain  reached

him through the Force. He thought immediately of Mara, but it didn't have  the

feel he would have expected from her. He next thought of Tuber, then caught an

undercurrent of fear rolling out from the Dantari camp.

Anakin crouched in the lavender grasses and slowly made his way  forward.

He smiled, putting into practice all the things  Mara  had  taught  him  about

moving stealthily through the grasses. He could  have  reached  out  with  the

Force to move branches that might crack underfoot or to smooth out grasses  so

they wouldn't rustle.I would have done just that, but I don't need to.  I  can

save the Force for later.

He worked his way in toward the camp, and twenty meters away he paused in

the shadow of a rock. Looking past the boulder, he saw  Tuber  on  his  knees,

bleeding from cuts over one eye and across his chest. The Imperial crest there

had been taken off in strips. It looked as if his captors had decided to  flay

him. The Dantari's hands had been bound behind his  back.  The  other  Dantari

likewise were on their knees, all looking drawn and terribly frightened.

And they had good cause to be. Standing before Tuber were  two  tall  and

lean Yuuzhan Vong warriors, both wearing chitinous armor.  One  bore  a  staff

that had a flattened end like a spear point.  The  other  had  a  weapon  that

looked the same, but was flexible and clearly functioned like a whip. The whip

wielder held the jacket button in his left hand, waved it under Tuber's  nose,

then snarled a question at him.

Tuber grunted a response.

The Yuuzhan Vong's whip cracked,  and  another  wound  blossomed  on  the

Dantari's broad chest.

A coldness settled in Anakin's stomach.  Without  a  doubt  he  knew  the

Yuuzhan Vong was asking where Tuber had gotten the button. Clearly the Dantari

couldn't have produced it, and it was far  newer  than  any  of  the  Imperial

artifacts, suggesting to the Yuuzhan Vong that  other  people  had  been  here

recently. Tuber was refusing to give the Yuuzhan  Vong  the  information  they

wanted.He's in trouble because we are here, because we befriended  him.  There

was no question in Anakin's mind that he had  to  do  something  to  save  the

Dantari.

For a heartbeat he almost despaired. Here he was, a fifteen-year-old Jedi

apprentice. He didn't have the experience a full Jedi Knight would have.  Mara

had experienced trouble killing one of the Yuuzhan Vong  on  Belkadan.  Saving

the Dantari seemed impossible. It was a task that would overwhelm him.

Size matters not.Despite Mara's having chided him  for  overusing  Yoda's

aphorism, Anakin knew it applied now. His  job,  as  a  Jedi  Knight,  was  to

protect those who could not protect themselves. He took a deep breath,  opened

himself to the Force, and felt it flood through him in  a  way  it  never  had

before. It was water to a being dying of thirst; it was sunshine after days of

rain; it was warmth after bitter cold. It was all that and more.

Anakin touched the stone behind which he crouched, and nudged it  with  a

fraction of the Force flowing through  him.  The  five-hundred-kilogram  stone

ripped itself free of the ground and hurled itself at the Yuuzhan  Vong.  Dirt

flew off it in clumps as it spun through the air. It  hit  the  ground  again,

five meters from its targets, then bounced up and caught the staff wielder  in

his flank. A crunching, crackling sound came from beneath the stone, then  the

Yuuzhan Vong's arms and legs beat out a furious but slackening death tattoo.

Sprinting forward from behind the boulder, Anakin drew his lightsaber and

settled his right thumb on the trigger button. He leapt up,  then  kicked  off

the boulder. He sailed through a high somersault that landed  him  behind  the

other Yuuzhan Vong. He ignited his violet lightsaber and lunged,  driving  the

point into a circular depression on the armor, catching the Yuuzhan Vong  just

below the left armpit.

The  glowing  purple  blade  sank  in  deep.  The  Yuuzhan  Vong's  pivot

threatened to pull the blade from Anakin's hand because the edges of the armor

resisted cutting. The whip came about and cracked him on  the  left  shoulder,

shredding his tunic and cutting him. He knew that the blow should  have  taken

his head off, and would have, save  that  the  armor  suddenly  convulsed  and

constricted. The joints stiffened, restricting the  Yuuzhan  Vong's  movement.

When the armor slackened, the warrior collapsed.

His amphistaff hissed and slithered away.

Anakin looked at the fallen Yuuzhan Vong warriors and began  to  tremble.

He sank to his knees and killed his lightsaber's blade. Somehow  he'd  managed

to kill two trained warriors-warriors that had given Mara  trouble.Granted,  I

got one with a trick, but the other... He knew his victory  should  have  been

impossible, but with the Force as his ally, he had succeeded.

Anakin felt hands on him. He looked up and saw Tuber standing  over  him.

Somehow the Dantari's hands had been freed. Tuber handed him  a  vincha  root,

then popped one into his own mouth and began chewing it. After a  considerable

amount of crunching, the Dantari spat a thick paste of vincha and saliva  into

his hand and started to smear it on his own wounds.

Anakin nodded and chewed the root himself. It tasted bitter and  puckered

his mouth immediately. He almost gagged as he swallowed some  of  it,  but  he

could feel the pain beginning to ease in his shoulder.  He  dabbed  the  paste

into the wound, and the pain stopped almost immediately.

No wonder they value this root so highly.Anakin slapped  a  hand  against

his forehead.And he wouldn't take my last ones because he expected me  to  use

them on Mara. It wasn't a coincidence that we came to  Dantooine.  This  stuff

might not cure her disease, but it might be able to help her fight against it.

Tuber pulled Anakin to his feet. The Dantari began to  bellow  orders  to

the others in his band. They began to gather their belongings and head for the

trail up to Anakin's camp. Tuber wore a big smile on his face  and  shouldered

the bag of vincha roots.

Anakin shook his head.  He  knew  these  primitive  people  had  decided,

somehow, that he and Mara were godlike beings who would protect  them.  Anakin

wanted to believe that he could protect them, but he knew that  allowing  them

to travel with him and Mara would not work. "It would be like me allowing  you

to build your houses in a floodplain. You'd always be in danger."

Tuber looked down at him, puzzled.

Anakin knew what he had to do. He concentrated and gathered the Force  to

himself, then projected into Tuber's mind the image of a mountain valley  with

long grasses and vincha plants by the dozens. It would  be  a  place  of  easy

living, a paradise for the Dantari. And, even though  Anakin  thought  he  was

constructing this place in his mind-creating an illusion to fool Tuber-part of

him knew the place was very real, and that he was seeing  it  as  it  appeared

right that moment.

Anakin took quick stock of the sun's position in the image, the length of

shadows, the position of Dantooine's larger moon,  then  pointed  off  to  the

northwest. "Go, there, in that direction. That will be your new  home.  Follow

the coast and you will find it."

Tuber blinked, then reached out with a hand as if he were trying to touch

the vision he'd been given. Anakin took his hand and pointed to the northwest.

"Go." He gave the Dantari a gentle shove, then managed to keep himself upright

until they crested a small hill and disappeared from sight.

Anakin sank to one knee beside the  Yuuzhan  Vong  he'd  slain  with  the

lightsaber. The armor had another similar depression beneath the right armpit.

Thin,  feathery  membranes  filled  it,  and  Anakin  decided  that  the  twin

depressions must have been roughly akin to gills. The lightsaber  had  punched

through the vulnerable points in the armor and killed the  Yuuzhan  Vong.  The

armor's own  death  convulsion  had  saved  Anakin's  life  by  hindering  the

warrior's attack.

It had been a lucky shot, but  he  knew  Luke  would  never  accept  that

explanation.There is no luck, only the Force.

Weary beyond what he thought the effort should have  taken  out  of  him,

Anakin stumbled off along the trail back to his camp. He smiled  because,  had

Mara not insisted he work without the Force, he wouldn't have had the physical

strength to make it back up the incline. The little aches and pains  from  his

exercises told him just how much farther he could go on, and he knew he'd make

it back to Mara.

Darkness had fallen completely by his  return,  and  his  fire  had  been

reduced to a glowing mound of  ash-strewn  coals.  He  grabbed  the  remaining

vincha roots and entered Mara's tent. She came awake instantly,  then  slumped

back on the cot. "What is it?"

"The Yuuzhan Vong. They're here." He handed her  a  vincha  root.  "Here,

chew this and let the juice run back down your throat. Local medicine,  really

good."

Mara swiped her hands across her eyes, then looked at him. "You're hurt."

"It's nothing, but we have to get out of here." Anakin frowned. "I  think

the Yuuzhan Vong have been  here  since  the  start,  scouting  around.  Maybe

they're the source of your  weakness,  I  don't  know.  Maybe  their  presence

enhances things under their control, and your disease could be  one  of  those

things. You felt a link on Belkadan. Here, it is more subtle since you  aren't

in direct contact with the Yuuzhan Vong or their things."

Mara nodded. "That's a trend I'd like to continue."

"Me, too." He sighed. "I killed two of them, but I took them by surprise.

It was almost too easy, and that has me worried."

Mara threw back her blanket and swung her legs off the cot. "That's good.

Youshould be worried. I have a feeling that dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong will

never be that easy again."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Leia Organa Solo looked over at the organized chaos going on  around  her

and wished for more organization and less chaos. TheRalroost and a handful  of

freighters had arrived at Dantooine and detected no Yuuzhan Vong ships in  the

system or having followed them. The freighters  and  theRalroost  's  shuttles

began taking refugees down to an equatorial continent that  had  slender  land

bridges to the larger northern continent and the southern polar one.  Lavender

grasses stretched out as far as the eye could see, though the signs  of  human

habitation were beginning to hide them.

The freighters had all picked up more people than they  had  supplies  to

sustain on a long run in toward the Core. Dantooine had been a good  jump  for

getting them free of Dubrillion, but the routes back out of Dantooine were few

and far between.

Leia sighed.If Tarkin hadtaken the  bait,  this  world  would  have  been

destroyed, and then we'd not have had this haven to run to right now.

Her comlink trilled. "Organa Solo here. Go ahead."

"Highness, the last group of refugees is coming  down  from  theRalroost.

Now would be the time for you to return to the ship so we can make our run  to

the Core." Admiral Kre'fey kept his voice low and even, with just the hint  of

a purr to it. "I know you thought this discussion  closed,  but  I  will  have

Masters to answer to on Coruscant."

"And you think they'll want me there telling them that I'd warned  them?"

Leia shook her head. "No thanks, Admiral. I'll remain here  with  the  others.

You send us out help, and we'll do just fine."

"And if the Vong do follow us here?"

"Abandoning the refugees in that case will be worse." She recalled that a

previous group of refugees had been transplanted here, then wiped out  by  the

Empire.Not a good omen. "Have a good trip. I'm sure Senator A'Kla will  be  of

help to you."

"He would if he were coming. He's piloting down my command  shuttle  with

the last group. I'm leaving you two companies of infantry and  enough  weapons

to arm a number of the refugees."

"I hope we won't need it."

"No more than I do, I think."

"Speed to you, Admiral. May the Force be with you."

"I'll be back with help, soon."

Leia switched off her comlink, then  smiled  as  Gavin  Darklighter  came

walking over, with Jaina trailing behind him. "Good afternoon, Colonel."

"Highness. I've taken the liberty of appointing my newest flight  officer

as a liaison between the three squadrons  we've  got  here  and  the  civilian

authorities, which I assume will be you." Gavin pointed off north,  southwest,

and southeast of the camp. "I've arrayed my squadrons to  establish  something

of a perimeter. Our weapons are not meant for suppression  of  ground  troops,

but they do a good job of it. Rogues have the north; two squadrons  of  uglies

are splitting the south side of things."

Leia nodded and looked around. The main camp had been set up in a  slight

depression  at  the  heart  of  a  wide  valley.  "Doesn't  seem  particularly

defensible here, does it?"

"No, but sensor sweeps showed we can get water from fairly shallow wells.

Folks will be needing to build shelters-nasty weather is rolling in  from  the

north-so we can get them to dig  some  trenches,  prepare  some  redoubts  for

defense, too. If the Vong are here, having the defenses will be good."

"And if they aren't, people will grumble about having to dig."

"Mother, these people are terrified.  Having  them  dig  will  give  them

something to do." Jaina sighed. "Having the freighters here in the  middle  of

the camp will provide temporary shelter, and their guns can cover people if we

have to go up and vape some skips."

Jaina's casual use of the phrasevape some skips  sent  a  shiver  through

Leia and made her regard her daughter differently. It felt to Leia  almost  as

if she'd been looking at one holograph of her daughter, all  pretty  and  prim

and young, and then someone had switched it for this new image.

Jaina had a touch of dirt on her face, and salt rings from  sweat  marked

her flight suit's armpits. Her hair had been pulled  back  into  a  braid  and

lacked the sheen of clean hair. Leia could tell her daughter  was  tired,  but

there was an energy in her eyes that Leia recognized all  too  well.  Her  own

father-her adopted father-had remarked on it in her  eyes,  when  Leia  became

involved with the Rebellion.

She's more grown than any parent  wants  to  admit.Leia  reached  out  to

stroke her daughter's cheek, but caught a flash of wariness in  Jaina's  eyes.

She shifted her hand to land on  Jaina's  shoulder  and  gave  it  a  squeeze.

"That's a good point, Jaina."

Gavin nodded in agreement. "We might have to move them around  a  bit  to

provide the best in overlapping fields of fire,  but  they  should  be  pretty

effective in holding hostiles off."

"Admiral Kre'fey is sending troopers down, and  lots  of  weapons."  Leia

shook her head slowly. "We probably won't have any time to train the refugees.

"

Her daughter raised a finger. "There have to be veterans of the Rebellion

and even Imp service among them. We sort them out, have them help organize the

camp, and we'll make it more defensible."

"That will work, too. The grasses here aren't very tasty, but  they  will

suffice for most folks." Leia sighed. "That leaves only one other worry."

Gavin frowned. "And that is?"

"Mara and Anakin are supposed to be here on Dantooine. A  sweep  of  comm

frequencies is negative for any activity."

The pilot shrugged. "If she is here for rest, they might not  have  their

comlinks on."

"That occurred to me." Leia shivered. "I can't feel them with the  Force,

either. If they were dead, I'm sure I'd have felt that. Their  being  cut  off

like this, I don't know. It's not good, not good at all."

Jaina covered Leia's hand with her own. "Don't worry, Mom. Mara's  pretty

smart, and Anakin isn't stupid. I'm sure they're just fine."

Leia looked at her closely. "Can you feel them with the Force?"

A pained expression passed over her face. "A little,  yes,  in  fits  and

starts. Not enough to give me a direction, or I'd be  out  looking.  It  feels

like Anakin, when he was a kid, playing hide-and-seek. When I  get  him,  he's

strong."

Leia sighed. "Let's  hope  he  remains  strong,  then."And  well  hidden,

especially if it's the Yuuzhan Vong seeking him.

The thunder crack from above had faded just enough for  Anakin  to  catch

the whirring buzz of the Yuuzhan Vong weapon arcing in at him. He  pulled  his

right shoulder back and twisted his face to the left. He  felt  the  fist-size

disk whirl past him, barely missing his cheek. It make  a  solid  thud  as  it

slammed into the bole of a tree.

A flash of lightning burnished a silver edge on the thing. Legs  sprouted

from the body and began to push the right edge of  its  carapace  out  of  the

divot it had chopped into the wood. As Anakin had learned  through  experience

in his flight from Yuuzhan Vong hunters, the bug would free itself,  then  fly

off, returning to the hand of the warrior that had thrown it at him.

Not this time.Anakin darted forward and  smashed  the  butt  end  of  his

lightsaber into the bug's body. The fragile  wings  shattered,  and  the  body

snapped in half. Dark fluid oozed from the bug and began to steam as raindrops

hit it.

Repressing a shudder, Anakin turned back and started along the  torturous

mountain trail. The track he was following was really just a rivulet that  had

washed away dirt, leaving wet stones and roots to catch at his feet.  Reaching

forward, he grabbed a thick root and hauled himself up, then found Mara  lying

there, in the muddy runoff, her chest heaving.

Without saying anything he pulled a piece of vincha root from his pocket,

bit off half, and stuffed the rest into her mouth. "C'mon, Mara, they're right

behind us."

"They're always right behind us, 'cept when they're  ahead  of  us."  She

started to get up, then stumbled, pulling him down, too.

Two more of the razorbugs sailed past to  stick  in  the  ground.  Anakin

squashed one, then tugged Mara to her feet. "Go, go."

She scrambled up the next three meters, then perched on  a  stone  for  a

second before darting forward. He headed up after her. By the time he  got  to

the top of the incline, he saw her legging it around a leftward  bend  in  the

trail. He pulled himself up onto  that  next  section  of  trail  and  started

running after her, but something thumped heavily on the trail behind him.

Anakin spun, igniting his purple blade as he turned. He parried  a  slash

from an amphistaff and half ducked under it. He lunged  at  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

warrior's belly, but the armor held despite smoke  and  water  vapor  erupting

from the  lightsaber's  touch.  The  warrior  leapt  back,  then  whipped  his

amphistaff forward. The weapon caught Anakin with a stinging slash to the left

forearm, further tattering the sleeve on that arm and the flesh beneath it.

Anakin hugged his arm to his chest, and the Yuuzhan Vong warrior laughed.

His amphistaff became rigid, and the warrior rose to his full height, standing

there all glorious and terrible at the end of the  path.  He  looked  down  at

Anakin and said something that dripped with condescension.

The young Jedi's eyes narrowed, and the big rock  on  which  the  Yuuzhan

Vong stood rolled back from beneath the warrior's  feet.  The  warrior  leaned

heavily on his amphistaff, but the muddy ground gave way, spilling the warrior

forward. He  landed  hard  on  his  chest  and  face,  splashing  mud  in  all

directions. As he pulled his head back and up, Anakin caught him with  a  snap

kick that pitched him into the darkness.

The young Jedi doused his lightsaber and darted off along after his aunt.

He tried to feel her with the Force, but she'd so effectively drawn it  around

her, using it to fend off the disease, that he could  barely  detect  her.  He

knew he had to register just as faintly to her. He'd  been  hoarding  his  own

strength and minimizing his presence in the Force just  in  case  the  Yuuzhan

Vong were somehow using the Force to track them. For three days they had  been

running through the mountains and had  been  pursued  from  almost  the  first

moment of their flight. They  cut  across  Yuuzhan  Vong  tracks  before  they

reached their ship, so they knew theJade Sabre had  been  found  and,  if  the

Yuuzhan Vong hatred for technology remained true, had been reduced to scrap.

Throughout the run they had been miserable.  The  rain  had  come  on  so

quickly and poured so hard that Anakin had wondered  if  somehow  the  Yuuzhan

Vong controlled it or if he was just  growing  more  and  more  paranoid.  The

Yuuzhan Vong who hunted them seemed to take great delight in coursing them and

chasing them. The razorbugs constantly flew from  shadows,  inflicting  little

nicks and slices. His arms and legs burned from cuts and fatigue.  His  robes,

which were leaden with so much rain and mud, seemed more holes than they  were

cloth.I'm pretty much reduced to my body and my lightsaber.

Around the turn the trail broadened out.  Tall  stones,  set  like  teeth

along the edges of the trail, channeled him toward  an  overshadowed  pathway.

Tall trees eclipsed the night sky-though really only blocked  his  ability  to

see the lightning-spitting  thunderheads.  Mara  sagged  against  one  of  the

plinths, then gave him a quick smile and fingered a wet  strand  of  red  hair

away from her cheek. Tattered and torn as  badly  as  he  was,  and  sick  and

exhausted, she still managed to have defiance play in her eyes.

Her head came up, and her eyes focused beyond  him.  He  spun,  barely  a

dozen meters into the clearing. Behind him were three Yuuzhan  Vong  warriors.

Two moved right and left, leaving the third to come  straight  on.  They  came

slowly, cautiously, and he wondered why.Any one of  them  could  break  me  in

half.

Something in their wariness as they approached brought  it  all  home  to

him.They are here because of me. I slew two of them in my first encounter. All

the single warriors who've come to face me have gone down.  I  haven't  killed

any more since then, but perhaps I disgraced them.

Anakin didn't spare a glance over his shoulder. "Mara, they want me. It's

a matter of honor for them, I think."

"They may want you, Anakin, but they'll deal with the  both  of  us."  He

heard her lightsaber hiss behind him, pouring blue highlights onto the Yuuzhan

Vong and their wet armor. "Light your blade. I've got left."

"No, Mara, run." He felt a cold calm coming over him as  he  brought  his

hands together on the hilt of his lightsaber. He knew, without  any  doubt  at

all, that he would not survive a fight with three of  the  Yuuzhan  Vong.  The

Force had been with him in his first encounter, and all along the way.Just  be

with me one more time, so Mara can escape. One more time.

He thumbed  his  blade  alive.  The  energy  rod  glowed  with  a  violet

intensity. He held it forward, with the hilt near  his  belly  and  the  blade

pointing down at the ground. He brought his right leg forward, knee bent;  and

he planted his left foot. He could see all three of them and nodded to each in

succession. Nodding again to the central figure,  Anakin  impatiently  flicked

his blade up a centimeter or two, inviting the Yuuzhan Vong onward.

The centermost warrior began to  whirl  his  amphistaff  over  his  head.

Lightning seared white-hot edges on his armor and along  the  amphistaff.  The

Yuuzhan Vong started forward, and Anakin feinted toward him, kicking a lump of

wet sand in his direction. The warrior retreated a step, then  his  companions

hooted at him.

All of a sudden Anakin knew exactly what he had to do. He knew the proper

series of steps he had to move through to save Mara.  Without  giving  it  any

conscious thought, he allowed his body to flow through the  choreography  that

came to him through the Force.

Pivoting on his right foot, he lunged at the Yuuzhan Vong on  his  right.

That warrior leapt back, only to slam himself into one of the plinths. As that

warrior stumbled to the ground, Anakin dodged  to  his  left,  taking  a  step

toward the central warrior. Because his earlier move had exposed his  back  to

the left warrior, that Yuuzhan Vong had driven at  him.  Anakin  reversed  his

grip on the lightsaber and stabbed it backward past his  right  hip,  impaling

the alien warrior on the blade.

The Yuuzhan Vong's armor held, preventing him from being opened  up,  but

he did double over from the force of the blow. For his part, Anakin used  some

of the collision against the blade to drive himself forward. He rolled into  a

somersault, then spun to the right and brought  his  lightsaber  around  in  a

waist-high cut that caught the center Yuuzhan Vong across  the  thighs.  Armor

sizzled and cracked, but stopped the lightsaber from  slashing  through  flesh

and muscle. Instead he cut the legs out from under the Yuuzhan  Vong,  dumping

him to the clearing floor.

Anakin lashed out with a foot, catching the fallen warrior in the side of

the head. The warrior's head snapped to the right, but the Yuuzhan Vong  still

gathered his limbs beneath him and heaved himself to his feet. Anakin  cut  to

the left, to kick the Yuuzhan Vong's amphistaff away, but  the  weapon  coiled

and struck at him. Then the Yuuzhan Vong  scythed  his  leg  through  Anakin's

ankles and dropped him to his back.

Anakin slashed at the Yuuzhan Vong's legs, but the  warrior  leapt  above

the cut, then came down with a foot heavily on Anakin's right wrist. Pain shot

through it, and the boy was certain he'd heard something snap. His  hand  went

numb, and his lightsaber flew from his grip.

The Yuuzhan Vong towered above him. The  warrior's  amphistaff  slithered

its way up the warrior's leg, then onto his right arm. It stiffened,  and  the

warrior raised it above his head. Muttering  words  that  sounded  solemn  and

thankful, the warrior whipped the amphistaff down in a cut that  would  cleave

Anakin open from crown to navel.

If it landed.

The snap-hiss of Luke Skywalker's  green  lightsaber  interjected  itself

into the fight. The verdant blade caught the descending amphistaff  before  it

could strike. The blade slid in along the amphistaff, evaporating water as  it

went, then slipped up and slashed  through  the  Yuuzhan  Vong's  armpit.  The

warrior screamed, then spun away.

Off to the left, Jacen Solo leapt down from one of the  plinths,  landing

on the Yuuzhan Vong warrior below. Jacen's feet hit the warrior square in  the

back, driving him face first into the ground. The Jedi slammed the butt end of

his lightsaber against the base of the warrior's skull, then darted forward to

engage the last Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen leapt above a low slash, then  side-kicked

the warrior in the gut. The Yuuzhan Vong flew back into a  plinth,  then  slid

down into a gap between two of them.

Jacen helped his brother up while Luke ran to Mara. Anakin reached out to

use the Force to pull his extinguished lightsaber to him, then bent  down  and

scooped it up with his left hand. "Jacen, how did you find us?"

Jacen shrugged and nodded toward Luke. "He knew when and where to  be  to

find you two. He had a vision, and it led him to Dantooine. We might not  have

been able to pick the Yuuzhan Vong out with  the  Force,  but  plenty  of  the

wildlife here in this forest scattered from them, so we headed for where  life

wasn't."

"Huh. I never thought of that."

Jacen tousled his brother's sopping hair. "Ah, you're just a kid."

"Don't give him a hard time, Jacen." Mara leaned heavily on her  husband,

and Anakin could tell Luke wanted to pick her up, but she'd have  no  part  of

it. "He got me this far. If he hadn't been taking care of me, I'd be dead."

Luke nodded solemnly at his youngest nephew. "I can't begin to thank  you

enough."

"Sure you can. Take us back to Coruscant."

"Can't, but we will get you to your mother."

Anakin looked down at his muddy, blood-soaked robes. "To Mom? I thought I

was being thanked here."

"You are, and will be." Luke pointed toward the north.  "Ship's  not  far

from here."

Mara gave Luke a kiss  on  the  cheek.  "At  least  we'll  be  away  from

Dantooine."

"Actually, we won't."

Mara frowned. "But you got here in a ship, one capable of making the trip

from Belkadan."

"You're right, we did." Luke nodded calmly. "It's  just  we  can't  leave

Dantooine yet. Leia and some Dubrillion refugees landed here on the  continent

to the southeast. As we were coming in system, we saw a big Yuuzhan Vong  ship

sending troop carriers down,  and  it  seems  they  found  that  continent  as

hospitable as Leia did."

Anakin winced. "Out of the firefight, into the carbon freeze."

"Pretty much."

The youngest Solo sighed. "So, if you had a vision that brought you here,

do you have a vision  that  shows  how  things  will  turn  out  down  to  the

southeast?"

"As Yoda said, the future is constantly in motion, so this  vision  might

not be true." Luke's face became a steel mask. "It's  just  as  well,  because

that vision did not have a happy ending."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Corran didn't mind the sting of sand against his face as  he  stared  out

toward where the wind had begun to unbury theDalliance.  Stretching  out  with

the Force, he could feel Ganner and Trista deep inside the  ship.  Though  the

distance muted their emotions, the fact that he detected  anything  more  than

just their presence meant they were probably locked in a charged conversation.

Not surprising, since everyone's mood  was  charged  since  the  fate  of  the

missing students had become clear. Corran and Ganner had trekked  out  to  the

meteorological station and found the place a mess. Supplies had been scattered

all over, and four sets of footprints led away from the station.  There  could

be no other conclusion: Vil and  Denna  had  been  captured  by  Yuuzhan  Vong

warriors.

The scrape of boot on rock focused Corran's attention back locally. "Yes,

Dr. Pace?"

"I hate it when you do that. You could at least look at me."

Corran glanced back over his shoulder. "Forgive me, but you  are  a  very

strong presence in  the  Force.  Besides,  your  leather-soled  boots  make  a

particular sound. Your  students  wear  synthetic  soles  that  are  virtually

silent."

The woman pursed her lips, then nodded. "Neat trick  that,  but  I  think

this mission of yours will take more than tricks. Are you sure you  know  what

you're doing?"

Corran laughed for a moment, then shook his head. "One of your  students,

one of the ones captured, accused Jedi of being able to see into  the  future.

Sometimes visions do come, but not for me, not now. I don't know  if  what  we

will do will succeed, but I know we can't do anything less."

Pace frowned. "I still don't like the whole thing."

"The whole thing?" Corran pointed  toward  several  fiberplast  equipment

crates at the mouth of the cave. "You took to packing up  the  Vong  artifacts

quickly enough. You're even abandoning equipment to do so."

"It was old anyway, and I have a budget surplus. I spend it or don't  get

as much next year." She folded her arms across her chest.  "You  know  what  I

mean."

"Perhaps I do." Since the capture of the two students, Corran and  Ganner

had reconnoitered the alien village each day. As nearly as they had been  able

to determine, the Yuuzhan Vong were there taking samples of  the  local  flora

and fauna, as well as searching for something. They herded the slaves out  and

set up search grids. They poked and probed the sand for things, and Corran was

fairly certain that what they wanted resided in the crates.

The students had determined that Bimmiel's magnetic  field  shifted  from

time to time, which meant if the Yuuzhan Vong were using old  measurements  to

find the cave, they would be off a bit.Of  course,  capturing  Vil  and  Denna

means they have a direct line to us. Corran was actually  surprised  that  the

Yuuzhan Vong had not come for them yet.

In their scouting missions Corran and Ganner had managed to  determine  a

number of things. First, they knew the two students were  being  held  in  the

large shell. They were not in good shape, but their sense in the Force had not

yet begun to diminish. This everyone took as a good sign.

The prisoners, on the other hand, had deteriorated. The Jedi witnessed no

more murders, but the number of slaves shrank all the same. The growths became

larger, and the pain the slaves were in was all that much more obvious.  There

seemed to be very little peace for them at night.

Corran had seen only the two warriors and began to assume there were,  in

fact, only two of them. He knew that was a dangerous assumption, but he  clung

to it because if there were more, there just was no  way  the  rescue  mission

could succeed.  He  felt,  deep  down,  that  they  would  succeed,  at  least

partially, and he let his trust in the Force reinforce his  belief  about  the

number of Yuuzhan Vong they would face.

Ganner had seized upon Corran's belief about the number of  Yuuzhan  Vong

and used it to grind on him. The younger Jedi reminded  him  again  and  again

that if they had just acted that night, none of the students would  have  been

in danger and they could have all been away from Bimmiel a  long  time  since.

Corran countered that Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements could have  arrived  if  the

two stationed on the world didn't report regularly, making things  worse,  but

he knew that was a sham argument.If they were reporting  to  off-world  sites,

more Vong would already be here because of the discovery of humans.

He looked at Dr. Pace and let his shoulders slump a bit.  "We  have  been

over all of this, I think, and I understand your protests over  parts  of  the

plan. Ganner and I will slip into the camp and liberate your students.  Trista

has learned enough about flying the freighter that she'll be  able  to  handle

getting it that far. It's bigger than a blastboat, but her experience piloting

one of them should suffice. She laces  the  village  with  stuff  you've  been

synthing up, Ganner and I get out of there, and we leave."

"Yes, we leave... We leave the  slaves  behind."  Pace's  eyes  narrowed.

"When we spray the area with the virus that will change  the  bacteria,  we'll

also be dumping an incredible amount  of  killscent.  From  your  reports  the

slashrats actually have tunnels running under  the  village  basin.  When  the

killscent gets down there, they'll come up and will be everywhere. The  slaves

don't stand a chance."

A chill writhed up Corran's spine. "I know that, and I know  we've  asked

you to trust us, to trust the sense Ganner and I have of the  slaves.  They're

dying by little bits and pieces. I've never felt anything similar through  the

Force, but I know they're very sick and won't survive."

His head came up. "And you know we can't take them with us. We don't know

what the growths are, how they are spread. For all we know, it's an infectious

disease, and the Yuuzhan Vong have set up this village  as  something  we  can

rescue folks from. They intend us to bring plague carriers along with  us.  If

we do, we will do an incredible amount of harm to the  New  Republic  and  its

people."

"But what if Vil and Denna are infected?"

Corran sighed. "That's the crux of it, isn't it? I've been wrestling with

it myself."

"And your decision?"

He glanced out at the distant ship and the  two  figures  slowly  walking

back toward the cave. "If they are sick, we have no choice but to leave them."

"And if we can cure them?"

"You want to risk a planet on that chance?" Corran tapped his own  chest.

"I don't. I remember the Krytos virus. I know how devastating that can be.  If

they are infected, they don't make it off Bimmiel. If they aren't, we get them

out and into evac suits on the freighter. The same goes  for  Ganner  and  me,

just to safeguard you against the chance that we do develop a problem."

"And, if you do, you expect us to space all four of you?"

Corran turned and looked at her. "You know,  Doctor,  some  choices  just

aren't easy. Spacing Ganner might break Trista's heart. I've got  a  wife  and

kids, and I think they'd not be too pleased at my dying; but when  I  have  to

choose between my death and the potential death of billions, I know  which  is

the better choice. I serve the Force, and the Force is life itself. It doesn't

make the decision easy, but it makes it easier."

Pace snorted, then shook her head. "You make it sound so simple."

"From one point of view, it is." Corran sighed.  "I  doubt,  though,  the

Vong share that point of view, so this is going to  be  just  plain  hard  and

painful."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Jaina Solo sat huddled and anonymous in the midst of the pilots  gathered

for Colonel Darklighter's briefing in the main cabin of Senator  A'Kla'sLambda

- class shuttle,Impervious. Despite the colonel's relative youth, he  was  one

of the oldest people in the room. Jaina found it disturbing that many  of  the

pilots tended to be closer to her age than not, and she had the  feeling  that

one who had piloted an ugly was her younger brother's age.

In addition to the pilots from Rogue Squadron and the  two  squadrons  of

uglies, the pilots for the various freighters had joined the briefing.  Elegos

sat forward of them and off to the side, as if he were more an observer than a

participant, despite the fact that his shuttle had been tasked with moving  to

a point position directly in line toward whichever direction  from  which  the

Yuuzhan Vong staged their attack.

Gavin nodded to Major Varth, and she keyed up a holograph of one  of  the

coralskippers. "You've seen skips  before  and  have  engaged  them  in  space

combat. We have no idea what sort of role they will play in ground support  of

an attack, but their plasma bolts will undoubtedly kill folks who get  in  the

way of them. Our job will be to engage the skips  and  keep  them  from  their

ground-support role. That's our primary mission and will belong to  the  Rogue

and Savage Squadrons."

The Savage pilots nodded and slapped each other's backs. The  uglies  had

been divided into new squadrons here on Dantooine, with Savage being  made  up

of uglies like clutches that had shields.  The  Rogues  had  referred  to  the

squadron as Salvage Squadron at first, but  the  pilots  proved  game  so  the

Rogues didn't rib them too much.The fact is that we  know  they're  likely  to

take a lot of casualties in the coming assault. Their ships aren't capable  of

handling the wear and tear ours are.

The other squadron, designated Tough,  consisted  of  the  less  powerful

ships, including those armed with ion cannons or lacking shields. Gavin turned

toward those pilots, all of whom had donned red scarves to give them a  rakish

air-and it worked, even for the Gamorrean aft gunner in an old  shieldless  Y-

wing. "You will be given a ground-attack mission. As we pull  the  skips  off,

you can harry the ground troops. We have no idea what, if anything, they  have

as ground transport. Taking anything big out will be important, and you should

use proton torpedoes or concussion missiles on them,  but  only  with  a  very

specific attack strategy."

Major Varth hit some keys  on  her  datapad,  and  the  static  holograph

shifted to an animation. The best-guess idea of a Yuuzhan Vong ground vehicle-

shown as a giant beetlelike creature moving on thousands of little  feet-moved

along slowly as a trio of ships came in at it. The  first  two  made  strafing

runs, coming in high and spraying flicker darts over the  vehicle.  The  third

fighter came in low and drilled one proton torpedo at the target. The  Yuuzhan

Vong vehicle used black holes to pick off the laser darts and let  the  proton

torpedo through. The missile detonated, lifting the beetle and cracking it  in

half before dumping it back on the ground in pieces.

Gavin half smiled. "Again, we don't know what Vong ground craft will look

like. We used a beetle because we know they use beetles.  Regardless  of  what

they look like, the idea is to overwhelm them with laser fire,  then  drive  a

torpedo into the craft."

The purple striping around Elegos's eyes tightened. "Colonel, forgive me,

but is not this strategy based on wishful thinking? We have no idea  how  many

dovin basals such ground vehicles would have. It could be we would be  wasting

torpedoes."

Gavin nodded wearily. "I agree, but the chance to kill a lot of  Vong  is

worth that chance. Moreover, whatever heavy weaponry  that  thing  is  packing

could hurt us, so we have to eliminate them."

Something clicked in the back of Jaina's brain. She raised a hand.

"Flight Officer Solo?"

"Forgive me, Colonel, but something you just said combined with what  the

senator said. The gravitic anomaly the dovin basal creates just sucks  in  the

proton torpedo and crushes it down, preventing detonation or containing it."

"That is what we think  happens.  We  think  containing  the  energy  may

exhaust the dovin basal, which is  the  rough  equivalent  of  overwhelming  a

shield."

"Right, that's what I thought." She smiled a bit. "What if we don't  make

it easy for the dovin basals to contain that energy?"

Gavin frowned. "I don't understand what you're saying."

"Okay, what I'm thinking is this: If we reprogram  the  proton  torpedoes

and concussion missiles so that they're getting targeting data from our  ships

on a constant basis, we could have them detonate prematurely when  a  gravitic

anomaly is positioned to intercept them. The missiles go  off,  releasing  all

that energy. The black hole might suck a bunch of it in, but  the  rest  could

damage ground troops, or other vehicles that don't have black holes up on that

side. The shock wave from the explosion would certainly knock  troopers  down,

and the heat might ignite things."

Gavin ran a hand over his bearded jaw. "It  does  allow  us  to  do  some

damage regardless. Pilots would have to hold their ships on target for a  bit,

though, which could make them targets themselves."

Major Inyri Forge raised a hand. "In  ground-attack  mode  a  torp  isn't

going to take that long to reach the target. A couple of seconds-no more."

One of the Tough pilots nodded. "We could  also  slave  our  missiles  to

targeting data coming from some of the freighters.  We  pop  up,  deliver  the

missiles, then scoot away or line up another shot. If we vector shots in  over

densely packed troops, we could do serious damage."

The leader of Rogue Squadron nodded. "As a plan modification, it's simple

and works. Good. I'll get slicer droids coding up a sim for this strategy  and

see how it runs. You freight pilots are going to need to see if you can modify

your sensor packages to provide the telemetry  our  missiles  need,  but  that

shouldn't be hard. You'll be shooting your guns by hand,  though,  since  your

sensors will be occupied-at least, at range. When the Vong  get  close  enough

that we won't be torping them, you really won't need sensor data, but you  can

have it."

Gavin chewed his lower lip for a moment. "Look, all of you, this  is  not

going to be an easy fight. Normally  we  pilots  get  to  cloak  ourselves  in

tradition and the romance of  single  combat  amid  the  stars.  The  kind  of

snubfighters we pilot killed the Death Stars and have downed lots of Imps  and

pirates. We often take pride and even solace in the fact that those we face in

combat are our equals in skill. It's a fair fight.

"This won't even be close to a fair fight. Once we scrape  fighter  cover

off the ground troops, we'll be slaughtering them as fast as we  can.  Scatter

shots from the lasers may only burn paint from a fighter, but they'll broil  a

warrior in a second. It will not be pretty. What it is, though, isnecessary."

Gavin nodded toward a viewport that looked out over the refugee camp  and

the fires lit to stave off night. "It's necessary  because  those  people  out

there aren't warriors. Many of them might have blasters, but if they ever have

to fire them, it's because we've failed. Safeguarding those people, adults and

children alike, is more important than our survival. That  doesn't  mean  that

you should be stupid out there, but courage will sometimes  demand  you  be  a

little less than coldly rational and sensible."

He snapped to attention and brought his hand up in a  salute.  "You  know

your duty. Get sim time, get sack time, and be ready. When they come, we  have

to stop them. Nothing more, nothing less will do."

Jacen stood behind  one  of  the  dirt-and-fiberplast-debris  breastworks

thrown up around the camp. His watch had ended a couple of hours earlier. He'd

gotten something to eat and tried to lie down  to  sleep,  but  remained  wide

awake. He returned to the line and sent another man off to tuck children  into

bed.If I'm going to be miserable, at least I can help others not be the same.

The events of the past week had confused Jacen terribly. His  vision  had

been incredibly real, yet when he went to follow it, he'd run  into  disaster.

The image of his uncle moving  into  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  camp,  wielding  twin

lightsabers, still played through his head. He'd known Luke Skywalker all  his

life, and had acknowledged him his Master, but  until  that  point  had  never

really seen Luke the  way  others  had.  Luke's  greatest  triumphs  had  been

accomplished well before Jacen had been born, so he always  knew  Luke  was  a

legend, but never had a way to seewhy he had been a legend.

The display he had put  on  had  impressed  Jacen,  as  had  his  uncle's

weakness after the display. It seemed to age Luke terribly to  have  used  the

Force so directly. Once on theCourage, the autopilot had been  set,  and  Luke

retreated to meditate and recover from the ordeal, leaving Jacen  to  tend  to

the cut on his own face. The youth lifted a hand and touched the  scab,  which

was the one tangible reminder of how close he had come to becoming  a  Yuuzhan

Vong slave.

Without it, I might not believe what had happened.

"Don't pick at the wound, Jacen. If it gets infected, you  could  end  up

with a nasty scar."

The young Jedi Knight turned and gave Danni  a  smile,  despite  how  the

expression tugged at the scab. "A scar would make me more dashing,  don't  you

think?"

She cocked her head to the side and looked at him, then pursed  her  lips

and shook her head. "You don't need it. You're perfectly handsome  as  it  is-

provided you get rid of the worry in your eyes."

Jacen blinked. "Not worry, just  confusion.  And  it  shouldn't  be  that

evident, unless you're reading me through the Force."

"I have been practicing what Jaina has shown me,  but  I've  mostly  been

focusing on light lifting and keeping my feelings to myself." She  hugged  her

arms around her middle. "In becoming attuned to the Force, I'm suddenly  aware

of how sloppy folks are with their emotions. Some people are just  buckets  of

emotions, sloshing all over the place."

Jacen reached out through the Force and could feel a tingle of fear  over

Danni. "You're keeping things to yourself pretty well, though  fear  shouldn't

be one of them. Fear leads to hate-"

"I know, it's a step on the path to the dark side." She  exhaled  slowly,

then moved up beside him on the rampart and stared out into the darkness.  The

firelight flashed gold from her hair. "They had me once, and I don't  want  to

be their prisoner again. I couldn't stand it, I just couldn't."

"They don't make a good impression on their guests, do they?"

"No." She turned to look at him, half her face hidden in shadow. "I  wish

I could be brave like you. You joke about being a guest."

"It's joke or cry, Danni." Jacen leaned forward on the  breastwork.  "You

know being brave really isn't that much of a trick. Most of the  time  courage

is just ignorance of what's really going on. I didn't have time to be  scared,

and you didn't really, either, when we were escaping. You weren't, then,  when

it counted."

"But I am now. I just feel fear everywhere. It's all over."

Jacen slowly nodded. "There's a lot of fear in the camp,  yes,  and  some

out there." He pointed into the darkness. "You can probably feel  it.  It's  a

weird buzzing in the Force. Uncle Luke and I  learned  to  associate  it  with

Yuuzhan Vong slaves. The Yuuzhan  Vong  do  something  to  their  slaves.  I'm

assuming that whatever troops they send against us, the  first  wave  will  be

slaves of some sort. They will be expendable and let  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  test

their methods against us without killing too many Yuuzhan Vong warriors."

"Do you think we will win?"

He shrugged. "I don't see that we have a choice. I could say yes, but  if

I'm wrong, we'll not be around to discuss it."

Danni raised an eyebrow. "No hint of the future through the Force?"

"No, and I'm not sure I'd believe it if  there  was  one."  Jacen  sighed

heavily. "I don't know what to think. Two weeks ago I thought  that  the  only

way for me to reach my true potential as a  Jedi  was  to  retreat,  become  a

hermit, work on my connection with the Force. Now I see that there is  a  need

for me as a Jedi to help people. I can't tell you how good it felt to be  able

to save Mara and Anakin. Out there the Jedi might be  held  in  contempt,  but

here the few of us are being looked upon as saviors.  When  my  uncle  wanders

through the camp, you can feel pride and hope  swell.  There  are  kids  using

sticks and making a buzzing sound as they duel with mock lightsabers.  It  may

just be people grasping at any hope in so dark  a  time,  but  being  able  to

provide that hope makes me feel good."

"So you accept that a Jedi has  responsibility  beyond  his  relationship

with the Force?"

"I'd not thought about it in exactly those terms, no,  but  I  guess  I'd

have to answer yes." He shifted his shoulders uneasily. "Still,  I  wonder  if

I'd somehow had a stronger relationship with and understanding of  the  Force,

I'd have been able to know where my vision went wrong.  Uncle  Luke  says  the

future is constantly in motion, so the vision might have been correct right up

to the point when it wasn't because of something someone else did. If  it  had

gone right, we might not have been here and able to save Mara or Anakin, so  I

have no argument with how things turned out. Still..."

"Still, you want to have a better grasp on the Force. If it is  the  path

you are to follow, you want to learn how the trail is blazed."

Jacen turned toward her and smiled. "I guess that's it, yes."

Danni nodded, then coiled  a  strand  of  blond  hair  around  a  finger.

"Perhaps that path you seek is just like the  future,  constantly  in  motion.

Perhaps this stretch demands you provide hope to  these  people,  and  another

will let you go off on your own. When you come to a decision  point,  you  can

leave off one path and head out on another.  Only  your  past  experience  can

guide you."

"Yeah, and I don't have that much experience,  do  I?"  Jacen  shook  his

head. "It sounds as if you've thought a lot about the Force."

"Not the Force, just life. I've had to choose courses, too. We all do.  I

could have stayed on Commenor, gotten married, had  children,  but  instead  I

applied to the ExGal Society and got posted to Belkadan.  If  I  survive  this

ordeal, perhaps I will get the chance to revisit that sort of decision."

Jacen felt the hint of a flush on his cheeks. "You want  to  get  married

and have children?"

"If the right man comes along, it's possible, yes." She  shrugged.  "With

all that's going on,  I  don't  really  know  if  I  can  trust  my  emotions.

Gratitude, fear, curiosity-all these things are mixed up in me."

"But there is no one you are seeing?" Jacen felt the question hang in the

air for a second, then crash down all leaden to the ground.  He  knew  it  was

ridiculous for a woman five years older than he was to even give him a  second

glance, but...She did say I was handsome... Still, she sees me as a  boy,  I'm

sure...

"Romance was pretty much a part of my life that I'd deferred until later.

Perhaps later is now, I don't know." She gave him a smile.  "Were  you  a  bit

older, or me a bit younger, and circumstances altogether  different,  I  don't

know. I mean, I have feelings for you, Jacen, but they're all  mixed  up  with

everything. You're so thoughtful, bringing me the holographs and mementos from

Belkadan. You can't know how that made me feel..."

"With all that's going on, you don't trust your feelings?"

Danni nodded. "Liquids under pressure don't boil when  they  should,  and

emotions tend to act the opposite way.  I  think  you  are  wonderful,  and  I

treasure you as a friend. Anything else, well, as  you  said,  the  future  is

constantly in motion."

Jacen felt a twinge of hurt. Growing up at the  academy,  he'd  certainly

had his share of crushes on other students, but Danni was the first woman he'd

been attracted to outside of that setting. He agreed that having been  pressed

into close quarters with her in a rescue capsule  had  certainly  gotten  them

acquainted with a degree of physical intimacy that wasn't  usually  associated

with first meeting someone. He'd entertained his fantasies about her, but also

realized they were as much tied up with the  traditional  romance  of  a  hero

saving a damsel in distress as they were anything else.Reliving how my  father

met my mother...

Her gaze searched his face. "I've hurt you, haven't I?"

"Jedi Knights do not know pain, Danni." Jacen gave her a brave smile. "In

times like this, a friend trulyis a treasure. Given what is going on here, and

with my life and yours, being friends is probably the best thing possible  for

us."

She reached up and stroked his right cheek with her left hand. "That's  a

very mature answer, Jacen. You're very special indeed."

"Thanks, my friend." Jacen sighed and turned to focus  on  the  darkness.

"Friends tend to bring the best out in me."

Anakin stopped as the door on the cabin used by Mara and his  uncle  Luke

slid open. Luke emerged and smiled at  his  nephew.  "She's  resting  for  the

moment."

The boy nodded. "I won't disturb her." He pointed back over his  shoulder

down a passageway. "I'll just-"

"I'd like it if you would walk with me, Anakin."

Anakin caught a slightly distant tone in his uncle's voice and recognized

it immediately. "Yes, Uncle Luke." He dropped into place a  half  step  behind

Luke, on his left. Anakin had learned that  was  the  proper  position  for  a

right-handed apprentice;  that  way,  if  he  were  to  draw  and  ignite  his

lightsaber in a sloppy way, he wouldn't accidentally bisect his Master.

Luke glanced at him and grinned. "I'm glad to see you up and around.  The

Yuuzhan Vong did their best to carve you up."

Anakin shrugged. He could still feel bacta patches affixed to some of the

cuts; the superficial wounds were not serious enough  to  warrant  a  complete

dunking for him. "A Jedi knows no pain, Master."

"But a Jedi knows gratitude." Luke stopped, then turned to his nephew and

rested his hands on Anakin's shoulders. "You did a wonderful job  taking  care

of Mara. She's told me all about it, and I am  very  proud  of  you.  I  never

thought sending you with her would demand so much of you. I'm ashamed  to  say

thatif I knew what was going to happen, I might not have sent you.  Now  I  am

glad I did."

"I wasn't going to fail you, Uncle Luke. I  wasn't  going  to  fail  Aunt

Mara." Anakin shrugged and hooked his thumbs in his belt. "I just did what  my

mission required. I'm sorry I couldn't save theSabre or the blasters and other

things we had on it. If I'd thought-"

"No, Anakin, no reproof.  What  you  did  was  the  best  that  could  be

expected."

"You're being too generous."

Luke shook his head and gazed down at his nephew in a  way  that  sent  a

thrill through Anakin. "When I had a vision of where you would be and where we

would find you, I knew that a  million  different  things  could  change  that

future. If you had faltered just a step, if you had paused or thought to quit,

Jacen and I never would have been able to save you. You did exactly  what  you

needed to; this time, as well as when you saved your father at Sernpidal.  And

your willingness to make that last stand for Mara..."

The Jedi Master lifted his chin. "In that moment you blazed  so  brightly

within the Force... you were dazzling, and try their best,  they  never  could

have struck you down."

"Wow." Anakin blinked. "I mean, thank you, Master."

Luke laughed lightly. "As your Master I am grateful for your actions as a

Jedi apprentice. And you have my personal gratitude for your saving  my  wife.

Unfortunately, this is not the sort of situation where ceremonies  are  easily

arranged."

The boy drew himself up as straight and as tall  as  he  could.  "Master,

this apprentice merely asks that he be allowed to fight at your side."

Luke stroked Anakin's hair. "Don't think of that  as  a  reward,  Anakin.

Were it within my power, I would make it so you  never  again  had  to  fight.

Standing and killing, risking your own life-this is something I'd prefer  none

of us ever had to do. I will let you fight by my side because, truth be  told,

this situation demands it. I will also have  you  fight  because  I  know,  no

matter what the situation, you have the  heart  and  the  intelligence  to  do

whatever needs to be done to safeguard others."

Anakin felt a thrill shiver through him. "That sounds like a reward."

"Not from my point of view." Luke sighed. "I guess  we'll  just  have  to

convince the Yuuzhan Vong that my point of view is the right one,  so  they'll

realize there is no reward for their actions."

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Night had fallen thick and hard before the first warning was sounded. The

troopers Admiral Kre'fey had sent down to help out with the situation had  set

up remote sensor pods that picked up the infrared energy the Yuuzhan Vong gave

off. Once the first alarm came through, two TIE-wings from Tough Squadron went

up for a quick recon of the area where the sensors had reported movement.

Gavin had watched the TIE-wings take off  and  head  south.  They  became

distant pinpoints of light to the naked eye, but situated in his  cockpit,  he

was able to follow them on his primary monitor.  He  listened  to  their  comm

chatter and heard one pilot's voice strain as he saw a long column of  Yuuzhan

Vong coming in.

Out there, five to six kilometers distant, reddish ground fire reached up

toward the fighters. They were able  to  avoid  it  fairly  easily  and  still

managed to report back what they  saw.  "Multiple  contacts,  command.  Ground

troops on foot, as well  as  two  large  vehicles  and  twelve  smaller  ones.

Gravitic anomalies and plasma cannons on the big ones, plasma cannons  on  the

smaller ones. Air contacts coming on now. We're scooting."

Gavin hit a button on his comm unit. "This is Rogue Leader to all Rogues.

Light them up. The enemy is out there, and we're going to pulverize them."  He

keyed in his ignition sequence and waited for his power and weapons systems to

go green. "Catch, monitor base tactical frequency and flash  the  button  when

there is an emergency."

The droid warbled a positive reply.

Gavin shunted power to his repulsorlift coils, then nudged  the  throttle

forward. Once he was up and moving, he clicked the switch that locked  the  S-

foils in combat position and ruddered the fighter around to 180 degrees.  "One

flight on me."

Multiple clicks came over the comm channel to  acknowledge  his  command.

Catch started painting multiple enemy contacts in the air ahead of  them.Looks

like they have two squadrons of skips up. I have to like  the  odds  and  just

have to hope we can make the best of them.

He quadded up his lasers and dropped the aiming reticle  on  one  of  the

skips harassing a returning Tough. Gavin hit the  secondary  trigger,  spewing

out a hail of red energy darts. "Tough, break port."

The ugly cut to Gavin's starboard, and the skip swerved to  keep  on  the

TIE-wing's tail. Gavin ruddered around to starboard and kept the skip  in  his

sights. At the same time Nevil sprayed the skip with scatter shots, Gavin  hit

the primary trigger and sent one full-power burst of laser fire into the skip.

The black hole being used to pick off the Quarren's shots did warp the  flight

path of the bolts Gavin had triggered, but managed only to draw them in toward

the dovin basal creating the black hole.

The  bolts  hit  and  burned  through  the  coralskipper's  stony  flesh.

Something evaporated in a burst of steam, then the skip's aft began  to  drop.

Seconds later the last of the laser bolts burst from the  other  side  of  the

craft. For a half second the skip hung in the air, its nose pointing  skyward,

then Nevil's second flicker-shot barrage stippled the skip  with  glowing  red

points. One must have hit a dovin basal, killing it,  because  the  skip  then

plummeted from the sky and crashed unseen into the ground below.

Ahead of Gavin the sky lit up  like  the  Coruscant  cityscape  during  a

celebration of Liberation Day. Plasma bolts arced into the sky.  Laser  bolts,

both red and green, as well as blue ion bolts, slanted down toward the ground.

Flashes of color illuminated the two huge shadowy shapes  moving  through  the

night, but Gavin could not make out much in the way of detail. He almost asked

Catch to switch him over to ground-attack mode on his sensors so he could  get

an idea of what the Yuuzhan Vong  were  bringing  to  assault  the  base,  but

incoming fighters demanded his attention.

And they'll get it.He spitted one on his aiming reticle and tightened  up

on the trigger.My undivided attention.

The nervous anxiety of the pilots woke Luke first, but the  roar  of  the

snubfighters taking off guaranteed to keep him awake. He pulled  a  tunic  on,

then looped his lightsaber belt over his shoulder  before  emerging  from  his

tent. He watched the fighters head south and, just for  a  moment,  wished  he

could be up there in one with them.Once again, with Artoo behind  me,  rolling

through a dogfight.

He shivered, knowing that such remembrances were not quite  the  thing  a

Jedi Master should dwell on. An affinity for combat was a necessary evil,  but

one that could be tolerated only when a Jedi held himself  back  and  used  it

only to defend people. Seeing the line between offensive action and  defensive

was, at the best of times, difficult, but as he watched sleepy  people  emerge

from tents, rubbing their eyes and beginning to murmur, he knew where  it  lay

in this case.

Mara appeared at his side. "Where do you want me?"

The urgency in her voice belied the weariness on her face.

"You want the honest truth?"

Mara hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I trust your judgment, Luke."

"Good. I want you to find Leia. She's going to be running around  herding

the noncombatants. Right now I need you to be there and back her, so we  don't

get any grief from them. I know you want to be-"

Mara reached out and touched a finger to his lips. "I said I trusted your

judgment. I trust you will have me where you need  me,  and  if  I  am  needed

elsewhere, you will let me know."

Luke reached out and pulled Mara into a firm hug. "I love you very  much,

Mara. For this and for everything else."

"I know, Luke." Mara pulled her head back a bit, then rested her forehead

on his, noses touching. "Each of us doing our parts will  defeat  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. Count on it."

"I do." Luke kissed her and held her as if it would  be  the  last  time,

then reluctantly let her slip from his arms. "May the Force be with you."

"And you, my love." She winked at him and backed away toward  the  center

of the camp. "When you need me, I'll be there."

He nodded, then jogged out toward  the  southern  perimeter.  He  quickly

found Colonel Bril'nilim, a Twi'lek in charge of the  New  Republic  troopers,

scanning the distance with a pair of macrobinoculars. Luke sensed  frustration

coming off the commando leader, so did nothing to disturb him.

The Twi'lek turned and offered him the vision device.  "Perhaps  you  can

see something more than I can."

Luke waved the macrobinoculars away. "The Yuuzhan Vong are out there, but

that's obvious. The troops are likely slave forces they want to bear the brunt

of the casualties. Where do you want me?"

Bril'nilim pointed over toward the southeast. "You, I'd like there,  your

nephews off to the southwest. Let me know anything you feel that is odd, and I

can send scouts out."

"As ordered, Colonel." Luke turned and found his nephews hanging  back  a

bit. "Did you hear?"

Jacen nodded. "Yes. Anakin and I go over  there,  you're  over  here.  We

report whatever is odd."

"Right. No going yourselves to investigate, understand?"

Colonel Bril'nilim's lekku  twitched  as  he  came  around.  "You  better

understand. No heroics. My troops will shoot things they don't understand, and

a Jedi sneaking around will be one of them. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," the two young Jedi Knights said in unison.

Luke and the colonel exchanged smiles. "Good, get to it.  I  like  having

three Jedi on my line. I just hope none of  us  will  have  to  see  too  much

action."

"Tough Seven here. I could use some cover on my attack run."

Jaina clicked on her comm unit. "Rogue Eleven on you, T-sev."

"Thanks, Sticks."

The Jedi pilot rolled her X-wing up  on  the  port  stabilizer  and  came

around on a heading that put her to starboard of the X-ceptor  heading  in  at

the ground formation. The TIE interceptor wings on  the  X-ceptor  spat  laser

darts past its long X-wing nose, scything down rows of Yuuzhan Vong  troopers.

Though Jaina could not see much in the green light from the lasers, she  could

make out that none of the Yuuzhan Vong troopers broke or  ran.They  also  seem

small to me, stockier than I thought the Yuuzhan Vong  were  from  what  Jacen

described.

A coralskipper came around and vectored in on the X-ceptor. Jaina  shoved

her stick forward and sprayed red laser splinters at the skip. It  immediately

sprouted a void that sucked in most of the  laserfire.  Jaina  kept  her  ship

coming on hard and loosed a solid quad burst in the midst of  a  spray,  which

caused the Yuuzhan Vong pilot to shy off. As he broke to her port, she  rolled

to port and leveled out in T-sev's aft.I don't like  being  shielding,  but  I

need to give him this shot.

Fire blossomed from the X-ceptor's nose as a proton torpedo squirted out.

Jaina bounced her ship up after the launch and gained a bit of altitude. Below

her the torpedo streaked straight at the first moving mountain shadow, then it

exploded into a brilliant silvery ball that lit up the night.

The X-wing's canopy flash suppressor  engaged  immediately,  cutting  out

most of the glare but still allowing her to see what was going on at the point

of the attack. The torpedo had detonated  shy  of  the  target  by  about  one

hundred meters, and a void had gobbled up a lot of the energy, but what little

it didn't consume wrought havoc on the ground. The energy evaporated soldiers,

eliminating whole companies in the blink of an eye. Others it  scattered  like

toys beneath a vengeful child's feet. The shock wave toppled  several  of  the

smaller vehicles, which looked to Jaina like bony  armored  domes  mounted  on

brush-bristle cilia. Several rolled onto their backs, with their  little  legs

waving in the air, while others that had their cilia flash-fried ground  to  a

halt.

Most impressive, however, had been the larger vehicle at which T-sev  had

aimed. Like the smaller creatures, it had a bony-plate armor. Along its spine,

and at points on the flanks, hornlike growths jutted out.  Plasma  bolts  shot

from these horns, and while she couldn't  tell  if  the  horns  could  swivel,

enough of them pointed in any one direction to be able to scour the  skies  of

fighters.

She shuddered, as the whole thing looked to her like one  giant,  armored

slug sprouting thorns.

Jaina rolled hard to starboard, then  sideslipped  back  to  port  before

triggering a burst at the thing, which  she  arbitrarily  decided  to  call  a

range-short for mountain range. A void snapped her shots  up,  and  the  range

launched plasma in her direction. She juked her way clear of  most  shots  and

heard the static of her shields absorbing damage from the others. Her  sensors

reported other gravitic anomalies, which she assumed were dovin basals  trying

to take her shields down, but her compensator sphere had been expanded to fend

off that sort of assault.

She pulled up and throttled forward into the battle above the convoy.  As

she inverted her fighter to climb, she saw other ground detonations of  proton

torpedoes. It looked to her as if they had also gone  off  prematurely,  which

killed a lot of troopers and toppled the little creatures.  She  was  glad  to

know her strategy would have some effect, but  she  feared  it  would  not  be

enough.

"Sparky, what's the distance between the most forward  and  most  distant

ground explosions?"

The droid scrolled the answer up on her secondary monitor.

Jaina shivered. The distance made the Yuuzhan Vong column at  least  five

kilometers long.It doesn't matter how well we shoot. If we can't knock out the

ranges, there is no way we will stop the Yuuzhan Vong from reaching the  camp.

And, when they do...

Leia started as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned  quickly  and

dropped a hand to the blaster she wore on her hip, but Mara  bodied  her  back

against the hull of the freighter in whose shadow they stood. Leia  stared  at

her for a moment, then raised her free hand to her own throat. "You scared me.

"

"Sorry. Luke sent me to find you, stay with you."

"Are you sure? Shouldn't you be-"

"Resting?" Mara shook her head. "Never did like being helpless, so here I

am. What are you doing out here?"

Leia jerked a thumb toward the camp's northeast perimeter.  "People  have

been coming in to the center of the camp, but a couple of  families  from  out

here have not. I wanted to check on them... I was heading  out,  and  then,  I

don't know, I got a feeling..."

Mara's head came up, and she peered off past the edge of  the  freighter.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing like that."

Mara nodded, then unclipped  her  lightsaber  from  her  belt.  "You  got

nothing at all, right?"

"What?"

Mara pointed at one of the tents. Movement was plainly visible in it, but

as Leia reached out with the Force, she could sense no  life  in  it.  "That's

impossible."

"Not quite." Mara darted forward, and her blue lightsaber extended itself

in a sizzling line. She slashed at  the  guylines  holding  the  tent  up.  It

collapsed over three figures for a second, then they clawed their way free  of

the red fabric.

The trio of Yuuzhan Vong warriors stood there for a moment, looking  tall

but, because of what they wore,  hardly  like  the  lean  figures  others  had

described. A pale pseudoflesh covered them save for the claws  that  projected

through it and where it hung like a hood back off their heads. They  had  also

pulled on clothes. At their feet, revealed by the shredded folds of the  tent,

Leia saw three naked bodies, covered in blood.

In an instant she knew what had happened. Some of the  Yuuzhan  Vong  had

slipped into the camp, had killed refugees, and were using ooglith masquers to

make themselves appear  to  be  human.If  others  have  mixed  with  the  real

refugees, innocent people might be slaughtered. The  desire  to  run  off  and

raise an alarm warred with her seeing the three warriors turn to face Mara and

her lightsaber.I have to protect the people, but I can't leave Mara. What am I

going to do?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Huddled in the rocks within  sight  of  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  camp,  Corran

glanced over at Jens. The student tech sat with her back to a  big  rock,  her

knees drawn up, with a blocky remote balanced on them. She flicked a couple of

switches on the device, and a small spherical probe started to hum as it  rose

from the ground. An antenna telescoped  up,  and  a  small  suite  of  sensors

deployed themselves from the bottom.

Corran nodded to her, and she sent the probe arcing around to  the  left,

to come in at the camp from the north. The little black  ball  floated  gently

down into the camp. It circled several of the  smallest  shells,  then  darted

directly toward the midsize ones. In front of the  one  that  housed  the  two

Yuuzhan Vong warriors, Jens used a strobe to flash the area, then started  the

sphere retreating to the north.

The two warriors boiled out of their shells and pointed at the probe. One

dashed back into his shell, returning with weapons,  armor,  and  the  Yuuzhan

Vong equivalent of sandshoes. He dressed  himself  while  still  watching  the

probe, giving the other one a chance to run into his shell  and  arm  himself.

When he returned, the two of them began to stalk off after  the  probe,  which

had disappeared into the dunes north of the lake bed.

Corran looked at Jens. "Keep them  occupied.  Once  we  enter  the  large

shell, get Trista up and flying. She'll be here in five minutes. She laces the

area with the killscent bombs, picks you up, and gets us out. If we arenot out

in that time, consider us dead and get going. No questions, right?"

Jens nodded. "Good luck."

"Thanks, you too."

He looked past her to Ganner. "Ready?"

The younger man nodded and vaulted himself up over a boulder. Corran  cut

around the stone that had hidden him and ran as best as  his  sandshoes  would

allow. Ganner reached the safe sand first and bent to hit the quick release on

his bindings. He dropped the sandshoes  there  and  sprinted  toward  the  big

shell. He brought his lightsaber to hand, but didn't ignite it.

Corran kicked himself free of his sandshoes, but scooped them up with his

left hand. He ran after Ganner and reached the large shell only  a  couple  of

steps behind him. Corran tossed the sandshoes  aside  at  the  entrance,  then

pulled his own lightsaber. He left it unlit, but his right thumb hovered  over

the ignition button.

Ganner had paused inside the large shell's throat. The walls and  floors-

every surface, really-were smooth and varied in color from a dark ivory  to  a

soft pink. Darker gray spots dappled the walls at various points,  but  Corran

could discern no pattern to them. The walls also seemed  faintly  luminescent,

but he allowed as how that might just be sunlight somehow pouring through  the

shell.

Ganner stalked forward and down a set of steps into the main chamber. Off

it ran a number of tunnels that Corran assumed led to other smaller  chambers,

all of which made him wonder what sort of creature had grown the shell.  While

the flooring was very smooth, it wasn't particularly slippery. The only  sound

they heard came from their own breathing and the rasp of  sand  beneath  their

boot heels.

The grand chamber opened up as they came around a curve  in  the  stairs.

Ganner gasped and took a step  back.  Corran's  eyes  narrowed,  but  he  made

himself step past his aide and onto the main  floor.  He  looked  at  the  two

students and really hoped they were dead.

The two of them hung from racks, bound ankle,  thigh,  and  wrist.  Their

heads remained lower than their feet, and their  limbs  were  locked  rigidly.

Both men had been stripped of clothing. Little maggot-white crablike creatures

the size of a sabacc deck walked across their backs, pinching them with little

claws, or digging  needlelike  appendages  into  their  flesh.  Little  bloody

rivulets striped the men's flesh and colored the floor.

Beneath them something that looked like more like a tongue  than  a  slug

slowly moved across the floor, cleansing it of the blood.

Corran reached out with the Force and got a sense of the  students.  They

were in a lot of pain, but their sense within the  Force  was  coming  through

strong and unadulterated. They might have been beaten  up  and  tortured,  but

they were not yet dying.

Ganner stepped forward and waved a hand in Vil's direction. The  pinchers

flew off his back and smashed into the wall. They descended into a glistening,

slimy pile at the base of the wall. Ganner ignited his lightsaber  and  pulled

it back for a blow that would clip one of the rack arms off, partially freeing

Vil.

Corran caught a spike of pain from  Vil  and  held  his  hands  up.  "No,

Ganner, wait."

"We don't have time to wait, Corran."

"The pain spiked in him after you cleared off the pinchers. Do  the  same

for Denna. See if the same thing happens."

Ganner nodded, and the pinchers on  the  other  student  flew  off.  Pain

spiked in  Denna,  and  Corran  caught  the  related  tightening  of  the  arm

restraints. "I thought so. The rack keeps them in a constant level of pain."

"Why?"

"I don't know." Corran stared at Ganner with  disbelief.  "We're  dealing

with Vong logic here. I don't know what they are thinking or why they do  what

they do. We just have to find a way to get these guys out of these restraints.

"

Corran's comlink buzzed. "Horn, go ahead."

"Jens here. The Yuuzhan Vong are  headed  back  your  way.  They  stopped

chasing the probe."

"Not good. Buzz them. Do something to attract their  attention.  We  need

some time."

"You won't have much. Trista is inbound."

"Sithspawn!"Corran's nostrils flared. "No time to play, no time to think.

"

Ganner raised his lightsaber again. "We cut them free."

"And if one cut won't do it? The restraints tighten and  pop  their  arms

out of their shoulder sockets or tear them clean off. No good."

"What do we do?"

Corran raked fingers back through his brown  hair,  then  stepped  up  to

Denna and stabbed his stiffened fingers deep into the  man's  armpit.  Through

the Force, he could feel a jolt of pain running through the man. He  also  saw

the rack's restraints slacken slightly.

"That's it. They're being held in a constant level of pain. If  the  rack

senses too much, it lets the pressure off. We have to put them in more pain, a

lot of pain, to get the rack to release them."

The younger Jedi frowned. "How? Beat them up? Break some bones? Stab them

with lightsabers?"

"It would do the trick, but it would kill them, obviously." Corran smiled

grimly. "I will just have to make them think they're in pain."

Ganner's head came up, and he gave Corran a respectful nod. "Ah, yes. Get

to it."

"Not that easy." Corran began to roll up his left sleeve. "It  will  take

some work."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ever broken a limb?"

Ganner nodded. "My leg."

"You remember it hurt, right?"

"Yes."

"But you don't remember howmuch it hurt.  The  mind  is  like  that.  You

forget the really sharp pains so you'll continue going on.  Women  forget  the

pain of childbirth or we'd all  be  only  children."  Corran  sighed.  "I  can

project pain into them, but I've got to feel it to get it right."

"How?" Ganner's question came very tentatively.

Corran moved between the two racks  and  stood  facing  Vil,  with  Denna

behind him. "You face Denna. When the machines slacken fully,  you've  got  to

make one cut, get the restraint straps. You do him, I'll do Vil."

"Okay."

"Now the hard part." Corran extended his left forearm toward Ganner, with

his hand open and palm up. "One of the other Force abilities I have is  pretty

rare. I can, under certain circumstances, absorb a certain  amount  of  energy

without much damage to myself. To get the pain I need, I  want  you  to  press

your lightsaber against my forearm. Not too hard-I like the  limb  just  fine.

Just hold it out, maybe, and I'll move my arm up into it."

Ganner's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."

"You want to save these two or not?"

"But-"

"But nothing. Are you ready?"

Ganner nodded and extended the lightsaber.

Corran could feel the buzz of it against his flesh as  he  slowly  raised

his arm. The blade's heat vaporized hairs, filling the area with the stink  of

singed protein. Corran knew that scent was  nothing  compared  to  what  would

follow. He swallowed, once, hard, then flattened his hand and raised  his  arm

another centimeter.

Silver agony flashed right up his arm and into his brain.  By  reflex  he

started to use a Jedi technique to shunt  the  pain  away,  but  then  stopped

himself. He concentrated, soaking in the energy of the blade.  He  looked  out

through slitted eyelids  and  saw  his  flesh  reddening,  then  beginning  to

blister. Smoke rose from it, and the pain built. Then, as  he  saw  the  first

hint of charring, he latched onto the Force and poured  the  torment  out  and

into the students.

One second, two, three. Corran let the burning sharpness flow through him

and into Vil and Denna. They twitched while he trembled. They  shrieked  while

his flesh crackled. His clenched jaw ground his teeth together, and he  tasted

blood.

The racks slackened, dropping each student half a meter toward the floor.

The restraining straps snapped taut, all glossy and black  like  wet  leather.

Corran ignited his own lightsaber and whipped the blade around, severing  each

strap, then he dropped to his knees and fell over Vil's prostrate form.

Gasping for air, Corran tried to employ the Jedi technique  for  shunting

away pain, but he couldn't focus enough to do it. The world began to swim  and

darken at the edges. He was mindful enough to thumb his lightsaber  off,  then

he wavered between complete collapse and the need to get up, get moving.

He heaved his torso upright and would have gone  all  the  way  over  but

Ganner caught the collar of his robe.

"Corran, are you-?"

"Functional? Yes." He let the worry in Ganner's voice appeal to  his  own

sense of vanity, injecting steel into his spine.It just wouldn't do for Ganner

to see me as weak. He struggled to get his left foot  under  him,  and  Ganner

reached for his left arm to help him up, but Corran hissed a  warning.  "Don't

touch the arm."

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty, ah, crusty, I guess." Corran was thankful his sleeve had slipped

down over the arm, but his blackened fingers told him more than he  needed  to

know. He staggered upright, then hugged his left arm to his  chest.  "How  are

they?"

"Out cold. We'll have to drag them-"

A sharp hiss and a whip crack cut Ganner off. Corran slowly  straightened

up and glanced at the stairway back to the lake  bed.  The  two  Yuuzhan  Vong

warriors stood on it, tall and  daunting,  their  maroon  armor  and  greenish

leathery joints accentuating their alien nature. The lead  warrior  barked  an

order at the two Jedi  and  punctuated  it  with  another  whip  crack  of  an

amphistaff.

Corran forced a bit of a laugh. "Looks like they don't like the  dragging

idea, Ganner. Seems another plan will be required to  get  us  out  of  here."

CHAPTER THIRTY

From out of nowhere the image of her husband flashed  into  Leia's  head,

and her question was answered. With a grim smile, she pulled her  blaster  and

pumped two shots into the first of the Yuuzhan Vong. The  red  bolts  hit  him

shoulder and chest, spinning him about. Thick pus  sprayed  from  the  ooglith

masquer, drenching the second warrior. The third leapt toward Mara, his  claws

rending the air between them.

The second warrior flicked a hand at Leia even as she brought her blaster

to bear on him. Something thin and sharp spun through the air and  caught  her

in the right forearm. Pain shot up to her shoulder, and she lost her  grip  on

the gun. As it fell toward the ground, she stooped to get  it  with  her  free

hand, then looked up to see her attacker leaping toward her.

On her knees, Leia reflexively raised  her  left  arm  to  fend  off  the

Yuuzhan Vong, but the warrior never reached her. Bolpuhr, little more  than  a

gray blur, tackled the Yuuzhan Vong in midair. The two of them hit the  ground

hard and rolled, with the Yuuzhan Vong  finally  succeeding  in  throwing  the

Noghri off him. Bolpuhr arced  through  the  night  and  bounced  once  before

rolling into the red tangle of tent and corpses.

The Yuuzhan Vong he'd tackled got up and took a step  toward  Leia,  then

faltered. He fell to his knees, with the ooglith masquer sloughing off slowly.

The hilt of a Noghri dagger protruded from the Yuuzhan Vong's breastbone,  and

when the Yuuzhan Vong fell face forward, Leia caught the glint of the  blade's

blackened tip stabbing out of the alien warrior's back.

Beyond the dead warrior, Mara faced her foe with a fierce  expression  on

her face. She'd reversed her grip on the blue lightsaber,  letting  the  blade

parallel her right forearm. She extended her left hand, then crouched, waiting

and watching. The Yuuzhan  Vong  likewise  crouched,  his  hands  flexing.  He

hunched his shoulders and shifted his weight.

Mara took a half step forward and ducked her head toward him. The warrior

leapt at her, but Mara had already pulled  back  from  her  feint.  His  claws

flashed through where her head should have been. Mara  pivoted  on  her  right

foot and brought her right arm around in a stroke that  passed  through  where

the warrior's belly was. The ooglith masquer  melted  away  from  the  blade's

searing touch, then the warrior's flesh smoked as the blade  opened  him  from

hip to hip.

Mara spun away from him, yet the Yuuzhan Vong still scratched  her  right

thigh as he collapsed. Coming around full circle, she slashed  the  blade  low

and cleaved it cleanly through his neck. His body  convulsed,  and  his  head,

which rolled a meter or two away, gnashed his teeth for the remaining  seconds

of life.

Mara ran to Leia. "How badly are you hurt?"

Leia shook her head, then started as the thing in her arm  sprouted  legs

and tried to pry itself from her  flesh.  Mara  reared  back  and  tapped  the

razorbug with the tip of her lightsaber, killing it. Leia batted at  the  dead

bug with her left hand and finally knocked it loose from her flesh. "Yuck!"

Mara tore the sleeve from her robe and quickly wrapped it  around  Leia's

arm. "We'd better get that looked at."

"Later. There might be more Yuuzhan Vong with the refugees.  We  have  to

check-" Leia looked up. "Where's Bolpuhr?"

"I don't know." Mara stood and helped Leia to her feet. "He was back over

here, wasn't he, near the tent?"

"Yes." Leia ran over to the ruins of the tent, then stopped and  sank  to

her knees again. "Emperor's black bones, no."

The Noghri lay on his back, his sightless eyes staring up at the sky. The

Yuuzhan Vong's claws had sliced deeply into  Bolpuhr's  neck  and  chest.  The

Noghri, who had been tireless and fearless in  his  duty,  looked  smaller  in

death, more childlike and fearfully innocent.

Leia shivered.If the Yuuzhan Vong can kill Noghri with their bare hands..

. She shook her head and closed Bolpuhr's eyes. "This is worse  than  anything

we've faced before, isn't it, Mara?"

Her sister-in-law slowly shook her head. "If it is, chances are we  won't

have much longer to worry about it. Look, go to the refugees and  see  if  you

can sort out who the Yuuzhan Vong are. Maybe these were the only three to  get

in. I'll check tents in this area and hold the perimeter. I'll comm  if  there

is trouble."

"I don't want to leave you here alone."

Mara gave her a brave wink. "I have the Force. I'm not alone. Move it.  I

don't want you here stealing more of my fun."

Luke Skywalker stared out into  the  darkness.  Detonations  from  proton

torpedoes and concussion missiles were drawing closer. He could feel the shock

waves vibrate through him. In the backflashes he saw the huge vehicles  moving

closer, ever closer. Plasma bolts filled the air with an orange glow and, more

often than he wanted to acknowledge, exploded  something  in  the  air.  Fiery

wreckage would tumble from the sky and scatter  fire  and  debris  across  the

ground, doing some damage, but generally only illuminating the horde coming at

them.

Luke dried his left palm on his cloak, then unfastened  the  garment  and

whirled it off behind him. He gripped his  lightsaber  tightly  in  his  right

hand, again and again looking down to make sure the heel of his hand was  over

the activation plate. He reached out with the Force to gauge the  distance  to

the front and could feel the line of Yuuzhan Vong slaves  broadening  as  they

approached the camp.

One of the troopers stationed nearby looked over at him and  smiled.  "If

you're nervous, I guess there is no problem with me being nervous."

Luke thought for a second and  then  nodded.  In  all  the  battles  he'd

fought, even Hoth, he'd been involved in one-on-one,  man-and-machine  fights.

Flying an X-wing or piloting a snowspeeder  demanded  neither  less  nor  more

courage than fighting on the ground, but it was  more  impersonal.  His  shots

broke other fighters or  brought  down  Imperial  walkers,  and  if  his  foes

survived, that was okay. It was part of the  game,  part  of  what  made  such

combat noble in the eyes of many.

But ground warfare was not noble. The object of the exercise was to  kill

as many of them as possible before they killed you. It was intimately personal

because your target was another living being, not some machine  encasing  him.

You succeeded when he dropped, and, yes, while an enemy might surrender,  that

was not viewed as anything nearly as noble as a pilot who was  shot  down  and

captured.

This is just going to be  killing,  pure  and  frighteningly  simple.Luke

could feel the frayed troops coming in,  only  five  hundred  meters  distant.

Beyond that line, fighters made strafing runs on the ground troops.  Hails  of

red and green splinter shots flickered through the night, vaporizing soldiers.

Luke caught flashes of pain from those who died, but not a whit of anxiety  or

fear from the survivors.They're marching to their deaths uncaring or unable to

care about what will happen to them.

Off to the right Colonel Bril'nilim gave a  signal,  and  the  freighters

began opening up. Elegos's shuttle rose and hovered  in  a  forward  position,

with the fire from its laser cannons and blaster cannons pulsing  out  scarlet

energy projectiles that warmed the night as they passed. The  shipfire  burned

furrows through the Yuuzhan Vong ranks, thinning them, but not nearly  enough.

In the backlight of distant explosions or the burning of corpses,  Luke  could

see the Yuuzhan Vong troops had come even closer.

When the Yuuzhan Vong soldiers reached the  two-hundred-meter  mark,  the

troopers started shooting. Their blaster fire came slowly,  cautiously,  fired

without a hint of panic. Red bolts lanced out, striking silhouettes.  Some  of

the Yuuzhan Vong troops spun before falling. Others just  collapsed,  and  yet

others sighed and sat, then flopped over as if exhausted and retiring for  the

day.

At a hundred meters the Yuuzhan Vong troops began to run forward, so  the

troopers' firing became more hurried. They still  struck  their  targets,  but

gaps in the lines filled immediately as the  wave  of  Yuuzhan  Vong  soldiers

rushed ever closer. Smaller and stockier than the Yuuzhan Vong  warriors  Luke

had fought, these troops looked reptilian, like Trandoshans but more  compact.

They did sprout a pair of calcifications from their foreheads, more domes than

horns, and  Luke  suspected  it  was  through  these  that  the  Yuuzhan  Vong

controlled them.

The large vehicles began pulsing plasma out toward the breastworks. Shots

pounded into the ground, shaking it, pitching dirt and debris  into  the  air.

Shots that fell short plowed through the mass of Yuuzhan  Vong  troops.  Those

shots  that  were  on  target  splashed  against  shuttle   shields   or   the

fortifications. In the latter case the shots blasted the fortifications apart,

scattering troopers and, worse yet, opening gaps in the line that allowed  the

Yuuzhan Vong troops to pour into the compound.

Luke sprinted to the nearest gap and ignited his  lightsaber.  The  green

blade hissed and spat as he cut right and left, chopping  down  the  reptilian

troopers. The Yuuzhan Vong troops were armed  with  small  amphistaffs,  which

froze themselves into a sharpened hook shape that clutched at arms  and  legs,

cutting as the soldiers drew the amphistaffs  back.  The  lightsaber  couldn't

slice through the amphistaffs, but the troops were too slow  to  prevent  Luke

from lopping off limbs or stabbing through chests.

Because he could feel the slave troops through the  Force,  killing  them

proved far too easy. He knew where they would be, what they wanted  to  do.  A

parry here and a stroke to the head, or a block, then a riposte to the  heart.

He wasn't fighting troops as much as he was battling for time. If killing each

one took three seconds or five, he couldn't possibly stop them all.  Meter  by

meter he was being driven back by the sheer weight of the  assault,  and  even

with the Force to strengthen him, he couldn't kill them fast enough.

Unless I can think of something to do, it's over, it's all over.

Leia ran to the center of the camp and immediately appropriated a blaster

carbine from one of the refugees standing guard. She found  Danni  and  pulled

the woman aside, then waved Lando over. "I need your help."

"You're bleeding," Lando said.

"It's nothing, for the moment anyway. I need you to use  the  Force.  You

can feel emotions, right?"

Danni nodded stiffly. "I've been trying to shut things out.  They're  all

afraid here." She glanced down. "Like me."

"Look, there may be Yuuzhan Vong among them, using  ooglith  masquers  to

pretend to be people. We have to find them."

Danni blinked and raised a hand to cover her mouth. "Yuuzhan  Vong  here,

hidden here?"

Leia grabbed the young woman's left shoulder.  "Steady  yourself,  Danni.

You can do this. Youmust do this."

Lando drew his blaster pistol and checked the power pack.  "How  will  we

find them?"

"If Danni can feel fear and hatred, she'll be able to spot those who  are

feeling nothing. Follow my lead, then move through the crowd." Leia looked  at

the four hundred assembled refugees and shook her head. "It's not going to  be

exacting work, but note those who aren't giving any  fear  off.  We  segregate

them. Since we can't feel the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force, they're going  to  be

the ones we want."

"I don't know." The young woman took a second, then  swallowed  hard  and

nodded. "I'll do my best."

Lando nodded. "Let's go."

Leia steeled herself, then triggered a series of blaster shots  into  the

air. People reflexively ducked down, and a wave of terror  pounded  her.  Leia

looked out over the crowd and set her face in a grim mask. "The  Yuuzhan  Vong

are incoming, and stopping them is going to be harder than we thought. If  you

have anything you want to say to others here, your last words, you'd better do

it now and be quick about it."

A roiling storm of fear broke over the  refugees,  with  wails  and  sobs

punctuating it like soft thunder. Leia nodded at Danni  and  Lando,  then  the

three of them began to move through the crowd, gridding it off, searching  for

those who found nothing to fear in Leia's announcement.

Jacen's green blade slashed right and left as he and Anakin attacked  the

flank of the Yuuzhan Vong thrust driving Luke back. Jacen  didn't  care  about

finesse or skill; he just set about butchering soldiers. What he was doing, he

knew, had nothing to do with being a Jedi. Yes, he  could  feel  it  when  the

sparks of life winked out, but the Yuuzhan Vong slave troops  felt  less  like

living creatures to him than droids made of flesh and blood.They are alive  in

the same way plants are. They might once have been individuals, but  now  they

are just puppets, lethal puppets.

Jacen lashed out to his right with the lightsaber, burning  a  gap  in  a

soldier's spine. The soldier collapsed at  Anakin's  feet.  The  younger  Jedi

leapt back, then scythed his blade low, though the  legs  of  a  Yuuzhan  Vong

trooper. That one went down and tripped up two others. Anakin dispatched  them

with quick thrusts to the backs of their necks, then flicked his left hand  in

Jacen's direction.

Beyond Jacen a trooper flew back, as if he'd been hit in the chest with a

metric ton of transparisteel. The telekinetic blast cleared a path  to  Luke's

side. Jacen slipped into it, keeping the gap open, then Anakin joined him.  In

a line the trio of Jedi  fended  off  the  soldiers,  cutting  them  down  and

pressing them back toward the gap.

As their stand halted the thrust at that gap, Elegos's  shuttle  ruddered

around and laced an inferno of laser and  blaster  fire  into  the  column  of

Yuuzhan Vong soldiery. Jacen raised a hand to shield his eyes as row after row

of little reptoids vanished in a brilliant blaze of light. Those Yuuzhan  Vong

soldiers untouched by the shuttle's lasers came on, but  the  Jedi  dispatched

them easily enough.

Elegos's action gained the Jedi some breathing  room.  Luke  flicked  his

comlink on. "Thank you for the save, Senator."

"My fire was not effective against the larger vehicles, so I employed  it

where useful." The Caamasi's voice filled with gravity. "We are fortunate that

the troops cannot shield themselves with voids."

Anakin laughed. "Are you joking? One good push and one  would  back  into

the void of the one behind him, and so on and so on. Pretty soon they'd be all

gone."

Jacen frowned at his brother's suggestion and would have made a  comment,

but Luke snapped his fingers. "That's it!"

"What is it?"

"No time to explain, Jacen." Luke looked up at the shuttle.  "Senator,  I

need a ride."

The shuttle's landing ramp descended, and Elegos brought the ship down to

hover about five meters above the ground. Luke leapt up and quickly  ran  into

the shuttle. It pulled up and headed out away from the compound.

Anakin blinked. "What did I say?"

Jacen shook his head and tightened his grip on his lightsaber.  "I  don't

know, but I hope it works." He nodded toward the ramparts. "Until we see if it

does or not, we've got work to do."

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Before either Corran or Ganner could offer a  new  plan  for  escape,  an

explosion outside  shook  the  giant  shell  building.  The  cloying  odor  of

killscent wafted in and down the stairs. All  around  him  Corran  could  feel

slashrats gathering, coursing through the sand,  looking  for  any  morsel  of

food. Panic rose among the slaves, but, one by one, their weakening  sense  in

the Force ended.

Corran slipped past Ganner and ignited  his  lightsaber.  "Okay,  Ganner,

here's the new plan. You're the telekinesis  champ  here,  so  you  float  the

students to the  rear  of  this  shell,  carve  yourself  an  exit  with  your

lightsaber, and get them out."

"You can't possibly think, in your state, that you can beat these two."

"Immaterial, isn't it? As they say on Tatooine, when being  hunted  by  a

krayt dragon, you don't have to be faster than it is,  you  just  have  to  be

faster than the slowest guy in the group you're with. I'm the slow  guy  here,

and you're getting them out."

Corran raised his left hand and extended two fingers toward  the  Yuuzhan

Vong. He forced himself to ignore  the  pain  and  composed  his  face  in  an

expression  that  suggested  facing  two  Yuuzhan  Vong  was   slightly   less

inconvenient than getting his beard trimmed. He bent his wrist to motion  them

forward, inviting them down to meet him in single combat.

The lead Yuuzhan Vong let his amphistaff coil itself around his waist. He

stepped to the side and waved his subordinate forward. The other Yuuzhan Vong,

whom Corran thought of as the younger, bounced down several  steps,  then  set

himself in a pose of great martial grandeur.  His  amphistaff  slithered  down

into his hand and stiffened itself.

"Ganner, I still hear you breathing back  there.Go!  Now,  go!  Get  them

aboard and get the ship out of here." Corran glanced back and gave  Ganner  as

hard a stare as he could. "You're the only one who can save them, and I'm  the

only one who can buy you the time you need to do it. Go!"

The younger Jedi Knight nodded once, then gestured, and the two  students

rose from the floor as if on  invisible  stretchers.  Ganner  started  walking

backward into one of the many tunnels, with the two of  them  floating  behind

him. The younger Yuuzhan  Vong  came  down  two  more  steps  and  raised  his

amphistaff like a spear, ready to throw.

The elder Yuuzhan Vong hissed something, stopping his subordinate.

Corran twirled his silver lightsaber blade around in  a  humming  circle,

then moved to interpose himself between the Yuuzhan Vong and Ganner's line  of

retreat. "I hope you two think this is a good day to die."

The younger Yuuzhan Vong slowly stalked  down  the  steps  and  spun  his

amphistaff in his right hand. He held his left hand out  toward  Corran,  with

his gauntleted fingers splayed out. The Yuuzhan Vong  moved  with  the  casual

grace of a predator. He took one step toward Corran's  left,  clearly  as  the

first part of a gambit to make Corran circle around and present  his  back  to

the elder Yuuzhan Vong.

Corran countered by stepping to his left and bringing his left hand  onto

the hilt of the lightsaber. The blade's hilt had  been  constructed  long  ago

from the throttle assembly of a speeder  bike,  so  it  had  ample  length  to

accommodate the second hand. Corran brought his hands down  toward  his  waist

and pointed the blade at the younger Yuuzhan Vong's throat.

The Yuuzhan Vong came in with a sweeping  slash  at  Corran's  left  leg.

Corran blocked the cut low. The tip of his lightsaber sliced through the shell

floor with ease, leaving a blackened scar between the two of them.At least now

I know Ganner can cut his way out of this place. Corran stepped back and aimed

his lightsaber at the Yuuzhan Vong again.

The Yuuzhan Vong tried the same attack a second time.  Corran  parried  a

bit higher, then pivoted on his right foot. His left foot  came  around  in  a

roundhouse kick that caught the Vong in the chest. The  younger  warrior  fell

back and went down, then rolled from beneath Corran's  overhand  strike.  That

blow left another scar in the shell, but by the time  Corran  had  pulled  his

blade free, the Vong had gotten up again and set himself for an attack.

Corran squared off with him, presenting his left  flank  for  attack.  He

held the lightsaber's hilt up near his right  ear,  with  the  blade  pointing

straight forward. He leveled it at the Vong's eyes, then gave the alien a nod.

"You want me, come get me."

The Yuuzhan Vong took a step forward, and Corran cranked his right  wrist

around. The throttle assembly twisted, swapping a diamond for  an  emerald  in

the lightsaber's interior assembly. The energy beam  narrowed  and  went  from

silver to purple, then more than doubled in length. The  blade's  tip  stabbed

deep through the younger Vong's left eye socket.

The Yuuzhan Vong jerked and bounced as his  limbs  snapped  straight.  He

fell back, slipping from the blade's tip, with smoke rising from his skull. He

clattered to the shell floor, his limp limbs rebounding from the hard surface,

then he twitched once and lay still.

And Ganner ridiculed me for having an old-style,  dual-phase  lightsaber.

Corran returned the blade to its normal length and nodded to the elder Yuuzhan

Vong. "He was too eager. I knew I could use that trick  once,  and  only  with

him." The Jedi sincerely doubted the alien warrior understood what he'd  said,

but clearly the tone of his voice had conveyed some sort of message.

The elder Yuuzhan Vong moved down the steps with a fluid  gait  that  was

not hurried. He did not waste the effort to twirl his amphistaff, but  instead

held it in two hands, high right, low left, ready to fend off any  long-bladed

strike at his eyes. The leathery joints on his  armor  creaked  as  he  moved,

slowly circling. Hungry eyes watched Corran and seemed to  take  note  of  the

fluid dripping from his left wrist when the Jedi let the arm hang at his side.

The elder Yuuzhan Vong stopped and set himself. He pulled both  hands  up

above his head. The amphistaff straightened itself into a spear, with its head

flattening out into a thin blade. Corran crouched low, making himself a  small

target, with his lightsaber held in  both  hands.  The  sizzling  silver  beam

splashed bright highlights over the Vong's armor.

They waited.

Corran could not sense the  Yuuzhan  Vong  through  the  Force,  and  the

magnificence of the Vong warrior challenged his physical senses as  well.  All

the other activity outside the shell vanished as Corran focused on his  enemy.

Despite all their differences-their nature, their origins-the two of them were

shaped in the same mold. The Yuuzhan Vong had killed people Corran claimed  as

his own, and vice versa. Both of them  were  trained  warriors  now  facing  a

skilled foe. Only one of them would walk away at best.

Corran suspected he would not be the one. Images of his wife and children

surfaced in his brain. He made himself remember them laughing and smiling.  He

refused to allow images of them grieving to enter his mind.If I am going to be

lost to them and they to me, I want good memories, not bad.

He wondered if the Yuuzhan Vong warrior was thinking the same thing,  and

then the Vong attacked. He slashed low and to the right. Corran parried,  then

lunged with his hissing blade. The Vong slipped to the right,  trailing  smoke

from where the blade caught the armor over his right hip, then he slashed back

with his amphistaff. The tip caught Corran on the right thigh, slicing through

clothes and flesh, spraying blood up onto the walls.

Corran whirled, shunting the pain aside, then darted in and slashed twice

at the Yuuzhan Vong's right flank. The Vong brought the amphistaff across in a

vertical block and  then,  with  a  twist  of  his  left  wrist,  powered  the

lightsaber blade up and around. Corran cocked his wrists, bringing  the  blade

back so it almost touched the crown of his head, then lashed forward with  it.

The lightsaber sparked off the armor on the Vong's right shoulder.

The Yuuzhan Vong spun away from a cut at his  neck,  then  continued  the

spin and slashed with a backhanded cut at Corran's knees. The Jedi leapt above

it, then sliced down at the Vong's left elbow as it flashed past.  The  silver

blade pierced the leathery joint and scored flesh, winning a hiss and a  small

black rivulet of blood from the Vong.

The two combatants backed off for a second, each eyeing the other. Corran

could feel the warmth spreading from his leg. The Yuuzhan Vong's blood dripped

down beneath the armor, forcing him to remove his gauntlet and  dry  his  left

hand against his chest. Each fighter nodded to the other, out  of  respect.And

out of fear, just a hint of it.

They set themselves. The Yuuzhan Vong again raised his  amphistaff  above

his head. Corran lowered the tip of his blade, letting it point at one of  the

Vong's knees. He drew in a deep breath, then shifted his shoulders.This is it.

War cries echoed within the chamber as each fighter sprinted  across  the

floor at his foe. Corran ducked his head, letting the  amphistaff  flash  past

over his right shoulder. His lightsaber slipped into  the  space  between  the

Yuuzhan Vong's knees, then Corran brought both  hands  up.  The  silver  blade

split the armored joint at the  Vong's  right  hip.  Corran  sawed  the  blade

forward and back once, lifting as he went, then spun away to the left.

Inexplicably his spin went out of control, and he crashed to the  ground.

He felt a moment of pain in his back, near his spine, then his legs went numb.

His lightsaber skittered from his hand, scoring a small circle in  the  shell.

Corran landed hard on his back, but avoided smashing his head into the ground.

Fear and urgency pounded him. He tried to sit up, but couldn't. Past  his

feet he saw the Yuuzhan Vong's amphistaff coiled  near  its  master,  hissing,

flashing fangs, and he knew in an instant what had happened to him. He reached

his right hand beneath his back and felt the torn cloth, the nasty bite  mark.

His hand came away slick with blood.Venom, too, I have no doubt. The  numbness

is spreading.

The Yuuzhan Vong stirred, posting his body up on his hands.  He  gathered

his left knee beneath him and tried to straighten up. He pushed off  with  his

hands and almost made it upright, but his right leg  swung  awkwardly  around.

The weight of it pulled the Vong off balance  and  crashed  him  down  to  the

ground again. The Vong's helmet popped off and danced across the floor.

His leg is all but severed and he's still coming?Corran  dragged  himself

over toward his lightsaber and got his right hand on it.If only  these  things

didn't cauterize the cuts they make, he'd bleed to death.

The Yuuzhan Vong rolled onto his belly and  grabbed  his  amphistaff.  He

started to crawl toward Corran. The Jedi Knight slashed at him with the silver

lightsaber, gouging chunks from the shell. His strikes chewed the  floor  into

rubble, spraying up sand from below, but the Vong seemed undaunted by Corran's

weak attacks.

He knows the venom will get me.Corran already felt the numbness spreading

up his back. It was becoming harder for him to breathe. He tried  to  use  the

Force to limit the damage, restrict blood flow, but the  best  techniques  for

that would drop him into a trance.And the Vong will kill me.

Corran pushed himself back and back, leaving a bloody red  smear  on  the

floor. He slashed again and again at the Yuuzhan Vong, but  the  warrior  kept

coming, slowly, certainly, waiting for Corran's arm to tire,  his  fingers  to

lose all sensation.And he won't have long to wait.

Corran's breathing became labored. His chest heaved with every effort. He

knew he was done and again called to  himself  images  of  his  family.  Happy

images. Images that made him proud. He saw  them  through  various  times  and

situations, flashing finally on his most  recent  and  strongest  memories  of

them.

He reached out through the Force in one last desperate  gamble.  He  half

closed his eyes and let his smile slacken. The Yuuzhan Vong, with the help  of

his amphistaff, had risen to his good left leg. The  warrior  stared  down  at

him, his bare face all scrunched up, uneven teeth and uneven  features  giving

Corran a nightmare image to carry with him into eternity.

Then a frenzied explosion of slashrats burst up through the holes  Corran

had gouged in the shell's floor. One of the toothy rodents sank its teeth into

the Vong's left forearm, crushing it as if it were an eggshell. Two others bit

into the nearly severed right leg and tugged, dragging the Yuuzhan Vong out of

Corran's sight.

If the Vong screamed-and Corran decided he never would have-the sounds of

snarling slashrats fighting over his body drowned it out completely.

With a smile on his face, Corran pushed himself back  as  best  he  could

from the killballs that were feasting on the Yuuzhan Vong warriors.  With  his

last memory of his son, he had recalled how Valin had made the garnants attack

Ganner, so he had reached out with the Force to summon  the  slashrats  for  a

Yuuzhan Vong meal. The  snarling,  growling  packs  of  slashrats  showed  how

effective that strategy had been.

Corran laughed to himself and laid  his  head  down.Of  course,  now  I'm

dessert. He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes before  the  creeping  numbness

would rob him of the ability to do even so simple a  task.  For  a  moment  he

wondered if he would fade from  existence  upon  death,  as  had  other  Jedi,

robbing the slashrats of their meal.No matter. The others are safe  and  away.

My work here is done.

Before the numbness consumed him completely, he felt himself floating. He

would have smiled if he could have.So this is it. This is what it is  like  to

die a Jedi and fade into nothingness. Though he gave  no  external  sign,  his

spirit felt buoyed, and Corran Horn passed into black oblivion  a  happy  man.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

A whistle from Catch prompted Gavin to check his secondary  monitor.  The

shuttleImpervious was moving forward, into the battle over  the  ground  army.

While the shuttle had powerful shields and weapons, it was much safer and more

effective hanging back with the other ships,  pouring  fire  into  the  ground

troopers.

Gavin keyed his comm unit. "Impervious,this is Rogue Lead. What  are  you

doing?"

Senator A'Kla's voice came back through  the  comm  channel  all  serene.

"Master Skywalker has a task for us, Colonel. Here he is."

"Gavin, I need two of you to make a run on the large  lead  vehicle  down

there. I need four torps, all coming in at the same flank. We'll give you  the

telemetry." The Jedi's voice betrayed a hint of excitement. "Can you do it?"

"As ordered, Jedi One." Gavin punched a button, bringing  his  squadron's

tactical frequency into the channel. "Sticks, on me. A Jedi wants us to  shoot

a spread at the big lead vehicle out there."

"I copy, Lead, coming in on your vector now."

"Capture the telemetry data fromImpervious and use it to shoot."

"As ordered, Lead." Jaina's voice rose a bit. "Going to drill a range."

Gavin smiled to himself.You and me both, Sticks. "Two  and  Twelve,  keep

the last skips off us."

Double clicks from comm units confirmed that their wingmen had heard  the

order and would comply with it. Gavin kicked his X-wing up onto  the  port  S-

foils, then dove and leveled out a hundred meters over the battlefield.  Lines

of plasma bolts stretched out toward him, but they came slowly enough that  he

was able to dance his fighter between them.

He dropped the aiming reticle over the slow-moving vehicle, then  flipped

a switch that turned control of the torpedoes' flight data  to  theImpervious.

He kept his fighter pointed on  target,  then  hit  the  trigger.  Two  proton

torpedoes jetted away on azure fire, and another two came from his  port.  All

four headed in on target.

Catch reported  a  gravitic  anomaly,  somewhat  larger  than  most,  had

positioned itself to intercept the missiles. Gavin narrowed his eyes,  waiting

for the blast.I hope you know what you're doing, Luke.

Leia stalked through the refugees, occasionally glancing up to see  Danni

and Lando as they wove their way  through  groups.  Once  Leia  discerned  the

people who were actually exuding terror, she told  them  to  move  toward  the

perimeter of the holding area. The knot of refugees slowly  shrank,  and  Leia

could feel tension beginning to intensify  in  the  area.Those  who  are  left

behind know we're searching for something, and they hope it isn't them.

Lando had gotten a step ahead of Danni when the young woman  gasped.  She

pointed at an older woman and a man of an age to be her adult son. Lando spun,

bringing his blaster up, but the old woman's fingers sprouted claws. She raked

her right hand up across Lando's chest, shredding his blue tunic and  spinning

him into a group of screaming refugees.

As the old woman  came  up  to  her  full  height,  the  ooglith  masquer

stretched into a parody of what she had been. Leia brought her blaster carbine

around and clipped off two shots. One  missed  high,  but  the  second  burned

through the Yuuzhan Vong's throat. His hands clutched at the wound as he  went

down, with black fluid and white pus flowing out between his fingers.

The Yuuzhan Vong who had masqueraded as her son dove  to  the  right  and

came up from a somersault with Lando's blaster in one hand and a  small  child

clutched to his chest with the other arm. The Yuuzhan Vong croaked at  her  as

he pressed the blaster pistol to the blond little girl's head.

"Harm me. This dies."

The malevolence in the words could not be missed,  but  the  lack  of  it

coming through the Force seemed  incongruous  to  Leia.  She  raised  her  own

blaster carbine and sighted in on the Yuuzhan Vong's head. "You won't killjust

one, so I'll take that risk."

The Yuuzhan Vong took a moment to parse Leia's words,  then  brought  the

pistol around to point it at her. Before he could pull the  trigger,  however,

the power pack slid from the weapon and slowly  tumbled  to  the  ground.  The

alien's taut human mask stretched oddly as the face beneath it contorted  into

a surprised grimace. Leia triggered a shot that passed over the  child's  head

and incinerated a hole through the Yuuzhan Vong's forehead.

The warrior pitched over backward, cushioning his hostage  with  his  own

body. It did take a moment for the child's terrified mother to  pry  her  from

the Yuuzhan Vong's arms, by which time the child realized she was supposed  to

be afraid. The little girl started crying, but the cries were muffled  as  her

mother hugged the child tightly to her.

Leia's comlink buzzed. "Go ahead."

"Mara here. I found tracks for a half-dozen Yuuzhan Vong."

"We got two here, so there must be one more..."

"I got him."

"Are you hurt?"

"Some scratches. He just went to pieces, though." Levity lightened Mara's

voice. "I'll stay out here and see what else I can scare up."

Leia ran over to where Danni was helping Lando sit up. The Yuuzhan Vong's

claws had scratched him deeply, but Lando  seemed  more  concerned  about  the

state of his shirt than he was the wounds. He held his bloodied hands  out  in

front of him as if looking for  something  on  which  to  wipe  them  off.  He

considered using his cloak for a moment, then rejected that plan.

Leia waved over two volunteers. "Get Lando to an aid station."

"I'll be fine, Leia."

"You'll be fine after we stop your leaking."

Lando nodded toward the dead Yuuzhan Vong. "Neat trick slipping the  clip

like that. I knew you had that in mind when you invited him  to  shoot  toward

you instead of the kid."

"Not me, Lando. Danni did the trick." Leia smiled at the young scientist.

"That was very brave."

"Was it? I guess, maybe." Danni shivered. "Being that close to a  Yuuzhan

Vong again, I just didn't know what to do. What Jaina taught me,  I  tried  to

calm myself down, but it didn't work. I thought...  I  guess  it  worked,  the

trick."

"You saved my life, Danni. A small victory for us, and a small defeat for

them." Leia sighed and looked out toward the south.Let's hope the  others  can

scale our victories up so we can get out of here alive.

InImpervious 's cockpit, Luke pointed toward the large vehicle.  "Get  us

closer."

"Yes, Master Skywalker."

"How's the missile telemetry coming through, Artoo?"

The little droid tootled confidently, spinning his head around to look at

Luke.

A beep sounded from the droid, and Elegos glanced at a secondary monitor.

"I have four torpedo launches. All are hot."

"Good."

Luke sank back into the chair and closed his eyes. He took a deep  breath

and reached out through the Force. He let his sense of things ride  above  the

frayed ones' jagged profile and vectored in toward  the  vehicle.  He  got  no

solid sense of it directly, though a few frayed ones did appear to  be  housed

inside. Instead he used that emptiness as a way point to search  out  a  void,

and as it formed, the black hole blossomed fully in the Force.

The void that  the  vehicle's  dovin  basals  created  to  intercept  the

missiles was a gravitic anomaly that had substance in  the  real  world.  Tiny

threads of the Force leaked into it as insects and birds, bats and  bugs  were

pulled into it. Luke used their vanishing life traces and the very currents in

the air that the void created to define the void. He traced  its  edges,  knew

exactly where it was, and knew how powerful it was.

He opened himself to the Force more fully than he had in years. He sought

more power than he had when freeing his nephew. The Force flooded into him, at

once molten-metal hot, yet as soothing as a cool rain. It swirled through him,

filling every cell of his body, freeing him from fatigue, sharpening his mind.

Luke reached out with that power and  latched  onto  the  void  that  the

Yuuzhan Vong vehicle had created. He pushed a bit, then tugged, in nanoseconds

getting a feel for the power the dovin basals were able to  exert  to  control

the void. He almost smiled, since that amount of power was nothing compared to

the Force, but he stopped himself short of pride in that fact.

"Artoo, juke the missiles."

R2-D2 keened sharply and fed the proton torpedoes a new set of data.  The

torpedoes twisted in flight and arced toward the sky, flying up and  over  the

void. Then they turned  again  and  fell  toward  the  ground,  aimed  at  the

vehicle's spine.

Immediately the dovin basals started to shift the void to cover this  new

attack vector. Luke fed the Force into his hold on the void,  thwarting  them.

Their pressure increased, and still Luke held it unmoving. The  torpedoes  got

closer and closer. The dovin basals  pulled  harder,  and  when  their  effort

reached a new peak, Luke let the void slip over toward intercepting the proton

torpedoes.

The dovin basals devoted their efforts to sliding the  void  into  place,

which required both some lateral movement and shortening the  arc  over  which

the void would travel. As they brought it close to the  vehicle,  Luke  pushed

with the Force. Since the dovin basals were  already  tugging  the  void  back

toward the vehicle, they were not prepared to have the travel accelerated.

The void crashed into the vehicle, striking  it  in  midspine.  The  long

vehicle bent backward as both ends became  sucked  into  the  black  hole.  It

flowed like thick liquid, all the sharp horns and bony plates  becoming  fluid

as they curved up over the void's event horizon. In less than an eye blink the

vehicle had been consumed by the void, leaving a huge gap in the Yuuzhan  Vong

formation.

Then the proton torpedoes detonated. One after another the four  missiles

slammed into the ground and exploded.  Their  blasts  scattered  Yuuzhan  Vong

warriors and lit the night. They gouged a huge canyon across the Yuuzhan  Vong

line of advance, and the shock waves were such that the  ground  rippled  even

into the refugee compound. Soldiers fell on both sides of the battlefield, and

ramparts collapsed.

"What now, Master Skywalker?"

Luke stared at the Caamasi for a moment, trying to reply, but a  wave  of

exhaustion crested over him and eroded his ability  to  think.  He  shook  his

head, then slumped back in the chair. The Force energy he had used to help the

Yuuzhan Vong destroy themselves had drained out of him completely, leaving him

limp and barely able to keep his eyes open.

"Master Skywalker?"

"Do... what you... think best, Senator," Luke managed to say  before  the

world closed in on him tight and black.

Anakin picked himself up off the ground and blinked  away  the  flash  of

torpedo detonations that had ruined his night vision. He found his  lightsaber

and brought it to hand, then called out for his brother. "Jacen! Jacen!"

He turned to his left as he heard a reply, then lashed at  the  crowd  of

reptoids swarming over his brother. He cut one or two away, then a  ripple  of

Force energy pulsed upward, scattering the others. Some rolled to  their  feet

and struck wildly at him, but Anakin parried their assaults easily and replied

with cuts that dropped them.

Bleeding from the nose and mouth, with his left eye slowly swelling shut,

Jacen regained his feet. He extended his right hand, drawing his lightsaber to

it, and in a second, thumbed the  green  blade  to  life.  "That  thing,  that

vehicle, must have been a warmaster, a command and control center. The  slaves

have gone mad."

All around them the reptoids swarmed over the ramparts. Many had  dropped

their weapons and howled, tearing at the nearest target with their  claws  and

teeth. They did  not  limit  their  assaults  to  Bril'nilim's  troopers,  but

attacked each other. It seemed less a military force than a swarm  of  insects

pouring into the camp.

The two young Jedi moved into the flow of the  reptoids.  Anakin  slashed

right and left, cutting down Yuuzhan Vong soldiers as he went. With Jacen,  he

angled over to the right, clearing a path to several of Bril'nilim's  troopers

who had become trapped. With them in tow, they fought their  way  deeper  into

the refugee camp. Ahead of them from where the refugees had gathered,  blaster

fire sounded. Anakin could see errant bolts  flying  off  in  all  directions,

which suggested to him some  confusion  among  the  volunteers  defending  the

refugees.

Above them theImpervious swooped and poured gouts of fire into the massed

soldiery. Smaller blaster bolts thinned the ranks between  the  Jedi  and  the

refugees. Jacen and Anakin darted forward, using their lightsabers to redirect

blaster bolts away from the troopers coming with them and  at  reptoids.  They

broke into the refugee compound and fended off more reptoids, but  those  that

had gotten through had already wrought havoc.

Blaster-burnt reptoid bodies lay everywhere, splashed with the  blood  of

their victims. Children lay broken, and men and women stared sightlessly up at

the bellies of the freighters beneath which they'd huddled. Moans and  screams

filled the area, sparked by the whine of blaster bolts or the sight of another

reptoid face.

Leia ran to her sons, and Anakin saw she'd  been  wounded.  "Mom,  you're

hurt."

"Not that badly. Elegos says the second half of the Yuuzhan Vong host  is

still coming. Luke can't deal with the other vehicle. The torpedoes bought  us

some time, though." She pointed at the freighters. "We have  to  get  everyone

aboard and out of here as fast as we can. We have to leave Dantooine."

Jacen frowned. "But there wasn't enough food for a run to another  system

before, and we've been here for days..."

Anakin looked around. "Not as many mouths to feed anymore."

His older brother hesitated for a moment. "Oh."

"It doesn't matter, boys." Leia  clapped  them  on  the  shoulders.  "Get

started rounding people up. Get them  to  move.  We've  precious  little  time

before we all die."

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Jaina Solo rolled her X-wing to port and leveled out for a  ground-attack

strafing run. Sparky switched her targeting  controls  over  to  ground-attack

mode, which superimposed a targeting grid over her view of the ground. On  the

secondary monitor the sensors calculated the number of  life  signs  found  in

each square of the grid and then colored those squares. The  brightest  colors

meant they had the  highest  concentrations  of  life.  The  heads-up  display

likewise added these colors to the grid it displayed, but in  muted  tones  so

the pilot could still see the ground.

Jaina ruddered her X-wing around and hit  the  flicker  trigger  for  the

lasers. Hundreds of laser splinters  shot  through  the  night,  lancing  down

toward the Yuuzhan Vong soldiers  climbing  up  out  of  the  pit  the  proton

torpedoes had created. Some of the splinters hit  nothing,  others  ricocheted

into the air after touching armor, but most stabbed through reptoids,  killing

them instantly.

She pulled up, trying to climb her X-wing above the  sensation  of  life-

forms dying, but their pain and despair clung to her like mud to a  boot.  She

detested having to slaughter so many individuals, but she also knew she had no

choice. These reptoids were coming on in good order, and from the  chaos  that

marked the refugee camp, either she killed  the  reptoids  on  the  ground  or

they'd kill the refugees.And my mother and brothers and Danni...

Gavin's voice crackled as it came through the comm unit. "Rogues, we have

a new assignment. The freighters are lifting off. We have them outbound."  His

voice faltered  for  a  moment.  "Each  one  of  you  picks  up  a  freighter.

Assignments coming now."

Jaina saw that she'd been attached to  theImpervious,  which  she  didn't

mind, but it was the sixth ship in the convoy. "Sparky, give me a  rundown  on

which Rogues are still operational!"

The droid came back with a grim report. Colonel Darklighter  and  Captain

Nevil were all that were left of One flight. Two flight had  been  reduced  to

Major Forge. Three flight had fared better, with Major Varth, Jaina,  and  her

wing mate, Anni Capstan, still alive, but the squadron as a whole had been cut

in half. Savage Squadron was down to one flight, and the Toughs...They're  all

gone... We swept the skies of the skips, but at a great cost.

Jaina keyed her comm. "Do we have outbound coordinates, Colonel?"

"Solution in progress, Sticks."

She shook her head. The reason they had come  to  Dantooine  was  because

they had too many people to travel a long distance in hyperspace. They had  no

supplies.Either we found supplies or... She  glanced  at  the  backlit  bodies

strewn around the camp beneath the freighters lifting off.

A lump rose in her throat.I hope none... She almost reached out with  the

Force to try to find her mother or brothers or uncle, but she focused  herself

instead on dropping her ship in on the shuttle's port  wing  and  pulling  for

stars.I have a mission to perform here before I worry about my family.

"Sparky, have you received those coordinates?"

The little droid tootled as it downloaded the  navigational  information.

Jaina's X-wing and shuttle cleared the Dantooine atmosphere before any of  the

other ships and moved into a high orbit around  the  world.  The  other  ships

followed them, lining up perfectly in an orbit that would take them from  pole

to pole around Dantooine.

Sparky whistled and fed the solution to Jaina's secondary monitor.

"Agamar! Just where we wanted to head anyway. And the outbound vector  is

coming up just on the other side of the pole..."

The droid shrilled, and Jaina looked out her viewport. Coming up over the

edge of Dantooine's disk, sitting in the outbound vector  for  Agamar,  was  a

Yuuzhan Vong cruiser. Jaina couldn't be certain that it  was  the  one  they'd

already damaged, but some of  the  spines  were  broken.  Worse  yet,  as  the

secondary monitor showed, the cruiser was again employing its dovin basals  to

create a gravitic anomaly strong enough to prevent any ship  from  making  the

jump to hyperspace.

"This is Rogue Eleven. We have  a  Yuuzhan  Vong  cruiser  acting  as  an

Interdictor again. We're going nowhere."

In the shuttle's cockpit, Leia stood between the seats  her  brother  and

Elegos occupied. "Jaina's right, that will stop us from  traveling  away  from

here."

In the distance red-gold plasma bolts started flying  lazily  toward  the

convoy. All the shots passed high. The intent of the gunners seemed clearly to

be to herd the ships back down to Dantooine.Where the ground troops can finish

us.

Luke winced and pulled himself up in the seat. "I don't know how  much  I

can do, Leia."

She patted Luke on the shoulder. "You may not have to do it alone, Luke."

Leia keyed the comm unit. "Colonel Darklighter, what do the Rogues  have  left

in the way of proton torpedoes?"

"We have one left, Highness. We'll drop it in on the cruiser if you want.

We can take our fighters in and strafe. Perhaps that will be  enough  to  pull

the interdiction field off."

Leia shook her head as Elegos pointed to new  sensor  traces  coming  up.

"Negative, Rogue Leader. We  have  new  coralskipper  traces  on  sensor.  The

cruiser is launching fighters. Looks like they  reallydo  want  us  back  down

there."

"We'll convince them otherwise."

She shivered. "It feels to me as if Dubrillion and this fight  here  have

all been an exercise. The Yuuzhan Vong have been  learning.  This  Interdictor

tactic is something they didn't do in the first  attack  on  Dubrillion.  They

want to herd us back down there to test us again. If we try to run, we die  up

here. If we don't, we die down there. Either way we're dead."

Luke shook his head. "That's not certain."

Leia frowned. "How can you say that?" She gasped, then covered her  mouth

with a hand. "You have a vision in the Force?"

"Glimmerings."

The sensor console beeped. Elegos glanced at it, then cocked his head  to

the left. "Something coming out of hyperspace. Something big."

The reversion to  realspace  for  theRalroost  occurred  several  seconds

sooner than Admiral Kre'fey had intended. In  the  instant  the  white  tunnel

through which his ship had been traveling began to fall apart he knew at least

one Yuuzhan Vong cruiser had made itself into an Interdictor. The only  reason

for this could be to prevent the escape of the ships that  had  been  grounded

there.Which means I've arrived right in time.

He glanced over at his weapons-control officer. "Tell theCorusca Fire  to

let go with everything they have. Fire for effect what we have, as well."

The black Bothan weapons-control officer snarled orders into a comm unit.

Golden streaks of turbolaser fire flashed out at  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  cruiser.

Blue bolts of ion cannon beams lanced down. A tremor ran  through  theRalroost

as the twenty  proton  torpedo  launchers  on  board  spat  out  their  deadly

missiles.

TheCorusca Fire, which was an oldVictory - class Star Destroyer, likewise

launched all the concussion missiles it had available. Eighty rockets spiraled

in at the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser, with each  target  evenly  spaced  around  the

enemy ship so no one void could capture more than one missile.

The gravitic anomaly that had dragged the New Republic ships  prematurely

from hyperspace evaporated as the dovin basals broke off to stop the  incoming

missiles and laser fire. Whether because  the  assault  just  overwhelmed  the

available dovin basals, or the creatures had exhausted themselves creating the

interdiction field, they failed to intercept  all  the  lasers  and  missiles.

Proton torpedoes pulverized yorik coral hull panels. Turbolasers melted plasma

spines and scored long furrows in the ship's hull. More than one  spine  broke

off and floated free in space.

The Yuuzhan Vong cruiser fired back with  its  plasma  cannons.  Red-gold

gouts of energy slammed into theRalroost 's shields, nibbling  away  at  them.

The golden energy coating faded, and drained away 20 percent of  the  shields'

power as it did so, but the shields still held.

But if we have to slug it out with them, they  won't  hold  for  long.The

idea of those plasma blasts getting through to melt his  ship's  hull  sent  a

trickle of fear through Kre'fey's guts.If there is no other way,  however,  to

get the freighters out of here...

The sensor officer glanced at the admiral. "Sir, the Yuuzhan Vong cruiser

is pulling back. Its skips are diving for atmosphere."

A round of cheers greeted the news, but Kre'fey cut it off with  a  slash

of his hand. "Communications, get me theImpervious."

"On-line, Admiral."

"This is Admiral Kre'fey. Senator, are you still in charge of my shuttle?

"

"I am, Admiral. Would you like it back now?"

"I would, yes. Please bring it aboard  and  have  your  fighters  recover

through my dorsal recovery bay. The freighters can form up on us, and we  will

escort you away  from  here."  Kre'fey  smiled.  "Provided  your  fact-finding

mission is over."

"For now it is, Admiral." The Caamasi sighed.  "And  the  senate  is  not

going to like this report at all."

"That hardly surprises me, Senator." The  Bothan  admiral's  violet  eyes

narrowed. "And it's all the more reason we make for Coruscant as  fast  as  we

can."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Gavin Darklighter refused to give in to the aches and pains in his  body.

Normally he would have put them down to fatigue, but he'd  been  able  to  get

plenty of rest on the  journey  from  Dantooine  to  Agamar  and  then  on  to

Coruscant. The fact was that he felt as rested as he ever had during his  time

with the squadron, yet he also  knew  he  was  engaged  in  one  of  the  most

difficult battles he'd ever faced with it.

And everything he had learned on the trip in to Coruscant  had  convinced

him it was a battle that Rogue Squadron and the New Republic could not  afford

to lose.

Gavin, Leia Organa Solo, Admiral Traest Kre'fey, and  Senator  A'Kla  had

been summoned to a meeting of Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya's advisory  council

to report on what they had found. It seemed clear to Gavin that from the  smug

look  on  Fey'lya's  face,  and  the  superior  airs  his  confederates   were

projecting, that they either had no clue about what was going on in  the  Rim-

which simply wasn't possible-or were choosing not to let it deflect them  from

whatever schemes and plans they had in mind.

He feared the latter situation was true, and saw the New Republic's death

as the logical consequence of it.

The chamber boasted a  solid  wall  of  transparisteel  that  provided  a

hypnotic tableau of Coruscant at night. Lights winking on  and  off,  speeders

sailing through the night, and the  curious  patterns  of  lights  in  various

buildings all seemed present  to  distract  whomever  the  council  wanted  to

interrogate. The seats offered to the visitors  were  positioned  to  maximize

this effect. Gavin found himself succumbing to  it,  but  exerted  the  effort

required to refocus himself on the New Republic's leaders.

The Caamasi senator stood in the center  of  the  arc  described  by  the

council's table and spread his arms. "You now have heard the substance of what

I will report to the senate. There is no doubt that these  Yuuzhan  Vong  have

come to this galaxy with conquest on their agenda. The assaults on  Dubrillion

and Dantooine were not only  relentless,  but  clearly  designed  as  learning

exercises."

Niuk Niuv, the senator from Sullust, clucked deep in  his  throat  for  a

moment. "If this is true, a lesson was taught them at  Dantooine,  wasn't  it?

You drove a cruiser off and escaped, did you not?"

Elegos nodded slowly. "We did that,  yes.  It  seems,  however,  you  are

ignoring the evidence of Belkadan, that they have come and set up factories to

produce war mat?riel. You ignore their operation on  Bimmiel,  which  we  know

about only because the students there were evacuated  to  Agamar  and  arrived

when we did."

Pwoe, the Quarren,  curled  and  uncurled  his  mouth  tentacles.  "Three

systems, four if we count Sernpidal, and five if  we  include  Helska  4,  the

place where the first incursion was destroyed, but the latter two are  useless

to them."

"And useless to us." The Caamasi let his hand slowly drift  down  to  his

side. "You also greatly discount the sacrifices we paid to save as many people

as we did. Rogue Squadron has lost two-thirds of the pilots it had two  months

ago. Over fifty other pilots and troopers lost their lives. The  Yuuzhan  Vong

killed countless people on Dubrillion, and the refugees on Dantooine  suffered

50 percent casualties."

Borsk Fey'lya shook his head and smoothed the cream-colored  fur  at  the

back of his neck. "We do nothing of the sort. We acknowledge the sacrifices of

Colonel Darklighter's command. We have directed a unit  commendation  for  the

Dantooine and Dubrillion actions be added to the unit history."

Gavin glanced at Admiral Kre'fey and caught the all-but-imperceptible nod

that was his signal. Raising his head slowly, twisting his ring unconsciously,

Gavin stared straight into Fey'lya's eyes.Almost two decades ago you drove  my

Bothan lover, Asyr Sei'lar, to  distraction,  and  that  distraction  got  her

killed. It's an old debt you owe me, and that debt  gets  paid  back  now,  in

full.

"If you value our effort, Chief Fey'lya, then I have to  wonder  why  you

are working so hard to deceive me, to deceive the rest of the  New  Republic's

military."

Fey'lya blinked, and the fur on the back of his neck rose. "You  will  be

forgiven that insubordinate outburst, Colonel. You are clearly overwrought."

Gavin stood slowly, letting his body uncurl into  its  full  height.  His

contracted his hands into fists and let the muscles of  his  arms  strain  the

seams of his jacket. He wanted them to see he  was  physically  powerful,  not

just someone who sat in a seat and pulled a trigger.I want them to know  I  am

something they could never be.

He kept his voice even, despite the anger and disgust boiling  inside  of

him. "Chief Fey'lya, in here we know the truth.  The  only  reason  theCorusca

Fire was at Agamar is because Captain Rimsen is from Agamar  and  he  diverted

from his assigned patrol. He was suspicious of the fact the patrol  route  had

been changed to prevent him from heading to Dubrillion and past  Belkadan.  In

speaking to his family on  Agamar,  he  learned  of  Leia's  visit  there.  He

returned home to assess the situation and was  able  to  travel  with  Admiral

Kre'fey to save us. If he had not been there, none of us would be here."

"You have misinterpreted-"

Gavin cut him off with the sharp chop of a hand through the air. "I'm not

finished."

"Your career most assuredly can be, Colonel."  Fey'lya's  ears  flattened

back against his skull. "Are you resigning, effective immediately?"

Admiral Kre'fey snapped off  a  quick  comment  in  Bothan  that  brought

Fey'lya's head around as if he'd been punched. The chief of state clawed curls

of wood from the table. He snarled a comment in return.

Admiral Kre'fey came smoothly to his feet. "Oh, I dare, cousin, speak  to

you in that manner because you have grossly overstepped your bounds  in  this.

Did you expect we would not know of Bimmiel? Did you expect we did not know of

the sightings of Yuuzhan Vong on Garqi? How many other worlds that the Yuuzhan

Vong have attacked did you expect us to remain ignorant of?"

The Sullustan looked aghast. "How could you know-?"

The admiral slowly shook his head. "There are a  million  ways  to  know.

Commodities found on these worlds are being bid up  in  the  futures  markets.

Communications companies that service these worlds are reporting  outages  and

reduced earnings from these sectors. Recruiting numbers for our military  from

these worlds are down sharply. While you might have been able to shut off  the

flow of real news to various outlets, doubtless to prevent a panic,  you  have

forgotten that information that doesn't get through is  just  as  valuable  as

that which does."

The members of the advisory council looked shocked. They  murmured  among

themselves, then turned to Borsk Fey'lya. To his credit, the Bothan snorted as

if what he had been told  was  inconsequential.  "Even  if  these  worlds  are

involved with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion-and you have  no  proof  they  are-the

prosecution of the war against  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  is  a  matter  for  us  to

determine."

Gavin shook his head. "Not when it isour lives on the line."

"Again, Colonel Darklighter, are you quoting from a resignation  letter?"

Fey'lya sneered at him. "You Rogues quit the New Republic once before  and  we

survived."

Gavin's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps I am resigning, Chief Fey'lya."

Traest  Kre'fey  stepped  forward  between  Gavin  and  Elegos.   "Beware

accepting his resignation, cousin, because if he goes, so do I.  So  will  the

New Republic's military."

"You're talking mutiny."

"I'm  talking  the  only  thing  that  makes  sense.  You,   you're   all

politicians. Your focus is on acquiring power. Why?  So  you  can  make  lives

better for some people. This is a laudable goal,  but  your  efforts  collapse

when a true  crisis  arises.  An  earthquake  shakes  a  continent  and  kills

thousands. You take the blame even though it was not your fault. Why?  Because

you had too few regulations about how the buildings were to be maintained,  or

your rescue operations were too slow, your food supplies were  too  low,  your

payments to the uninsured are lower than they imagined they would  get.  There

are hundreds and thousands of reasons you take the blame, and with each bit of

blame you lose some power."

Kre'fey tapped himself on his chest. "My mandate is to keep people  safe,

and the Yuuzhan Vong are a direct threat to their safety. Let us assume, to be

charitable, that you did not believe Princess  Leia  when  she  explained  the

problem of the Yuuzhan Vong to you. Let us assume you thought  they  trulywere

finished. Your lack of response to that threat could be  explained  as  naive,

perhaps, but a lack of response now would becriminal.

"So, would I take the New Republic's military and draw it off into,  say,

the Unknown Regions and carve out my own little empire? Yes. I  would  prepare

it as a haven for those who flee the New Republic as it falls to  the  Yuuzhan

Vong."

Pwoe's nostrils flared. "If you feel this way, Admiral, would you not  be

better off staging a revolt and unseating us?"

"No, because I am not a politician. I can't fight a  war  and  administer

worlds." He shook his head. "I cannot say I would not  back  someone  else  in

toppling an ineffective government, however."

Kre'fey twisted to his left and waved a hand at Leia.

She sat forward and let a feral grin blossom on her face.

Fey'lya stood and folded his arms across his  chest.  "So,  this  is  it,

then, Leia? You so hate being out of  power  that  you  have  seduced  Admiral

Kre'fey into backing you in a revolt? Do you wish to establish a Jedi hegemony

to rule the New Republic? Will your children inherit your position after you?"

Leia laughed quickly and politely, then came up out of her chair  with  a

fluid grace that reminded Gavin of a teopari stretching  languidly.  "Is  that

what you want, Chief Fey'lya? Do you want to be humiliated? Do you want to  be

remembered as the one who led the New Republic  to  such  ruin  thatI  had  to

rescue it again?"

Her voice came low enough that even Gavin had to strain to hear  her.  As

her words poured into his ears, Fey'lya's facial expression changed.  It  went

from a look of triumph to one of sour  disappointment,  then  resignation.  He

leaned forward, posting himself up on his arms.

"How is it that you wish to play this, then?"

Leia  smiled  carefully.  "First,  you  will  cede  control  of  military

operations to the military. There will be no political micromanagement of  the

war. What they want, they get."

"Of course."

"Second, you will coordinate relief supplies and mat?riel to  handle  the

incoming refugees. Agamar is already overstressed, and people will be  fleeing

further Coreward as the Yuuzhan Vong advance."

Fey'lya glanced at Pwoe. "You can handle all that."

"Lastly, you will allow Senator A'Kla to make  his  report  to  the  full

senate, with complete coverage of it to go out over the media."

Fey'lya barked a sharp laugh. "So he can put the blame for this  squarely

on my shoulders? Never."

Kre'fey glanced at Gavin. "In my empire, would you like a world for  each

of your children, or will they need whole systems to rule?"

Fey'lya's violet eyes flashed with fire. "We will work up the text of the

report together, yes?"

Elegos nodded. "I find that acceptable."

"Good." Leia stepped forward and offered Fey'lya her hand. "I'd forgotten

what it was like to work with you."

"Be assured, I hadnot."

Fey'lya shook Leia's  hand,  but  the  guarded  expression  on  her  face

confirmed that she was thinking what Gavin could feel in his bones:  Fey'lya's

compliance now was not guaranteed to continue in the future.In the short  term

we get what we need, but that won't always be so. If he can take advantage, he

will.

Leia bowed her head to the council. "Thank you for your  cooperation.  It

is for the best, and that, after all, is what we all desire, isn't it?"

"Most assuredly, Leia." Borsk Fey'lya gave them all a predatory grin. "We

shall put the New Republic above all petty, personal concerns. For the best."

Gavin wanted nothing more than to head home to his wife, but he  knew  he

was going to be poor company. Too many people had died, and when he was  in  a

mourning mood, it tended to remind  his  sister  that  her  husband  had  died

fighting the Yevetha. She had come with her children to  live  with  Gavin  at

that point, just to get back on her feet, but she'd remained since. From  time

to time she'd get to thinking of herself and her kids as a  burden  on  Gavin,

and that was something he just couldn't deal with at the moment.

He made his way back to Rogue Squadron headquarters and  stalked  through

darkened hallways. He really didn't mind the building  being  deserted;  itwas

very early in the morning. Admiral Kre'fey agreed that no alert would  go  out

until noon the next day, allowing the warriors who would be on the front lines

a lazy morning before they committed their lives to the bloody grind of war.

The only real bright spot in the  whole  disaster  of  the  retreat  from

Dubrillion had been Jaina Solo's joining the squadron. Gavin had asked Leia if

her daughter might stay on with the unit,  and  permission  had  been  granted

cautiously. When he saw the  joy  on  Jaina's  face  at  the  decision,  Gavin

suspected Leia had agreed just because she didn't want to have  to  deal  with

Jaina if she'd said no. Jaina immediately moved into  the  squadron  barracks,

taking up a room with Anni Capstan, her wingman, and settling in as  if  she'd

belonged there all along.

And flying the way she does, there's little doubt she will remain with us

for a long time.

It surprised Gavin to find a trooper with a  blaster  rifle  standing  in

front of his office door. The trooper was little more than a kid-barely  older

than I was when I joined the squadron. "Is there a problem here, Private?"

The youth swallowed hard. "Sir, I tried to stop them, sir, but they  said

it would be okay to enter your office. They said you wouldn't mind."

Gavin blinked with astonishment. "Did they? And did  they  say  who  they

were?"

The trooper shook his head. "Just some old guys, sir."

"And you let them in there? Why didn't you stop them?"

The soldier winced. "I tried, but they took my blaster away from me."  He

turned the weapon enough to let Gavin see that it had no power pack.

The colonel nodded. "And your comlink?"

"They took that, too. They told me to wait here for you, otherwise I'd be

guilty of abandoning a post, sir."

"Yes, do that, wait right there." Gavin steered the youth to the side and

opened the door to his office. He knew walking in there was  foolish,  but  he

dismissed the possibility that his visitors were assassins. The  Yuuzhan  Vong

didn't seem to operate that way.Besides, dying now might just be  easier  than

fighting a war.

The two visitors looked up from where they had seated themselves  in  the

easy chairs. On the table before them sat three tumblers,  two  of  which  had

been filled from the decanter of Corellian whiskey Gavin kept  hidden  in  the

bottom drawer of his desk. The two men smiled at him, and he began to laugh.

The trooper glanced into the room. "Are you all right, sir?"

"Yes, Private, you're dismissed."

"Here," one of the visitors said, and lofted the  soldier  the  clip  and

comlink that had been appropriated from him.

Gavin closed the door behind  the  trooper,  then  shook  his  head.  "He

described you as 'two old guys.' "

"No respect among the young anymore, is there, Tycho?"

"None, Wedge, none at all. Probably the fault of the command staff."

Gavin poured himself a glass of whiskey. "What are you two doing here?"

"We heard from various sources that you're going to  be  going  to  war."

Wedge Antilles raised his glass. "We're too old to fly, but not to  help  out.

You need us, you've got us."

"You may want to reconsider that offer. This isn't going to be pretty  at

all."

Tycho Celchu shook his head. "War  never  is,  Gavin.  Let's  just  hope,

together, we can make it very short."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Jacen Solo turned from where he had been leaning on the  balcony  railing

and faced his little brother. "Couldn't sleep?"

Anakin shook his head as he emerged on the Solos' balcony. "Nightmares."

"Of?"

"Dantooine." Anakin rubbed sleep sand from his eyes. "I keep having  this

dream where I'm cutting down reptoids right and left, but it's  never  enough.

They still overrun the refugee camp. When we  get  there-'cuz  you're  in  the

dream, too-we find a lot of dead people. Chewie and  Dad  and  Mom  are  among

them."

Jacen sighed. "That's a nasty one."

"What do you think it means?"

The older brother shook his head  and  turned  to  lean  on  the  balcony

railing. "After my experience on Belkadan, I've given up trying to figure  out

what dreams mean.  Yours  could  mean  anything.  You're  still  dealing  with

Chewie's death. By the same token, since Mara wasn't among the dead, could  be

you're congratulating yourself over having saved her. I don't know."

Anakin joined his brother at the railing and stared  out  at  the  lights

moving through the Coruscant cityscape. It was hard to  believe  a  month  had

passed since he had left for Dantooine with Mara. "Mine is  clearly  a  dream.

Yours could have been a vision. Uncle Luke thinks it was."

"Right, but the future changed, so I got drowned and tortured."  He  half

smiled at his brother. "And since we left Belkadan to come save  you,  it  was

probably you that set the future in motion that got me."

"So I could be dead and you'd be happy?"

"Not what I said, Anakin." Jacen caught a quick flash of sadness from his

younger brother. "And Dad wouldn't be happy if you were dead, either."

Anakin snorted. "Have you seen him yet?"

"No, you?"

"No. Threepio thinks he's  'inspecting'  cantinas  here.  Inspecting  the

bottom of glasses, more like."

Jacen sighed. "I'm not sure I don't envy him."

"What?"

"I'm having nightmares, too, Anakin. Nightmares of Dantooine."

"Like mine?"

"Sort of." Jacen scratched at the back of his neck with his  right  hand.

"I'm there, like you, killing and killing and killing. I'm a  gatekeeper.  The

reptoids really need to get to the other  side  of  the  gate,  and  I'm  only

letting them through in pieces."

"That's what you had to do."

"Did I?" Jacen ducked back as an inebriated  swoop  jockey  buzzed  them.

"What we did wasn't noble, it was just butchery. While the control vehicle had

them under its sway, they marched forward like droids and we  just  took  them

apart. Then, when Uncle Luke destroyed the control vehicle, they went berserk.

They were beasts and we just slaughtered them."

Anakin grabbed hold of Jacen's left wrist. "But you had no choice. If you

didn't kill them, they would have killed lots more refugees."

"Yes, I know that. I acknowledge it. I take responsibility for it, but  I

still have to ask myself what does doing that have to do with becoming a  Jedi

Knight?" He squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "How did that bring me  closer  to

understanding the Force? How am I now a better Jedi Knight than I was before?"

Anakin's hand slipped from Jacen's wrist. "But the job of a  Jedi  is  to

safeguard people. There's no more noble a reason to do  anything.  You  risked

your life to save others."

"Did I? Do  you  honestly  believe  any  of  those  reptoids  could  have

seriously hurt us? Over half of Colonel Bril'nilim's  soldiers  survived  that

assault. They aren't Jedi. We didn't  need  to  be  using  lightsabers  there,

Anakin. We could have been using vibroblades or simple clubs."

He turned and opened his arms. "And was saving those  refugees  all  that

special? We stopped them from dying, but to what  end?  Does  this  make  them

better people than those who died? Are they more noble? Will they  learn  from

this experience and make the universe a better place?"

"I don't know, Jacen. That's the future-"

"Which is always in motion."

"Right. What I do know is that we kept some of them alive. That's  enough

for me."

Jacen nodded slowly. "I know it is, Anakin. I wish it was enough for  me,

too."

"I don't understand."

"I know." Jacen lowered his voice to a  whisper  as  anguish  poured  off

Anakin. "Look, Anakin, you did wonderfully on Dantooine. You  learned  a  lot.

You took  good  care  of  Mara.  You  kept  her  alive  under  very  difficult

circumstances. You reallyare a hero because of all that and everything you did

to fend off the reptoids. I'm not trying to take anything  away  from  you  or

what you did. I want you to understand that."

"Okay." Anakin folded his arms across his chest. "What about you?"

"That's just it. I don't know." He pressed his fingertips to his temples.

"I thought that going off on my own would be the key to getting closer to  the

Force; but then I saw the slaves and had to act. The Force sends me  a  vision

and I act on it, only to have things go wrong. But, from that wrong  came  the

right of saving you and Mara on Dantooine, and being there to  help  hold  off

the reptoids. It's as if I'm walking around in a circle, circling  around  the

goal I want. Sometimes it seems as if I need  to  be  alone,  and  others  I'm

thrust into the heroic mold that has shaped and consumed Uncle  Luke.  I  know

there are other approaches, but I don't know if they are right for me."

Anakin frowned for a moment. "Sounds like you're trying to plot a  course

without knowing what your final destination is."

"Huh?"

The younger Solo boy made a circle  in  the  air  with  his  right  index

finger. "You said you were circling your goal, but you never defined  it.  You

never said what it was. Me, I want to be a Jedi Knight, just like  Uncle  Luke

and others before him. I don't know what you want, and I don't think  you  do,

either."

Jacen nodded. "That's how I feel, but I think it's because I want  to  be

somethingmore. I don't know what it is, but I guess I think there's  something

more to the Jedi order than we've been able to recover. I know it's out there,

but I don't know what it is."

"Then it could be that going off and thinking about it isn't going to get

you closer to your goal."

Jacen  cocked  an  eyebrow  at  Anakin.  "How  is  it  that   you're   so

philosophical all of a sudden?"

The younger boy blushed. "On Dantooine, when Mara made me stop using  the

Force like a crutch, I had a lot of time to think about things. I  realized  I

was using the Force too much. Uncle Luke uses it like an adviser or  sometimes

a power source. Others use it like a vibroblade, some like  an  opinion  poll,

and yet others like a whole variety of tools. I thought a lot about all  that,

and I guess I chose to follow in Uncle Luke's footsteps.

"That's not an easy path."

"Easy isn't for Jedi." Anakin smiled. "Of course, trying to find your own

path is much more difficult. Maybe what you have to do is to walk a bit on the

other paths and see how you can weave bits and pieces of them together."

Anakin's comment found echoes in Luke's admonishment that Jacen was still

young and lacking in experience.Perhaps I do need to explore more of the  Jedi

ways andget to know  myself  better.  He  realized  that  while  he  was  more

judicious in his use of the Force than Anakin, he didn't really  know  how  he

would function without it.Can I truly discover how to  integrate  myself  with

the Force if I do not know who I am without it?

Jacen reached out and tousled his brother's hair. "Look,  one  thing,  no

matter what I think about what we did at Dantooine, I was proud to have you at

my side. I don't know what I'll be in the future, Anakin, but I know you'll be

a great Jedi Knight. I have confidence that you will succeed, no  matter  what

life throws at you."

Anakin sharpened his eyes. "Are you really Jacen, or some Yuuzhan Vong in

an ooglith masquer?"

Jacen threw an arm around his little brother's shoulders. "For  now,  I'm

Jacen Solo."What I will be in the future, however, is anyone's guess.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

"So there I was, feeling like I was  floating,  and  I  was  thinking  to

myself, 'So, this is what it's like to die a Jedi and fade from existence like

my grandfather.' "  A  sheepishly  grinning  Corran  Horn  toweled  bacta  off

himself. "Then I noticed that despite the numbness I still had a touch of pain

from my hand. I also realized I was being bumped around a  bit,  which  didn't

strike me as appropriate for a disembodied spirit,  but  I  couldn't  open  my

eyes, so I hung in for the ride."

Luke shook his head. "Which  is  when  you  discovered  that  Ganner  had

returned and was lifting you above the slashrats and out of the shell."

Corran nodded. "Yes. Against my orders he had Trista  bring  theDalliance

around, they lased the top off the big shell, and  hanging  from  the  landing

ramp, Ganner pulled me up. If he hadn't..."

Corran's wife, Mirax, tossed Corran a robe from the hospital room's small

wardrobe. "If he hadn't, he'd be running from me. It's also a good thing  they

stuck you in the bacta tank on theDalliance. That venom would have killed  you

otherwise."

"Sure, but imagine their surprise if it hadn't  worked."  Corran  gave  a

last rub of his hair with the towel. "They put me in, then only find  torn  up

clothes."

Mirax arched an eyebrow at her husband. "And that is funny,how?"

"I would have been amused."

"The dead, apparently, find almost anything entertaining."

Luke nodded toward Mirax. "We need to know if what Dr. Pace alleged about

Jedi appropriating artifacts is true. I appreciate your looking into that  for

me."

"Gladly, Master Skywalker." Mirax frowned. "The items  I've  brought  you

have  solid  pre-Empire  provenance.  The  current  anti-Jedi  sentiment   has

depressed the collector prices on that material, while the market for Imperial

trinkets is spiking. No accounting for taste, of course, or sense, but if  the

collectors weren't meant to be skinned, they wouldn't act like nerfs."

"Do let me know what you learn in this regard." Luke had  no  doubt  that

some Jedi were overzealous in their pursuit of  things  that  could  link  the

current order with the one that the Emperor had all but  destroyed.But  to  be

stealing  mementos  from  people...  "While  finding  items  that  expand  our

knowledge of the Jedi is important, doing it at the expense of people and  the

image of the Jedi is too high a price to pay."

Corran shrugged the evergreen robe on and cinched it  with  a  black  tie

around his waist. "I think the attitude is  that  we're  the  Jedi  and  these

relics belong to us, regardless of who found them. I don't agree with it,  but

I do understand it."

"I understand it, as well, Corran, and I'm torn. I think having the items

to study is valuable, but I'm also not certain if we have  the  resources  and

expertise necessary to make the most of them." Luke stroked a  hand  over  his

jaw. "Dr. Pace and her students have the background and knowledge to  be  able

to put a lot of this material in perspective. I think  we  need  the  help  of

scholars, which means  we  need  to  make  certain  Jedi  don't  see  them  as

despoilers and thieves of our artifacts."

Mirax laughed. "Does it strike either of you as ironic,  then,  that  the

mission to Bimmiel ended up being one that stole Yuuzhan  Vong  artifacts  out

from under the Yuuzhan Vong's noses?"

"That observation had occurred to  me,  yes,  Mirax."  Luke  pressed  his

fingertips together. "The little warning sign  they  left  outside  the  ExGal

facility included a skull and broken machinery, which makes  me  believe  they

consider both warnings of death."

Corran climbed up on the hospital bed and  pulled  a  couple  of  pillows

behind his back. "I don't understand the technophobia,  either.  They  clearly

can produce items through biological means that  do  everything  our  machines

can. The only difference is that their machines are living."

"That's a significant difference, though, Corran. Perhaps, in their past,

there was a war waged with droids on one side and  the  Yuuzhan  Vong  on  the

other. It might have almost wiped them out, so they have a pathological hatred

of machines." The Jedi Master pulled a chair away from the small room's single

round table and sat. "Who knows? In any event, they might actually view us  as

evil, since we rely on machines so much."

"If that's their attitude, they just would have loved seeing  Jens  going

over the Yuuzhan Vong body with a digitizer and scanning  microscope."  Corran

narrowed his eyes. "That's not the most disturbing aspect of them, however, to

my mind. We have the whole slave issue. The slaves we saw were probably picked

up on the Rim and once came from the New Republic. I don't recall  seeing  any

of the reptoids you described their using on Dantooine."

"Yet you had the six Yuuzhan Vong who infiltrated the compound and  tried

to murder the refugees." Mirax leaned back against the transparisteel viewport

through which sunlight poured. "I don't understand why they would do  that  if

these other troops were designated to assault the compound."

Corran shrugged. "Well, could be they were like  Ganner  and  decided  to

disobey orders to seek their own glory."

Luke arched an eyebrow at Corran. "You think that's why Ganner came  back

for you?"

"Part of his reason, yes."

"And you don't like being in his debt at all, do you?"

Corran's expression soured. "It's not as bad as being in Booster's  debt,

but it does rankle a bit."

"You'll get over it." Mirax gathered her long black hair at the  back  of

her neck and twisted it into a knot. "Do you think the Yuuzhan Vong  were  out

for personal glory, or something else?"

"Given  how  poorly  they  fought,  there  is  no  question   they   were

inexperienced." Luke sighed. "Yet, even at that, they killed a  Noghri,  which

isn't easy. Forensic examination of their bodies has shown very little in  the

way of scarring, tattooing, and broken bones that both the  Bimmiel  body  and

some of the other specimens we've had do. Either they struck out on their own,

or they were given the infiltration assignment as a means for  advancement,  I

would guess."

Corran flexed his left hand. "There is  another  thing  I'm  not  sure  I

understand. The racks that  they  had  the  students  in-and  the  one  you've

described as holding Jacen-they were designed to inflict pain. Not  too  much,

not too little, just pain.  We  both  saw  Yuuzhan  Vong  slay  slaves  rather

ruthlessly and, in my case, for sport and, yet, something more. The  scarring,

tattoos, and broken bones-just having come out of my last bit  of  bacta  tank

therapy may give me a bad perspective on things, but pain and recreation don't

go hand in hand for me."

"The killing of slaves might not seem  like  recreation  to  the  Yuuzhan

Vong, just something some of them take to very well." Luke  opened  his  arms.

"We all know there are some Jedi who like using the Force more than others. As

for the broken bones and the other things, you've the friend  who  is  a  Gand

findsman. You know what he went through to achieve that rank among his people.

Perhaps the injuries, tattoos, and scars are  rank  signs  among  the  Yuuzhan

Vong."

Mirax raised a hand. "Being that I make my living trading in artifacts of

cultural significance, it's my sense that most of those signs remain external.

The scarring and tattoos make sense, but broken bones?  Especially  when  they

destroy symmetry? It doesn't seem right to me."

Luke shrugged. "It doesn't need to seem right to us, just to the  Yuuzhan

Vong. Pain and scarring and the rest may serve some higher  purpose  in  their

culture. The fact that they have these rack creatures  that  inflict  pain  so

exactly points that out. I don't know if you noticed it  on  Bimmiel,  but  on

Belkadan, the rack holding Jacen would have easily  accommodated  any  of  the

Yuuzhan Vong warriors I saw."

"Now that you mention it."

The Jedi Master continued. "I think it is very  important  to  note  that

their attacks on Dubrillion and Dantooine  definitely  pointed  toward  action

meant to test us and train soldiers.  They're  clearly  intelligent  and  seem

driven. Leia told me that Lando's assessment of the first wave of Yuuzhan Vong

and the second is that the second  are  definitely  more  highly  trained  and

skilled. This could be reflective of learning from the first series of attacks

or a hint of what might come through in a third wave."

Corran sighed. "I didn't like the second wave. The idea of  a  third,  or

even a continuation of the second-I'm not looking forward to it at all."

"It doesn't please me, either, but to imagine they're just  going  to  go

away after this round of attacks is as foolish as the senate's belief that the

Yuuzhan Vong would not come back after the first."

"I know, Luke, I know." Corran hugged his arms around himself. "And  I'll

be there, doing what you need done. Nice to know we'll have the  New  Republic

backing us up this time."

"I agree, Corran." Luke exhaled slowly. "For the good of  the  galaxy,  I

hope that will be enough."

EPILOGUE

That looking upon his naked visage made the  subordinates  below  tremble

greatly, pleased Shedao Shai. The Yuuzhan Vong commander had  opted  to  enter

the grashal on Bimmiel without a helmet or the  armored  face  mask  that  his

exalted rank permitted him to wear. His baton of rank lay  coiled  around  his

right forearm. Narrower and  much  shorter  than  an  amphistaff,  the  tsaisi

belonged to the same species as its longer cousin, but remained more delicate.

Its lethal employment required more skill,  hence  the  rarity  of  its  being

granted.

Shedao Shai stood at the top  of  the  stairway  leading  down  into  the

grashal. What he saw would have sickened him, but he would  give  no  sign  of

weakness to those below him.To those beneath me. On the floor they had  larval

gricha eating up sand and excreting shell material to patch over the  breeches

that had permitted the sandbiters to enter the shell and  devour  two  Yuuzhan

Vong warriors.

Two warriors from my family.Shedao Shai began a slow, deliberate  descent

of the steps, letting the heel spurs on his feet click with each footfall.  He

kept his pace measured and watched to see who among those below kept at  their

tasks or chose to look up at him as he descended. Those who did not look  were

feigning disinterest, which meant they hid their ambition; whereas  those  who

watched  from  the  first  instance  were  fawning  morons,   thinking   their

advancement would come through means other than valor and success in combat.

Those who steal glances  as  they  work,  these  are  the  ones  who  are

naturally curious, but respectful and attentive to duty.He  noted  which  they

were, then selected from among them one who had chosen to oversee the ngdin as

it slowly effaced any trace of the interlopers who had desecrated the grashal.

He waited until his chosen one looked up, then summoned him with a single wave

of a crooked finger.

The warrior scooped up the ngdin, holding  the  slimy  creature  in  both

hands despite the way the cilia on which it moved could deliver numbing stings

to the hands. He set it down again on the grashal floor, letting it  attack  a

scarlet smear, then dropped to one knee before his master  and  pounded  right

fist to his left shoulder.

Shedao Shai looked down at him. "You are permitted to gaze upon me,  Krag

Val."

"Were I worthy of that honor, Commander Shai, my tasks here would already

have been completed."

Very good.The Yuuzhan Vong warrior half  lidded  his  eyes,  then  nodded

slowly. "I would have you tell me what happened here."

"As I am able, Commander." The warrior stood and turned to gesture at the

racks. "I believe two of the humans on this  world  were  being  kept  in  the

Embrace of Pain. Two individuals-at a minimum, two-came to free them. The cuts

on the Embrace, the floor, and on the  relics  of  your  kinsmen  lead  me  to

believe these two were of thejeedai. In the battling I believe Neira Shai  was

slain first. His skull has carbon scoring inside an eye  socket.  Dranae  Shai

hurt his foe badly, but scoring on the bones of his hip joint suggests he  was

greatly hurt in return. I found  no  evidence  of  a  killing  stroke  to  his

remains."

Krag Val's voice shrank. "Of the remains we have recovered, that is."

Fury began to build in Shedao Shai, but he kept it in  check.  What  Krag

Val reported was much the substance of the  preliminary  report  he  had  been

given while in transit from Dantooine. His battles there and at Dubrillion had

begun to give him a measure of his enemies. He had  thought  them  resourceful

and even courageous in cases.I almost thought them worthy foes.  But  what  he

learned of their conduct on Bimmiel confirmed for him that  they  were  beyond

redemption.

"Thisjeedai who left his blood here, what of his remains?"

Krag kept his eyes to the floor and clasped his hands behind his back. He

bent forward, defenseless, allowing his master to strike him if he so desired.

"Of him we have no remains. There is blood evidence  that  he  may  have  been

lifted from here and taken away."

Shedao Shai's hands curled into fists studded with horns at the knuckles.

"You tell me they recovered the body of their fallen and yet left ours  to  be

carrion for vermin?"

"This I fear, Commander."

Shedao Shai snarled, raising his right  fist  toward  his  own  misshapen

face.This is the fault of Nom Anor, that gods-cursed whelp of a  machine.  Nom

Anor had infiltrated the New Republic and had sent back much information about

the enemies the Yuuzhan Vong would face here, but he had not included  all  he

should have. Moreover, he had made a bid for  power,  allowing  his  political

faction to launch a strike at Dubrillion and Belkadan.Had his people won those

battles, he would have dictated the  course  of  our  invasion.  His  failures

dictated my first moves, since we could not allow the shame of his  defeat  to

linger to sully our victory. I finished his work, but now my kinsmen have paid

for his deficiencies with their lives.

The Yuuzhan Vong commander kept his voice even, despite the words  coming

through clenched teeth. "And of Mongei Shai?"

Krag Val sank to both knees and prostrated himself at  the  base  of  the

stairs. "There is evidence, Commander, that a group of humans found  the  cave

where he had been waiting. They... I fear to say it, Master..."

Tremors ran through Shedao Shai's body, but  he  kept  them  out  of  his

voice. "Their crimes are not yours, Krag Val."

"They disturbed his rest, Master. They used...  They  left  behind  their

mechanical abominations, there, where they found him."

The Yuuzhan Vong commander turned his face away  from  those  below.  The

image of his grandfather's remains being pawed by these soft  humans,  of  his

being disturbed, of all evidence of his passing  being  destroyed-it  was  too

much. It soured Shedao Shai's breath and thickened  his  saliva.  Mongei  Shai

had, fifty years ago, been  part  of  a  team  to  venture  forth  from  their

worldships to this new galaxy. He had not returned with the others,  remaining

behind on Bimmiel to report to them via villips until  the  range  proved  too

great. His sacrifice had brought honor to Domain Shai, and  Shedao  had  hoped

his cousins could heap more glory upon the family by recovering the remains.

They failed and the enemy has taken his relics. They taunt us with  their

audacity.

Shedao Shai again looked at his subordinates, then pressed a foot against

Krag Val's head, pinning it to the floor. "Why did Neira and  Dranae  fail  to

find Mongei's remains first?"

"The old coordinates were based on this world's magnetic  field.  It  has

shifted. Their searches progressed incrementally.  Fourteen  revolutions  from

their deaths they would have found the  right  formation.  Their  conduct  was

above reproach."

"And without imagination." Shedao Shai gestured back toward  the  minshal

village to the west. "The vermin destroyed the slaves?"

"It appears so, Master."

"And their remains were not recovered by thejeedai?"

"No, Master."

Shedao Shai removed his foot from Krag Val's head, then stepped  down  to

the floor of the grashal. He crouched above the ngdin twitching its way  along

the bloody streak thejeedai had left on the floor. He watched  it  sucking  up

the blood, then looked past the creature at Krag Val.

"At the world they call Dantooine they did not recover their dead.  These

people have no sense of  what  is  proper  or  honorable.  That  they  removed

thisjeedai tells me something valuable."

Krag Val, his head still held low, glanced at Shedao Shai. "What does  it

tell you, Master?"

"It tells me thisjeedai is yet alive."  Shedao  Shai  plucked  the  plump

ngdin from the floor and held it up. On its belly  countless  cilia  glistened

within bloodstained mucus. Shedao Shai leaned forward and bit deeply into  the

ngdin, tasting the blood, feeling the stings. He tore flesh from the  creature

and swallowed, paying no mind to the cool sensation of fluid running down over

his chin.

"Thisjeedai lives, and I will again taste his blood as he dies."