by Troy Denning
“. . . needs a leader,” Kenth was saying. “And the Advisory Council confirmed Master Horn as the temporary leader of the Jedi order.”
“The Advisory Council doesn’t pick our leaders,” Kyp retorted. “And even if it did, there were only two real Jedi representatives there!”
“Whose fault is that?” Tresina Lobi asked. “You and Cilghal left.”
“Because it was a bogus meeting!” Kyp yelled. “Omas has just been waiting until Luke was out of the way to put somebody he could control in charge.”
“No, my friend.” Kenth spoke in a deliberately soft tone, at the same time pouring soothing emotions into the Force. “Chief Omas choose Master Horn deliberately, because he knew it would throw the order into convulsions.”
“And he certainly succeeded,” Corran said. “Look, I know I’m not the best person to lead the order—”
“At least we agree on something,” Kyp interrupted.
“That’s out of line, Master Durron,” Kenth said evenly. “We need to be civil, or Omas has already succeeded.”
An anticipatory lull fell over the argument.
After a moment, Kyp blew out his breath and said, “Fine. I apologize.”
“Thank you, Master Durron,” Corran said. “Now, as I was saying—”
“If I may,” Kenth interrupted. “I believe I was speaking.”
Corran raised his brow. “Sorry. Go ahead.”
“Thank you.” Kenth’s politeness was exaggerated, but it was doing wonders to help calm the situation. He turned back to Kyp. “If you’ll indulge me a moment, what I’m trying to point out is that Chief Omas is trying to neutralize the Jedi order so that he can take action against the Killiks.”
“And keep the Chiss happy—we know,” Kyp said. “So we ought to surprise him by sticking together.”
“That’s two points we agree on,” Corran said.
“Great!” Kyp’s enthusiasm was as exaggerated as Kenth’s politeness. “We’ll launch the rescue mission as soon as my StealthX is repaired.” He eyed Corran. “Unless you’re going to cut another hydraulic line.”
“Only if I have to,” Corran retorted. “Going off on a cockeyed rescue mission is exactly the wrong thing to do. We need to prove to Chief Omas that the Galactic Alliance has nothing to fear from us.”
“By letting him hold Jedi hostage?” Tesar demanded. “Never!”
“Cooperation is both the fastest and the surest way to win their release,” Tresina said. “We need to turn this situation around, and it arose in the first place because last time we chose the Colony over the Alliance.”
“We chose peace over convenienzzze,” Izal Waz said. “That is our duty.”
“Our duty is to support the Alliance,” Corran said, “even if we disagree with its leader.”
“Our duty is to the Force,” Kyp retorted. “Nothing else.”
And they were off, voices rising and gestures growing sharp as they argued the same points they had been arguing since Kyp had called Jaina and Zekk and the rest of the rescue squadron back from their other missions. With a mother being “detained” by the Galactic Alliance and a father and an uncle trapped in the Utegetu Nebula, Jaina and Zekk’s position was as firm as it was obvious. But they did not like seeing the order torn apart by the disagreement, either. They had spent literally their entire lives working to establish it, and the prospect of seeing it dissolve was only slightly less loathsome than the thought of letting Cal Omas control it.
They had to get Uncle Luke and Dad out of Utegetu.
After a few minutes, the debate grew so heated that when the hangar’s barrier field went down, only Jaina and Zekk seemed to care. They turned and saw Jacen’s sleek little Koensayr Starskiff gliding into the entrance.
The situation inside the hangar appeared even worse from the cockpit of Jacen’s Starskiff than in the glimpses he had been stealing through his sister’s eyes. Kyp’s rescue squadron was more like a squadron and a half, including Tam Azur-Jamin, Kirana Ti, and half a dozen Barabel Jedi Knights from Saba’s old Wild Knights squadron. Corran Horn’s group was equally large, with two Council Masters, Tresina Lobi and Kenth Hamner, among them. The two sides were arguing fiercely, almost violently, and it was clear that no one was listening to anyone.
“What’s all that about?” Ben asked from the copilot’s seat. “It feels like they’re ready to slug each other.”
“They are,” Jacen said. “It has something to do with a mission to rescue Master Sebatyne and my mother, and maybe your father and mine. It’s a little unclear.”
“To rescue them?” Ben cried. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know yet,” Jacen said. “But don’t worry about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not.” Jacen put the skiff down on the side of the StealthXs farthest from the argument. There was no use letting Ben actually hear what adult Jedi were capable of yelling at each other. “And I have two parents involved.”
“That’s a dumb reason,” Ben said. “You never worry about anything.”
“That’s not true,” Jacen said. At the moment, he was terribly worried about two people on the planet Hapes. “I just don’t worry about things I can’t control, and I fix things I can control.”
“Can you fix what they’re arguing about?”
“No one can fix what they’re arguing about,” Jacen said. “But everything is going to be okay. If your father or my parents needed help, I’d know about it.”
“How?” Ben demanded.
Jacen looked over and said nothing.
“Oh, yeah,” Ben said. “The Force.”
By the time Jacen shut the craft down, Jaina and Zekk had left the argument and were picking their way through the StealthX squadron toward the Starskiff. Jacen grabbed Ben’s travel bag, then lowered the boarding ramp.
Ben raced down the ramp and immediately confronted Jaina. “Where’s Mom? What happened to Dad and Uncle Han and Aunt Leia?”
“Nothing—they’re okay,” Jaina said.
“Why do you think something has happened to them?” Zekk asked.
Ben pointed across the hangar. “Because you’re arguing about whether to rescue them or not, aren’t you?”
Jaina and Zekk raised their round eyes to Jacen.
“It’s not my fault,” Jacen said. “He could feel it in the Force. So can half the students in the academy, I’m sure.”
They blinked—together—and looked back to Ben.
“It’s not that kind of rescue mission,” Jaina explained. “No one’s in danger right now.”
“The Killiks are sort of holding your father and Uncle Han,” Zekk explained. “And we’re, um, discussing whether we should allow that.”
Ben considered this a moment, then frowned in suspicion. “Why aren’t you talking about Mom and Aunt Leia?”
“Because they’re in even less danger,” Jaina said. “They’re being held by the Galactic Alliance, on a Star Destroyer.”
“So no one’s in danger?” Ben asked.
“Not yet,” Zekk said.
“Then what’s everyone arguing about?” Ben shook his head in disappointment. “Dad wouldn’t like that.”
“There are a lot of things happening right now he wouldn’t like,” Zekk said. “That’s why we’re trying to get him back.”
“But that’s not something you should worry about,” Jaina said. “Why don’t you tell us about your trip?”
“Was it fun?” Zekk added.
“Uh, yeah.” Ben hesitated for a moment, then frowned. “We went camping on the forest moon of Endor.”
Jaina and Zekk gave simultaneous throat-clicks, then frowned and looked to Jacen.
“Ben, tell them about Moon Falls,” Jacen prodded. He had given Ben two memory rubs already, but the boy was so strong in the Force that his mind kept resisting. “I don’t think Jaina has ever seen them.”
“It’s awesome!” Ben said. “The upper lake drops over a ledge into the lower lake, and
it’s so far that the water turns to mist!”
“Tell them how wide the falls are,” Jacen said. He casually began to ruffle Ben’s red hair, using the Force to push the Endor trip deeper into the boy’s mind, to block any lingering memory of their visit to Hapes. “And what happens when they face away from the planet.”
“Right—the falls just stop!” Ben said. “I guess the planet pulls the lake back or something.”
“And how wide are the falls?” Jaina asked.
“Twenty kilometers,” Ben said. “You can’t even see from one end to the other.”
“Astral!” Zekk said.
“That’s pretty big,” Jaina said.
Though Jaina and Zekk were looking at Ben, Jacen sensed through his twin bond with Jaina that her attention—and Zekk’s—was on him. He had hoped they would not notice what he was doing, but it hardly mattered. He could not endanger his daughter’s life further by taking the chance that Ben would remember what had happened on Hapes, then let slip that Jacen was the father of the new heir to the Hapan throne.
Jaina and Zekk fell silent and simply stood waiting in the patient way of Joiners. Jacen was about to suggest that Ben tell them about their stay with the Ewoks when he sensed a familiar presence approaching the back of the hangar.
Relieved to have an excuse to get Ben away from his all-too-perceptive sister and her mindmate, he turned to Ben. “Can you tell me who’s coming through that door?”
Ben furrowed his brow for a moment, then said, “It must be Nanna.”
The door slid open, revealing the massive, systems-packed torso and cherubic face of Ben’s Defender Droid, Nanna.
“Very good!” Zekk said.
“You can sense droids already?” Jaina asked.
“Naw!” Ben shook his head. “It had to be her—Jacen called her on the way in.”
“Very resourceful!” Jaina laughed. “Using your mind is—”
“—even better than using the Force,” Zekk finished.
“Go meet her.” Jacen passed Ben’s travel bag to him, then patted him on the back. “Tell her all about our trip to Endor.”
“I will!” Ben piped. “See you, Jaina and Zekk!”
Jaina and Zekk said their good-byes, then, once Ben was out of earshot, turned to Jacen.
“Okay, what was that about?” Jaina demanded.
“What?” Jacen asked.
“The head rubbing,” Zekk said. “We felt you using the Force.”
“It was nothing.” Jacen was not willing to tell even Jaina about his daughter—not when that meant he was also telling Zekk. “Ben saw something upsetting while we were away. I’ve been using a little Force trick I learned from the Adepts to block it.”
“So you didn’t go camping on Endor,” Zekk surmised.
“We did—afterward.” Jacen was telling the truth. He had needed something to take the place of Ben’s Hapan memories. “I’ll fill you in later. But first, what’s that all about?”
He pointed at the argument.
“You have been out of touch,” Jaina said. “Cal Omas appointed Corran Horn temporary leader of the Jedi order.”
“Some of us don’t like it,” Zekk added.
Jacen continued to study the argument. “Does this have anything to do with the Colony?”
“Everything,” Jaina said.
They told him the highlights, from Raynar blaming the Jedi for the Fizz attacks on the Utegetu nests to the Colony’s return to the Chiss border. Then they summarized Cilghal’s theory about the stuff being a self-replicating nanotech terraforming system, and what they knew about Leia and Saba’s detention by the Galactic Alliance. They finished by describing Chief Omas’s attempt to take control of the Jedi order by appointing Corran Horn its temporary leader.
“And you can see how well that’s working,” Jaina said. “Half the order thinks we need to mount rescue missions for Mom and Saba and Dad and Uncle Luke.”
“And the other half thinks we need to support the blockade and intimidate the Colony into pulling out of the buffer zone,” Zekk added. “Meanwhile, the Killiks are establishing nests all along the Chiss frontier.”
Jacen felt the blood drain from his face, and he saw again the burning planets and the spaceships carrying flames from system to system, he saw the hands of humans and Chiss and Killiks setting those fires, saw the whole galaxy going up in one eternal blaze.
“Jacen?”
“What’s wrong?” Jaina asked. “Jacen!”
“It’s happening,” Jacen gasped.
“What’s happening?” Jaina demanded.
“Another war.” Jacen was beginning to see what had to be done, why the vision had come to him. “An eternal one.”
“All right, Jacen,” Jaina said. “You’re starting to scare us.”
“Good,” Jacen said. “Because I’m terrified.”
He turned toward the argument still raging beyond the StealthXs, then touched Tesar in the Force and summoned him over.
The meaning of the vision was growing clearer to Jacen every moment. Ta’a Chume had attacked his infant daughter through the Dark Nest, just as the Dark Nest was attacking the Galactic Alliance through its black membrosia and its pirate harboring. The Force had shown him what was going to come of the Colony’s actions—and it had shown him in the moment he was taking action to protect his daughter.
The Force wanted him to protect its child.
The Force wanted him to do to the Killiks what he had done to Ta’a Chume.
“Jacen?” Jaina asked. “Tesar said you—”
“Just a minute,” Jacen said.
He summoned Lowbacca next, and then Tahiri, one at a time so their departure would go unnoticed by those in the argument.
Once they were all gathered around, he said, “I need your help. Now.”
“Now?” Tesar asked. “Sorry. Master Durron needz us to rescue—”
“That isn’t important.”
“It’s important to us,” Tahiri said. “The Colony is holding Han and Master Skywalker hostage—”
“Free Uncle Luke or not, support Master Horn or oppose him, it makes no difference in the end.” Jacen reached out to them all in the Force, trying to share with them the horror he had felt when he experienced that vision, offering them just a glimpse of the dark future he had foreseen. “I need you to do something that will make a difference.”
Lowbacca groaned the opinion that Jacen should tell them what in space he was talking about.
“I had a vision.”
The group grew quieter, and Tahiri whispered, “That can’t be good.”
“It isn’t,” Jacen said. “A war erupts between the Killiks and Chiss, and the Galactic Alliance is drawn into it.”
“That is what we’re trying to prevent,” Tesar said. “That is why we must rescue Master Skywalker and put an end to the Galactic Alliance’z blockade.”
Jacen met the Barabel’s eye. “The war has already started—and the Killiks are the only ones who know it.”
“The Killiks?” Jaina shook her head. “The Killiks are peaceful—”
“The Dark Nest isn’t,” Jacen said. He could see that the others were still too enamored of the Killiks to help him willingly, so he would have to explain things in terms they could accept. “The Dark Nest is leading the Colony astray again. The black membrosia, the Utegetu pirates, who knows what else—it’s been working to destabilize the Galactic Alliance for months.”
“Because they still want to expand into the Chiss frontier?” Tahiri asked.
“Because the Dark Nest still wants a war with the Chiss,” Jacen corrected.
“This one is not so sure,” Tesar said. “Why would the Dark Nest want a war with the Chisz?”
“The same reason they did last time,” Tahiri said. “To conquer them.”
“Remember how their larvae feed,” Zekk said.
“It can’t be easy to expand a nest when you need a constant supply of slaves to lay your eggs in,” Jaina added. “A war
is the ideal cover. When people disappear, they’re casualties, not mysteries.”
“Exactly,” Jacen said. “Everything the Dark Nest has done has been designed to neutralize the things that prevented the war last time. The Galactic Alliance is so angry about the black membrosia and the pirates that it won’t lift a finger to interfere with the Chiss.”
Lowbacca nodded, then looked back toward the argument and growled that the Jedi had been neutralized as well.
Tahiri let out a breath, then asked, “So what do you want us to do, Jacen?”
“Stop the war.” Jacen slowly drew a veneer of calm over his presence, projecting an aura of tranquillity into the Force that would prevent the others from sensing the lies he was about to tell. “In my vision, the war starts in earnest when the Chiss launch a surprise attack against the new Killik colonies.”
“That makez no sense,” Tesar objected. “Even Master Durron sayz the Chisz are waiting for the Jedi to make the Killikz withdraw.”
Jacen used a smile to hide the grimace inside. This was something he had not heard about. “And how do we know this?”
Tesar remained silent and looked to Lowbacca and Tahiri, who merely shrugged.
“From the meeting where Master Horn was appointed our leader,” Tahiri said.
“So we can assume that the information came from Chief Omas,” Jacen said. “And he might or might not be telling the truth—as he knows it.”
Lowbacca groaned a question.
“What I’m saying is that the information probably came from the Chiss themselves,” Jacen said.
Jaina nodded. “And if they were planning a preemptive attack—”
“—they would want to keep the Galactic Alliance out of the way,” Zekk finished.
“Exactly,” Jacen said. “Chiss lie—visions don’t.”
Seeing the alarm in their faces—and sensing it in the Force even more clearly—Jacen fell quiet and allowed the others a few moments to contemplate what he was asking. With the Jedi essentially leaderless and in disarray, he had no doubts about their eventual decision. In times of turmoil, most people were eager to follow a being with a vision. Vergere had taught him that.