by Troy Denning
“That’s right,” Leia said. The weight inside was decreasing. “Chiss society is defined by war. They’re always fighting— against the Vagaari, the Ssi-ruuk, even each other.”
“And the Qoribu nestz are filled with Chisz Joinerz.”
Saba let the statement hang, leaving it to her listeners to draw their own conclusions. Under normal circumstances, it would have been perfect persuasive technique. But with Raynar, Leia did not want to take any chances. There were too many dangerous turns available to a dissociative mind—especially a dissociative collective mind.
“Remember what Han said about Cilghal’s theory?” Leia asked. “She believes that when a Killik nest absorbs a Force-sensitive being, the nestmates assume a portion of that being’s personality.”
“When the Yoggoy absorbed you,” Han added, “they started to value individual life. When they absorbed Lomi Plo and Welk, they assimilated the desire for secrecy and—”
“We are not responsible for the Dark Nest!” Raynar protested. “Lomi Plo and Welk died in the Crash!”
“That’s right,” Leia said, cringing inwardly. “Welk and Lomi Plo died in the Crash.”
It was growing more apparent that dragging Welk and Lomi Plo out of the burning Flier had been just too much for Raynar to bear; that whenever he remembered it, he also remembered how much he had suffered—and all that he had lost—by doing it.
Leia continued, “But the Yoggoy absorbed your respect for living things, and it wasn’t long before their success led to the creation of the Colony.”
“That is how we remember it,” Raynar agreed. “But we do nor see what that has to do with the Dark Nest—”
“Everything!” Saba waved her scaly arm at the nursery again. “Look at how many Chisz Joinerz they had!”
Raynar’s eyes brightened with anger. “The Kind are not cannibals. Our nests do not feed on our own Joiners.”
“Something happened in this nest,” Saba pointed out.
“And the Chiss are bloodthirsty warriors,” Leia added. It was a wild exaggeration, but one that Raynar would be eager to believe. “Really, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened to the other Qoribu nests.”
“This?” Raynar shook his head. “This could not happen to another nest of Kind.”
“It happened here,” Saba pointed out.
“Maybe there’s some sort of balance point,” Han added, feigning contemplation. “When a nest gets too many Chiss Joiners . . .”
He let the sentence trail off and turned toward Raynar, his expression growing steadily more concerned.
Raynar finished the thought. “It becomes a Dark Nest?” The Unu broke into a distressed drone, and he nodded. “That could explain what happened here.”
“The Chisz are great believerz in secrecy,” Saba offered helpfully.
“Yes.” Raynar spoke with an air of certainty. “The Kind will take no more Chiss into our nests.”
“That’s one solution,” Leia agreed. She caught Han’s eye, and they shared one of those electric moments of connection that made her wonder if he was Force-sensitive after all. “But what are you going to do with all your prisoners?”
A nervous clatter rose among the Unu, and Raynar asked, “Prisoners?”
“Chisz prisonerz,” Saba said. “As the war spreadz, you will have hundredz of thousandz. Millionz.”
“Only one thing to do.” Han shook his head in mock regret. “Of course, that’ll only make the rest of the Chiss fight that much harder.”
Raynar turned to glare at Han. Leia found herself holding her breath, hoping she had not made a mistake reading Raynar’s warped psyche—that he had not grown ruthless enough to accept Han’s suggestion.
At last, Raynar said, “The Colony does not kill its prisoners.”
“No?” Han returned the glare for a moment, then shined his helmet lamp on a half-eaten body. “That’ll change soon enough.”
The Unu entourage erupted into an angry buzz, but Raynar said nothing.
“Maybe it will not be so bad for the Colony,” Saba said. She turned to address the Unu. “Soon, all your nestz will be like the Gorog. The Kind will become great fighterz.”
“We do not wish the Kind to be great fighters,” Raynar said. “We have seen what happens to great fighters. Anakin was a great fighter.”
A pang of grief struck Leia, but she forced herself to continue. “I’m sorry, UnuThul. I don’t see how you can avoid it.”
“Too bad there’s going to be a war,” Han said. “If there wasn’t, the Colony could set up some sort of buffer zone and keep the Chiss away from their nests.”
“That might work,” Leia said. “But Qoribu is too close to Chiss territory. The nests are bound to keep coming into contact with Chiss exploration and mining crews. Sooner or later, they’ll reach the balance point.”
“Qoribu is too close,” Saba agreed. “The Colony would have to move itz nestz.”
“Impossible,” Raynar said. “It cannot be done.”
“That’s very unfortunate.” Leia said this to the Unu entourage. “Because Han and I found this paradise world—”
“Several worlds, probably,” Han added. “All empty, lush with foraging grounds, just waiting for a species to come along and claim them.”
The entourage began to rustle with interest.
“Tell us more,” Raynar said.
“It’s in a subsector on the edge of Colony territory,” Leia explained. “We didn’t have time to do a complete survey, but the world we visited would be perfect for the Taat nest. There were at least two other habitable planets in the same system, with another dozen systems nearby that gave every indication of being just as profuse.”
“We were thinking the Colony would want to have a look,” Han said. “But if you guys aren’t interested, there are still plenty of displaced species in the Galactic Alliance—”
“We are interested,” Raynar said. “We always have need of new territory.”
“Good,” Leiasaid. “I’m sure the Chiss could be persuaded to stand down long enough for you to organize a relocation.”
The corner of Raynar’s mouth turned down. “I’ve told you, that is impossible. There’s no way to transport the Qoribu nests. They are too large.”
“Really?” Han flashed a smug smile, then asked, “So large they couldn’t be temporarily rebuilt in the hangars and launching bays of, say, a few Hapan Battle Dragons?”
Raynar’s jaw dropped. “The Hapan fleet would help us escape the Chiss?”
“Sure, why not?” Han retorted. “That has to be easier than defending you.”
“And they would let us build nests in their Battle Dragons?”
“This one thinkz they would.” Saba sissed in amusement. “In fact, she is sure of it.”
The Unu thrummed their chests and tapped their mandibles for a long time, then Raynar finally said, “We understand what you are doing. You’re just as bad as Jaina was.”
“Was?” Han scowled and looked back toward the other room— the one he had departed without even greeting his daughter. “If you’ve—”
“Relax, Han.” Leia touched Jaina through the Force, then said, “She’s fine. She’s still with Luke and Mara.”
“Of course she is,” Raynar said indignantly. “We meant that Jaina is no longer welcome in her nest.”
Han raised his brow. “I’ve been kicked out of a few saloons in my time, but a nest? What’d she do?”
“She’s too much like you,” Raynar said. “She is stubborn and tricky, and she cared about nothing but preventing a war.”
“You don’t say.” Han smiled proudly, then asked, “Does this mean she’ll stop being a bughugger?”
Raynar’s eyes flashed in anger, and Leia began to have visions of her carefully crafted peace initiative falling apart.
“Han,” she said. “Remember, UnuThul hasn’t agreed to our proposal yet.”
“Well, he hasn’t disagreed, either.” Han turned to Raynar. “What’s it going to be,
kid? A nasty war and a Colony full of Dark Nests, or a free ride to a free world?”
The Unu erupted into a riot of chest drumming and antenna waving, but Han ignored them and kept his eye fixed on Raynar. The entourage kept the racket up for a few moments longer, then abruptly fell silent and began to stream out of the vault.
Leia frowned. “Are we to take that as a yes?”
“Of course,” Raynar said. He rubbed his arm down the antennae of a small, red-eyed Killik about half the size of an Ewok, then turned and started after his nest. “Wasn’t it our idea?”
EPILOGUE
AT THE FAR END OF THE LONG, slanting cylinder of spitcrete storage cells, a single Taat was clinging to a patch of durasteel wall, peering out through the hold’s lone observation bubble at the golden-ringed mass of the planet Qoribu. With Kendall’s decks shuddering beneath the power of her sublight drives and the departure alarms chiming over the intercom, the other members of the nest were perched atop the cell covers, thrumming a soft, mournful song that made the hair rise on the back of Han’s neck.
“Enchanting song,” Mara said.
Peering in through the hatch with Han, Luke, Leia, and several others, she was seated in a hoverchair she probably did not need. The Killik healers had tended her goring wound so well that the Hapan surgeons had sent her straight to the bacta ward. Between her own healing trances and the month she had spent in the tanks, the only signs that remained of the fight on Kr were the dark circles beneath her eyes and a general haggardness— both of which, according to Leia, had less to do with her injuries than with having to call so heavily on the Force to keep herself going during the battle.
“It’s an ancient Killik tune that goes back to the creation of the Maw,” C-3PO said. “I’d—”
“Hold on,” Han said. “The Killiks were there when the Maw was created?”
“Of course,” C-3PO said. “According to their histories, they were the ones who built it.”
“The Killiks?” Dukat Gray gasped. He took an unconscious step away from the hatch. “Truly?”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Leia said. “Killik memories can be rather, uh, flexible.”
“What about the song?” Mara asked again. “Can you translate, Threepio?”
“Of course,” C-3PO said. “The air tides move us to a different place, the air—”
“Not quite, Threepio,” Jaina said.
“It’s more like this,” Zekk added.
Together, they sang:
The cold wind carries us far from our nest, The cold wind sweeps us where it may. Cold wind, bear us out of danger, Cold wind, carry us home again.
An uneasy silence fell over the group; then the underway alarms fell silent. Kendall gave a small jolt, and the bands of Qoribu began to grow smaller as the Fleet of the Defender Queen moved off. Han resisted the temptation to check on the Falcon’s status; she was isolated in a capture hangar, safely secured alongside the Jedi StealthXs and being guarded by two Noghri and the surviving pair of YVH droids. She would ride safely until the fleet reached the Killiks’ new home.
Zekk said, “We are going to miss them.”
“Them?” Han asked. He recalled what Raynar had said about Jaina and Zekk no longer being welcome in their nest, but the Colony’s attitude about a lot of things had softened in the last month, and Jaina and Zekk had been spending most of their time with the Taat, helping build the temporary nest aboard Kendall. “The rings of Qoribu? The moons?”
“The Taat, Dad,” Jaina said. “Our mission in the Colony—”
“—is over,” Zekk finished.
“No kidding?” A smile as wide as a door crept across Han’s mouth. “Great! That’s just—” He felt his eyes growing watery, then threw his arms around Jaina and Zekk and pulled them close so they would not think he was going to cry. “I’m happy as a Jawa in a junkyard.”
“ Dad!” Jaina lifted her chin. “You didn’t let us finish!”
“We’re not coming home until . . .”
Zekk let the sentence trail off when a Hapan adjutant appeared at the edge of the group with a portable holocomm.
“Until when?” Han demanded.
“Later.” Jaina nodded at the adjutant. “I think this could be important.”
“Indeed.” Gray turned toward the adjutant with an air of expectation. “Is the passenger aboard?”
The adjutant’s reply was drowned out by a thundering Wookiee bellow from the other end of the access corridor. Lowbacca came bounding up the passage, his furry arms spread wide. Jaina and Zekk started to race off to meet him, but stopped a step away to look back over their shoulders.
“Dad, about that until,” Jaina said, smiling.
“Just forget it,” Zekk finished.
Then Lowbacca was on them, picking them up in his arms and complaining about the food in Chiss prisons.
Once the noise had died down a bit, the adjutant said, “Pardon me, Your Grace, but we’re being hailed.”
“Hailed?” Gray repeated. “Out here?”
“By the Chiss, Your Grace. Ship-to-ship.”
Gray sighed. “Very well. I’ll take it in—”
“I’m sorry.” The adjutant looked as though he expected to be hit. “But the Aristocra wishes to speak to Master Skywalker.”
Gray scowled at Luke, then swung his scowl over to the adjutant. “What are you waiting for?”
The adjutant paled, then knelt in front of Luke and activated the holocomm. The image of a Chiss of about Han’s age appeared above the pad.
“Aristocra Formbi,” Luke said immediately. “What a surprise.”
“It shouldn’t be,” Formbi retorted. “Did you think Jagged Fel was overseeing this operation?”
“Not really,” Luke said. “What can we do for you . . . that we haven’t already?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Formbi declared. “Commander Fel informs me that your sister was responsible for persuading the Killiks to depart Qoribu.”
“For negotiating a truce,” Leia said, stepping into the holocam’s view. “The Chiss also made certain guarantees.”
“Of course. A border guarantee and a promise of nonaggression. All Chiss doctrine, anyway.”
“Explicit guarantees, nonetheless,” Leia said.
Noting that Qoribu had now shrunk to a size such that the whole planet could be seen through the Taat’s observation bubble, Han caught Leia’s eye and made a winding motion with his finger.
Leia nodded, then said, “What is it you wished to say to me, Aristocra? We have time left before the fleet enters hyperspace, but we should be aware of it.”
“Of course—forgive me,” Formbi said. “First, I wished to congratulate you on your success. Without your talents, I fear this matter would have come to war.”
“Thank you, Aristocra,” Leia said. “But it took the involvement of a great number of people to resolve this conflict—Jagged Fel among them.”
“Commander Fel will receive a promotion in recognition of his judgment here,” Formbi said. “But is you who deserves our thanks. You have achieved peace in our time.”
“The Jedi achieved this peace, Aristocra. I was just one of many who were involved.” Qoribu’s bands were now a colorless mass, and its rings looked like tiny ears protruding from the fattest part of its sphere. “And the second thing? We don’t have much time.”
“I wanted you to know that Commander Fel is responsible for the return of your Wookiee,” Formbi said. “Had it not been for his objections—his very vigorous objections—the prisoner would have remained interned until we could be certain this peace is going to hold.”
“Then it’s a good thing you listened to Jag,” Han said. “Keeping the Wookiee would have been a bad mistake.”
“Yes, so Commander Fel informed me,” Formbi replied calmly. “Be that as it may, I thought you should know that Commande Fel guaranteed your Jedi Knight’s parole personally. We don’t expect to see any Jedi back in our neighborhood soon, but if Lowbacca were to return
, the Fel family would be responsible for repaying any damages he caused to the Ascendancy—and a Wookiee Jedi can cause quite a lot of damage, if our prison ship is any example.”
“That’s very kind of Commander Fel,” Leia said. “Please thank him for us.”
Jaina and Zekk appeared at Han’s back. Lowbacca was towering over them from behind, more of an appendix to their pair than a third member.
“Dad,” Jaina whispered.
“We’d like to talk to Jag,” Zekk finished.
Han cringed at the thought of Zekk being a part of that particular conversation, but nodded and spoke into the holocomm.
“Is Jag there? We have someone here who wants to say thanks personally.”
“Jaina, I presume.” Without waiting for confirmation, Formbi said, “Let me check his availability.”
Formbi turned and said something they could not hear to someone they could not see. A moment later, Jagged Fel’s rugged face replaced Formbi’s above the holopad. Han and the others stepped aside to let Jaina—and Zekk—move into the holocam’s field.
“Jaina.” He frowned, a little confused, and his gaze reluctantly shifted to Zekk. “And Jedi Zekk. I’d like to express my personal gratitude for . . . everything you did. Your efforts helped avert the war.”
“You owe us no thanks for that,” Zekk said.
“We were acting on everyone’s behalf,” Jaina said.
“Yes . . . of course.” Jag’s gaze drifted to Zekk again, and he seemed even more uncertain of himself. “Congratulations, then. You did it very well.”
Han glanced out the observation bubble and saw that Qoribu had shrunk to a flattened, silver disk about the size of his thumb. He leaned down next to Jaina’s ear.
“Get to the point,” he whispered. “The jump is coming.”
Jaina and Zekk nodded, then Jaina said, “Thanks for getting Lowbacca released. We were worried that we might have to come break him out.”
“So were we.” Jagged’s tone remained deadpan. “I was not looking forward to that meeting.”