Book 8

The Fall of the Diversity Alliance

Diversity Alliance

by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

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To Steve Sansweet, a fellow Star Wars enthusiast from day one, for your friendship and for helping us keep our sense of humor acknowledgments

Writing each volume of the Young Jedi Knights requires a lot of help from many different people Sue Rostoni, Allan Kausch, and Lucy Wilson at Lucasfilm Licensing; Ginjer Buchanan and Jessica Faust at Boulevard Books; A. C. Crispin for helping us create Raynar's parents; Lillie E.

Mitchell, Catherine Ulatowski, Katie Tyree, and Angela Kato at WordFire, Inc.; and Jonathan Cowan, our first test-reader.

A special thanks to all of the fans and devoted readers who have enjoyed this series so much and urged us to tell the further adventures of Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca. Your enthusiasm and support give us the energy we need to write these stories.

THE RAGTAG GROUP of ships drifted through space, maintaining silence, broadcasting no telltale signal that could give away their location.

This assortment of merchant vessels, scout cruisers, and security ships had been cobbled together over the course of two decades by the noble Thul family of Alder-aanto form a trading fleet. Since most of the family had been off-planet when Alder-aan was destroyed, the Thuls had moved to Coruscant, the commercial and governmental center of the galaxy. Through shrewd investments, they had built the remnants of their ancient wealth into Bornaryn Trading, a powerful galactic company with a steady flow of cargo and burgeoning business on countless routes.

At the moment, though, the merchant fleet had no known destination.

The vessels huddled close together in an empty space between the stars, keeping themselves safe. Security starfighters flitted protectively along the edges of the convoy, while the other craft clustered in the center like a school of nervous glim-merfish.

On the Tradewyn, the flagship of the Bomaryn fleet, Aryn Dro Thul stood proudly on the observation deck. She wore a simple gown of midnight blue shot with silver that complemented her braided chestnut hair.

A sash of scarlet, yellow, orange, and purple was tied loosely about her waist. Though slight of build, Aryn projected an air of dignity that often fooled those she met into thinking her a tall woman.

As she stared through the main windowport, her intelligent blue eyes kept watch on the cargo vessels, fleet skimmers, security shuttles, and scout drones she and Bornan Thul had assembled for their business.

Now, with the disappearance of her husband, all responsibility for Bornaryn Trading rested on her shoulders. Aryn turned to her brother-in-law, who stood beside her on the deck of the Tradewyn. Tyko Thul was a powerful merchant who had made his fortune in droid manufacturing. Though he was a calculating and sometimes pompous man, she was glad of his support during this time of crisis.

"Is there any word yet on my husband?"

Aryn asked. "A coded message perhaps? We must find some trace of him soon."

Tyko scratched his short blond hair with one hand, and his shrewd hazel eyes narrowed in concentration. "No, Aryn--there's been no sign of Bornan. He has simply disappeared." A frown creased his round face, so deeply that furrows appeared in his rosy cheeks and his chin.

"I don't know if this is a new kind of scam he's pulling, or what he hopes to gain... but I wish he'd make some sort of contact with us."

Aryn paced the deck of the flagship, looking out the broad windowports at two of the heavily armed security starfighters dashing back and forth, crisscrossing the convoy perimeter to guard against external attack.

"You're so skeptical, Tyko," she said. "I don't think it's anything of the sort. Bor nan's been kidnapped, or hurt... or even killed."

Tyko shook his head. "I'm being skeptical?

At least I'm thinking he might still be alive and all right. I know my brother, Aryn. He's probably run across something valuable and wants to keep it all for himself."

"Not Bornan," Aryn said, her blue eyes flashing with anger.

"I'm positive that someone has taken him, and I'm certain we're all in danger. The whole family."

Tyko placed a fleshy hand on his sister-in-law's shoulder, squeezing it in a vain attempt to reassure her. "If I didn't believe you might be right, Aryn, I'd never have left Mechis III to be here with you. It's taken me a long time to get the droid manufacturing facilities up and running there again, you know. I think they're all fully functional now.

That strange programming glitch Mechis III suffered during Imperial days has been completely purged from the system, so I suppose my assistants can handle it, for the moment."

He gave her a small smile. "I'd rather be here with you and the fleet...

where it's safe."

Tyko went to a console to study their random flight path as one of the private security guards marched onto the observation deck. "Excuse me, Lady Aryn," the guard said, clearing his throat. "We've been at these coordinates for as long as we feel it's advisable."

She sighed. "Thank you, Kusk. Time for another hyperspace jump, then?"

Kusk nodded. "Yes, if you intend to keep the location of our fleet absolutely secret.

We are currently at risk if we stay here."

"Not just yet." Aryn turned to Tyko, folding her slender hands together.

She pressed her pale lips into a grim line. Her husband had always said he could tell when she had made up her mind and did not intend to change it. "I feel uncomfortable knowing that my son Raynat is out in the open.

Perhaps he is in danger."

Tyko gave a.dismissive wave. "He's safe enough at the Jedi academy. Luke Sky-walker wouldn't dare let any harm come to him."

"No one can protect my son better than I can," Aryn insisted.

"I'm going to contact Yavin 4. I'll ask Raynar to come to our fleet, so we can all be together. I want him where I can see him, at least until this whole... situation is over."

Tyko blew air between his generous lips and shook his head wearily.

"Skywalker can protect him with the Force. I'm sure he's quite reliable."

"Yes, he is," Aryn said. "That's why I'll request that the Jedi Master personally escorts Raynar safely to our fleet."

Tyko knew when to give up his objections.

"All right," he said. "It'll be good to have the whole family together again."

Aryn looked at him sternly. "The whole family won't be together again until my husband is found."

"Oh yes. Yes, of course," Tyko said. "I forgot about that."

Aryn turned to the security guard, who was still waiting patiently at the door to the observation deck. "Plot a new course, Kusk," she said, "and prepare to launch our fleet into hyperspace--but first establish a communications link to the Jedi academy. I need to speak directly with Master Luke Skywalker."

After a hard day of studies, meditation, and training exercises, Jacen Solo left the Great Temple and went off into the dense jungle to be by himself.

His sister Jaina and their Wookiee friend Lowbacca were busy working on the Rock Dragon, tinkering with the Hapan passenger cruiser's engines--

not so much' because the ship needed the work, but because the two mechanically inclined young Jedi Knights enjoyed the tinkering.

Tenel Ka, who technically owned the ship, preferred instead to be out running, doing her exercises, toning up her body and keeping her muscles at their peak performance. Ever since she had lost her arm in a lightsaber dueling accident, Tenel Ka had taken to swimming in the river as often as she could.

Jacen loved to spend time with the warrior girl, but he couldn't keep up with her calisthenics. Instead, he preferred to go off into the jungle, because it gave him an opportunity to look for interesting plants or insects or animal specimens he could take back and keep in the small menagerie of pets he studied and then set free. Back in his quarters, in an incubator built' by Jaina, he also carefully nurtured the fertilized gort egg his father had given him.

Soon, he thought, the precious egg would hatch, and he would have an unusual pet.

For now, though, he walked through the underbrush in search of various colors of the polished button beetles. He had discovered a nearly intact nest under some broken rocks blasted from the Great Temple during the recent Shadow Academy attack, and he wanted to complete his collection of specimens.

Instead, as he parted a stand of tall ferns and stepped into a clearing, Jacen saw another young Jedi trainee, Raynat, sitting alone on a rock. He found this quite unusual, since the young man usually avoided the jungles, preferring to remain inside more "civilized" areas. Raynar's brightly colored robes were as multihued and iridescent as an entire swarm of button beetles. He sat with his hands on his robed knees.

Jacen grinned and waved. he'd been working harder at being friendly to Raynar since the boy's family problems had begun.

"Hi, Raynar. What are you doing?"

Raynar turned, startled by Jacen's arrival.

"Nothing."

Jacen laughed. "There's usually a lot more than nothing going on, when someone says 'nothing.'"

"All right," Raynar said with a sigh.

"I was meditating... using the Force to reach out with my mind. I thought maybe I could find out something about where my father went."

"Still no word, then?" Jacen asked.

Sadly, the blond-haired boy shook his head and stared down at his hands.

Though New Republic Security Forces and the bounty hunter Boba Fett--and who knew how many others--were searching the galaxy for him, Bornan Thul had not been found.

Jacen felt uncomfortable when someone else was in trouble or dejected and there was. nothing he could do about it. Although he often resorted to telling jokes, he knew this was probably not a good time to try that. "I wish there was something we could do to help," he said.

"If I can think of something, I'll definitely ask you, then," Raynar answered, looking slightly relieved, though not too hopeful.

He forced a smile. A small one... but it was a smile nevertheless.

When Jacen and Raynar returned together to the Great Temple, the workers had just finished restoring part of the hangar bay that had collapsed during the Imperial attack. New Republic engineers had pitched in with the large-scale work, while military ships hovered in orbit over the jungle moon to protect against any further attacks from space.

Arms crossed over his chest, Luke Sky-walker leaned against the Rock Dragon and watched Jacen and Raynar as they approached.

Jaina and Lowbacca sat beside the repaired passenger shuttle.

Jacen waved. "Hi, Uncle Luke."

"I've got a message from Raynar's mother," Luke said.

The boy from Alderaan instantly perked up and hurried over. "What is it?"

Raynar asked. "Is there news?"

"Not exactly," Luke said. "But she would like me to escort you to her fleet so you can be together during the search for your father.

She thinks it's best for your. personal safety."

"The fleet? Well, well, well..." Raynar frowned. "But how would I get there? If we're worried that someone will try to kidnap me as well as my father, I can't just "

"I guess we could take you," Jacen said.

"The Rock Dragon looks like a normal ship, so nobody would suspect anything."

"Thanks for offering," Luke said, "but I'm afraid Raynar's mother was quite insistent: I have to escort him personally. The Shadow Chaser has quantum armor-to shield us from any attack, and I can help guard him with my jedi skills."

"But what am I supposed to do when I get there?" the young man said, tugging at his colorful robes. "I need to continue my Jedi training and develop my skills. I can't be of any help to my father if I'm stuck in isolation with the fleet."

"Hey, we could go along, Uncle Luke," Jacen suggested, still trying to find a way to help. "We'll work on our exercises together.

Besides, Raynar needs friends with him right now."

Raynat looked at Jacen skeptically, and then at the other young Jedi Knights. "You'd do that you'd all come along with me?"

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka said.

"Sure," Jaina said. "We haven't always been very friendly to you, but maybe this is a good time to change that."

Lowie rumbled his enthusiastic endorsement of the plan.

"I think that's a terrific idea," Luke said.

"Good," Jaina answered, slamming an access hatch on the outside of the Rock Dragon and fastening it. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Lowbacca growled a comment, and Jaina nodded. "The Rock Dragon's ready to go when the rest of you are."

ON THE HELLISH world of Ryloth, half of the planet broiled under sunlight hot enough to soften rock, while the other side crackled with a cold so intense it would make a glacier shiver.

The Twileks, the only sentient beings ever to make a long-term home there, had settled in the narrow band of shadow between daylight and darkness. In this twilight region, surface temperatures above ground remained hospitable enough to support life, but the Twi'leks preferred to build shelters by burrowing into the mountain ranges.

They'd carved great warrens, cities beneath the ground, where their clan system had evolved into a complex male-dominated political structure that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Until the Twi'lek woman Nolaa Tarkona had implemented sweeping changes through a swift wave of bloodshed.

Forming the Diversity Alliance had been her key to freedom and power. She was the political movement's outspoken and charismatic leader, uniting downtrodden alien species that had suffered for so long under human domination.

Now Nolaa held the deepest, most defensible chambers beneath the mountains, and had set up her headquarters there.

After her rise to power, her followers had excavated an underground spaceport adjacent to the grotto that allowed her powerful allies direct access to Ryloth, and from there, out to the galaxy at large.

The Twi'lek leader sat in her cool, expanded grotto, a throne room of sorts. She had a great deal of work to do. Managing a galaxy-wide political movement required constant effort, concentration, and vigilance.

Here, deep underground, she had to rely on chronometers and assistants to tell her when it was time to stop working and begin the sleeping period.

Of late, though, she had curtailed her rest hours.

Plans she had set in motion continued to brew; their demands weighed heavily upon her, and she had far too many obligations to bother with sleep. If her revolution failed and she was killed, then she could sleep for all eternity.

Nolaa sat comfortably in her stone chair, not allowing the seething thoughts and emotions inside to show though her facade of outward 'calm.

In a sense, the rich red lighting in this room spoke for her.. It reflected the deep-seated anger and thirst for revenge that boiled in her heart, and the multitude of ideas for bringing about the ultimate triumph of the Diversity Alliance that whirled through her mind.

She clacked her finger claws together, feeling their tough hardness, like the spines on the shell of a sidrek megapede. Nolaa could rip out the throat of any enemy or unsuspecting friend--with one sweep of her hands.

Although she kept herself physically ready for combat, her primary arsenal consisted of the words she used to forge the emotions of crowds into weapons, turning her followers into a fighting force. Nolaa Tarkona had become good at getting her way.

Hovrak, her wolfman Adjutant Advisor, marched into the room, his fetal eyes bright in the grotto dimness. Nolaa kept the reddish lights turned down, but her rose-quartz eyes focused well in the shadows.

She could see that he bore a dispatch in his hairy paw.

With his other hand Hovrak brushed down the dark brown fur that bristled on his face. He bared his teeth in a gesture of respect and said,

"Esteemed Tarkona, I have excellent news--dispatches from two more candidate worlds."

"Good." Nolaa bowed her head, twitching her one remaining head-tail in satisfaction.

The burned stump of the other jiggled in a reflex of long-remembered pain.

Hovrak kept a long and detailed list on an electronic datapad, recording all known nonhuman species. It was his intent, and hers--to recruit members from each one of those species for the Diversity Alliance.

"First off," the wolfman said, speaking in a sharp voice, as-if trying to bite off each word as it emerged from his mouth, "we have a pledge from a self-appointed United Council of Bith Musicians. They have sworn to play patriotic songs that espouse the goals of the Diversity Alliance while they tour the planets of the galaxy."

"Songs?" Nolaa said, allowing a frown to crease her forehead.

"We need soldiers and fighters willing to die for our cause--not minstrels. "

"If I might point out, Esteemed Tarkona, the potential payoffs of dispersing propaganda.

One song to the right audience in the right cantina in the right town could result in riots.... even the overthrow of a long-established human government. At - the very least, it will increase awareness of what the Diversity Alliance stands for."

"Very well," Nolaa said, "just so long as these musicians don't demand excessive payment. What else?"

We'Ve received a messenger from a sub-hive of the Bartokk species.

They are renowned killers, assassins who travel together sharing a single mind. This sub-hive has sworn allegiance to the Diversity Alliance--and as you know, when one of them agrees, they all agree."

Nolaa Tarkona tapped her daws together.

"That's much better news. So, does this mean the entire Bartokk homeworld is ours? Is this sub-hive the legitimate government there?"

"No, Esteemed Tarkona, but they will carry our message far and wide. In fact, as I understand their species, if this sub-hive assassinated key members in other sub-hives, they could absorb all those minds into an even larger swarm. Given a little time and a little ingenuity, our one sub-hive could subsume all other Bartokks and incorporate them into one giant fighting force that would be completely loyal to US."

Now the Twflek woman smiled, showing her pointed teeth. "Very good, indeed. Governments operate by the will of the populace. We make our own legitimacy."

"Yes," Hovrak snarled, "legitimacy. Payback time. By rights the galaxy should be ours."

"Now, don't get greedy," Nolaa said. "At least not so soon. A few sectors at a time should be enough... for the moment."

She twitched her head-tail, feeling.a tingle of sensation. "I just received word that a ship has docked at our underground facility.

I believe it is Boba Fett, returned to us.

Go and Bring him here. I wish to see what our bounty hunter has retrieved for me."

Hovrak bared his teeth again, then spun about and padded out of the grotto.

Putting her nervous energy to use, Nolaa reached out and selected a sharp durasteel file from the small obsidian pedestal beside her.

She inserted the tool into her mouth and briskly filed her front teeth to maintain their pointed tips and razor-sharp edges. She received a delicious, forbidden thrill in doing so. Twi'lek female slaves traditionally had their teeth sanded flat to keep them from biting their masters. and only the vicious males had been allowed to flaunt their fangs.

Until now.

The degraded females found themselves powerless and sold into slavery, forced to serve or dance--mere objects to be beaten and sacrificed at the whim of their masters.

Nolaa knew this all too well: her own half-sister had paid the ultimate price. But she had vowed to change all that. And, as she had proven many times before, Nolaa Tarkona was always true to her word....

When the helmeted Boba Fett marched alone into the grotto, Nolaa sat up with a stab of disappointment. Had he dared to come back to her empty-handed?

Beside the bounty hunter, daws extended, Hovrak walked like a security escort. But Boba Fett exuded such self-confidence, even through his Mandalorian armor, that any idea of his following anyone was ludicrous.

Nolaa admired him for that self-assurance and enigmatic charisma.

Fett, however, did not concern himself with power or politics.

Why he kept to him-self--hiring out only as a bounty hunter, when he could have been a great leader--was a mystery to her. Ah, well, she thought, every creature has different goals.

"Where is Bornan Thul?" she demanded.

"You contracted to bring him back to me, along with the navicomputer I paid for.

Why have you returned here without your bounty? Surely you don't intend to report failure?"

"A temporary setback," Fett said, his voice carefully neutral. "I encountered the children of Han Solo; they were unable to provide the information I required. I have other leads." He paused for a moment.

"When hunting bounty, I can never be sure what I will find--it is not always what I set out to look for."

More to the point, Nolaa's spies had reported that Jacen and Jaina Solo and their friends had actually foiled Fett out in the Alderaan rubble field, and he had fled in defeat. But she did not mention this.

The bounty hunter knew he had failed thus far, and so did she.

Nothing else mattered.

"Make no mistake, Boba Fett," Nolaa said, "about the importance of this mission.

I must have the cargo Bornan Thul stole. The future of the galaxy depends on it. Until today, I have let only a few other bounty hunters know of my interest--and I suspect some still intend to succeed where you failed.

Now, however, you give me no choice but to announce this opportunity to bounty hunters far and wide."

"Send out whomever you like, but I shall find Bornan Thul," Fett said.

His brusque tone was not threatening, but simply confident.

"I am the best. I will succeed. The others will fail."

"Then next time bring me the bounty--not words," Nolaa said.

When Fett turned without bidding her farewell, she raised her clawed hand and called after him to stop. "I have a question-something that intrigues me. I've heard about how Princess Leia Organa once wore a helmet as a disguise, passing herself off as the bounty hunter Boushh to infiltrate Jabba's palace. No one knew her identity until she was caught trying to free Han Solo. Tell me, Boba Fett: under that helmet, and behind your voice synthesizer, are you perhaps.... a female yourself?"

Fett stared at her through the narrow black slit in his helmet.

"I remove my helmet for no one," he said.

But Nolaa would not be distracted. "For that matter," she said, "are you even human?

Could you perhaps be one of the downtrodden alien species in this galaxy passing yourself off as a human?"

"I remove my helmet for no one," he repeated, still giving her no answer.

"A pity," Nolaa said. "You may go."

Boba Fett departed with brisk steps, as if · incensed that she had given him leave to go when he would never have bothered to ask her permission.

Nolaa sat back in her stone chair, bathed in the bloody red lights It was long past her rest period, but she decided to linger a while yet...perhaps much longer. Possibilities for the future continued to develop in her mind.

MORNING MIST SETTLED on the grass-stubble clearing in front of the rebuilt Great Temple. Droplets of falling moisture clung to Tenel Ka's warrior braids and sparkled there like a fine spray of gems.

Leaning against the damp hull of the Rock Dragon, she watched with mixed feelings as Jacen prepared to board the Shadow Chaser with Raynar and Master Skywalker.

She knew Jacen would have preferred to fly beside her and she was proud of him for sacrificing his personal preferences to help Raynat, who needed the support of a friend right now. Tenel Ka understood the inner torment of being constantly in danger, constantly on guard. She could have requested to be included on the Shadow Chaser, but because the Rock Dragon was her ship, Tenel Ka felt duty-bound to remain with her crew--

"Captain" Jaina, copilot Lowie, and backup navigator Em Teedee.

Still, Tenel Ka would miss her friend during the trip to the rendezvous point with Raynar's family. She had come to rely on Jacen in an odd sort of way. Somehow, his clowning and joking reassured her that all was well with the galaxy... even when all was not well.

Tenel Ka shook her head to clear it. Allowing her thoughts to dwell on such sentimentalism was unlike her.

Jaina and Lowie chose that moment to emerge from the Rock Dragon behind her.

Jaina, serious in her duties as captain of the ship, gave an immediate report. "Internal preflight checks are complete--inside's all ready to go. You done with the externals yet?"

Tenel Ka gave a guilty start. She had allowed herself to become distracted! They were heading into a potentially dangerous situation, and she could not afford to let her mind wander. Wiping a sheen of rain from her forehead, she vowed not to let it happen again. "Ten more minutes."

Jaina nodded, then a look of perplexity stole over her face. She bit her lower lip.

"Am I forgetting anything?"

Lowie pointed a ginger-furred arm toward the Shadow Chaser and gave a short bark.

"Coordinates. Right," Jaina said. "We have to get the coordinates for our hyperspace jump from Uncle Luke and Raynar.

Information came in about an hour ago by tight-beam encrypted transmission. Unregistered proprietary encryption. Raynar was the only one who knew how to decode it."

Tenel Ka was surprised. Such precautions were commonly employed in communications between members of the Hapan royal family, but they were almost unheard of in the New Republic.

While Lowie and Jaina went to consult with Master Skywalker and Raynar, Tenel Ka returned to her preflight check. Chiding herself for her temporary lack of diligence, she examined the rain-slick hull of the Rock Dragon as carefully as if she were preparing for a space battle--which, for all she knew, might just be the case.

When Jacen poked his head around the side of the ship to see if she needed any help, Tenel Ka accepted gladly. She didn't actually require assistance, of course, but she welcomed his companionship.

After they'd finished, Jacen said, "I, um... I put a little extra sealant on that blast scar Boba Fett gave us in the Alder-aan system." He ran a hand through his damp hair. "It looked a bit weak, and I didn't want you to take any chances." Jacen shrugged, perhaps embarrassed at showing his concern for her. "Hey, you can never tell when you're going to bump into another bounty hunter, you know?"

Tenel Ka's cool gray eyes locked onto his.

The Shadow Chaser's quantum armor would keep its passengers safe if they came under attack. Jacen knew he would be well protected, but he had no similar guarantee for his friends in the Rock Dragon. She did her best to reassure him.

"Jacen, my friend, I am used to dealing with traitors, kidnappers, and assassins.

The Hapan court is filled with them." One corner of her mouth quirked upward. "In fact, some of the most skilled ones are my relatives. I will not allow the Rock Dragon or anyone in her to come to harm."

He nodded, then shrugged again. "I just like to know everyone's safe. I even made Tionne promise to take care of my gort egg while we're gone."

Then, as if chagrined at having been caught worrying, Jacen said, "Hey, wanna hear a joke?"

On the pretext of examining a stabilizer fin Tenel Ka ducked her head to hide her pleasure. If Jacen ever suspected that she actually enjoyed his jokes, he would really worry. When she had composed herself again, she looked up and raised an eyebrow at him. "Only if you do not require me to laugh."

"Buzz buzz," he said, then waited expectantly.

After a moment, she realized the response he wanted. "Ah--who is there?"

"Dismay."

"Dismay who?"

"Dismay not seem funny to you, but I'm hoping you'll at least smile."

Tenel Ka nodded judiciously. "Perhaps I will laugh later, my friend Jacen." The absurdity of his humor amazed her. Even more amazing was the fact that the joke had put her at ease again. She closed her eyes, let out a slow breath, and savored the refreshing mist falling from above.

"Hey, you two," Jaina yelled from around the side of the ship,

"Coordinates are in.

Uncle Luke is locking Artoo down in the astromech station. What are we waiting for?"

Tenel Ka opened her eyes. Jacen gave her hand a brief squeeze.

"See you at the rendezvous point," he said.

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka agreed, and Jacen dashed across the damp grass to the Shadow Chaser.

For once, compared with the other passenger, Jacen felt more than competent to serve as copilot of a starship. Leaning' forward from his seat behind them in the cockpit, Raynat hovered anxiously between Jacen and Master Skywalker, eyeing the control panels as if to ensure that Jacen wouldn't make a mistake.

Jacen tried to calm the young man. He even sent subtle, soothing thoughts, as he might to a frightened animal. But once they left Yavin 4, Raynar's agitation in, creased minute by minute. By the time the Shadow Chaser made its jump to hyperspace, Jacen felt edgy himself.

Even the normally patient Master Sky walker turned with a strained smile and said, "I can take it from here, Jacen. Why don't you two go in the back and practice a few Jedi relaxation exercises? I'll call you when we're ready to make our rendezvous with the fleet."

"I'm not sure I can relax," Raynar said.

But when Jacen unbuckled his crash webbing and headed back toward the crew compartment, the other young man obediently followed.

Before Jacen could leave the cockpit, however, Raynat turned back.

"Master Sky-walker, are you sure you have the coordinates right?"

"I programmed them in myself from your notes when you decoded the transmission," Luke said, and when Raynar seemed about to ask for more details, he added, "Jaina and Lowbacca confirmed coordinates for both the Shadow Chaser and the Rock Dragon. We're fine."

The answer appeared to satisfy Raynar, who finally let Jacen lead him into the back. Jacen took a deep breath, held it for a few heartbeats, and slowly released it.

Then, to break the tension, he said, "I guess you're pretty scared."

Raynar sat down, shoulders hunched over, and stared at the deckplates.

"How would you feel if somebody in your family was missing and maybe even dead?"

From the astromech station, Artoo-Detoo whistled a mournful note.

Jacen gave a humorless laugh. "Believe it or not, that situation isn't completely uncommon in my family. I know how you feel."

Raynat looked up at Jacen. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth!

"Yeah, I guess you do at that."

An hour later when Luke called them back to the cockpit, both boys were more relaxed. Raynat even attempted a joke or two. Jacen already knew the punch lines, but he laughed anyway because it was so funny to hear the normally pompous boy working so hard to use humor. The kid wasn't too bad, Jacen decided, but he needed a little. work on his timing and delivery.

As soon as they buckled themselves into their seats, Raynar began to show signs of nervousness again. "Why don't you tell Uncle Luke your joke, Raynat?" Jacen said.

"The one about the Neff herder and the purple rancor?"

"Maybe later," Luke said. "We're just about there. Okay... now," he said, nodding to Jacen.

Jacen leaned forward and disengaged the hyperdrive. The starlines shortened abruptly and resolved themselves into a million twinkling lights in the blackness of space.

Empty space, without any merchant ships anywhere in sight.

Jacen blinked in surprise. "Where are they?" He asked.. "What happened to the fleet?"

Luke Skywalker looked at the control panel, perplexed. "These are the coordinates they gave me."

"They're gone," Raynat said in a gloomy voice. "The fleet has left without me."

Jacen adjusted the volume controls as the cockpit speaker crackled to life. "Shadow Chaser, this is Rock Dragon," Jaina's voice said.

"Kinda lonely out here. Weren't we expecting company?"

"Still waiting to make contact," Jacen answered. "Uncle Luke says " From the comm speaker a new female voice cut through his transmission. "Shadow Chaser and Rock Dragon, please broadcast confirmation of your identities."

At Luke's nod, Jacen complied. They waited. "Identities confirmed," the voice said at last. "This is the Tryst. I am prepared to take you--"

"Where is my mother? Where is the fleet?" Raynar cut in. "They were supposed to meet us here. What have you done with them?"

"Ah, would that be Master Raynar Thul?" the voice answered. "This is your second cousin, Captain Dro Prack, of the security shuttle Tryst assigned to the Tradew'yn. Now if you'll all be so kind as to slave your navigational computers to mine, we can be on our way to rendezvous with the fleet."

"Um, shuttle Tryst?" Jaina's voice came over the speaker. "We were under the impression that this was the rendezvous point."

"That was the impression we intended you to have," Captain Prack said.

"This was just an intermediate stop to make sure no one followed you."

"What if it's a trap? I've barely met most of my second cousins," Raynar said in a low voice. "We, uh, have a large extended family. Half of them left Alderaan decades ago when the Emperor came into power."

In spite of the relaxation exercises he'd been doing, Raynar looked agitated again.

"Can you confirm that she really works for your family?" Luke asked.

"Is there a question you can ask her?" Jacen added. "Maybe some kind of secret code your family uses in emergencies?"

Raynar thought for a moment, then said in a loud voice, "Captain Prack, which of our great family 'treasures was saved by a fortunate coincidence when the Death Star blew up Alderaan?"

"Simple enough," Prack answered, her voice casual and confident.

"The Dro ceremonial fountain had been sent to Calamari to be repaired by the renowned artist Myrrack. Therefore the Dro family's great treasure was safely off-planet and spared from destruction."

Raynar's ruddy face beamed. "That's it.

No one but a member of my family would know the answer to that question."

"You're sure?" Luke asked.

Raynar nodded. "Trust me."

"Raynar says you passed the test," Jacen said into the comm speaker.

"We're slaving the Shadow Chaser's navigational computers to yours."

"Rock Dragon slaving over to Tryst," Jaina's voice said.

"All right, everybody," Captain Prack answered, "hold on to your seats."

Starlines swooped and stuttered around the Shadow Chaser as the Tryst took them on three consecutive jumps through hyperspace, none more than a minute long.

Then, suddenly, they were there.

A ragtag assortment of merchant vessels, security shuttles, cargo ships, star skimmers, and scout cruisers drifted before them in space.

The fleet held ships of all sizes and manufactures, designed for versatile operations in different shipping environments. Over the years, Bornan and Aryn Thul had expanded their merchant operation into a massive undertaking. But now, out of concern for their safety, the Thul family could not allow their fleet a permanent base.

"This is it," Raynat said. "My real home."

RAYNAR FILLED HIS lungs with the cool, recycled air on the Tradewyn, flagship of his family's merchant fleet. His father had always insisted that the Tradewyn have the finest filters and recyclers available. For business reasons,: the fleet's headquarters remained on Coruscant, but this vessel more than any other place in the galaxy--had become the family's home.

His mother claimed that the air on Al-deraan had been sweeter, though by the time of Raynar's birth that planet had already been space rubble for years. He had been born here, on the Tradewyn itself.

For him, no place could feel safer or more welcoming in a time of danger.

Raynar closed his eyes, taking a second deep breath, and a third.

For so long he had smelled the humidity and the lush, thick jungle scents of Yavin 4. This seemed so much purer.

Behind him, he heard Luke and the young Jedi Knights climb out of the Shadow Chaser and the Rock Dragon, then thump to the deckplates, but he did not allow that to distract him from his enjoyment. He had so many memories of this place.

To Raynar's embarrassment, he was dangerously close to tears when he heard the docking-bay airlock whoosh open. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Master Skywalker said in a low voice, "It's always good to feel that you've come home.

Are you all right, Raynar?"

Dismayed that Master Skywalker had sensed this weakness in him, Raynat's first impulse was to draw himself up and make some sort of haughty reply to indicate that he was fully in control of himself. But instead, he took another deep breath, this time a calming one, as part of a Jedi relaxation technique-- opened his eyes, and nodded. A true Jedi had little need to lie, or even pretend. In this case, he knew the only one he could fool would be himself.

"Thank you. I'll be fine now," Raynat said. Glancing at the airlock, he saw his mother, Aryn Dro Thul, hurrying toward him, accompanied by his uncle Tyko.

Tyko Thul wore the voluminous yellow, purple, orange, and scarlet robes of the family house. His moon-round face beamed as brightly as an emergency glow beacon.

"My dear boy, how comforting it is to see you safely arrived!

Here with us, you have nothing to fear."

Raynat's surprise at seeing his uncle again was compounded by his mother's next action. She stepped forward and awkwardly-for their family had never been physically demonstrative--gave Raynar a hug.

Recovering quickly from his shock, he hugged her back, then stepped away and cleared his throat. "M-m-mother, Uncle Tyko, I have some friends I'd like you to meet. This is Master Skywalker of the Jedi academy."

His mother stretched out both of her hands to clasp Luke's in a traditional greeting.

"Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion," she said with a warm smile,

"it's good to see you again. And how kind of you to bring my son to me."

"I promised my sister Leia that I would see you personally, Aryn Dro Thul, and make. sure that you're all safe here," he replied.

"Please thank Chief of State Leia Organa Solo for us," Aryn said, obviously much pleased.

Next, Tyko reached his hands out to grip Luke's. "Master Skywalker, it is an honor.

Alas, it would have been an even greater honor to meet you on Mechis III, so that I could extend my personal hospitality at the droid works there.

I think you would be most impressed."

Master Skywalker's smile looked as if he were trying to repress some secret amusement.

"Thank you. I've heard a great deal about your successes on Mechis III.

Your droid works are the most... productive in the New Republic."

Uncle Tyko beamed even more brightly than before. "It's nothing really,"

he said, with a vain attempt at a modest shrug.

"Success seems to come naturally to my family. To me, to my brother--I daresay you've noticed it even in Raynar. I'm certain he quite surpasses most of your other students in sheer Jedi ability."

Raynar felt his cheeks warm with discomfiture.

How could Master Skywalker respond to such a display of pompous self-importance?

To his credit, however, the Jedi Master answered smoothly and without hesitation.

"Raynar is a unique and earnest student who has more Jedi potential than even he is aware of."

Before his uncle could push Master Sky-walker further, Raynar broke in.

"And I'd like you to meet some of my fellow students: Jaina and Jacen Solo, Lowbacca from Kashyyyk, and Tenel Ka, a princess of Hapes and Dathomir."

Uncle Tyko pursed his lips in surprise.

"Very distinguished guests," he observed.

"They certainly are," Raynar's mother said. "You are all welcome to stay as long as you like. I think this calls for a celebration."

Her midnight-blue gown, shot with silver thread and belted with a sash in the colors of the House of Thul, glittered like the star-studded wedges of space visible through the viewports.

"I'm afraid I must return to the Jedi academy as soon as possible,"

Master Sky-walker said with a regretful shake of his head.

"Artoo and I need to get back. We have many other students and much work to do."

"But we'd like to stay," Jacen hurried to assure Aryn Dro Thul.

"Just for a few days, of course, to make sure that Raynar's okay and settling in here."

Lowie urffed his support of the plan.

"Why, what a splendid ideal" Em Teedee said. "Civilization, at last."

The details and arrangements were soon settled. Jacen, Jaina, Lowie and Tenel Ka would stay for five days, then return to the Jedi academy in the Rock Dragon.

In less than half an hour, Luke Sky-walker and Artoo-Detoo departed in the Shadow Chaser. Raynar's mother sighed as she watched their sleek ship vanish. "Well, I suppose we'll have to make another hyperspace jump now, just to keep moving."

Uncle Tyko nodded. "To be sure no one can follow us by picking up on the Shadow Chaser's log of recent stops."

Raynar's mother clasped her hands and smiled. "When that's done, I have a special treat for you children. To celebrate my son's return, you're all invited to an Alderaanian Ceremony of Waters The Ceremony of Waters was long and elaborate, and apparently filled with great meaning for the Thul family... but Jacen found his mind wandering during the endless rituals.

He squirmed and tried to sit up straighter on the hard narrow bench that ringed the small, elegant fountain that served as a centerpiece for the ceremony.

He absently reached to where his light-saber usually hung at his side, planning to run his fingers along its ridges, as he often did when he was bored... but then he remembered the weapon wasn't there. Everyone had been asked to change into their best clothes for this special occasion.

And since it was a ritual of peace, all the young Jedi had left their weapons in their cabins.

Aryn Thul, her long chestnut hair braided in an intricate pattern, looked beautiful and serene in her midnight-blue gown. The hairstyle reminded Jacen of his mother.

Sometimes he wondered how Leia managed to put up with all the boring ceremonies, rituals, and meetings her duties as Chief of State required her to endure. In times past, Jacen, Jaina, and their younger brother Anakin had often attended events their mother thought they might especially enjoy. Even at those, however, Jacen had frequently found himself wishing he were out with his friend Zekk exploring the fascinating, and sometimes dangerous, lower levels of Coruscant.

Jacen remembered a disastrous time when he and Jaina had persuaded Zekk to be their guest at a simple state dinner. Had that experience been this bewildering--this excruciating--for the dark-haired young man? He missed Zekk. Letting his eyes drift around the room, Jacen wondered if anyone else was as bored as he was.

On the other side of the fountain, Raynar and Tyko sat flanking Aryn Thul while she performed the ceremony. All three were apparently engrossed in every detail of the rituals. Beside him, Jaina watched attentively as Aryn filled an array of brightly colored transparent flasks, cups, and beakers. At Jacen's left, Tenel Ka sat laser-straight, her cool gray eyes dutifully following each step.

Completing the circle, his eyes half closed, Jacen noticed Lowie taking this opportunity to practice his Jedi relaxation techniques... or perhaps just napping. Em Teedee's glowing optical sen, sors were alert, though the little droid made no sound.

Setting aside the last of the filled vessels, Aryn Thul began to hum a slow, lilting tune.

As she did so, she held her hands under one of the clear streams of liquid that gurgled from the fountain. Water flowed across the backs of her hands, and then she turned them over, Jetting the water run into her palms. Still humming, she nodded.

Raynar and Tyko placed their hands under the trickling water as well.

Tenel Ka--always fast to catch on--stretched her arm out and held her hand under the stream of water. Jacen noticed the glow of pleasure that lit Aryn's and Raynat's eyes at this. Lowie opened his eyes at the same time that Jaina nudged Jacen. Six more hands entered the flow from the fountain. Jacen was amazed to find the water warm and silky to the touch.

The remainder of the ceremony consisted of drying.their hands, then passing around the various cups and beakers. Aryn hummed while Tyko or Raynar recited words about purity or peace or the life-giving qualities of water. Then they would sip from the beaker or empty it and refill it from the fountain or sprinkle drops in the air to fall like rain.

Occasionally, Em Tedee even hummed along with Aryn; Raynar's mother did not seem to mind.

Jacen was glad, at least, to see Raynat distracted from his misery. The blond-haired boy looked happier than Jacen had ever seen him on Yavin 4.

When the humming stopped, Raynar's uncle Tyko let out a long sigh.

"It's wonderful to be among civilized beings again," he said.

"You have no idea what it's like to live and work on Mechis III, surrounded all day long by mechanicals. We keep only a few living beings on the planet, and very few of them come from worlds with culture.

Of course, I've programmed a droid or two for protocol, but it's simply not the same. They're so dull."

"Well, really!" Em Teedee exclaimed before Lowie slapped a furry hand over the translating droid's speaker grille.

"This is my favorite ceremony," Raynar said wistfully.

"Mine too," his mother agreed. "It reminds me of the days when I lived on Alderaan. I grew up in Terrarium City," she said. "My parents were on the ruling council.

It was a beautiful serene place, and every home was surrounded by plants and fountains like this one. I left to study at Alderaan University."

"Where you met father," Raynar put in.

"Yes." Her forehead wrinkled slightly at the mention of her kidnapped husband. "I was studying music and business, and Bor-nan was studying business and art. We took Several' courses together and found we had similar goals. When we finished our studies, we formed this trading company."

"Where were you when Alderaan was destroyed?" Jaina asked in a hushed voice.

Aryn flinched, struck by yet another painful memory. "Sometimes I wish I'd never left, that I could have spent those last few days there....

"She sighed. "Bornan is an excellent businessman, and he believes in overseeing negotiations personally. We were in the middle of very sensitive trade talks with one of the Imperial worlds when our home was obliterated."

Aryn seemed lost in her reverie when a guard entered the room, bent down, and whispered in her ear.

"What is it, Mother?" Raynar asked.

Aryn scanned the circle with a look of alarm. Then' she turned to the security officer. "It's all fight. Tell them," she said.

"A few minutes ago security noted a brief transmission that came from inside the Tradewyn. We tried to trace it, but couldn't find the source."

Raynar clasped his mother's hand. Uncle Tyko stood abruptly.

"Prepare for another hyperspace jump," he said to the guard.

"Immediately!"

The guard rushed to carry out his orders.

Tyko looked down at his sister-in-law.

"It can't be anyone here in this room," he said, "but I fear we may have a traitor aboard the Tradewyn."

FOR JAINA, THE bridge of the Tradewyn was a wonderland filled with the highest quality computers, gadgets, and communications equipment available in any market.

She and Lowie exclaimed over each discovery of technological wizardry.

She thought briefly of her friend Zekk, with whom she had spent many of her younger days on Coruscant, scavenging technological gadgets from the abandoned underlevels and tinkering with them so that old Peckhum could have something to sell. She and Zekk had gone their separate ways, though, He had fallen to the dark side and joined the Shadow Academy.

Even after he had been defeated, and forgiven, Zekk still could not forgive himself.

He had struck out on his own in hopes of building a new life. He had decided to become a bounty hunter, and Jaina wished she could contact him somehow, and-get news of him in return. But here, hidden as they were with the Bornaryn merchant fleet, no one in the galaxy would know where to find them.

After the Ceremony of Waters, Raynar took turns with his mother conducting the tour of the flagship, and proved almost as knowledgeable as she was on the subject.

The young Jedi had come to the bridge while Tyko prepared the ship for its next hyperspace jump, hoping to keep one step ahead of any pursuers that might be after them or Bornan Thul. The Tradewyn's jump elicited a tingle of excitement from the Jedi students. All of them had seen many such jumps, but rarely from the open bridge of a city-sized starship.

Tyko paced the bridge, a heavy frown corrugating his forehead, his hands clasped behind his back, as Raynar and Aryn Dro Thul continued the tour.

"What are those?" Jaina asked, spying an unusual console.

"Our weapons systems," Aryn replied.

"Targeting for the entire fleet is linked through here."

"Everything can be controlled from the bridge of the Tradewyn," Raynar added.

"Concussion missiles, ion cannons, even targeted energy deflectors. We have quad laser emplacements all around the circumference of the bridge--

there, there, and there--" he said, pointing, "plus one up top and one below us. Of course, we can also release control to individual gunners."

Jaina eyed the weapons appraisingly.

"I'd love to try them sometime. Dad always lets us practice with the guns in the Millennium Falcon."

Aryn's eyebrows went up. "Ah, yes, that doesn't surprise.me. Your father always was a bit of a rogue. I met him briefly, on Alderaan, when "

"You know Han Solo?" Raynat broke in, his eyes wide.

Aryn laughed. "Not really. It was decades ago, before I was married, and he visited Alderaan for a day. Of course, he was traveling under another name at the time.

We just happened to meet. Back then, I thought he was very handsome. He even tried to steal me from your father. Bornan was rather jealous."

Aryn's fine-boned face dimpled in a warm smile.

"Even though Han has been a respectable man for many years, I'm afraid Bornan may still harbor a bit of a grudge."

"Preparing to come out of hyperspace," the helmsman announced in a loud voice.

"Very well," Tyko said. "You, over there."

He pointed to a man in a security uniform near the navigational station.

"Begin plotting our next jump, just to be on the safe side."

"Kusk," the man replied. "We've been introduced several times."

Tyko blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Kusk, sir it's my name."

Uncle Tyko made a face as if he had bitten into a chunk of rancid Neff cheese.

"Very well--Kusk. I suggest you begin plotting our course immediately or we'll stuff you into an escape pod and shoot you toward the nearest inhabited system. Do I make myself dear?"

"Yes, sir," Kusk gritted between clenched teeth.

Jaina made a mental note never to cross Raynar's uncle Tyko. She wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of his anger.

Just then the scene in the viewports all around the bridge changed.

Starlines shortened from glowing streaks into specks of concentrated brilliance, and they were alone against the blackness of space.

Completely alone. Not a single ship from the fleet had made the jump with the Tradewyn.

No. Not alone. Something else was here... waiting for them, ready to pounce.

Lowie saw it first and sounded the alarm.

"Oh, my! We're doomed," Em Teedee wafted.

There in the viewscreen closest to them came a wicked,looking ship that was no part of their fleet. Its weapons were powered up, ready to fire.

Jacen wished he could think of something to do.

"We're receiving a transmission, Lady Aryn," the communications specialist said.

"Priority one."

"Put it on the front viewscreen," Tyko snapped.

The comm specialist looked back at Aryn.

She nodded.

A face masked by a dark flight helmet appeared on screen.

"Tradewyn, this is the High Roller," the harsh voice came over the comm speakers. "I demand that you release to me either Aryn Dro Thul or Raynar Thul immediately. If you refuse, I will be forced to destroy your ship."

Although this seemed like an absurd demand to Jacen, he was still surprised when Uncle Tyko gave a bark of laughter.

"This ship has the finest defenses and weaponry that can be bought. Don't force us to prove it."

On the screen, the helmeted figure shrugged. "Perhaps you have the best defenses that can be bought legally, that is, but I have access to sources you couldn't even begin to imagine." An energy bolt streaked out from the ship and struck just below the forward viewport.

"If you give me the woman or the boy," the harsh voice said, "I won't need to demonstrate any further. You have ten minutes to decide."

"Screen off," Tyko snapped. The view-screen went blank. "We need to clear the bridge of everyone but essential bridge crew. Kusk, take Lady Aryn down to the security shelter at the center of the ship. Don't let anyone near her until this threat has been dealt with. Get moving! Raynar, you go too."

Kusk sprang up from the navigational console with commendable speed, now that he had been chided by Tyko, and hustled Raynar and his mother from the bridge before Tyko could issue the next order. Even Aryn did not argue. As they vanished down the turbolift, Raynar looked worriedly back over his shoulder, although he tried to appear brave in front of his friends.

Jacen was glad the security guard had reacted quickly this time and avoided making a scene. Even so, he got a strange prickly feeling at the back of his neck. He shivered. Something was wrong here.....

Maybe it was because the High Roller was outside the viewports waiting to blast the bridge again, but he didn't think so.

Beside him, Tenel Ka stood up straighter and glanced around as if searching for something. Their eyes met. She felt it too.

"Now," Tyko said, "I'11 need the rest of you children off the bridge.

We're going to be in the middle of a firefight. All weapons, power up and calibrate your targeting systems!"

Jaina stepped forward boldly. "I could be some help to you here. I have a lot of gunnery experience." She looked over at Jacen. "I'm a pretty good shot and so is " Jacen, feeling an urgent need to follow Raynar, gave a minute shake of his head.

"--uh, so is Lowie," Jaina went on, catching the hint, though she didn't seem to understand her brother's intentions.

Lowie cocked his head in surprise, then smoothed the fur down on his neck with both hands. He gave a sharp bark of agreement.

"Very well, then. You may both stay.

We'll need all the help we can get," Uncle Tyko said. "But the rest of you, to your quarters until the emergency has passed."

Jacen and Tenel Ka hurried from the bridge and into the turbolift.

When the door slid shut behind them, Tenel Ka raised her eyebrows.

"Are you thinking the same as I?"

Jacen nodded. "I'm thinking that Aryn and Raynar may not be safe even down in the protected chambers. Something is very wrong here."

Tenel Ka made a fist and thumped it against her bare thigh. "This is a fact."

"He's somewhere on this level," Jacen said, stepping out of the turbolift. "I can sense him."

"But we are nowhere close to the center of the ship," Tenel Ka pointed out. "I believe we have reached the docking bays.

The guard should not have brought Aryn and Raynar here."

Jacen swallowed hard. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of," he said. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

As if to prove his intuition correct, a blaster shot rang out from down the corridor.

"Hey, that came from the docking bay down there!" Jacen said.

"Isn't that wherein" Tenel Ka's face was grim. "Yes. Where we left the Rock Dragon."

Suddenly, the flagship thrummed with a sharp impact, as if someone had struck the hull with a giant hammer--or a powerful turbolaser blast. "I think that deadline the High Roller gave us just expired," Jacen said.

They ran.

The Tradewyn hummed as it fired back at the ship that had ambushed it.

The space battle had begun.

When they reached the entrance to the docking bay, a strange sight greeted them.

His face flushed, Raynar stood protectively in front of his mother near the boarding ramp to the Rock Dragon, colorful robes swirling around him like an aurora.

Closer to the entrance, the guard Kusk faced them, speaking into a comlink gripped in one hand. His other hand held a blaster aimed more or less at Raynar. The blaster, however, seemed to have a mind of its own.

It raised and lowered and wobbled and dipped while Kusk wrestled to hold it steady. Obviously, Raynar was struggling · through the Force to get a grip. on Kusk's weapon.

"Yes, I have the merchandise you requested," Kusk said into the comlink, straining to keep hold of his squirming weapon.

"I'll meet you in five minutes at the pickup point."

A harsh voice replied. Though it was crackly with static, Jacen still recognized it as the voice of the helmeted man aboard the High Roller.

"It worked, just like I said it would."

Another blow struck the ship. The mysterious attacker had shot again, but the guard Kusk merely smiled in satisfaction.

The Tradewyn fired back with a loud whining discharge of deadly energy.

Tenel Ka took her own action. "Prepare to fight, traitor!" she said in a loud voice.

She stepped forward, ready for battle.

"Hey I have a feeling your plans aren't going to turn out quite as well as you thought, Kusk," Jacen said. He wished fleetingly that he and Tenel Ka were wearing their lightsabers, but they had removed them for the Ceremony of Waters.

Sliding his comlink through a loop in his belt, Kusk faced the door, only mildly surprised by the intruders. His lip curled in a sneer. "I don't really think three children and a woman can do much to thwart the plans of a trained killer and a seasoned bounty hunter." He turned back toward his quarry. Aryn Thul glared contemptuously at the traitorous guard.

Raynar squared his shoulders. "Maybe not," he said. "But there's a great deal that three Jedi can do."

As the guard snorted in disdain, another hammer blow from the attacker struck the Tradewyn. Taking advantage of the distraction, Jacen administered a hard Force shove against the guard's back. At the same moment Tenel Ka lifted Kusk a few centimeters off the floor with her mind, throwing him off balance. Raynat held out one arm, and the astonished guard's blaster finally spun from his grasp into the young man's Outstretched hand.

"Don't hurt him," Aryn cautioned in a loud voice. 'We'll need him alive to learn how far this conspiracy goes."

Kusk's feet thumped down onto the deck-plates.

Open-mouthed, he retreated as if pulled by invisible strings until his back pressed against the hull of the Rock Dragon.

His eyes darted in panic from Jacen and Tenel Ka to Raynat and Aryn and back again.

"How did you do that?" he rasped.

Jacen crossed his arms over his chest.

"We're Jedi. One of my best friends is training to be a bounty hunter,"

he said, thinking of Zekk. "And you violated one of their most fundamental rules: Always do your research."

Kusk snatched at his comlink. "High Roller, this is Kusk. I've been captured. Save yourself."

Aryn strode to the comm panel by the airlock door. "Security backup team to secondary docking bay immediately," she said in a calm, commanding voice. Red lights strobed and sirens whooped. Kusk flailed for the entry hatch of the Rock Dragon and attempted to pull himself inside.

"I wouldn't, if I were you,"' Tenel Ka said.

Kusk hesitated for just a moment. "My ship has a fail-safe navigational program," she explained. "Unless my crew or I input the proper authorization code, the ship is programmed to find the most direct route to Hapes and dock at the high-security hangar of the Hapan royal house."

She smiled coldly. "Not even you would want to explain yourself to my parents, my grandmother, and the seven hundred hand-picked guards stationed there."

A burst of static blasted from the comlink in Kusk's hand. He dropped it as if it were a venomous reptile and sank to the floor. The next moment the Tradewyn's security squad arrived. One of the guards stopped to report. "That particular bounty hunter won't be bothering you anymore,"

she said to Aryn Thul. "We sustained only minimal damage, but the High Roller made an unlucky bet. The ship is completely destroyed. No survivors."

"Thank you," Raynar's mother said.

A thin wail rose from the floor next to the Rock Dragon. Jacen could just barely make out the words of Kusk's mournful cry: "My brother!"

STILL TRYING TO make peace with the memories of his Dark Jedi days, Zekk eagerly sought out an assignment to begin his new career as a bounty hunter. As a first step toward finding an employer, he went to the most bustling place he could think of--a bazaar of traders and smugglers, scam artists, lawbreakers, and opportunists, inside the hollow center of asteroid Borgo Prime. From there, he hoped to establish his credentials, while adhering to the Bounty Hunters Creed.

At a loss after his arrival, he spent days wandering through the airlocked, low-gravity city. He moved from establishment to establishment, putting out the word that he was looking for work as a bounty hunter. He also made numerous inquiries about the most recent known location of a man named Bornan Thul.

It seemed every bounty hunter in the galaxy had set out to find Thul, and if Zekk could succeed, his name would become famous indeed.

Many people laughed at his youthful optimism and his battered ship. Zekk fought hard to keep his anger in check, but when his emerald eyes flashed, most of those who had joked at his expense fell silent and turned away. Naturally, Zekk could tap into the Force if he wanted to, but it frightened him to do so. He dreaded the possibility of slipping again into the endless gulf of the dark side, a place from which he knew he would never escape a second time.

One afternoon, he found his way into a popular interspecies bar called Shanko's Hive, whose insectoid caretaker was famous for using his many arms and legs to whirl about, mixing several drinks at the same time.

Shanko hibernated for a month out of every year, though, and when Zekk entered the hive he found that the insect had cocooned himself in his chambers and would not return again for some time.

Shanko had left management of the bar in the capable hands--the capable three hands, actually--of his lead bartender, Droq't. The three-armed, blue-skinned semi-humanoid had two eyes centered in the middle of his head, another in the back, and one on top of his bald blue skull.

"Bornan Thul, eh?" the bartender said, washing glasses with one hand and mixing a drink with another, while the third arm (which protruded from the center of his chest) reached forward to shake Zekk's hand. "You do know that Nolaa Tarkona has put out a widespread call, now don't YoU?

She's offering enough credits to interest every bounty hunter in the galaxy."

"Yes. And you do know that most of them aren't as good as I am, now don't you?" Zekk countered.

"I see you don't lack in self-confidence," Droq'l answered with a smile, flashing glossy black teeth.

"No," Zekk answered! "No I don't."

At one table in the back of the bar two squealing Ranats threw glowing dice at each other and attempted to catch them in their long, ratlike snouts. It appeared to be some sort of a game rather than an argument.

Suddenly loud sirens erupted, along with clanging, whoops, flashing lights, and tinging bells. Zekk jumped to attention, fully alert and ready to defend himself. "What is it? What happened? Is that an alarm?"

The ear-splitting noise continued without interruption for a full minute.

"No, that's just music," Droq'l shouted over the din. "It's that blasted Ishi Tib popular stuff.

Most of the other patrons can't stand it but--hey--whichever customer puts a credit chip into the music machine gets to pick the tune."

Finally the commotion ended, and the three-armed bartender set another freshly washed glass aside. Leaning across the bar, he placed all three blue elbows on the polished countertop and stared at Zekk with his front pair of eyes. "Listen, kid--I might be able to give you a little errand to run. That is, if you're interested," he said.

"Of course. I'm ready to take on any assignment," Zekk said, a little too enthusiastically.

"Good. I need you to find somebody who said he had a buyer for a small shipment of mine: ronik shells with a premium luster finish. He's a scavenger and a trader, some times even a bounty hunter... but not too successful at any of those careers." He took off.

"Haven't heard a thing from him since."

"Who is it?" Zekk said.

Droq'l flipped out a small holo 'image and switched it on, showing a rodentlike creature with big eyes, large round ears, and a pointed snout.

Zekk didn't recognize the species.

"Name's Fonterrat. Not overly trustworthy, but I didn't think he'd have the nerve to skip out on me. I'll pay you a modest bounty if you can find him for me so I can sell that shipment of shells myself," The bartender stared at Zekk intently.

"Since you're new at this, you can't command a high fee, of course."

"Of course. I'm out to establish my reputation, and you're providing me with an opportunity--the start I was looking for," Zekk said. "Where do I find this Fonter-rat?"

The bartender laughed and clapped all three hands together to mimic a round of applause, "If I knew for certain where to find him, I wouldn't need to hire somebody, now would I?"

"All right," Zekk countered, "where should I start to look for him?"

"Now that's a better question," the bartender said. "I knew a bit of Fonterrat's schedule. He had a few other stops to pick up routing cargo and meet with certain associates... but his last scheduled destination was a human colony known as Gammalin. He never came back, and I never received any word from him."

"Gammalin," Zekk said, letting the word burn itself into his memory. "My ship has navigational files, so I'm sure I can find out where that is."

"Good. And when you do find him, you might want to backtrack his route, because..." Droq'l paused for effect, his round eyes twinkling as if he were a child with a secret "one of those associates Fonterrat was supposed to meet along the way was none other than the person you're trying to find for Nolaa Tarkona's big bounty: Bornan Thul. So, if you do a good job for me, you may just find more than you actually thought you would."

Zekk felt a surge of excitement. "It's a good start, at least! Thanks for the lead. You can count on me."

"Yes, but don't get too cocky. Everyone else in the galaxy is looking for Bornan Thul too, remember?"

"I remember. But it doesn't matter," Zekk said. "I don't mind the competition as long as I'm the one who finds him first."

And with a cheerful wave, he turned and raced back to the Lightning Rod.

AFTER THE BATTLE against the predatory ship High Roller, Lowie climbed out of the quad laser emplacement on the bridge of the Tradewyn. Though full of energy and pumped up from the fight, he was also disturbed that the ill-conceived ambush had cost their ruthless attacker his life.

Turning in a slow circle, Lowbacca scanned the viewports, observing the space debris and mangled bits of hull plating that drifted there all that remained of the bounty hunter's ship. They were safe now... at least until the next unexpected attack from someone else with a grudge against the Thul family.

When the weapons officer had been unable to score a hit on the swift High Roller from the control console, Tyko had called on Lowie and Jaina to assist him. The attacker's ship had fired relentlessly at the bridge, darting and dodging all return fire--until Lowie and Jaina had joined the fray, with their Jedi-enhanced abilities.

In the end, one of Jaina's shots had taken out the High Roller, and the danger from outside was truly over. For the moment.

Lowie's battle-ready reflexes began to relax, but waves of tension still rolled from the quad laser emplacement where Jaina sat.

A security guard entered the bridge deck, his face grim. He informed Tyko that Officer Kusk had been apprehended while trying to abduct Raynar and Aryn and that Jacen, Tenel Ka, and.Raynar himself had thwarted 'the plan devised by Kusk and his bounty hunter brother.

Tyko thrust out his generous lower lip and commented, "Brother? So Kusk was in on it. You see, you just can't get good help these days."

Lowie helped a shaky Jaina climb from the quad laser well. Her face remained flushed from the excitement of the space battle, but her brandy-brown eyes were somber. "If Zekk still wants to become a bounty hunter, I hope he never does anything that stupid," she said in a low voice.

Lowie crooned a soft note of understanding.

Tyko Thul approached them, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Those bounty hunters must be after all members of the Thul family, including me! Presumably, we can be used as bait to lure Bornan out of hiding." He shook his head. "I wish my brother wasn't so self-centered and foolish.

I'm getting a good picture now of what happened," he said. "The High Roller must have intended to create a diversion while Kusk kidnapped Aryn and Raynar, then launched them from this ship in an escape pod or any other craft that happened to be available."

"Like the Rock Dragon," Jaina said.

Lowie mulled this over, then rumbled his understanding. "Indeed," Em Teedee piped up. "A relatively simple plan."

"So the High Roller would have broken off its attack, picked up Kusk and the hostages, then made a quick hop into hyperspace," Jaina said as full comprehension dawned on her.

"But what happened to the rest of the merchant fleet then?" Tyko asked.

Em Teedee made a sound as if he were clearing his throat. "Ahem. If you would allow me, sir, I'd like to access the Tradewyn's Computers. I believe I might be able to rectify the situation."

"Direct access to the Tradewyn's computers?"

Tyko's eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"I've had quite a bit of experience with droids, and I know how susceptible they are to programming glitches. How can I be sure this droid is trustworthy?"

"Programming glitches? Indeed!" Em Teedee huffed at the same moment Lowie let out a roar of offended pride.

Tyko backed away, holding up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Very well, very well, be my guest. Just don't tell Aryn I gave you access. " In a matter of minutes the Wookiee and Jaina had Em Teedee hooked up to the flagship's bridge computer system.

As he scanned, Em Teedee began making cryptic comments. "Ah, yes.... I see.... Oh, indeed.... Fascinating!"

Jaina listened, biting her lower lip. Finally she could wait no longer.

"Mind sharing your insights with us, Em Teedee?"

"Why of course, Mistress Jaina," the little droid said. "How' remiss of me. It's just that this machine is so marvelously intelligent, and I--"

Lowie gave an impatient bark.

"Cut to the chase," Jaina said.

"Go on, droid--tell us what happened," Tyko added imperiously.

"Well," Em Teedee began in a defensive voice, "I should think it is intuitively obvious by now. Officer Kusk had the navigational link to all of the fleet's computers.

He sent the rest of,them false jump coordinates."

"So," Tyko said, "that transmission burst security picked up a few minutes before our last hyperspace jump must have been Kusk sending the true coordinates to his brother the bounty hunter."

"That seems highly likely, sir," Em Teedee agreed. Lowie was interested to see Tyko's attitude change subtly at this indirect praise from the miniaturized translating droid.

"A simple and elegant plan," Tyko said.

"Excellent work, droid. Can you plot us a route to where the rest of the fleet is now?"

"Of course, sir. Nothing simpler," Em Teedee said. "I have become quite adept at establishing rapport with starship navicomputers."

Uncle Tyko gave a decisive nod. "Very well, do that." He paused for a moment.

"Oh, and, er... Em Teedee, is it?'When you've finished, can you work out an algorithm for randomizing our hyperspace jumps so that no one will be able to broadcast our coordinates ahead of time?"

"It would be my greatest pleasure, sir," Em Teedee replied with pride.

Apparently satisfied, Tyko retreated to consult with the ship's security staff while other crew members went to call Aryn Dro Thul back to the bridge. Lowie gave Em Teedee a congratulatory pat.

"Who says one can't find any trustworthy help these days?

Hmmmph!" the little droid said.

Even if official ceremonies with the Thul family were boring, Jacen thought, meals were not. Their group sat under a soundproof, gravity-controlled dome in a vast room with glossy yellow walls. They all lounged on cushioned benches that surrounded the low toroidal meal table.

In the open center of the table, a food carousel turned slowly to display every kind of fruit, meat, bread, vegetable, sweet, and delicacy Jacen could imagine. At the very center of the carousel bubbled a fountain filled with effervescent blue ossberry ale. Above the soundproof dome, a dozen low-gravity dancers tumbled and pirouetted through the air in the yellow room. But even such a large and wonderful ship as the Tradewyn must have seemed like a cage to Aryn and Raynar at the moment, Jacen supposed.

"Mother," Raynar said suddenly, "tell me what you know about Father's disappearance. I've never gotten anything but secondhand reports so far."

Jacen snagged a cluster of orange berries from the food carousel and listened carefully. Aryn pressed her hands tightly together in her lap, and her lively, intelligent face filled with distress. "Bornan said it would be safer if. I didn't know about the negotiations he was conducting--some important exchange with a representative of a new political movement. He said that the situation with his contact was quite volatile, but he hoped to have everything smoothed out before the trade conference he would attend on Shumavar."

"He never arrived at the trade conference," Raynar said, filling in the part that he already knew. "But do you know where he went before that?

Where was the last place anyone saw him?"

"That much I was able to find out," Aryn said. "Before he disappeared, he was going to some sort of mysterious meeting on an ancient planet called Kuar. Maybe that has something to do with the secret he was hiding."

"Then that's where I need to go to pick up his trail," Raynat said.

"You're not going anywhere, young man," Tyko said. "It's too dangerous.

This recent little escapade with Kusk and his brother make that all too clear."

"Kuar," Tenel Ka said from across the table. "An odd place for a meeting, is it not? Has it not been abandoned for centuries?"

"You've heard of the planet, then?" Aryn asked.

"Only by reputation," Tenel Ka said, tossing her red-gold braids behind her shoulders.

"Kuar held a small measure of historic interest for me, since it is one of the ancient worlds conquered by Mandalorian warriors. A fearsome race of fighters. I have studied many of their legends."

"Hey, doesn't Boba Fett wear Mandalo-rian armor?" Jacen said.

"And when he found us in the Alderaan system, he was looking for Bornan Thul."

"All the more reason to go to Kuar," Raynat said. "My father might have left a message there... or at least a clue."

"It's too risky," Aryn said, shaking her head vigorously.

"Raynar, if you leave our protection here, a thousand villains will be lying in wait for you."

"Exactly," Tyko added. "If you went to Kuar you could be playing right into some greedy bounty hunter's hands--or worse.

Until we can find out what kind of mess my brother has gotten himself into, you and your mother must stay under the protection of the fleet.",

"Ah," Tenel Ka said, "aha. But we do not need to stay, my friends and I."

"Hey, that's right," Jacen said. "We've got Tenel Ka's ship, and we can go wherever we want. Nobody will notice us."

Jaina spoke up, looking from Aryn to Raynar. "The four of us could check out Kuar for youinlet you know what we find."

Lowie rumbled his approval, and Raynat's eyes lit with hope.

"That makes five of us," Em Teedee chimed in.

Above them, one of the low-gravity dancers paused for a moment with her left foot on the top of the dome, then spun off again. Aryn gazed up and watched the dancer drift away. "It's a very kind offer, but I'm afraid I can't let you children--"

"Mother," Raynat interrupted, "they're not children. These are young Jedi Knights.

They fought against the Shadow Academy and won."

"Well in that case, I think it's an excellent idea," Tyko said.

"I need to get back to Mechis III soon, just to check on all the automated systems, or I would make the journey with them myself. The sooner we find out what's happened to Bornan, the sooner we can all get back to leading our own lives." He looked around the table at Jacen, Jaina, Lowie, and Tenel Ka. "The fleet will still be in hiding, but you can report back to me with whatever you find," he said decisively, "and I'll let you know how to contact Raynar and Aryn again."

Raynar looked greatly relieved to have his uncle's support in this. "It's all settled then," he said. "And I'm glad somebody's finally doing something."

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka agreed with a faint smile. "whenever my pilot and copilot are ready, we can leave."

Jaina gulped down the last bit of oss-berry ale in her cup, then jumped to her feet. "Well then," she said, "I'm ready for just about anything."

EVERYONE WENT THEIR separate ways, but all wanted to see Bornan Thul safely back with his family. Uncle Tyko, confident in the new hyperspace jump randomization program Em Tedee had created, took off for Mechis III in an ornate, boxy ship the color of tarnished brass.

Immediately afterward, with the young Jedi Knights still in the docking bay, the Tradewyn and the rest of the hidden Bornaryn fleet made a hyperspace jump. As soon as the jump was complete, the little translating droid began busily "supervising" the Rock Dragoh's onboard navicomputer as it calculated the best route to Kuar.

Few things pleased Jaina more in the middle of a crisis than knowing she had a mission--and the means to accomplish it.

It felt good to be doing something, to be taking an active part in solving the mystery of Raynar's vanished father. She and Lowie finished their preflight check in record time, while Jacen and Tenel Ka stowed supplies aboard the Rock Dragon.

When all of the preparations were finished, Aryn and Raynar came to the big flagship's docking bay to see the companions off. Using a time-delay message transmission,.they had already informed Luke Skywalker of the change of plans, and now the Rock Dragon was ready to begin the search.

Plainly. wishing he could go with his friends, Raynar took slow, deep breaths; Jaina could tell he was doing his best to keep the worry off his face. Lowie, seeing the young man's distress, rumbled a few encouraging words and thumped him on the back with a huge furry hand.

"Don't worry about us, Raynar," Jacen said. "We'll be careful."

"Trust the Force, Raynar," Tenel Ka said.

"May it keep you safe."

"You can leave this job to us," Jaina added. "If there's any clue to your father's whereabouts in the ruins of Kuar, we'll pick up the trail." On impulse, she stepped forward and gave him a brief hug, much to Raynar's surprise. Then, to cover her own embarrassment, she gave Aryn a quick hug, too.

"Well," Jaina said gruffly, turning back toward the Hapan passenger shuttle and motioning everyone inside, "what are we waiting for?"

Once they left the merchant fleet behind, Jacen felt a subtle tension building inside him. He felt glad to be going along, but he didn't have a purpose yet on this trip. Jaina and Lowbacca were able to direct their energies into piloting the Rock Dragon.

Tenel Ka searched for more information about the planet Kuar, punching queries into a datapad on her lap. But Jacen just waited around, with nothing important to do.

He didn't like feeling at a loss. At first he considered just leaning over and reading along on Tenel Ka's datapad, but he rejected that idea, afraid the distraction might annoy her. He had to think of something more substantial to occupy his thoughts.

????? want her to think of him as a useless male, as so many of the men on Dathomir and Hapes were considered. He didn't want to think of himself that way. He cast about the cockpit looking for some useful task, and his eyes lit on Em Teedee, who was plugged into the navigational control panel.

"Hey, Em Teedee?" he said at last. "As long as we have the time, let's review everything we know about the disappearance of Bornan Thul.

Can you keep a list for me?"

"Why certainly, Master Jacen," the translating droid replied cheerfully.

"'I'm always happy to be of service."

Jaina glanced over her shotrider and flashed her brother a grin.

"Good idea. We can all listen in."

Lowie growled the obvious--that Thul's last known destination had been the meeting on Kuar and then he had disappeared enroute to Shumavar.

"Point noted," Em Teedee said. "Next?"

"Well, we know he was in the middle of some tricky negotiations," Jacen said.

"Something about a political movement. The Diversity Alliance."

"And that he was keeping the subject of those negotiations a complete secret," Jaina added. "Dad was worried about them."

"Excellent," Em Teedee said. "Do go on."

"The Twi'lek woman Nolaa Tarkona was somehow involved in the negotiations," Tenel Ka said.

"Indeed. If I might add a point," Em Teedee said, "in the rubble field of Alder-aan we learned from the Slave-1's computer that Boba Fett was hired by Nolaa Tarkona herself. That would imply she doesn't know where Bornan Thul is either, so we can logically dismiss the possibility that she somehow captured him or destroyed his ship."

"That makes sense. Nice piece of work, Em Teedee," Jacen said.

Lowie growled the observation that Bor-nan Thul might have been captured by someone else, or he might be in hidingwor even dead. In any case, it seemed as if half the bounty hunters in the galaxy were out looking for Raynat's father. The Diversity Alliance had offered a lot of credits for the merchant's recovery.

"The price must be high enough to risk dying for," Jaina said with a shudder. "The bounty hunter in the High Roller seemed to think so."

Jacen thought for a minute. "All those bounty hunters must be assuming that Bornan Thul disappeared voluntarily and doesn't want to be found,"

he said. "Otherwise, why go to such great lengths to get Raynar and Aryn as hostages?"

"Kusk and his brother must have intended to lure Thul from hiding using his family as bait," Tenel Ka agreed.

"What else do we know?" Jacen mused.

"Well, if Thul is hiding, something must have happened to spook him,"

Jaina observed, "and spook him badly."

In a flash, an idea hit Jacen. "Hey, Em Teedee, access the news reports in the week leading up to the time Bornan Thul disappeared."

"Why certainly, Master Jacen. What sort of news?"

Jacen shrugged. "I'm not sure. Look for anything big or significant that might have happened along the general route Bornan Thul would have taken between Kuar and the trade conference on Shumavar."

"Dear me!" Em Teedee exclaimed. "I suppose that narrows it down a bit, but do you know how many systems there arere?"

"Just do your best," Jacen said.

"I always do, Master Jacen," the droid replied. "One moment... ah, here's something," he said. "A double solar eclipse occurred on the fourth planet in the Deb-ray System." The young Jedi exchanged glances. Finally Jacen said, "I don't think that helps us any. What else do you have?"

Em Teedee made a noise that sounded oddly like gnashing teeth, then continued.

"There was a global election on Kath IIm" he paused briefly--"notable only for the fact that not a single human was elected to office, although fully one third of Kath's population is human. The Diversity Alliance was campaigning heavily there."

Lowie barked a comment. "Yes, very odd," Em Teedee said.

"Probably won't help us in our search, though," Jaina said, raising her eyebrows and waiting.

"Please continue, Em Teedee," Tenel Ka prompted.

"Mmm, odder still," Em Teedee murmured after a short pause to retrieve more data. "It seems that contact was completely lost with an all-human colony on the planet Gammalin. No one has heard from them since the day after Bornan Thul's appointment on Kuar was to have taken. place."

"Ah," Tenel Ka said.

"Anything else?" Jacen asked.

"In all probability, yes, Master Jacen," Em Teedee said. "Please be patient. I have fifteen thousand three hundred forty-two other files to search."

Jacen leaned back in his seat and sighed.

The trip to Kuar was going to be a long one.

WHEN THE LIGHTNING Rod arrived at the small colony of Gammalin, Zekk powered up his corem system to request clearance to land. Despite repeated hails, however, he could raise no one. In fact, his ship's scanners detected no signs of life at all on the human settlement.

Then again, the sensors hadn't been checked since Zekk's run-in with Boba Fett in the rubble fields of Alderaan. He'd have to have them tuned up when he got to a port with a good mechanic bay. Maybe he could even arrange for Jaina to do it. There were times when he longed to see her again....

The colonists had built only one city on Gammalin, a frontier town.

According to its coordinates, the settlement currently lay on the night side of the planet, approaching morning. But from orbit, Zekk could spot no city lights when passing over its position, even with his high-powered electrobinoculars.

He found this curious. The three-armed bartender on Borgo Prime had been quite specific: the missing scavenger Fonterrat had come here.

And Zekk's own brief twinges through the Force told him that Droq'l must be right. But if so, where was everyone?

As he continued to orbit the planet, he wondered if the city had suffered a massive power outage. Or maybe this was standard procedure here; a colony strapped for resources and credits might shut down all power every night as an austerity measure.

Zekk noted the position of the town on the edge of the planet's night side. The local time would be almost morning. In the absence of any direct communication from the surface, he began a conservative standard descent, confident that all his questions would soon be answered. - - he would see for himself.

Gammalin was dry and rocky. Zekk's instruments indicated a strong breeze that gusted regularly, moving the dust around.

As the Lightning Rod cruised over the frontier town, dawn began to break.

The sun spilled yellow-gold light across the silent settlement.

Instead of a bustling colony, though, Zekk found only death.

Clusters of weathered prefab buildings lined streets laid out on a precise grid.

He spotted no movement, no lights, not even the flicker of candles or torches... though he did see several blocks that must have been gutted by a fire raging out of control. It had burned itself out, but there was no evidence that anyone had even tried to stop the fire.

He powered up his comm system and broadcast repeatedly: "Gammalin Colony, this is the Lightning Rodinplease respond."

A tingle ran down his back, echoes of the Force warning him to be cautious. This place did not look right. Did not feel right.

Had it been abandoned? Entirely evacuated?

And if so, why had no one left a beacon?

As he came in lower, Zekk saw the first body lying facedown in the street. Fine dust obscured most of the body, but there was no mistaking that the person was dead.

Now, knowing what to look for, he distinguished other human forms sprawled about, arms and legs akimbo, completely covered by the perpetually blowing dust.

Zekk couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He used his scanners as he flew over the entire city, and still detected no signs of life. "Are they all dead?" he muttered to himself. Had Fonterrat come here and been killed by whatever had wiped out the rest of this human colony? Maybe there was nothing wrong with the sensors after all.

This was beyond anything in Zekk's previous experience. He set the Lightning Rod down in a clearing and prepared to investigate the disaster, feeling compelled to do so. He'd come here merely to find another scavenger--one who might provide a clue to the location of Bornan Thul--and to fulfill his first assignment as a bounty hunter, but now he had one more mystery to solve.

Could Grammalin have been attacked and wiped out by pirates or marauders, perhaps even some leftover Imperial fleet?

He didn't think so. He saw no collateral damage no blasted buildings, no explosion craters only the section of burned homes, which could well have been an accidental fire from some heat source left untended.

He shut down the Lightning Rod's engines, but kept them primed just in case he had to leave in great haste. He paused at the exit hatch before unsealing it, afraid of the stench of death he was sure awaited his first breath outside--if the entire population had died, then no one was left to dispose of the bodies.

Zekk froze with his finger on the hatch controls. Wait.t What if this was a virus or bacteria of some kind? That could explain how everyone had been struck down, why all the buildings seemed abandoned, why no one answered the comm signals. A plague, spreading like wildfire with a hundred percent mortality rate. Zekk shuddered. A disease so horrible it killed everyone... and he had almost opened the Lightning Rod and breathed in the air!

Zekk went to a supply locker and found an intact environment suit.

The Lightning Rod's decontamination systems were still operating efficiently--or at least he hoped so. Peckhum had never known when he might need to sterilize a cargo for transport from one planet to another.

Zekk suited up, tied back his long dark hair, and double-checked the seals on his gloves, on his boots, and around his helmet lock. He took more care than he would have had he been about to step into hard vacuum.

Indeed, the creeping plague might well be an even more unpleasant death than the vacuum' of space.

Once he stepped outside the ship he could feel the wind rippling gentle fingers across the fabric of his suit. His breathing echoed in his ears, reflecting back inside the helmet so that it sounded as if he were hyperventilating. When he switched on the suit's external voice pickup, he heard only a sighing breeze, like the panting of a grieving parent too exhausted to cry any longer. He heard the hissing of sand and dust being blown around, the groaning of empty buildings, settling houses. But he heard no signs of life. Nothing at all.

He walked along the street. The buildings around him were tall, their windows like blind eyes. He found cadavers sprawled on the street, smothered by drifts of dust.

He stood close to one and nudged the sand away with his thick boot, exposing a shriveled, dessicated arm. The skin had turned grayish, peppered with strikingly vivid blotches of blue and green.

He could not bear to uncover the dead man's face, though. Yes, this must be a plague, all fight. A terrible plague. As bad as the Death Seed sickness that had struck down so many people years before.

He walked down the street, leaving footprints that were gradually erased by the shifting dust. All around him the dead city seemed eerie, oppressive. He switched on his loudspeaker, turned up the volume, and shouted into the numb air: "Hello! Is anyone alive? Can anyone hear me?"

He listened intently, trying to discern any rustle of movement some weak survivor crawling to a doorway, hands outstretched for help.

Instead, Zekk heard only the echoes of his own words bouncing upward off the abandoned buildings until they were swallowed in the dust-laden sky.

He trudged on down the street, feeling dread. He realized he would never find Fonterrat here... at least not alive. And what good would it do him to find the scavenger dead? He did not want to go inside the darkened buildings, which were little more than decaying tombs.

Then, through a gap in the buildings leading to a broad courtyard beyond, he saw a glint of metal not yet covered with dust--a ship!

Apparently it had landed not long ago.

As he stopped, he recognized the vessel's configuration, the odd elongated form and ovoid main body. He had seen that vessel among the shards of Alderaan and chased it through the asteroid field, but it had eluded him in the forest of rocks.

Slave IV!

Feeling a sudden sharp tingle of warning, Zekk whirled in his bulky suit and stumbled to one side just as a blaster bolt struck the ground at his feet, fusing the sand into a lump of molten glass.

Unable to run in his unwieldy suit, he staggered against a railing outside one of the prefab buildings and saw the helmeted form of Boba Fett stride out from a sheltered doorway.

The bounty hunter pointed his heavy blaster directly at Zekk.

Zekk had a weapon attached to his suit, but he would never be able to draw it in time... and he doubted he could shoot faster or more accurately than the fearsome mercenary Boba Fett.

Slowly, he raised both of his gloved hands in surrender. His thoughts whirled as he tried to figure out a way to escape this situation. If Boba Fett recognized Zekk as the one who had shot at him in the asteroid field of Alderaan,' the bounty hunter might take great pleasure in eliminating him just for revenge.

"I had thought no one remained alive on this world," Boba Fett said in a rough voice filtered through the speaker in his sealed Mandalorian helmet. "But I see I was wrong.

And now you are my captive."

"AH. KUAR, FIFTH planet orbiting a single sun in a star system of the same name," Tenel Ka said, reading from her datapad while sitting in one of the crew seats of the Hapan passenger cruiser.

"Still capable of sustaining human life, but apparently abandoned for some time..."

"Does it say anything about particular cities or structures?"

Jaina asked, craning her neck to look out the Rock Dragoh's cockpit windowport, peering down toward the unwelcoming landscape below.

"Unfortunately, no," Tenel Ka said, consulting the datapad again.

Lowbacca rumbled a question about the level of technology that might remain on the planet.

"No data on the technology of Kuar's inhabitants either. In fact," Tenel Ka said, holding up a finger to forestall the question Jacen was about to ask,. "other than the legends of the Mandalorian warriors, I have found nothing about the former inhabitants."

Jacen's face fell, then he brightened again.

"What about wildlife? Interesting animal species or plants?"

Tenel Ka shook her head grimly. "These files contain minimal data. Little that is of any use to us--only the ramblings of historical scholars speculating about the original inhabitants, before the Mandalorians swept through. None of the data is current.

Even planetary archaeologists do not place this site on their priority research lists."

"Hey, Em Teedee, do you have any other information about Kuar?"

Jacen asked.

"Dear me, I'm afraid to say there's not much,. really, aside from what Mistress Tenel Ka has already told you. And I have the coordinates, of course." The little droid made a sound like an aggrieved sigh. "I imagine that's not very useful at this point, is it? We're already here."

"We'll be able to speculate all we want about Kuar in a couple of minutes," Jaina said. "We're almost to the atmosphere. Okay, hit it, Lowie."

The young Wookiee flicked a few switches, and the ship nosed down toward the vast sky that spread its thin blanket over the curved surface of Kuar.

Jaina flashed a conspiratorial grin at her brother and Tenel Ka.

"As I always say, show me--don't tell me."

Tenel Ka raised an eyebrow and turned to Jacen. "Does she always say that? I have not heard her say it before."

Jacen merely shrugged. The Rock Dragon dove into the atmosphere.

The magnified views of the distant landscape below alternated between occasional rock formations and various colors of dust Or sand.

It seemed as if the dusts of time had sifted over the entire world.

But excitement had overtaken Jacen, and he was impatient to know more about the mysterious place beneath them. "Hey, what do the readings say?"

he asked.

"Life-forms," Jaina answered succinctly.

"Quite a few, in fact. Definitely non-human--at least the life-forms we're picking up right now."

Lowie gave a thoughtful purr. "Quite right, Master Lowbacca," Em Teedee said.

"There's no telling yet whether the life-forms are sentient or not."

A few thin clouds drifted high in the atmosphere like worn and tattered lace, but they did little to obstruct Jacen's view through the windowport. From this height, the surface seemed relatively flat and featureless.

"What about buildings?" he asked.

Lowie studied the readouts again and woofed a few times. "Most assuredly, Master Lowbacca. 'Those are definitely not natural formations," Em Teedee said. 'Td hardly call them buildings, however.

The structures are certainly old, but there's something odd about them--

irregular, as if they're only half there."

"Ruins, perhaps?" Tenel Ka suggested.

"Quite probably," Em Teedee agreed.

"Why don't we just get closer and see?"

Jacen asked impatiently. "That's the best way to find out."

Jaina sighed. "I purposely stayed high, in hopes that we'd spot a city or smugglers encampment, or pick up a beacon of some sort to show us where any inhabited areas might be. I thought it would be the easiest way to figure out where Bornan Thul might have gone. You're right, though--we21

have to go down closer."

Jacen grinned at her, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

She took the Rock Dragon lower until they were skimming just two hundred meters above the surface. In most areas, the vegetation was fairly sparse. Rocky spikes and pillars and mesas jutted up from the landscape.

Occasionally, Jacen saw what looked like a nest of Some sort on one of the outcroppings. The color of the dirt, sand, and rock varied from cream, to saffron, to gray, to pale blue with purplish striations, to bright ochre, to stark obsidian.

Lowie 'woofed and tapped the control panel in front of him.

"Yep, I see it," Jaina said.

"What kind of structures?" Jacen asked.

"I'm afraid I can't say," Em Teedee replied.

"They are approximately three kilometers ahead of us. At least that's what the ship's sensors indicate."