"Space mines," Zekk said.

"Again? Does he think he's running his own Derby out there?"

Jaina asked.

"We'll catch up to him in no time," Zekk said. "He's got no chance of outrunning the Falcon."

The pilot ahead seemed to realize the same thing. He returned to his course and responded over the comm system. "H-hello, Millennium Falcon.

This is Lilnt, captain of the Rude Awakening-an officially licensed cargo hauler from Ord Mantell. M-m-my apologies for that accidental release a minute ago. Our defensive systems malfunctioned and identified you as an enemy. I trust no one was injured?"

Han grunted. He nudged the Falcon closer to the other ship.

"What's your destination, Lilmit?"

"Anobis. I've g-got some important... supplies to deliver."

Anja glanced up from where she sat behind an invisible psychological wall that cut her off from the companions. She came forward to the cockpit.

"He must mean food and medicinal supplies," Jaina said, not realizing that Han still had the comm circuit open.

"N-not, uh, exactly, Millennium Falcon," Lilmit said. "But my c-cargo is important to the war effort, nevertheless."

Anja moved farther into the cockpit. "He's running weapons," she said.

Her voice dripped with scorn.

"Lilmit, this is Han Solo, a special emissary from the New Republic.

I'll be coming aboard for a brief inspection." He brought the Falcon so close to the small cargo hauler that their hulls nearly touched.

"Y-Y-You what?" Lilmit stammered. The Rude Awakening put on a burst of speed that the Falcon easily matched. "Y-you have no right to detain my ship. I'm-I'm officially licensed."

"Then we should have no problem. Besides, I'm well aware of how much a license from Ord Mantell is worth," Han said, "and exactly how much one costs. " He glanced at Anja. Her face bore a troubled expression.

"Are you ready to be boarded?" he said into the comm system.

The two ships flew along side by side, nearly touching, but Lilmit still refused to answer. Han extended his grappling hook and attached the docking field. "Let's do this peacefully, Lilmit. Don't make me blast you and take over the wreck of your ship. It'd be a heck of a lot of trouble for both of us."

The other pilot mumbled something unintelligible, which Em Teedee offered to relay, but the young Jedi Knights quickly assured him that some things were better left untranslated.

&' C-c-come on aboard, then," Lilruit grumbled. "B-but you're delaying my delivery. I'm perfectly legal."

"His actions suggest otherwise," Tenel Ka said.

The docking clamp engaged with a loud metallic clank, and after a hiss of air equalization, both ships were ready. "I'm going across first, kids,"

Han said, taking the lead. "Just in case there's a trap."

"If it's a trap, Dad," Jaina said, following close behind him, "you'll need us next to you, not hiding inside the Falcon."

Han looked over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at her. "You know, you may be right."

He opened the hatch and quickly descended into the smaller ship.

Anja's face contained a thunderstorm of anger in anticipation of what she knew they would find aboard the smuggler's ship.

Lilmit, a small grayish-skinned man, had winglike eyebrows and a wrinkled, ridged scalp. He met them with frowns and flailing hands.

Jaina noticed that his fingertips were connected by thin translucent webs of skin. Finally, he forced a ridiculously fake smile onto his face.

4 I Han Solo! W-welcome aboard my ship," he said. "It's not in very g-good condition, but it's paid for. I've had it for many years-and this war on Anobis has been providing some of our best business since the Empire fell." He rambled on, his tone obsequious. "We've g-g-got a lot in common, don't we? You used to be a smuggler yourself. Y-you ran spice for Jabba the Hutt, didn't you?"

"Nearly cost me my life a few times," Han answered. "It's been decades since I ran those kinds of risks for a quick profit."

Lilmit sighed. "If only we c-could kick back in a cantina on Ord Mantell, sh-share a Rhuvian fizz or some Osskom ale. Then we'd have time to socialize."

"I'm not here to socialize, Lilmit," Han said coldly. "We're here to check out your ship's cargo."

Anja snatched out her lightsaber, switching it on so that its acidyellow glare flooded the small compartment. "Show us your cargo now! " Lilmit recoiled, holding up his webbed hands. "It's j-just my usual run! I've been doing this for years. N-rmobody's ever bothered me before."

"Then today's your lucky day," Zekk said, standing close to Anja.

The young woman, tall and slender, had a sort of animal energy that dominated the room. Zekk had no lightsaber himself. Jaina, Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie did not draw their weapons, though the smuggler could surely see them at their sides.

"All right, all right. C-come with me."

Inside the cargo hold they found crates filled with munitions: blasters, burrowing detonators, sonic punchers, and other explosive devices.

"Just as I thought," Anja said. She pointed to the box of sonic punchers.

"He's taking these weapons to the enemy."

"War material is forbidden, even for smugglers," Han Solo said.

"I can't remember the exact statute or regulation in the New Republic charter, but I'm sure that's the case."

"I would be pleased to look it up for you, Master Solo," Em Teedee volunteered. Lowie rumbled that it didn't matter at the moment.

Lilmit looked completely flustered. "I'm m-merely trying to make a living. There's a good m-market for these things on Anobis. There's quite a demand. P-people need to defend themselves."

"And which side have you chosen?" Tenel Ka said. "Which army do you support?"

"Oh, I couldn't take s-sides in a civil war," Lilmit said. "That would be unfair. I supply everybody. L-I-let them work it out. That's my creed."

Anja flared with anger, barely able to keep herself from cleaving the smuggler in two with her lightsaber. "You supply the enemy and our side?

You sell to both equally?"

"Wait a minute," Jaina said. "Which one is 'our' side? We're just going there to investigate."

Anja didn't hear her. She turned to Han Solo. "If you really pride yourself in being a high-and-mighty representative of the New Republic, you cannot let him deliver these weapons. Think of how many people these munitions will kill... how much more blood will be on your hands."

Han drew himself up. "Anja's right. We're going to have to confiscate your cargo, Lilmit."

"You c-can't do that!" the smuggler wailed. "I've got m-mouths to feed-an entire litter of offspring back at Ord Mantell. You'd put them out into the streets! I'll f-file a complaint!"

"I happen to know it doesn't cost much more to get a license permanently canceled than it costs to buy one in the first place."

Han's gaze didn't waver. "And in your case, I'd consider the credits well spent. You might want to try a more reputable line of business."

Han gestured to Lowie, who helped him lift a large crate of burrowing detonators and set it in the center of the cargo floor, just above an irising space hatch. "Let's pile these other crates on top," Han said.

Zekk, Tenel Ka, and the twins used the Force to help, while Anakin did his best to be of assistance in directing their efforts. Anja remained where she was, her lightsaber still drawn as if daring Lilmit to argue with them.

"I'll report you to the authorities on Ord Mantell," the smuggler whined.

"Y-you say you're confiscating my cargo, but you'll probably fence it yourself, s-s-sell it on the black market."

"Hey, not a chance," Jacen said.

Han Solo opened up a crate and removed one of the powerful detonators.

After setting its timer, he placed it back in the box and sealed it.

They locked all of the cargo crates together magnetically and coded the locks to a single control. After Anakin scrambled the coded combination for him, Han stood back. "I think we'd better leave our friend Lilmit alone so he can jettison his crates."

"B-b-but there's a fortune tied up in those weapons!" the little man said. He waved his webbed hands as his eyebrows flew upward like flames to his wrinkled scalp.

Han drew his blaster and pointed toward the crate with the timer ticking down. "If I were you, I'd get rid of the cargo, Lilmit. If you don't your ship'll become the newest, brightest little star in this part of the galaxy. I can't make that choice for you, but I'm not going to wait around to see what you do." He gestured, and the young Jedi Knights hurried after him to the Millennium Falcon's docking port.

Lilmit wailed, "B-but I'll never get that open in time! How m-much time did you set the countdown for?"

"Oh, a minute... maybe two. Can't remember exactly."

The smuggler ran to the crate, pounded on its side. "I can't g-get it open!"

"I suggest you jettison your cargo without delay," Tenel Ka said.

Lowbacca added his growl of affirmation.

The companions scrambled back into the Falcon. Han headed straight for the pilot's seat and strapped himself in while Jaina released the magnetic docking connection. They split away from the smaller cargo hauler and drifted off to a safe distance.

"How long does he have, Dad?" Jaina asked.

"Plenty of time," Han said. "I think."

Finally they saw a cluster of glittering objects pop out from the bottom of the smuggler's ship. Lilmit's sublight engines kicked in, and he streaked away only moments before the jettisoned cargo containers erupted into a white-hot ball of light.

:,Looks like he ' made the right decision," Jacen said.

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka agreed.

"Not bad, Solo," Anja said. "Your method was crude, but it's good to know you occasionally do make the right decision."

Aboard his small ship, Lilmit swung between despair and outrage. He had just lost a huge profit. It would have paid for his long-awaited vacation on Tatooine. For years he had scrimped and saved so that he could fly out under the double suns, soak up warmth from the glittering sands, enjoy the wild nightlife in Mos Eisley. Now those dreams and plans were trashed.

With trembling fingers he opened a special private comm signal. It was time to express his anger to the people in charge. Perhaps they could do something about this marauder, this space pirate named Han Solo.

Lilmit clenched a fist, trying to control his anger.

The image of Czethros appeared on the screen. The angry-faced leader appeared greatly annoyed that Lilmit had bothered him. His red laser eye burned bright behind his metal visor.

"You m-must do something about Han Solo!" the smuggler blurted, leaning so close that his flat nose nearly touched the viewplate.

"He and a group of kids just boarded my ship en route to Anobis. They confiseatedmy cargo and forced me to destroy all the weapons."

"Really?" Czethros said. "You didn't mention my name, did you?

I don't want Anja to know that Black Sun is involved in her own little war."

"Of course I kept m-m-my mouth shut," Lilmit said. "But what am I supposed to do rmow?"

"Obviously, you'll have to make up for these losses."

"D-don't you think I know that?" Lilmit said. "But I want you to make Solo p-p-pay for this-in blood. I work hard, I pay my protection money, and I do whatever you ask. Now it's time for Black Sun to do something for me. K- keep the spacelanes to Anobis safe for us gun runners."

Czethros laughed, but the laser-red eye in his visor did not waver.

"You can't order me around, Lilmit. You're no one, a mere underling who drives a craft and delivers boxes."

Lilmit trembled, knowing he had overstepped his bounds in talking to Czethros that way. One didn't make an enemy of the powerful crime organization without paying a steep price. Thanks to the efforts of Czethros, Black Sun's tentacles now reached into every known business in this part of the galaxy.

Then Czethros did smile; it appeared to be a genuine smile, or perhaps the man was a much better actor than Lilmit thought. "It just so happens, though, that your wishes exactly parallel mine with regard to Solo. Sort of a personal grudge of mine. Don't worry about it for now."

"But how will I g-get restitution?" Lilmit stuttered.

"Someone has to p-pay for my lost cargo."

"You're absolutely right," Czethros said. "You do. You allowed yourself to be boarded. You didn't deal with the situation properly, and you lost the weapons. It comes out of your account."

Lilmit swallowed hard. He knew of no way he could escape his obligation now.

Czethros laughed. "If it's any consolation, Solo is walking right into he civil war on Anobis. He seems to think he can make everything better, but I've got about a thousand different ways to make sure he never leaves that planet alive."

"Well," Lilmit mumbled. "That's one thing to look forward to at least."

Slumping deep into his pilot chair, he switched off the communications channel, then called up his credit records and banking tables in an attempt to figure out how he could possibly pay for the lost merchandise.

From the corner of her eye, sitting in the Falcon's copilot's seat, Jaina observed the change in Anja's demeaner after the run-in with the weapons smuggler. It seemed the thin, angry girl had gained a small measure of respect for Han Solo, though it was clear she still carried an enormous chip on her shoulder.

Then, as Han brought the ship down through the atmosphere of Anobis toward the war-scarred inhabited areas, something happened to fire up Anja's temper all over again.

She pointed to a wrinkled ridge of mountains in a temperate zone.

"My mining village is down there. The leader of the town, Elis, holds great power in the loose federation of mountain villages. We should talk to him. He'll confirm everything I've said."

"But aren't they the Imperial sympathizers?" Zekk said.

Anja bristled. "That's what the original debate was about, over twenty years ago. Now the war has become... something more."

But instead of heading for the mountains, Han arced the Falcon away toward the flat fertile ground embroidered with rivers and green forests, square patches that had once been fields, and small clusters of homes.

The farmland, now brown and abandoned, was dotted with small craters.

"I want to try talking to the people of a farm village first," Han said.

"We've already heard Anja's side of the story. Let's get a little perspective. " Anja fumed. She jutted her chin forward. "You don't believe me?

You think I lied to you?"

"I didn't say that at all," Han said.

"He just wants to get a different point of view now," Jacen said.

"Don't worry. We'll talk to both sides."

Anja lowered her voice. "Right. More than twenty years of war and a former spice smuggler is supposed to trot in, talk to a few people, and put an end to the fighting."

Tenel Ka's voice became gruff, matching Lowie's deep growl.

"Perhaps it is time someone did something to prevent your people from continuing their fighting."

"You're asking for trouble," Anja said bitterly. "Those farmers down there can't be trusted. They'll probably try to blast you out of the skies as you come in for a landing."

"Good thing we just upgraded the Falcon's shields, then," Han said.

Jaina grimaced. "If we can't even land safely, how did you expect us to survive in the midst of a whole civil war?"

Anja narrowed her eyes as if this exact question had occurred to her already. Somewhat unsettled, Jaina turned back to the copilot controls and scanned the ravaged landscape that rolled past beneath them.

Anobis had been an agricultural and mining colony world, never heavily populated and somewhat off the beaten path, despite its easy access to Ord Mantell. It seemed that the colonists managed to survive well enough to build their homes and live their lives, but no one ever became rich here. Except maybe the gun runners, Jaina thought, since the war had continued for so many years.

Even before the days of the Empire, the miners and the farmers had traditionally been separate groups with different needs and distinctly different outlooks. From the sketchy background files her mother had sent, Jaina knew that the miners and farmers had once cooperated with each other, exchanging metals and raw materials for produce.

But the two groups had been divided by their political leanings during the Rebellion. The miners, more dependent on offworld trade, worked to maintain the status quo of the Empire. The farmers had wanted freedom instead-the ability to succeed or fail on their own merits without the angry yellow eyes of the Emperor watching them.

As galactic struggles had raged and resolved themselves independently around Anobis, the colonists had battered each other, continuing to fight long after the New Republic had won its victory.

As Jaina looked out the Falcon's cockpit windows, she saw a world with the potential for beauty, but with so many scars that a long time of peace would be needed for complete healing. A large forest fire burned in the hills, far from the nearest farming village. It might even have been a natural fire.

"Jacen," Han said, "try the comm system; see if you can talk to anybody down there. Let them know we're here to help, not to fight."

Anja rolled her eyes and sat back, crossing her arms over her chest.

Jacen sent out repeated calls on the comm system, but received no answer.

"Doesn't mean they don't hear us," Jaina pointed out. "They might just have a receiver and no transmitter."

"Or they might be setting a trap," Anja said.

Han brought the ship in low over the largest fanning village he could find. Jaina maneuvered the Falcon to a smooth landing not far from the cluster of rickety homes. The boarding ramp extended, and the group climbed out, blinking in the hazy sunlight of the war-torn world.

In the distance, the smoke from the distant fire curled up from the hills.

The timid villagers slowly crept out of their huts, heads lowered and shoulders hunched. They gaped in astonishment and fear at the strange spaceship. Jaina and her companions lifted their hands in a wave of greeting.

Han Solo said, "I'm an official representative from the New Republic, come to investigate your civil war and to offer any assistance we can."

The people remained quiet and did not venture any farther out of their shelters.

"You'd think they'd have some kind of welcoming conu-nittee," Zekk muttered. He stepped close to Jaina.

"Maybe they can't afford one," Han mused aloud.

The buildings needed a great deal of work. Every one of them had obviously been patched and rebuilt numerous times in the wake of repeated battles. Some of the walls were new; others were composed entirely of salvage and scrap. A rickety grain-storage tower barely managed to stand upright at the rear of the village.

The hazy sky was bright, the air humid and warm, smelling of smoke.

Cleared flatlands extended into the distance toward a thick forest that separated them from the rugged mountains. From what little Jaina knew about farming, she suspected this should have been the peak of the growing season-but she saw only a few skittish figures out working in the fields, hopping and dodging about in a strange way that made no sense to her. No crops grew in the barren fields, only a few patches of greenery that had sprouted all on their own.

Jacen bowed and flashed a friendly smile, trying to charm the villagers.

"Take us to your leader?"

Finally, several of the farmers came out. Their eyes were sunken, their faces gaunt. Some looked angry; many wore bandages from injuries.

Anja hung back, scowling, and muttered to Jacen, "I can't believe we were ever afraid of these people. They look too skittish to fight a nerf colt."

"They've probably been through a lot," Jacen said.

"So have my people in the mountains," Anja retorted.

The other villagers faced one of the central dwellings and waited until a door swung open and a broad-shouldered man hobbled out. He had obviously once been a muscular person, perhaps a great farmer who could lift his own weight in punja grain or fight herd beasts bare-handed.

But now the man's skin had a pale appearance, as if he spent all his time indoors.

As he stepped forward, the man's left foot clanked on the ground.

Jaina saw that his real leg had been amputated just below the knee; he wore a makeshift replacement limb, cobbled together from secondhand droid parts that didn't quite fit together. Although the servomotors no longer functioned, the man used his droid limb as a peg leg to help him walk about as he needed.

"We don't get many visitors here," the man said, "except for people wanting to sell us weapons... or to prey on us."

"We're not trying to do either," Han Solo said. "We want to help. "

"Then I don't know what you think you can do for us." The man sighed and clomped forward, extending a callused hand. Han Solo took it gratefully.

Jaina also shook the man's hand while the others greeted him in their own ways. Anja remained at a distance, her face a mask of distrust.

"My name is Ynos," the man said. "I'm what passes for a leader in this group of villagers, though we're mostly starving and we don't amount to much of anything."

"If you're starving then why aren't you out working the fields?"

Jaina asked. "There seems to be plenty of cropland, and it's a beautiful day."

"Because we're afraid to," Ynos said, his lips twisting in an angry snarl. "The mountain miners have ruined all of our fertile land.

There was a time when we harvested enough to keep us fat, with plenty left over for trading with the miners, as well as for export offworld.

Now we barely scrape by with our tiny gardens here."

He gestured to small patches of plants outside the ramshackle homes.

"A few of our people have tried to clear some of our old acreage, but it's a dangerous task. The cursed miners plant burrowing detonators everywhere."

Jaina shuddered. She had heard about mobile robotic explosives that tunneled into the ground and waited there for someone-anyone-to unwittingly step on them.

"Some of our braver young men and women venture into the forests to hunt for food, but even the trees and shrubs are booby-trapped with deadly pits and trip wires. Sometimes our hunters don't come back."

Several villagers sighed or smothered soft moans of despair.

"It is only a matter of time before we're all wiped out," Ynos said.

"Then the mountain villagers will have won the war."

"Unless we kill them first," said one brash young helper.

"And then we will all be dead anyway," Ynos replied in a heavy voice.

Tenel Ka looked at the man and studied his stump of a leg. She seemed to feel a camaraderie with Ynos, though her injury had been caused by an accident, and his by an act of war. "There is no honor in such destruction. Only cowards kill those they cannot see. And only a fool kills when there are other options."

Ynos sighed and looked around at the squalid village. Jaina followed his gaze. Her heart went out to the desperate workers in the nearby fields.

She saw a few figures moving slowly, taking each step with meticulous care.

A sudden wash of dread flooded through her. All the young Jedi Knights whirled and focused on the same field, sensing the dangerjust as one of the distant farmers stepped forward. An explosion ripped under his feet, sending up a cloud of dust and dirt shards, along with an incinerating heat.

The scattered workers in the fields screamed. Some froze in utter terror, while others ran blindly back along the narrow, well-packed trails that led safely through the cropland. The villagers lurched into motion, rushing toward the field.

Anakin popped back into the Falcon and emerged a moment later carrying the medikit. Tenel Ka ran like a hunting cat, with Anja pacing her step for step, as if it were some kind of a competition rather than a race to rescue an injured man who had stepped on a burrowing detonator.

"Be careful!" Ynos shouted, limping behind them as the other young Jedi ran. At the edge of the fields, many of the farmers stopped to embrace those who had successfully made it onto safe ground. The young Jedi Knights followed the narrow footpaths. Jaina could see where other detonators had left craters and pockmarks in the fields, uprooting precious crops, leaving their poisonous residue as a chemical stain on the once-fertile dirt.

Ahead, Jaina saw the mangled body of the man who had been hurled high by the explosion and dropped back down among the rocks and clods of dirt.

His clothes were torn, his face and limbs scorched from the blast. Blood seeped from massive injuries in his legs and chest. The man groaned.

Jaina and her companions rushed to his side.

"Saw it...... the man groaned, " saw it coming toward me... jumped." He gasped for breath, and Jaina thought she could hear his ribs cracking as he inhaled. "Not fast enough. This place... infested with burrowers."

Han came up, panting. "Looks bad. Can we get him back to the Falcon's medical bay?"

Anakin opened the medikit, but the mangled man shuddered. Blood still oozed from his wounds. A moment later, he collapsed backward with a convulsion. Jaina could tell without checking that he had died.

Just then Ynos hobbled up on his mechanical leg and looked down at the dead man. He assessed the injuries with narrowed eyes and nodded grimly.

"Perhaps it's best he died quickly. He'd never have recovered, and he would have hated being crippled."

"That is not for us to judge," Tenel Ka said. "We cannot know what he might have contributed-even with a handicap-had he survived."

Ynos shook his shaggy head in despair. "There will be more deaths and injuries like this. Many more, and there's nothing we can do about it.

The miners buy burrowing detonators and turn them loose in our fields faster than we can clear them. We'll never have happy lives again.

We'll all starve."

Han Solo forced an optimistic expression and put a hand on the old man's shoulder as three farmers gently carried their friend's body away.

"You won't starve tonight. The Falcon has plenty of food packs in its prep unit. I can make you all a decent meal, something to give you strength. It's not much, but it's the best we can do right now."

Ynos looked at them, hunger in his eyes. Jaina could see he desperately wanted to accept the offer.

"No argument," Han said, before the limping man could think of anything to say.

One by one, the other villagers approached, eyes still wide with horror at the death they had witnessed, but ready to see how Han and the young Jedi Knights intended to help them.

Before Han Solo and the young Jedi Knights prepared evening meal in the Millennium Falcon, the villagers all worked together to dig a grave for the man who had died that afternoon. They buried him in an area already dotted with mounds, and Jacen realized with shock that each mound was a grave. He doubted that many of the dead had fallen prey to natural causes.

Anobis appeared worn out and stretched to its limits, as if it were making a last gasp for life. As far as Jacen could tell, agricultural settlements such as this one continued fighting only out of sheer habit, not because of any lingering convictions. The current of hatred ran too deep to be diverted by any rational arguments.

The fanners ate the Falcon's food supplies with great gusto as Jacen and Jaina served meal after meal from the galley. Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Em Teedee welcomed guests and cleaned up after each one, while Zekk and Anakin tinkered with the food-prep unit to see if it could produce the meals faster.

The sun of Anobis set in a coppery orange glow behind the ominous mountains where the enemy mining villages were located. The smoke in the air made the colors more vivid. Keeping to herself, Anja gazed toward the craggy shadows with something akin to longing, while the farming villagers looked at the mountains with fear and loathing.

Outside, Han ate with old Ynos. The village leader seemed content that his people had received this small reprieve. "So who speaks for all the farmers?" Han asked. "Is there a council I could talk to? What would it take to bring about a cease-fire between the miners and farmers-stop all this death and destruction, even temporarily?"

Jacen paused in his serving to listen to the old farmer.

"Each of the farm communities is separate and independent, though ours is one of the largest," Ynos said, wiping his mouth. "I can speak for these people as well as anyone else. I know how they feel."

He heaved a great sigh. "You saw what happened this afternoon.

It is a common occurrence. Day after day, our people are slaughtered indiscriminately by brutal weapons that strike unarmed targets. None of us are soldiers. The graveyard beyond the village is filled with the innocent victims of the miners' hatred."

Jacen saw his father shoot a glance over at Anja, his face troubled.

Jacen was confused because the young woman had told a completely different story about how much pain the farmers caused the people in the mountains. He would have to assume that neither story was exactly correct.

As twilight turned into deeper dusk, the most physically fit young men and women finished eating their fill of the donated rations, then went out as sentries to guard the village. The mine-laced fields sprawled toward the forests and mountains in the west, while behind them rocky hills etched with canyons looked just as inhospitable. Night insects, birds, and more sinister-sounding creatures bumbled and set up their songs around the darkening plain, particularly from the rugged hills to the east where the brush fire still glowed.

"What are you afraid of?" Jacen asked one of the villagers. "What are you guarding against?"

The gaunt young man looked at him in shock. "Everything," he said.

When Jacen finally settled down to eat, he felt uncomfortable with his usual large plateful when these people had been starving for so long.

Off in the darkness he heard the strange night sounds getting louder.

A low hooting and snarling from the rocks came closer. The villagers looked up in alarm.

The ferocious sound grew louder, echoing, as if it came from dozens, perhaps even hundreds of throats. Now a rustling approached through the distant, fire-ravaged hills. After a moment of rising tension, the sentries shouted an alarm.

Tenel Ka sprang to her feet and stood beside Jacen. "What is it?" she said. "Are the mountain miners attacking?"

Anja dropped back toward the Falcon, a startled look on her face.

Lowie sniffed the air and growled. "Dear me, Master Lowbacca," Em Teedee said. "I'm certain I can't identify the specie,;, but I do agreethose definitely sound like the voices of predators."

The sentries yelled out, "Knaars! Knaars!" The villagers who were still eating dropped their plates of precious food and scrambled back to their homes. Some grabbed sticks, others gathered prized possessions.

Many wailed in panic.

"What is it?" Jacen cried. "What are knaars?"

"Monsters!" Ynos said, pivoting on his droid leg. "It sounds like an entire herd migrating from the hills. The fire must have driven them in our direction." He hung his head as villagers continued their disorganized evacuation efforts all around them. "Now the miners will have cause to rejoice. Our village will be wiped out."

"Can you not fight these monsters?" Tenel Ka said.

"For a few minutes," one of the villagers said.

"I'm going to kill five before they take me down," a brash young man said, though the look of terror on his pale face belied his brave words.

"Killing five won't even help," Ynos said. "A migration pack contains hundreds, and the fire has driven them into a frenzy."

"We can fight beside you." Tenel Ka clutched her lightsaber. "We are Jedi."

"Then you might kill five yourself But we'll still all fall under their fangs and claws." Ynos shook his head. "We may as well fightthere's nowhere to run." He glanced over at the deadly minefields blocking their path toward the forest, their direction of escape.

Han stood up and put a protective hand on Jacen's shoulder as the sounds of hooting and howling grew louder. They heard thundering feet, claws skittering on stones. "I could take some refugees in the Falcon.

I can't carry nearly enough, though."

Ania stood beside the boarding rwnp. "I'll get my lightsaber," she said, and ducked inside.

Jacen glanced after her with a questioning look. He had thought she always wore the weapon at her belt. But that hardly mattered now. He was much more concerned about the oncoming predators.

Inside the back cabin where she had stashed her pack, Anja rummaged among her belongings and took out the small black carbon-freeze unit.

Her fingers trembled. She had been wanting the spice so badly; now, at last, she had a perfect excuse.

Hunching over to hide what she was doing, Anja took one of the tiny black cylinders in her hand. Its coldness felt welcome against her sweaty palm.

Czethros had given her only enough andris for four doses-not as many as she wanted... but she would have to make it last.

Looking longingly at the three remaining packages of spice, she sealed them in her pack. Then she carefully unwrapped the insulating opaque paper that surrounded the spice. The andris spice came from a newly discovered vein on Kessel, the highest quality available.

Anja could barely wait. Outside she heard shouts, human voices among the predatory growls. She would have to hurry.

Before the spice could warm to air temperature, she slipped it under her tongue and felt the energy course through her. Her muscles sang.

Her nerves became much more sensitive. Her thoughts whirled. Her blood pumped more freely, the air tasted sweeter, and her mind opened to things around her that she had never before noticed.

The spice heightened her senses, increased her ability to fight, improved her reflexes. Anja clasped the ancient lightsaber at her side. With the full dose of spice surging through her body, she felt vibrant, powerful, ready to take on any foe.

As Han Solo led a group of escaping villagers into the Falcon, Anja pushed past him to run outside. At this moment she didn't care how many knaars were attacking. She could handle them all.

"There's no time to argue, Dad," Jaina said, standing at the base of the ramp as Han Solo tried to cram a last few people aboard. Zekk had already gone into the cockpit and was powering up the engines for immediate takeoff. A dozen of the remaining villagers huddled around Jaina in terror, holding sticks and agricultural implements. One woman had a small laser drilling tool.

"Take Anakin and go," Jaina insisted. "We have our lightsabers, and we have to help these people."

"But I can't leave my own kids behind," Han said, obviously torn.

"We're Jedi Knights, Dad. We have a better chance than any of these villagers. We've got to protect them."

And with that, the first knaars charged out of the darkness at the ramshackle line of buildings, looking for prey. Jaina stood startled for a moment. Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Jacen all stared at their new enemy.

"We're doomed," Em Teedee wailed.

The knaars were fast-moving reptilian predators, sleek saurians with purplish-blue scales and a silver frill of razor-sharp spines along their backs. Tails slashed back and forth, inflicting damage on anything around them with their wicked barbs. The creatures' muscular anus ended in a fistful of claws, and their immense jaws were heavy machinery designed only for eating.

The pack of bloodthirsty beasts stampeded into the village. They swiveled their heads from side to side, clenching and unclenching their grasping claws, looking for flesh to tear.

As the Falcon blasted its repulsobets and rose up, Jaina watched it swivel around and fly low to the ground, approaching the predatory knaars. Han and Zekk would use blaster cannons to shoot the creatures, Jaina knew, but as the pack of monsters continued to flow from the hills, she realized it would never be enough. This migratory pack consisted of hundreds upon hundreds of members, each hungry from its long charge through the rocky hills.

Jaina's lightsaber blazed violet in her hand, and her friends drew their weapons as well. Anja rushed up, looking flushed and full of adrenaline; she danced from foot to foot, as if anxious to attack anything that came close. But the moment the knaars fell upon the nearest guard and tore the old woman apart, the other villagers turned and fled, forgetting to put up even a pretense of a fight.

Instantly Jaina saw that the battle was hopeless. Even with their lightsabers, even with the Millennium Falcon's blasters, they couldn't possibly drive the knaars away. Their best choice was to flee and hope to find a place of refuge or a protected area in which they could make a stand.

And their only path to escape lay through the detonator-salted fields.

The Falcon blasted two of the leading knaars. Several of their fellows fell upon the bodies, stripping the meat off the bones of the dead predators. But scores of knaars kept coming.

The Falcon fired again. Heedless of this minor interruption, the monsters surged forward, slashing with claws, snapping their jaws at their helpless prey. Jaina, with her companions and the remaining villagers, turned and ran headlong into fields full of burrowing detonators.

As the Millennium Falcon took off with a roar, Zekk heard the villagers crowded in the back of the Falcon moan with fear. His attention, though, was focused on the sparks and flashes of light that signified lightsabers as the young Jedi Knights fought down below.

"Zekk, get into the gun well and start blasting those creatures!"

Han Solo shouted.

"I hope your laser cannons are fully charged," Zekk said, climbing down into the gun well. He dropped into the chair, strapped in, and powered up the Falcon's weaponry.

Han soared low to the ground, swooping back toward the ramshackle village. The reptilian predators prowled along, moving with the speed of hunger, cunning evident in their intelligent yellow eyes.

"There are so many of them!" Zekk muttered, seeing the sinuous shapes dart forward like purplish-blue shadows. One of the creatures grabbed a young man and swallowed him in a single gulp before Zekk could aim the laser cannons. He wondered if that victim had been one of the brash young men who had tried to act so brave when the knaars were first coming.

Zekk targeted and fired, blowing the reptilian creature to sizzling bits.

He rotated in the gun well again, seeking another target. It was difficult to zero in on the dark shadowy monsters-and he didn't dare risk hitting one of the people.

Below, a knaar advanced along the pale wall of a building. One villager had tried to take shelter around the corner, in the doorway.

The knaar approached, sniffing, its claws extended. Zekk targeted and fired.

The frightened villager scrambled to one side as the smoking body of the enormous reptile slumped to the ground in front of him, its fanged mouth open wide.

A shot now fired from the other gun well, striking one of the saurians in its lower leg. The moment it collapsed, honking and howling in pain, other knaars fell upon their wounded companion.

"Hope you don't mind, Zekk," Anakin said through the comm system.

"I've had a bit of target training myself, but the twins get to practice more often."

The knaars continued to sweep forward. Two new ones seemed to appear for every one Zekk blasted.

Han Solo circled around and came back for another run. His concerned voice came over the comm system. "What's she doing?"

"Jaina's leading them toward the minefield!" Anakin's voice replied.

Zekk looked down and saw by the glow of the lightsaber blades that the young Jedi Knights had turned and headed with the remaining villagers into the barren fields that were full of burrowing detonators.

He thought of Jaina down there fighting against monsters and running into even more dangerous territory. His heart sank, but he gritted his teeth and grabbed the firing controls. If he couldn't pull off a spectacular rescue, at least he'd do his part to keep her safe-or as safe as she could possibly be under the circumstances.

Jaina planted her feet firmly on the rough ground and held her lightsaber high. The slavering knaar in front of her did not seem at all intimidated by her violet Jedi blade. The reptilian creature gave a high-pitched bellow, then reached forward with its claws, snapping with powerful jaws that looked strong enough to rip a repulsorpod from a starship engine.

Jaina swung forward and down with her crackling lightsaber, cleaving the monster from its shoulder down to the center of its rib cage.

The creature thrashed and fell down as smoking blood bubbled from its dying heart.

Anja continued to let out loud whoops and shouts of challenge. She ran faster than the knaars, darting from one to another, wounding them with her lightsaber and diving out of the way as their claws slashed at her.

She let the other carnivores do the rest of the work for her. She needed only to wound a beast, then the other knaars would tear it to pieces for the meat.

Anja's hair flew in the wind, barely held in place by the leather band.

Sweat dripped down her temples onto her flushed face, but she was so full of adrenaline she seemed incapable of slowing down.

Lowbacca let out a loud Wookiee roar as he and Jacen motioned the villagers to follow them into the treacherous cropland. The villagers dropped their fanning implements and ran. Panicked, some of them dashed right past the young Jedi.

"Wait! We have to find a safe path for you!" Jacen yelled. But one middle-aged woman clutching a satchel of valuables over her shoulder tore ahead in blind terror as she fled from the knaars.

"No! Wait!"

She ran through the uncleared cropland. Jacen felt an intuitive stab and a chill at the back of his neck-a premonition-just before she stepped down on one of the hidden burrowing detonators. The explosion ripped the night with a flash of brilliance and a boom of echoing thunder. The woman fell instantly, but the monsters charged toward the fields and Jacen could not take a moment to determine whether or not she had survived. The villagers screamed in despair, caught between their fear of the minefield ahead and the rampaging predators behind.

Lowie roared something at Jacen about the Force and gestured to the ground. Em Teedee quickly translated. "Master Lowbacca suggests that by using your Jedi senses, you could perhaps determine the locations of the burrowing detonators and thus avoid them. That would give us the best chance of survival."

Jacen realized that his Wookiee friend was right. If he could calm himself enough to use the Force, he might be able to map out a safe path that the villagers could follow-a path that the knaars would not understand.

"And I do suggest you be careful," the little droid added. "I have no desire to become a useless lump of floating metal with no one to translate for."

As his eyes adjusted to a darkness lit only by the green glow of his lightsaber and Em Teedee's optical sensors, Jacen trotted ahead as fast as he dared, keeping his eyes to the ground. Stretching out his free hand before him, he sensed ripples in the dirt, tiny echoes of movementand then he spotted a slight trembling where the mechanical explosives had tunneled beneath the surface. Across the fields he could see a checkerboard pattern of places to avoid, and places where it was safe to walk.

"Follow us!" he shouted, holding his emerald lightsaber like a beacon overhead. "We can see a path!"

The ginger-furred Wookiee bellowed a confirmation, raised his own molten-bronze blade, and sprinted ahead on his long legs. A magenta glow from Tenel Ka's rancor-tooth lightsaber indicated another safe path.

Jaina and Anja remained behind to guard the group's retreat and to slow down the charging beasts. Overhead, the Millennium Falcon's engines rumbled in the air. Laser beams lanced out from both gun turrets, striking knaars. Still more of the migratory pack surged like a camlyorous flood out of the rocky hills.

The villagers ran onward, grasping at any shred of hope as they followed Jacen and Lowie through the minefield. Fortunately, the knaars did not understand the explosives. They surged forward on their scaly, muscular legs, ready to snatch anyone who fell behind.

Two of the largest knaars, their silvery razor frills raised and yellow eyes glowing like lamps in the darkness, circled around to the left to charge ahead of the fleeing group and cut off their retreat. Tenel Ka turned to face them, glaring with her granite-gray eyes as if daring them to approach.

The two reptiles kept moving, staying close together. When the larger knaar stomped on one of the burrowing detonators, the explosion knocked both creatures aside, tearing open their rib cages. They lay wounded on the ground, honking and roaring in pain. Tenel Ka would have dispatched them herself, but their noises only served to attract other hungry knaars. Before long, under the double moonlight of Anobis, the two predators fell silent as their roars were replaced by the wet sounds of tearing meat and gnashing fangs.

The Falcon soared above the knaars, blasting more of the creatures.

One of the villagers tripped. Before he could scramble to his feet again, two monsters fell upon him. When another young man turned back with a shout and tried to defend his friend, the knaars attacked him as well.

At the last instant, when it seemed the young man was surely doomed, Anja appeared beside him. Her lightsaber swept out in a blazing swath of acid yellow to lop off both forearms of the predator. The sizzling stumps of its clawed hands fell to the ground, and the monster roared, flailing about, unable to grasp anything. In blind rage it chomped at the nearest creature-another knaar. The two reptiles tore at each other, wrestling one another to the ground. In moments, other predators came in to finish off both of them.

The cropland stretched ahead, seemingly forever. Jacen continued to run, finding it easier to pick his way around the burrowing detonators now. He saw some active ones shifting their positions underneath the soil.

Beyond, the thick forest looked like a goal line. If only they could get to the shelter of the trees, perhaps they could fight better than out in the open. But Jacen couldn't be sure. For now they were just running.

He couldn't imagine how the group could possibly turn aside all the knaars, even with five active lightsaber blades and assistance from the Millennium Falcon.

Two more explosions ripped the night, and Jacen was relieved to see that it was only more reptilian predators stumbling upon the explosives. He looked to one side and saw a bobbing metallic sphere.

Em Teedee had detached himself from Lowie's belt and drifted ahead on his microrepulsolets, flitting from side to side in front of the beasts like a remote practice drone.

One of the largest knaars lumbered forward, attracted by Lowie's molten-bronze lightsaber blade. The Wookiee stopped his headlong run and whirled to face the monster. The knaar charged forward, exposing its razor teeth.

Em Teedee flitted in front of the monster's jaws, distracting the creature so that it snapped at the silvery sphere and diverted its fiery gaze from Lowbacca. Lowie used the moment of distraction to strike sideways, severing the knaar's body at the waist; its head still twisted and snapped even though it had no body to move.

The surviving villagers kept running. Ahead of them, the forests loomed taller. Dozens and dozens of the saurian giants had been killed, but though the pack seemed to be thinning a bit, Jacen did not feel at all relieved. The Falcon circled by again, blasting away.

More of the monsters died. The people continued to stumble along on the haphazard path the young Jedi Knights picked for them through the booby-trapped field. Many villagers were in shock, just following, placing one foot in front of another, unable to fully face their peril.

Jacen sensed their fear and could only hope the situation would change once they entered the thick trees. "Hurry up. Get to the forest!" he shouted. With despairing sighs, the people nearest him tried to increase their pace, but they were too exhausted. Weak from malnutrition and years of living in fear for their lives, several of them stumbled and fell, only to be helped to their feet by their equally exhausted companions.

Jacen could tell that everyone's energy reserves were running out.

If they had to continue this battle, they would not make it much farther.

The Falcon swept overhead, strafing the oncoming monsters. Jaina and Anja fought behind the others, attacking more of the knaars. The air was filled with the snarls of the predators, the sizzling buzz of the lightsabers, and the despairing cries of the staggering villagers.

Then, to Jacen's surprise, the migratory knaars faltered in their advance, honking at each other uneasily. Many in the pack were covered with blood from their victims, both human and reptilian. But they all paused in their tracks as if unwilling to come any closer to the forest.

Jacen, sensing the monsters' hesitation, desperately tried to use his Jedi senses in another way. The knaars were at the edge of their territorial range. Jacen could feel that they had never come this far before, that the forests ahead were a great unknown, and that the predators had little desire to keep following. He sent out his thoughts, giving the knaars a vague feeling that they had come far enough, that they should turn and go home.

They smelled the blood in the air, dimly understood that a great many of their number had already died on this trek.

The knaars honked at each other in a rudimentary form of communication.

With sagging shoulders and trembling knees, the villagers turned to watch in shock as the predators ground to a halt, snapping sharp teeth into the air as if they had reached some invisible boundary.

Lowie gestured with his big hairy arms to keep the people moving toward the forest during this unexpected respite. "Dear me! How very odd! I do hope the knaars don't change their minds and attack again," Em Teedee said.

The Falcon circled back and blasted one motionless knaar who stood in the lead. The other reptiles howled and snapped their jaws in defiance of the disk-shaped ship that cruised overhead. Then they turned about, moving much slower now, and began their trek back through the minefield. The stragglers stopped to snort among the scraps of meat that remained on the carcasses they'd left behind during their chase after the fleeing villagers.

Jacen stood at the edge of the forest, surveying the tall dark trees and the shadows beyond. Farther in the distance, beyond the forest, steep mountains with winding switchback roads led up to the open tunnels and cliffside stone villages of the miners.

The Falcon came to the edge of the forest and hovered low. Jacen and Lowie reached out with their Jedi senses, found an area clear of the burrowing detonators, and gestured for Han to land. With a hiss not unlike that of the monstrous knaars, the ship settled down on the uneven terrain. The boarding ramp extended, and Han and Zekk bounded out.

"You kids okay?" Han said, breathless.

"We are, Dad," Jacen said. His sister, looking exhausted, came up next to him.

"We lost quite a few of the villagers," Jaina said, "but there was nothing more we could do. We tried our best."

Zekk turned his emerald-green gaze on her. "Without you, they would all have been slaughtered. I just wish I'd had my own lightsaber so I could have fought at your side."

Jaina touched his arm. "You'll have one soon, Zekk-and you'll earnit the right way."

"You helped us out just fine in the Falcon," Anakin said.

Jaina smiled. "You weren't so bad yourself-for a little brother, or course." Anja joined them now, sweating, flushed, but seething with energy.

To Jacen it almost seemed as if she wanted the knaars to attack again, just so she could enjoy the fight.

His droid foot clanging on the boarding ramp, Ynos stepped to the opening of the ship and gazed back across the fields to where an explosion boomed in the distance. One of the retreating knaars had stepped on another burrowing detonator.

"That's one way to clear a minefield," Jacen said. Anja chuckled, but Jacen didn't feel like making any more attempts at humor.

"Now we have nothing." Ynos shook his shaggy head, and his broad shoulders appeared to carry more weight than even his once-great muscles could bear. "We've abandoned our village, and the only way to get back is to cross the land-mine field again. Even then, the knaars have destroyed many of our homes, and will be waiting for us if we return to the village now. We've survived this night, but now what do we do?"

Anja stood, flushed, her lightsaber still in hand. Though the other young Jedi Knights had switched theirs off, she kept hers powered on and throbbing. Its garish yellow light threw stark shadows on her face as she pointed it up at the mountains just visible above the trees.

"You can go there. That's where I used to live, my village in the mountains."

The farmers cried out in anger, and Ynos glowered at her. "What, and become slaves to the miners?"

Han Solo, perhaps still hoping to make peace between himself and Anja, ewne forward. "I can take some of you up to that village in the Falcon.

We'll talk to their leader. I need to hear both sides of the story anyway. This could be the best way to get your groups talking."

"Hey, what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Jacen said. "Should we just wait here and make camp?"

"We could walk through the forest," one of the villagers said.

Lowie growled, and Em Teedee translated. "Master Lowbacca recalls hearing about other traps and detonators throughout the forest."

Jaina nodded. "Right. But it could be just as dangerous to sit out here in the open-especially if those knaars decide to come back."

"I know a safe way through," one young villager said. "I've been into this forest many times. We just have to be careful."

Han stood close to Anja, who pointedly took a step from him. "We can take Ynos and the weaker farmers and fly up to the mountains. The rest of you follow us through the forest. It's safer than any of the alternatives."

Tenel Ka looked sternly at the villagers, who, though exhausted, seemed fearful of going to the mountains. "If this war is to end, many things must change. You must face your fears and be responsible for yourselves."

"I still wish we had weapons... since we're going into the household of our enemies," one of the villagers said.

"Then you'd miss the point entirely," Jaina said, still shaky and exhausted from her battle; she was growing frustrated with the villagers'

stonewalling. It could well be, she mused, that the reason the civil war had dragged on for so long, and with so many innocent casualties, was that no one on either side was ready to face the challenge of making peace.

"Look," Han said, "I'm going up there even if none of you comes with me.

But this is your war, not nne. You should be involved in this."

"We will go," Ynos said. "But I don't expect anything to come of it.

" As Anja boarded the Falcon, Zekk turned back to Jaina. "I'll go with the ship," he said, and then looked at the villagers. "You have to have faith that there are options open to you. Trust in your own abilities, and in each other, and in the Force." The villagers just mumbled. Han hugged each of his children. He looked squarely at Jacen and Jaina. "You kids are awfully brave," he said. "But it may take a while before I learn to stop thinking of you as children."

A few moments later the Falcon lifted off above the trees. Jacen and Jaina waved farewell, and the flattened ship's white sublight engines lit as the craft roared off across the forest toward the mountains.

Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie looked at the refugees around them.

"We're a pretty ragtag group," Jaina said.

Em Teedee drifted back down to be reattached to the Wookiee's belt.

"Indeed, yes," the little droid commented.

"These people are our responsibility," Tenel Ka said. Lowie grunted his agreement and patted Jaina's back with a furry hand.

Jaina sighed. "Right. What are we waiting for?" She looked into the thick forest and gave her brother a nudge.

Jacen turned toward a young woman and two young men who claimed to know the way to the mountain village. "Let's go," he said, lifting his lightsaber like a green torch to light the way through the murk of the trees. "We've got a long march ahead of us before we get to shelter.

" As the ominous animal sounds grew louder, the young Jedi Knights plunged into the thick wilderness, knowing that this forest held as many deadly pitfalls and booby traps as the minefield had.

By the time the Falcon flew low over the knotted mass of the forest, dawn announced its arrival with a splash of color behind the mountain crags.

As the sun rose, light spilled down the rugged stone cliff faces.

Zekk could make out the thin white slash of a road winding its way up the steep mountainside. Scattered black holes marked entrances to mining tunnels and the city within the rocks.

Anja came forward from the passenger compartment and eagerly drank in the sight of the rough stone wall through the windowports.

"It's been many years since I came back here," she said. "I've made my life offworld on Ord Mantell, doing whatever I could to survive."

Zekk looked at her. "Sounds familiar," he said. "I've been through a lot of the same things you have."

She glared at him. "No one's been through what I have."

"Don't be so quick to judge," he replied. His voice was hard, but it held no anger. "My parents were both killed on Ennth. When I was still young I fled offworld, and lived on the streets of Coruscant, deep in the underlevels where no one goes-at least no one who wants to stay alive. I survived for years as a scavenger, until I was kidnapped by the Shadow Academy. They trained me as a Dark Jedi to fight for the Second Imperium."

Anja shrugged one shoulder. "Our mountain villages took the side of the Empire a long time ago. It's nothing to be ashamed of"

"Maybe.

But now I've learned and grown and adapted instead of wallowing in bitterness about my past. Sure, things went wrong with my life, but I think I've finally learned how to make something better."

"Or you've finally convinced yourself to let the people who hurt you get away without punishment."

The dark-haired young man could tell that Han was listening to this exchange with great interest. Zekk gave a wry smile. "If punishing other people is the most important thing in your life, then perhaps you need to look for another hobby."

Anja turned away. "Other things are important to me." Somewhat subdued, she moved to the back of the cockpit.

Ynos staggered forward and looked at the approaching mountain city.

"No one from our village has gone openly into that place since the beginning of the war."

I'd say it's about time for a change, then," Han said. He arrowed toward the widest opening in the cliffside, where lights and a landing pad were visible. Zekk guessed these must be facilities for smuggler ships, supply runners, and weapons merchants like Lilmit, who came to take advantage of the desperate plight of the people of Anobis.

Han turned to Anja. "Do we need to contact them or request permission to land?"

She shook her head. "The only ships that come in are unauthorized smugglers." She raised an eyebrow. "You know the type, Solo."

Han and Zekk landed the Falcon in the middle of a broad rocky floor.

Tunnels riddled the walls between buildings built from blastedstone blocks mortared together, chips of rock cemented into multiunit structures. People came from the buildings and tunnels to study the ship suspiciously.

Anja recognized the man in front, who had a black beard, thick eyebrows, and hair with a long streak of gray down the left side.

"He's the one to talk to," she said. "His name is Elis."

The miners held stone-cutting implements, pickaxes, vibrohammers, and other excavating devices. To Zekk the tools looked like potential deadly weapons.

Han extended the boarding ramp. "Let me go first. Anja, you can come with me if you like."

She looked over at him, gave a curt nod. "As long as you don't make it seem as if we're allies."

Zekk looked at the young woman, wondering what he could do to reach her and whether he could somehow dislodge the large chip on her shoulder.

Anja Gallandro could have been strikingly beautiful if she hadn't had such a sour demeanor.

"Just give him a chance, Anja," Zekk said. "Nobody planned that knaar stampede, but for now we're all in this together." She shot him a resentful glare.

Han, Anja, and Zekk emerged from the ship together as the miners pressed forward. Dark-haired Elis took the lead, scrutinizing them curiously. He recognized Anja. "It's been a long time since we've seen you," he said.

"And who is this you've brought with you? Another trader?"

"Han Solo," she said. "And aboard this ship are Ynos and many survivors from a knaar attack on the farming village below."

At this, Ynos hobbled forward on his droid leg. Though broad and burly, he still held the boarding ramp piston for support. The miners set up a gruff cheer.

Elis smiled, showing his teeth from within the dark nest of his beard.

"Excellent work, Anja. With such important hostages, we can end this war once and for all."

"Now wait a minute!" Han cried.

Elis gestured and the miners rushed toward the Falcon, their stonecutting implements raised like weapons.

????? if it hadn't been for the minefield and the ferocious knaars behind them, the dense dark forest would not have been an acceptable option at all.

In the dim but colorful light of sunrise, Jacen could see the dense branches adorned with blue-silver leaves. Some of the trunks were smooth and metallic, others blistered with scaly orange-red bark.

Lichens and mosses dangled down, clustered with lemon-yellow flowers that opened and closed in snow plant reflexes.

Tenel Ka stood next to Jacen, ready to use her lightsaber as a machete.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina asked. "Let's get hiking."

One of the young men from the village gestured ahead. "I know the way, but you'll have to follow carefully." He started forward, scanning the ground, squinting in the dim forest shadows as the ragtag band pushed their way into the wilderness.

Jacen and Jaina flanked the young villager, with Tenel Ka and Lowbacca each moving out on either side of the group, their senses alert.

Lowie's dark nose snuffled the air, and his ginger fur bristled with intense concentration. The young Wookiee had survived the dangerous underlevel forests of Kashyyyk, and had won his precious fiber belt by snatching the threads from a carnivorous syren plant. Compared with the ominous forests of the Wookiee world, the woods of Anobis couldn't be too dangerous, Jacen thought.

But then, he wondered, after twenty years of civil war, how many hidden booby traps had been planted in the dense foliage?

They crunched their way along an ill-defined path. Jacen's feet popped spherical mushrooms, and wet shapeless things slithered out of the way in the weeds. With a buzzing cry of alarm, two flying creatures that looked halfway between moth and bird fluttered into the upper sparkling leaves.

Within moments it seemed as if the forest had swallowed them up, and Jacen could no longer see the cleared cropland behind them.

As the day strengthened and the sunlight grew brighter, the forest shadows remained a thick lattice around them, allowing only scattered glimpses of the bright blue sky overhead.

Tenel Ka turned her gray eyes toward Jacen; in a cold voice, she said,

"Anja could have stayed here to help guide us through. Perhaps she and some of her people planted their own traps."

Jacen felt an irrational urge to defend the orphaned girl. "You don't know that about her," he said. "Just because her people have suffered as much as these"-he turned his chin toward the stumbling villagers"doesn't mean you have to think the worst of her."

Tenel Ka gave him a puzzled look. "We just need to be aware of the dangers here," she said, and then drifted away.

Suddenly, Lowie howled and raised his hairy arms, gesturing for them all to stop. The people, already on edge, halted in their tracks, glancing around with wide eyes. Em Teedee said, "Ah, yes, Master Lowbacca. I see it too. How horrible!"

"M%at is it?" Jaina came close to the Wookiee. As the sunlight glittered through, Jacen could see a fine tracery stretched between the silver tree trunks, a gossamer line like the whisper of a cobweb.

Lowie picked up a branch from the ground and tossed it in front of him.

The branch passed through the faint lines and dropped to the ground on the other side, sliced cleanly into small pieces.

"Monofilament wire?" Jaina asked.

Jacen ewne close and understood the threat: a fiber so strong and so thin it surpassed even the sharpest razor blade. Anything that touched it would pass through and be sliced in two.

The villager in front stopped, looking greenish with dismay. "That wasn't here before," he said. "I slipped through here to the mountain village just six standard days ago."

"Then everything has changed," Tenel Ka said, not asking what this farmer would have been doing on his way to the mining settlement.

"We must be cautious."

Carefully, they skirted the wire-strung trees, giving them a wide berth.

But just as they passed into what they thought was safety, a hidden motion sensor hummed. A laser beam tracked them, spraying a red targeting lance toward the group. "Look out!" Jaina cried as the refugees scattered and dove.

The weapon discharged and blazed holes through nearby trees. One middle-aged man cried out and fell backward into the bushes with a blackened hole through one shoulder. Then, after only a few seconds, the laser ceased firing.

The young Jedi Knights waited in hiding for a few moments, expecting another attack, but when the forest fell quiet again except for the leftover squawks and rustlings of disturbed forest creatures, Jaina stood up and made her way toward the source of the laser blasts.

She found the hidden weapon, its energy pack drained. "It's a single-use munition," she said. "Strictly here to gun down one or two trespassers."

"It was made only to kill," Tenel Ka said. "To kill anyone. Not specifically an enemy, or a friend... anyone."

"This is a different kind of war than anything we've seen so far, Jaina said, her expression grim. "With no objective in mind, no military targets. The factions just want to destroy everything."

"You see how horrible the miners are?" one villager said. "They plant burrowing detonators in our cropland, and look what they've done in this forest, where we have to hunt! I can't believe your father wants us to talk peace with them."

"Let's just get to the mountains and take it from there," Jacen said.

"I'm sure Anja will put in a good word for us."

After encountering these two deadly traps, they proceeded with the utmost caution, and continued on for hours without further incident.

"Not finding any booby traps is even more nerve-racking than stumbling upon one," Jacen muttered.

Finally, after what seemed an interminable time, they paused for a rest.

A few villagers had found edible fruit on a tree, which they passed around to their exhausted and hungry companions. They had been through a terrible ordeal, but over the years of civil war they had become inured to such circumstances. They walked with numb shock, fearing another trap.

Jaina and Tenel Ka suggested that Em Teedee scan the fruit for implanted poisons, but the little droid happily pronounced each one of the red scaly clusters to be clean of contamination.

Lowie looked up at a tall, silver-trunked tree and chuffed a suggestion.

"Master Lowbacca wishes to climb up to the canopy and take a look around," Em Teedee said. "He believes it might be useful in making certain we're close to the mountain village."

"I agree," Jaina said. "Go take a look around, Lowie."

With his lanky arms and legs, the Wookiee scrambled from one branch to another, in no time disappearing into the mass of silvery-blue leaves.

Lowbacca loved to climb tall trees and sit in solitude. The Wookiee probably wanted to rest up there, but they couldn't sit back and wait.

With a crashing of small branches, Lowie bounded down, leaping from branch to bough, enjoying the freedom. He landed on both feet in the middle of the clearing, and gave his quick report with barks and growls.

"We are very close to the edge of the forest," Em Teedee said. "I am so pleased to be nearly out of this dismal place."

"Then let's get moving," Jacen said. "I'm anxious to have our whole group back together."

With a collective groan of weariness, the villagers struggled into motion again. The man who had been injured from the laser blast was carried along by two of his companions. They moved slowly, with exquisite care, and Jacen was very proud that they had not lost any of their party through the various traps planted among the trees.

One of the villagers called for them to move left in order to avoid a flower-filled meadow. Jacen saw nothing suspicious, though he did feel a tingling through the Force, warning him of danger. With a wan grin, the young man slipped over to another tree trunk and pushed a hidden button, switching off a tiny holographic generator. Part of the placid meadow disappeared, revealing a jagged-edged hole filled with durasteel spikers that gleamed in the forest light.

"The mountain miners aren't the only ones who can plant traps," he said proudly.

Jacen felt sickened. "That's no way to end a war," he muttered, thinking that Anja's villagers might have fallen into that deadly trap.

"You've seen what the miners have done to us," one farmer said.

"How can you fault our people for defending ourselves?"

"This is no defense," Tenel Ka said.

Soon they could see daylight and cliffs through the tattered edge of the forest. The mountain and its steep pathway lay ahead.

As they were about to emerge from the forest, though, just when Jacen thought they had passed through without incident, one member of the group close to Lowbacca stepped on a flat stone, which triggered a detonator that blew up beneath one of the wide-trunked trees.

The booby trap didn't kill the woman who had triggered it, but instead blasted the roots from the huge tree and shoved it back toward them.

Its sprawling branches crashed through the adjoining trees as it tumbled.

"Look out!" Jacen cried.

Lowie roared and slashed at the oncoming branches with his lightsaber.

The other villagers scattered, screaming. One ran straight between two microfilament-laced trees and died an instant, bloody death. Another villager stepped on a small explosive, which blew him into the air before he fell dead and broken atop the thick-trunked tree as it crashed in among where they had all been standing only moments before.

The villagers wailed. Jacen felt a sharp pain in his heart. "We almost made it through," he said.

"We're all going to die," one of the villagers said.

"No you're not," Jaina snapped. "We just have to keep moving."

Raising her chin high, she walked bravely forward, accompanied by her brother and friends. The villagers followed, relieved to stand in the sunlight again, where they could look up at the sky after so many hours in the murky shadows. But now, free of the forest at last, they gazed at the steep pathways chiseled into the gray granite sides of the mountain, and they appeared on the verge of despair again.

"Come on. It's up this road," Jacen said. He could see the cave openings-numerous mining tunnels and the large, smooth-edged mouth where Jacen figured the mining village must be located. "My father and Ynos have already been in there, making arrangements for us. I'm sure they'll have food and water and a safe place for us all to rest."

"Or they'll just use blasters to gun us down as we walk toward them," one farmer said.

"And maybe a comet will crash down right now and wipe out the mountain village," Jaina said, impatient. "You can worry all you want, but I'd like to get where I can rest."

They started up the steep switchbacked pathway. Since it was a road used by the miners themselves, Jacen didn't expect to find any pitfalls planted there.

Though the clear sunlight baked down, the air grew thin and cooler.

Overhead, wispy white clouds did little to cool off the day. The rugged mountainside provided no shade, but Jacen and his companions led the others on a slow, steady march. He could sense people watching him from above, thought he saw faces peering out from the honeycombed mine shafts in the rock face.

Now that they had accepted their destination, the villagers plodded along without complaint, without any comment whatsoever. Jacen could tell they were at the end of their rope. They had little to live for, and little hope that anything would get better soon.

Finally, panting and sweating, Jacen and his sister arrived at the top edge of the cliff city. Wearily, with a heavy arm, he gestured down to the group that had straggled out along the steep path. "Come on. It's cool, and there's shade up here."

The city seemed quiet, though he could see people in doorways, watching them suspiciously. But he could think only about getting inside and resting. The farmers trudged in, standing in the cool rock grotto, where burn marks on the floor showed that many spacecraft had come and gone.

Jacen's heart surged when he saw the Millennium Falcon, landed off to one side with a rippling rock wall arcing overhead. "See? We'.z all safe now," he said as Tenel Ka and Lowbacca brought up the rear.

"Oh, my. This is much better," Em Teedee quipped.

Then, when all the villagers stood inside the cave, the miners marched out in a well-coordinated group. Others poured out of the mining tunnels below and came up from the rear, encircling them. Jacen saw no sign of his father or Anja, nor did he see any welcoming expression on the miners' faces. Each one of them bore a weapon of some sort.

"As enemies of the mining community," one man spoke up, "we will hold you as prisoners for crimes you have committed against our people."

Zekk found himself imprisoned in the same stone-walled room with Han and Anakin Solo. The miners provided them with some sparse comforts-food and water, blankets and furniture. Anja's work, perhaps?

Zekk wondered. Zekk guessed they were being treated far better than the other captive villagers, though their repeated questions about Ynos and the farmers went unanswered.

After hours without explanations, the dark-haired and bearded leader Elis came to them with surprise guests in tow, surrounded by guards from the mountain villages.

"Jaina!" Zekk cried. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca also came with them.

Han Solo leapt to his feet to see his children safely arrived. "You made it through the forest then," Han said. "I was worried about you."

"Had a pretty unpleasant welcoming committee when we got up here to the mining settlements, though," Jaina said. "What do these people think they're doing?"

"They think they can end their war this way," Zekk mumbled.

"You don't understand the type of people we're dealing with," Elis said, his voice a low growl. "The fanners have done heinous things-"

"But those people were under my protection," Han insisted. "I'm from the New Republic. I trusted you to recognize my diplomatic immunity."

"And we are not harming you or your close friends, General Solo," Elis said. "You personally have caused us no damage. Ynos and his murderous farmers have done us great harm, though, and we will not treat them like visiting royalty." A storm seemed to pass across Elis's face, but he brought his emotions under control. "It was only out of courtesy and respect for your position that we did not execute every one of those villagers as they arrived. "

"That's something at least," Han said, considering Elis through narrowed eyes.

"We've seen the cropland where you planted all those burrowing detonators. Those weapons take their toll on innocent people, as well as fighters," Jaina said. "I'd call that an act of terrorism, not a brave military strike."

"There are no innocents in the fanning villages," Elis said. "I don't know what lies they've told you. Ynos tries to make himself appear helpless and pitiable, but he has the blood of hundreds of miners on his hands."

"Ah. Aha. Yet he himself stepped on one of your burrowing detonators,"

Tenel Ka said coldly. "That is how he lost his leg."

"His heart was dead long before that," Elis answered. "For many years we had a booming business here. My mountain workers labored hard to excavate the various ores and crystals from the rich mineral veins. We still sell whatever we find to offworld traders, smugglers, anyone brave enough to come to this world and take the meager riches we have to offer. In exchange, they bring us supplies and equipment and food."

"And weapons, too," Zekk pointed out. "We stopped one of those shipments.

"

"We must protect ourselves," Elis answered, standing at the doorway to the stone chambers. "We have a right to do that, don't we? The fanners won't trade with us anymore. We would starve if it weren't for the smugglers. The fanners once provided us with what we needed, and we did the same for them.

"But because the bloodthirsty rebellion brought its message here to Anobis, beyond where even the Emperor cared to look, everything came crashing down. Anobis could have remained neutral, stayed out of all the fighting, but the farmers had to choose a side. They stopped trading with us. I ask you, what good does politics do any of us, if we're barely managing to survive from day to day?"

He gestured for them to come with him out into the dimly lit tunnels.

"Come, we have something to show you," Elis said. "You need to see this."

Han went first. Zekk took Jaina's hand and followed, with the others close behind. They walked through stone corridors, excavated tunnels that jerked left and right, curving sideways and down as the miners followed veins of precious minerals. As the miners worked the mountains, it looked as though they left open chambers where new families built houses into the sides of the rough walls using rubble and tailings from the mine mortared together.

Finally the group reached a place where temporary support beams were hammered into place. Sealant foam had been sprayed on the ceilings and walls, and crossbeams stretched from one side of the tunnel to the other.

Past several posted DANGER signs, Zekk could see that glowlamps had been crushed and the ceiling had fallen down in broken slabs.

The debris was pale and fresh, and the air smelled dusty. Zekk heard tiny pebbles trickling down as the rockfall settled.

Elis gestured with a broad grimy hand. His fingernails were broken, as if he did most of his work by grasping the rock with his bare fingers.

"This was one of our largest mining chambers, our most active vein.

Numerous tunnels led to this place-and now what do you see?"

"Just rubble," Zekk said.

"You don't want to see what's buried in that rubble," Elis said, his voice hollow. "An entire mining crew was in there. Sixteen men and women, working hard at excavating. There are many tunnels like this......

"Was it a rock slide?" Jaina asked.

"No. The fanning villagers did this," Elis said. "Commandos come in the night. They make their way through the forest, wait for sundown, then race up the pathway and into our mine access shafts. Their sonic punchers are quite effective. They slip them inside active tunnels, hiding them in the shadows behind stones or at floor level in cracks in the rocks where no one can see them. Then they set an activation timer and flee back into the night like the cowards they are."

"What are sonic punchers?" Jacen asked.

"Motion-activated grenades," Elis said, his lips curling, his teeth pressed so tightly together that Zekk thought they might crack at any moment. "It's not enough for the farming villagers just to destroy our tunnels or hinder our work. These weapons are more insidious than that.

A sonic puncher waits until someone comes by. When it explodes, a person gets killed. Every time."

He nodded toward the rubble pile; faint pale dust sifted into his dark hair. "As a fresh mining crew entered this grotto, their movements set off one of the sonic punchers. The trigger could have been the sound of their laughter, or the songs they sang as they went to work.

"The sonic blast cracked and shattered the rock walls and the ceiling.

The entire crew was buried-crushed and battered to death under the collapse of the cave.

"We can never go into this area again. It's too unstable. We do not even dare to excavate the grotto to retrieve their bodies." Elis drew a long shuddering breath. "The miners must rest here, buried in the tunnels where they worked. Over the ages they will become part of the mountain themselves.

"Perhaps by then, there will be an end to this war." The mining leader's voice was bleak.

Seeing the anger in the man's eyes, Zekk wondered.

When all the prisoners, including Han Solo and the young Jedi Knights, had been separated by Elis and the miners, Anja slipped away.

She saw an opportunity too good to ignore. She also knew exactly the person who could best take advantage of the circumstances.

Protas, the younger brother of the mining leader, was a bitter and grim-faced youth, barely nineteen. He had a wispy, pale beard and dusty skin from spending most of his life inside the stone tunnels, working his fingers until they bled among the rocks. But the intense young man also made frequent unofficial excursions down to the forests and croplands, where he planted traps to do his part in the fight against the fanning villagers.

Now, with Anja's help, he could strike a blow the farmers would never forget.

When one of the mining crews took a break, Anja trotted down through the tunnels asking questions until she was finally directed to Elis's younger brother. She gestured for him to join her in one of the shadowed rocky alcoves. "Protas, I need to speak to you."

He raised his eyebrows. They had been children together, and if Anja had stayed on Anobis, they might well have gotten married. But she had slipped off to Ord Mantell to join some band of smugglers.

Because of their past, though, Anja knew Protas would listen to what she had to say.

"We now hold all of the farmers from one village captive inside the tunnels," she said.

Protas grinned. "I know. What more could we ask for? You led them right to us. Thank you, Anja."

"I'll tell you what more you could ask for." Anja smiled, moving closer to him. The skin under her leather headband itched, but she ignored it.

Her voice was breathless as she spilled out her plan.

"Their village is abandoned now. They left it completely unoccupied.

We can go there tonight, slip in and burn everything down. Not only have we captured them, we can destroy everything they hold dear."

Protas's eyes gleamed, and he placed a conspiratorial hand on her shoulder. "We still have plenty of burrowing detonators, but we could never before get close enough to plant them right in the village. But now, we can rig explosives in all of their homes, make it so that the fanners destroy their own dwellings. Just by going home, they'll bring about their own doom!"

Anja's large, dark eyes twinkled. "That's even better. This way, if any of the farmers survive, they can blame Han Solo and his companions for meddling. I knew I could count on you."

Protas nodded to her. "I'll get the weapons and bring some of my men.

We'll depart as soon as the sun sets."

They did not share their plan with Elis or any of the other miners.

Anja, Protas, and four angry-faced commandos slipped out through one of the smaller tunnels, walking with sure feet on the smooth stone walkways.

Outside, careful but confident, they dashed down the mountain switchbacks, listening to loose rocks clatter behind them as they raced along.

The double moonlight provided but a pale silvery illumination and stole all colors from the landscape, marking the terrain with only lightness and shadow.

As they entered the thick forest, the sounds of night insects and small creatures rustling through the branches did not bother Anja. She had her lightsaber. And minutes before leaving the mountain village, she had gone alone into the Millennium Falcon and taken one of her precious doses of andris. With enhanced senses, she could experience the sharp edges of details around her. She would spot any traps waiting for them. Protas and his fighters had chosen a safe trail that avoided all of the deadly surprises they had themselves rigged.

Heading east, she wondered about the knaars that had swept through the ramshackle village and across the croplands. But that had been a full day and a half before; given slim pickings, the migratory herd's surviving members would have gone in search of other villages or abandoned livestock left to graze by fanners who had been killed during the long civil war.

The group of commandos picked their way across the barren fields.

Protas consulted a diagram of where they had planted burrowing detonators. The tunneling robotic explosives could move about, but only within a certain radius of where they had been buried.

As she trotted along beside the young man, Anja saw blasted craters where detonators had exploded, some triggered by the heavy footsteps of the knaars, others by farmers bumbling into the wrong place.

The stark moonlight shone down, making the croplands look like a moonscape. None of the once-rich fields had been planted for many years.

Perhaps, she thought, the miners could use their new captives as slaves to work the land again and provide food for the mountain villages. Or maybe that was just too much trouble.

She saw a shattered skeleton lying on the dirt, a femur and a hipbone, part of a rib cage. The knaars had stripped all the flesh from the bones of their victims, whether human or reptilian. Anja felt a small twinge of pity. Han Solo and his young companions had landed the Falcon here despite her protests. Though reluctant, she had eaten a meal with these people, had listened to their pathetic sob story of all the trials they'd endured.

The knaars were not part of this war. They had not been sent by the mountain miners, but were simply a vicious vagary of the natural world.

Anja was glad the attack had happened here, rather than in her own village. The knaars had unwittingly helped the miners' fight, removing some of their enemies.

When they reached the abandoned village, she could see the silhouettes of the dark, leaning houses, uninhabited now that the farmers had fled.

Their usually well-guarded homes now had no defenses whatsoever. If the miners had come at any other time, the farmers would have put up a fierce resistance-but not this night.

"The village is ours," Protas said. "Nothing can stop us from destroying everything." The men gave a husky cheer.

They opened their packs to remove the burrowing detonators.

Anja's fingers tingled in an afterwash of spice. She reached into her sack and took out one of the small mechanical bombs. It was an oblong hemisphere, segmented and flexible like a pillbug. Claws and scoops moved on articulated joints so the device could tunnel beneath the soft dirt, implant itself, and wait for an unsuspecting footstep.

With a snle, Anja decided that she would plant one of the detonators directly on the doorstep of Ynos, the village leader. She could claim that small victory for herself... if the one-legged farmer ever managed to get free of his captivity in the mines.

Anja bent down, cradling the device. She peered into the hollow shell of the home where Ynos lived. The hut was windowless, its walls patched and repaired. A slight evening breeze whispered through, like the breath of a sleeping man in the midst of a nightmare. She had not seen him with a wife or any family. Maybe they had died in earlier battles. The place seemed so lonely, so empty, so... sad.

Anja shook her head, gritting her teeth until her jaw hurt. She couldn't think of things like that now. They had a mission to accomplish.

She pushed the activation button and set the small burrower on the ground. Its metallic joints whirred, digging in. The blunt nose of the roving mine tunneled underneath the surface like a robotic mole and covered itself, shifting the topsoil so that it left no sign of its presence.

She backed away carefully, knowing that the land mine now lay in wait for Ynos when he came back to cross the threshold of his abandoned home.

Satisfied, she jogged to a new building and planted her second detonator.

Then she circled behind the scattered village and found one of Protas's men inspecting the nearly empty grain storage warehouse.

He stepped toward the silo, igniter in hand, ready to set fire to the building.

He looked at Anja, his eyes gleaming. "I want to see something burn this night."

"Fine," she said, "but take the grain out first. Our own villagers need it. We'll take turns carrying it back to the mines."

The young man nodded, went into the silo, and salvaged all that he found: three limp sacks containing barely enough for a single meal, though the farmers had hoarded it as if it were gold. Then Anja stood back to watch as the man set his thermal igniter in one of the corners.

The flame blazed white-hot, and the silo caught fire immediately.

Flames trickled up the walls to the rooftop, and soon the entire structure was engulfed.

The fire crackled and hissed, and the smoke smelled sharp and satisfying in Anja's nostrils. The other commandos shouted that they were finished, and Anja came back around to the front of the cluster of wellings.

"Let's go," she said. "We have to get back before daybreak."

"Wait," Protas said. "I've got one last burrower to plant." He held it high, grinning through his wispy blond beard. Then, to Anja's horror, he ran straight toward the village leader's house. "I'm going to give Ynos a real surprise if ever he comes home."

"No!" she shouted. "Wait, I already-" But before he could stop, Protas stepped directly on the spot where Anja had planted her detonator.

The explosion ripped the night, throwing Protas high in the air, his clothes in flames, his body mangled. The front walls of Ynos's house collapsed into rubble. The young man's scream was swallowed in the echoes of the blast.

Anja pressed her hands to her mouth in horror. The other young men stood in shock, staring at where the young brother of their village leader had been only moments before. As rocks, clods of dirt, and other debris began to patter down like a small meteor storm, Anja suddenly broke through her stunned immobility and raced forward.

"Protas!" she shouted, knowing in the pit of her stomach that there was nothing she could do. She found the young man's body lying broken and bent in odd places, as if someone had folded him up and swatted him like a bothersome insect. His skin was burned, his open wounds bled, but his heart no longer pumped. Breath no longer filled his lungs.

She looked up in bleak despair, her dark eyes burning as she blinked and blinked. Her throat constricted painfully. Heedless of the blood that stained her hands, she touched the young man's shoulder, ran her fingers along the wispy blond strands of his beard that now would never grow to bushy fullness like his older brother's.

The commandos stared speechless at what they had inadvertently done.

Anja's heart felt like a lead weight in her chest. She knew that she herself, and no one else, would have to tell Elis.

????? in one of the stone-walled gathering rooms, Elis's anguished wails echoed from the rocks and seemed to hang in the air like cold icicles.

Jacen shuddered at hearing the pain and sadness in that voice. The dark-bearded man cried out again, a wordless moan. He squeezed his eyes shut, and tears coursed down through the rugged crevices in his dusty face.

When he ground his teeth together, his bushy beard stood out like black spines.

Jacen stood without moving, frozen in the moment next to his friends and his father. It was early morning. They had slept uncomfortably, restlessly, and then they had been summoned from their rooms to meet with the mining leader. Elis wanted to discuss what the New Republic could possibly do to improve the situation on Anobis.

With fresh hope, the group had trooped into the room to listen to the village leader and to offer suggestions as to how the long and painful civil war might finally reach a cease-fire, so that the parties could start talking. Although nothing had changed in decades, nothing was likely to change until the miners and the fanners at least began to communicate. Then, perhaps they could learn to talk in a civilized fashion.

But before Han Solo or Elis could speak, Anja had burst into the room, her face drawn, her huge eyes even more grief-stricken than Jacen was accustomed to seeing them. She kept her trembling voice low, but Jacen understood most of the devastating news she passed to Elis. Zekk caught his breath. Lowbacca, with his sensitive Wookiee ears, listened and groaned. Em Teedee made no effort to translate. Han Solo fidgeted uncomfortably. Jacen and Jaina looked at each other.

Elis turned away from them, hiding his face. The dark-haired mining leader clenched his left hand into a fist and began pounding on the stone wall of the meeting room. His chest was racked with sobs that he tried to contain within himself. As Elis smashed his knuckles again and again against the stone, Jacen saw a growing smear of blood blossoming there.

Finally, the leader drew a deep breath and seemed to control himself.

When Elis opened his eyes, the look of pure hatred behind them made Jacen turn cold. "I will kill them!" Elis roared. "Bring Ynos here now!" he shouted, and other miners scurried off to the cells to fetch the one-legged farming leader.

"Why blame him?" Zekk asked, his voice surprisingly stern. His nostrils flared. "Those farmers didn't do anything this time. From what I could hear, the fault belonged to your brother-and those who went with him."

Anja looked up in dismay, but did not argue.

Jaina spoke up. "Ynos and his villagers didn't kill Protas, did they, Anja?" she said. "It was one of your own burrowing detonators, Elis.

You planted them. You seeded the fields so that no one could grow crops anymore. It was an accident caused by your people, with your own weapons."

"Yeah," Jacen said. "You certainly can't be angry with the fanners for this."

"The true casualties of war are rarely those we expect," Tenel Ka added.

Stricken, Elis was unable to sort through his thoughts. He didn't seem to hear anything the young Jedi Knights said. He stood up and looked down at his bloodied knuckles, as if surprised. "I will call Lilmit or one of our other suppliers. They will help us get enough weapons to wipe out the fanners and end this war forever. My brother will be the last casualty on our side."

"It's kind of odd, don't you think?" Han Solo said. "That Lilmit is selling weapons to both sides, I mean. If you buy more, then the other side will buy more. Pretty soon you won't be able to count all the victims."

")"at?" Elis said, astonished. "Lilmit? Impossible. He wants to help us win."

"No," Anja croaked, her voice rough and weak. "We intercepted him on his way here and confiseatedhis cargo. He had weapons for our miners, all right. But he also had sonic punchers and other equipment the farmers use against us. "

"They're selling to both sides?" Elis said in horror.

Just then, the guards dragged in an indignant and weary-looking Ynos.

His mechanical droid leg scraped along the stone floors. He had heard the last of the exchange. Standing, he shook off the grasp of the guards.

"You buy weapons from Lilmit as well?" he growled.

Elis looked at him, and the expression on his face rippled with pure rage. "They're playing both sides for fools-supplying all of us, while we continue to fight and harm each other all for nothing!"

"I wouldn't be so sure." Zekk crossed his anus over his chest.

"They may have been keeping this little war going for as long as possible, just because business is so good."

Ynos and Elis glared daggers at each other.

"I understand your little brother was trying to destroy our village, and had a little accident," the one-legged man taunted.

With a roar, Elis charged toward the farming leader, but Jacen and Jaina moved with their father and friends to block his way.

"Protas shouldn't have gone to the village last night. Anja was there with him," Jaina said. "Ynos had nothing to do with it."

"It's my fault," Anja said. "I planted that burrowing detonator to destroy Ynos's home. It went off... too soon, and the explosion killed your brother."

"My home is gone?" Ynos said. "Our village is ruined, as well."

He hung his shaggy head. He turned his eyes toward Anja. "And who would have died if the detonator hadn't gone off 'too soon'?"

Anja did not meet his eyes.

"Someone must pay," Elis insisted. "You farmers have much to atone for-all of the sonic punchers you have planted, the tunnels you have collapsed, the miners you have killed with your cowardly hidden weapons."

Ynos drew himself up. "And who will pay for all of my people who died while trying to plant crops for our very survival?

What of the victims of your burrowing detonators, your monofilament nets in the forest?"

"Nothing you do can bring those people back," Jacen said.

"Blaster bolts! If you keep trying to take revenge for what the other side does, this war will never end."

"Your people have demonstrated that over the last twenty years," Anakin pointed out.

"But we can't just forget and put it all behind us," Elis said with a scowl. "Too much blood has been shed, and too many traps remain.

People will continue to die for years as they stumble upon leftover sonic punchers buried by these... renegades in our precious mines."

"And how are we to farm?" Ynos cried. "All of our most fertile land is still full of deadly explosives. We can't even plow the fields, much less plant our seeds."

"Then maybe all of you should work together to clear out those traps and explosives," Jacen said, "instead of wasting all your time rigging more murder weapons to strike back at each other."

"Why spend your efforts on causing more damage instead of on healing your world?" Tenel Ka asked.

Anja looked up at them, her eyes weary. She heaved a huge sigh.

"You ask the impossible."

Jacen and Jaina looked at each other, recalling their uncle Luke's story of his Jedi training with Yoda. Luke had thought Yoda asked the impossible.

"Believing that peace is impossible-that you can't change-is what keeps your war going," Jaina said.

"That's a surefire way to fail," Jacen said.

"It's true," Zekk said. A look of pain flashed in his emerald eyes.

"You have to be willing first-willing to do things a new way, willing to look forward instead of back."

"And speaking of willing," Han said, "our offer still stands. If you're willing to forget the word 'impossible,' we're willing to help out in any way we can."

Elis closed his eyes tightly, his face etched with grief, as if he were reliving decades of murder, destruction, and hopelessness in his mind.

"What do you say, old man?" he said, turning toward Ynos without opening his eyes. "Are we willing?" A single tear escaped from beneath one lid.

Ynos's voice was rough with emotion. "Our way has helped no one-except for those who sold us weapons. I do not know how we can make this change.

But, yes, I am willing."

Elis opened his eyes. "Where do we begin?"

Anakin's face lit up as he considered the problem. "I think I just might have an idea."

When the young Jedi Knights began cleanup operations on Anobis, they realized it wasn't exactly the type of battle they were accustomed to fighting... but it was a battle nevertheless.

The nondiscriminating weapons planted by both sides had taken countless victims, and not just soldiers in battle. Many of the deadly traps had been set years, even decades before, and continued to take their toll, as much in terror as in blood.

Jacen doubted the planet's scars would ever vanish-completely, but with the temporary cease-fire brought on by grief and despair, the wounds might at least begin to heal.

Han Solo came back from the Millennium Falcon in the landing grotto.

He rubbed his hands briskly together and smiled at his children.

"Well, I just sent out a message, summoned a little help from a few friends."

"We can use all the help we can get," Zekk said.

Han gave one of his famous wry smiles. "You saying a couple of Jedi Knights can't handle everything?"

Lowie stood tall among them, chuffing a suggestion. Em Teedee translated.

"Master Lowbacca believes that perhaps some of the key commandos from each side could help us locate the booby traps that were planted."

:'If they can remember," Jacen said. "There are so many of them."

"Then we've got a lot of work to do," Jaina observed. "What are we waiting for?"

While the others went off on separate missions, Jacen and Zekk made their way to the dangerous mining tunnels. Accompanied by Anja and two downcast farmers they searched for hidden sonic punchers.

Many times, farmers had slipped into the mining tunnels from the cliff face, and so Jacen, Zekk, and Anja, and the others climbed down the steep mountain path outside and entered through the boarded-up entrances to played-out shafts.

They moved along holding shining glowsticks that bore an eery resemblance to miniature lightsabers. The pale, cold light spilled ahead of them into the passageways. The farmers blinked, warily looking in both directions.

Anja followed, tense and seething, lips pressed together, as if she could barely resist the urge to pull out her ancient lightsaber and strike these enemies down. But she contained her anger and focused on disarming the hidden traps.

"We haven't worked these tunnels for years." Anja narrowed her sad eyes at the farmers. "It would have been foolish to plant a sonic puncher here."

The two young men looked sheepishly at each other. "We don't know much about your work," one said. "We just planted the punchers wherever we could."

They turned a jagged corner to a branching of dark tunnels. The glowsticks shone ahead, but pushed back the shadows only a small distance.

"Wait," Zekk said, holding up his hand.

Jacen felt his senses tingling. "Down there," he said, pointing to the left.

One of the farmers shook his head. "No, we didn't go down there.

I'm sure of it."

"Doesn't matter," Zekk said. "We sense danger down there."

"Could be an older trap," one of the men suggested.

"Old or new, we have to get rid of them all," Jacen said. "You three stay here." He and Zekk edged forward, pushing the glowsticks into the ominous tunnel.

"Quiet," Zekk cautioned in a whisper. "Sonic punchers are activated by disturbances in the air. If we get too close, we'll set it off."

Despite their warning to stay back, Anja came up behind them.

"How are you going to get rid of it? Once a puncher is activated, no one can get close without blowing it up."

"Maybe we can," Jacen murmured, raising an eyebrow. For some reason, he wanted to impress Anja. He saw sweat darkening the leather headband she wore and heading on her forehead. He and Zekk stood shoulder to shoulder, looking deeper into the darkness.

"Our Jedi senses can do the searching for us," Zekk said in a low voice.

He turned to his friend. "Are you up to it?"

Jacen nodded. Calming himself, he reached out with his mind, and used the extra eyes and ears the Force gave him. He could tell Zekk was doing the same. They scanned into the dimness of the tunnel, locating rocks, crystalline formations, rubble piled at the bottom of the channel. His mind moved in farther. He breathed slowly, feeling his heartbeat. Blood pounded in his temples.

There. He sensed something wrong, an object out of place... a device that didn't belong in the rocky debris.

"Found it," Jacen said.

"Me too," Zekk answered.

With his mind Jacen ran invisible fingers over an outer metal casing, glittering controls, and finely tuned sensors just waiting to be triggered by an unexpected motion in the air.

"Careful," Jacen whispered. "Help me lift it out."

They used the Force, stretching out together with their minds, to move the rubble gently away from the weapon. This small device contained enough power to crack open fissures in the tunnel walls and bring the entire ceiling down.

Anja came up close behind them. "Maybe you should just detonate it in there," she said. Her soft words startled Jacen, nearly making him lose control of his concentration. He could feel her warm breath on the side of his face and neck. "Throw a few rocks down the tunnel and set it off."

Zekk glanced back over his shoulder toward her. "No.

We may need to explode some of them, but I think we can do most of the punchers our way. There's been enough damage already."

Working as a team, they used a silent Jedi mind grip to lift the sonic puncher, carefully raising it off the floor. Just then, a loose rock fell from a pile and clattered to the floor. The sound was like thunder, and the vibration was enough to activate the trigger.

"No!" Jacen cried. With his mind he clamped onto the distant controls, freezing the mechanism.

Zekk reacted in a different way, lashing out with the Force to rip circuits free inside the detonator, deactivating it forcibly. An instant later his face fell, as if he was ashamed of himself "You found a better way, Jacen. "

"Either one would have worked," Jacen said. "Just let the Force guide you, and stay calm inside."

Together they walked into the tunnel and picked up the now-inert sonic grenade. Jacen handed it to Anja. "A souvenir for you. Our first success."

"Fine," she said, and looked skeptically at it. "But don't get cocky.

I hear we've still got about forty to go."

Lowbacca reveled in being in the forest again, despite the hidden traps and dangers he knew waited for them there. Tenel Ka trotted at his side among the silvery trees. A few miners and fanners came with them, trying to recall where each group had planted weapons.

They stopped at the edge of a pristine-looking meadow, with its colorful wildflowers like fireworks among the grasses. Tenel Ka marched immediately to where the holographic generator covered a spike-filled pit. She picked up a rock and threw it. They all watched as it vanished into the lush grasses. The camouflage hologram rippled with a flicker of static, then returned to its serene appearance.

The miners gasped. Lowie went over to a stout tree and with his bare hands ripped the controls away, shorting them out. The hologram flickered and faded, revealing the open pit and its sharp spikes.

The miners looked furious at the thought of the cowardly trap the farm villagers had set. But one farmer snarled, "Is that any more vicious than your monofilament wire that can butcher us into pieces as we walk?"

The miners took the lead, showing where they had strung their wires between trees. Lowie could barely see the laser-sharp lines, but he knew they were there. He and Tenel Ka drew their lightsabers and swept through the air, as if fighting invisible spiderwebs. The scaring blades severed the monofilament wire, making the passage safe again.

Lowie sniffed. On the forest floor below where the cutting web had been strung, he saw numerous dead animals: birds whose wings had been neatly amputated when they flew between the wrong trees, and larger forest animals, cut down as they walked, left to decay in the forest mulch, surrounded by the bodies of carrion eaters who'd also ventured into the deadly trap.

Both sides were subdued now, resentful but cowed.

"Come," Tenel Ka said gruffly, marching forward. Her pale skin and glittering lizard-hide armor looked out of place in the silent, primeval forest. "We have much ground to cover, and years of accumulated dangers to eliminate."

Jaina once again took her place as the Millennium Falcon's copilot.

She felt very comfortable in the position, though she realized that as soon as they left Anobis, her father would travel with Chewbacca again.

She didn't feel sad, however. Being her father's copilot was a wonderful experience and had taught her much, but she preferred flying the Rock Dragon. Even though the Hapan passenger cruiser technically belonged to Tenel Ka, Jaina knew that once her skills were sufficiently advanced, she would get a cruiser of her own, perhaps an old ship like Zekk's Lightning Rod, or maybe something newer and faster.... She grinned at the thought.

Han looked over at her, wondering what she was thinking. "Don't get distracted now, Jaina," he said. "This is a touchy operation."

The Falcon cruised over the treetops and suddenly burst out above the open cropland. Jaina could see where the land had long ago been cleared for farming. Green weeds showed how fertile the dirt could be, but first the deadly harvest planted beneath the soil, the burrowing detonators that waited for any unsuspecting footfall, would have to be removed.

"All right, kids," Han said. Anakin came forward to stand between Jaina and his father. "I need something that not even the Falcon can do for me.

Use your Jedi senses to help your old man find those detonators and get rid of them."

Anakin nodded, squinting his eyes in concentration. Jaina recalled how she had avoided the buried explosives during their desperate flight from the knaars. In her mind she saw a dotted pattern of ripples below, like a scrambled checkerboard of targets on the ground.

"There's an awful lot of them, Dad," Jaina said.

"Swarms," Anakin added.

"Well, let's get started then. Give me some coordinates."

"Just fly in a slow rig-zag across the field, Dad," Jaina said.

"It will be hard not to find a detonator," Anakin agreed. He helped his sister aim one of the ship's laser cannons.

Jaina fired from the copilot's controls, and was rewarded with a large explosion, much greater than the laser should have made. "Got one!" she cried.

"There are hundreds more," Anakin said.

Jaina targeted another detonator, and the laser cannon eliminated that one as well. After she blew up three more, Han asked, "We getting close?"

"Not in the least," Jaina said. "This'll take all day."

"A single footstep could set one off at any time," Anakin said.

"But they move around a bit. We'll have to target each one precisely."

"You kids are doing great." Han patted the Falcon's control panel.

"But I think I've got a faster way."

"We can't miss a single one," Jaina warned. "It could start the fighting all over again."

"Don't worry, I think we can get full coverage." Han activated the ship's deflector shields, which had blasted comets out of the way during their final trial run of the Derby. Now, as he cruised low, the force field pressed down, like a heavy unseen hand, on the ground.

"We'll just cruise over the fields. The force field will push down and pop any of those land mines we encounter."

The Falcon moved slowly, its deflector shields placing pressure on the dirt. As the deflectors ruffled the soil, one of the burrowing detonators exploded directly beneath them, rocking the craft from side to side.

Jaina and Anakin looked at their father.

"Not to worry," Han said. "This ship can handle a lot more than that.

" They flew in a straight line as Anakin marked the pattern of their flight on a holochart he called up. Three more detonators exploded.

Clouds of suspended dust and smoke looked like phantom trees growing from the barren field.

"Ah, looks like our reinforcements have arrived," Han said.

Jaina looked into the sky to see the fleeting shape of another ship-a familiar ship. The Hapan passenger cruiser circled low, coming in to pace them. "But-we left the Rock Dragon on Ord Mantell."

Han shrugged. "I asked somebody to pick it up for us." He toggled the conim switch. "Hey, Kyp. That you, kid?"

"You bet," Kyp Dutton said. "With Streen-and I brought some more assistants from the Jedi academy, in case you could use an extra hand."

"Or hoof," another voice broke in.

"Is that Lusa?" Jaina asked, suddenly recognizing the voice of the centaur girl who had come to Yavin 4 after escaping from the Diversity Alliance.

"Yes, we've got Lusa here, and young Raynar, another friend of yours,"

Kyp continued. The young man from the Bomaryn trading fleet greeted them.

"Looks like we're going to have quite a reunion tonight," Kyp said.

"But for now, we've got some land mines to clear."

"Hey, I'm just a good pilot who happens to be here on a diplomatic mission," Han Solo said. "I'm trusting all of you to use your Jedi powers to make sure we do a thorough job."

The two ships parted and began to crisscross the vast acreage that had once been cropland. It was clear that the fields of Anobis could grow food enough to feed all its inhabitants, once the land was made safe again.

The rumble of repeated land-mine detonations sounded like rapid gunshots in the empty sky. The Rock Dragon and the Millennium Falcon continued without pause. Their deflector shields pushed down on the fertile ground, at the same time smoothing out many of the jagged holes and pits left from earlier explosions.

"Never thought we'd be using our spaceships to harvest bombs," Jaina said.

Han smiled at her. "The Falcon's good for just about anything," he said."

'Course I prefer to give her more glamorous duties."

Both ships left their comm systems open. Jaina chattered with Raynar and the centaur girl Lusa, catching up on news as they continued their work.

Toward the end of the afternoon, Lowie and Tenel Ka emerged from the dense forest and waved up at the ships crisscrossing the air.

"Looks like they're finished," Jaina said. "But I have the feeling we just did the easier parts of the job. We can go home once these weapons are cleaned up. But the people of Anobis still have to come to terms with all their hatreds and prejudices. They've got a long history to overcome."

Han looked at his daughter. Another burrowing detonator exploded behind them, but he didn't even seem to notice. "The rest is going to be up to them," he said. "Sure, your mom'll send in some New Republic peacekeepers and inspection teams, but these people have to determine in their own hearts whether this war will ever end."

"That was hard work. I'm starved," Jaina said. She collapsed onto a wooden bench beside her brother and looked appreciatively at the feast being laid out by both miners and farmers on long shady tables in the fading afternoon sunlight at the foot of the mountains.

"You're hungry?" Jacen said. "Hey, what about us? Zekk and Anja and I weren't just sitting on a ship and flying around all day, you know.

There was nothing between us and those explosives except for the Force and our lightsabers."

"Lowbacca and I were also in considerable danger afoot," Tenel Ka pointed out.

Jaina grinned good-naturedly. "Guess you're probably even him grier than I am then, huh?"

The one-armed warrior girl crooked an eyebrow at her. "This is a fact."

Anja stood with feet spread apart, shook back her long silky hair, and heaved a dramatic sigh. "I could eat a whole gun dark right about now, without even bothering to cook it first."

"I know what you mean," Zekk said.

Jaina noted with amusement-and perhaps a hint of alarm-the playful look Anja directed at both Zekk and Jacen as she said, "I don't like to share."

Jacen chuckled. "Don't worry. We'll find our own gundarks."

"So, uh, how does it feel?" Jaina asked, changing the subject. She looked at Anja, then gestured toward the miners and farmers as they uneasily worked together to prepare the meal.

"Strange," Anja admitted. "It's... hard to start trusting someone you've hated all your life. I'm not sure what to do with myself now.

I've always been a fighter and a smuggler, not a miner."

"Why not come back to Yavin 4 with us?" Jacen suggested. Jaina blinked in surprise at what her brother had said.

"Really?" Anja asked.

"Sure," Zekk said with a twinkle in his emerald eyes. "After all, you're pretty dangerous with a lightsaber already. Master Skywalker might be able to teach you a bit more about control."

Jacen said, "It's obvious you've got some talent."

A suspicious look entered Anja's enormous dark eyes. "I don't know. I don't take rejection very well. Your Master Skywalker might not let me study there. I'd hate to make the trip for nothing."

"Trip? Where're you heading?" Han Solo asked, striding up with Anakin, Kyp Durron, and Streen.

"Urn, Jacen had an idea that Anja might want to study for a while at the Jedi academy," Jaina said uncertainly.

Kyp smiled and looked at Han. "I was quite a handful myself, as I recall.

"

Han drew a deep breath, let it out slowly in a soundless whistle. He looked into the eyes of the young woman who had hated him for so many years. "If you're really interested, I'll put in a good word for you with Luke."

Jaina tensed, expecting Anja to throw her father's offer back in his face. Instead, the young woman said stiffly, "Thank you. I accept."

Then she whirled, her long hair lashing like a silken whip behind her.

"Now if you'll excuse me," she said over her shoulder. "I have to say some goodbyes. I'll return in an hour." Without another word she sprinted off toward her village.

Anakin stared quizzically after the young woman. "It's all settled then?"

he asked.

"Guess so," Jaina murmured.

Just then Lusa trotted up, with Raynar running easily beside her, as if he were now used to such exercise. "Elis says the feast is almost ready,"

the centaur girl said. "We must come and eat."

Han nodded. "We'll stay for evening meal, and then take off. You kids want me to fly back to Yavin 4 with you?"

"Naw," Jacen said. "We'll be fine in the Rock Dragon."

"We can manage," Jaina added. "There's plenty of room for all of us."

Her father nodded again, as if he had expected this.

"In that case, do you mind if Streen and I get a lift back to Corus cant with you?" Kyp Dutton asked. "Master Skywalker told us that's where we'd begin our next assignment."

This suggestion brought a grin of pleasure to Han Solo's face.

"Hey, no problem. Be just like old times, huh, kid?"

"Two of the best hotshot pilots in the galaxy together again," Kyp agreed.

Anakin looked over at his sister. "This could be interesting."

Jaina bit her lower lip and looked in the direction Anja had taken toward the mountain village. "Yes. Very interesting."

Anja stood impatiently in front of the viewscreen in the mining village's secondary comm center. She crossed her slender arms over her chest and tried not to fidget. It would not do to show her impatience.

Why was the transmission taking so long to go through?

Finally, the static on the screen cleared, revealing the close-cropped green hair and the rugged, visored face she had been expecting: Czethros.

"Things didn't go exactly as you had planned," she said with a tight smile. "Solo is still alive. But I've managed to get the situation back under control."

Czethros's image remained impassive, but Anja could see the interest in his eyes. "Tell me," he said.

"Solo's own children invited me to join them at the Jedi academy."

Czethros's mouth opened slightly. He looked suitably impressed.

"Once I'm in place on Yavin 4," Ania went on, "I'll win their confidence.

And I believe many opportunities will present themselves.

..."

Czethros nodded his moss-green head, and a dangerous smile formed on his face. "You've done well. As long as you can stay in touch with me, I'll make sure you're supplied with andris."

Czethros broke the connection and Anja allowed herself to relax.

That was all she had needed to hear.

For Jacen, the return trip to Yavin 4 proved to be endlessly fascinating.

While Jaina and Lowie piloted the Rock Dragon with Em Teedee as their navigator, Zekk, Raynar, Lusa, Tenel Ka, Anja, and Jacen gathered in the crowded crew cabin to talk.

They shared stories of their adventures on various planets. Lusa spoke of her experiences with the Diversity Alliance. Zekk talked about the Shadow Academy and about his time as a bounty hunter. Raynar spoke haltingly of the bounty Nolaa Tarkona had placed on his father's head, and of Boman Thul's death in the Emperor's plague storehouse.

Jacen and Tenel Ka explained how the warrior girl had lost her arm in a lightsaber training accident. Last, Anja shared more about her experiences growing up as an orphan on the war-torn planet of Anobis.

As she told her story, tears formed occasionally in her huge sad eyes, but she never allowed them to fall. Jacen found it hard to imagine the horror of seeing so many friends die year after year.

"We got rid of a lot of the land mines, punchers, and detonators," Jacen said, trying to comfort her. "Maybe now your people can stop living in fear."

"Ah," Tenel Ka said. "Aha. But that is only a beginning."

"That's true," Zekk said. "War changes people. They're going to have to learn how to trust and accept each other now. It... it doesn't come naturally. "

Anja looked ruefully around at the faces of the young Jedi Knights.

"That's going to be difficult for me too. It's been a long time since I trusted anyone."

Lowie roared a comment from the cockpit. "Master Lowbacca wishes to inform you that we will be emerging from hyperspace in one standard minute," Em Teedee said.

"Almost there," Jaina added. "Hang on, everybody." The companions moved forward to the cockpit to get a good view of the tiny jungle moon.

When it appeared in the front windowports, Jacen said, "There it is, Anja. Yavin 4. For now, your new home."