EIGHT

A two-story hologram of the planet Woteba hung in the projection pit a few meters beyond the command console, a nearly featureless reminder of just how valid Leia’s fears really were. Han and her brother were trapped and alone on a half-known world, surrounded by insects answering to an enemy queen, and—judging by her sense of Luke’s emotions in the Force—they did not even realize they were in trouble. That was what really worried Leia. Han and Luke could take care of themselves, but only if they knew there was a need.

“Maybe the Dark Nest isn’t even on Woteba,” Kyp Durron suggested. “What do we know about the other planets?”

“Only that they were all as deserted as Woteba before we helped the Killiks settle there.” Leia swung her gaze toward the shaggy-haired Master. Along with Mara and Saba, they were in the Operations Planning Center in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, conversing with several other Jedi via the HoloNet. “And fourteen were habitable.”

“The Killiks weren’t interested in detailed surveys,” Mara explained. “All they wanted to know was which worlds were habitable. We have a basic planetary profile and not much else.”

“Because they didn’t want us to know too much.” The comment came from Corran Horn’s hologram, arrayed with several others on a shelf curving along the back edge of the control console. “To me, it’s beginning to sound like the Killiks never intended to keep the peace with the Chiss.”

“Don’t confuse the Killiks with the Gorog,” Jaina warned. She and Zekk were sharing the hologram next to Corran’s, their heads touching above the temples and their unblinking eyes fixed straight ahead. “It was only the Dark Nest that wanted the war, not the Colony.”

“Whoever wanted it then, the entire Colony is clearly involved now,” Corran countered. “And they have Master Skywalker to guarantee that we don’t interfere with their plans again.”

“You don’t understand how the Colony’s mind works,” Zekk objected.

“It may look like the entire Colony is involved,” Jaina added, “but the Dark Nest is the one behind this.”

“Remember last time?” Zekk asked. “UnuThul summoned us to prevent a war.”

“That is called a false flag recruitment,” Kenth Hamner said from the end of the array. With Corran, Kenth had argued forcefully that the Killiks should be left to their own devices during the Qoribu crisis. “A valuable asset—a team of young Jedi Knights, shall we say—is convinced to undertake a mission under false pretenses.”

“That’s not how it was,” Jaina said.

“Unfortunately, we can no longer afford to give the Colony the benefit of the doubt,” Kenth said. “Until Master Skywalker and Captain Solo are safe, we must consider the evidence: despite the fifteen worlds we gave them—worlds that the Galactic Alliance’s own beings desperately need—the Killiks are harboring pirates and poisoning the minds and bodies of our own insect species with black membrosia.”

Jaina and Zekk spoke simultaneously. “That’s just the—”

“Let me finish.” Kenth did not raise his voice, but, even coming from a holopad speaker, his tone was as hard as durasteel. “Raynar Thul lured Master Skywalker into a trap so the Colony could take him hostage, and now the Killiks are provoking a confrontation with the Chiss. We have no choice but to assume the worst.”

“Because the Dark Nest has taken control!” Zekk blurted.

A tight smile came to Kenth’s hologram. “Precisely.”

Jaina rolled her eyes. “Master Hamner, if you hold the entire Colony responsible—”

“—you’re creating a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Zekk added.

“And the Killiks will turn on us,” Jaina finished. “Why don’t you get that?”

“What I ‘get,’ Jedi Solo, is that you and Jedi Zekk still have an emotional attachment to the Killiks.” The hologram wavered as Kenth’s gaze shifted, and now his image seemed to be looking Leia straight in the eye. “Frankly, I question the wisdom of allowing these particular Jedi Knights to participate in the discussion at all.”

“No one is more familiar with the Killiks than Jaina and Zekk.” Leia purposely allowed some of the resentment she felt to creep into her voice. After what Jaina and Zekk had sacrificed to prevent the Qoribu conflict from erupting into a galactic war, Kenth Hamner did not have the right to cast aspersions on their loyalty. “They’re our best hope of figuring out where the Dark Nest might be located.”

“I understand that.” A purple tint came to Kenth’s image, indicating that he had closed the channel to all other participants and was now conversing only with the Operations Planning Center. “But there’s something you don’t know—something that we can’t trust with your daughter and Zekk—or with any of the Jedi Knights who spent too much time with the Killiks.”

Leia’s blood began to boil. “Master Hamner, Jaina and Zekk have already demonstrated their loyalty to the order—”

Mara cut Leia short by reaching past her and suspending transmission to everyone else. “What is it, Kenth?”

“I apologize if I offended you, Princess Leia,” Kenth said. “But Chief Omas asked me not to tell anyone in the order what I’m about to reveal. I hope you’ll understand. It has a bearing on our discussion.”

“Of course.” Leia understood when she was being told that she wasn’t going to hear something without a promise of confidentiality. “I won’t reveal it to anyone. I give you my word.”

“Thank you.”

Kenth’s head turned as he consulted something off cam. Kyp, Corran, and Jaina and Zekk, aware by the sudden silence from the Operations Planning Center that they had been cut out of the conversation, fell quiet and tried not to look impatient.

A moment later, Kenth’s gaze returned to his holocam. “Sorry for that, but I wanted to check the latest. The Fifth Fleet has put out for Utegetu.”

“The whole fleet?” Leia was stunned. Moving the Fifth Fleet would shift the responsibility for patrolling the entire Hydian Way to local governments—and that was not something Chief Omas would do lightly. “To do what?”

Kenth shook his head. “Those orders are sealed, but we can be certain they’re trying to appease the Chiss. What concerns me is that I only found out by accident. Someone had forgotten to remove my name from the routing list. Chief Omas called personally to ask me to keep the information to myself.”

“They don’t want us to know?” Leia gasped.

“Clearly,” Mara said. “Omas didn’t like how the Jedi handled the Killiks last time—and you must admit things aren’t going well now.”

“Do they know about Han and Luke?” Leia asked.

“Not from me,” Kenth answered. “But I doubt it would make any difference. Chief Omas was very adamant that we need to support the Chiss this time.”

“Then time is chewing our tailz,” Saba said. Standing behind Leia with Mara, she was also party to their private discussion. “We must get a team to Woteba now. Yez?”

“Agreed,” Kenth said. “But—”

“Then we will discusz that,” Saba said.

“I think we should,” Kenth said. “But Jaina and Zekk—”

“—will not be told.” Saba leaned over Leia’s shoulder and reactivated the suspended channels. “Where do we look for the Dark Nest?”

Jaina and Zekk gave a simultaneous cloq-cloq of surprise, and the irritation they had shown at being left out of the conversation vanished from their faces. A blue dot appeared on Woteba’s empty face, next to one of the few mapping symbols that the hologram already contained: Saras nest.

“You don’t find Gorog,” Jaina said.

“Gorog finds you,” Zekk added. “But we know the nest will be watching Han and Master Skywalker.”

“So we must watch them, too,” Jaina finished.

Leia and Mara exchanged glances. They did not have time for “watching.” The instant the Fifth Fleet entered the Utegetu Nebula, the Dark Nest would move against Han and Luke. The memory of the Kr nursery—where Luke and Mara had found thousands of Gorog larvae feeding on paralyzed Chiss prisoners—flashed through Leia’s mind, and she firmly shook her head.

“Too risky,” she said.

“They’ll see us watching,” Mara added. “And we can’t let Lomi Plo escape this time.”

“Isn’t there a faster way we can find it?” Leia asked.

Jaina and Zekk considered this for several moments, then Jaina said, “Perhaps we could feel where their nest is—”

“—if we went to Utegetu.”

“This one thought nobody could sense the Dark Nest in the Force,” Saba rasped. “Especially Joinerz.”

“Jaina and I might be different,” Zekk said. “We were in the nest at Kr.”

“So we know what Gorog feels like,” Jaina added.

Leia frowned. “And what about that gang of Tibanna tappers you’re supposed to be hunting?” She did not like the eagerness she heard in their voices, the desire to experience again the all-encompassing bond of a collective mind. “Cloud City’s shipments are down ten percent.”

“Lowie and Tesar can take over,” Zekk said.

“They finally found out who was hijacking the Abaarian water shipments,” Jaina added.

“Forget it,” Mara said, issuing the command before Leia could—and adding to it the authority of a Master. “You two aren’t getting within five parsecs of a Killik nest. Clear?”

Jaina and Zekk leaned away from each other, making clicking sounds in their throats and blinking in unison. “Clear,” they said.

“We were only trying to help,” Jaina added defensively.

“Sure you were,” Leia said. “Anybody have any real ideas?”

“I don’t think there is a way,” Kyp said immediately. “We’ve tried to trace the black membrosia back to the source and never made it past the blind drops in the Rago Run. And with a collective mind, the Dark Nest will know if we start sniffing around the Utegetu Nebula too hard.”

“Then maybe Jaina and Zekk are right,” Corran said. “Maybe the best thing to do is to watch Han and Master Skywalker and just be patient.”

“I thought we had already ruled that out.” Though Leia’s outward voice remained calm, inside she wanted to give him a Barabel ear-slap. The one thing they did not have was time—though, of course, Corran had no way of knowing that. He had not been a part of the private conversation with Kenth. “We’ll just have to recover Luke and Han first, and hope they were able to find the Dark Nest on their own.”

“No good,” Kyp said. “That tips our hand. If the Dark Nest is watching them—”

“We can be discreet,” Mara said in a tone that would abide no argument. “We’re Jedi, remember?”

The rebuke in her tone made Corran wince, Kyp cock his brow, and Jaina and Zekk tilt their heads. There was a long moment of silence in which those who had not been privy to Kenth’s secret were clearly trying to figure out why everyone else was in such a hurry.

Then a knowing light came to Kyp’s brown eyes. “You’re worried about your husbands!” He flashed a reassuring smile that came off as more of a smirk in the hologram. “That’s only natural, ladies. But Han and Master Skywalker can take care of themselves. I’ve been in worse places than this with both of them, lots of times.”

Mara sighed. “No, Kyp, that’s not it.”

“What Master Skywalker means is that we need to act quickly,” Kenth said. “With the Colony provoking the Chiss again, the situation is too unpredictable. The sooner we resolve this, the less likely it is to blow up in our faces worse than it already has.”

Corran nodded sagely. “Our reputation has already taken a bad hit, especially in the Senate.”

Kyp looked doubtful. “That’s it? You’re worried that things might get a little messy?”

“Yes, Kyp, that’s it,” Leia said. “Except that if things get messy, they’re going to get very messy. We need to prove to the Chiss—and everyone else—that the Jedi can be counted on.”

Kyp considered this for a moment, then shrugged. “Okay. But we need a backup plan, because we’re never going to get to Han and Luke without the Dark Nest knowing. Those bugs are good.”

“Good?” Saba sissed in amused disbelief. “You spent too much of your life in the spice minez, Kyp Durron. There is too much methane in them. They taste like a—”

“I think he meant they were skilled observers, Master Sebatyne,” Leia said. “I’m sure that Master Durron has never actually eaten a Gorog.”

“No?” Saba’s tail thumped the floor. “Not even a little one?”

“Not even a taste.” Kyp was quick to change the subject. “Now, about our backup plan. I have one.”

“That was easy,” Corran said. “Will it work?”

“Of course,” Kyp said. “We just take out Raynar and the Unu.”

“Kill them?” Corran’s tone was shocked.

Kyp grew thoughtful. “That would work, too, and it would be a lot easier than bringing Raynar back here alive—at least if he’s as powerful as everyone says.”

“You can’t!” Zekk objected. “It would destroy the Colony!”

“Actually, it would only return the Killiks to their natural state,” Mara corrected. “There was no Colony until Raynar came along.”

“That’s like saying there was no Jedi order until Uncle Luke came along,” Jaina countered.

“You can’t destroy an interstellar civilization just because it didn’t exist ten years ago,” Zekk added.

“Probably not,” Kenth replied. “But when that civilization refuses to honor its agreements and live in peace with its neighbors, we may find ourselves duty-bound to try.”

“I might argue with that,” Corran said. “War is one thing. But assassination . . . that’s not something Jedi do.”

“Especially when you have a better way to handle the problem,” Jaina said.

“Jaina,” Leia said, “if you’re talking about you and Zekk going back to the Killiks, forget it.”

“Why?” Zekk demanded. “Because you’re afraid you’ll lose us the way you lost Anakin?”

Coming from Zekk’s mouth instead of Jaina’s, the question felt just bizarre enough that the dagger of loss it drove into Leia’s chest did not find her heart. She retained her composure and studied her daughter’s image in silence, but Jaina was too tough to be stared down over the HoloNet. She simply accepted Leia’s glare with the unblinking eyes of a Joiner, then spoke in an even voice.

“We’re sorry, Mother. That was uncalled-for.”

“But we’re still Jedi,” Zekk added. “You can’t stop us from doing what Jedi do.”

Mara leaned close to the holocam and spoke in a sharp voice. “She isn’t trying to—and you know it.” She waited until the pair gave a grudging nod, then asked, “But if you can do this in a better way, let’s hear it.”

Jaina’s and Zekk’s eyes bugged in surprise. “You’d send us back?”

“If that was the best way,” Mara said. “Of course.”

Leia stiffened and would have objected, save that Saba sensed what she was about to do and gave a warning hiss. It had not been her place to tell Jaina and Zekk to forget returning to the Killiks, and now Mara had to waste valuable time correcting the mistake. After a lifetime of leadership in both politics and the military, Leia sometimes found it difficult to remember that in the Jedi order, she was technically just another Jedi Knight—and, as far as Saba was concerned, a fairly junior one at that.

After a few moments’ silence from Jaina and Zekk, Mara prompted, “We’re listening.”

Jaina and Zekk furrowed their brows, then Jaina finally said, “We could talk to UnuThul.”

“And say what?” Kyp demanded. “That he should make the Killiks stop harboring pirates and running black membrosia?”

“You said Gorog was controlling him,” Zekk pointed out. “We could make him see that.”

“Or watch him until Gorog shows herself,” Jaina said. “Then follow her to her nest.”

“Listen to yourselvez!” Saba said, leaning over Leia toward the holocam. “That is why you cannot go.”

“I agree,” Kenth said. “You’re both outstanding Jedi. But when it comes to the Colony, it’s clear that all you want is to return.”

“You can’t go back,” Kyp agreed. “It would be bad for you and worse for us.”

In the face of the Masters’ opposition, Jaina and Zekk dropped their gazes. “Sorry,” Jaina said.

“We’ll go back to the Tibanna tappers.”

As Zekk spoke, a hailing light activated on the command console.

“It’s just that—”

“Hold on,” Leia said, relieved to have an excuse to cut off Zekk’s plea. “Someone’s trying to contact us on this end.”

She opened a sequestered holochannel, and the pink, high-domed head of a Mon Calamari appeared over an empty holopad.

“Cilghal!” Leia said. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon.”

“Analyzing that froth turned out to be easier than we had feared.”

“That’s good news,” Leia said.

“Not really,” Cilghal replied.

“Is this something the whole planning group will need to hear?” Mara asked.

Cilghal’s short eyestalks sagged. “Probably so.”

Leia patched the Mon Calamari’s channel into the network. “Cilghal has made some progress on the Dark Nest’s froth.”

“Actually, I doubt the Dark Nest is responsible for the froth,” Cilghal said. “From what we know of Killik society, they have no nanotechnology abilities at all.”

“Nanotech?” Kyp echoed. “As in molecule machines?”

“As in self-replicating molecule machines,” Cilghal corrected. “The sample that Master Sebatyne gave me appears to be a terraforming system. From what I can tell, it’s designed to create and maintain an environmental balance optimal for its creators.”

“Yes,” Saba said. “But what does it do?”

“I’m not sure we’ll ever understand completely.” Cilghal steepled her webbed fingers beneath her chin tentacles. “It’s very advanced, far beyond any nanotechnology capabilities here in the Galactic Alliance.”

Saba rasped in impatience.

“Basically,” Cilghal continued, “the system consists of many different kinds of tiny machines. Some of those machines monitor the soil, the air, the water. When they detect a notable imbalance in the environment, they join together and become machines that disassemble the contaminants, molecule by molecule, then use that raw material to build more machines. That’s what is happening when you see the froth.”

“And these contaminants,” Corran said. “They are . . . ?”

“Whatever lies outside the system parameters,” Cilghal said. “Toxic spills, spinglass buildings, droids, Killiks—in short, anything in sufficient amounts that wasn’t on Woteba when Leia and Han found it.”

Leia’s heart sank. Moving the Killiks to Woteba had felt a little too convenient all along, and now she knew there was a reason.

“This is great news!” Jaina said.

“The Colony isn’t lying to us after all!” Zekk added.

“Don’t start your victory rolls yet,” Kyp warned. “Maybe the Killiks didn’t make this stuff, but the Dark Nest is still using it to turn the Colony against us.”

“Only until UnuThul understands what happened,” Zekk said.

“Once we disable the nanotech, he’ll see that we weren’t trying to trick him,” Jaina added.

“I’m afraid he’s going to have to take our word for it,” Cilghal said.

Jaina and Zekk frowned. “Why?”

“Because the system is probably worldwide, and it is certainly very resilient.” Cilghal interlaced her fingers, then her hands dropped out of the hologram. “If the supernova didn’t destroy it—”

“Supernova?” Corran asked. “What supernova?”

“The one that created the Utegetu Nebula,” Leia clarified. There were many different kinds of nebulae, and most of them did not result from supernova explosions. “The Utegetu is a shell nebula.”

“I see,” Corran said.

“The blast would have destroyed all life on every planet within a dozen parsecs,” Cilghal continued. “But my assistant’s calculations suggest that the nebula is only a thousand standard years old.”

“And you think the nanotech survived to restore Woteba and the other worlds,” Leia surmised.

“Yes. Otherwise, the planets would still be dead.” Cilghal glanced at something out of view, then said, “We calculate that it would have taken only a year or two for the first pockets of soil to become fertile again, and there would have been plenty of seeds trapped where the blast radiation wouldn’t destroy them.”

“But the animals wouldn’t have lasted,” Mara said. “They would have starved within months.”

Cilghal nodded. “And that is how you end up with a cluster of empty paradise worlds.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance of Raynar believing all this?” Corran asked.

“We’ll certainly do our best to persuade him,” Leia said. “But I suspect the Dark Nest will convince him that we’re lying.”

“What do you two think?” Mara asked Jaina and Zekk.

They were silent for a moment; then they reluctantly shook their heads.

“Unu has already put the Colony’s plans in motion,” Zekk said.

Jaina added, “It will be easier to believe the Dark Nest.”

“Then we’re back to where we started,” Leia said. “Recover Han and Luke, then hope we can find the Dark Nest—and take it out this time.”

When no one voiced an objection, Corran asked, “What about our backup plan? I just don’t see assassinating Raynar as an option.”

The discussion descended into an uncomfortable silence as they all considered their own interpretation of what it meant to be a Jedi. Not so long ago, during the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, they would not have hesitated to do whatever was necessary to safeguard the order and the Galactic Alliance. But Luke had been growing increasingly uncomfortable with that attitude, and over the last year he had quietly been encouraging Jedi Knights and Masters alike to contemplate just where the balance lay between good intention and wrong action.

Corran Horn, as usual in matters of conscience, came to his answer more quickly than most. “War is one thing, but taking out Raynar is murder.”

“Maybe it’s just because my husband is out there, but it seems more like self-defense to me,” Mara said. “It feels like the Dark Nest is coming after us.”

“It is more than a feeling,” Saba said. “First there are the piratez and the black membrosia, then they lure Master Skywalker to Woteba, and now they are establishing Coloniez along the Chisz border. Who knowz what is next? They have been hunting us for a long time, and we have been asleep under our rockz.”

“We’ve certainly given them the initiative,” Kenth agreed. “And we need to win it back now. If that means taking Raynar out, so be it. Clearly, he intends to use Han and Master Skywalker as hostages, and that makes him a legitimate target.”

“Even if he’s under the Dark Nest’s control?” Corran countered. “We can’t be sure that he’s responsible for his own actions.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kyp said. “You guys are really overthinking this. It’s simple: Raynar is a Jedi, and now he’s becoming a threat to the galaxy. He’s our responsibility, and we have to stop him. How we do that matters a lot less than whether we still can.”

The uncomfortable silence returned to the participants, and the eyes in all of the holograms vanished from sight as the Jedi on the other end stared at their respective floors.

Finally, Jaina and Zekk clicked several times in the back of their throats, then looked up and nodded.

“Master Durron is right,” Jaina said.

“Raynar is our responsibility,” Zekk added. “The Jedi must do whatever it takes to stop him.”