"Everything!" Saba waved her scaly arm at the nursery again. "Look at how many Chisz Joinerz they had!"

Raynar's eyes brightened with anger. "The Kind are not cannibals.

Our nests do not feed on our own Joiners."

"Something happened in this nest," Saba pointed out.

"And the Chiss are bloodthirsty warriors," Leia added. It was a wild exaggeration, but one that Raynar would be eager to believe.

"Really, I'm surprised this hasn't happened to the other Qoribu nests."

"This?" Raynar shook his head. "This could not happen to another nest of Kind."

"It happened here," Saba pointed out.

"Maybe there's some sort of balance point," Han added, feigning contemplation. "When a nest gets too many Chiss Joiners..."

He let the sentence trail off and turned toward Raynar, his expression growing steadily more concerned.

Raynar finished the thought. "It becomes a Dark Nest?" The Unu broke into a distressed drone, and he nodded. "That could explain what happened here."

"The Chisz are great believerz in secrecy," Saba offered helpfully.

"Yes." Raynar spoke with an air of certainty. "The Kind will take no more Chiss into our nests."

"That's one solution," Leia agreed. She caught Han's eye, and they shared one of those electric moments of connection that made her wonder if he was Force-sensitive after all. "But what are you going to do with all your prisoners?"

A nervous clatter rose among the Unu, and Raynar asked, "Prisoners?"

"Chisz prisonerz," Saba said. "As the war spreadz, you will have hundredz of thousandz. Millionz."

"Only one thing to do." Han shook his head in mock regret. "Of course, that'll only make the rest of the Chiss fight that much harder."

Raynar turned to glare at Han. Leia found herself holding her breath, hoping she had not made a mistake reading Raynar's warped psyche-that he had not grown ruthless enough to accept Han's suggestion.

At last, Raynar said, "The Colony does not kill its prisoners."

"No?" Han returned the glare for a moment, then shined his helmet lamp on a half-eaten body. "That'll change soon enough."

The Unu entourage erupted into an angry buzz, but Raynar said nothing.

"Maybe it will not be so bad for the Colony," Saba said. She turned to address the Unu. "Soon, all your nestz will be like the Gorog. The Kind will become great fighterz."

"We do not wish the Kind to be great fighters," Raynar said. "We have seen what happens to great fighters. Anakin was a great fighter."

A pang of grief struck Leia, but she forced herself to continue.

"I'm sorry, UnuThul. I don't see how you can avoid it."

"Too bad there's going to be a war," Han said. "If there wasn't, the Colony could set up some sort of buffer zone and keep the Chiss away from their nests."

"That might work," Leia said. "But Qoribu is too close to Chiss territory. The nests are bound to keep coming into contact with Chiss exploration and mining crews. Sooner or later, they'll reach the balance point."

"Qoribu is too close," Saba agreed. "The Colony would have to move itz nestz."

"Impossible," Raynar said. "It cannot be done."

"That's very unfortunate." Leia said this to the Unu entourage.

"Because Han and I found this paradise world-"

"Several worlds, probably," Han added. "All empty, lush with foraging grounds, just waiting for a species to come along and claim them."

The entourage began to rustle with interest.

"Tell us more," Raynar said.

"It's in a subsector on the edge of Colony territory," Leia explained. "We didn't have time to do a complete survey, but the world we visited would be perfect for the Taat nest. There were at least two other habitable planets in the same system, with another dozen systems nearby that gave every indication of being just as profuse."

"We were thinking the Colony would want to have a look," Han said.

"But if you guys aren't interested, there are still plenty of displaced species in the Galactic Alliance-"

"We are interested," Raynar said. "We always have need of new territory."

"Good," Leia said. "I'm sure the Chiss could be persuaded to stand down long enough for you to organize a relocation."

The corner of Raynar's mouth turned down. "I've told you, that is impossible. There's no way to transport the Qoribu nests. They are too large."

"Really?" Han flashed a smug smile, then asked, "So large they couldn't be temporarily rebuilt in the hangars and launching bays of, say, a few Hapan Battle Dragons?"

Raynar's jaw dropped. "The Hapan fleet would help us escape the Chiss? "

"Sure, why not?" Han retorted. "That has to be easier than defending you."

"And they would let us build nests in their Battle Dragons?"

"This one thinkz they would." Saba sissed in amus.e.m.e.nt. "In fact, she is sure of it."

The Unu thrummed their chests and tapped their mandibles for a long time, then Raynar finally said, "We understand what you are doing. You're just as bad as Jaina was."

"Was?" Han scowled and looked back toward the other room - the one he had departed without even greeting his daughter. "If you've-"

"Relax, Han." Leia touched Jaina through the Force, then said, "She's fine. She's still with Luke and Mara."

"Of course she is," Raynar said indignantly. "We meant that Jaina is no longer welcome in her nest."

Han raised his brow. "I've been kicked out of a few saloons in my time, but a nest? What'd she do?"

"She's too much like you," Raynar said. "She is stubborn and tricky, and she cared about nothing but preventing a war."

"You don't say." Han smiled proudly, then asked, "Does this mean she'll stop being a bughugger?"

Raynar's eyes flashed in anger, and Leia began to have visions of her carefully crafted peace initiative falling apart.

"Han," she said. "Remember, UnuThul hasn't agreed to our proposal yet. "

"Well, he hasn't disagreed, either." Han turned to Raynar. "What's it going to be, kid? A nasty war and a Colony full of Dark Nests, or a free ride to a free world?"

The Unu erupted into a riot of chest drumming and antenna waving, but Han ignored them and kept his eye fixed on Raynar. The entourage kept the racket up for a few moments longer, then abruptly fell silent and began to stream out of the vault.

Leia frowned. "Are we to take that as a yes?"

"Of course," Raynar said. He rubbed his arm down the antennae of a small, red-eyed Killik about half the size of an Ewok, then turned and started after his nest. "Wasn't it our idea?"

EPILOGUE.

At the far end of the long, slanting cylinder of spitcrete storage cells, a single Taat was clinging to a patch of durasteel wall, peering out through the hold's lone observation bubble at the golden-ringed ma.s.s of the planet Qoribu. With Kendall's decks shuddering beneath the power of her sublight drives and the departure alarms chiming over the intercom, the other members of the nest were perched atop the cell covers, thrumming a soft, mournful song that made the hair rise on the back of Han's neck.

"Enchanting song," Mara said.

Peering in through the hatch with Han, Luke, Leia, and several others, she was seated in a hoverchair she probably did not need. The Killik healers had tended her goring wound so well that the Hapan surgeons had sent her straight to the bacta ward. Between her own healing trances and the month she had spent in the tanks, the only signs that remained of the fight on Kr were the dark circles beneath her eyes and a general haggardness - both of which, according to Leia, had less to do with her injuries than with having to call so heavily on the Force to keep herself going during the battle.

"It's an ancient Killik tune that goes back to the creation of the Maw," C-3PO said. "I'd-"

"Hold on," Han said. "The Killiks were there when the Maw was created? "

"Of course," C-3PO said. "According to their histories, they were the ones who built it."

"The Killiks?" Dukat Gray gasped. He took an unconscious step away from the hatch. "Truly?"

"I wouldn't count on it," Leia said. "Killik memories can be rather, uh, flexible."

"What about the song?" Mara asked again. "Can you translate, Threepio? "

"Of course," C-3PO said. "The air tides move us to a different place, the air-"

"Not quite, Threepio," Jaina said.

"It's more like this," Zekk added.

Together, they sang: The cold wind carries us far from our nest, The cold wind sweeps us where it may. Cold wind, bear us out of danger, Cold wind, carry us home again.

An uneasy silence fell over the group; then the underway alarms fell silent. Kendall gave a small jolt, and the bands of Qoribu began to grow smaller as the Fleet of the Defender Queen moved off. Han resisted the temptation to check on the Falcon's status; she was isolated in a capture hangar, safely secured alongside the Jedi StealthXs and being guarded by two Noghri and the surviving pair of YVH droids. She would ride safely until the fleet reached the Killiks' new home.

Zekk said, "We are going to miss them."

"Them?" Han asked. He recalled what Raynar had said about Jaina and Zekk no longer being welcome in their nest, but the Colony's att.i.tude about a lot of things had softened in the last month, and Jaina and Zekk had been spending most of their time with the Taat, helping build the temporary nest aboard Kendall. "The rings of Qoribu? The moons?"

"The Taat, Dad," Jaina said. "Our mission in the Colony-"

"-is over," Zekk finished.

"No kidding?" A smile as wide as a door crept across Han's mouth.

"Great! That's just-" He felt his eyes growing watery, then threw his arms around Jaina and Zekk and pulled them close so they would not think he was going to cry. "I'm happy as a Jawa in a junkyard."

' Dad!" Jaina lifted her chin. "You didn't let us finish!"

"We're not coming home until..."

Zekk let the sentence trail off when a Hapan adjutant appeared at the edge of the group with a portable holocomm.

"Until when?" Han demanded.

"Later." Jaina nodded at the adjutant. "I think this could be important."

"Indeed." Gray turned toward the adjutant with an air of expectation. "Is the pa.s.senger aboard?"

The adjutant's reply was drowned out by a thundering Wookiee bellow from the other end of the access corridor. Lowbacca came bounding up the pa.s.sage, his furry arms spread wide. Jaina and Zekk started to race off to meet him, but stopped a step away to look back over their shoulders.

"Dad, about that until," Jaina said, smiling.

"Just forget it," Zekk finished.

Then Lowbacca was on them, picking them up in his arms and complaining about the food in Chiss prisons.

Once the noise had died down a bit, the adjutant said, "Pardon me, Your Grace, but we're being hailed."

"Hailed?" Gray repeated. "Out here?"

"By the Chiss, Your Grace. Ship-to-ship."

Gray sighed. "Very well. I'll take it in-"

"I'm sorry." The adjutant looked as though he expected to be hit.

"But the Aristocra wishes to speak to Master Skywalker."

Gray scowled at Luke, then swung his scowl over to the adjutant.

"What are you waiting for?"