"Hard to concentrate with those . . . mouthparts snapping in your face." She deactivated her lightsaber and led Han after the Noghri and the Flakax. "Why didn't you blast them?"

"I did," Han said. "Someone ought to make armor out of those bugs."

"Han!" Leia coughed. "They're sentient beings!"

"Fair is fair," Han countered. "If they get to wear it, so should we."

They stepped out of stink cloud to hear Cakhmaim and Meewalh snarling as they continued to wrestle with the second Flakax. Han wiped the tears from his eyes and found the bug lying facedown on the deck with the two Noghri sitting astride it, still in their Ewok disguises. Cakhmaim had the insect's arms pinned together behind its back at the elbow, while Meewalh was holding its ankles, pulling its legs back against the hip joints every time it tried to open the gas duct in its abdomen.

Leaving Leia to deal with the fray, Han secured the unconscious Verpine and stowed the impressive array of weaponry the insects had brought aboard. By the time he had finished, Leia and the Noghri had the Flakax kneeling with its arms bound behind its back and its abdominal gas duct plugged with a piece of cloth.

Leia waved the tip of her lightsaber in front of the insect's head, causing the facets of its compound eyes to quiver and rustle as they followed the glow.

"Which one are you?" she asked. "t.i.to or Yugi?"

"t.i.to!" The Flakax sounded insulted. "I'm the handsome one. Everyone knows."

"Yeah, those eyes of yours are really something," Han said. "Now, why don't you explain why you were going to kill us?"

t.i.to spread his mandibles in the buggish equivalent of a shrug. "Thought it would be fun."

"Obviously," Leia said. "We're talking about the other reasons."

"We know the Squibs put you up to this," Han pressed.

t.i.to c.o.c.ked his head to the side, turning one bulbous eye toward Han. "You know that, you know why."

"Stop playing dumb," Han said. "You understand what we're asking. The Squibs want us dead for a reason. What are they trying to hide?"

The Flakax's mandibles spread wide, and a yellow ma.s.s of regurgitated something shot out and covered Han's chest. "Kill me now. Better than what the Directors will do, if I break my quiet swear."

"Quiet swear?" Han repeated. "You mean like a vow of silence?"

t.i.to tried to raise his abdomen, straining to clear the plugged gas duct. Cakhmaim drove the point of his elbow down on the nerve bundle where the thorax connected, and the abdomen dropped to the deck again.

Leia turned to Han. "I thought those crime vows were supposed to be reciprocal?"

"They are," Han said, seeing where Leia was headed. "But you know the Squibs."

t.i.to's head swung from Han to Leia and back again, and finally he could no longer resist asking, "The Directors?"

Han and Leia exchanged looks, then Han asked, "Should we tell him?"

Leia shook her head. "It would just be cruel, since we're going to have to kill him anyway."

"What would be cruel?" t.i.to asked.

Meewalh pressed her blaster to his head, but t.i.to seemed a lot more concerned about what they were keeping from him than the likelihood of being killed.

"Tell!"

Han frowned. "You're sure you want to know? No one likes to die knowing they've been set up."

t.i.to began to work his mandibles. "How?"

"You don't want to know," Leia said. She turned to Meewalh. "Go-"

"Wait!" t.i.to said. "You tell me, I tell you."

Meewalh asked if she should fire.

"Not yet." Leia frowned down at the prisoner. "You're sure you want to know? It'll just make you angry."

"Really angry," Han said. "You just can't trust Squibs."

"Flakax never get angry," t.i.to said. "Never get anything. Have no useless feelings like humans."

"Okay," Han said. "I'll give you a hint. Aren't you curious about how we knew you were coming?"

t.i.to turned one eye toward Leia. "Squibs not tell you. They want you dead."

"That's right." Leia made a small motion with her hand, then added, "And we're not the only ones."

t.i.to spread his antennae. "They want us dead, too?"

"That's the way we hear it," Han said. "Before the Verpines, the Squibs asked a couple of Fefze to help you, right?"

"How you know?"

"Because they're the ones who sold us the warning about you," Leia said. "And we're not the only ones they were asked to kill."

t.i.to clattered his mandibles. "Fefze kill Flakax? That is funny." He turned to Meewalh. "I much amused. You pull trigger now."

"It's not that funny." Leia made another motion with her hand. "Remember, you were going to be fighting us."

"I don't suppose you noticed the thermal detonator in the brot-rib crate?" Han asked. He had not found any thermal detonator when he stowed the weapons that had spilled from the crate, but that hardly mattered. Han could always produce one from their own stores and claim the Squibs had slipped it into the box when t.i.to was looking the other way. "Even a Fefze could set a detonator and take off while you were busy fighting us."

"Though, of course, I think the Verpine were a much better choice," Leia said, casting an eye at the unconscious insects. "They're so much more technological."

t.i.to considered this for a moment, then let out a long throat rattle. "The Directors broke their own swear!"

"That's the way it looks, isn't it?" Han replied.

Leia nodded. "And now that we've kept our part of the bargain-"

"The Directors want you dead because Lizil isn't sending you to Tenupe, like they promise," t.i.to said. "Lizil told them, 'Two-legs are more use in Alliance. Send them with convoy.' "

Han's jaw fell. "Wait a minute! You're saying this convoy is headed for Alliance territory?"

t.i.to clacked his mandibles shut, then looked from Han to Leia. "Maybe."

Leia's brow rose, now with shreds of Falleen disguise hanging from it after the fierce fight. "No wonder they want us dead!"

"Yeah," Han said. If this convoy was headed for Alliance s.p.a.ce, there could only be one purpose for all the war cargo they had seen being loaded. "The Colony is supporting a coup-maybe a whole string of them!"

"I think so." Leia's gaze grew troubled, and she slowly turned to Han. "Somebody has to warn Luke."

Han nodded. "I know. Maybe we can find-"

He caught himself and stopped short of saying Juun and Tarfang, then took Leia by the elbow and led her away from their prisoner.

Leia did not even wait until they reached the front of the hold. "Han, we have to do this ourselves."

"We're busy," Han said.

"Think about all the Alliance insects we've seen here," Leia pressed. "Verpine, Flakax, Fefze, Vratix, Huk."

"I have been thinking about them," Han said. "I've been thinking about them a lot."

"If those governments fall, the Defense Force will be so busy in Alliance territory that it won't be able to keep the pressure on in Utegetu-much less carry the war to the rest of the Colony." Leia stopped and turned him to face her. "You know we can't trust this to Juun and Tarfang, Han."

"Of course we can!" Han said. "You heard Juun. Bwua'tu believes in those two."

"But do we?" Leia asked. "Even a.s.suming they would be willing to disregard their orders on our say-so, are you ready to place the Alliance in their hands?"

"It'd serve the Alliance right," Han grumbled. "The rehab conglomerates are claim-jumping everything anyway."

"At least the rehab conglomerates aren't spreading the war," Leia said. "And that's what will happen if we let the Colony overthrow the Alliance's insect governments."

Han let his chin drop to his chest, wondering why it always came down to him and Leia, why they always had to be the ones in the right place at the wrong time.

"Well, I guess there was never any doubt," Han said.

Leia frowned. "Doubt?"

"About going back," Han said. "You still have to do the right thing. You just can't help yourself."

Leia thought about this a moment, then nodded. "I guess that's true. I just couldn't live with myself if we let the Colony topple those governments."

"Well, don't be too hard on yourself," he said. "With a Squib death mark on our heads and the Killiks determined to send us back to the Alliance, we didn't have much chance of reaching Tenupe anyway."

"Not this time," Leia agreed. "But we'll be back."

"Yeah, there's always next time." Han allowed himself a moment to curse the universe, then nodded toward t.i.to and the Verpine. "What about them?"

"We can't take them back as prisoners," she said. "Especially not t.i.to. He's not all that psychopathic for a homeless Flakax, but that will change now that his buddy is dead. We just can't take the chance."

"Then I guess there's only one thing to do," Han said, starting back toward the insect.

Leia caught him by the arm. "Han, you're not going to-"

"Yeah, I am." Han disengaged his arm. "I'm going to send him back to the Squibs."

NINE.

With an artificial waterfall purling in the corner and a school of goldies swimming laps in the catch pond, the conversation area of Luke's outer office was designed to encourage a peaceful, relaxed exchange. The lighting was soft and warm, the floor was sunken to separate it from the rest of the office, and the padded benches were arranged at an oblique angle so that any negative energy arising from a discussion would not fly directly at the conversers.

All of this was, unfortunately, wasted on the current situation. Jacen had chosen to remain standing, feet spread and arms crossed in front of him, facing off against Luke and Mara both. Sensing that Jacen knew exactly why he had been summoned, Luke wasted no time coming to the point.

"Jacen, your fellow Jedi Knights had some very disturbing things to say about the raid on the Chiss supply depot."

Jacen nodded, his expression unreadable. "I imagine."

"They claim that it was very clear the Chiss weren't preparing for a surprise attack," Luke pressed. "They believe you started the war unnecessarily."

"They're wrong."

When Jacen did not elaborate, Mara asked, "Okay-what do you know that they don't?"

"Just what I saw in my vision," Jacen said. "I couldn't let the Chiss attack on their own terms. I had to force their hand."

Luke could not sense a lie in his nephew's words-in fact, he could not sense anything at all because Jacen had closed himself off from the Force. He was trying to hide something.

"Jacen, I've never liked being lied to," Luke said, acting on instinct. "And I absolutely refuse to tolerate it now. Tell me the truth or leave the order."

Jacen recoiled visibly, then seemed to realize he had betrayed himself and began to study Luke in slack-jawed surprise.

"Don't think about it," Mara ordered. "Just do it."

Jacen's shoulders slumped, and his gaze shifted to the pool at the base of the waterfall. "It doesn't change what had to be done, but I did have to alter one detail of my vision to persuade Jaina and the others to help me."

Luke had a sinking feeling inside, more disappointment than anger. "Which detail?"

Jacen hesitated, then said, "In my vision, I didn't see who attacked first. I just saw the war spreading, until it had consumed the entire galaxy."

"So you thought you would just go ahead and get things started?" Mara asked, incredulous. "What were you thinking?"

"That the war was already started!" Jacen retorted. "The Colony had been attacking us-the Jedi and the Alliance-for months. All I did was wake everyone up to the fact."

Given what he and Han had discovered on their trip to Woteba, Luke could hardly argue the point. In addition to the fleet of nest ships the Colony had been constructing inside the Utegetu Nebula, it was now clear that the Killiks had caused many of the problems plaguing the Galactic Alliance, by harboring pirates, providing a market for the Tibanna tappers, and aiding the smugglers of black membrosia.

But that was hardly an excuse for provoking the Chiss into an attack.