"I see what you mean," the shop owner said. "Well, this is a simple task. We should be through later this afternoon."

"Good," the cloaked man said. He turned to leave.

"Wait a moment. How do I notify you when we're done?"

"I'll just return."

"And we haven't discussed my fee yet."

"That's right. I don't have any local money."

"I'm afraid New Republic credits are no good here."

"I have an extra power cell for the Artoo. Fully charged."

"If you have two, that would suffice."

"For 'a simple task1 you should be through with later this afternoon?"

The shop owner smiled. "Is it a new power cell?"

"Brand new. I bought it on Coruscant about a month before it fell."

The man returned to the counter and produced a standard astromech power cell from beneath his cloak. Its reflective surfaces gleamed in the shop owner's counter light.

The shop owner picked it up, hefted it, looked at its charge indicator. "Done," he said. "I'll see you this afternoon."

"Thank you."

Two minutes after the cloaked man left, a young woman entered. She was no customer, the shop owner knew. Despite her fair hair, she seemed somehow somber, and she had the bearing of a military officer.

She displayed an identichip bearing the seal of Vannix Intelligence and put it in the countertop reader for a moment. The display took only a moment to read CONFIRMED.

"What did that man want?" she asked.

The shop owner sighed. Sometimes it was a curse, always knowing when a customer was going to cause trouble.

Senator Addath Gadan kept the smile fixed to her face. Sometimes that extra effort kept her voice similarly pleasant, similarly light.

"You can't make the rally at all?"

Leia Organa Solo's voice sounded from her desktop comlink, just as light, just as artificial. "Not today's. I'm sorry, Addath. Han is ill and I just feel I need to stay with him. But send me the schedule for tomorrow's events and I should be able to make those."

"I'll do that. Please give him my best wishes."

"Of course."

Addath sat and fumed. Ill, indeed. Han Solo hadn't been too ill to sneak out of the Presider's residence, eluding two layers of her security before being detected and followed by the third. Any smart operative could have penetrated one or two layers from the inside out, as he did, but Solo had managed it with an R2 astromech in tow, a pretty good trick.

Not that, ultimately, it had done any good. She hit the desktop button again, and once more the conversation, copied from the R2 unit's recording memory before it had been wiped, replayed itself.

First was Leia's voice, a whisper: "So what's the total?"

Han's voice was similarly hushed. "He's promising two squadrons of starfighters, and a light carrier to serve as their base ship."

"I don't know, Han. That's selling oneself pretty cheaply."

"We need all the military resources we can get, and he wouldn't commit to any more than that. So I said yes. And the timetable means taking delivery soon. We're going to have to leave."

Leia sighed. "This is going to be a big blow to Addath."

"I know. But survival is more important than friendship."

Addath switched it off. Anger made her feel tight from head to foot.

It wasn't Leia turning against her that angered her. That was just politics. It was the fact that it might have worked. If she hadn't had enough layers of security for one of them to keep track of Han's movements, this deal between the Solos and the admiral might have come to pass, and she'd have missed her chance-her opportunity to come up with a more formidable counterbribe.

They walked alone on the lengthy balcony at the rear of the Presider's residence. Addath had arranged for it to be cleared of all visitors, of all government employees, for this meeting. Now Leia walked along beside her, with Han, wrapped up in his hooded cloak and anonymous as any bodyguard or servant, a step behind them.

Truth be told, Addath preferred it that way. There should never be any question that Han Solo, regardless of his comparative fame, ranked lower than she did.

"I have come to make you an offer," Addath said-"Something to help motivate your participation in my campaign."

Leia hesitated. "About that... Addath, I won't be able to help.

Circumstances have changed. Han and I have to return to Borleias immediately. We'll be leaving tonight."

"Bear with me. I think what I have to offer will change your mind.

I think you'll want to stay."

"I...well, let's hear it."

"Six squadrons of improved A-Nine Vigilance Interceptors and a Nebulon-B frigate refitted to carry them all-it's more of a light carrier than it is a frigate. Vessels like it form the backbone of our new fleet."

"Impressive. And you'd give me all this just to keep me here, campaigning for you?"

"Yes. I think that highly of your influence."

"But Addath, you aren't in possession of those vehicles. Admiral Werl is."

"Until I win this election, that is. At which time I take control of the military and can simply detach those units from the navy. We won't need them anyway. We'll be pursuing nonviolence pacts with the Yuuzhan Vong."

Leia sighed, "Listen, Addath, you might lose this election even with my participation. Or there might be another runoff. Or some enemy of your politics might arrange for you to be killed. There are a thousand different things that could pop up to keep you from providing us with those resources. I have to refuse."

"What if I obtained them for you now?"

"How?"

Addath slipped a data card from her sleeve and held it up. It glinted in the moonlight. "This card holds access and authorization codes, plus a temporary military rank for the bearer. It will allow you to enter Vanstar Military Base, catch a shuttle to any of our new frigates, and assume command of it. For whatever purpose you want. Send it straight to Borleias."

"Addath, you're talking about taking control of military resources you don't have legal control over."

"But I will. A little alteration of documentation, and the dates for the transfer of ownership and control are moved up to one day after I assume the Presider's office."

"That's just wrong, Addath. I can't do that. 1 don't think I can support you in this campaign at all."

Addath blinked at her. "Leia, you surprise me. I doubt your husband is so dainty." She turned back to the cloaked figure. "What do you say, Han?"

"Han has nothing to say about this."

"Perhaps you should let him speak for himself."

"I would if he were here."

"What?" Addath felt a jolt of coldness spread through her. She looked again at the tall cloaked figure. "Who's this, then? Your bodyguard?"

"Addath, I can't exactly introduce you to Fasald Ghem. I understand you already know her."

That coldness reached to every one of Addath's fingers and toes as the cloaked figure threw back the cloak hood. The gesture revealed the face of a tall, lean woman, dark-haired, dark-eyed. On her forehead was a device shaped like a crown, but instead of featuring a central gem, it carried a central lens-it was a head-mounted holocam favored by some field recorders.

Addath had known her face for years. It belonged to one of the preeminent investigative holojournalists on the world of Vannix, and she stared at Addath without mercy. "Hello, Senator."

Leia said, "Fasald, perhaps you could give us a few moments alone."

"Of course." The broadcaster gave Addath a perfunctory nod, then turned away.

Addath opened her mouth wide and drew in a deep breath of air, but Leia placed a finger over Addath's lips. "Don't do it, Addath. Don't call for your guards. Fasald has already broadcast that entire recording to an editing station. You'd inconvenience her, you'd inconvenience me, but you wouldn't prevent your arrest."

Addath sighed out nearly the entire lungful. "Leia, why did you do this?"

"Don't play innocent with me. It's because I'm certain that your way of dealing with the Yuuzhan Vong will result in more deaths, more tragedy than my way. So I've stopped you."

"You have a ruthless streak I never appreciated in you."

"It came out when circumstances started killing my children."

"So. What options do you leave me with?"

"You have two options. You can stay on Vannix, and within the next three hours Fasald will broadcast her report. Dealing with subsequent arrest and mobs is up to you. Or you can flee the residence and find yourself passage offworld by dawn. In which case Fasald will give you a full day to get to freedom, then broadcast her report. Either way, she broadcasts. I couldn't persuade her otherwise." Leia plucked the data card from Addath's fingers. "I'll get this back to the admiral." Addath felt her smile grow bitter. "So you and your husband sold your services to the admiral for, what was it, two squadrons and a light carrier?"

A frown creased Leia's brow. "No. We were going to help her from the moment we arrived. The only thing she promised us was some antiquated sea navy equipment, decomissioned vessels."

"Then what-"

"Oh, the squadrons were what General Antilles promised Han if he'd come back now and accept a military commission. Han had a holocomm conversation with Wedge while he was running errands this afternoon. The whole conversation is recorded. I can let you watch it."

Addath nodded glumly. "1 see."

"But I now suspect that Han will decline the commission. He likes being a civilian. A scoundrel."

"Of course. Quite an extensive setup." Wearily, Addath turned away.

"I'll be leaving. Perhaps the former Presider would like some additional company."

"There's a guest at the front gates of the residence. A member of Fasald's staff. She'll be accompanying you until you board your ship offworld. Helping you keep track of details."

"I appreciate your thoroughness, Leia. You think of everything."

Left alone on the porch, Leia watched Addath walk away and took stock of her feelings.

She almost felt bad for Addath. Watching a person's whole store of hopes and dreams go up in flames wasn't pleasant.

But Addath was no fool. She could analyze the Yuu-zhan Vong's relationship with "allied" worlds as well as anyone else. Addath simply could not give up the reins of power, and would hold them in clenched hands, whatever the cost. Since a military opposition to the Yuuzhan Vong meant handing too much power to others, she was willing to steer this world into eventual oblivion... just so long as she was in control until that final moment.

Whether it was by denying the truth even to herself or by cold-bloodedly selling the population of an entire world into slavery and death, Addath had made the wrong choice, and her influence had to be eliminated.

Leia decided that she felt neither sadness nor joy-just satisfaction with a job well done. She turned to rejoin her husband, who would understand.

Coruscant It took only a few hours for Luke and his companions to search the remainder of the scientific station, for Kell and Elassar to locate the other end of the massive being's escape path and weld a heavy metal sheet across it, for Bhindi to get some of the computers operating and extract information from them.

Bhindi gathered them in an open area on the top level-an area, Kell pointed out, that he had laboriously cleaned and emptied of machinery parts until it was fit for occupation-to give them her evaluation. It was now set up with chairs-made of some antiquated plastic material and curved in artistic patterns that Luke thought he'd once seen in a museum display, combining coin-fort with dated pretension-and one functional medical droid that Bhindi had assembled from parts of several damaged ones. The repairs had not been completely successful; the droid walked with a wobble caused by the fact that its right lower leg section was identical to its left, throwing it a bit off-balance.

"What we have here," Bhindi said, "is two different scientific stations put together. Both of them operations of Imperial Intelligence, the first of them dating from about fifty years ago, though this complex has been here for centuries. And this is CPD-One-Thirteen, who has been here since the commencement of this station's third stage of operation.

One-Thirteen?"

"Greetings," the droid said. Its voice was thin, cultured, with a distinct Coruscant accent. "You are all intruders. Prepare to die." it turned to look across all its visitors.

"This is the part where the military droids jump out of their niches and kill us all," Bhindi said. She reached over and fiddled with the restraining bolt plugged into the droid's chest. "One-Thirteen, our continued presence here is proof that we are authorized personnel."

"That is correct," the droid said. "I am CPD One-Thirteen, medical droid, optimized for suspended life process maintenance. You are all intruders here. Prepare to die."

"What is this complex?" Mara asked.

CPD 1-13 stood more upright, and his voice became cheerier.

"Welcome to the Pasarian Memorial Atmospheric Reclamation Complex Project, Substation One, formerly the Coruscant Atmospheric Reclamation-"

"Quiet," Bhindi interrupted. I'll synopsize."

"If you must."

Bhindi glared at 1-13 and he slumped. "The Complex," she continued, "all its various substations put together, is a sort of worldwide air-scrubber. Quite a while back, once Coruscant's leaders built over the last forested regions, the planet lacked sufficient natural resources to manage the atmospheric pollutants produced by the world's industrialized species. The government had that covered, though, in building a series of very efficient facilities that converted carbon dioxide into oxygen, removed waste gases, that sort of thing. That 'red goo' several stories up doesn't just act as a devourer tank. It's a variant of the devourer organism, especially engineered for high-efficiency conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen. It functions with the same efficiency as several thousand square kilometers of tract forest. And there are hundreds of similar substations all over Coruscant. Well, there were. Some may be damaged or destroyed now, but most were built at bedrock level. Lots of them could have survived so far."

"Wait, wait." Luke frowned. "They have to have some sort of active air-pumping mechanism."

"That's correct-"