"Ma'am, we're no wiser than you are about what happened."

"Tell me this was some ill-timed readiness drill, Captain."

"I can't, ma'am."

"Great G.o.ds of the waters, is Solo insane?" Her comlink was still transmitting to all bridges. She had a valid reason for doing that, if the threat really had been a cloaked fleet, but it was much more about enabling a bloodless coup. The ships' companies and their officers could now make up their own minds about which commander they would pre-fer to follow into a tight corner. "I know he doesn't drink liquor..."

"Ma'am, when Colonel Solo is available, I shall tell him you wish to talk to him."

"Most kind, Captain." Niathal smoothed her jacket, with the feeling of having found a thousand-denomination cash-cred in the street. She had paraded her contempt for Jacen across the task force, and Nevil had been seen as loy-ally supporting his superior officer. Honor was satisfied.

"All vessels, stand defense watches."

She stepped down from the slightly raised dais that spanned the deck, and paused. "And... if anyone doesn't spot anything that isn't there, don't hesitate not to tell me."

A ripple of laughter ran around the bridge. Even though a battle was still imminent, the tension dropped a good few notches. She stepped into her day cabin and leaned back against the bulkhead, eyes closed for a moment, before comming Nevil.

"Captain Nevil, "she said. "Sorry about that. Thank you for sounding suitably noncommittal. I just want you to know you're not alone."

Chapter 12.

Could I have stopped all this? If I'd told Cat Omas right at the start to let Corellia go its own way, would we be here now? Trying to force every Alliance world to pool its defense forces was a prin-ciple.

We didn't actually have an external threat to face. But we created one.

And if another enemy like the Yuuzhan Vong had ever shown up-I'm certain that Corellians would have come running to defend the galaxy anyway. Like they always have.

-Luke Skywalker, to Han Solo FIFTY KILOMETERS OUTSIDE FLEET a.s.sEMBLY AREA, NEARFONDOR.

Caedus fumed.

He was no fool, he wasn't mad, and he had explored more arcane Force techniques than any member of the Jedi Council. He did not fall prey to tricks.

But even if that phantom fleet had been a trick and not some freak phenomenon thrown up by physics beyond his grasp-then who was creating it? He took one long loop around the area in the StealthX.

Caedus wasn't checking to make sure he hadn't missed any more humiliatingly nonexistent ships. He was scouting for the source of the illusion. And it was an illusion-yes, that was much, much more likely than the laws of the uni-verse having a bad day.

He'd pulled off some remarkably convincing tricks himself; he'd hidden Lumiya right under Luke's nose, literally. He'd also been caught up in manufactured illusions and he could still feel the apparent reality of Lumiya's conjured world in her asteroid habitat.

Niathal, mundane rule-follower that she was, had simply tested reality by firing a torpedo, her mind unenc.u.m-bered by any hall-of-mirrors thinking that would make her question if the torpedo failing to hit anything was also part of the same elaborate, convincing construction.

But I'm a Sith Lord.

I should be beyond this. I should be antic.i.p.ating these strikes against me.

It had to be one of the renegade Jedi. Lumiya was dead. Who else might be able to fool him? Ben-no, Ben had his skills like vanishing in the Force, but he thought in honest, plain lines, channeling his Force power into extensions of ordinary talents like smashing down doors, locating explo-sives, and blinding surveillance holocams. Two burly CSF officers and a sniffer akk could do that. So it would be one of the usual suspects-Luke, probably, or maybe Zekk, be-cause it wasn't his mother's or his sister's style. Where were they? How far could Luke extend his powers?

And why couldn't anyone else see it? Illusions could be made visible to many people. So it was designed to disturb him, and him alone, not to lure his ships into shooting and whatever might result from that.

Caedus could feel nothing beyond a distant sense that there were still Jedi in the Force, much the way the lights of a city were a constant and unnoticed backdrop until they went out. He was chasing phantoms again. That was what they wanted. He had to focus, swallow his anger, and avoid being provoked.

The crew of the Anakin Solo had already heard him make a complete fool of himself. He'd have to work on restoring his infallible image.

Luke. After Niathal, before order being restored-he had to do something about Luke. Perhaps Luke would have the common sense of the last remaining Jedi after Palpatine's Purge, and go into exile.

Ahead of Caedus, an auxiliary vessel was hooking up to a cruiser to replenish supplies via a long tube-like tunnel, proof of how rapidly some of the Third Fleet had slipped their berths. They were catching up on routine tasks that would have normally been completed alongside. The Imperials would have brought forward their embarkation, too; as soon as they showed up, they could get this over with. Occupying Fondor wasn't an option. No... it would turn into Corellia, but worse. Worlds looked at Corellia, bruised but still Confederate, and might even be emboldened enough by the c.o.c.ky defiance to try to emulate it. Fondor might do that while tying up hundreds of thousands of troops and their vessels. Caedus intended to make an example of Fondor, the sort that said: Don't try this again.

Torching Kashyyyk should have announced that, but the human majority on many planets probably took more no-tice of what happened to their own related species in nice clean cities.

He was among the scattered ships now. The light level in his c.o.c.kpit-the light from the distant sun at his back-dipped slightly.

He couldn't see anything on his instruments. He couldn't feel anything near him beyond the general oppressive weight of warships preparing for battle.

Remember what happened last time. Caedus wouldn't be caught twice.

If he leaned slightly to one side, the reflec-tion at his six often appeared on the viewscreen in front of him. He shifted in his seat, but there was nothing. If] jump at every shadow now, he's got me. Ludicrous.

The next moment, the sherrnkkk of tearing fiberplast vi-brated through the airframe and his chest, and he was flung to port, spinning out of control. Something had hit him. He hadn't clipped anything through careless flying. He was too experienced, too good. He punched the StealthX into a short burn to stop the roll and peeled away under the ships to put some distance between him and whatever had rammed him.

Obviously-he couldn't see it. No point sending a distress signal; this wasn't something to share with the fleet again. He accelerated, trying to get some edge, looking for vvhat wasn't there: stars.

He was straining to find a dark area of obscured stars, the only way he could spot a fighter that was as camou-flaged and undetectable as his own.

I've been hunted by a StealthX before, Luke. You think I'm stupid?

If he couldn't see Luke, he would maneuver where Luke couldn't detect him.

He wasn't going to get in the same position of not being able to use his cannon as he had with Mara. He'd risk being hit by fragments. He didn't have far to run for help if he got a slow decompression. This time, he'd use what he'd learned.

For the first time, though, he began to wonder if it was Luke out there.

Ben?

Caedus hadn't felt anyone. Luke-he could always sense Luke. But Ben had taken to Force hiding instantly. Mara had managed it for critical moments and nearly killed him, but this smacked of Ben.

Bang.

Something clipped him from underneath the fuselage this time, shaking his teeth. He corrected course. He didn't need instruments to tell him he had a breach somewhere. When he looped again, he caught sight of a thin trail of escaping vapor or fluid, probably coolant. StealthXs had traded shielding for sensor negation; they still had pretty tough skins in collisions, but hitting another vessel at these speeds normally tore off parts and ended unhappily.

This was incredibly precise wingtip ramming, or stagger-ing luck twice in a row. And he was no longer undetectable. He had a vapor trail.

He opened a comm channel. There was no point trying for a meld, after all. The StealthX's comm system had seen more use today than it had in its entire service history.

"Face me, and let's finish it, "he said. Ben, or Luke? If it's Luke, then he's got new tricks. It could even be Jaina, if Ben's teaching everyone to shut down in the Force. I don't care.

"Come about and head for the orbitals, "said Luke's voice. "You'll make it. Then land, and we'll talk."

Caedus headed for the Anakin, wondering just how far Luke would go to force him to land. The odds were different now. This wasn't like Kavan. Caedus had a fleet right next door.

"Aren't you going to open fire?"

There was flash of blackness in the c.o.c.kpit as the pursu-ing vessel blocked the sun for a moment. Luke's presence faded back into the Force like a sunrise. "If I wanted to kill you, I could have done it several times over by now."

"You think a stern talking-to, deprogramming, and the love of a good family will put me right again?"

"I'm prepared to try. You'd be amazed."

Caedus was drawing Luke deeper into the fleet a.s.sembly area. Luke seemed to be simply hanging a wing-breadth off his tail, a suicidal tactic for anyone else.

"You're going to have to shoot me down to stop me, "said Caedus.

"I always learn from history."

"Try-ahh." Caedus struggled to correct the StealthX as the damaged starboard wing cannon broke away. The escaping vapor was speckled with round droplets now. "Did you do that?"

Chunkk. The port cannon ripped free.

"You could retaliate, "said Luke, "and we'll both end up dead. Come about and head back toward Fondor."

Caedus was coming up on the fleet auxiliaries with their replenishment conduits strung between ships. If he could alert his anti-air batteries on the frigates, he could lead Luke's StealthX between them and trust to the gunners' timing.

"I'm not your father, Luke, and I don't need to be re-deemed, "said Caedus.

Luke reacted; it stung him, and Caedus actually hadn't meant it to.

He felt the flinch.

"Mara told me that about Lumiya."

The name made Caedus flinch this time. "She was right, Luke."

Pinpoints of light picked out maintenance pods moving over ships'

hulls. Caedus was preparing for a feint and a dash into the Anakin's hangar bay now. Luke was too smart to mess around in the heart of the GA Fleet; Niathal must have done a deal. Caedus was being herded toward something here. He was being set up.

Luke hadn't mentioned Mara's death. Odd: he either had something worse planned for Caedus, or he didn't think he was responsible. The ax waiting to fall kept getting bigger. Fett hadn't come after him, either, and if one thing was cer-tain, it was that he would find a way of getting at him.

But not this time.

Luke's StealthX nudged him again from behind-how? Caedus couldn't see. Force push? Something metallic inside the fuselage shrieked. He had a sense of someone rummag-ing furiously in the drives as if looking for a dropped hydrospanner, throwing fragments into the coils. He's ripping the thing apart...

Caedus tried to block Luke in the Force and suddenly got an idea of just how much power Luke could muster. His seat shot forward, sheared off the runners, tipped to one side, and he hit the console at an angle before he could buffer the collision with the Force. Something cracked in his chest. Pain flared, stopping his breathing. Then he was aware of brilliant white light coming right at him. In the moments before he managed to veer off to starboard, al-most blinded, he got a glimpse of a StealthX's uneven out-line with two grappling arms extended, and the sense of a Jedi other than Luke.

They'd tried to cripple the StealthX and grab him, air-frame and all, right in the middle of the fleet. Brazen; in-credible. He'd never allow anyone but his own apprentice to fly a StealthX again, not even an ordinary pilot. Luke was still close behind, feeling as if he were actually leaning on his shoulder; Caedus switched to raw instinct. He looped around, weaving between cruisers s.p.a.ced at regular intervals-someone must have picked him up on visual by now, surely? - and then maneuvered to line up the auxiliaries with the Anakin Solo, accelerating.

He'd either hit it right or he'd crash, but if the other StealthX tried to take him at this velocity from a head-on intercept it'd rip them both apart.

Caedus aimed right at the fleet auxiliary replenishing a landing craft. It was crewed by civilians, merchant fleet, noncombatants; it had only a light cannon for self-defense. The Jong connection tunnel was actually an air lock exten-der, a quick and easy way to transfer supplies without docking shuttles, and there'd be crew working in it. Luke was right on his tail.

Smashing through it would damage the StealthX badly, but it would rip the tunnel apart, and there'd be deaths.

Let's see who blinks first.

Caedus realized n.o.body could see any of the StealthX's. Whatever fluid he was losing had vented completely. The auxiliaries couldn't even pick them up on collision alarms.

Do it.

The Anakin Solo loomed behind it.

"Don't..." Luke could see what he was doing, all right.

"I'm past caring, "said Caedus, lying.

You'll peel off rather than risk dipping that.... killing workers.... Caedus thought.

I'll live with it.

The orange tunnel rushed up to meet him faster than he expected and he jerked the yoke back. Nothing snagged him; he didn't feel it, anyway.

He couldn't look back. But he felt Luke's moment of horror at a near hit, buying him seconds that he needed to shoot underneath the Star Destroyer and come back along its length toward one of the hangar decks.

"Anakin Solo, emergency landing, damaged StealthX One-One-open Five-Alpha Hangar..."

He could have sworn he snapped off the tip of a comm mast. He was holding the fighter steady as much by the Force as by its controls, and trying to slow it with the Force as well, because the braking burn wasn't enough. He had to drop into that slot just right or he'd take the section out with him.

I could have activated the transponder, let them track me for the last few seconds, but I can't pinpoint the Jedi...

Too late.

Caedus stopped thinking and felt. He was braking with everything he had. Coming out of the blackness of s.p.a.ce, the hangar lights were sudden and blinding, and then he realized they were sparks. He was skidding across the hangar deck. The bulkhead filled his view; the arrester baffle caught him. He was flung against what felt like a perma-crete wall. As the lights around dimmed and he couldn't see through the canopy any longer, he had a foolish moment of thinking he was dying.

No, you've done that. Doesn't feel like this.

It was the automatic flame-r.e.t.a.r.dant foam coating the fighter. The airframe was completely still; he wasn't lodged in a bulkhead. He inhaled sharply, cursed a broken rib, and set about trying to heal it, eyes closed, while he waited for the fire party to decide he wasn't going to explode, and crack the canopy from the outside.

After a few moments, the light level increased. The foam was dispersing, and the canopy opened.

"Sir, I hope your insurance covers this..." Say the right thing.

The Jacen Solo thing. Show them you're not a madman.

"I swerved to avoid a Jedi, "Caedus said. "I didn't get his number.