"I think you've been asking too many questions."

Vergere sat back on her haunches. "I wondered when you were going to notice. If you have a question, ask it."

"You've been saying that dark pa.s.sions are caused by lack of self-knowledge. But Emperor Palpatine was dark, and I can hardly imagine that he lacked self-knowledge. He seemed perfectly comfortable within his evil. How do you reconcile this with your theory?"

Vergere paused, a.s.sembling her argument. "Darkness enters through the dark pa.s.sions," she said finally. "But sometimes it remains through invitation. Palpatine, knowing himself thoroughly, may simply have decided to become dark, or to let the dark part of his own nature dominate."

"You're saying he may have chosen evil. Coldly, not out of a hot pa.s.sion."

"Sometimes people make such choices." Vergere's tone was amused.

"Usually these people are trivial or silly. Swearing a midnight oath, solemnly intoning, I choose evil!'-what a ridiculous picture! But sometimes there may be a genius who chooses to free the dark side within him. Perhaps Palpatine was one such-I cannot say, I knew him only distantly, as a politician. But I can say this-the dark may enter through meditation as well as through anger."

Luke considered this. Certainly Palpatine and Vader's methods hadn't been to urge him to evil through meditation, but then-if he had joined them as their disciple-perhaps that would have come.

"Have I answered completely?" Vergere said. Luke nodded. "If so,"

Vergere went on, "I would ask another question. Do you think the Force cares what shade your thoughts may be?"

"The Force is all life. It embraces all options. But I care."

Vergere nodded. "A good answer, young Master. Because the shades, the dark and the light and all the colors of the rainbow-" She leaned forward and tapped Luke on the breast with one hand. "-they are here.

Light and dark are not some great abstracts in the sky, but a part of you, and the Force reflects what it finds in you."

Later, when Luke spoke with Ayddar Nylykerka, he said, "You might as well let Vergere go. You're not going to get anything out of her that she doesn't want to give you."

Nylykerka was surprised. "You're no longer worried she might be a danger?"

"It still concerns me," Luke said, "but if Vergere is an enemy, we won't find out by keeping her here. We'll find out by watching what she does once she's been released."

The Tammarian looked thoughtful. "I'll give your recommendations serious thought, Master Skywalker."

"If you decide to release her," Luke said, "I'd be obliged if you'd let me know first. And you could let her know my address and comm code, in case she wants to speak with me."

"I'll do that."

Luke bowed. "Thank you, Commander Nylykerka."

"At your service, sir."

Luke made his way to the planet's surface, Vergere's words spinning through his mind.

What has changed?

Perhaps everything.

"We know that there must be many refugees from Vortex on Mon Calamari," Lando Calrissian said. "And we're sure that they're in touch with your office."

"A great many of them, yes," said Fyg Boras, the Senator from Vortex. He and Lando were seated comfortably, with drinks, in the hotel suite Lando had rented.

"We sympathize," Lando said. "And as you know, we've brought sixteen ships' worth of relief supplies to Mon Calamari to help settle the refugees here."

Ice tinkled in Boras's drink. The discreet scent of his minty cologne wafted through the air. "I'm grateful on my const.i.tuents'

behalf."

"We have a problem, though, and perhaps you can help."

"How may I a.s.sist you?"

"We have the supplies, but no way to distribute them. What we thought we'd do is present you with twenty-five metric tons of supplies.

You can distribute them to your const.i.tuents as you think best."

Boras's eyes grew wide. "That's certainly . . . very generous," he managed. "Twenty-five tons?" He was almost visibly calculating how much twenty-five tons of relief supplies was worth in the current market, with the planet's few surface areas swarming with refugees from dozens of worlds, all desperate for the most basic necessities. Boras no longer had a homeworld to return to, and without a homeworld to vote him in he was obviously never going to be returned to the Senate: he had to think about his future.

"Twenty-five tons," Lando repeated. "Though there is a catch."

Boras's wide eyes narrowed to slits. "And what might the catch be?"

"We hope to be able to sell our YVH droids to the military," Lando said. "If you can use your best efforts to vote an amendment onto the upcoming military appropriations bill, you'll find us extremely appreciative."

Boras sipped his drink carefully. "You'd best tell me about these droids."

"I have a full array of literature," Lando said, "and of course a demonstration holo ..."

After Boras left with an armful of datapads to distribute to his peers, Talon Karrde stepped from the next room. "It's all recorded," he said.

"Boras's bribe weighs twenty-five tons." Lando smiled. "It's going to be hard for him to claim it doesn't exist."

Unlike the distinguished Senator from Bilbringi, who, on being offered the relief supplies, simply demanded their equivalent in cash.

That holo was particularly entertaining.

"Who's our next guest?" Lando asked.

Karrde glanced at his datapad. "Chau Feswin, from the Elrood sector."

"The Elrood sector isn't threatened by the Yuuzhan Vong. Do you think he'd have any use for relief supplies?"

"Make the offer," Karrde shrugged. "We can always turn it into cash later." He looked up. "We've also got some calls from other Senators who must have heard about us from, ah, our other clients. They're very interested in the military acquiring our droids. Practically begging us to bribe them."

Lando looked at him with a growing smile. "I think we should oblige."

Karrde shrugged. "I can't think of any reason not to." He looked thoughtful. "But I wonder-if these people are on our payroll, who else's payroll are they on?"

"That answer would be interesting, wouldn't it?" Lando said. "By the way, have you heard how Mara's doing?"

"Not yet. But I hope to hear from her soon."

Mara was in fact doing well. She had taken YVH-M-1 out for its maiden Yuuzhan Vong hunt, wandering government buildings and large public concourses. She lunched at a kiosk set up in a shopping concourse and then sat down to digest and to watch the pa.s.sersby. She told the droid to search on its own.

She was distracted by the sight of a pair of children, children Ben's age, taking their first hesitant steps in the open-air creche the concourse provided as a convenience to its customers. Sadness rose in Mara and took her by the throat. For a moment she missed Ben so much that it was almost a physical pain.

And then the mouse droid signaled her portable comm. Mara looked up from the creche, startled. The mouse droid signaled again.

The droid had located a Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator-or at least someone the mouse droid claimed was a Yuuzhan Vong. Mara asked the droid for a homing signal, and followed it until she saw the person in question: a tall, rather broad female human, inconspicuously dressed,, who wandered seemingly at random along the shopping galleries. Mara called the Force into her mind, letting the lives of all the thousands of living beings in the concourse flood into her awareness.

All the beings save one. Her target was a cold void in the Force, an emptiness that Mara had learned to a.s.sociate with the Yuuzhan Vong.

"Good work, mousie," Mara said.

Mara was plainly dressed, in worn robes such as a refugee might wear, with a hood that she could wear over her overly conspicuous red hair. She alternated the hood with a floppy-brimmed hat in order to change her silhouette, and she carried a datapad through which she could issue commands to the mouse droid, and also view what the droid was seeing.

She following the target at a distance and let the droid do most of the spying for her. The target wandered through the shopping concourse for twenty minutes or so, and then sat on a bench as if to take a rest.

At this point Mara managed to get the droid close and behind the bench, just in time to observe the target reach beneath the seat and peel off something that had been stuck there.

Aha! Mara thought delightedly. This was better than getting an idiot's array at sabacc.

The target lumbered to her feet and strolled down the concourse.

Mara drifted after. The target paused a moment by a vending machine, then continued on. When Mara purchased a snack from the machine and looked behind it, she saw something stuck there with an adhesive. It was just the size of a bundle of credits.

Mara decided to let the mouse droid follow the Yuuzhan Vong and to wait near the vending machine for whoever was scheduled to pick up his payment. She perched on a store windowsill and ate her snack, which was some kind of fried, salted seaweed that tasted of iodine and was obviously intended for a Mon Calamari palate. Within an hour the money was picked up by a Sull.u.s.tan male, who used part of the cash immediately on a flashy new jacket purchased in one of the most exclusive boutiques in the arcade. The Sull.u.s.tan then returned to work, which turned out to be in the building the Senate had requisitioned for its offices. Mara discovered that the Sull.u.s.tan worked in the office of Senator Krall Praget, a member of the Security and Intelligence Council.

Most interesting, Mara thought.

She then caught up with the mouse droid, which had followed the suspected Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator to an apartment building. Mara made a note of the address, and then called Ayddar Nylykerka on her comm, and told him to buy as many of the mouse droids as Lando and Talon Karrde had available.

YVH-M-1 had proved its worth on its very first day.

Cola Quis dropped out of the race for Chief of State following a ringing endors.e.m.e.nt for Cal Omas, who had quietly promised him chairmanship of the Commerce Council, midlevel ministry jobs to several of his friends, and a branch office of the Kellmer Inst.i.tute for Ryloth.

On the next vote, Cal added enough votes to raise his percentage to 35.

Not all of Quis's supporters followed his lead, however, and Fyor Rodan picked up another couple of percentage points and stayed in the lead, with 37. Pwoe held steady with three votes total. Tal'aam Ranth added enough to his total to raise his percentage to 22, which meant that the soft-spoken, exquisitely polite Gotal chairman of the Justice Council now controlled enough votes in the Senate to deliver the election either to Cal Omas or to Fyor Rodan.

Ranth was now being courted in earnest.

Tons of refugee supplies were shipped to the planet's surface from the smuggler fleet overhead. The new military appropriations bill, with riders attached involving the purchase of thousands of YVH droids, pa.s.sed out of the Defense Council and onto the Senate floor. The Senate, urged by all three candidates to act quickly, pa.s.sed the bill with only a few token attempts at adding amendments to earmark funds for a particularly worthy planet or cause or brother-in-law.

Mara found a second Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator. She and a squad of mouse droids and Nylykerka's agents began mapping the two infiltrators'

contacts and a.s.sociates. Primary residences and safe houses were located, and eavesdropping devices quietly inserted.

Considering the alarming implications of everything she was discovering, Mara was having a strangely pleasant time.

"Every morning, I want every person in my command to ask himself the same question. And that question is: how can I hurt the Yuuzhan Vong today?"

Admiral Traest Kre'fey was visiting every ship in his command, first to conduct an inspection and then to address ship personnel. He was speaking from the enlisted mess of Starsider, a room large enough to contain all the fleet personnel who were stationed or pa.s.sing through or barracked on the old Dreadnaught. Jaina, flanked by Kyp and Lowbacca, sat at a table on one edge of the room, watching the white-furred Bothan bound up and down on his speaker's platform.

Kre'fey was in good spirits today, and his body language showed it.

He bounced on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet as he repeatedly punched the air to emphasize his points, and his fur continually peaked and smoothed with surges of emotion.

"And if you can't find a way to hurt the Vong," the admiral continued, "I want you to ask yourself this question: how can I help my own side grow stronger?"

"At least it's leadership," Kyp said, his murmur pitched to carry only to the ears of his fellow Jedi. "It's not like we've seen a lot of leadership in this war."

"Maybe it's a little more leadership than we need," Jaina murmured in answer.

Lowie knew better than to say anything himself-his translator droid lacked discretion, and would probably shout the translation out at full volume-but he allowed himself a small moan of agreement.

"We're going to win the war of production!" Kre'fey proclaimed.

"Our factories are building more starfighters, more capital ships, and more weapons than ever before! Our schools are turning out more pilots and other personnel! Within months we'll have replaced all the terrible losses we've suffered so far in this war!"

Jaina thought of Anakin and Chewbacca, and Anni Capstan and others, the millions who'd lived on Sernpidal and Ithor. Unique, individual beings, alive and responsive to the other lives around them. Replaced? No one could replace any of them.

"That trip to Bothawui has changed the admiral," Kyp said. "He used to be a lot less bouncy."

"The Bothans declared ar'krai and removed any necessity for moral responsibility," Jaina said. "I imagine that could cheer a person up."

"We're going to smash the Vong!" Kre'fey proclaimed. "We're going to smash them every day! We're going to smash them until there are no more Yuuzhan Vong!"

The room erupted in applause. Jaina and the other Jedi remained silent.

After Kre'fey's speech had worked its way to a rousing conclusion, Jaina was stopped at the exit by one of the admiral's aides.

"Major Solo?" he said. "The admiral would like to see you."

Kre'fey met Jaina in an office loaned him for the purpose by Starsider's captain. Kre'fey was still clearly exhilarated from his speech, still bouncing energetically on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet. His vicinity smelled very strongly of excited Bothan.

"I saw you in the audience and I thought I'd have Snayd pull you in for a chat."

"Very good, sir." Which seemed a proper sort of thing for a bewildered officer to say. Chats with admirals were a rarity in her experience.

Kre'fey's whiskered face beamed. "Did you like the speech?"

Jaina answered truthfully. "I thought it was the strongest speech I've heard in this war, sir." At least it said most of the right things.

Kre'fey was impressed. "Coming from Leia Organa's daughter, I'll take that as a very special compliment indeed."

"My mother hasn't had many chances to make speeches lately, sir,"

Jaina said.