"Oh, Luke." Her voice was unusually loud. "I'm glad you're here." Luke sat beside the bed. "Me, too." She frowned slightly.

"I don't think she understood you," Han said. "She can't hear." Luke glanced at Han. He seemed remarkably calm.

"They say her hearing will come back in a few days. It was the strength of the explosion." Han smiled tightly. "It's been rather humorous, actually, watching the medical staff deal with a hundred deaf patients.

No one is following instructions." His tone implied there was no humor in it. In any of it. Luke had already gotten the statistics when he landed.

Twenty-five senators dead, a hundred more wounded seriously, and another hundred bruised. That didn't count the support personnel or all the destroyed droids.

"Any idea what happened?" Winter stood. "I think, children," she said, "we've been here long enough today."

"Daaaad," Jaina wailed. She took his arm. "They always make us leave when the conversation gets interesting."

"I'm not going," Anakin said.

Chewie growled at him. Anakin ran to his sister's side.

"That's telling 'em, Chewie," Han said, but it sounded more like a reflex response. "Go with Winter, kids. I'll be back to tuck you in." They hugged their mother good-bye, and left without further protest, which made Luke wonder if they wanted to stay as much as they pretended. The last day or two had been very stressful for them. He would have to talk with Han about their fears before he left.

"Leia believes the new Imperials in the Senate caused this," Han said.

"I'm not so sure."

"I am," Leia said. She had obviously become adept at lipread-ing since the explosion. Some of her abilities probably were Force-enhanced. Luke would have to test that theory later.

"What do you think happened?" Luke asked.

"An old buddy of mine surfaced at a convenient time," Han said. "I was with Jarril in the Crystal Jewel when the explosion happened."

"A decoy to keep you away?"

"Maybe," Han said. "Or maybe he was trying to warn me and was too late. I tried to find him afterward, but he was gone."

"Any idea where he went?" Luke asked.

Han shook his head. "His ship was gone too, and no one saw it leave, which I find odd. Jarril's ship is distinctive. He took the Falcon's design and crossed it with an A-wing."

"I saw that ship," Luke said. "The defenses were up when I got here. It took me a bit of convincing to get in, but when the shields lifted, a ship like that shot out, as if it had been waiting for just a moment like that. I notified s.p.a.ce-Traffic Control but they didn't even register it as a blip on their equipment. It's not often I get told things are a figment of my imagination anymore."

"Some figment," Han said.

"This means nothing," Leia said too loudly. Luke wasn't sure how much she followed. "It was the Imperials."

"You have less proof than I do," Han said. "Your people don't even know what kind of bomb hit the Senate Hall."

"My people?" Luke put a hand on Leia's arm. "What makes you think it was the Empire?"

"They have new members in the Senate. It would be just like them to destroy something they had gained." She had turned her head toward him so that she could see him clearly. "First rule in investigation, Luke. Look for the changes. The answer lies in the changes."

"You have no proof either," Luke said. He suppressed a sigh. "Let's see what the experts turn up. Maybe once we know what hit the Hall, we'll be better informed."

"The other thing you look for is money," Han said. "Jarril told me a lot of smugglers are getting rich, and then dying."

"But he could have been lying," Luke said.

Chewie growled. He clearly agreed with Han.

"I'm not dismissing him, Chewie," Luke said. "I just don't want us to make suppositions before we have information." He hadn't expected to arrive and be the voice of reason. The stress was taking its toll on the whole family. He had seen it in the children, and now in Han and Leia.

"He said I could find out more at Smuggler's Run," Han said.

"It might be another diversion," Leia said.

"Or it might be unrelated," Luke said.

"Or it could be something we need to know," Han said.

Chewie mumbled his agreement.

"You can't leave now, Han," Leia said. She clearly knew her husband. "The children need you." Han smiled, but he seemed distracted. "They need you too, sweetheart," he said. "The whole Republic needs you. And we almost lost you." Luke cleared his throat. "Let me do a little investigating of my own," he said. "I may turn up something none of us expects."

C-3PO followed R2-D2's rounded frame through the permacrete corridors.

Ancient oil stains mingled with skid marks and other stains of unknown origins all over the floors and walls. The glow panels flickered, as if they didn't have the same access to power as the rest of Coruscant. R2 led with purpose, his silver body tilted back, his wheels outstretched.

"I don't know how you always get me involved in these things, R2," 3PO said as he hurried, hands raised for balance. "You've only been here a few hours and already I feel as if we're in trouble." R2 whistled, then blatted at him.

"You did invite me," 3PO said. "You said you believed they were doing something to Master Luke's X-wing and we needed to investigate." R2 tweebled.

"All right, then. You knew they were doing something to Master Luke's X-wing, and you said you were going to investigate. But you told me. That's like an invitation." R2 speeded up, chirruping and twittering as he glided forward on the filthy floor.

"I will not stay behind," 3PO said. "Over the years, you've gotten us into too much trouble going off on your own like this. Besides, as I told you upstairs, Master Luke's X-wing has been scheduled for upgrade for more than a year." R2 blatted again. His head swiveled as he investigated a portal in the wall. Apparently it was not the one he wanted.

3PO didn't even look at the portal as they pa.s.sed. "I think it's arrogant of you to believe that Master Luke will tell you all of his business." R2 bleeped loudly.

"All of his business concerning the X-wing, then. It's not as if you own the machine. You're a droid." R2 warbled.

"Really, R2. Another astromech droid could run the X-wing," 3PO said.

"It's not as if you're that special." R2 gave 3PO a raspberry.

"Maybe they should have wiped your memory. Your so-called exploits went to your head after the Battle of Endor. I don't know why I continue to put up with you." 3PO's patter stopped when they reached the closed maintenance-hangar doors. "How odd. Doors in the maintenance area are supposed to remain open at all times." R2 didn't respond. Instead a compartment opened on his side, and a thin metal service arm extended. He jacked into the door panel, and beeped softly to himself.

3PO peered through the small square transparisteels. Ships and parts were scattered all over the floor. Droids worked carefully, supervised by Kloperians. Kloperians were short, squat gray creatures, with a series of tentacled limbs running along their sides like filaments. They had hands at the ends of many of the limbs. Their necks could extend as well. Their physical makeup and their talents around all things mechanical made them among the best mechanics and engineers in the Republic.

R2 bleeped.

3PO turned away from the transparisteel. "Of course it's a routine maintenance order," 3PO said. "I don't understand why you're so surprised. All of the X-wings have been upgraded in the last few months."

R2 bleebled some more.

"I'm sure Master Luke did know of it," 3PO said. "I'm sure they notified him. Really, R2. You get upset about the strangest things." R2 whistled repeatedly and rocked on his two wheels.

"I will not ask Master Luke down here," 3PO said. "We don't even know what they're going to do to the X-wing." R2 whistled louder, a piercing shriek that echoed in the enclosed s.p.a.ce.

"R2!" The clank of his rocking treads added to the shrillness.

"Yes, I understand that you have a bad feeling about this," 3PO said.

"But Master Luke didn't, and he is the expert on feelings." At that moment, the maintenance doors opened. A Kloperian stood behind them, six of its tentacles crossed over its squishy chest. "You want to explain to me why you're illegally jacked into our computer system?" it asked.

R2 removed his jack and pulled his service arm inside its case. "We meant nothing," 3PO said. "Our master had sent us here to check on his ship. We couldn't get in and my counterpart here was trying to open the door."

"That's the door panel," the Kloperian said, pointing with a seventh tentacle at a small panel on the other side of the maintenance doors.

"Oh, dear, R2," 3PO said. "I told you not to touch anything." The Kloperian's bulbous eyes narrowed. "All right, you two. Get inside. We're going to check your hardware." It grabbed 3PO and R2 with four of its tentacles and pulled them in the maintenance bay. The metal doors clanged shut behind them. Fifty Kloperians stared at them. Dozens of droids stopped work to watch. "

"R2," 3PO whispered. "I have a very bad feeling about this."

SEVEN.

Kueller stood on the sandstone streets of Pydyr, his legs spread, hands clasped behind his back. The air was warm and dry with a touch of salt, reminding him that an ocean loomed over the artificially created hills.

In the arid heat, the death's head felt like a mask. He was sweating beneath it, destroying its delicate calibration with his skin.

He couldn't remain on Pydyr long. The mask, a finely tuned instrument, only worked properly in certain environments.

This wasn't one of them.

He hated to think of what it was doing to his face.

But if he was uncomfortable, the troops were as well. The stormtrooper uniforms, cleaned up and repaired, looked fine. Menacing. The memories of the Empire were embodied in the white suits and the elaborate helmets, memories of power he hoped to arouse.

Image was everything, as Pydyr once knew.

The empty streets spoke of wealth. The sandstone blocks wore down after only a few days. The Pydyrians had a special droid designed specifically for street care, another designed for building wash. Pydyr's wealth was the stuff of legends, its aristocratic cla.s.s the inspiration for stories told all over this section of the galaxy.

Almania had envied Pydyr for generations.

But no more.

Pydyr was his.

The quiet was eerie. All he could hear was the sound of booted feet brushing against sandstone. The troopers were investigating each building, making certain no one remained.

He had half-expected the stench of bodies decaying in Pydyr's harsh sun, but Hartzig, the officer in charge, had been thorough. Pydyr's aristocracy was dead, its bodies disposed of within hours. But the moon's wealth remained.

And he needed it. His timing couldn't have been better. He tried to smile, but his skin slid beneath the mask. The lips still adhered, though.

He whirled on a booted foot and walked into one of the buildings the troopers had already investigated.

Pydyrian architecture was bold, with heavy brown columns and large, square rooms. Each surface was covered with decoration, some hand-painted by famous artists long dead, and others studded with tiny seafah jewels.

In addition to the wealth acc.u.mulated over centuries, Pydyr had its own source. Seafah jewels were formed in the ocean in the sh.e.l.ls of microscopic creatures. Kueller had ordered the seafah jewelers spared; it took a trained eye to locate most of the jewels on the seabed. A trained Pydyrian eye. The aristocratic Pydyrians had tried for generations to create droids that could locate the jewels, but no matter how good the droid, it couldn't tell the jewel from centuries of hardened fish dung.

He walked to a column and ran a gloved finger over the ridged jewels embedded in the baked surface. The jewels were bright spots of swirled color, some blue and green, some black and red, some white and orange, some a startling, l.u.s.terless yellow. Each jewel, no wider than the seam on his fingertip, had formed over the centuries from tiny seafah bodies discarded on the ocean floor.

The column alone held two years of materials cost for him at the rate he had been spending it. He would probably increase his spending now. He had some large ships that needed rebuilding quickly. Unlike the Pydyrians, he was not one to h.o.a.rd his wealth. He would have plenty more within a few months.

"It feels as if someone just left." Femon's soft voice boomed in this empty place. She had apparently finished her tasks on Almania and decided to join him.

"Someone did." Kueller did not turn. His mask was slipping more than he liked. The mouth no longer moved with his. "They haven't been dead very long, Femon."

"It seems so strange. I was in the eating wing, and there were still dishes on the tables."

"But the food was gone," Kueller said. Cleaned up by the droids, as was anything organic and likely to decompose.

"Of course." She walked up behind him. He could feel her warmth against his back. He did not move, even though he wanted to. She was getting too presumptuous of her own power. He would have to remind her who controlled whom, and soon. "I don't understand why the Emperor didn't do this. He was so destructive." Kueller remembered the delicious feeling of all those screams, all those lives, all that fear filling him. "He hadn't found a clean way yet. Maybe he didn't look for one. Sometimes I think Palpatine was less interested in power than in destruction itself."

"But you're interested in power." She seemed to be making a statement, but he thought he heard a question beneath it.

"You have an opinion?" he asked in a way that made it sound as if she had no right to one.

"It would seem to me," she said slowly, "that if we are going to conquer, we should do so now. Everything is in place."

"Only on Coruscant," he said.

"But that's where it's needed." He brought his hand down. Her questions were interrupting his fine mood. "It's needed on all the designated planets. The secret to control is thoroughness."

"So we do Coruscant first. Everything else will be in place in a few days."

"Timing is everything," Kueller said. "I will wait."

"If you get rid of the leaders-"

"Others will rise in their place. " He resisted the urge to turn, to glower at her through the mask. The mask wasn't working, and he didn't want her to see his face. Sweat dripped off his chin onto his linen shirt.

"Is that why you're trying to get rid of Skywalker?" He hesitated, unsure how much he wanted to reveal himself to her. Then he said, "Skywalker's sister leads the Republic."

"How do you know she survived the attack on the Senate Hall?"

"She survived," he said softly.