"It's Sekot I'm worried about."

Mara stared at him.

"Sekot?"

"Sekot might misinterpret our leaving as a lack of trust, and change its mind about returning to known s.p.a.ce."

"Then you can explain our reason for leaving."

"Tell Sekot that we're worried about our son, about our friends, about what's happened to the HoloNet?"

Luke paused, then asked: "What about Sekot's concerns for the Ferroans, or for what might happen to Zonama when it becomes part of the war?"

Mara mulled it over for a moment. Luke squeezed her hands affectionately.

"Ben will be fine. I saw him fine." Mara's eyes narrowed in a reluctant smile. "You saw him piloting a ship of completely unfamiliar design-like the ones grown here."

Luke recalled the rest of his vision: Ben tracing lines in the sand; kneeling by a river, rubbing smooth round stones between his fingers and smiling; wrestling with a young Wookiee... Luke saw himself holding Ben while they observed glowing lines of traffic move through the sky of an unknown world-like Coruscant but not. And, yes: Ben at the helm of a starship of unique design...

Mara was watching him.

"a.s.suming you weren't gazing at Ben from some other plane of existence, you're going to be around to witness all those things."

"So will you."

"Was I part of the vision?"

In fact, Luke hadn't seen Mara-not at first.

"Luke, promise me something," Mara said before he could speak. "If anything happens to me-"

He tried to shush her, but she pushed his hand away.

"No, I need to say this. Promise me that if anything happens, you'll love Ben with all your heart, and you'll make him the center of your world, as he is to me."

Luke pulled her into his arms.

"Hush, my love, the night is mild and slumber smiles on you..."

"Promise me, Luke."

"I will-if you'll make me the same promise."

She nodded against his chest.

"Then no matter what, the future's a.s.sured."

TWENTY.

Nas Choka pushed through the living membrane that sealed the command grotto from prying eyes. A trio of Supreme Commanders and their subalterns trailed in the warmaster's angry wake.

"Our course is now set," he announced to his own subalterns and tacticians. "Supreme Overlord Shimrra will abide no further delay. We are enjoined to launch the armada in three local days, when the auguries are favorable for victory."

"Three days, Fearsome One," the tactician said when Nas Choka had dropped cross-legged onto his yorik coral bench. "

The burden is mine," Nas Choka replied abruptly. "Don't add to it by echoing my words. Tender your report."

The tactician inclined his head in a bow of respect.

"Rumors teem like an infestation of sacworms. From all sectors comes word of heightened enemy activity. Ships masquerading as spice carriers leave Hutt s.p.a.ce, but as often as not they are empty. The same holds true in Bothan s.p.a.ce. There is increased traffic within the Hapan Cl.u.s.ter, with many ships inbound from Kashyyyk and from the more distant Remnant. Known operatives and agents consort clandestinely on Corellia and Bimmisaari. Courier ships of the Smugglers' Alliance arrive and depart Contruum, with a few venturing as close to Yuuzhan'tar as Corulag."

"Sheer impudence," Nas Choka said. "But much like the diversionary raids at Gyndine and Duro that preceded the clash at Ebaq Nine." He fell briefly silent, then said, "Proceed."

"As instructed, our agents made no attempts to interfere or provide the slightest signs of suspicion."

"And at Mon Calamari?"

"Almost half the fleet has departed. Many capital ships have returned to their home sectors. Others have been traveling in and out of darks.p.a.ce. Still others have been deployed as subst.i.tutes for the transceiving devices our dovin basals engulfed."

Nas Choka rose from the bench to regard what now amounted to an entire wall of blaze bug displays.

"My long tenure in Hutt s.p.a.ce was well spent," he said after a long moment. "I was forced to acquaint myself with all make and manner of deception and duplicity. Fabrication comes as easily to the inhabitants of this galaxy as invention comes to our shapers. So I am wary of all these reports." He turned to his Supreme Commanders. "Sovv and Kre'fey grasp that our patrols and reconnaissance vessels are too widely dispersed to keep watch over every planetary sector. They attempt to overwhelm us with activity, in the hope of screening a few missions of genuine purpose." His expression grew dour. "Our actions in sabotaging the HoloNet may come back to plague us. We no longer have the luxury of being able to eavesdrop on enemy communications. Yes, the courier ships require additional time to reach their destinations, but the messages they carry come and go only to those who need to be apprised of the content. Even now this war takes unexpected twists and turns." His hooded eyes fell on the tactician. "What of the yammosks at Toong'l and Caluula?"

"Unperturbed, Fearsome One. Although..."

Nas Choka waited, then said: "Give voice to it!"

"Caluula's surrender, Warmaster. Before the fall of the orbital station, the commander who led our a.s.sault was contacted by the governor of the planet. The governor promised that Caluula would yield to occupation, without need of an amphistaff being raised against it."

"There is nothing unusual about that," the warrior-seer interrupted. "Many local governments have opted-wisely, I think-to spare themselves devastation, in exchange for a pledge that we will be equitable about how many captives we take, and in how we pursue our timetable for worldshaping-including the effacement of buildings, temples, and the obliteration of machines. The custom began as early as our defeat of the library world of Obroa-skai."

"Yes, seer, but in the instance of Caluula, the governor made a special request. She asked for permission for scientists to visit, to observe some sort of natural spectacle peculiar to the planet. This, of course, would necessitate the temporary maintenance of the s.p.a.ceport, for the landing of ships and scientific personnel."

Nas Choka folded his ma.s.sive arms.

"Our commander agreed to this?"

The tactician nodded.

"In the interest of rapid and effortless pacification, and for the sake of the yammosk, he granted provisional approval. So as not to subject our people to lifeless technology, he a.s.signed security of the s.p.a.ceport to Peace Brigaders. Now, however, the pet.i.tion to allow scientists to visit Caluula rests in the hands of High Prefect Drathul.

He, in turn, will defer to the sagacity of High Priest Jakan."

For several moments Nas Choka paced in silence.

"This interests me," he said finally. "Much of the enemy fleet remains at Mon Calamari. Elsewhere ships scurry about in seeming abandon.

And following weeks of n.o.ble fighting by the defenders of its...o...b..tal facility, Caluula surrenders without contest." He let his statements hang in the air, then turned to the tactician. "Tell Eminence Jakan that I wish a word with him before he renders any judgment on the pet.i.tion."

The tactician bowed.

"Anything else, Fearsome One?"

"Who commands the yammosk emplacement at Caluula?"

"I can provide the answer momentarily, Warmaster."

Nas Choka paced to his bench.

"Return not only with the name, but also with the commander's dedicated villip. I need to speak with him, as well."

The Yuuzhan Vong warrior at Caluula s.p.a.ceport made it clear that he was ready to unleash his amphistaff at the slightest provocation. The sight of the tattooed and scarred warrior standing against a backdrop of shuttles and landing craft was just absurd enough to widen Han's eyes, but he knew better than to smile. Several Yuuzhan Vong warships were in orbit above Caluula, though not nearly as many as Han had expected to see.

"You are the scientist-Meloque?" the warrior said in Basic to the female Ho'Din on whom the entire infiltration mission rested. More than two meters tall, with sucker-equipped four-fingered hands, a purple crown of erect thermographic receptors, and a reptilian-complected lipless face, she might almost have been a Yuuzhan Vong shaper. Indeed, among all the species of the galaxy, the bipedal Ho'Din were treated with particular favor by the invaders, not only because of their devotion to plant life, but also because of their aversion to technology.

"Yes, I am Meloque," she answered in Yuuzhan Vong.

The warrior extended a sinewy hand.

"Your authentication."

Meloque displayed the fist-sized nugget of flesh and fur that had been delivered to her on Obroa-skai. The warrior took the creature between his hands, squeezed it, and studied the pungent droppings it left on a piece of leathery parchment. Then he nodded and motioned to Han, Leia, Kyp, Judder Page, and the Bothan Intelligence officer, Wraw.

"The members of my support team," Meloque said. "Their names should also be contained by the lumpen."

Having lived among the Yuuzhan Vong for close to four years on the enemy-occupied library world, she knew how to deal with them, as well as speak to them. The warrior squeezed the lumpen so hard it squealed, and another batch of droppings fell to the parchment. It took a moment for the warrior to confirm that the names and descriptions detailed in the droppings matched the counterfeit ident.i.ties of the humans and humanoids in front of him, but ultimately he nodded again.

"The lumpen will remain here until your departure. If all of you have not returned in three days, you will be hunted down, imprisoned, and punished for your insolence. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Meloque answered for all of them.

"Then proceed inside."

A surprise to everyone-and some cause for suspicion-Yuuzhan'tar had granted permission for a few select scientists to visit Caluula, to observe what was called the Nocturne of the Winged-Stars, an allegedly extraordinary natural phenomenon that occurred once every three hundred standard years. As Han understood it, the local governor had cut the deal in secret, even while the orbital station was still under siege. At the mission briefing on Mon Calamari only two days earlier, Han had voiced his misgivings, telling Dif Scaur that the last time he had checked, the Yuuzhan Vong weren't in the public relations business. The cadaverously thin Intelligence director, who had had a hand in organizing the mission to destroy Caluula's yammosk, had offered other examples of the Yuuzhan Vong's recent attempts to win the hearts and minds of defeated populations-as against their usual tactic of plucking them out at the first sign of resistance.

Regarding Caluula, Scaur believed that the nature of the negotiation-centered, as it was, on the observance of a rare natural phenomenon-might have appealed to whatever priests had been tasked with ruling on the request. Not that it mattered. If the Yuuzhan Vong had refused consent, the execution team would have gone in, regardless. The last-minute addition of Kyp Durron to the team had been cause for further concern, because yammosks were believed to have the ability to sense Jedi, as had happened aboard an enemy vessel to the late Wurth Skidder.

Kyp had countered that being a Jedi had nothing to do with it.

Yammosks could detect the Force, and Kyp maintained that Leia was as strong in the Force as he was. Han was not at all eased by the explanation.

"A Bothan and a Jedi," he told Kyp. "We might as well be wearing Galactic Alliance insignias."

On the other hand, having Kyp along on the mission made it something of a family affair, since Kyp had figured prominently in Han's life for close to twenty years-ever since Han and Chewbacca had rescued the sixteen-year-old fledgling Jedi from imprisonment in the spice mines of Kessel. Han's trust in Kyp had been tested by the many trials Kyp had himself endured-on Yavin, against the spirit of a long-dead Sith Lord; in Kyp's feverish quest for vengeance against Imperial admiral Daala; in bringing the Sun Crusher to bear on the planet Carida; and in nearly destroying the Millennium Falcon, and Han, in the process. More recently Kyp had tricked Jaina into helping him annihilate a civilian Yuuzhan Vong worldship at Sernpidal.

And yet, following the events at Myrkr, he had been instrumental in keeping her from going to the dark side-thanks in part to Leia's warning Kyp that if he ever again hurt Jaina or any member of Leia's family, he would be safer turning himself over to the Yuuzhan Vong.

"I'm through with travel if it means carrying a lumpen instead of an identichip,"

Wraw said to Han while they were entering the s.p.a.ceport terminal.

"We're here to make sure you don't have to," Han said. "We've got enough unhappy Bothans without adding you to the list."

Wraw laughed hoa.r.s.ely.

"As good with his mouth as he is with his blaster. That's what I've always heard about you."

"I aim true, if that's what you mean."

Han had more to say, but Leia touched his arm in a gesture of restraint. From the start, he and the long-faced Bothan spy had b.u.t.ted heads, but he appreciated Leia's reminding him of mission priorities.

Where Yuuzhan Vong warriors and bissop hounds held sway over the landing field, Peace Brigaders-Nikto, Weequays, a couple of Gammoreans, and other alien traitors-oversaw luggage inspection and terminal security. The modular, prefabricated building had been stripped of technology, but it hadn't yet been transformed by the Yuuzhan Vong. Three other teams of scientists were having their equipment inspected, and being subjected to constant hara.s.sment by bribe-seeking Brigaders. Flanking the building's only exit were a pair of exceedingly tall humans-or, more likely, ooglith-masquer-wearing Yuuzhan Vong.

Team Meloque's equipment was being pawed through by a Klatooinian and a Codru-Ji, whose four arms were buried to the elbows in Han's backpack. The Yuuzhan Vong had prohibited the import or use of recording devices other than sketch pads and writing implements. But they had allowed tents and camping gear, since the expeditions were destined for the rugged mountains that walled Caluula City on three sides.

As rudimentary as they were, the Brigaders' scanners were capable of detecting most weapons, so blasters had been left off the packing list. Leia's and Kyp's lightsabers, however, were included among the cooking supplies, disguised as handles for self-warming fry pans. The Klatooinian put the field kitchen duffel on the inspection table.

"I'm going to need to go through all of this," he said as the lofty Meloque approached, a sheathlike skirt making her appear even taller than she was. Kyp stepped up to the table and made a subtle hand motion.

"You don't need to inspect this bag."

The canine-faced humanoid stared at the Jedi and blinked his heavy lidded eyes.

"We don't need to inspect this bag."

Momentarily confused, the Codru-Ji eventually nodded in agreement.

"Gather your belongings and leave."

"Gather your belongings and leave."

Kyp caught Han's look while the two of them were shouldering the duffels.

"Problem?"

"I thought that wasn't allowed or something."

Kyp shrugged.

"We can debate Jedi philosophy some other time."

Han laughed through his nose.