"Corrupted?"

"Maybe that's too strong a term. Let's say strongly influenced."

"But she felt she hadn't been influenced by them."

"She can't be blamed. Each of us stands at a kind of midpoint, from which we're capable of seeing only so far in either direction. Our senses have been honed over countless millennia to allow us to navigate the intricacies of the physical world. But because of that, our senses blind us to the fact that we are much more than our bodies. We truly are beings of light, Jacen.

"The emphasis the Jedi have always placed on control operates the same way. Control blinds us to the more expansive nature of the Force.

The Jedi of the Old Republic wanted only youngsters for this reason. Jedi needed to be raised in the light, and to come to see that light as unblemished, undivided. But you and I haven't had the luxury of that indoctrination. Our lives are a constant test of our will to exorcise any darkness that creeps in.

"In that sense, your instincts about me are correct, and so were Vergere's. The dark side has, in a sense, dominated my life. I've suspected for a long time that the fatigue I've sometimes experienced when drawing on the Force during combat owes to my fear of abusing the raw power you describe.

"It's true that the Force is unified; it is one energy, one power.

But here's where I think you and Vergere are incorrect: the dark side is real, because evil actions are real. Sentience gave rise to the dark side. Does it exist in nature? No. Left to itself, nature maintains the balance. But we've changed that. We are a new order of consciousness that has an impact on all life. The Force now contains light and dark because of what thinking beings have brought to it. That's why balance has become something that must be maintained-because our actions have the power to tip the scales."

"As the Sith did," Jacen said.

"As the Sith did. The Emperor was perhaps the most self-a.s.sured person I have ever encountered, but he deliberately chose evil over good.

And in the right climate, one individual, suitably driven and skilled, can tip the universe into darkness. For darkness has followers, especially where discontent, isolation, or fear hold sway. In such a climate enemies can be fashioned, imagined out of thin air, and suddenly all good is lost, all perspective vanishes, and illness takes hold." Luke paused, then said, "Do you believe that you spoke with Vergere after her death at Ebaq Nine, or were you conversing with the Vergere who existed only in your thoughts and memory?"

Jacen thought for a moment.

"I spoke with Vergere. I'm certain of it."

"Do you believe that I had a vision of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and my father after all three had died?"

"I've never had any reason to doubt you, Uncle."

"Then, from where was Vergere speaking?"

"Maybe she learned to tap into a power that was more all-embracing than the Living Force."

"The Unifying Force," Luke said. "That might explain it. In fact, all the years since the deaths of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and my father, I've felt as if the Jedi have been on a quest to recover the Force's power to glimpse the future, which is perhaps the nature of the Unifying Force.

The search has not been unlike our search for Zonama Sekot. And there's a power here, in the air and the trees and everything else, that convinces me we've found our way to something even greater than what we were seeking."

"I feel that, too." Jacen looked at Luke. "I told Sekot about your plan."

Luke was surprised.

"You spoke with Sekot in private?"

"In the form of Vergere, yes."

"And?"

"Sekot thinks it can be done. Sekot also asked to speak with Danni about yammosk jammers and decoy dovin basals." Luke nodded in satisfaction.

"That's good. But it's important to remember that battles are not always decided by warships or other weapons. The important battles are won in the Force." He gestured broadly to the abyss and the starfield.

"All this will pa.s.s away, but the Force endures. We tap its power, and if we so choose, it moves us according to designs we will never be able to understand."

Abruptly, Luke turned around. Jacen followed his lead and saw Mara standing silently behind them.

"Unless you two are planning to ride out the next jump on the wing, I suggest you get to the shelters."

"We were just on our way," Luke said. "This could be the last peaceful stretch we'll know for a long while."

TWENTY-SEVEN.

"Alpha Red," Kyp said, as if having trouble believing his own words. He walked distractedly to the yammosk basin, his boots leaving prints in the liquefied blorash jelly.

There, he gestured to the gruesome scene: Malik Carr, the priest, and eight warriors, bleeding from mouths, eyes, ears; amphistaffs, villips, and yammosk, dead; yorik coral bleached of color.

"Alpha Red." Han and Leia traded questioning glances with each other and with Page. Lando, Talon, and Shada did the same.

"Is that some sort of curse I'm not familiar with?" Lando asked Kyp.

"You could say that." Kyp sat down on the basin's curved step.

"Alpha Red is the name of a Yuuzhan Vong-specific poison developed by Chiss scientists and Dif Scaur's Intelligence gang. From what I know about it-and I don't know a lot-the starting point was bafforr tree pollen, and the bioweapon just kept growing from there."

"Kyp, how do you even know anything about this?" Leia asked.

"A dubious privilege of being a member of Cal Omas's Advisory Council, " he said. "The first batch-the trial batch-was refined about a year ago, and tested in secret. It might have been deployed full scale at the time, if not for two things: our victory at Ebaq Nine and Vergere."

"A Fosh Jedi of the Old Republic," Leia explained for the benefit of Page, Meloque, and some of the others. "Vergere lived as a spy among the Yuuzhan Vong for fifty years. She helped rescue our son Jacen at Myrkr, and died at Ebaq."

"A month or so before Ebaq," Kyp added, "Vergere stole the sample batch of Alpha Red and destroyed it, or somehow transformed it into something harmless." He glanced at Leia, and she nodded for him to continue. "Alliance command ruled it an act of treason, but not much has been said about Alpha Red since then, in part because it's been rumored that Jacen had something to do with Vergere's escaping the military cordon set up at Kashyyyk. I thought the project had been scuttled.

Obviously I've been kept out of the loop."

"This stuff doesn't only kill individual Yuuzhan Vong," Han said, looking around the chamber.

Kyp nodded.

"You're right about that. It targets some genetic or cellular component that the Yuuzhan Vong share with all their biots-from the smallest right up to the largest. Even their war vessels."

"The crashed coralskipper," Leia said.

Han regarded Page with suspicion. The captain raised his hands in innocence.

"Han, I swear, this is the first I've heard of Alpha Red."

Han looked at tall Meloque, who shook her head.

"If I knew about Alpha Red, I'm certain I would have done what the Jedi did."

All heads turned to Wraw, whose head fur stirred. Then the Bothan Intelligence agent shrugged nonchalantly.

"Alliance command wanted field a.s.surance that Alpha Red would work outside a laboratory setting. It's been used effectively on captives, but we couldn't be sure what would happen in an uncontrolled environment.

When Intelligence learned that Caluula had been targeted by the Vong for occupation, it was chosen to be planet zero-step one in winning the war."

Meloque loosed a mournful sigh.

"Extermination. More of the Bothan ar'krai."

His hands curled into claws, Han stormed across the chamber, but he made it only halfway to Wraw before Kyp wrapped his arms around him in restraint.

"That's why Caluula's governor promised a peaceful surrender," Han yelled. "Your people let the orbital station fall, just so you could launch this half-witted plan!"

"Take it easy, Solo," Wraw said. "If I'd been in on the planning at that level, you think I'd be along on this little joyride? I'm here as an observer-nothing more."

"Nothing more?" Han struggled against Kyp's hold.

The muscles in his neck stood out like cables.

"This whole op has been nothing but a reconnaissance to see if Alpha Red had done the trick!"

"Not true," Wraw fired back. "Our mission was to destroy the yammosk, and now the thing's dead. Alliance had good reason to believe that the Vong were planning to use Caluula as a fallback point. I've no explanation as to why there aren't more war vessels in orbit."

Han relaxed, and Kyp let him go.

"So if Alpha Red failed, then we'd be on hand to make sure the yammosk was killed."

Wraw shrugged again.

"Director Scaur is big on redundancy. But, yes, he wanted to be confident that the yammosk would die one way or the other."

"You knew all along," Leia said to Wraw. "The patrol we ambushed, the crashed coralskipper..."

"I'll admit that I was encouraged by what I saw."

Han sneered.

"You're no better than the Yuuzhan Vong."

Wraw's fur rippled again.

"You said you wanted to teach me the ways of the world. Well, maybe it's you who needs the lesson. What we did here was necessary." He pointed toward the ceiling. "That shaper and her special warriors are going to take Alpha Red to Yuuzhan'tar, and from there it's going to spread to other occupied worlds up and down the invasion corridor. So instead of ranting at me, Solo, you should be taking heart. The Vong's day are numbered. The war is essentially over."

"You killed them," Meloque mumbled, then yanked herself from her musings in wide-eyed panic to glare at Wraw. "You killed the winged-stars!"

Wraw swallowed hard.

"You don't know that."

She collapsed to her knees to the spongy floor, as if her legs had turned to gel.

"Don't you realize what you've done-what you've unleashed? The effects of Alpha Red aren't confined to the Yuuzhan Vong! Your superiors want a.s.surance? Tell them that Alpha Red has surpa.s.sed everyone's expectations, Agent Wraw. Sentient and nonsentient life is also susceptible. If those Yuuzhan Vong craft reach Coruscant, the entire galaxy could be at risk!"

"What craft?" Lando asked. "What's she talking about?"

"A couple of enemy vessels went up the well just before you arrived," Page said.

Karrde whipped his comlink from his belt and activated the call b.u.t.ton.

"Crev, are you receiving me?"

"Just barely, Talon," a deep male voice answered after several moments of static. "What's your status?"

"I'll tell you later, Crev. Right now, you've got to alert Booster's gunners to destroy every Yuuzhan Vong ship in the area."

Crev Bomba.s.sa laughed.

"What'd you think we've been doing? Not that there's been a whole lot of targets."

"Thank the Force," Meloque said quietly.

"Only one ship got past us," Bomba.s.sa continued. "A corvette a.n.a.log like nothing we've ever seen. Scaled, with three pairs of pincer-arm rock spitters and an uplifted stern."

Han looked at Leia.

"The skips that chased us to Caluula. They must have been grown for the slayers."

Han's alarm was enough for Talon. His hand tightened on the comlink.

"Crev, tell me you've still got that vessel in your sights!"

"Hang on, Talon."

Everyone fell silent, waiting through several more moments of static; then Crev's voice returned.

"Talon, sorry to report that the craft jumped to hypers.p.a.ce before we could nail it."

Meloque put her face in her hands and began to sob. Han worked his jaw in anger and dismay.

"Our only hope is that the crew dies before that ship reverts to reals.p.a.ce."