She needed to go someplace where Force users were relatively commonplace. Otherwise, any use by her of the Force would stand out like a signal beacon to experienced Jedi in the vicinity. There weren’t many such places. Coruscant was the logical answer. But if her trail began to lead toward the government seat of the Galactic Alliance, Skywalker could warn the Jedi there and Vestara would face a nearly impossible- to-bypass network of Force users between her and her destination.

mill_9780345519405_1p_all_r1.qxp:8p insert template 12/1/09 3:5

38

Aaron Allston

The current location of the Jedi school was not known. Hapes was ruled by an

ex- Jedi and was

rumored to harbor more Force sensitives, but it was such a

security- conscious civilization that Vestara doubted she could accomplish her mission there in secrecy.

Then the answer came to her, so obvious and so per-fect that she laughed out loud.

But the destination she’d thought of wouldn’t be on a galactic map as old as the one in the antique yacht she commanded. She’d have to go somewhere and get a map update. She nodded, her pride, sense of loss, and paranoia all fading as she focused on her new task.

T R A N S I T O R Y M I S T S

Jedi Knight Leia Organa Solo sat at the Millennium Falcon’s communications console. She frowned, her lips pursed as though she were solving an elaborate mathematical equation, as she read and re- read the text message the Falconhad just received via hypercomm.

The silence that had settled around her eventually drew her husband, Han Solo, to her side; his boyish, often insensitive persona was in part a fabrication, and he well knew and could sense his wife’s moods. The chill and silence of her complete concentration usually meant trouble. He waved a hand between her eyes and the console monitor. “Hey.”

She barely reacted to his presence. “Hm.”

“New message?”

“From Ben.”

“Another letter filled with teenage talk, I assume.

Girls, speeders, allowance woes—”

Leia ignored his joking. “Sith,” she said.

“And Sith, of course.” Han sat in the chair next to mill_9780345519405_1p_all_r1.qxp:8p insert template 12/1/09 3:5

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi:Backlash 39

hers but did not assume his customary slouch; the news kept his spine rigid. “They found a new Sith Lord?”

“Worse, I think.” Finally some animation returned to Leia’s voice. “They’ve found an ancient installation at the Maw and were attacked by a gang of Sith. A whole strike team. With the possibility of more out there.”

“I thought Sith ran in packs of two. Vape both of ’em and their menace is ended for all time, at least for a few years, until two more show up.” Han tried to keep his voice calm, but the last Sith to bring trouble to the galaxy had been Jacen Solo, his and Leia’s eldest son.

Though Jacen had been dead for more than two years, the ripples of the evil he had done were still causing damage and heartache throughout the settled galaxy.

And both his acts and his death had torn a hole in Han’s heart that felt like it would last forever.

“Yeah, well, no. Apparently not anymore. Ben also says—and we’re not to let Luke know that he did—that Luke is exhausted. Really exhausted, like he’s had the life squeezed out of him. Ben would like us to sort of drift near and lend Luke some support.”

“Of course.” But then Han grimaced. “Back to the Maw. The only place gloomy enough to make its next door neighbor, Kessel, seem like a garden spot.”

Leia shook her head. “They’re tracking a Sith girl who’s on the run. So it probably won’t be the Maw. It may be a planet full of Sith.”

“Ah, good.” Han rubbed his hands together as if anticipating a fine meal or a fight. “Well, why not. We can’t go back to Coruscant until we’re ready to mount a legal defense. Daala’s bound to be angry that we stole all the Jedi she wanted to deep- freeze.”

Finally Leia smiled and looked at Han. “One good thing about the Solos and Skywalkers. We never run out of things to do.”

mill_9780345519405_1p_all_r1.qxp:8p insert template 12/1/09 3:5

40

Aaron Allston

C O R U S C A N T

J e d i T e m p l e

Master Cilghal, Mon Calamari and most proficient medical doctor among the current generation of Jedi, paused before hitting the console button that would erase the message she had just spent some time decrypting. It had been a video transmission from Ben Skywalker, a message carefully rerouted through several hypercomm nodes and carefully staged so as not to mention that it was for Cilghal’s tympanic membranes or, in fact, for anyone on Coruscant.

But its main content was meant for the Jedi, and Cilghal repeated it as a one- word summation, making the word sound like a vicious curse: “Sith.”

The message had to be communicated throughout the Jedi Order. And on review, there was nothing in it that suggested she couldn’t preserve the recording, couldn’t claim that it had been forwarded to her by a civilian friend of the Skywalkers. Luke Skywalker was not sup-posed to be in contact with the Jedi Temple, but this recording was manifestly free of any proof that the exiled Grand Master exerted any influence over the Order. She could distribute it.

And she would do so, right now.

D E E P S P A C E N E A R K E S S E L

Jade Shadow,one- time vehicle of Mara Jade Skywalker, now full- time transport and home to her widower and son, dropped from hyperspace into the empty blackness well outside the Kessel system. It hung suspended there for several minutes, long enough for one of its occupants to gather from the Force a sense of his own life’s blood that had been in the vicinity, then it mill_9780345519405_1p_all_r1.qxp:8p insert template 12/1/09 3:5

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi:Backlash 41

turned on a course toward Kessel and vanished again into hyperspace.

J A D E S H A D O W

I n O r b i t A b o v e K e s s e l Ben Skywalker shouldered his way through the nar-row hatch that gave access to his father’s cabin. A red-headed teen of less than average height, he was well muscled in a way that his anonymous black tunic and pants could not conceal.

On the cabin’s bed, under a brown blanket, lay Luke Skywalker. Similar in build to his son, he wore the evi-dence of many more years of hard living, including ancient, faded scars on his face and the exposed portions of his arms. Not obvious was the fact that his right hand, so ordinary in appearance, was a prosthetic.

Luke’s eyes were closed but he stirred. “What did you find out?”

“I reached Nien Nunb.” Nunb, the Sullustan co-owner and manager of one of Kessel’s most prominent mineworks, had been a friend of the Solos and Skywalkers for decades. “That yacht did make landfall.

The pilot gave her name as Captain Khai. She some-how scammed a port worker into thinking she’d paid for a complete refueling when she hadn’t—”

Luke smiled. “The Force can have a—”

“Yeah, so can a good- looking girl. Anyway, what’s interesting is that she got a galactic map update. Nunb looked at the transmission time on that to determine that it was pretty comprehensive. In other words, she didn’t concentrate on any one specific area or route.

No help there.”

“But it suggests that she did need some of the newer information. New hyperspace routes or planetary listings.”

mill_9780345519405_1p_all_r1.qxp:8p insert template 12/1/09 3:5

42

Aaron Allston

“Right.”

“And she’s gone?”

“Headed out as soon as her yacht was refueled. By the way, its name is She’s a Chancer.”

“Somehow appropriate.” Finally Luke did open his eyes, and Ben was once again struck by how tired his father looked, tired to the bone and to the spirit. “I can still feel her path. I’ll be up in a minute to lay in a course.”