"I really wish I had some marijuana with me right now," Nommy said as soon as Jacen returned from his interrogation by Admiral Darklighter and sat down next to him. "I swear, I'd risk having sex with you again from induced bliss if it meant it could take my mind off what we'll be facing-"

"Shut up, Nommy," Jacen interrupted with annoyance. "Besides, it would only take your mind off whatever sentences we may be facing for only a little while, and you'll only regret the experience of screwing me anyway. And that's not taking into account the fact that the military would have confiscated your weed after we arrived."

"I should've never agreed to come with you in the first place," Nommy growled. "At least back on Zonama, I had a better chance at survival from those assassination attempts than I do now."

"Did you imagine a better welcome wagon back into the greater galaxy than this?" Jacen countered sardonically.

Nommy then leaned back against the wall behind him and sighed, looking away from his friend. "How long do you think it'll be before your family shows up?"

"Assuming they were on Coruscant when Darklighter called them," Jacen said, "I imagine it'll be a few minutes before they drop out of hyperspace and I sense their presences just as they'll sense mine."

Nommy raised an eyebrow. "I'm curious, when you were resurrected, wouldn't your family have sensed your return? I'm no expert on the Force, but I'd imagine you coming back from the dead would be a pretty big thing for the Force-sensitives among your former friends and family to not notice."

Jacen shrugged. "They had a little over a week to at least send someone into the Unknown Regions to see if it really was me. That, and Darklighter told me that when he informed my uncle about the two of us being here, he dispatched some Jedi over to Zonama, so I bet they didn't sense my comeback at all."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Good question," Jacen acknowledged. "I hope we get the chance to find out."

"Hey, if you get executed for your crimes anyway, you can still probably come back from the dead," Nommy pointed out. "Considering I still don't have the Force, and I doubt I'll ever get it even with this whole journey, I don't get to have the luxury of knowing I can be resurrected."

Jacen gave his friend a wry glance. "Look, I know you only came along just to get away from those assassination attempts, but could you please try to have some faith in me, man? It's not like I'm not in the hotspot either, and I doubt we'd have anymore time to waste for Danni to bring me back to life again."

"Oh, yes, Abeloth, I forgot," Nommy said with a downbeat tone. "You better hope your family believes you on this, because even if they accept that it's really you, they'll find the idea of a tentacled Force monster quite contrived, if you ask me. And, mind you, this is coming from a guy who administered propaganda about war gods back when my people served under Shim... Onimi and way back when."

"I just hope they'll listen, never mind buy the idea about Abeloth," Jacen said. "Even Uncle Luke would probably only barely restrain himself from responding to whatever red he'll be seeing once he sees me, never mind you."

"You know what we should've done? We should've brought the Magister along."

Jacen rolled his eyes. "Even if she wanted to, she can't because of her duties on Zonama. And I get where you're going with this, that she would've validated our claims to Darklighter and my family."

"You don't think she could have?"

"I'm not saying that, I'm just pointing out the fact that she couldn't anyway."

"In either case, she still would've been a better pick than even a Yuuzhan Vong that the Jedi trust, like Harrar," Nommy said before he sighed and looked down at his feet. He then looked back up at Jacen. "I think it's safe to say that we're screwed, and the galaxy will go with us because of Abeloth."

"I'll take your claims about the fate of the galaxy seriously when you're the Force, or even get an insight from the Force itself," Jacen said. "And if that happens, I'll at least know that I succeeded in getting your ungrateful ass as part of the Force, if nothing else."

Nommy sneered but said nothing. He just sat back against the wall behind him again.

The silence that followed lasted a few awkward moments before the door to their cell opened thanks to the same Bothan soldier who sent Jacen to his interrogation. "Your family's here, Solo, so you and that Vong get your asses up and follow me."

Both prisoners stood up and carefully waked over to their captor, who briskly placed stuncuffs on them and shut the door behind them before shoving them down the brig corridor for the turbolift up ahead.

Once they were in the turbolift, and it rocketed for the level it was heading up for, Nommy leaned in close to Jacen and asked in a whispered tone, "You said you'd sense if your family arrived, right?"

"You, Vong, shut up," the soldier said harshly.

Nommy ignored her as Jacen gave him a shrug accompanied with a questioning face; considering that he didn't want to aggravate the already-aggressive Bothan's attention by saying anything, it was his form of nonverbal communication to Nommy in telling him that he was as curious as he in not knowing why he didn't sense his family's arrival in the Borleias system at least.