Chapter 14

Jaina hurried down the icy corridors to the Chief Medic's laboratory. She wanted to do this quickly for Jag and get out. The sooner she headed off the quicker she would return to Jag.

She knocked politely on the metal door. It swooshed open for her almost immediately. Inside the Chiss woman stood over a lab table, scribbling furiously on a piece of flimsiplast. She looked up as Jaina entered. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jaina Fel. Colonel Fel is my husband. He sent me to ask whether or not you have made any progress in the Shawnkyr Nouorodo case."

She nodded solemnly. "A little. We uncovered more about the murder of the other young woman as well."

"Other woman?" Jaina asked.

"The one who was thrown in the furnace," The doctor said, as if Jaina should know. Jaina just pursed her lips and pretended to know what she was talking about. "It appears that they were both killed by the same blaster, linking them to the same murderer. We still have no motive, but scientifically the evidence is sound. Both their autopsies lead us to believe that both were meditated killings, not random acts of violence. We could perhaps break the case if we knew the identity of the furnace woman, but she is too badly burned."

"Maybe I can help with that," Jaina mused.

"How?" the doctor asked, suspicious.

"Do you know the exact location she was murdered in?"

"We know she was killed in the boiler room, but no one from that department is missing. We suspect someone told her to meet them there and killed her while she was waiting."

Jaina had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, one she couldn't quite explain. What she did know is that the Force was leading her to go there. She didn't know why, but she needed to see the place this woman had died in. "Can you give me directions to this place?"

Jaina stood at the thin metal rail, looking down into the fiery stove. The catwalk she was on extended over the bowls of liquid magma, giving her a perfect view into their depths. She sighed, not really knowing why she was here. The Force had led her to this place, but now that she was there she neither saw or felt anything out of the way.

Perhaps she should look then. Jaina closed her eyes, letting her senses drift through the room. She felt for any lingering taste of death, any malicious intent, fear or pain. For a long while she felt no disturbances in the gently vibrations.

And then there was a twinge. A lingering remembrance of betrayal, anguish and fright. And then nothingness. Death. Jaina breathed deep to settle her racing heart. But it wasn't the feeling of death itself that set her on edge.

It was the person who died.

Touri, Jaina moaned inwardly, her heart heavy with grief. How could this have happened? Touri shouldn't have even been on Csilla, she was on vacation...

Jaina jolted with awareness, anger suddenly erupting from her heart like a volcano. It wasn't only Touri who had been betrayed.

Jaina waited until everyone else had left the hangar he was working in. He was alone, finishing up the repairs on a clawcraft. The only sound in the bay was the clanging of a hydrospanner, the buzz of a small welding torch. Jaina approached in utter silence, her footfalls not even making a whisper of a sound on the ferrocrete.

Her blood boiled with anger and betrayal, vengeance foremost in her mind. She had to stop halfway there to calm herself. You do not do this for vengeance, Jaina reminded herself. Jedi do not know anger. You act in the name of justice.

His back was to her as he worked, completely unaware of her presence. He was halfway under the craft, working on the side with his feet underneath. When Jaina was three meters away she stopped. And then she reached out with the Force and made a smacking motion with her hand.

Payton's forehead hit the support strut hard enough to make the thud echo in the empty space. He cried out in pain, grabbing his bleeding head and turning to look at her. "Jaina? What the hell are you doing?"

Jaina grabbed him in her mental grip again, this time throwing him forcefully against the ferrocrete under her feet. He moaned and looked up at her. "What was the motive, Payton?" Jaina asked acidly. "What sick reason do you have for killing your sister?"

Payton looked at her irascibly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Save it," Jaina scoffed. "You can't lie to me. And you can't lie to the Defense Force either." She turned, then, intent on tracking down the nearest officer she could find. It was only her Jedi reflexes that saved her. She spun a split second before the blaster bolt hit her, swinging her lightsaber to send the bolt ricocheting back to hit him in the chest. He fell back heavily against the floor.

Jaina walked calmly to stand over him. He was still alive, but his breathing was shallow. He would go into shock soon. Jaina lowered the tip of her lightsaber until it hovered above his neck. "I can save you Payton," Jaina said. "All it takes is a few words."

"What do you want from me?" he rasped, then coughed up blood.

"Why?" she asked simply.

He laughed wickedly. "I only did as I was told."

"Who?" she hissed, kneeling until her face was centimeters from his. "Who told you?"

He laughed again, then shoved a finger inside his throat. He grimaced and moaned after he pulled it out, and a few seconds later a disgusting, worm-like creature slithered out of his ear. Jaina was appalled. "I do not know his name," Payton said. "Only that he was called the Executor."

"But why?" Jaina asked, more to herself than to him.

Payton coughed up more blood, and began to chill and shiver. "The war. Shawnkyr's death would drive him away from you. Touri's death allowed me to get close. If I could get you to leave him, the alliance would fail and they could pick apart the galaxy one government at a time."

Jaina couldn't believe the complexity and barbarity of the plan. That such a contorted plot could be formed was unspeakable. And to think that it almost worked. Had she and Jag not been meant for each other, had they not fallen in love despite Payton's efforts, they entire galaxy could very well have been consumed. She watched Payton go into his death throes, knowing no amount of medicine could save him in time. She could try to preserve him in the Force, but it would be a useless gesture. He was too fargone. Finally he let out one last terrible shudder, then went still.

Jaina continued to stand over the corpse, not feeling any better than she had when she came. Finally she shook off the shock of what she had just learned and went to find someone to retrieve the body.

Jag wiped the sweat out of his eyes for the fourth time. He pulled the clawcraft into a dive, dodging a plasma blast the size of a Gundark head. He immediately rotated his craft on its axis, flipping the claw-like lasers 180 degrees to point back at his opponent and kicking in the reverse thrusters. He fired four short bursts. The first two were swallowed in the dovin basal gravity wells, the third punched directly through the coralskipper canopy, and the fourth set broke the ship into pieces.

He pulled up on his stick, flying over the debris and back towards the Chimaera. He had been with the Imperial Remnant not a full two days when they had been attacked. That's when Jag realized just how desperate they were.

TIE parts floated everywhere, and the Chimaera was being swarmed by skips. Not to mention that it was being hammered by the Vong frigate. The Star Destroying was holding its own, though. It was the snubfighter pilots that were at a loss. With most of them without shields, they were being decimated. Thankfully, most of them had gone EV and would live to fight another day.

There was a terrible fray under the Star Destroyer's belly, and that's where Jag made for. TIEs and skips danced in a terrible death duel, and the space was cluttered with debris. As Jag neared the battle he scanned the area and locked onto a target. He dove in, driving straight for the heart of the fight. As his target came in range he loosed two quick bursts in rapid succession. Both were swallowed by gravity wells.

Now alerted to his presence, the skip turned and came back at Jag, firing three plasma balls. Jag pulled his stick hard to port and then quickly back to starboard, lining up exactly where he had been. His opponent dove then, but Jag pulled back on the stick, looping back around in the opposite direction. He armed a proton torpedo as he went, and when they both completed their contrasting arcs and the skip lined up in his sights, Jag fired twice with his lasers then loosed the torpedo. The lasers were both swallowed, but the torpedo hit dead on. It drove all the way through the skip and exploded on the other side, consuming the skip in its flame.

Jag pulled lazily back to starboard, searching for a new quarry. Before he could find one however, he was hammered from behind as he was hit dead-on by a plasma ball. His ship bucked and jumped, and threatened to spin out of control. Alarms went off everywhere, and all his settings dropped into the red. His shields were at twenty percent. Not good.

He finally managed to get some measure of control, and searched his scopes desperately for the skip who had fired on him. It was tailing him closely, searching for an opening. Jag began to juke and jink wildly, swerving back and forth and up and down, making sure it could never get off a clear shot. Still it stuck with him.

Desperate, he eyed the swarming mass where his comrades were engaged. He headed for the middle of it, crossing through the area most congested with crossfire. As he neared it his promise to Jaina rose eerily into the front of his mind. Making a run like that was crazy, and he was sure she wouldn't mind telling him so. But it was that or outrun the skip on his tail.

Jag decided to take the run.

He shot right through the center of it, pushing his engines for all they were worth. Both plasma and lasers crossed in front of and all around him, some missing, by barely a hair's breadth. Somehow he managed to emerge from the other side unscathed. He checked his scopes, and smiled gratifyingly as he saw that his pursuer had not.

He had just turned to go back towards the fight when the Chimaera's bridge control came over his comm unit. "All squadrons, report back to the command ship. Repeat, make and orderly retreat."

Jag ground his teeth at having to flee a battle. Not that they weren't justified in making such a decision; the snubfighters had been annihilated. But retreat in general irked him. It was like admitting you were weaker, inferior. That was just something that Jag didn't do.

Until he had made his promise to Jaina. He had to live to see her again; he would not break his promise to her. And so he turned back towards the Chimaera without so much as a grumble of complaint. If retreat is what would let him hold her again, kiss her in the quiet of the night, then he was willing to retreat.

There was a message on his computer. Jag felt a spike of excitement, knowing the only person who would send one there would be Jaina.

He had just been making a few repairs after the battle when the small alert had went off. He was so excited that he could barely keep his solemn demeanor as he climbed the ladder and seated himself in the cockpit. Sure enough, the message light was blinking. Taking a deep breath, he depressed the button.

Jaina appeared in the holofield, shown only from the shoulders up. She smiled beautifully, and Jag's heart leapt into his throat. Oh, he missed her. "Hey," she said. "I hope this isn't coming in the middle of battle or something. I'd hate to distract you. But I do have great news. Well, I guess I'll let you decide that. I'm on Csilla, and I went to see the medic. She didn't have much of a lead, but I did a little investigative work, and guess what? We found the killer!"

Jag looked incredulously at her beaming face, wondering if he had heard her right. "Now, this is the part I'm not sure how you'll take. Jag, the killer was Payton." Jag leaned back in his seat, even more stunned than he had been a few seconds before. "I know, I couldn't believe it either. I confronted him, he tried to shoot me, and I sent the bolt back at him. He's dead, Jag. But I found out a few things before he died. He was a Yuuzhan Vong spy. They had this gross worm thing implanted in his ear. He though that if he could make us break up then the Republic-Chiss alliance would fall, too. Can you believe how close that came to happening? If we hadn't really loved each other the whole galaxy could have fallen."

She was quiet for a moment, her eyes simply seeming to stare across space and time, right into his soul. "I miss you, Jag. I've missed you since you lifted off out of that hangar. I can't wait until I can see you again. Until then, take care my love. I'll call again when I reach Coruscant."

The message blinked off. Jag ran a hand through his hair, not sure what to make of all he had learned. He did know that hearing from Jaina made the separation no more bearable. He doubted that he would have a decent nights' sleep until he saw her with his own eyes again.

Jaina felt her heart skip a beat as she pulled the hyperspace lever back and the cityscape of Coruscant resolved itself in her viewport. It was exactly as she remembered it. Slowly she pushed the control stick forward, making a slow descent into atmosphere. She had to shield her presence from the moment she entered the system, knowing that Jacen would sense her. She wanted her sudden appearance to be a surprise.

She made for the Senate District, where her family had its own private landing pad. She made a smooth landing and powered down without incident. She wasn't sure where to go first. While she knew she should go directly to her Uncle's penthouse, part of her just wanted to relish in the city itself. She wanted to go shopping, or eat at her favorite restaurant. But all that was frivolous, and Jaina didn't have the luxury of time.

She hailed a hovertaxi to take her to the right building. The Skywalker apartment was in the rich upperclass district, close to the center of everything. It wasn't that her Uncle Luke wanted it that way, but rather Leia Organa Solo wanted it that way. She wouldn't have people think she let her children live just anywhere.

As she rode the turbolift to the 1470th floor Jaina felt a prickle of nervousness. She hadness seen or even talked to any of them in far too long, and she was a little uncertain of their reactions. She thought they would be happy, but one just never knew. As the door slid open Jaina held her breath.

And expelled it loudly as she saw the living quarters were empty. She stepped out into the living room, letting the door close behind her. She didn't open herself to the Force however, wanting them to make the discovery on their own.

Jaina walked quietly through the apartment, just observing the subtle changes. There were pieces of incomplete engines and turbines everywhere; those were Anakin's. A lightsaber remote still hung lifeless in the air; that was Uncle Luke's. An open holopad with the history of the Krayt Dragon lay on the kitchen table; that was Jacen's. She could feel their aura's still lingering in the place. The whole house was filled with happy emotions, laughter and camaraderie. Jaina ached to be a part of it.

"Jaina?"

She turned to see Anakin standing behind her, mouth agape. She smiled at him. "Hey, brother."

And then they were hugging, embracing fiercely like that hadn't seen each other in a thousand years. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'll explain all that later," Jaina said, pulling away. "Where's Jace and Uncle Luke?"

"They'll be here in a minute. I just came from the gym. We've been running through a different lightsaber technique. But what happened? Why are you here? Do the Chiss know you came?"

"I told you, I'll explain all that when everyone—"

"Jaina!" Jacen's smiling face appeared in the doorway. They hugged tightly, letting all the missing pieces fall into place, their twin bond blossoming.

"Jaina?" a new voice asked.

Jaina smiled at her incredulous uncle, then found herslef being swept up into a fatherly embrace. Jaina smiled against his shoulder, feeling as if she could never be any happier. She felt tears began to streak down her face, and she wiped at them furiously.

"Are you okay? What happened, why are you here?" Luke was asking.

"Let's all go sit down," Jacen suggested, and Jaina nodded her agreement. They went back into the living room and took a seat, the three men on the couch facing Jaina.

Jaina had thought the whole trip what she would say in this moment, but now that it was there she was at a loss for words. Finally she managed to find her voice. "First I want to say that I'm fine. I'm not here because of anything the Chiss did, or didn't do, or because of Jag. Everything is going well with them." She decided to save the falling in love part for later. "I'm here because of my duty to you, as a Jedi."

"I don't understand," Luke said, perplexed.

"For several weeks I've been traveling with Jag and the Chiss task force. They've been fighting a terrible enemy, one that they say may have even come from another galaxy." Jaina paused to let this sink in. "And one that exists outside the Force."

A rolling wave of shock, disbelief and doubt rolled off of them all. "No," Anakin said. "That's not possible."

"But it is. I can't sense them or any of their technology. Everything they use is alive, bred for a purpose; even their ships are organic. And none of it can be sensed. They're called the Yuuzhan Vong. I went on a search-and-destroy mission into one of their battle cruisers, and I faced many of them. Their shell-like armor repels lightsabers, and their snake-like weapons do to. They're called vonduun crab armor and amphistaffs. I had to come here in person and tell you all about this. They're fierce enemies, and if we don't hurry and learn how to effectively defeat them we could lose eveything."

Luke and her brothers were silent for a very long time. Finally Luke said, "I hope aren't exaggerating any of this, Jaina, because the implications of what you say are dire."

"That's why I had to come here."

"What should we do, Uncle Luke?" Jacen asked.

Luke shook his head. "I don't know, Jacen. I wish I did."

"I also came because there are certain ways you have to fight Vong warriors, ways that I can teach you," Jaina added.

"Good," Luke said. "And we'll start on that tomorrow. But for right now, i need to go meditate."

As he turned to leave Jaina jumped to her feet, remembering something important that she had forgotten. "Wait! I found a spy among the Chiss, and he had this implant." she pulled a small, sealed test tube from her pocket. Inside was the revolting slug-like creature. "Here. Try to sense it for yourself."

Luke took the vial in his hand, wrinkling his nose and the unpleasant sight. Then he closed his eyes and stretched out. Immediately his brow furrowed with concentration, and finally strain before he gave up. "You're right. It's as if nothing is even in there. Just...emptiness."

They passed the vial around, each one trying but failing to sense the creature. "What can this mean?" Jacen asked.

"I don't know, Jacen," Luke sighed. "But whatever it is, it can't be good."

Jaina sat on the open terrace, watching the sun slowly sink behind the skyline. It was good to be home. Even the smog smelled to good. But her happiness at reuniting with her family couldn't diminish her ache to be back with Jag. He had occupied her thoughts almost all evening. She kept wondering what he was doing, whether he was hurt or in danger, or whether he was just eating dinner in the mess hall. Did he like the Remnant? How as the training going? There were so many things she wanted to know. Most of all she just wanted to be able to touch him, be able to know and see and feel for herself that he was alive and well.

She remembered how when she had been on the Vong ship she had been able to touch him with the Force. He couldn't respond, or sense the Force itslef, or even distinguish that it was her touching him; but she could feel him. Perhaps it was because they were so close in proximity. She doubted it would work again over so long a distance. But she was willing to try.

She closed her eyes and breathed deep, centering herself. She reached deep down inside herself, into the place in her heart that was his alone. She grasped at the presence she knew so well, putting it foremost in her thoughts. Then she pushed out.

Her awareness swept quickly and unthinkingly over the multitude of Coruscant. She pushed out into the reaches of space, out of the solar system and into the void. She felt worlds and lifeforms, but they were not her concern. She pushed all the way to the rim of Known Space. Bastion.

And there he was, like a beacon in her darkness. She could feel him like he was sitting right next to her, almost taste his kiss, feel his skin. Knowing he was alive and well was enough. She withdrew then, pulling quickly back in on herself until it was just Jaina again, sitting on the terrace of her uncle's apartment on a usual Coruscant evening.

"What was that about?"

Jaina jumped, startled by Jacen's voice. She had not sensed him approach. She patted the chair beside her, motioning for him to sit. Only when he did did she respond. "What was what about?"

"That Force thingy you just did. What were you trying to feel?"

Jaina continued to stare at the setting sun, the clouds bathed in its orangy-red light. "I just wanted to see if Jag was all right. They sent him to the Imperial Remnant to help with the war effort there."

Jacen was quiet for a while. "I take it you two have come to an understanding, then?"

Jaina mused over the question, wondering how to answer. But she knew it was useless to try to hide anything from him. He knew her too well. "I love him."

Jacen's shock was palpable. "And...he loves you too?"

"Yes," she said softly, examining her fingernails so she wouldn't have to meet his gaze.

"When did this happen? And why didn't you tell me?" Jacen asked at long last.

Jaina sighed. "It came upon me so suddenly...I don't know when to tell you, Jace. But I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure how you'd take it."

"Why did you think I would be anything but happy for you?"

"I don't know. I guess I just thought you would criticize me for being so adamantly against him and then changing my mind," Jaina answered.

"Everyone has the right to change their opinions, Jaina," Jacen said, "especialy when its a preconceived one.

"True," Jaina conceded. "I was just afraid of disappointing you."

Jacen shook his head. "I'm happy for you Jaina. You're lucky to have it turn out so well. If you're stuck with him, I guess it's a good thing you like him."

Jaina laughed. "You're right about that, Jace. You're right about that."