Dropping out of hyperspace for what felt like the thousandth time in the Maw, Luke finally allowed himself to slump back in the pilot seat as he looked out the forward viewport at the station only a few lightyears away.

"There it is, Uncle Luke," Jacen said from the copilot seat. "Sinkhole Station."

Luke raised an eyebrow as he regarded the station from his slump. "It kind of looks like a scaled-down version of Centerpoint Station."

"That's the first thing I thought when I saw this thing for the first time," Jacen agreed. "Say, do you think you can sense the presences that are probably still aboard, Uncle Luke?"

"Can you?"

Jacen shrugged. "Let's find out."

The both of them then reached out through the Force, and, indeed, they felt the presences of several beings whose life energies felt faint to the Grand Master and his resurrected nephew.

"Why are their presences so diffuse?" Luke asked.

"That's what happens when you Mind Walk," Jacen said. "It takes you beyond shadows, where the passage of time becomes fluid and almost meaningless. Every Force-sensitive aboard wants to pass beyond shadows completely, to join themselves with the Force itself."

"They're killing themselves," Luke concluded. His tone was objective, without the slightest hint of any disgust behind it.

"That's their choice," Jacen conceded.

"Well, it doesn't seem to be the choice of every Force-sensitive aboard that station," Luke pointed out.

Jacen nodded. "I sense them, too," he said. "Their presences feel faded, but not faded enough. They're trying to hide by blending in."

"Who do you think they can be?"

Jacen offered another shrug. "Whoever they are, we have to approach with caution. I can sense ill will from them."

"So do I," Luke backed up. "We'll most likely be walking into an ambush."

"What do you think we should do?"

Luke looked at his nephew with a smirk. "We blend in." He then leaned back to call out, "Ben! Get Nom Anor and get down here to the cockpit on the double!"

"Got it, Dad," Ben said.

Barely a minute later, the Jedi Knight and the Yuuzhan Vong were in the cockpit, where the former took his seat in the nav chair and the latter took his position in the spare seat behind Luke. After Luke gave them a brief rundown of what he and Jacen had sensed aboard Sinkhole Station, the Grand Master said, "Now, what I need from the both of you is to use that technique to disappear in the Force. I'll be doing it, too, don't worry."

Jacen and Ben nodded, then they suppressed their presences completely alongside the Grand Master. Then the latter turned back to the Jade Shadow's console and began shutting down all power to it except for life support and internal gravity, until the ship began pinwheeling toward Sinkhole on sheer inertia alone.

"Perfect aim you got this ship on, Uncle Luke," Jacen commented. "We're heading straight for the hangar bay."

In between the Shadow's rolls for Sinkhole, Luke could spot that, indeed, they were heading for the station's hangar.

"But won't we crash once we enter Sinkhole's artificial gravity?" Nommy asked. "We'd probably end up dead."

"Not if the three of us use the Force to steady the ship for a safe landing," Luke said, indicating himself, his nephew, and his son. "It'll be a stretch, but I'm confident we can make it without even denting the ship's hull, never mind killing us all in a devastating crash."

"Okay, however, if you're trying to hide from these shadowy figures you can sense, who you suspect most likely have the Force," Nommy continued, "wouldn't they all be able to sense your use of it? I mean, sure, they probably think we suffered some kind of horrible accident that killed us all, what with us all free-floating toward Sinkhole, but wouldn't you render this whole exercise useless once we board and have to use the Force to land this thing even remotely safely?"

"He has a point," Jacen said. "Even if these people shifted their attention away from us, they'll still be able to sense our unified use of the Force to right this ship upon landing."

"Wait, does this ship have any escape pods?" Nommy asked.

Luke nodded. "It does. All SoroSuub yachts like this one have at least ten, including ones for guests. But you think our supposed enemies aboard the station won't see four pods headed their way?"

"It'd be a stretch to think they wouldn't pay attention to us even if they think we are dead," Ben put in. "Especially since we're still heading straight for the station's hangar bay. We'd need luck on our side if we're to go in there on escape pods and not get spotted by sensors alone."

"I don't think we need to worry about sensors," Jacen said. "The only things aboard Sinkhole that I'm quite sure are still active are life support and some lights here and there; at least the last time I was here. I can't see any of the Mind Walkers using the sensors, even if they still could work anyway, so I doubt our friends who sensed us could use them even if they wanted to."

"You mean much of their technology fell into disrepair and disuse?" Luke asked.

"Pretty much," Jacen said. "I imagine this thing is about as ancient as Centerpoint was, there's most likely a connection between the two, as obviously indicated by their similar appearances. But anyway, there are very few aboard that station who keep up the bare necessities of maintenance to keep the Mind Walkers alive long enough to pass beyond shadows."

"We'd still be on their radar, in any case," Nommy said. "And we have to make a decision quickly; we're coming up on the hangar bay now." On one of the spins, Luke judged that they were now only a few hundred meters away.

But before any of them could come to a conclusion, the Shadow seized up in its roll so that its viewport was facing Sinkhole's hangar bay. It then began slowly heading the rest of its way for the hangar on a linear approach.

"I thought you said only the life support and a few lights would be the only things active aboard that station," Luke said to his nephew. "You didn't say anything about tractor beams still being active."

"I didn't know there were tractor beams that were still active," Jacen countered. "Although, since our friends already know we're still alive anyway..." He then allowed his technique of disguising himself in the Force to drop.

"This isn't a tractor beam," Jacen said after a couple seconds. "This is a unified Force-tug. Our apparent enemies are pulling us in with the Force, and they're no longer disguising their presences."

The Skywalkers allowed their own cloaking techniques to drop, and they felt what Jacen confirmed.

"The dark side is strong in them," Luke said.

"They're Sith," Ben growled.