Ben Skywalker, Grand Master of the Jedi Order, paused before opened the door because he was afraid of what he'd find inside. He breathed deep, steeled himself, and walked through the threshold. Inside the small plain chamber was a Chiss boy sitting on a bench, head bowed by guilt and shame.

"Hello, Wharn." He tried to put as much warmth in his voice as he could.

The boy looked up at him, blinking red eyes. "Master Skywalker."

"How are you doing?" Ben sat down beside him.

Wharn inched away. "I'm… all right, Master. I am so sorry. Master Mjalu-"

"She died as a brave Jedi." Ben put a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."

Wharn nodded but looked away. He didn't believe it. Maybe he never would. Guilt and shame were hard things to let go of. Sometimes you never did. Sometimes you just tried to work around them as best you could and kept trying for thirty-five years.

Sometimes your best wasn't enough.

"Wharn, I need you to tell me about the Sith who captured you. Are you certain it was Savyar?"

"Of course it was. I mean, it's the woman from all the news broadcasts. But she's not Savyar. She's Darth Xoran."

"She called herself that?"

Wharn nodded. Ben felt tightness grip his chest; it felt so strange to learn the name of the Sith who'd killed his wife. He'd spent twelve long years acclimatizing himself to a permanent state of not knowing. Ignorance, to go along with the guilt and shame that would never leave.

"What else did she tell you? The Savyar the galaxy knows has a well-documented past. Is that all a lie? Did Xoran replace the real Savyar?"

Wharn wagged his head from side to side. "No, Master. She claimed she was born Savyar. She joined the Sith later on. She became Darth Xoran."

"What else did she tell you? Anything about the Yuuzhan Vong?"

Wharn frowned, like the question made no sense. He might have been so out of it he hadn't heard about the massacre at Karfeddion, or not its full extent. "I don't think so, Master. She talked about..."

"Yes?"

"Justice. She said Xoran is the Sith word for 'justice.' She said Jedi were too weak the change the galaxy and right wrongs so the Sith had to do it."

"Sith lie, Wharn."

"I know, Master. I don't believe what she said. It's just, I think she did."

The picture was clearing, just a little. Ben could imagine it. A woman born into a brutal world under a brutal government, one who'd turned to the ways of the Sith to overthrow it. Sith didn't appear from nothing on their own. Jedi and other Force-users could turn dark on their own, yes, but the Sith had a special lineage of knowledge, passed from teacher to student just as the Jedi did. Where there was one, there'd be more.

"Did she say anything about other Sith?" Wharn hesitated. Ben pressed, "Please, this is very important. I can't tell you how important this is. Try to remember."

"She said she'd been trained by other Sith. She mentioned a Master but wouldn't say his name. She implied he used to be a Jedi."

Ben's mind whirled with possibilities. Thirty years ago, on Zonama Sekot, he'd faced a Sith with powers to rival his father's who'd once been a Jedi of the Old Republic. Darth Krayt was dead, perhaps, speared through by his cousin Jaina's blade. But perhaps not; perhaps the Dark Man who'd haunted Jacen's visions was alive even now, slowly rebuilding the Sith. Or perhaps another fallen Jedi or rogue Force-user had claimed the title. There was no way to be certain.

All he knew was that, after the confrontation on Zonama Sekot, the Sith had laid low for decades. There'd been no sign of them even when the bloody coup on Hapes began. He only realized it when he'd been aboard a ship carrying the first wave of loyalist refugees out of the Cluster; that was when he'd felt his wife's death in the Force, more strong and painful than anything since the death of his mother twenty years before. In her dying moment Katia had screamed out into the Force, trying to tell anyone she could about the enemy who'd struck her down. Ben had heard that scream and understood. Jade had heard it too, felt it to her soul, and the agony had driven the small girl away from the Force for the next five years of her life.

Jade hadn't understood at the time. She'd been so small and her life mercifully untainted by the Dark Side of the Force. And for twelve years he'd let her keep that shield of ignorance, for her own good or because he was afraid to tell her the truth.

The shield was gone, but there was still so much they didn't know. He didn't think Wharn would be able to tell him more, so he placed a firm hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "Thank you. That was very helpful. Now you need to rest for a while. Meditate. Heal."

Wharn nodded without speaking. Ben rose and stepped out the door, into the long empty hallway inside the Jedi Temple on Ossus. He could feel his daughter's presence, brooding and uncertain above him.

He took another deep breath. It would be the hardest thing yet, the conversation he'd been dreading for twelve years. But it had to be done.

He found her on a balcony near the top of the pyramid. She was sitting on the edge, looking out at the stars and nebula surrounding Ossus. She must have heard him open the door and step outside but she didn't look at him, didn't budge. He walked over to her and sat down on the ledge beside her. Still she didn't look at him.

Ben swallowed and said, "Jade. I'm sorry. After your mother died you retreated from the Force, from me, from everyone. I thought if I told you the truth it would be too much. And when you finally started opening the Force again, and learning and training with Jodram, I didn't want to risk knocking you off that path."

"Dad..." Her voice wavered; she kept looking at the stars. "I know, Dad. I… I understand. This is just a lot to process, you know. My mother was killed by a Sith."

"I know, Jade."

She sniffed. "Oh, Dad. I'm sorry. Sorry about Mom. Both our moms."

"It was different for me," he said softly. "I was younger than you are now but I knew my mother. I knew the man who killed her, too. I loved him." Even after all these years it still ached.

"I only have these… feelings of her, Dad. These echoes. Not even real memories..." Jade turned to look at him. Water in her eyes gleamed in starlight. "What was Mom like?"

It was such a simple question, but she'd never asked it before. Even that had been so hard. He said, "Katia was different from a lot of other Jedi. She grew up in a colony on the Outer Rim and didn't start training as a Jedi until she was about your age." Memories, old and bittersweet, creased his face with a smile. "She was talented, though. She took to it all so easily. She caught up with the others fast."

"Did you fall for her right away?" Jade asked. Soft-voiced, curious.

Ben looked at her before responding. She didn't look away. There was a little of Katia in Jade's face, though his daughter's sand-colored hair recalled Ben's father, her green eyes his mother. Mostly it was the voice. The older she got, the more she sounded like Katia had, and she didn't even know it.

"I did," he admitted. "After everything I'd been through before that, just being with her was… refreshing. Being a Jedi's always felt like a burden as much as a blessing, from as far back as I can remember. But to your mother it was all new. Everything was a wonder."

He fell silent. It was hard to talk, hard to think about. He'd gotten to the point over the years where he could mostly separate out good memories from the bad. He could think of fond moments with Katia and his mother, even Vestara and Jacen, without feeling the pain those people had also brought him.

That equilibrium had vanished now. The galaxy was turned upside down and so was the Skywalker family, and he wondered if things had ever been otherwise.

"Dad," Jade asked, "What happened on Hapes?"

He took a deep breath. "I wish I could tell you more, but I just don't know. It all happened so fast, though I'm sure they must have planned it an advance. They moved for Tenel Ka and Allana right away. I think it was soldiers loyal to the usurpers, but maybe there with Sith there too, I don't know. Tenel Ka and Allana barely escaped. Zekk and Taryn..." He shook his head. "Your mother, she was with two other Jedi, scouting a location for a new Jedi training center. I was off-planet at the time. I only felt Savyar kill her."

"Darth Xoran," Jade corrected.

"You're right. No, we're both right. Because to the rest of the galaxy she still is Savyar."

"Nobody's going to support her after Karfeddion. How could they?"

"It's not about support any more. They're afraid of her, so nobody knows what to do next."

Jade lowered her head. "Master Mjalu almost killed her. I wish she had."

Ben heard the anger in her voice but didn't reproach her. It wouldn't do her good to repress all the feelings inside her now in the name of Jedi stoicism. "Master Mjalu was a very powerful Jedi. And one of our most peaceful."

"She shouldn't have died that way," Jade sniffed.

"I know." Ben reached out, finally, and slung an arm around her shoulder. After a moment she leaned against him. Cool wind blew across the balcony.

"Who else knows there was a Sith at Hapes?" she asked.

"Your aunt. She felt it too. So did Tenel Ka and Allana."

"The Jedi Council?"

"Only K'Kruhk and Kyp."

"And Aunt Jaina."

"Of course." Ben sighed. She had her own pain to deal with now, fresh and worse than theirs.

"Has there been any sign of the Sith since then?"

"Nothing we saw."

"Not even on Hapes?"

"No. Allana still has sources in the court, people she can trust, but none of their reports show any signs that there's Sith there. They might be hidden in another world on the Consortium, I don't know. Nowadays it's impossible to get in and out of there without being detected. But the Sith are always out there. We know at least one now, but I'm sure there's more."

"Dad…. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. I wish I did. Even if the Alliance doesn't try something we can't let Savyar have control of that weapon."

"Dad." She squeezed his arm.

"Yes?"

"Wherever you go… Take me with you. Please."

His first thought was to object. It came on instinct and that instinct made him ashamed. For all these years he'd avoided being the father Jade had needed. He'd known that but he'd still kept evading, all for fear of this day. Now that it had passed he felt strangely unburdened, but the guilt remained. He hadn't just left Jade's training to Master Mjalu; he'd let Jaina, Allana, and Arlen put more effort into raising her than he had himself.

It was time to stop that all. He squeezed her shoulder again. "Of course I will. Wherever we go."

"Thanks, Dad. But… where?"

He thought a moment, took a deep breath, and said, "Let's go talk to Jaina."

-{}-

Arlen walked circles around Starlight Champion as it sat in the main hangar complex attached to the Jedi Temple. He'd already inspected every square centimeter of the ship, inside and out, but it gave him something to do. It distracted him just a little from the grief.

His mother sat cross-legged atop a storage crate beneath the Champion's cockpit pod. Her gray hair was down, splayed over her shoulders, and she seemed to stare into nothing. They'd just got off the comlink with Arlen's father. Jagged Fel was still at Bastion and they were on Ossus and it felt so wrong to have the family divided now.

Arlen had never been close to Davek. Four years and his brother's total separation from the Force had created a natural gap between them. Arlen had never been comfortable with that gap, and he'd known Davek hadn't been comfortable either. Arlen had always told himself that someday, surely, once they were both past all the insecurities of young adulthood, they'd bond as brothers were meant to. It had always seemed inevitable, always waiting in some uncertain tomorrow.

The only thing certain about tomorrow was that there would be no Davek. The chance for reconciliation had slipped away. Arlen had let it slip for twenty-plus years. Now there was no chance for recovery, no redemption.

His brother was dead. That was fact now, but it would take a long time to accept it, if he ever did.

He and his mother had been in the hangar together, one sitting and the other pacing, sharing silence for close to a half hour before the sound of boots broke their grim meditation. Arlen felt Ben and Jade before he saw them. They emanated the same heavy grief in the Force.

"Hello, Arlen." Ben smiled weakly as he stepped into the hangar. "How is your ship?"

"As good as ever." He smiled his own limp smile and reached up to run his fingertips across Champ's smooth metal belly. "I was actually about to take her on a mission. If you approve, of course."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "A Jedi mission?"

"Chance Calrissian and I have an idea of how Savyar gets her money and supplies. We think she's been working with a crime boss named Mordran Krux to pump glitterstim out across the galaxy."

"Ah, that's right. I heard. You're talking about her ships and the Mandalorians, aren't you?"

"Those warriors don't work cheap."

"And the Yuuzhan Vong worldship?"

Arlen shook his head. "I'm sorry. That… We had no idea about that when we started to investigate."

"Someone needs to look into that too."

"There's one place to go." Silent until now, Jaina spoke up from her perch on the create. "Some place obvious. Zonama Sekot."

Something grave passed between Jaina and Ben. Jade said, "I've never been there. Do you think it can help us?"

"It's our best place to start," Jaina said. "At the very least they'll have shapers who can explain how the worldship was turned into a weapon like that."

"Also," Ben said, "We know there's been a connection in the past between rogue Yuuzhan Vong and Sith. We need to investigate that. I'll go with you, Jaina."

"Then I'll go too," Jade said firmly. Ben didn't try to change her mind; instead he nodded acceptance. Something had changed between father and daughter, something Arlen couldn't understand.

"I should still go find Mordran Krux," Arlen said. "They say he's got a base on the Outer Rim, all the way past Sluis Van. I'm actually supposed to swing around and pick Chance up on the way."

"Coruscant?" asked Ben.

Arlen shook his head. "Chance doesn't want anyone to know what he's up to so he's told all his business associates he's going on a pleasure cruise through some nebula off the Rimma with a Kuati tychoon. I'm going to swing by that nebula and pick him up. From there it won't be far to Tolomen"

Ben frowned. "And the Kuati?"

"Very real. I had a drink with him once. I guess he's helping Lando cover."

"Generous of him."

"Yeah, he and Lando get along famously. I don't think this is a job for Wharn or Jodram. Especially after what they went through."

"You're right. Wharn especially needs time to heal and meditate," Ben said. "Arlen, are you sure you're up to this right now?"

He took a deep breath. "The more time I sit around waiting, the more people Savyar hurts or kills. I can't have that."

"Darth Xoran," Jade said softly.

Arlen nodded. The idea that their enemy was not some righteous radical but a Sith Lord was still hard to wrap his mind around. For all his life, for all his career as a Jedi, Sith had always been something mythic and mysterious, almost immaterial. Suddenly the threat had become painfully personal.

"Be careful, Arlen." Jade stepped up to him.

"Be careful yourself." He tried a slanted grin.

"I mean it. Don't do anything reckless. Don't get yourself hurt. Please. Davek wouldn't want that." Her green eyes were wet.

Arlen stepped forward and squeezed her shoulders in a hug. "I know, Jade. Thank you."

When she pulled away Jade asked, "Have they gotten any… you know… confirmation?"

Arlen shook his head. "We haven't sent any ships to Karfeddion. But we haven't heard anything of survivors. It's… Well, it's hard to think anything else." It was also hard to fathom, still, after almost a week had passed. Over two million Alliance and Imperial soldiers had gone into the Karfeddion system. Two million, and not one had come out alive. One death should have felt eclipsed by that staggering tragedy, but somehow that only made it worse.

"We don't know for sure," Arlen's mother said, still from her perch. She spoke quietly but firmly, staring off into the distance rather than at any of them. "Back in the Yuuzhan Vong war they captured my brother. We all thought Jacen was dead. We all felt him die in the Force. My mother, though, she didn't give up hope. She believed. I didn't. Sometimes I thought if I hadn't given up on him, then later, he..." Jaina's voice wavered, but she swallowed and said firmly, "Mom was right. She kept on believing for almost a year, right until Jacen sailed back into our lives."

She turned to look at them, finally. Arlen's heart ached. He believed firmly that he'd feel the death of his mother or Master Skywalker in the Force, but he'd always wondered about his father and brother. He hadn't felt anything during the slaughter at Karfeddion, but that meant nothing either way. He wouldn't deny his other her faith, but he couldn't share it. Not after all that had happened. Two million soldiers and not one survivor; it still beggared understanding.

"If Davek's alive, it's up to him to take care of himself," Ben said. "We have to do what we can to stop Darth Xoran."

"I know. And we'll go together to Zonama Sekot." Jaina smiled a very sad smile. "Besides. I have friends there I need to see."

-{}-

Thull's Shroud was the perfect place for hiding. The giant sprawl of gases and stardust was filled with shifting pathways and open pockets where you could hide not just ships but space stations, all of them almost impossible to detect from outside the Shroud thanks to the way all that stellar matter distorted sensors. There were even stray asteroid chains and barren planetoids drifting aimlessly through the space.

When Savyar had hired the Mandalorians to be her private army, she'd already had a series of waystations set up inside the Shroud. They seemed to have been cobbled together from pieces of dozens of old spaceships and orbital stations but for all their shabby appearance they served well as hidden supply and service stations for the Mandalorian fleet. Still, Tamar Skirata had always wondered. Savyar would have been a fool to show all her cards to a band of hired mercenaries. If she'd hidden the waystations in the Shroud, she must have had more hidden. Naturally, Tamar had wondered what else there could have been.

In all her guessing, she'd never dreamed of the answer.

After Karfeddion the great Yuuzhan Vong worldship had jumped to hyperspace. Where it was now, she didn't know. Most of the Mandalorian ships to take part in the battle- which was what they were charitable calling the massacre- had retreated to Waystation Xesh, the largest and most well-equipped of the stations in the Shroud. The station was a flat disc with five arms stretching out, giving room for ten frigates and corvettes to dock. Waystation Xesh was filled with victorious Mandos and more. In the aftermath of Karfeddion it had become a most important place in Senex-Juvex.

The Alliance had pulled all its ships out of the Sectors and House loyalists had retreated to a handful of besieged systems, but not everyone was happy with the turn things had taken. Tamar was glad she wasn't the only one, but she betrayed nothing as she stood among the two-dozen faceless armored Mandos that Savyar had brought out with her to meet the five cowed delegates from some of the newly-proclaimed Free Worlds.

"You should have at least informed us of that… that thing before you used it," said the delegate from Fengrine, a tall gaunt human with fire in his eyes.

"It should never have been used in the first place," muttered the Snivvian delegate from Malador.

"I agree," said the Nosaurian from Varadan. He seemed to be the leader of the group and Tamar couldn't help but be reminded of Moran Gnoll. "That sort of weapon is… barbaric. We're not the Empire. We're not the Vong. We wanted freedom, not slaughter."

"Where did you even find a Yuuzhan Vong weapon?" the Fengrine delegate said. "How did you repair it?"

"It's a very long and actually tedious story." Savyar sounded bored. "It appears to have been an experimental weapon they were developing in the late stages of the war. It was found abandoned outside the Tynna system. I hired freelancers who knew Vong technology to move it here and see if they could repair it."

"May we meet these freelancers?" the Fengrine man asked icily.

"In time. But those of you who object to the weapon itself are being shortsighted."

"Our families didn't flee the Vong so we could fight with them fifty years later," the Nosaurian said. "The entire galaxy views us as an enemy now."

"You're being too hasty. I'm going to be making a broadcast soon. I will tell the galaxy that we took the necessary steps to defend ourselves against joint Imperial-Alliance aggression. It was regrettable but the point had to be made. If no further invasions are attempted we will not use the weapon. We only want to be left alone. It's simple as that."

The Snivvian delegate hissed, "Malador was hoping for Alliance help, Alliance investment..."

"Senex-Juvex worked perfectly well as a functioning, self-contained economic unit for one thousand years," said Savyar. "Nothing has changed except now its people will rule themselves as free beings. I was on Varadan for a week, personally making sure that the mines there were operation, wasn't I?"

The Nosaurian nodded. "You were."

"And I placed myself in grave danger. I exposed myself to another Jedi assassination attempt, didn't I?" She stabbed a pointed finger at her face. The left side remained as handsome as ever, but the skin of right half was dried and darkened by what seemed to be burn scars.

The Nosaurian nodded again. "No one doubts your bravery, Madam Savyar. No one doubts your devotion to the cause. None of the Free Worlds would exist if it weren't for you."

"You only complain about my methods after the face." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"This is now how we thought freedom would come," the Snivvian said.

Savyar cast a hard gaze across the delegates, then looked over her shoulder at the Mandalorians behind her, her armored killing machines. "You knew liberty would not be bloodless. You all knew, and you now that I've gotten you what you wanted your consciences have suddenly started to nag. Don't complain just because I'm using all the tools available to accomplish our goal."

"We knew," the Fengrine delegate said. "We didn't understand until now."

"Then that is your fault. Go back to your planets, gentle beings. Rebuild your worlds. Solidify control. And while you act civil and peaceable, I will be the one to protect you all."

She turned, ending protests before they came. She marched out of the hall and the Mandalorians fell behind her. Once they were all in the hall, the delegated left behind, Savyar stopped and turned. Gevern Auchs was at the head of the column. She stepped up close to him and stroked the smooth front of his helmet with green finger-tips. "Do you have your people selected, Mandalore?"

"I do."

"Then it's time."

Auch nodded and called, "Skirata, Skirata, and Jeban, stand ready! Everyone, fall out!"

There were no questions, no hesitation. Everyone stared marching but Tamar, Dorn, and Shalk Jeban remained with their boots on the ground, motionless.

Dorn whispered across their private channel. "Any idea what this is about?"

"Not a clue."

"I don't like it.

"Me neither. Hush."

They waited until the rest of the Mandos were gone. Savyar glanced at the four armored warriors, then told Auchs, "Helmets off. I want to look at them."

None of them moved until Auchs said, "Ditch the buy'ce, Mando'ade."

He took off his helmet first and tucked it underarm. Then Shalk Jeban pulled the bucket off his graying head. Tamar and Dorn followed.

Savyar stepped close and looked them each in the eye. Her face had become a disquieting contrast because she could no longer tell which half of the face was closer to the mind inside it: one smooth and attractive, the other scorched and gnarled. After Karfeddion the unscarred half seemed like the mask.

"I suppose they'll do," Savyar said. "Mandalore, give them their mission."

"I need a team to head for the Tolomen System," Auchs told them.

The name was vaguely familiar but Tamar couldn't place it. Dorn said, "Isn't that Broken Moon's base?"

The crime syndicate, right. Auchs nodded. "Mordran Krux has his base of operations in, you guessed it, a moon that got shattered by a comet long time back. He's been partners with our employer."

"We've been supplying him with a supply of high-grade mass-produced glitterstim," Savyar said without shame.

Tamar hadn't known that, but it wasn't a surprise. The Falleen had deep coffers, that had been clear from the start, and partnering with drug distributors was a tried and tested method for insurgents galaxy-wide.

"Shalk here has been my go-between, escorting shipments of the stuff to Broken Moon, keeping it safe." Auchs gestured to Jeban. The older Mando nodded confirmation. "This time I want you two to go also."

"Why is that, sir?" asked Tamar.

"A few reasons. For one, you two did well as Fengrine and Karfeddion. Enough for me to think we can try putting what happened at Yag'Dhul behind us." Neither of them responded. He went on, "There's more. This is different. Our employer just got some intel-"

"A Jedi is coming to Broken Moon to investigate," Savyar said. "Krux will try to deflect him, naturally, but you're to make sure he doesn't learn about our connection."

"I see." Tamar swallowed. "Do you want the Jedi killed, or just deflected?"

"If he dies, more will come," said Savyar. "The best outcome is that he goes back to his kind empty-handed. But if you have to, be ready to kill him."

"I see." Tamar shifted eyes to Auch's blunt face. She wanted to ask a lot then: whether he thought her latent Force abilities would really work against a trained Knight, whether he'd told Savyar about her skills. Instead she said, "We won't let you down, Mand'alor."

"I should hope not." Savyar kept eying Tamar, like she knew. After a second, nearly fatal assassination attempt, the Falleen couldn't have been kindly disposed to any Force-users. But instead of saying more she turned and began walking down the hall.

When she was done Dorn exhaled. "The jetii really did a number on her, didn't they?"

"Messed up that pretty face," Jeban agreed.

Tamar looked at Auchs. "Sir… Are we certain about that? The Jedi on Varadan?"

"We lost seven Mando'ade to those freaks," Auchs said grimly. "Five more got injured. Looks like there were four jetii involved. Plenty of eyewitnesses."

He said it like he dared her to object. Tamar just nodded; deep down she'd doubted a Jedi had really killed her sister, but now it seemed impossible to deny. The Jedi really were sending killers after Savyar. They said the Force-users weren't aligned with the Alliance any more; maybe that was true, maybe not. Maybe they were working with someone else who really wanted to bring her down.

"When do we leave?" Tamar asked.

"As soon as you pack your kits and prep your Beskads. It's not far to Tolomen so you should be able to get there before the jeti does."

"Do we know when he's coming?" asked Dorn.

"Only that he's on his way from Ossus, which means we're closer. The sooner you go the better."

"Understood," Jeban nodded. The middle-aged warrior had long been close to Gevern Auchs, a loyal soldier.

"Any more questions?" Auchs looked at them all but let his eyes linger on Tamar.

Of course she had questions. She wanted to know if Auchs really thought she'd be enough to kill a Jedi if she had to, and if Savyar knew. More, she wanted to know how long Auchs had been aware of that monstrous worldship, if he knew where it was now, if he knew about any other nasty secrets. And she still needed to know for certain if the Jedi had really killed her sister.

But like a loyal soldier she said, "Nothing, sir."

"Then dismissed. Happy hunting, all of you."

-{}-

Darth Kheykid and Vilath Dal both stood in the center of the worldship before the simmering blue holo-image of Darth Xoran. Kheykid had heard that his master had been attacked by Jedi, but seeing the scarring across her face put him off-balance. Darth Xoran was one of the few One Sith who could claim to have killed Jedi; a part of Kheykid had believed, with childish innocence, that his master was invincible, untouchable. He realized now how close she'd come to losing the fight, and in turn how precarious their victory really was.

They could cow the Alliance into submission but their true enemy would still be after them.

Vilath Dal had just finished explaining the situation on the worldship with evident pride. After the absolute route on Karfeddion the great weapon was ready to be used again with only minor modifications.

Xoran nodded and looked to her apprentice. "You've done well also, Darth Kheykid. Now I have another task, one I think will be more to your liking."

"What is it, Master?"

"A Jedi is coming to Tolomen to investigate Broken Moon and our connection with Krux."

Kheykid's pulse quickened. "Shall I kill him, Master?"

Xoran seemed to consider. By now the Jedi knew who she was, knew the Sith were involved. There was no reason to hide. But she said, "Only if necessary. I sent three Mandalorians to loom over Krux's shoulder. If the Jedi doesn't leave empty-handed, they're to take care of him. You're to make sure they do not fail. Take the Intruder. Shadow them. Reveal yourself only if you're sure you can kill the Jedi."

It was good enough. He bowed his head. "Understood, Master."

Xoran looked back to the Yuuzhan Vong. "Master Shaper, you're to continue spice production at the same levels. We need to keep the credits flowing."

"Of course. Do you think we'll deploy the worldship again soon?"

"Perhaps. For now you both have duties. Get to them."

With that, her holo disappeared, leaving Kheykid and the shaper alone.

-{}-

When the Jedi departed Ossus for Zonama Sekot, a part of Wharn wished he was going with them. The rest of him was still edgy, nervous, uncertain. Everyone kept telling him not to blame himself for Master Mjalu's death. The Jedi were forgiving in a way the Chiss never were and all their admonitions seemed hollow. Responsibility had been drilled into him since he was old enough to walk. Every rational part of him knew he was responsible for Mjalu's death; she'd never have been in that situation if he hadn't been captured. The Jedi believed in redemption too. Again they were more forgiving than the Chiss. He hoped he could believe in that, the absolution offered through the Force, but right now he couldn't believe in anything.

He wished he could go with Jade. They'd been together from the day he'd arrived at Ossus with Arlen until now. She'd been his stronger link to the wide open galaxy and he knew he'd miss her. More, he wanted to do something to help her. She'd explained to him and Jodram both the full revelation that had occurred to her on Varadan. There was nothing they could do to help her grapple with it except to see her off.

The ship they left Ossus in was an old but refitted SoroSuub yacht. It had been owned by Grand Master Skywalker for many years, and his parents before that. Its name was Jade Shadow: a reference, Wharn had been told, to Jade Skywalker's grandmother and namesake. The Grand Master's mother, who'd also been killed by a Sith.

Wharn couldn't tell if Jade was thinking about that. As the other Jedi loaded the ship she stood at the mouth of the hangar, looking out at the dry hills surrounding the Jedi Temple. Wind rushed in, playing with her dirty blond hair. He and Jodram approached her cautiously, both afraid of intruding in her private thoughts. It was finally Jodram who stepped close and called at her back, "Hey, Jade!"

She turned and saw them. With a little reluctance she turned and walked to meet them. "Come to see me off?" she asked with a tiny smile.

"It's the least we could do." Jodram put his hands on his hips. "Take care of yourself."

Jade glanced at the ship. "With the company I'll be keeping, I think I'll be safe."

"It's not just that," Wharn blurted.

"I know. Are you two going to stay here?"

"For now," Jodram nodded. "I don't know what they have planned next..."

"Nobody knows, not even Dad," Jade said. "I think we're going to Zonama Sekot to find out."

"I've heard so much about that world," Wharn said. "Everyone says it moves among the stars of its own will, that it has a sentient mind connected to the Force."

"I've never been there myself," Jade said, "But yeah, I think it's true."

More cautiously he ventured, "They also say it can… connect with the souls of Jedi who've passed on."

"Yeah," she admitted, "I've heard that one too." She sensed their next question and added, "They also say it can only bring back the ghosts of people who've visited it before. That means a lot of people, like my grandparents, but Dad says Mom never went there."

She looked relieved not to expect her mother's ghost. It all seemed too much for Wharn to wrap his brain around. Jodram said, "We'll be here when you get back. Don't worry about us."

"Good to know." Jade smiled a little more. Her father called from the base of the ship. For an awkward moment the three of them stood there, looking at each other's boots. Then Jodram stepped forward and wrapped Jade in a tight hug. Her eyes widened in surprise before she returned it.

Wharn stood there and watched them hold that embrace until Jade slapped Jodram's arm and said, "Okay, okay, that's right enough!"

"Sorry," Jodram pulled away, sheepish, but Jade was still smiling. She turned to Wharn and they froze again; outside signs of affection, especially physical ones, were another part of life in the galaxy at large that Wharn had never gotten used to.

She stepped in gave him a short, firm hug. He returned it; then they stepped apart.

"Well" Jade breathed, "I've got to run. I'll see you two later, I promise!"

The she turned, with a wash of bright hair, and jogged over to her father. Wharn and Jodram watched them disappear up the landing ramp, then shuffled off to the side of the hangar. They watched as Jade Shadow rose on its repulsors, fired its engines, and went soared through the hangar, out into the sky.

"It will be strange without her," Wharn said as they watched the Shadow's thrust-glow dwindle to nothing.

"Yeah," Jodram muttered distantly. Wharn could feel him in the Force; he emanated a sense of loss and longing even greater than Wharn's, but he took a deep breath, slapped the Chiss on the back, and said, "Come on. Want to get your lightsaber and spar?"

"Now?" Wharn blinked.

"Beats moping all day," Jodram said. "C'mon, let's get to work."

-{}-

Coruscant's reaction to Karfeddion had been as swift as it was chaotic. A dozen different bills were trying to force their way through a dozen different committees, all of them urging different actions in Senex-Juvex, almost all of them non-binding. The Chief of State was taking fire from all sides, as were the military and intelligence communities. The Imperial ambassador had been talking to everyone he could find, government and press alike, all the while excoriating the Alliance leadership for dragging so many good Imperial soldiers to pointless deaths. For almost a day the rumor flew that Bastion was going to level economic sanctions against Alliance worlds as punishment, but it panned out to be nothing. People wanted to invade Senex-Juvex with every ship in the Navy; they wanted to quarantine it; they wanted to sue for a truce; they wanted to execute Savyar as a war criminal in various creative ways. There would almost certainly have been a no-confidence vote in Lannik Sevash, save for the fact that nobody else was mad enough to want his job.

Amidst all the frenzy, Allana met with Sevash, Senator Dre'lye, and Admiral Syal Antilles in the Chief of State's office. Galactic City crawled by as usual outside the broad window, a welcome hint of constancy.

"What's left the Third and First fleets are still standing by at the edge of the Senex Sector," Antilles was saying. "We still don't have a good idea of what's been going on inside, but we can bet the remaining House forces aren't faring well."

"And we have no idea where that Vong worldship went to," Allana grimaced.

"Hiding in the Shroud, probably," grunted Senator Dre'lye. The old bothan's gray fur was a mess, like he hadn't combed it the whole past week. "There's no way to know where it will pop up next."

"I'm more interested in knowing how the devil that thing got active in the first place," Sevash said. "The Vong never used that kind of weapon in the war."

"They didn't, which means somehow, someone created this weapon using the hull of a dying worldship." Dre'lye looked at Allana. She'd been getting that look all week, the one that said, Can't you Jedi keep the Vong in line?

Finally, she had an answer. "I just talked to my aunt a few hours ago. She's leaving now for Zonama Sekot. Grand Master Skywalker is going with her."

"Then they'll have to get to the bottom of this," Sevash said.

"I'm sure they will, sir," Allana said. She wasn't confident at all but she needed to seem so for her next request. "Sir, I'd like to take my ship and join them at Zonama Sekot."

Sevash regarded her wordlessly, calculating. Dre'lye said, "You have duties here, Senator. We have votes coming up, and you've just been made head of the Senex-Juvex Reconstruction Committee."

"There's nothing to reconstruct right now and we all know it. We'll be lucky if those sectors even stay in the Alliance now." She kept her eyes on Sevash. "Sir, I can do more good on Zonama Sekot, both for the Jedi and the senate. I'm requesting time to take this trip for an official investigation."

Admiral Antilles cleared her throat. "The military's going to need all the information it can get on this worldship. Even if it's just advice from the shapers on Zonama Sekot."

"There's no reason to plan an offensive yet," Dre'lye said. "Like you said, we don't even know where the damned monstrosity is."

"We need to be prepared," Antilles said firmly. "This isn't something we can look away from. After Karfeddion, they've broken the Alderaan Convention. There has to be repercussions."

The woman was right on that count. The Convention, drawn up during the Alliance-Imperial détente thirty years ago, had agreed that all superweapons- as defined by a complex set of parameters- were automatically outlawed. Any old superweapons remaining from the Civil War would be destroyed if found. Agents using superweapons would draw the harshest possible repercussions, including a joint military operation by all the Convention's signatories with the goal of destroying that weapon.

Like the mutual-defense Anaxes Treaty, the Alderaan Convention had never been tested. Even those who'd drawn it couldn't have foreseen a situation like this.

"It is more complicated than that," Dre'lye said carefully. "Even if we invoked it, I doubt the Imperials or anyone else would join in another offensive. More importantly, we don't even know who to hold responsible. Savyar? The leaders of every new Free Worlds, when we can't keep track of them all? Or the Vong who made it in the first place?"

"Senator, I understand your concerns, but they're political," Antilles said. "From a military standpoint we have to be prepared for anything."

Sevash made a wheezing sound, a Quermian sigh. "I agree, Admiral. Senator Djo, your official fact-finding mission to Zonama Sekot is approved. You may leave when ready."

"Thank you, sir." She glanced at Dre'lye and added, "Hapes' junior senator can cast her vote in my stead if an election comes up."

"Senator, I hope you know what you're doing," the grey old Bothan sighed.

"So do I," Allana whispered.

From Imperial Palace it was a short hop via airspeeder to her apartment. Her personal shuttle was already being prepared, and in less than thirty standard minutes she'd joined Tanith Zel and the shuttle crew on the landing pad.

"Did you send a message to tell them I'm coming?" Allana asked as she walked toward the landing ramp.

"They said to rendezvous at the edge of the Alsakan system," Tanith replied. "We'll go in together."

"Excellent." She hadn't been savoring the thought of arriving first.

"Did you get official permission for this trip?" Tanith said as she glanced Allana up-and-down.

Allana smiled faintly. In her half-hour layover she'd changed out of the formalwear she usually donned for the Senate and into Jedi robes: loose, brown, humble. She didn't get to put it on often enough. Her lightsaber dangled from her belt, unhidden and unashamed.

"I did, in fact. But given our destination, I thought this was more appropriate."

The younger woman gave the tiniest nod. Apparently Tanith was not impressed by monastic fashion. As they walked up the boarding ramp she asked Allana, "Do you want to try sending a message to the planet? I'm sure she'd like to know if you're coming."

Allana wasn't sure at all. "Let's just figure things out when we get there, okay?"

Tanith nodded again and said nothing. They clambered into the cockpit and sat behind the pilot and co-pilot. They strapped in and settled back in their seats as the shuttle ascended Coruscant's atmosphere toward open space. All the while Allana tried and failed to get Tanith's last question out of her head.

There was no way around it. There never was when she went to Zonama Sekot, which was one reason she never went often. They said the living world would conjure the spirits of the dead; Ben and Jaina said it had even briefly granted form and the breath of life to Allana's father, granted it just long enough for him to climb out of the dark and redeem himself.

Allana had never seen the dead walk among the forest of Zonama Sekot. She didn't know if she wanted to. The living ghost was bad enough.

It was in seeking words from the dead that her mother had retreated to Zonama Sekot after the fall of Hapes. Retreated and never come back. Best Allana knew, she'd never heard a whisper from them, but Tenel Ka Djo was still there, waiting for that which would never come.

As the shuttle jumped into hyperspace, Allana shuddered.