The Solo Quest and Jade Shadow dropped out in a nameless system that had a main sequence yellow star several million kilometers away. This system had three planets, all of them outside their star's habitable zone and therefore devoid of any life. The two innermost planets each had a barren moon while the last was all alone in its own orbit.
In other words, it was a completely unremarkable system for anyone to find the two ships unless their owners wanted them to be found via hypercomm. So, with virtually no threat of being found by the Killiks, Chiss, or any other unwanted visitors, the Quest and Shadow docked with each other.
By Luke and Mara's invitation, Jacen came aboard their ship. He was met by them just after he entered through the airlock and they appraised him with guarded expressions.
"Uncle Luke," Jacen said, "your face... it's not as sallow as before." Indeed, Luke's complexion had returned to normal, with all of the sallowness from when they last met on Jwlio having completely disappeared.
"I told you," Luke said. "I would be fine. I just needed to rest was all. But I can explain that later. Now, Jacen, tell us everything you know about this conflict."
Jacen shrugged helplessly. "I'm not sure how much help I can be since I was there for the shortest amount of time among the Knights."
"Tell us anyway," Mara said with an affirmative tone.
Jacen looked at her hesitantly; considering the fact that the last time he saw her, she had slapped his sister for bringing up Emperor Palpatine when Jaina was criticizing Luke. Not that Jacen didn't understand, since he was aware of Mara's history as the Emperor's Hand and how she regretted working for him, but Jaina was still his sister; so for that, he had, at best, mixed feelings for his aunt right now.
Still, those feelings didn't get in the way of his compliance. "Alright, but I'm guessing this is all stuff you guys know anyway." In brief, he went through with his awareness about Raynar Thul being the Prime Unu, which was basically the Killiks' king, the fact that he had brought them together to forge ahead in their border conflict with the Chiss, and the call that had brought Jacen and nearly all of the other Jedi Knights who had survived the Mission to Myrkr eight years ago.
"Though I'm not surprised that Tenel Ka didn't come," Jacen said. "She's got enough on her plate bein' Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium. I wonder how she resisted."
"We could contact her and ask," Luke suggested evenly.
This time, Jacen shrugged nonchalantly. "That'd be nice, if only just to speak to her again." He smirked. "It's nice seeing you all again, even if they aren't exactly under the best of circumstances. Though I'm sorry I couldn't have been of more help."
Luke nodded. "That's alright. You've shown that you still know your place, Jacen, which is more than what the other Knights have demonstrated."
"They're just doing what they think is right, Uncle Luke," Jacen said softly but defensively. "Including Jaina, even if she does say some... stupid things." He avoided looking at Mara when he said that.
"Indeed," Luke said evenly. "But you know as well as Mara and I do, Jacen, that good intentions don't always necessarily lead to good actions. Tell us, have Jaina or any of the other Knights done anything unusually rash or violent in the time you've spent with them? Did they tell you about anything in particular before you arrived?"
Jacen sighed. "Well... if I'm being honest, Jaina hasn't been herself in the time I've spent with her and the others. In fact... she's been acting quite... unstable."
"How so?" Mara asked.
He then told them about the incident that led to Lowbacca's capture by the Chiss. Both Skywalkers looked concerned when he told them about what Jacen felt through the battle-meld then; when Jaina had intended to simply disable that defoliator intended for the moon of Ruu, only for those proton torpedoes to destroy it and spark the fire that blew up the confrontation into a killing match.
"And I don't think it was a mistake either," Jacen concluded. "She's too good for that, too experienced, especially if I'm to believe she only got better as a fighter pilot in the years since I last saw her. I think, in spite of what she told us in the meld, she had been intending to destroy that defoliator from the start. Though what worries me is that if that's true, then how could she have masked that from the rest of us?"
"We'd like to find that out, too," Luke said.
"But you know what else we'd like to find out, Jacen?" Mara asked. "How you pulled that trick on Yoggoy where you let your mother know where you and the other Knights were."
Jacen grimaced. "You know, I had a conversation just like this when I arrived on Jwlio and met the others. I think it might have something to do with what I learned from the Aing-Tii monks, but I'm not quite sure how..."
He trailed off as a sensation, this overwhelming urge, came over him. Jacen felt as if it were hunger, but before he could feel hungry himself, the sensation went away.
"Jacen?" Luke asked. "Are you okay?"
"I... I think so," Jacen replied. He looked away from Luke and Mara and narrowed his eyes in concentration as he tried to find out where that sensation came from.
"Jacen, what's wrong?" Mara asked more urgently than her husband.
"I'm not quite sure," Jacen said as he applied more concentration through the Force. "It feels... murky."
"What?" Luke and Mara asked simultaneously.
"It feels... cloaked," Jacen said. "Like it's... trying to hide from me. Wait... I've felt this. I've felt this before. Barely, but I know it, or I think I know it. It... it feels like... what's been... surrounding Jaina and the others. It surrounds her and Alema the most. It's..."
Jacen's eyes widened in shock and he looked between Luke and Mara in horror.
"You have an intruder aboard," he told his aunt and uncle.
"Where?" Mara asked.
"In the galley, I think," Jacen replied hurriedly.
The three of them then rushed to the Shadow's galley; upon arriving, they all stopped in their tracks at what they saw.
Ben's eyes were widened in terror as a blue-black Killik who was roughly his size held him in front with one arm while holding a knife up to his throat with the other. In the corner, Ben's YVH nanny droid stood slumped over, obviously deactivated; no doubt that was this Killik's doing.
"Mom! Dad! Help!" Ben cried. For that, the Killik held him up tighter, threatening to slit his throat.
"Oh, no," Mara growled. "We have the Force, you overgrown cockroach."
She reached out with one hand and the knife was yanked out of the Killik's grasp and into her own.
In response, the insectoid shoved Ben forward and leaped up to the ceiling, where the tips of its legs clung. As Mara, who had dropped the knife to the deck, hurried to catch and hug Ben, Luke reached out with the Force and grabbed the Killik, halting it as it tried to make its way for the door in an attempt to escape the three Jedi from above.
With the Killik halted, Jacen leaped up, plucked it from the ceiling with both arms, slammed it to the deck, and pinned it there. But even so, the insectoid squirmed as it attempted to escape Jacen's grasp.
"Jacen, get off!" Mara called as she brought out her blaster; Ben was still being held protectively in one arm.
"Wait, Aunt Mara, don't shoot it!" Jacen said, still maintaining his hold on the Killik. "We'll need it alive! It can tell us why it's here and maybe tell us what's-"
Jacen was cut off from finishing his sentence as the insectoid suddenly leaped up again, throwing Jacen off of itself. It then started to bound all across the galley as Mara started shooting stunbolts at it, which dissipated harmlessly off the hulls and deck.
Finally, Luke once again used the Force and froze the Killik just as it was in mid-jump. And with that, Mara fired a stunbolt and the insectoid fell unconscious, allowing Luke to gently lower it to the deck.
Mara looked over at Jacen and showed off that the blaster had, indeed, been set to stun. "Already ahead o' you, kid." Ben then held his mother tighter as he looked at the unconscious Killik, prompting Mara to put the gun away and hug Ben with both arms.
After Jacen picked himself up, he asked Luke, "You have somewhere we can hold her?"
"Her?" Luke asked.
Jacen nodded. "I can sense the Killik's gender."
Luke returned the nod. "Right. Um, you think you can tie her up in the guest quarters?"
"As long as you don't have any guests planned soon," Jacen quipped.
Luke smiled as Jacen picked the unconscious Killik up in both arms. "Let me show you the way," the older man said.
. . .
In the Chiss Star Destroyer Guardian's hangar bay, where the Millennium Falcon and Jaina's StealthX were docked, Jag waited silently with Han, Leia, Saba, C-3PO, and six Chiss guards surrounding them. Behind all of them, the blast door that had slammed shut thanks to Jaina forcibly boarding the Guardian in her starfighter had been opened thanks to the code that Jag had input, and a backup force-field had been erected to keep the hangar bay separate from the vacuum of space.
The wait ended when one of the hangar's egresses opened, and Jaina walked inside surrounded by three Chiss guards. Zekk came next, also with three guards. Lowbacca was last, and it seemed almost insulting even to Jag that he should only warrant three guards considering that he was way stronger than Jaina and Zekk combined.
Regardless, all nine incoming guards and their Jedi charges stopped and lined up so they were all facing Jag, his guards, the Solo spouses, Saba, and Threepio.
"As promised," Jag announced formally, "all three of you are free to go."
Zekk shrugged. "Just like that, huh?"
Jag nodded with no change to his model officer's expression. "Just like that."
Zekk returned the nod with a bitter smile. "Well, good."
He then unleashed a Force-wave that knocked Jag flat on his back. In response, Zekk's three guards forced him to his knees, with all of their charrics pressed at an area of his head. The guards surrounding Jaina and Lowie formed tight circles around them, with their blasters aimed directly at their chests, but the two Jedi were allowed to stand.
Half of Jag's own guards kept Han, Leia, and Saba back while the other half helped him to his feet. One of the latter asked him something in Cheunh, to which he responded in the same language as he waved them off and helped himself up.
He looked back directly at Zekk and asked in Basic, "Are you satisfied?"
"Not even close," Zekk growled.
"Well, it'll have to do," Jag said as he straightened out his uniform. "Try that again, and I'll have you back in your cell and I'll make sure you never set foot outside the Unknown Regions again. Or even see daylight on any planet, for that matter."
"Duly noted," Zekk said through gritted teeth.
Jag looked among Zekk's Chiss guards and said something to them in Cheunh that forced them to bring their charrics away from the Jedi's head and allow him to stand back up. Jag said something else to the guards around Jaina and Lowie, and they dissolved from the circles they had around their Jedi.
"What was that about?" Han asked Jag.
The latter turned to address the older man. "Let's just say I had to resort to some unpleasant methods on Zekk to gain Jaina's cooperation."
"You tortured him?" Leia asked in horror.
Jag's expression became grim. "I did what I had to."
Han's expression now coincided with Leia's as they both regarded Jag. Their anger toward him intensified after they looked back from Jaina, Lowie, and Zekk.
Jag kept his professional military tone steady as he asked, "Do you wish to stand around judging me for what I was ordered to do or do you wish to take your daughter and their friends away while you still have the chance?"
"While we still have the chance, huh?" Saba piped in. "Az I understand it, you allow us to have our Knightz out of political convenience with the Galactic Alliance."
"And to see if the information that Jaina provided pans out," Jag affirmed.
Han levelled an accusatory finger up at Jag's face. He looked like he was about to say something, only to swiftly turn away and walk over to Jaina, whom he hugged fiercely. Leia only gave Jag a disgusted glare as Han brought Jaina, Zekk, and Lowie over to the Falcon's lowered boarding ramp. There, Jaina shared a brief hug with Leia before she looked back at Jag.
"I will never forgive you for this," she said to him.
Jag said nothing as she branched off from the group and made her way for the StealthX. Zekk was next, and he sneered at Jag; again, he didn't say anything or changed his expression one iota as he watched him walk up the Falcon's ramp. Lowie didn't even bother looking Jag in the eye as he walked past.
Neither did Han, for that matter; and Leia had nothing to say as she followed her husband up the ramp. As well, neither Saba nor Threepio had any reason to say goodbye once they were the last ones to board the Falcon.
Jag and all the other guards then stepped a great distance away from the ancient YT-1300 and StealthX as they powered up and lifted off from the deck. They turned and rocketed out through the force-field that led into space.
After the Falcon and Jaina's StealthX jumped into hyperspace out of the Gyuel system, Jag returned it to the Guardian's bridge.
"Comm," Jag ordered, "inform the Protector that the Guardian will be jumping for the fallback rendezvous point. Captain Wenra will remain here to make sure that the Killiks don't try to go beyond this system. Afterwards, call ahead to Fleet Command and let them know that the Protector will need two complements of clawcraft as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir," the comm officer responded before he went to work.
"Helm, plot us a course," Jag said, "for the fallback rendezvous point. We jump on my command." Said rendezvous point was a system where the Guardian and its sister ship Protector were to retreat should the campaign against the Killiks wind up so out of their control that they couldn't afford to lose anymore manpower or resources without much needed regrouping and repletion.
"Course plotted, sir," the helm officer reported.
Jag remained silent for a few seconds before the comm officer said, "Sir, Captain Wenra would like to speak to you."
"Put him on at my command salon," Jag ordered.
"Yes, sir."
Once Jag made it to his command salon a few seconds later, he activated the holographic projector that displayed a meter-sized representation of the Protector's Captain Wenra appeared before him.
"May I ask what you're doing, Commander Fel?" Wenra asked.
"I've received vital information about the Killiks that the Ruling Council needs to know," Jag explained. "I believe it would be best if I were to broadcast this message away from Killik territory where they would be less likely to intercept our communications."
Wenra looked confused. "Our data encryptions are state-of-the-art, Commander. Surely, you don't believe that these insects have the technology to listen in our communiques?"
"This isn't about comm technology, Captain. I have serious reason to believe that the Killiks are aided by a Jedi who is somehow powerful enough to connect all of these insectoid nests together into a single grand hive-mind; and now that I know where this Jedi is, I intend to be far from his powers as possible if I'm to report to the Ruling Council about this."
"You know where this Jedi is, Commander?" Realization then dawned on Wenra's face. Jag saw that he understood that he was going to inform the Ruling Council about this Jedi so they could plan an attack on his location; so the less that was said over comms, the better. "I see. Very well. Thank you for staying in-system long enough to inform me of the reasons for your departure, Commander Fel."
"And thank you for being so understanding, Captain." Jag then signed off and returned to the bridge proper.
Not long afterward, the Guardian jumped into hyperspace.