Tahiri was dreaming again. She hadn't dreamed since leaving her prison cell but now the damned dreams were back and she was dreaming, of course, about Myrkr.

What else could it possibly be?

It was like the dreams she'd had before, when Riina Kwaad's consciousness was threatening to re-emerge. She was on some dusty chalk plain inside the Baanu Rass, looking out at the half-collapsed body of an AT-AT walker that the Yuuzhan Vong had somehow dragged up to the worldship.

And like in that old dream, the AT-AT's rusty head swung to face her as she stood on the chalk dune, and the turbolasers under its chin burst to life and spewed red death right at her. She froze, unable to move, and right when red death was about to hit it became a black ball that hung before her.

And in the old dream a voice had whispered to her, the voice of the Rina Kwaad buried inside her. This time it was a different voice, a male's voice, grating and poisonous. Caedus said to her, "If you could see Anakin one last time, what would you do?"

It was what he'd said to her the first time he'd offered to take her back to Baanu Rass to flow-walk, the first little lure he'd dangled in front of her and like a stupid fish she'd bit down on it, swallowed it, choked on it.

She tried to turn and run from the blackness around her but Caedus held her in place and said, voice bitter and mocking, "You will always be family to us."

Her eyes popped open. She stared at the darkness of the cabin bulkhead until she forced herself to throw away the sweat-damp covers into a corner on her bunk. She staggered out of the room and into the refresher where she washed her face. She stood for a moment in front of the mirror, looking at her own haggard eyes, the scars on her forehead. They seemed to pulse faintly red, as though irritated. Or perhaps she was only imagining. She couldn't be sure of anything any more.

"At least it wasn't voxyn this time," she rasped to her herself.

Once she'd composed herself and put on her clothes, she went to the cockpit to find both Muro and Vjarna in their seats. The Bimm heard her enter and swiveled in his chair.

"Good timing," the said. "We were just about to call you."

Tahiri flipped a little hair over her shoulder. "Almost at Myrkr?"

"That's right." said Muro. "We revert to realspace in less than a minute."

"Like I said, good timing," Vjarna muttered as he checked his console one last time. "Must be a Jedi thing."

Tahiri wasn't sure he was wrong. She grabbed their chairs by the backs and leaned close. "I realize I should have asked this before, but what kind of weapons does this ship have?"

"She's armed," Muro said. "Two dual-laser turrets, plus concussion missile tubes."

So like the Falcon, Tahiri thought warmly. She was surprised by how warmly nostalgic the thought of that ship made her.

"Okay, get ready." Muro reached out and grabbed the throttle at the front of the console. "Entry in three…. Two... one..."

She pulled the throttle back and the blur of hyperpsace became streaks that became stars. Myrkr sat dead ahead of them, only a thin crescent of daylight limning the side of its dark nighttime face. Tahiri was glad she didn't have to see the thing in full daytime splendor, unremarkable though the planet was.

"Where's that worldship?" asked Vjarna, mostly to himself as he checked the scanners.

"Must be around on the daylight side," Muro said. "Hold on. We'll make a curve around."

Mandala kicked speed to its sublight engines as it began to swing through Myrkr's orbit. Tahiri felt something sink in her gut as more and more of the planet's green continents and blue seas became visible.

Because they were coming around the curve Baanu Rass was, at first, hard to spot: just a black disc against black space, eclipsing a handful of stars. But as they got closer daylight spilled on its rock-like surface and the spiral-arms that spun out from the main disc.

"Welp," Vjarna said, "There it is."

"Do you know a place to dock?" asked Muro.

Tahiri nodded. "Get a little closer. You see the long crack in the hull? There's a place you can slip inside, then set down on. It will take us pretty close to the shaper laboratory."

"You sure the bioweapon will be in there?"

"I don't know where else it would be."

"Hold up," Vjarna said, "I'm picking up something… It's on the other side of the worldship."

"Another ship?" asked Tahiri.

"Ours or Vong?" Muro said at the same time.

Vjarna shook his head. "Looks like… Ranger-class gunship."

"A Ranger?" Tahiri frowned. Those ships had been built for the Alliance, but some had found their way into private hands. Mercenaries could be manning it, and mercenaries could work for anyone- Imperials, rogue Hapans, even Daala.

"They're hailing us," Vjarna announced as his board lit up.

"Can we run if we have to?" asked Tahiri.

Muro scowled as she looked at her board. "We can try. They're got weapons hot and are moving to engage…. Looks like they've got a freighter coupled at their airlock though."

A voice crackled over Mandala's cockpit speakers, saying, "This is Captain Evan Praelyx of the Wayward Soldier. State your intention or we will shoot you down."

-{}-

Zekk found himself squeezed between two Hapan women as he leaned over the comm console, watching the Yuuzhan Vong on the other side as he watched the gunship's tactical holo while saying, "This is Captain Evan Praelyx of the Wayward Soldier. State your intention or we will shoot you down."

There was no immediate response. Taryn, all playful-ness suddenly gone, said, "Give them an ultimatum. If they can't prove their intentions, then we blow them from the sky."

"We can't do that!" Zekk said quickly. "They might be-"

"They could be working for the Imperials or Ducha Markessa," the woman said sternly.

"Or they could be someone else. Look at their ship."

"We're using a tramp freighter too. That means nothing." Trista insisted. "It could even by Sinsor Khal."

A female voice crackled on the speaker, saying, "This is Captain Rahley Muro of the freighter Mandala. State your business."

"We're here to perform salvage on the worldship Baanu Rass," Praelyx said.

The link cut off, as though Muro was talking to someone else in her cockpit. Then she came back, saying, "We have no wish for conflict. Please state your specific goals for Baanu Rass."

"They're stalling," Zekk muttered.

"I should remind you," Praelyx told them, "That my gunship can vaporize yours ten times over. You do not dictate terms here, we do. For whom is your ship contracted?"

The comm went dead again. Taryn leaned close to Zekk and whispered, "Can your Force magic do you any good right now?"

"I'm not sure. We're too far away from that ship. If we were closer, maybe I could sense something."

He looked up to see Praelyx watching him, consider-ing, weighing options. The captain said into the comm, "Mandala, I will not repeat the question and I already have target lock with our forward missile batteries. Give me the name of your employer in thirty seconds or I will open fire."

Zekk glanced at the gunnery station and it was as Praelyx said. They were primes to fire and he had no doubt the Yuuzhan Vong captain would carry out his threat.

That kind of preemptive strike would be brash and lethal and so very not Jedi-like. Zekk should have objected but he didn't. The same dark anger he'd channeled when interrogating Westermal was still there, that smoldering need to reach into the old dark places of himself that could justify anything for the sake of punishing Allana Djo's killers and stopping whoever might seek to use this bioweapon.

He was ashamed of that anger, ashamed of where it could and had one led him, but that did nothing to restrain it.

Then a new voice, still female, said, "This is the contractor. I hired Captain Muro to fly me to Myrkr. This is my mission alone."

Zekk knew that voice. He knew the woman speaking. He'd fought beside her at Myrkr and so many other places, then watched in confusion and dread as she'd fallen under Jacen Solo's sway and turned her back on the Jedi Order to do his evil bidding.

He leaned in close over the speaker grille and said, "Tahiri Veila, cut all engines and hold your position. If you move one more meter we will open fire."

-{}-

Tahiri's jaw dropped. That voice was like Zekk's, but not. It sounded wrenched by anger and determination, packed with lethal intent.

"Do as he says," she ordered, but Muro had already killed power. She felt anxiety radiating off of both pilots but she tried to push that aside and reach out across cold space to touch Zekk with the Force.

What she felt was just what she'd heard in his voice: anger and determination, and the willingness to do exactly as he'd said.

She turned the comm channel back on and said, "Zekk, this is Tahiri. You can feel me, don't you?"

There was a long moment of dead air. Then Zekk said, "I can feel you, Tahiri."

"Zekk, I'm glad you're alive," she said honestly. "We all thought you were dead."

"I'm hearing that a lot lately," he said gruffly. She didn't know what he meant by that.

The angry determination she felt in the Force didn't abate. She knew what he had to be thinking and tried to open the channel between them, to share her earnest feelings and convince him that she meant no harm.

"Zekk," she said, "I bet we're here for the same thing. I want to find and destroy the Yuuzhan Vong bio-weapon. Jaina told me about it. I'm trying to help her, help Tenel Ka and everyone else."

"Prove it."

"You can feel my intentions, can't you? What else would I be here for? I don't want to destroy the Jedi. I'm not doing it for Caedus. He's dead."

There was another long pause. She felt something soften within Zekk, and with the softening came a flush of shame. Yet distrust lingered.

"I can't blame you for being angry at me, Zekk. I did terrible things. I know that. But I'm trying to set things right. I'm trying to clean up the last of the mess Caedus made. We want the same thing, Zekk. Please, let us board your ship and talk."

Her voice was nearly cracking toward the end. As she talked she realized that she needed Zekk to forgive her; otherwise there was no chance she could forgive herself.

But the presence she felt in the Force, though softening, was still determined and suspicious. There would be no forgiveness today.

Then Zekk said, "Okay. We'll prepare the starboard hatch for you."

Her knees went weak with relief. "Thank you, Zekk. Thank you so much."

But he didn't respond. The first voice, the captain's, said, "You can go ahead, Jedi. But if you open fire or try to run, we will end you."

Tahiri was too breathless with relief to say anything. Rahley Muro, thankfully, was there to say, "Believe me, Captain Praelyx, we will comply. Mandala, out."