Jacen collected Fey'lya's unconscious body by slinging the Bothan over his shoulder. Then the Jedi Knight began a series of leaps up through the holes in the floors above that he had made minutes earlier. Once he reached the roof, the Jade Shadow was hovering nearby with its ramp extended to Jacen.
The Jedi Knight ran to the end of the roof and leaped up and onto the ramp, where he climbed back even as the Shadow began its ascension over the dying battle.
After placing Fey'lya in the Shadow's cell, Jacen returned to the ship's cockpit and sat back in the copilot seat. "Got him," he told his aunt.
Mara nodded and then activated the comm console. "Attention, DSF and True Victory Party; we have Trusk Fey'lya. To the TVP, I'd advise that you surrender; your fight has been in vain from the beginning just as it is now."
And just like that, the TVP starfighters disengaged from their dogfights and set down on the roofs of the base block buildings. Meanwhile, the Bothans manning the roof-mounted turbolasers stepped away from the weapons and raised their hands. Once the DSF officers saw what was going on, they stopped firing their own weapons - whether they were on the ground or in the air - and began to approach the surviving TVP Bothans with their weapons trained on them.
After seeing this through the Shadow's forward viewport, Jacen and Mara looked at each other and grinned triumphantly.
.
Following the capture of the TVP at their primary base, it was thus considered safe enough for Nom Anor's arraignment to take place in a Galactic Alliance court. A few days later, after the rest of the TVP members across Denon were rounded up and arrested, thanks to their already-arrested brethren having implicated them as members, Nom Anor's actual trial took place.
Naturally, he was judged guilty by the jury by the end of the trial that took place in just over an hour
The Caamasi judge, Her Honor Hesoul Kl'ana, banged her mallet against her table and announced, "Nom Anor, you have been found guilty of perpetrating war crimes during the Yuuzhan Vong War and your subsequent pirate activities since then. Your sentencing would be death by killtab."
The audience behind Nom Anor cheered, and Jacen noticed that his friends and family - with the exception of Jaina, who was still in the Chiss Ascendancy - also seemed glad. Obviously, Mara could barely restrain a victorious smile, and even Uncle Luke looked a bit more than content.
Jacen himself, however, even with the resentment he held against Nom Anor - and maybe because of the relatively friendly time he spent with him - felt somewhat... livid.
"Order in the court!" Kl'ana called, immediately silencing the crowd. "Now I am willing to show leniency provided that you identify all of the lieutenants and underlings who had worked for your pirating organization; or at least all those who you know of and/or who you think or know are still alive."
The entire court remained silent.
"May I ask, Your Honor," Nom Anor said, "what will my sentencing be if I comply?"
"You will be sent by a Jedi decided by both Master Luke Skywalker and myself," Kl'ana answered, "to be with your people on Zonama Sekot."
"I will comply then," Nom Anor said without hesitation. He then recited the names of his lieutenants and underlings that came off to the top of his head in under a minute. When he was done, he said, "That's all who I can name."
"That will be sufficient," Kl'ana said. She then looked at Luke. "Master Skywalker, which Jedi do you wish to have take Nom Anor to Zonama Sekot?"
"I nominate my nephew, Jacen Solo, to do so, Your Honor," Luke said.
"Jedi Solo," Kl'ana said, "do you agree to do this?"
"I do, Your Honor," Jacen promptly answered.
"Then it's settled," Kl'ana said. "This trial is adjourned." She banged her mallet again, much to the dismayed and impotent objections of the crowd as Kl'ana left the courtroom.
.
Sometime later, Jacen led a stuncuffed Nom Anor up the boarding ramp of the Solo Quest - which had been towed from that slum district elsewhere on Denon and repaired in a GA repair facility - and only took the stuncuffs off when the door to the guest cabin was opened. The Yuuzhan Vong didn't resist as he simply walked into the room and Jacen closed and locked the door from the outside.
Minutes later, the Quest was hovering off the deck of the private GA hangar bay that the ship had been placed in after her repairs. Then Jacen turned it around and carefully piloted it out through the exit before flying the Quest up into Denon's skies. A few more minutes after that, the ship was out of Denon's gravity well and into hyperspace for the Unknown Regions.
As soon as the Quest was in hyperspace, Jacen opened the door to the guest cabin, where he found Nom Anor lying on his bed with his hands behind his head. The Yuuzhan Vong looked at the Jedi Knight in curiosity.
"Wanna play some holochess?" Jacen asked.
Nom Anor sat up on the edge of the bed. "Only if you don't cheat by using your Yuuzhan Vongsense to read my mind."
"This coming from you?" Jacen countered sardonically.
Nom Anor scowled, but nevertheless pushed himself off the bed and walked over to join Jacen.
.
"Ha!" Nom Anor exclaimed as soon as the last of Jacen's holochess monsters was killed. The Yuuzhan Vong himself had only three monsters left. "I won!"
"I would say you had cheated," Jacen said, "but I used my ability to perceive your people just to make sure you weren't making any underhanded moves."
"Oh, no, I played fair and square," Nom Anor said. "And I am honestly glad that you did, too.
"You know, something about your abilities came up on my mind," Nom Anor continued. "You can create substances from your surroundings and from your own body's components, correct?"
"Correct," Jacen confirmed.
"If you were making something from yourself," Nom Anor said, "wouldn't that be dangerous to your health? I imagine it would cause a serious imbalance to your homeostasis."
"When I was still learning to master this ability, I did have to drink plenty of fluids after committing an act like this," Jacen affirmed.
"But then?"
"Well, I learned how Onimi could do this without endangering his own body to it: I had to, at the same time I was creating compounds from myself, create compounds that would replenish my own health."
"That sounds incredibly tricky," Nom Anor observed.
"Oh, it was, at first," Jacen admitted. "But eventually, it became so easy that it was second nature. Sometimes, I don't even think about creating new compounds in me to replenish my health while creating other compounds to create other substances."
"Your body sounds more like a living chemical compound factory than that of a normal human being's at this point," Nom Anor said, impressed.
"I know," Jacen said with a self-congratulatory smile. "I did have five to six years to practice, and quite a bit of travel time between going between Force sects to master this art, after all."
"I suppose that makes sense," Nom Anor admitted. "Say, are you able to create more solid substances from your body's components, out of curiosity?"
"I was able to create a glass container for Aunt Mara, just to show off," Jacen said. "I mean, sure, it was unnecessary and useless, but, hey, I kind of like to self-indulge a bit. As you may have already known, I was a bit of a pudgy kid around the time of the Black Fleet Crisis."
"So I have heard," Nom Anor said. "But couldn't you have made the glass container from sand or stone or anything like that?"
"I could have," Jacen said. "I could have even made the sand and stone out of the molecules in the air. But that would have taken longer, and it wouldn't have been as fun or challenging." He grinned again.
"Hey, since I know that you and Aunt Mara hate each other," Jacen continued, "you wanna know something really crazy?"
"About your aunt?" Nom Anor asked. "Why would you slander an elder relative to one of her greatest enemies, one whom you have fought before?"
"I just think it's kinda funny, is all," Jacen said. "You see, after I made that glass, I also gave her some blue milk that I literally made out of my own sweat."
"And she drank it?" Nom Anor asked in amazement.
"She did," Jacen answered with a playful smile.
"And she didn't find anything weird or disgusting about this?" Nom Anor inquired.
"Hey, she drank it willingly, so I guess she didn't," Jacen said. "And you know, I was actually wondering if she would do it. I was really surprised when she did so."
"Jacen, if you gave me some blue milk made of your own sweat, I don't care if it's chemically clean, I'm not drinking anything made of your sweat," Nom Anor said. "Just that knowledge would probably make me throw up the blue milk."
"Even if you were incredibly thirsty and you wouldn't drink the water I would make from my own sweat?" Jacen asked.
Nom Anor looked at him curiously. "Wouldn't you just make it from the water molecules in the air?"
"I could, but I may still wanna mess with you," Jacen said.
"You're kind of a jackass, you know," Nom Anor replied.
Jacen couldn't help but laugh at that. "Yeah, I pretty much am. I may have to work on that. But you know what the craziest thing about her drinking my sweat-made blue milk is?"
"What?"
"She thought that my abilities were so incredible that she offered me a position as a Jedi Master," Jacen said.
"And you didn't take it?"
"Well, my uncle would have to be the one to promote me, but no, I didn't. I wasn't interested. I didn't wanna have that kinda responsibility, you know."
"I guess I can understand that. With great power comes great responsibility," Nom Anor said.
"Yeah. Of course, with this great power, maybe I do have a great responsibility, after all. In either case, I don't think I'm ready for the responsibility aspect. Not yet, anyway."
"Say, wouldn't you need to train an apprentice first before you became a Master?" Nom Anor asked.
"Not anymore," Jacen answered. "It is an option for some Jedi Knights to do that if they feel they want to adhere to the more traditional views that the Old Order had."
"Which, of course, is what you don't want the New Jedi Order to do," Nom Anor concluded.
"Yeah, but remember, I'm not the one running the Order, my uncle is," Jacen reminded the Yuuzhan Vong.
"You know, not that I would actually give you any advice that might potentially help the organization that was ultimately responsible for my downfall in my society," Nom Anor said, "but wouldn't you have rather become a Master so you can help guide the Order to how you see fit?"
"That's another point Aunt Mara brought up," Jacen said. He then shrugged and sighed. "I don't know, I guess I trust my aunt, uncle, and all the other Masters on the Council to do what they and I both think is good for the Order. But you know, I did convince my aunt that the Unifying Force was the most likely correct path for the Order to follow with my abilities to create substances from basic molecules; and I even convinced my uncle, as well. So maybe I wouldn't have needed to become a Master to convince the Council of what I think needs to be done; Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara could just do that for me and lead the rest of the Council on this path."
"Well, if you think so," Nom Anor said.
"But maybe I just need a little bit more to think about it," Jacen said. "Explore the Force a little more. And since we're going back to Zonama Sekot, this might be the perfect opportunity. I haven't seen Tahiri or Tekli in a while."
"What about that scientist who helped the Jedi on missions against my people?" Nom Anor asked. "What was her name again?"
"Danni," Jacen answered. "Danni Quee."
"Danni Quee, of course," Nom Anor said. "Are you not interested in seeing her again?"
"It'll be good to see her again, too," Jacen said.
"But?"
"But what?" Jacen asked.
"It sounded like you were holding something back from me," Nom Anor said.
"No, I wasn't," Jacen countered.
"No, I think you were," Nom Anor argued calmly.
"I wasn't."
"You were," Nom Anor said with upraised eyebrows.
"I wasn't," Jacen emphasized.
Nom Anor grinned. "You two had a relationship that did not work out, hmm? Is that why you did not simply mention her to begin with?"
Jacen just stared back at Nom Anor for a moment before sighing in defeat. "We almost had a relationship. It got close when we were out in the Unknown Regions looking for Zonama. But after we found the living world, the relationship never went anywhere. And of course, after the war, she decided to stay behind to study the planet, and I went on learning more about myself and the Force."
"I suppose you still have feelings for her?" Nom Anor inquired.
"Not that it's any of your business, but... yeah. Yeah, I kinda do. They're not strong, it's not like I'm totally smitten with her, but, you know..."
"I imagine that, if you two were to see each other again, the encounter might be a little awkward?" Nom Anor asked.
"On the contrary," Jacen replied. "We parted on surprisingly good terms. I doubt there'll be any hard feelings between us."
"Well, if you think so," Nom Anor said again.
Jacen went silent once more. "Go to your room."
"Oh, come on!" Nom Anor complained.
"Now," Jacen said, pointing to the direction of the guest cabin.
Nom Anor sighed, stood up from his seat, and headed back to his quarters in despondence.