"Some express shock that Xer, and Xim after him, were able to so easily suborn the Kingdoms of Cron, Barseg, Sorasca, and Cadinth. After all, the pirates of Argai had little organization, second-hand equipment, and (until Xer's reign) no goals beyond plunder. I believe they miss the point. Cron, Barseg, Sorasca, and Cadinth all made the same low evaluation of their foe, and that is why they fell. Never underestimate the barbarians." Taith Onderas, Xim and His Legacy, 548 LE

The Hand of Light drifted in open space. There were no stars within four lightyears, no nebulae, no strings of cosmic dust, only the great void that consumed most of the galaxy. The Force had led them here, not because it was where they needed to be, but because it was a place of safety from which they could plan their next move.

And there was much to plan, much to discuss. Their mission to intercept and examine the ancient Tythan generation ship had gone badly awry; they'd even failed to capture its computer core. Yet they'd made a discovery so unexpected it might yet make up for any losses.

Yes, there was much to discuss. If only they got the chance.

As soon as the Hand returned to realspace and the three Jedi began to rise from their seats, the young human woman demanded, "All right, who the hells are you people and what is this thing?"

She stood with hands on her hips, imperious despite her small size. Her companion, that tall, green-skinned alien, lingered behind her with seeming reluctance.

Because Erakas had the best Tionese of any of them, he replied, "We come from very far away. My name is Erakas. These are my companions, Master Talyak and Essan."

The Talid spread his lower hands palms-out in a greeting. Essan merely nodded.

"Well, I'm Reina and this is Vaatus. And when you say 'far away', how far are we talking about?"

"The heart of the galaxy," Talyak said.

Reina and Vaatus stared in disbelief. The latter asked, "Where are we? Are we near a planet?"

"We are in deep space," Erakas replied. "Not far from the planet."

"Endregaad," Reina said. "That was there we came from. And we need to get to Raxus Prime. Do you know where that is? It's where we said we'd meet up with my father."

Who would not doubt have more questions and would delay them further. In Tythan, Essan said, "We don't have time for Raxus. We need to find that ship."

"I agree," said Talyak. "It was damaged on the escape. Those inside may need help."

"I know," Erakas said, but his eyes lingered on the newcomers. "What are we going to do about them, though?"

"You know it's rude to exclude people from conversations, right?" Reina shifted from hands-on-hips to arms crossed, an equally adversarial pose. "Listen, we're grateful for the ride, and we can pay you… somehow. But we need to contact our ship and tell my father we're all right."

"How did you jump?" asked Vaatus. "We're not near a beacon, so how could you get here safely? Don't tell me it was luck. You people..." he looked around the cockpit, from the consoles to the deck. "You have more than luck."

Erakas opened his mouth to reply but Essan interrupted, "We have technology you do not."

She sent him a warning nudge in the Force. Revealing their advanced starship to these people was risky enough; trying to explain the Force would be a mistake. On their outbound journey they'd met different civilizations on different worlds. Many had vague notions of the Force and some had developed religions around it; a handful had organizations for those who could touch it, though all of them lacked the depth and history of the Jedi Order.

In Tionese space, however, they'd found nothing of the Force. Erakas, in all his investigations at different ports, had heard not a whisper of it. There was no history of Force-users in this region, not even religious movements that ran parallel to Jedi teaching. Even the mystic powers of the fallen Rakata seemed forgotten here; the Tyrants were remembered by that name and little else. There was no obvious explanation why this region would be so bereft of the Force, though Master Talyak had theorized that its humans were all descended from ancient colony ships that had left the Core millennia ago. If the initial stock contained no Force-sensitives, that barren state might carry down to all descendants.

Which made it all the more imperative they find that strange ship from Endregaad. They'd only gotten a fleeting look at it during its escape, but the ship's smooth hull, lozenge shape, and plasma-based weapons all recalled their own, which was itself an amalgam of Tythan, Rakatan, and Kwa technology.

Looking around the cockpit, arms still crossed, Reina said, "A lot of this stuff is far beyond us. I'm not going to try and understand it. But my father… we need to contact him. Can we, I don't know, beam a signal to the beacon at Raxus? If he's there, that should get the message to him."

"Better we rendezvous with him somewhere," said Vaatus. "Or we just go straight to Raxus."

"We have not time," Essan said. "We must find—"

"That other ship," Reina finished. "Who were those people? Friends of yours?"

The Jedi hesitated. It was Talyak who said, "We hope, yes. They are injured. In danger. We must help."

"And how do you know where to find them? Can your weird tech do that too?"

"Yes," Erakas said. "That's it."

"We must go," Essan pressed. "We—"

"Have not time," Reina interrupted again, then sighed. "Listen, we're not trying to make this hard for you. All we want is to get back to our ship so you can do whatever you do. That's it."

"We will get you back," Erakas soothed. "But it may take… time."

Talyak gestured to the communications system. "Please. Contact your ship."

Reina and Vaatus exchanged wary looks, like they didn't trust the offer, but they went to the console regardless. When Reina sat down in Erakas's chair and Vaatus hovered over its back, Talyak turned to the other Jedi and said in their own language, "Let them work. We have much to discuss."

"Do we?" said Essan. It was a relief to drop back into Tythan. "We must find that ship and help whoever is inside."

"I agree," Erakas said with a sigh. "I want to help these people too, but that ship..."

He hesitated to say his thoughts aloud, so Master Talyak spoke for him. "You believe it may contain someone like your Master. Kwa, perhaps, who have been isolated for a long time but can still touch the Force."

"Exactly. If there is someone else like Master Sohr out there… I can't leave them be. Do you think the Force can guide you to its location?"

Talyak glanced over-shoulder at his station, then at the stars. "I think maybe it has been doing that all along."

Perhaps it had been. Like other Jedi explorers, and the Rakata and Kwa before them, they relied on the Force to guide them safely through the tangled paths of hyperspace. It allowed them more freedom than the Force-blind Tionese, who were limited to their network of navigation buoys, but it also made every jump unpredictable.

"We shouldn't waste time," Erakas said. "Master, we should get going. These… others can wait."

"Do you want them to see what we find on that ship?" asked Essan.

"No, but there's people who need our help. They may be hurt, even dying." And they may be like his Master Sohr, which meant more to Erakas than anything.

"Give me a few minutes to meditate," Talyak said. "Then I will take us to that ship. Erakas, help our newcomers. Essan, prepare the translator. We may need it."

Their translator was a portable computer and speaker, barely larger than her fist, which was able to decipher twenty different languages and translate them into Tythan. Its database had been filled before they let Tythan and contained dictionaries and lexicons for languages near the Core, as well as that of ancient Kwa, Gree, Rakata, Killiks, and Columi. They'd not attempted to create a translation matrix for Tionese, as their mastery of the language still imperfect.

Perhaps that translator would be worthwhile now, or perhaps those mysterious Force-users were from a new species entirely. Either way, Essan set off to retrieve the machine. They'd failed their initial mission, and that stung bitterly, but the Force might be leading them to something greater still.

-{}-

Bending close to Reina as she hunched over the console, Vaatus whispered, "I want to get off this ship as soon as possible."

"So do I," she replied, eyes still on the machinery. The console layout was foreign, but she seemed to have figured out some of it.

"I don't trust these people."

"I could tell." She glanced sideways at him. "Anything in particular?"

"They remind me of… people I knew on Kintan."

Her eyes softened in understanding. "They don't seem bloodthirsty to me."

"It's not that." It was difficult to put into words, and it required him to think back on a point in his life he'd thought was far behind him. "They guard their secrets carefully."

She looked back to the console. "If I had a ship that did all this thing can, I'd be careful with it. Bet Xim and his boys would love to take it apart and find what works."

Vaatus eyed the three foreigners, still clustered together, then bent closer still. "I think they're lying."

"About that?"

"When they jumped to lightspeed… I watched them. They didn't use any kind of computer. They did it… some other way."

"What, there's some other way to navigate hyperspace?"

"For them, maybe."

Reina glanced at them too. They were deep in conversation but the four-armed alien, the one they'd called Master, was speaking in a firm-sounding tone. Their palaver might be coming to an end.

"I don't think they're planning to hurt us," Reina said, a little weakly.

"Well, we're not their high priority either."

She didn't argue with that. The three aliens broke up a moment later; the red-skinned woman, Essan, left the cockpit while the four-armed Master stood and stared out the window. And the human, Erakas, came straight for them.

"How is it going?" he asked in that strange accent, the one all of them seemed to have. One accent, one language, three different species. That raised plenty of questions in itself.

Reina leaned back and gave him that warm, disarming smile she was good at. "I think I've got an idea. I don't know how it works wherever you're from, but in our part of space, sometimes ships have hyperdrive malfunctions, skip a beacon, and go missing. Then they have to use their comm system to send out an emergency signal that basically acts like a new beacon. We call them 'screamers.' With those they can draw in rescue ships into deep space, or wherever they're stranded."

"You want to bring your father here."

"I want to bring him to wherever you're going." She looked at the Master, still staring out the window. "You are going after that other ship, right?"

"As soon as we can." Erakas sounded apologetic.

"Then once you find it and start doing whatever recovery work you're planning, I want to send out a screamer. If we direct it at Raxus my dad should hear it and come after us."

Erakas hesitated. He started looking back at his Master when Talyak said, "Prepare a signal, if you can."

"Thank you," Reina said in relief. "Your systems are still weird to me, but with a little help..."

"I'll do what I can," Erakas said, and for some reason he looked relieved too.

There was something open, even earnest about this young human. He didn't seem capable of complex deception. That was good but his two companions were less transparent. Vaatus was certain they were still hiding much, and that meant he couldn't feel relief, not yet.

He'd learned a long time ago that there were few beings in this galaxy you could really trust. For him that counted only three; his father, Reina, and someone he'd left on Kintan long ago, someone who probably wasn't even alive anymore. He might add others to that list someday, but he knew these strangers would never be on it.

-{}-

When the Ascendant arrived over Endregaad, it found the Harridan drifting just beyond the planet's gravity well in parallel to the generation ship that had started this whole mess. The ark was larger than any spacecraft Jaminere had seen before; its tubular body was an impressive kilometer long, while its thick diameter made its volume at least twice again as much as Xim's mighty Eibon Scimitar and five times the size of Harridan, which looked minuscule beside it. When the Ascendant settled onto the ark's other flank, Jaminere went to the bridge and initiated a screen-to-screen connection with the Harridan.

Even seen from head and shoulders, everything about Captain Felric was narrow: his close-set eyes, his bladelike nose, his thin-lipped mouth and pointed chin. He seemed to Jaminere then like the edge of a knife poised to strike.

"Viceroy," he said after a quick salute, "We are still in the process of calculating likely jump trajectories for the escaping ships. I have alerted the beacon stations at all worlds within twelve lightyears to be on lookout, but so far we've received no reports."

"Tell me about those ships. Have you tried cross-referencing the projected paths of each one and plotting an intersection?"

"Of course, sir, but they jumped to hyperspace at opposing angles. There is no possible intersection, at least not using direct paths."

Based on their exotic designs and cooperation at Endregaad, Jaminere was certain those ships would rendezvous at some location. According to the Harridan's battle logs, the larger of the two had taken three direct missile hits, which should have been enough to destroy any Tionese ship that size. Whatever that thing was, it would probably have to stop and salve its wounds. If the ships were located quickly, they could be caught and captured while both were still vulnerable.

Carefully he said, "It is possible these ships may be able to navigate through hyperspace without the use of the beacon system."

Felric's little eyes got a bit bigger. "I see."

"You understand how valuable these ships are, and how essential it is that we find them. I'm going to raise an alert at all our beacon stations, just in case they appear near any of our worlds. In the meantime, both of our ships will begin scouring deep space for any unusual energy displays, heat signatures, or comm bursts. We'll jump off the network if that's what it takes to find these ships." He tapped the console beneath his screen. "I'm assigning you the following sectors. Ascendant will scan the rest. Sweep outward from our current location."

"Yes, sir. I'll do that immediately." Felric's eyes darted down, then back up to the camera. "Our investigation teams are aboard the generation ship now. Their preliminary reports are… somewhat unusual."

"Explain."

"So far they have found over four hundred bodies in cryogenic freezing chambers. All of these capsules have ceased function and the inhabitants are dead." There was nothing unusual about that, Jaminere thought, but the captain added, "The bodies belong to at least eight different species. The only one we have been able to identify so far are humans, though several others appear to be near-human but distinct."

That was unusual, and it seemed like Felric had more to say. "Go on, Captain."

"Sir, we still haven't been able to identify the material this ship is made from. We're having problems magnetizing to the hull and interior bulkheads, but we've cut off pieces and will retain them for analysis. Some systems were under power but we were not able to locate the memory core of the ship's computer. We believe this was the object that was ejected into Endregaad's atmosphere."

"Did you send a second ground team after it?"

"Yes, sir. They found the ejection pod but the contents have been removed. We believe the, ah, creatures took it with them before escaping the planet. The ground team is also surveying the remains of their settlement in the desert. We've found no bodies, alive or dead, and the technology we've recovered seems primitive. However—"

"Collect everything, every last scrap, then ship it directly to Ascendant."

Felric blinked. "As ordered, sir."

"Transmit all the files from your recovery team to me for review. Is there anything else?"

"At the moment, sir, no. I currently have my crew standing by at yellow alert."

"As do I. Keep them there. As soon as we find those alien ships, I'm taking both our vessels in to engage. The goal is to capture them, but if that proves impossible, we'll destroy them and sort out the wreckage."

"And the generation ship?"

"A tender is on its way from Estaria and should be here shortly. Its crew will work with yours to analyze the specimen."

"Very good, sir. I'll keep my crew ready."

"I'm sure you will. Dismissed, Captain."

Felric raised a salute. Jaminere tapped off the connection. He stood before the blank screen for a moment, considering. In his rush to find the escaped ships he'd nearly forgotten about the generation ark, but it seemed to be a piece of puzzle after all. One ark, many different species, from a distant part of space, washing up on the shores of the Empire after perhaps millennia in doomed transit. It might be an idle curiosity, but he had a feeling it tied into their quarry somehow. Otherwise those two strange ships appearing where they did would be just coincidence, and he did not believe in coincidence.

When he finally turned from the comm station, he nearly bumped into Captain Sovane. The young man flushed, embarrassed, and said, "Viceroy, you've received a new transmission, marked high priority. It's from Admiral Kadenzi."

"Put it on my screen, then."

"Yes, sir."

Jaminere went back to the comm station and hunched over it. He'd been half-expecting this; for the past twenty years, the former Sorascan admiral had been supreme commander of Xim's entire war fleet. He was currently stationed at far-off Duinarbulon, but Xim must have decided to bring him into the loop regarding the alien ships.

Sure enough, the screen winked on, displaying Kadzeni's head and epaulet-topped shoulders. Twenty years of near-constant warfare had taken its toll on the man, adding gray streaks to his hair and turning his beard almost entirely white (It had done much the same to Jaminere, which was why he stayed clean-shaven).

"I've received an explanation of the situation in the Endregaad system," Kadenzi said. "I stand ready to offer assistance from any location. I advise against withdrawing ships from Estaria, given the recency of our conquest. If backup is required on the outer edge of the Spiral, I can send vessels from Eredenn and Caluula. If you request it, I will deploy forces to Tion and put them on standby. Let me know as soon as possible how you would like to proceed."

The recording winked off. A short, simple message, but Kadenzi had sent it in video form to signify how important it was to their emperor.

But Jaminere already knew that. He knew it far better than Kadenzi, who wasn't privy to what Xim's research teams at Abraxin had been working on for twenty years. And he also knew, better than Kadenzi, how Xim would react if this chance slipped through their fingers.

Jaminere began typing out a request for ships to be moved from Eredenn to Tion. He didn't think he'd need them, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Especially if their quarry was what he dared think it was.

-{}-

As they combed through their drifting ship, taking stock of the damage and making count of those wounded or killed, Shen gained the sick feeling that their Sanctuary might become their tomb.

It was not just the missile strikes that had impacted the outer hull and rent multiple breaches, though those were bad enough. The worst came when they completed their hyperspace jump.

The jump that Shen had guided them to.

The jump the Force told him would be safe.

As soon as they'd reverted to realspace they were assailed, not by missiles or bullets but by dumb rocks drifting in space. Their outer shell, already weakened during their escape, was pounded by asteroids ranging in size from a mere fist to half the mass of their Sanctuary. The Elders had regained control of the ship and tried to steer it out of the asteroid field but there were simply too many rocks spread out too far. There was no escape from them, and the Sanctuary was taking too much damage.

The Elders guided them to a new refuge, the only one which offered any protection against their deadly surroundings. It was a planetoid far larger than any of the surrounding rocks, with a kilometers-long crevasse into which they could nestle their ship. The mighty rough walls rovided some protection and gave them a chance to survey all the damage they'd taken.

And there was plenty to survey. Along with Kaim and Rone, Shen joined rescue teams attempting to find survivors in the damaged areas of the ship. Those in outer compartments had been thrown into space and lost instantly, while others were trapped in sections hit by fatal decompression. Others were dying slowly as the air leaked out of their crumpled cabins, and it was to these that the rescue teams flocked.

Shen tried to call on the Force again, but it was even more difficult than before. If the Force could not help him save his people, then what good was it? Frustration roiled in his head as he helped seek out survivors. It unbalanced him and it was difficult to seek out stubborn life-signs in the Force. Yet when he did get the feeling that life was close by, that feeling led him true. He, Kaim, and Rone cut through damaged bulkheads again and again, carving through enough space to pull out wounded survivors before plugging the holes and welding them shut with the heat from their sabers.

Despite their best efforts, it was clear the Sanctuary had suffered too many hull breaches. The most catastrophic ones had been patched, yes, but oxygen was still leaking out of uncounted minute tears. Unless they could escape to a habitable planet, they would all die here.

The rescue efforts left Shen exhausted, and when it seemed like they had found all they could, he told Kaim and Rone to rest and went to seek out his mother. He didn't need the Force to know she'd be where he left her, in the chamber from which the Elders commanded the ship. Yet when he arrived he found it was almost empty. Most of its command consoles were abandoned though a few were occupied by young technicians trying to wrestle function out of failing, old technology.

Quoll, however, was still at her post. She was speaking to Plev, but when she saw Shen approach she waved the Elder off and turned to her son. "I've heard you were busy," she said.

"I rescued all I could. I wish I could say it mattered."

She took his meaning. "We are attempting to repair the hyperdrive engine, and the sublight thrusters still function. The challenge will be getting through this asteroid field—"

"And finding a new haven, somehow," Shen said bitterly.

Interrupting any Elder, especially his mother, was scandalous, but Quoll did not scold him. She said, "The fact that any of us survive is due to you and your connection to the Force. We will depend on it still if we are to survive."

He knew that, and it made his heart twist. He'd asked for none of those, yet destiny kept shoving its weight onto him. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to crawl alone into some cabin and surrender to the oblivion of sleep.

Quoll sensed this and touched his shoulder. "You must remain strong, for all our sakes. I know it is difficult. I know you are grieving for the loss of your friend, and—"

"What?" Shen interrupted again. "What friend? I was just with Rone and Kaim.."

"I thought you knew. The section where we'd taken our wounded, and the bodies of the fallen, was hit by the last missile. It was vented into space immediately."

It was like a physical blow. "Then you mean… everything… even Vosh?"

"I am very sorry."

He shook off her hand and stepped away. Even Vosh, who'd stayed his friend even after she'd learned the strange destiny he'd carried. Who might have been even closer, had not that same destiny interfered with their childhood affection. Who'd fought as bravely as anyone on Endregaad, and whose minor wounds had condemned her to pointless death.

Shen turned and rushed from the chamber, into the hallway beneath. Standing beneath the flickering lights he curled his three-clawed hands into fists and pounded the bulkhead. He cursed the humans who persecuted them, cursed himself, and cursed the Force most of all. What good was that power if he couldn't even save the people he was closest to? Yet it was still with him now. It welled inside him, snarled and sparked. White specks of it sizzled in his hands. This was the power he'd wanted to draw on during the fight on Endregaad. If he'd been empowered with this kind of spite, fewer would have died, and Vosh may have even—

It was too much, too much. With a howl, Shen punched his sparking fist into the wall hard enough to dent it. At the same time pain cracked through the bones in his fingers and shot up his arm. He let the limb hang at his side but kept snarling curses. Never again would he trust in the Force. Never again would he call on it. Never again would he allow others to depend on them, because he was certain to let them down.

His mother and the Elders would have to find some other way to save them. Shen vowed never to rely on that horrible strength again.

-{}-

If this was where the Force had led them, it could have been more helpful. From the Hand of Light's cockpit, Erakas looked out on a field of drifting rock five thousand kilometers deep. It was strung like a belt around a single white dwarf star that was otherwise devoid of any satellites, though from the right angle the sun's distant light gleamed white on the stone and ice of slow-tumbling asteroids.

Sitting at his station he looked to his left and asked, "Are you sure this is the right place?"

Master Talyak, still in his own chair, stared out with narrowed eyes. "I believe they are here… somewhere."

"There's plenty of places to look," Essan said as she worked her console. "I'm running scans for heat signatures, thrust trails, and abnormal metals. This may take time."

"I will search for them in the Force," Talyak said. He closed his eyes, crossed both pairs of arms across his chest, and lowered his head. Erakas could feel the intense concentration radiating out of him, but he looked like he'd fallen asleep at the helm.

Erakas felt edgy; he double-checked his console to make sure the right commands were running, then rose from his chair and walked to the back of the cockpit, where Reina and Vaatus both leaned against the wall.

"Your transmission is being sent," he told them. "If your father is listening to that beacon, he will hear and know to come here."

"I hope we're easier to find than… whatever it is you're looking for," Reina said. Her companion had become even more taciturn; he just watched the Jedi with eyes as hard as his face.

Whatever the reason for Vaatus's recalcitrance, he didn't feel it from Reina. Indeed, her emotions were plain in the Force, simple and understandable. He was glad for that; in his interactions with these Tionese he'd always been a man apart, his purpose and true self concealed beneath necessary disguises. He was surprised how good it felt to be with a non-Jedi like a normal person full of hopes and fears. Despite everything, he was glad they'd picked up these hangers-on.

To comfort them he said, "As soon as your father arrives you can transfer to his ship and be on your way. You won't have to deal with us ever again."

He found the idea didn't cheer him. Reina didn't seem encouraged either. She looked at the vast asteroid field and asked, "Those people out there… are they your kind or aren't they?"

"Not exactly… but they could become my kind."

Those eyes moved over to Essan and Talyak. She asked, "Did you all come from the same place? The same world?"

"We did."

"And this ship we're chasing, did you know it was going to be at Endregaad? Because when it first jumped out, you all looked pretty surprised."

He might have lied or obscured the facts, like he always did with Tionese, but he decided to tell the truth. "We had no idea that ship was there. We still don't know what it is or who… but we have an idea."

"A hope?" she asked.

"Yes. A hope."

Her gaze fell on him, and despite the youthful softness to her face, those eyes were as hard as her companion's. "Erakas," she said, "when all this is done, where are you people going to go? Back to your homeworld, in the Core?"

"No," he said. "There's… nothing left for us there." Nothing except a Master he craved to see, but knew he must, as a Jedi, move beyond.

"Then where will you go?" she pressed. Her voice had dropped to a whisper.

Just as softly, Erakas admitted, "I do not know."

And he felt something from her, saw something in those eyes, he hadn't received from any Tionese. He hadn't even gotten it from his Jedi companions, not really. She felt sorry for him. Maybe she was right to. She, at least, had a place where she belonged and yearned to get back to.

What did a Jedi have, in all this vast galaxy?

Erakas sighed and looked back at the asteroid field. He prayed he found those people in time, and that they answered the craving he had deep inside him, because he didn't know who else could.

-{}-

When Kroller dropped the Gravity Scorned out of hyperspace at the targeted location, he had the gun turret warmed and the tracking computer on, just in case. Yet when he reverted to realspace he saw no waiting starships, hostile, friendly, or mysterious. He only saw a vast spread of drifting rock.

Now he understood why Reina had been forced to send him an emergency signal-flare; they were well off the beacon network. That begged a new question: how that foreign ship had gotten here at all. He hoped to get the answer soon as he fired up his comm system and sent out a blanket hail.

The response came in seconds. His daughter's voice was sweet music. "Dad, this is Reina. Do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, darling. What's your position?"

"Hold on..." Her voice became fainter. "Can you flare your engines?"

A second later Kroller marked a burst of hot thrust, tilted the Gravity toward it, and dove. The other ship was hovering very close to the asteroid plane; dangerously close, in fact, and he resisted to urge to tell them to pull up. Whoever had saved his children (or taken them hostage) wasn't going to listen to his suggestions.

He decelerated and pulled the Gravity close enough to get a better look at that ship. It was indeed unlike anything he'd ever known, with an ovoid body and flat, jutting forward mandibles. The hull had a silver sheen to it like the generation ship, and he wondered if these people were connected to the ark's creators. If so they were a long, long way from home.

A new voice came over the comm, with an even thicker accent than the young man he'd heard before. It said, "Please, make preparation. We meet with your ship."

Kroller didn't bother to ask how. He cut engines and used directional thrusters to slow himself to a halt beside the alien ship. At the same time he extended the Gravity's docking tube without unsealing the airlock. Then he unstrapped from the pilot's chair and pushed himself down the ship's spinal shaft, all the way to his cabin near the aft end. He quickly grabbed two pistols and stuck one in the waist pocket of his jumpsuit. The other one he kept in hand as he pushed himself back up the shaft and swung into the airlock chamber.

He peered through the door's tiny glass porthole and saw the alien ship had already pulled alongside to lock with the far end of the tube. He waited; the pistol's hard handle felt sticky against his sweat-damp palm. He didn't want to come off as a threat, and he didn't want to start a fight by accident, but he couldn't let go of the thing, not until he knew his kids were safe.

He checked the readout by the airlock controls and saw the tube was pressurized and breathable. With his free hand he cranked open the metal door and pushed his weightless body through the extended passageway. The door on the far side did not open, not yet; he kept his pistol-hand behind his back while the other groped ahead.

Then something happened that he couldn't explain. First the door ahead of him slid open, revealing the smooth walls of an airlock vestibule. Then a human stepped into view: a young man with long black hair pulled into a ponytail, who gestured Kroller forward. He'd been expecting a ship full of aliens, and that surprised him so much he didn't realize how easily he glided into the other ship and set his feet down.

But his feet did set down, and they stuck to the deck, as though being held by gravity. Actual, standard gravity. He looked at the young man and his face wrinkled in a frown. The man smiled in reply.

"I am Erakas," he said with that mild unplaceable accent. "We have your, ah, people here. Come with me."

Erakas led Kroller through another door, into another smooth-walled corridor. Kroller was trying to grapple with a ship this small having artificial gravity when a body collided with his. Arms wrapped around his shoulders and the wavy brown fringe of his daughter's hair filled his view. When he managed to look past it he saw Vaatus standing with arms crossed and relief in his eyes.

"Hey, Dad." Reina said. "Miss me?"

"A bit," Kroller admitted with a huff.

She kissed him on the cheek and pulled back. "Oh, you got worried, did you? I can't imagine why. It's not like we were in mortal danger or anything."

He was glad she could joke about it, but tension weighed on her perky tone. Kroller released her from the hug and remembered the pistol still in his hand. Erakas's eyes lit on it, but he didn't say anything. With mild chagrin, Kroller stuffed it into his pocket along with the other one, then turned to embrace Vaatus. "How you doing, son?"

"I'll be glad to get off this ship," the Nikto said, and Kroller could tell that was absolute truth.

"Well, your driver's standing by," he said, then turned to Erakas. "Thank you, whoever you are. Listen, if you want any sort of payment for this..."

"Your thanks is good," the young man said with a tiny bow. He seemed just as young as Reina, and Kroller was sure there were other people on this ship, other people with seniority who probably deserved his thanks (and offers of remuneration) even more.

Reina read his mind and took his hand. "Dad, before we go, I really think you should see a little more of this thing."

"It is… unique," Vaatus said.

"I got that feeling already." Kroller looked to Erakas, who remained smiling but volunteered no further explanation.

Without waiting for the young man to guide them, Reina pulled him down the hallway, around a bend, and up a short flight of stairs into the cockpit. It was like no cockpit Kroller had ever seen: the transparent viewport stretched from wall to wall and must have been made of something far stronger than reinforced glass. His eyes wept over instrument panels and found some familiar (there was a helm, there a sensor screen) but he saw no clear communications array and no node for navigating the hyperspace beacon network.

Most strange of all were the two beings who stood before him. The scarlet-skinned woman with the horn-tipped brows called herself Essan. The shaggy six-limbed creature with the vaguely equine face called himself Mal-Oba Talyak. Alien ages were always hard to guess, but he seemed older than Essan and Erakas, and their bodies were angled to him as though in deference.

Kroller wasn't sure if he should shake any of those four hands, so he gave a tiny bow and said, "Thanks for your help. I owe you everything, and if there's anything I can do for you, anything you need..." The words seemed preposterous, spoken as they were in a ship so advanced, and he let them trail off.

Talyak said, "Thanks are… welcome. Go, you can. If you wish. However, you can give help. If you wish."

Essan said something in a strange language; Talyak replied in kind and shook his head. Then, back in halting Tionese, he said, "We are looking for help. Looking for… ship."

"It's that thing that ran from Endregaad," Reina explained. "They think it's somewhere in here. Maybe, once we get back to the Gravity, we can, you know, lend a hand? Two sets of searchers are better than one."

As far as payment went it didn't sound too terrible. Kroller's wonder at this strange ship had overcome his need to see his kids off safe, but only temporarily. He told Talyak, "We can help look, for a little while. If we do find that ship, we'll clear out and let you handle the recovery operation. Is that clear?"

"This is acceptable."

"Well, I'm glad." He looked again at those strange control panels. "How are you searching for this thing? Heat and energy signatures?"

"That is how we start," Essan said. "Asteroid zone is… too large."

"You want to split the field, I get that. Listen if you think—"

He was interrupted by lights and beeping from a console. Essan went over to her sensor board, peered at the screen, and said something unintelligible.

"What have we got?" asked Kroller. "Did you find out?"

Essan only said, "No."

Kroller went over to the screen and peered at the sensor readout. This foreign computer must have been updated with some Tionese identification software, because it recognized the two inbound starship clearly. One was a Thanium polyreme, the other a Cadinthian dreadnaught, and there was no doubt at all what they were here for.