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Tiin glanced at Yaddle, then Billaba, both of whom nodded. He swung back to the holocam pickup. “We await your escort.”

“Is there anyone here who feels confident about this?” Vergere asked while the cruiser was descending through the thin clouds that barely masked Asmeru’s wrinkled surface. When no one responded to the delicate, feathered Jedi’s question, she shook her disproportionately large head. “Just as I feared.”

Qui-Gon glanced meaningfully at Obi-Wan. The two of them left the pod and retraced their steps to the cockpit. By the time they arrived, features of the landscape were coming into view: ice-capped mountain ranges; arid plateaus; steep and intricately terraced hillsides, pale-green with crops, climbing above ribbons of racing black water.

“What should we do in the event of trouble, Master?” Obi-Wan asked quietly.

Qui-Gon’s gaze didn’t leave the cockpit viewport. “In a rainstorm, you try to keep dry by hurrying for shelter. But you get soaked regardless.”

“It’s better to conclude beforehand that you’re going to get wet,” Obi-Wan said.

Qui-Gon nodded.

The ruins of an ancient city of quarried stone appeared on the horizon—monolithic monuments, rectangular platforms, and stepped pyramids, silhouetted against the sky, as if they were a range of hills. Directly below, enormous geometric shapes and animistic symbols had been etched into the perpetually thirsty ground. The city was bounded by walls made of cyclopean boulders, assembled in the shape of lightning bolts.

Surrounding the ruins spread a maze of primitive dwellings built of mud and sun-baked clay. Tiny figures could be glimpsed moving along dirt roadways, some of them in wheeled wagons, and others driving herds of longhaired pack animals, as large as banthas. To the north, an expansive lake dotted with rocky islands stretched across the creased terrain like a spill of liquid jet.

“There’s the landing area,” the pilot said.

She directed Qui-Gon’s attention to a large plaza at the center of the ruins, as wide as the hangar arm of a Trade Federation freighter and twice as long. Bordered on all four sides by flat-faced pyramids, the plaza was large enough to accommodate a flotilla of cruisers.

“Prominence, this is Ecliptic,” the same female voice said in haste over the cockpit speakers. “Our scanners have detected five unidentified vessels emerging from Asmeru’s dark side. House Vandron’s Tikiars and Dread-naughts are leaving orbit.”

Qui-Gon glanced sharply at the pilot. “It’s a trap, Captain. Order the Ecliptic to get clear.”

“Ecliptic,” the pilot started to say, when a long burst of static issued from the cockpit speakers. Then the female voice returned, her words shot through with alarm.

“Prominence, they’re detonating the mines! We can’t maneuver! Unidentified ships closing. Four starfighters and a Tempest-class gunship.”

Obi-Wan shot Qui-Gon a wide-eyed look. “The Hawk-Bat?”

“We’ll know soon enough.”

A prolonged screech erupted from the speakers. At the same time, the Prominence began to shudder violently.

“We’re being pulled in,” the pilot said in astonishment.

She and the copilot began to struggle with the controls. Qui-Gon pressed his face to the cool transparisteel viewport. A rectangular opening had appeared in the inclined face of one of the plaza pyramids, revealing the telltale grid of a tractor beam.

“It’s a commercial array,” Qui-Gon said. “Can we break away?”

“We can try,” the pilot said.

“We could also end up blowing out the sublight drives,” Obi-Wan thought to point out.

The copilot opened a channel to the communications station. “Send a burst transmission to Coruscant, alerting them to our situation.”

Below, the flat roof of a sprawling building was parting like a curtain. The barrel of a weapon elevated into view.

“Ion cannon,” the pilot said through gritted teeth.

Qui-Gon squatted down next to her. “Our visit was clearly anticipated, Captain.”

Abruptly, she pivoted to the controls that enabled the salon pod ejection system. “Master, tell your comrades to exit the salon pod. There may yet be a way