• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

A few moments later Ben brought their meals back on trays, along with two steaming cups of caf and four sweetcakes that looked evilly gooey.

“Thanks, Ben, but I don’t want any sweetcakes,” Luke said as he reached for the caf and sipped it.

“Oh, I know, those are for me.” Ben began cutting his steak as he talked, his eyes still on the Aing-Tii. For all his joking complaints, he was clearly very interested. In his role as the son of the Jedi Grand Master, he had attended several diplomatic functions and met a staggering variety of beings. He was no backplanet farm boy seeking novelty, as Luke had been at his age. But the Aing-Tii were mysterious, unknown, elusive, and intriguing.

“So, yeah, about two meters tall, and they can apparently use those tails quite effectively in combat,” Ben said, then took a bite of steak and chewed.

“Speaking of combat, what are their tactics in battle? That seems to be what we know best about them, from the brief glance I had at Cilghal’s summary.”

Ben paused in midchew, his green eyes narrowing. “She gave you a summary?”

Luke chuckled and took a bite of the stew. “Instructor’s prerogative. Keep going, you’re doing fine.”

Ben swallowed, scowled, and continued. “Well, like I said, they can slap you with that tail pretty good. They also have these—well, they’re like clubs, or sticks, wrapped up in some kind of wiring that delivers a very powerful stun.”

He popped another bite in his mouth, talking as he ate. Luke was mildly amused. Leia knew the etiquette of dozens of species and had done her best, along with Mara, to instill manners in the boy. And when it mattered, Luke knew that his son was capable of behaving impeccably in a formal situation. But right now, they were simply two bachelors eating dinner and talking, and formality had gone out the air lock, and Luke didn’t mind one bit. He resisted an impulse to ruffle his son’s red hair affectionately.

“Now, their ships—” Ben swallowed, extended an arm, and tapped another key. The image of the Aing-Tii was replaced by that of their vessel. “These things are really astral.”

Luke took another spoonful of stew, looking at the miniature holographic vessel that turned slowly. Roughly ovoid, it resembled the beings who presumably built it in that it, too, was covered with thick hull plates that bore similar designs to what the Aing-Tii sported on their bodies. Conical projections jutted seemingly at random from the hull. The whole thing struck Luke as organic in some fashion, and for a moment he was uncomfortably reminded of the Yuuzhan Vong.

“It’s huge,” Ben said with a mouthful of stew, having already devoured the nerf steak. Luke remembered when he’d had an appetite like that and marveled silently as Ben continued. “They’re called Sanhedrim ships. Half the size of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The Aing-Tii have some kind of technology or Force knowledge that enables the ships to appear out of nowhere—literally just pop from one place to another. They use a variety of attack styles, the least pleasant of which is when they suddenly turn and smash your ship across their bow. The most benevolent is bathing your ship with some kind of ray that apparently distorts your perception of time. By the time you recover your wits, their ship is long gone.”

Luke frowned, the bowl of stew forgotten for the moment. “Distortion of time … I wonder, does it just stun the victim somehow, or does it really alter time? After all, these are the beings who developed the knowledge of flow-walking. There could be a connection.”

“Maybe. You going to eat that?”

Luke shook his head, his eyes still on the miniature Aing-Tii. “Go ahead.”

“Thanks.” Ben scraped what Luke had left of his stew into his own bowl and continued eating.

“We know they are fiercely isolationist and xenophobic. What about their belief system?” Luke knew the answer to this, but wanted to see how far Ben had gotten in his research. To be fair, there had been a lot to dig through. Right now, though, they had nothing but time on their hands, and he wanted