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“Never mind,” Luke said. “Let’s go.”

ABOARD THE JADE SHADOW

AFTER ALL THE STRUGGLING, GUESSWORK, AND SHEER TEETH-RATTLING endurance Ben and Luke had suffered through over the last several days, their current situation had a definite air of relief about it.

Soon after Luke had conveyed his agreement to the Aing-Tii’s proposal, coordinates had begun scrolling across the screen. It was a series of jumps that proved to be shockingly easy. On the third jump, Ben said, “You know, we should have been able to figure these out on our own.”

Luke replied mildly, “Seems to me that we’ve spent several days attempting to do precisely that, and that the jumps we’re now executing had not occurred to either of us. Besides, we had no specific direction—we were simply trying to cast our net as wide as possible.”

Ben sighed. “I know … I just feel a little foolish. It’s so obvious, now that I look at it.”

“Things are usually obvious when you’re on the other side of them,” Luke replied. “Also, if we had arrived unexpectedly in orbit around the Aing-Tii homeworld, we might well have been attacked and killed before we could even present our case properly.”

Ben threw up his hands in surrender, laughing. “You win. I don’t know why you needed to hire Nawara Ven. You argue a case well enough on your own.”

Both fell silent, though, when after the final jump they found themselves orbiting not a planet full of sentient beings but a small, uninhabited moon.

“Dad,” Ben said slowly, “do you think we just walked into a trap?”

Luke shook his blond head. “No. If they had wanted to kill us, they had a perfect opportunity to do so earlier. I’d hoped that the test would be conducted on their homeworld, but apparently this is the site they’ve selected.”

Ben touched the controls. The moon was rocky and inhospitable. “It has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, which is good, although the oxygen is a bit lower than ideal. And we’re not entirely protected from the EMR of the Rift, but the hassat-durr technique should keep us safe enough,” he said with just a touch of uncertainty.

“Will we need breath masks?”

“No.” Thank goodness. “We should be all right outside the Shadow for a few hours. And there’s a single life-form. Mammalian.”

“Our welcoming party,” said Luke, “who will no doubt be the one administering the challenge.”

The surface was as rocky as it had appeared from space. As they maneuvered the Shadow in for a landing, still following the extremely precise coordinates they had been given, they saw the Aing-Tii vessel. The ship was clearly of the same make as the Sanhedrim ship that had confronted them earlier, but on a smaller, more personal scale. It still looked unsettlingly organic to Ben. There were similar protrusions extending from its ovoid, but he could see no doors or ramps. Nor was there any sign of the Aing-Tii representative they had anticipated would greet them. Ben and Luke exchanged glances.

“Maybe it will disembark once we show good faith,” Luke suggested.

“I hope so. This is all feeling pretty weird.”

“I’m afraid I have to agree.”

Luke settled the Shadow on the rocky soil, near but not too close to their host’s vessel. Ben reached for his cloak—after all that time spent on Dorin lugging around a breath mask and assorted canisters, he wanted to take only the minimum he’d need.

“Leave the lightsaber,” Luke said, already unfastening his own. “We’re not coming anticipating a fight.”

“What if they give us one?”

“The Force will give us enough to rely on if we have to defend ourselves. But Ben—this is the species that Yoda sent a man to for healing. I don’t think this challenge is to the death.”

Ben wasn’t so sure. “Yeah, and they sometimes appear out of nowhere and ram ships, too.” But he left his lightsaber behind as his father wished.

Ben felt slightly light-headed the moment they stepped down the ramp, but the sensation wasn’t extreme. They approached slowly, giving the Aing-Tii plenty of time to exit his own vessel. Several large, gray rocks were clustered within a few meters of the ship. Ben wondered why the Aing-Tii