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“Maybe you should tip better,” she said.

ABOARD THE JADE SHADOW

“DAD,” SAID BEN, WITH THE SORT OF EXAGGERATED PATIENCE THAT one might use when speaking to a child, “we took her to Korriban. You know, Sith homeworld? And far from turning on us, she defended us.”

“I know,” Luke said. He was listening to his son, but his eyes were on a slowly turning blue-green sphere. The planet he was regarding with such intensity was either ocean or marsh, with very little dry land. It was a marked contrast with Korriban, which had been their last stop. But it was, to Luke’s mind, every bit as dangerous.

Maybe more.

“I mean—those tuk’ata were pretty vicious, and she got them obeying her and leaving us alone.”

“I know, Ben, I was there.”

There was a long pause. Ben fidgeted.

“And there was a whole pack of them and—”

“Ben!” Luke’s voice was not angry, but it was sharp and laced with irritation.

“Quit while you’re ahead,” Jaina advised.

Ben shot her a skeptical look. “Like you do?” he retorted.

Luke tuned them out, focusing on the deceptively calm-looking world before him. Watery a planet as it was, simply finding a safe place to land would be a challenge. It got harder from there. He would not be the first Jedi to land here. Kyle Katarn had been here before.

So had Mara.

Both had been lucky to escape alive.

The world was so dangerous that Luke had not felt the Jedi were ready to explore its mysteries; it had been allowed to remain a myth, the subject of cautionary tales to make sure wide-eyed young apprentices stayed on the path of the light side.

But Dromund Kaas was real. Darkly, frighteningly, dangerously real, and they were about to land on it.

The discussion—argument was too strong a word—he had been having with Ben was about whether Vestara should be permitted to join them on its soggy surface. The young Jedi Knight had raised a point—a good one, one Luke could find no argument with. Vestara indeed could have set the hounds on them, buying at least enough time to flee back to the Shadow and escape with it. Instead she had protected them all, possibly putting herself in danger to do so.

It wasn’t a very Sith-like thing to do.

It was more of a Jedi thing to do. And she had done it spontaneously, swiftly, with no hesitation.

Luke didn’t like it.

He leaned back, stretching a little in his chair. Vestara emerged from the refresher, where she’d taken a quick sanisteam. She looked around at the three pairs of eyes on her and said, “Okay, what now?”

“Noth—” Ben started to say, but Luke interrupted him.

“I was considering whether it would be wise to take you with us when we visit Dromund Kaas.”

Vestara cocked her head. “Oh? I thought it was acceptable for me to accompany you. What made you change your mind?” She didn’t seem offended, merely curious.

“I didn’t say I had changed it. I was simply reconsidering.” Luke nodded at the image of the planet. “That’s an extremely dangerous place. And very, very strong with the dark side.”

Vestara folded her slender arms and leaned against the bulkhead. She kept her gaze locked with Luke’s as she quirked an eyebrow.

“I fail to see how it’s different from Korriban, or any of the other places on Jaina and Natua’s list.”

“There are some interesting historical aspects to this world,” Luke said. “Things that perhaps only you and I know, depending on what you’ve learned from Ship. Such as the fact that this world was a colony of the Sith Empire, but faded into obscurity until after the Great Hyperspace War. It was rediscovered by a Sith armada wandering for two decades. Sound familiar?”

A muscle in Vestara’s jaw clenched, but she remained silent. Ben’s agitation in the Force increased.

Luke continued. “They rebuilt this world. It became the capital of the next Sith Empire. Until that fell. Its next round of rediscovery came by someone who rejected the Rule of Two, who thought that there was more than enough of the dark side to go around.”

“Dad—” Ben started to say.

Luke held up a hand. “He founded a religion that would become known as the Dark Force. There