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By Root 868 0

the Yuuzhan Vong had lived here. The process, called Vongforming, would have been complete within a few standard decades, save that Jacen Solo, who had befriended the World Brain during his captivity, convinced it to turn on its makers and help the newly formed Galactic Alliance recapture the world. Now, the Vongforming was slowly being reversed by the aggressive use of technology and toxins, but everywhere on Coruscant there remained signs of the World Brain’s influence—alien molds that lived in cracks and gaps and culverts, insect species that had become a part of Coruscant’s ecosystem, odd and dangerous life-forms who now dwelled in the darkness of the sewers and other subterranean infrastructure.

Leia shrugged. “A few kilometers from here, you get weirdly overgrown ruins and some areas I can only think of as alien parks. It’s much more normal around here,” she said. “The nearby areas that were, before the change, dangerous after dark or too deep for sunlight to reach are just slightly more so now. It’s like Coruscant used to be…except the shadows have a little more in them, you know what I mean?”

Zekk nodded, smiling slightly. “I know all about that.”

The argument began over spiceloaf.

Spiceloaf was not the cause of it. The traditional Corellian dish, a dense ground meat spiced to the heat tolerance of the diners, was, as Leia had prepared it, both mild and savory, and was not likely to cause disagreement all by itself. It was merely the course that was on everyone’s plate at the point Han decided to become argumentative.

He set his fork down and looked suspiciously at his nephew Ben. “You were doing what?”

“Making sure they did what the government said.” The boy returned his uncle’s stare, unintimidated. “Stopped making weapons except for the government.”

“Well, that’s an oversimplification,” Jacen said. “This Adumari company was producing explosive ordnance beyond what was permitted for delivery to the Galactic Alliance armed forces or otherwise legal as per Order GAO-eleven-thirty-three-B—that is, beyond the amounts necessary for their own planetary defense. In other words, they were assembling proton torpedoes and other missiles for sale to other planets, not for delivery to the GA.”

“So?” Han asked. “That’s not business for the Jedi. That’s a problem for politicians with nothing better to do. Next thing you know, we’ll have Jedi walking the government halls on Corellia and telling us what to do.”

Leia smiled. Han hadn’t lived on Corellia for decades, but in his heart, he was all Corellian, embodying the swagger, the cockiness, the carefree attitude that the citizens of that system considered essential elements of their culture. His exploits during the Rebellion and up through the present day had made him dear to the hearts of the people of that system. The second best-known Corellian hero of the same era, Wedge Antilles, did live in the Corellian system, but he was more reserved, less brash, and simply hadn’t captured the public’s affection as Han had.

But Luke wasn’t as amused. “Han, the Corellians are playing a dangerous game. They’re demanding all the advantages of Galactic Alliance membership—trade benefits, use of the GA communications and travel infrastructure, citizenship rights, all of it—but not contributing their fair share of Alliance overhead. They’re dragging their heels on supplying ships and personnel to the military, on providing tax revenues—”

“See, that’s the thing.” Han pointed his fork at Luke’s chest as if intending to jam it in and probe around the heart and lungs. “We can maintain our own military, and not the tiny peacekeeping and police force the new laws are calling for. When the time comes for military action, the Corellians have always brought our forces up, under our own colors, even when we weren’t members of whatever government was swinging the biggest stick at the time. We did it for the Old Republic and the New Republic. We did it in the Vong war.”

Jaina grimaced. “Not a good example, Dad. How many lives, how many whole systems were lost in the Yuuzhan Vong war because