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“So they died out,” she continued, “and centuries or millennia later, an operation settled here to mine this asteroid belt. And it wouldn’t have begun mining underneath the directors’ habitat, except someone discovered the caverns and all the metal-bearing ore lodes that had been denuded by the mynocks eating all the silicon-based stone out from around them.”

“I can guess some of the rest,” Jacen said.

“Go ahead.”

“Prolonged exposure of the miners to a well of dark side energy led to weird incidents. People seeing things, Force-sensitives manifesting odd abilities. Perhaps channeling your mynocks, behaving like them, and being considered insane.”

“Very good.” Brisha nodded. “The director of that time hushed up the reports, closed down that mine—the rest of the operation in these asteroids was unaffected—and kept things tightly under wraps. He, too, was a Force-sensitive and had been experiencing things, experimenting, acquiring and testing new powers. When this asteroid belt eventually became less profitable as a mining operation, he closed it down, carefully mismanaged things so that the habitat would be left here and forgotten…and then, leaving it behind, he went out into the galaxy, finding the Sith, apprenticing himself, eventually becoming the Sith Master Darth Vectivus.”

“Never heard of him,” Jacen said.

Brisha’s expression showed a little impatience. “That’s because he did no evil. He didn’t attempt to conquer the galaxy, try to wipe out the population of a star system, or start an all-out war with the Jedi. He just existed, learned. Died of old age, surrounded by family and friends.”

Nelani gave her a skeptical look. “A patron of the arts, supporter of charitable causes, and inventor of the cyclonic highball, favorite alcoholic drink of island tourists everywhere.”

“You mock,” Brisha said, “which is fine, but you mock out of ignorance, which is not. You don’t know anything about Darth Vectivus.”

Nelani gave her a frosty smile. “Including whether he ever existed, or whether he was the jolly nice man you describe.”

“And you can only find out the truth by learning.”

“How did he keep from being ruled, and ruined, by greed?” Jacen asked.

“Ah. That’s easy. He developed a strong ethical code before he ever felt any pull from the dark side. He was an adult, a hardheaded businessman with a keenly balanced sense of both profit and fairness, and when temptation whispered in his ear he could ignore it as easily as he could ignore the importunings of equally destructive softheartedness.” She glanced at Nelani as she spoke those last few words, then returned her attention to Jacen. “The Sith who were famous for being bad, Jacen, were the way they were because they were badly damaged men or women to start with. Not because they were Sith. Usually, they were weak, or deluded, or greedy to begin with. Like your grandfather. I knew him, you know.”

Jacen shook his head. “How could I know? I don’t know anything about you.”

“Conceded. I haven’t been using my true name. It’s inconvenient.”

“So you’re saying that you didn’t lure us here to kill us.”

“Correct.”

“And it wasn’t because you’re lonely, or just wanted to show the place off.”

Brisha’s smile turned genuine again. “No.”

“Then why?”

“Because, down in the caverns, where the dark side power is greatest, there is a Sith Lord, and I didn’t think I should face him alone.”

CORELLIAN SPACE, ABOVE TRALUS

Leia sat in the officers’ mess with Admiral Limpan, steaming cups of caf on the gleaming white table between them. “The GA tends to fall into the old trap of thinking of the Corellians as naughty children,” she said. “They’re not. They’re people who have never lost the pioneering spirit, even though their system has been well settled for millennia. Pioneering spirit, pioneering contempt for authority, pioneering disdain for complication or overanalysis. Think of them as children and you inevitably forget how dangerous they can be.”

Limpan said, “That’s surprisingly candid for one who is married to a Corellian.”

“Han is one of the most dangerous people in