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He tuned his stolen brain to the proper frequency for control and pushed, and the stone of their tomb responded. Ultrafine hairlines of crystal began to thread themselves in through the Skywalker girl’s pores, and in with the crystals came the full power of his will.

Sleep. This is the end of everything. Nothing left but sleep.

Sleep forever.

AS SOON AS THE CAVERN FLOOR HAD REHARDENED enough to support the Falcon’s weight, Luke set her down and lowered the freight lift in the engineering bay. He unstrapped himself from the pilot’s couch and got up. “Come with me.”

Aeona stared out through the cockpit’s transparisteel. “I—can’t. I can’t go out there.”

“Yes, you can.”

“No—no, I mean it, Jedi. You don’t know what this place is.”

“Then tell me.”

“It’s a Melter crypt.” She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “Melters are—I don’t know what they are. You heard your friend on the comm. The attackers he was talking about, they have to be Melters. They … just come out of the walls. Or up from the ground. Anywhere there’s meltmassif. If they touch you it’s like a stun blast. Then they carry you to a crypt and stick you into the rock.”

She looked at Luke with haunted eyes. “And they leave you there.”

Luke nodded out toward the people partially entombed around the walls and in the floor. “So I see.”

“I’ve been marooned on this planet for weeks, trying to get Nick back. That’s why I’m hooked up with the Mindorese. They needed a leader. I needed troops. But the Melters …” She shook her head. “They’d hit us without any warning at all. Sometimes we could hold ’em off long enough to get away … sometimes people got left behind. We found a few. A couple were even still alive. But they were never the same. Not after their time in the dark.”

“I can imagine.”

“Can you imagine being trapped like that? Alone in the dark? Darker than dark. Darker than empty space.”

“Yes,” Luke said. “I can.”

“That’s how I got a little claustrophobic, you know? There’s nothing darker than the inside of a cave.”

Luke could have told her different. “If you say so.”

“So you understand why I can’t go out into a Melter crypt.”

“I understand why you don’t want to. But you’re going anyway.”

“What, you’re going to make me?”

Luke tilted his head. “It’s the only way I can think of to stop Han from killing you on sight.”

Her hand drifted near her tied-down holster. “I’m not so easy to kill.”

“You don’t understand. Han’s my best friend.” Luke said gently. “If one of you has to die, it’ll be you.”

Aeona said, “Uh.”

“I want you to be absolutely clear on this. There should be no doubt in your mind. None at all.”

“No,” she said. “I read you. I do.”

“Then let’s go.”

They took the main corridor aft, avoiding the cargo holds that were still filled with Aeona’s troopers. When they got to the engineering bay, Luke motioned to Aeona to wait at the hatch while he went in. Han, arms and legs caked with shards of hardened meltmassif, was already standing on the freight lift, jittering with impatience. “Luke! Come on, we have to go! We have to go after her. Bring me up!”

Luke sighed. “You didn’t see who was with me in the cockpit.”

“There was somebody with you? How did you get the Falcon back from those pirates? Please tell me you killed them all. Especially that redheaded piece of—”

“Not exactly.” He beckoned to Aeona. “She’s here to apologize.”

Her face darkened. “Apologize?” she snapped. “You didn’t say anything about—”

“I’m saying it now.”

Han jumped back, his hand full of blaster and his face full of murder. “You! You stole my ship!”

She ducked and took cover on the far side of the hatchway. “Brought it back, didn’t I?”

“Han. Put your blaster away.” Maybe being a general for a few months was paying off; Luke’s tone of authority stopped Han cold. “I mean it.”

“Ah, whatever,” Han said with a disgusted shrug. He spun the blaster around his finger. “It’s empty anyway.”

Luke nodded. “Aeona?”

She reluctantly came back through the hatch. “Uh, hey, Solo. Sorry. Really.”

“Sorry?” Han flushed. “Sorry?”

“Hey, what do you want from