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Vaetes said, “Padawan Offee, I know that the Force is a big part of your organization’s…operational method, but…” He shrugged. “What am I going to tell the admiral to justify any action? And given the, uh, lack of specific information, even if he agreed to trust you on this, what exactly are we supposed to do?”

Barriss felt a sense of frustration envelop her. What could she say? He was right. And if she couldn’t convince Vaetes—a man who knew her and, she felt, liked her— what were her chances of convincing somebody who didn’t know her at all? It did sound all too vague.

“Colonel, would it be possible for you to contact Coruscant? My comm unit can’t seem to hold a sustainable connection.”

He shook his head. “It’s supposed to be a military secret, Padawan Offee, but at the moment, we can’t call home, either. Some kind of subetheric disturbance, jamming long-range communications. Our comm-techs can’t seem to get a grip on it.”

Barriss nodded. She had hoped that if the military could talk to the Jedi Council, they might vouch for her, at least enough to justify an alert. But that apparently wasn’t going to happen.

“Listen,” he said, “I tell you what—I’ll talk to the commander of the troop unit attached here, tell him we heard something from an enemy patient who died that something is up, and that he should ramp up his patrols. I’m afraid that’s the best I can do unless you can give us something solid we can check out.”

Something was better than nothing. “Thank you, sir.”

As she left his office, she saw Jos Vandar walking away from the landing pad. It was cloudy, probably going to rain again soon, but Jos’s aura was lighter, his energy higher, than she’d felt it in a long time. Certainly lighter than her own at the moment.

She moved to intersect his path.

“Jos. How are you?”

He grinned at her. “Better than I’ve been in a while, I think. I hope, anyway. I’ll find out soon enough.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

He looked at her. “What’s bothering you?”

She was surprised at his question. “What makes you think something is bothering me?”

“You do—your body language, facial expression, general demeanor, all tell me you’re distressed. What’s up?”

It wouldn’t hurt to tell him, and he already knew about her having access to the bota. Maybe another mind working on the problem would help. At this point, any help she could get, she would take.

She explained as they walked, telling him about her Force experience, the bota, and her certainty about the approaching danger. Almost without realizing it, by the time she finished, they were at his kiosk.

“That’s the story,” she said.

“Sweet Sookie’s maiden aunt,” he said. “That’s pretty amazing.”

“Yes. I feel like the mythological seer Daranas, from Alderaan—I can see the future, but no one will believe my warnings.”

Jos said, “Well, you’ve told Vaetes, and he’s passing it along to the guys on the ground. If there is going to be a threat, that’s probably where it’ll come from. At least they have a heads-up.”

She nodded.

“And you really think the bota is augmenting and focusing your connection with the Force?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “I know that it offers great power. I believe that with that connection, I can somehow stop the danger. I might even be able to stop the war on this world completely.”

He didn’t say anything, but she could feel his doubt through the Force. “You think it’s some kind of hallucination, don’t you?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you believe it.”

He rubbed at his face. “Barriss, you’re a doctor. You know that medicine does different things to different people. Giving a Devaronian two cc’s of plethyl nitrate will cure a lobar pneumonia and open up his congested lungs with virtually no side effects. Give that same dose to a human and it’ll drop his blood pressure into the syncope zone. Give it to a Bothan—”

“And he’ll be dead before he hits the floor,” she finished. “Your point?”

“Bota is the wonder drug of our age—every time we turn around, we wonder at some new effect it has on some species that’s never