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Luke didn't answer.

"You're wondering why they brought you here," Nahj said.

"They did it because you told them to," Luke guessed.

"Not exactly." He sighed. "Not you."

Luke's eyes widened. He should have realized. "You were trying to kidnap Leia? " A flush of anger rose in him, and he readied himself to go for his lightsaber.

J'er Nahj looked abashed. "I'm not a bad man, you know. I'm hardly in the business of kidnapping."

"Then what kind of business are you in?"

"Before?" J'er Nahj raised his eyebrows. "I sold durasteel fixtures for 'freshers. You wanted a new sink or a fancy shower? I was your man. Outfitted 'freshers all over the sector. Before. Now ask me, 'Before what?'"

"I don't have to," Luke said. He still didn't understand why he was here, but it was painfully obvious why the rest of them were. " Before Alderaan. You're all survivors, aren't you?"

J'er Nahj barked out a harsh laugh. "Survivors? Didn't you hear? There were no survivors. An entire planet, gone in an instant. There were those of us who were offplanet, yes. Those of us who were at a 'fresher convention on Delaya while our wives were vaporized in the middle of cooking a pot of L'lahsh, our children blown to bits while running through the meadow picking t'iil blossoms. There were those of us who escaped,"

he said fiercely. "But make no mistake. None of us survived."

CHAPTER SIX

I'm sorry," Luke said. "But the Delayan government had offered to help you. You don't need—"

"Who do you think shoved us into this, the thousand in the warehouse next to this one, and the warehouse next to that. The Delayan government cares nothing for us. Whatever lies they may tell your princess."

"She's your princess," Luke said quietly.

"Then why does she let us suffer like this, while she dines with the Delayan space-slugs who left us here?"

"Because she doesn't know," Luke insisted.

"She had her chance to find out," Nahj snapped. "I requested an audience as soon as I found out she was coming. Her response made her feelings perfectly clear: Meeting with people like us is beneath her."

"But we never even got your request!" Luke protested, his thoughts spinning. The Delayan officials must have intercepted Nahj's message. Of course: They were trying to keep Leia from finding out about this place. "You've been lied to—but so have we."

"Politicians believe what they want to believe," Nahj scoffed. "The Delayans have only opened their planet to us so they can get their hands on what's left of Alderaan's wealth.

Your Princess Leia will only acknowledge the truth if we force her to see it."

"Except that you ended up with the wrong hostage," Luke pointed out. "So what are you supposed to do now?"

"True, we don't have the princess," Nahj admitted. "But perhaps we have something she wants."

"Me?"

"It's an honest trade. She comes to us, she looks suffering in the face without turning away—and she gets you back, unharmed. If she doesn't care about you enough to come…"

"You'd…what?" Luke asked, eyeing the plasteel separating him from the men with blasters. "Kill me?"

Nahj winced.

"I don't think so," Luke said. "The people of Alderaan love peace. They still love it.

And I think, despite all this, you're a peaceful man."

"Alderaan was a peaceful planet," a woman's voice said from behind Luke. "Until the princess and her father dragged it into war. Now we bear the consequences of her rash actions. It seems only right she should bear some of her own."

"Halle, please," Nahj said in a stony voice.

Luke twisted around to see a woman with short crimson hair, her mouth an angry red slash across her face. She was only a couple years older than Luke. "I didn't come here to fight," she said, looking like she regretted that fact. "Shell's outside. He wanted me to bring him over, to apologize."

Nahj nodded his permission.

"Shell!" she called out. "He says okay. You can come in."

Nothing happened. "One second," Halle said, slipping through an opening in the sheet.

"You can do it," Luke heard a man say. "It'll only be hard