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The troopers hesitated at the threshold, as if suspecting a trap within the shadows. Winter pointed her blaster and fired seven rapid shots at them. The stormtroopers dived for cover and then, when Winter did not fire again, charged into the dim room after her.

Winter did not try to hide. She ran to the glowing pillar of the computer core and then into shadows on the other side of the chamber, surrounded by conduits and tubes and flashing lights that served no purpose. The stormtroopers moved toward her, still shooting.

Winter fired several more times, just to provoke them, and to make sure they remained within the chamber. One of her shots ricocheted off a gleaming surface and flew into the side of a stormtrooper, melting the white armor from his right arm.

Winter appeared to be cornered at the far side of the room as the troopers advanced toward her—five of them, one hanging back with an injured arm.

The Imperial soldiers got halfway across the space before the walls begin to writhe and move.

Jointed pipelines and conduits, bulky control decks, and spherical readout panels shifted, clicking together into specific components. Winter heard pieces locking into place, metal against metal, connections linking up.

The machine-filled walls suddenly became a squad of burly assassin droids assembled out of disguised components. The droids activated their weapons, forming a shooting gallery whose only purpose was to destroy stormtroopers.

Winter had no need to issue commands. The assassin droids knew exactly what they were supposed to do. They had been programmed to ignore her and the Jedi children, but they knew their targets well.

From all sides the assassin droids opened fire on the five pursuers. The cross fire of deadly beams cut down the white-armored Imperials in less than two seconds, leaving only piles of smoldering wreckage, fused and melted armor, and useless weapons in dead hands. None of the stormtroopers had an opportunity to fire a single shot.

One of the troopers groaned once, hissed in pain, then fell into the silence of death. The shadows cast a blanket over the carnage.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Winter stepped over the bodies, which were still sizzling from the massacre. She looked down at the expressionless black visors of the Imperial enemy. “Never underestimate your opponent,” she said.

Ambassador Furgan crouched low as the stormtrooper sprinted ahead of him down the lumpy rock corridors.

Furgan had no combat training and no experience, but he did his best to imitate his companion’s fluid movements. He held his blaster rifle in hand, glancing down repeatedly to make sure the weapon was powered up.

The tunnels were dim and shadowy, lit by white glowtubes mounted along the ceilings. The stormtrooper pressed his armor back against the wall and held his weapon around a comer to see if he drew any fire; then he jogged down to the next intersection of tunnels.

They passed door after door, unsealing each room, ready to snatch the helpless child and run back to their MT-ATs. Furgan and the trooper found storage compartments filled with crates of supplies and equipment, the dining room, empty sleeping quarters—but no child.

Far beneath them Furgan heard the patter and distant echo of blaster fire. He glared back toward the sounds. “I told them not to shoot her down. Why didn’t they listen to me?” He turned to the stormtrooper. “Now we’ll have to find the child all by ourselves.”

“Yes, sir,” the stormtrooper said, without expression.

The next metal door was locked and sealed. No one responded when the stormtrooper hammered with his white gauntlet. He withdrew a pack of tools from his utility belt, removed a high-powered cutting laser, and slashed open the door’s control panel. Moving with nimble fingers despite the thick gloves, he rewired the sparking controls.

The door ground open, exposing the pastel colors of a room filled with toys, a plush bed … and a four-armed nanny droid backed into a protective position in the corner to shelter a small child.

“Ah, here we are at last,” Furgan said. He stepped