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Streen gave a wan smile, then stared out at the vast sky. On various parabolic courses, blinking lights of incoming and departing diplomatic shuttles traveled across the sky.

“I hope all the Jedi trainees can learn to be as silent as you are, Minister. I’d very much like to be around other people, part of a community like yourself and the Jedi Master. How long will it be, do you think?”

He looked deeply into her eyes, and she pulled the children away from the edge. “Soon,” Leia said. “As soon as possible.”

She vowed that she would find a place for Luke’s academy before he returned from Kessel. It had to be the right place, and she had to find it without delay.

Leia and Threepio insisted on giving the twins a warm ripple bath before bedtime. Leia ran the water as Threepio checked to make sure its temperature was perfect.

Leia shooed Jacen and Jaina toward the rippling water. Jacen balked. “Put bubbles in first!”

“I’ll put the bubbles in while the water’s still running. Now just get in.”

“Winter puts bubbles in first,” Jaina said.

“Well, this time we’ll do it a little different,” Leia explained a bit testily.

“I want bubbles now!” Jacen cried.

“Dear me! Perhaps we had better put the bubbles in, Mistress Leia,” Threepio said.

But the twins’ defiance had awakened Leia’s own stubbornness. “No, I told you to get in the bath. I don’t care how Winter did it. This is the place you live now. Sometimes we do things differently.”

Jaina began to cry.

“It’s all right!” Leia said. “It’s still a nice bath. Look.” She splashed her hand in the warm water. “It doesn’t make any difference when you put the bubbles in.”

“I put bubbles in?” Jaina asked.

“If you get in, you can add the bubbles.”

Jaina promptly climbed into the water and held out her hands. Leia gave her an amber-colored sphere that would dissolve in the agitation of the ripples.

Jacen jumped into the ripple bath. “Now I put bubbles in!”

“Too late,” Leia said. “Next time it’ll be your turn.”

“Perhaps we should let them add another sphere of bubbles?” Threepio said, bending over to situate the children in the water.

Jacen used both of his hands to fling water into the droid’s face. “I want home!”

“This is home, Jacen. You live here now. I’m your mother.”

“No. I want home!”

Leia began to wonder why her diplomatic skills were failing her now. The twins began splashing each other. It looked like light play at first, but suddenly—for no apparent reason—they both began to cry. Perhaps this would be good preparation for meeting the Caridan ambassador, Leia thought.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the two continued wailing. Threepio, growing more and more flustered, frantically tried to determine what the difficulty was.

Leia wished she knew where Han was.

17

The stolen shuttle plummeted into the Maw. Maelstroms of hot gas buffeted them from side to side as Kyp fought to guide Han along their tenuous course. The safe path was convoluted and treacherous where the gravitational singularities canceled each other out.

The Maw itself was one of the wonders of the galaxy. The very existence of a black hole cluster seemed astrophysically impossible and had led to much conjecture about its origin. Old Republic scientists cited probability arguments, that among the near-infinite stars in the universe, something like the Maw had to occur at least once. Other speculations, including those voiced by superstitious smugglers, suggested that the Maw had actually been built, assembled by a vastly powerful ancient race that had created the black holes in a barely stable configuration to open gateways into new dimensions.

At the moment, Han Solo cared only that the Maw was likely to be the cause of his death.

The shuttle’s interior was dark and hot and stuffy. The wild colors and blazing light made psychedelic fireworks outside the ship and weird shadows inside. All lighting, life support, and temperature regulation had been shut down to increase power to the failing shields.

Han sweated in the pilot seat, watching the navigational controls he had