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“Yeah, thanks,” Han said.

He switched off the rifle’s safety, brought a gloved hand to the external hatch release, and moved into the shuttle’s airlock. Once the hatch had resealed and the airlock had cycled, he raised the rifle to his midsection and hit the internal hatch release.

No one met him at the door.

“I’m inside,” he relayed to Droma. “Pressure, gravity, and atmosphere are all operative. I’m going into the passenger compartment first.”

Opening the hatch, he stepped inside. A grainy black substance, which crunched underfoot, covered the deck plates and nearly every horizontal surface. Han stooped to take a pinch between his gloved fingers and bring it to the helmet’s faceplate. “Some kind of black stuff all over the place,” he said into the comlink. “Like tiny nut husks or something.”

“Any sign of Reck?”

Han moved down the aisle and gave a start as he came to the forward row of seats. Slumped there were three of Reck’s comrades, their faces hideously contorted and their shirts soaked with blood that had cascaded from eyes, ears, and noses.

“What is it?” Droma asked in anxious response to Han’s brief outcry.

“Three dead—from I don’t even know what. Massive blood vessel ruptures, it looks like.”

“You’re certain the shuttle didn’t depressurize?”

“Even if it did, this is like nothing I’ve ever seen.” Han glanced at the open forward hatch. “I’m moving into the cockpit.”

Inside he found the same black grit, as well as Reck, Capo, and the one Han thought to be a Yuuzhan Vong—all dead and similarly drenched in blood. Open and overturned on the floor was the case the enemy agent had carried. Close by lay the body of the vicious creature that had sent Elan’s ooglith masquer into a panic.

“Reck’s dead,” Han said into the comlink. “They’re all dead.”

“The females, too?”

“No sign of them. Unless they’re in cargo.”

Han took one last look at Reck. “Down you go,” he said, mostly to himself.

He walked back through the passenger compartment to the rear hold and hit the hatch release. “Found them,” he told Droma, even before the hatch had pocketed itself.

On a large square of deck grating lay Elan and Vergere, unconscious but otherwise unharmed. The hold was free of black husks. Han put his arm under Elan’s narrow shoulders and gently lifted her. Her intense blue eyes blinked open, then went wide in fright. She flailed in his arms, her sudden movements causing Vergere to stir, as well.

“It’s me—Han!” he said through the EVA suit’s external speaker.

Elan began to relax. “They drugged us,” she said groggily, then glanced around in confused apprehension. “Where are they? What happened? Why are you wearing a space suit?”

He helped her to her feet and slowly led her into the passenger compartment. Her foot had scarcely touched the black grit when she gasped and stood petrified.

“Bo’tous!” she said, in what Han assumed was Yuuzhan Vong. “A bioweapon—an airborne blood agent!”

“This black stuff is bo—whatever?”

Elan shook her head. “What you see is the aftermath of bo’tous—a harmless residue.” She gestured to the forward seats. “What they inhaled killed them.”

Vergere stepped from the cargo hold and stifled a scream.

“Everyone but you two are dead,” Han said.

Elan stared at him in bewilderment. “But who did this?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. Could the Peace Brigade have been carrying some of that … stuff?”

“Yes, possibly. They had a dovin basal and an unmasker. They might have had bo’tous, as well.” She looked at Han. “Perhaps they planned to use it on passengers aboard the starliner.”

“Why didn’t it affect you?”

“On launch from the Queen of Empire, they sealed us into the compartment where you found us.” She held his gaze. “We Yuuzhan Vong are immune, in any case.”

Han nodded noncommittally and activated the comlink. “Droma, meet me in the docking arm. I’m bringing them aboard.”

“You’d better be quick about it,” Droma replied rapidly. “That warship’s headed right for us!”

TWENTY-SIX

With missiles from the Yuuzhan Vong frigate slamming against her shields and detonating