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The grizzled Ryn woman’s snore had a high whine, like the Falcon halfway through its warm-up. Jaina slept on her back—normal sleep, not a healing trance. He could barely see her by the dim light of outdoor security lamps. Her hair had just enough curl to stick straight up in the front, like his often did when he woke up.

He tiptoed over to her cot and dropped his hand onto her shoulder. “Jaina,” he whispered.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she turned her head. “Jace? What is it?”

“Sorry to wake you,” he whispered. “Come outside so we can talk.”

He led the way into the lane between huts. The big overhead lights gleamed faintly, giving the illusion of a necklace of moons under the gray dome. He caught the faint odor of Ryn and a whiff of phraig-bedjie stew.

Jaina stood beside him. In the dimness, her vision mask looked like a military night-sight.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she said brusquely. “Something’s wrong.”

“You feel it, too?” He glanced around. Blue-roofed huts, hydroponics tanks … the control shed’s inner corner, jutting into the dome. Nothing looked amiss.

She nodded. “Danger. To the whole colony.” Jaina shut her eyes and leaned against the hut’s exterior, frowning hard.

Look at her, Jacen’s inner voice taunted. You’ll rely on somebody else’s casual Force use. What kind of hypocrite are you?

I just don’t dare to stumble, he answered the voice. I’m the one who was warned, not Jaina.

She shook her head and tucked a strand of hair back up under her mask. “I can’t find anything wrong,” she said. “Sithspawn, I hope we don’t have Vong on the way.”

“One way to find out.” He led toward the control shed.

Randa lay wedged along the back wall, snoring softly. Jaina told the night tech about their sensation. “We don’t know what it is,” she said, “but we’re both getting it. Keep a tight watch.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The young human tossed off a casual salute.

Back outside, Jaina paused at an intersection of two lanes. “Okay, brother. You’re the one with the functioning eyesight. Get a good look.” She reached toward an illumination control.

Jacen almost stopped her. If she turned on the daylamps, she’d wake up the whole colony, maybe for nothing.

This didn’t feel like nothing, though. He ducked back into the shed and seized a pair of macrobinoculars off the supply wall. Clutching them against his chest, he climbed a set of rungs up the shed’s exterior wall as the big lights came on. Then he peered out over the colony.

Nothing, nothing, and nothing. No skulkers, no lurkers. No obvious breaches or …

Wait.

A flock of large moths, or maybe small birds, gathered around one of the daylamps. Adjusting the macrobinocs’ resolution control, he got a closer look. More moth than bird, he decided, though the black wings didn’t divide quite right. They had horns instead of antennae, and large, white imitation eyespots on their black backs.

He zoomed out again, swept the binocs back and forth, and spotted a larger group of them, seemingly plastered against the dome’s underside, up near the top.

“What is it?” Jaina called up at him.

“I’m not sure. Looks like—huh. Almost looks like young mynocks, or …”

Spotting movement at the corner of his peripheral vision, he sighted the binocs down and left. Close at hand, one of the creatures fluttered up from under a hut’s blue eaves.

He clambered down. Telling Jaina, “I’ll be right back,” he sprinted up the lane to the hut where the creature had taken flight. He looked up and down and around and … there. Under the eaves, something papery dangled from the synthplas roof panel. He flicked it free, then examined it on his hand.

“What?” Jaina’s voice demanded behind him.

His mind flashed back to Yavin 4, a menagerie he’d kept in his room—and a collection of pupa cases, where his peggelars had overwintered, to emerge in the spring as exquisite rosewings.

His insides congealed. “Wake Dad up,” he said. “Fast. I’ll activate the ERD-LL droids.”

The infestation had vanished because the worms had pupated. Now they were emerging as airborne adults. Whatever they