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“Why would SELCORE do that?”

The Duros shrugged eloquently. “Why not? SELCORE decided for us that we wanted our planet reclaimed.” He raised a hand before Jacen could answer. “We were consulted, but only nominally.”

“Why is this a problem?” Jacen asked. “Don’t you want it habitable, down there?”

“We,” the vice-director said, “are content with our roots pulled free. That sphere of stone once anchored us. Its factories became places to send malcontents and gutter-grubbers. Now those citizens are returning to our well-run cities, upsetting our social balances.” He tilted his long head. “And if you restore a habitable planet, the Yuuzhan Vong could choose to move in. If they do, the blame will rest solely on SELCORE.” He shot a glance toward the Kubaz.

Jacen shifted his feet on a deep, soft carpet. “Sir, if our supply shuttles don’t get through, people will start to go hungry. We need your help. It’s urgent.”

The Duros reached for the edge of his counter. A high tone sounded. The door behind Jacen swished open. Two armed Duros stalked in.

What was this? Jacen kept his hands lowered. “Sir, I’m just asking for the chemicals we need to grow food. I have no intention of threatening you.”

“No?” the vice-director asked. “Your enabling of Centerpoint Station, our near neighbor, changed the power balance in our region. Jedi make me nervous. Especially young ones who use words like urrrgent. Often they don’t have the maturity to know when to back down.”

Thank you, Kyp Durron, Jacen muttered to himself. He hoped Anakin was paying attention. “Sir, it was no Jedi who fired Centerpoint Station.”

“A new sentiment is spreading through the New Republic. Surely,” Brarun said, “you have heard the Jedi philosophy challenged.”

“I have,” Jacen admitted. “Most recently, down at Port Duggan. When I arrived.”

“Ah,” he said. “You met my sister, Ducilla.”

“An eloquent speaker,” Jacen said, though the woman’s philosophy might have come straight from the Yuuzhan Vong’s propaganda offices. On second thought, they probably never bothered with subterfuge.

Still, if Master Luke wanted information, this was going well. Now he needed to state his position. “You have nothing to fear from me, Vice-Director. You asked where I left my Jedi robes. At the moment, I have stood down from my status as a Jedi in training.”

The Duros bowed his long head and laughed bitterly. “Any Jedi whose mother is a Skywalker cannot stand down. Ever.” His red eyes glimmered. “It’s time you learned that.”

Jacen clenched his hands at his sides. “I’m learning to be my own man. Not just my mother’s son.”

This time, the four guards laughed, too.

“All right … man,” the vice-director said. “What is it you want to offer CorDuro Shipping in exchange for this missing cargo?”

“You don’t understand,” Jacen insisted. “Those supplies belong to us. They were sent by Coruscant.”

“So really,” Brarun said, “you have come here to accuse my people of robbery.”

Again, at the back of his mind, Jacen saw the galaxy tip toward darkness. He spread his hands and backtracked. “I have little to offer,” he admitted.

The Duros folded long, knobby hands on the bar-desk’s surface. “Well said, Jedi Solo. Now let me tell you some things.

“I am old enough to remember Emperor Palpatine. There was a human who could keep order. Maybe he carried some programs too far, such as trying to wipe out your kind, but I doubt that the Yuuzhan Vong would’ve stuck a tattooed toe into this galaxy if they arrived while he was in power.”

Jacen stood silently, wondering what else the Duros meant to tell him.

Brarun seemed to have forgotten the two Kubaz. “Some of our orbital cities retain drive units,” he said, “from the days when our ancestors first steered them into place. Our homes aren’t locked to Duro. We could leave and take home with us.”

In that case, Jacen wouldn’t put it past them to divert and stockpile refugee supplies, though they could not admit that publicly. “In the face of a possible invasion,” he said softly, “you do have to consider your own people first.”

The Duros raised his head, then cocked