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But even through that, one presence shone brilliant, made brighter by familiarity and friendship. Tahiri.

She felt him, too, and though he could not quite hear any actual words she might be trying to send, he did feel a sort of rhythm, as of someone talking quickly, excitedly, without pause for breath.

One corner of Anakin’s mouth turned up. Yes, that was Tahiri, all right.

What felt wrong was a little nearer and much weaker. Not Yuuzhan Vong, for they could not be felt in the Force, but someone who shouldn’t be there. Someone slightly confused, but with a growing sense of confidence.

“Hang on, Fiver,” he told his astromech. “Get ready to run or fight in a hurry. It might just be Talon Karrde and his crew here ahead of schedule, but I’d sooner bet against Lando Calrissian in sabacc than to count on it.”

AFFIRMATIVE, the display blinked.

They tumbled into sensor range, and his computer built a silhouette from the magnified image.

“That’s not so bad,” he murmured. “One Corellian light transport. Maybe it is one of Karrde’s bunch.” Or maybe not. And maybe there were a hundred Yuuzhan Vong ships on the other side of the gas giant or Yavin 4, invisible to his Jedi senses and hidden from his sensors. Whatever the case, waiting around wasn’t going to improve matters. He powered up, corrected his tumble, and engaged the ion engines.

He activated his comm system and hailed the stranger. “Transport, acknowledge.”

For a few moments, he got nothing, then the audio crackled. “Who is this?”

“My name is Anakin Solo. What are you doing in the Yavin system?”

“We’re Corusca gem miners.”

“Really. Where’s your trawler?”

Another pause, then words underlined with a bit of anger.

“We can see the moon now. We knew it was here all along. Your Jedi sorcery has failed you.”

THE TRANSPORT IS ARMING WEAPONS SYSTEMS, Fiver noticed. Anakin nodded grimly as the other vessel swung toward him.

“I’m only warning you once,” Anakin said. “Stand down.”

For an answer, he got a blast from a laser cannon, which at that distance he managed to avoid as easily as he might deflect a blaster shot with his lightsaber.

“Gee,” Anakin muttered. “I suppose that says it all.” He opened his S-foils. “Fiver, give me evasive approach six, but I still want the stick just in case.”

ACKNOWLEDGED.

He dropped toward Yavin 4 and the transport at full thrust, spinning and dancing as he went, and when he felt his target firmly enough in the Force, he sliced the night of vacuum with ruby red. The transport returned fire and began its own evasive maneuvers, but that was like a bantha trying to dodge a mace fly.

They had good shields, though. As Anakin completed his first pass, his opponent was still essentially untouched. To make matters more interesting, four winks of blue flame and his instruments agreed that the transport had just fired proton torpedoes at him. Anakin had been preparing to turn for another pass; instead he continued his noseward plunge toward the moon.

“Four proton torpedoes. These guys really don’t like us, Fiver.”

THE TRANSPORT SEEMS HOSTILE, Fiver acknowledged. Anakin sighed. Fiver was a more advanced astromech than R2-D2, but he missed his uncle’s droid’s personality at times. Maybe he ought to do something about that.

Two laser blasts hit his shields in quick succession, but they did their job. On his tracker, the proton torpedoes continued to close as Anakin met resistance from the atmosphere. He plunged on, and the ship began to vibrate faintly. His nose and wings were starting to heat up from the upper atmosphere. If he didn’t time this exactly right, he would scatter all over the jungle kilometers below.

When the lead torp was almost on him, he cut his engines and yanked the nose up. The atmosphere, still thin, was nevertheless able to give the XJ X-wing a good strong slap, hurling him away from the moon. Servos whined and something somewhere made a startling ping. Using the momentum from the atmospheric skip, Anakin turned further spaceward, blood rushing from his head as the g’s mounted, then he kicked in the engines