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The coralskippers continued to approach, in no apparent hurry.

“Mom, look,” Jacen said, pointing. Against the starfield were some brighter sparks, drifting in a nebulous lens.

“What is it?”

“Something reflecting the light from the primary. A bunch of somethings.”

“Ships,” Leia said. “Other ships they’ve interdicted.”

“Uh-huh. Must be a dozen or more.”

“Well.” She sighed. “I guess we found out something useful on this trip. This isn’t a safe route to smuggle Jedi through.”

A series of curses drifted from somewhere in the back of the ship.

“Han?” Leia shouted.

“Nothing. Hit my head,” the answer came back.

Another few moments of rummaging about, and then another, more colorful set of curses.

“It’s going to take at least half an hour,” Han called.

“We don’t have that,” Leia whispered. “They’ll be boarding us any minute. If they even bother, and don’t just cut us to pieces.”

“They’ll bother,” Jacen said. “The Yuuzhan Vong hate to waste good slaves and sacrifices. I guess we’d better get ready to meet them.” He unclipped the lightsaber from his belt. Leia unbuckled herself and drew her own weapon.

“You let me deal with this, Mom. You’re still favoring that leg.”

“Don’t worry about me. I was doing this before you were born.”

Jacen was about to lodge another protest when he saw the expression on her face. She wouldn’t be budged.

As they passed the lounge, a growl that made Jacen’s hair stand on end prompted him to ignite the cold green glow of his lightsaber. Two sets of black eyes blinked at the light.

“Lady Vader,” one snarled. “We fail you.”

“You failed no one, Adarakh,” Leia told her Noghri bodyguards. “Something put us all out.”

“Your enemies are about, Lady Vader?” the second Noghri, a female—Meewalh—asked.

“They are. Adarakh, you’re with me. Meewalh, you help Jacen.”

“No,” Jacen said. “Mom, you need them more than I do. You know it.”

“The first-son speaks right, Lady Vader,” Meewalh agreed.

Leia’s eyes flashed at the insubordination. “We don’t have time to argue about this.”

That was confirmed a heartbeat later when something bumped against the hull, followed by a second, similar impact.

“What’s that?” Han called up.

“Just get us some power,” Leia called back. “Fine. Both of you, with me. Jacen, watch yourself. None of this not-using-the-Force nonsense.”

“I’m over that, Mom.”

She kissed Jacen quickly on the cheek. “Watch out for my boy.” Then she pushed toward the cargo lifter, where the first impact seemed to have been. The Noghri went silently after her, as nimble in free-fall as on foot.

Jacen shifted the grip on his lightsaber and found a handhold to steady his weightless body as he tried to figure out where the second boarder was.

Within seconds, something began gnashing and grinding against the outer bulkheads, enabling him to locate it in the lounge. Moving slowly, he flattened as best he could against what would be the ceiling if the gravity came back on.

Must be grutchins, he thought. Yuuzhan Vong technology was all biologically based. They used modified insectoid creatures to hull ships. There would be fumes from the acid, then, and maybe worse, but there was no time to seek vac suits. If the Yuuzhan Vong were simply going to open the ship to space, they’d all had it. But if the enemy wanted the Solos dead, they would have blasted them while the ship was powered down, since they had, at best, contempt for nonliving tech and no use for the Falcon whatsoever. Knowing the Yuuzhan Vong, they were eager for live captives, not freeze-dried corpses.

Jacen calmed his mind and waited.

Not much later, a hole appeared in the wall. As predicted, an acrid, choking stench came through, but not the feared explosive decompression of the cabin. Jacen stayed out of visual range until something poked its head through an opening wide enough for a human to step through.

Jacen flicked on his lightsaber.

Something like a huge beetle was revealed in the viridian light of his blade. Jacen drove his point into its eye before it could even twitch. For what seemed a long moment, the energy blade refused