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“I’ll do my best, sir. Is that all?”

“No.” Gavin’s voice crackled. “I made a mistake not putting you back on duty once your vision was recovered. I let you down, and I’m sorry for that. I’d like you to consider yourself still a part of the Squadron.”

“I appreciate that, Rogue Leader,” she said quietly. “You understand that right now—”

“As I said. Master Skywalker needs you now. You’re still on leave, as far as I’m concerned. Go, and may the Force be with you.”

* * *

“Jaina, I need you to do something,” Luke said. Coruscant was light-years behind them. There was room for an X-wing on the Shadow, but that space was already occupied by Luke’s starfighter. Thus, they chatted over the comm. Mara and Luke had filled her in on the details of their flight from Coruscant, and Jaina in turn had explained her continued detachment from Rogue Squadron.

“Yes, Uncle Luke?”

“I need you to find Kyp Durron for me. I need to talk to him.”

“He didn’t have much good to say at the last meeting. Why should things be any different now?”

“Because things are different now,” Luke replied. “Now I may have some things to say he might want to hear.”

“Unless you’re going to join him in guerrilla warfare against the Yuuzhan Vong, I doubt that,” she replied.

“Be that as it may. It’s imperative that the Jedi start drawing ourselves back together.”

“If you ask me to find him, I’ll find him,” Jaina said. “I found Booster Terrik, didn’t I?”

“This will be a lot easier than that, I should think,” Luke replied. “I know exactly where Kyp is.”

“How?”

“Kyp worries me. I took the liberty of placing a tracer on his ship.”

“What? If the Yuuzhan Vong pick that up—”

“I didn’t endanger Kyp. It’s something new one of Karrde’s people came up with to help us find each other without leaking our positions to the Yuuzhan Vong or their collaborators. Booster has one, too, so we’ll be able to find the Errant Venture with relative ease. It’s a fixed-signature signal, passed through relays and the HoloNet, and gives an off-read within a range from ten to fifty light-years. No one without the encryption key can use it to track him, in other words. At short range it sounds like engine noise, and if Kyp cuts his power to hide from sensors, it’ll go off, too.”

“Wow. Have I been fitted with one of those?”

“No, but the Shadow has, and I’ll give you that encryption, too, along with Booster’s.”

“Sounds good. Where’s Kyp now?”

“That’s the disturbing thing. He’s near Sernpidal.”

A shiver feathered along Jaina’s neck.

Sernpidal. Where Chewie had died. Sernpidal was as deep in Yuuzhan Vong territory as one could go.

This wouldn’t be another little fetching mission. This could get very nasty indeed.

“That’s a long way,” she said. “I hope you have some extra juice over there for me.”

“Plenty. We’ll hook you up, and I’ll transfer some supplies as well.”

He grimaced, and she could tell that sending her off like this wasn’t something he did without reservations.

“Thanks, Jaina,” he said. “And may the Force be with you.”

PART TWO

PASSAGE

TWELVE

“Oh!” Tahiri exclaimed, wrinkling her nose. “It stinks.”

“Yep,” Corran agreed. “Welcome to Eriadu.”

Anakin agreed, as well, albeit silently. But it was a complex stink. If he imagined this stuff Eriaduans sucked in every day as a painting, an oily, bitter, hydrocarbon stench would be the canvas. Sulfury burnt yellow swirled over it, interspersed with starbursts of white ozone spangles and green chloride stars, all under a gray wash of something vaguely organic and ammoniac.

A light rain was falling. Anakin hoped it wouldn’t burn his skin.

“Is Coruscant like this?” Tahiri asked. She had already forgotten the smell and was tracing with eager eyes the clunky but sky-reaching industrial buildings on all sides of the spaceport. Low leaden clouds dragged over the tallest structures, though the canopy opened in places to a more distant, pastel yellow sky.

“Not really,” Anakin said. “For one thing, the buildings on Coruscant aren’t this ugly.”

“It’s not ugly,” Tahiri said. She sounded defensive.