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“Oh, Kyp, sit down and let Colonel Darklighter finish,” Jaina snapped.

“Yes, why don’t you do that?” Admiral Kre’fey said dryly. “And in the meantime, why don’t you credit me with the brains to sort things out for myself, without the benefit of your posturing? Believe it or not, Master Durron, I can sympathize with you to a certain extent. Like yourself, I’ve found it more productive to fight the Yuuzhan Vong in my own way, without bureaucratic shackles. It has made me quite as unpopular as you are.”

Kyp dropped his head fractionally. “Your pardon, Admiral. I’m an admirer of yours; I’ll make no secret of that. If I could have found you, I would have proposed alliance long ago. But about one thing you are mistaken. While the New Republic may have little use for either of us, you are still better liked in most quarters, as present company demonstrates.”

“Well, son,” the admiral said, “I suspect that in great measure that is a burrow you’ve buried yourself in. Don’t expect anyone else to dig you out.”

Kyp merely nodded and returned to his seat.

“Admiral,” Gavin said, “may I continue?”

“Please.”

“I was saying that Durron and his Dozen-or-so went to what must have been desperate lengths to get this information. You remember, Admiral—we were there before the Yuuzhan Vong buttoned down the system as tightly as they could. What he got out of that is the clearest proof we’re going to get that the Yuuzhan Vong are priming something very dangerous indeed. It’s my opinion that we ought to do something about it.”

“General Antilles?”

Wedge clicked his tongue. “I agree,” he said.

“As do I,” the Bothan concurred. “You see, Master Durron, what another moment of silence would have cost you? Nothing at all.”

“I understand, Admiral. My apologies.”

“Very well. I’ve been looking for a good target to take out, and this will do nicely. The nice thing about super-weapons is that they are usually big, and this one seems no exception. I should think we will be able to hit it.”

“Hitting it will be the very least of our worries,” Gavin said. “From what Kyp said, the Yuuzhan Vong have pretty much mapped all the safe hyperspace jumps near the weapon and have them effectively blockaded. Since Sernpidal is also one of their major shipyards, and since the Yuuzhan Vong haven’t started any new offensives lately, we can expect a pretty warm reception.”

“I’m sure that’s so, Colonel Darklighter. However, I have information that perhaps you do not. Sernpidal is one of the several parts of occupied territory that has been of interest to me in the past months. I’ve watched it—from somewhat a greater distance and with a good deal more caution than Master Durron, but I have watched traffic to and from it. In the last week, a large number of ships have departed Sernpidal. I was unable to determine where they were bound.”

“A new push?”

“Possibly they are merely reinforcing their borders with new ships,” Kre’fey said. “Or perhaps they are preparing the way for this superweapon of theirs. I should hasten to point out that nothing nearly the size of the weapon has been observed leaving, so it is presumably still there.”

“But maybe not for long, if the Yuuzhan Vong are about to renew their Coreward advance,” Wedge mused. “Maybe the whole peace-for-Jedi deal was an even greater ruse than we suspected—not just to get rid of the Jedi, but to give them the time to finish growing that thing.”

“We’re agreed, then, the sooner we act the better,” Kre’fey said.

“Sure,” Gavin said. “But getting in—”

“I have an idea about that,” the Bothan said. “If I may.”

“Of course, Admiral.”

“When Colonel Darklighter and I last entered the Sernpidal system, we were able to evade the Yuuzhan Vong defenses because when Sernpidal was destroyed, the redistribution of the planet’s mass opened up new hyperspace entry and exit points in the resulting asteroid field. The Yuuzhan Vong couldn’t risk jumping into the asteroids after us because they hadn’t calculated the