• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“True, but chances are, that’ll be something worth knowing. The more we can learn about this ship, the better our chances for survival.”

The outer layer of the villip peeled back, and the tissue within began to reshape itself into the likeness of the Yuuzhan Vong who had been “attuned” to this villip. In moments Jaina held in her hands a horrific face, one marked by fringed lips and a tangle of scars.

She knew that face. Everyone in the galaxy with access to the HoloNet knew it. This was the warmaster Tsavong Lah. Not long ago, he’d sent a communication throughout the galaxy calling for the destruction of the Jedi, and demanding Jacen Solo. Jaina had seen that holovid replayed many times, but her blood boiled anew with each viewing.

“The sacrifice has been completed?” the warmaster demanded.

Jaina held the villip closer to her face and sent her brother’s enemy a knife-edged smile. “Not yet.”

The villip crinkled into an ominous frown. “You were to contact me when your duty was complete, Nom Anor, and not before. Pray you are not contacting me to report another failure.”

She glanced at her friends, her brown eyes sparkling with something resembling her old spirit.

“Oh, this is too good,” she marveled. “This is Nom Anor’s ship! The villip must not be attuned to him, though, or you’d think Tsavong Lah would notice the difference.”

Ganner threw up both hands. “I don’t know, Jaina. You’ve definitely looked better.”

“And you still look like a holovid hero. Where’s the justice in that?” she shot back good-naturedly. “Anyway, Lowbacca thinks this villip is a way for a ship’s pilot, whoever that might be, to report to a fleet admiral. When you think about it, that makes sense. I don’t have a complete handle on how villips work, but from what I hear they seem to allow one specific person to talk to one other specific person. But what happens if that villip connection is broken? They’ve got to have some way of communicating with a ship, not just a person. Lowbacca found this thing onboard, living in a hydroponic vat. Maybe the ship itself attunes the villip, and the pilot’s connection with the ship allows communication.”

“Who is this?” the warmaster demanded.

Jaina turned her attention back to the globe. “Let’s put it this way: I’m contacting you to report another failure,” she said, turning his earlier words back upon him.

Tsavong Lah’s cruel eyes narrowed. “This is not Nom Anor. You are not even Yuuzhan Vong—the villip is translating.” His face twisted with fury as the logical answer presented itself. “The Jeedai!”

“Got it in one,” she mocked.

For a long moment, the image of Tsavong Lah merely glared at her. Then his frayed lips twisted in a sneer. “And this, I suppose, is where you offer yourself in your brother’s place.”

“Why bother? I know you won’t let Jacen go.”

“That is true enough, but are you so sure of your motivation?” he taunted her. “You are the lesser twin, the one who would fall in sacrifice. Perhaps it suits your purposes to keep your brother’s sword far from your throat.”

Jaina began to understand what this “sacrifice” entailed. “We would fight each other?”

“Of course! That is how it is done.”

An image flashed into Jaina’s mind from the time she and Jacen had been held captive at the Shadow Academy, forced into dark-side training. They’d been made to fight with lightsabers, long before they were ready for such weapons, and to fight for their lives against a foe cloaked in a hologram. They’d pitted her against Darth Vader—a symbol of her past, and a portent of her future. Jacen, however, faced the same apparent foe. Neither of them had realized until the hologram cloaking devices were shut off how near they’d come to killing each other.

Despite all she’d been through before and since, the horror of that moment still visited Jaina in dreams.

Her mind raced as she tried to improvise a plan. It occurred to her that it might be best to play into the war-master’s perceptions.

“That’s how it’s always done,” she agreed, letting the memory of the Shadow Academy imbue her words with