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Lando glanced at Malik Carr, the priest, and the warriors. “We’ve seen this everywhere we’ve been—at the spaceport, in the streets … What’s going on?”

Page gestured to the Yuuzhan Vong. “They caught something. And not just the warriors. The yammosk, the weapons—”

“Oh, no,” Kyp interrupted in a tone of tragic realization. “Oh, no.” Blood rushed from his face, and his expression turned grim. “I know what happened here. I probably knew from the moment we saw the crashed coralskipper, but I didn’t want to believe it.” He looked at everyone. “And may the Force help all of us if I’m right.”

TWENTY-SIX

Everyone was scrambling for shelter. From his perch on the rim of the abyss, Luke could see hundreds of Ferroans massed at the mouths of the tunnels below, the combined light of dozens of glow sticks creating halos around each entrance. Through Magister Jabitha, Sekot had issued the alert that the planet was preparing to make a final jump to hyperspace. Luke could feel Zonama shuddering as the core hyperdrives heated up. He could sense the tension and uncertainty in the boras, the seed-partners, the myriad creatures the vast tampasi supported.

He looked into the night sky. For no reason he could fathom, each jump seemed to have brought him closer to a familiarity that had nothing to do with star systems or planets. Even in the most remote realms of the Unknown Regions, his connection with the Force had never faltered. But with the previous jump he had begun to hear the whispers of his fellow Jedi, and their urgency told him that it was critical that he, Mara, and the others return. If the imminent jump didn’t succeed, or if it should leave Zonama far from where Luke wanted the planet to emerge, then he would do as Mara had wished, and make use of Jade Shadow.

He felt Jacen approach from behind him, but didn’t turn from the view.

“Something has happened,” he said finally.

“I feel it, Uncle Luke,” Jacen said. “The Jedi, our friends …”

“It’s not only them. The danger is widespread.”

Jacen came alongside him. A gust of wind tugged at the cowl of his robe. “Another Ithor? Another Barab One?”

“Not yet,” Luke said. “But a new evil has been unleashed.”

“By the Yuuzhan Vong?”

“By the dark side.”

Jacen nodded. “Your real enemy.”

Luke turned to him. “You should be thinking about your own course, Jacen, not mine.”

Jacen exhaled with purpose. “I have no one but you to look to, to know which path I should take. Our courses are entangled.”

“Then I guess I’d better listen to what you’ve decided about me.”

Jacen took a moment to collect his thoughts. “From everything you’ve told me over the years about confronting your father and the Emperor, it has always seemed to me that neither of them was your real enemy. Each tried to entice you to join him. But they were never the source of your fear. You feared falling to the dark side.”

Luke grinned faintly. “Is that all?” he said finally.

Jacen shook his head. “On Coruscant, at the ruins of the Jedi Temple, Vergere said that the Jedi had a shameful secret, and that secret was that there is no dark side. The Force is one. And since there are no separate sides, the Force can’t take sides. Our notions of light and dark only reflect how little we know about the true nature of the Force. What we’ve chosen to call the dark side is simply the raw, unrestrained Force itself, which gives rise to life as easily as it brings death and destruction.”

Luke listened closely. Now I shall show you the true nature of the Force, the Emperor had told him at Endor.

On Mon Calamari, Vergere had tried to lead him down the same path, by implying that Yoda and Obi-Wan were to blame for not telling him the truth about the dark side. As a result of their neglect, when Luke had cut off his father’s hand in anger, he assumed he had had a close brush with the dark side. When he stood at the side of the cloned Emperor, he had truly felt the dark side. Ever since, he had come to equate anger with darkness itself, and he had passed that along to the Jedi he had tutored. But in fact, according