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“Is there any chance Sekot’s planning to jump Zonama to hyperspace?” Kyp asked.

“The hyperdrive cores are as silent as Sekot,” Jabitha said.

“Errant Venture might be able to evacuate everyone in time,” Danni said.

“Sure, if we could reach Booster,” Kyp said. “But we’re getting nothing on the comlinks.”

“Sekot could be blocking the signals deliberately,” Zekk said.

Jabitha turned to him. “You’re assigning dark designs to a consciousness that knows little or nothing of subversion. Next you’ll be accusing Sekot of refusing to allow your warships to land on the surface, as a means of marooning you here.”

“I’m only saying that Sekot strikes me as a quick learner,” Zekk said.

“What makes you think that Sekot would wish to sabotage us?” Cilghal said.

Zekk shrugged. “Only what I’ve been hearing about Sekot’s belief in the Potentium. If there’s no distinction between the light and dark sides, then it won’t matter what happens here—or even at Coruscant.”

“Sekot wouldn’t have agreed to return from the Unknown Regions just to die here,” Cilghal said firmly. “That would hardly be the action of a world that considers itself the caretaker of the Force.”

“The self-appointed caretaker,” Alema said.

Jabitha sucked in her breath in surprise, then looked at Danni. “Danni Quee. Sekot wishes to speak with you.”

Only the Force was keeping Jacen from succumbing to the pain—the Force and what he had learned from Vergere during the indeterminate amount of time she had kept him in the Embrace of Pain—breaking him. While under his mentor’s tutelage he had been able to go into himself to meet the pain on its own terms. Now he didn’t have that curious luxury, because he was having to call on all his abilities to keep from being killed.

If not for the swaying of the Citadel and the effects of its unpredictable oscillations of Shimrra’s coffer—his escape vessel—Jacen figured he would already be dead. That was the World Brain, having finally decided which side it was on. The trouble was, that decision mattered only to the reshaping of Coruscant and not to the Supreme Overlord, who was clearly able to control objects in his immediate environment without need of the dhuryam.

The slayers, for one thing.

Where initially they had been moving with individual vigilance and of their own accord, they were now moving as coralskippers did under the control of a battle coordinator. The change had come simultaneously with Shimrra’s rising from the throne, and the escape of his Shamed One companion, whom Jaina had pursued into the summit of the Citadel. Jacen knew that her exit had been prompted by something she had perceived through the Force, but he and Luke could have used her lightsaber now.

Three slayers had Jacen backed to the bunker’s outer wall. Even through his Vongsense he could not predict their actions, or where their thrashing and thrusting amphistaffs were going to strike next. He had managed to evade copious sprays of venom, but his torso had taken countless lashings; his limbs were bruised by the heads and coils of the serpentine weapons—though none had yet been successful in sinking fangs into him. His lightsaber had returned as many blows, but the slayers seemed to be largely immune to pain, if not indestructible.

A half dozen corpses were sprawled on the floor, sliding or rolling with each random cant of the Citadel. But more than the lightsaber, it was acrobatics that was keeping Jacen from being overwhelmed by the specially engineered warriors. Time and again last-moment leaps had carried him out of the range of their shapeshifting weapons, as the fight moved along the perimeter of the throne room. The gravity-tweaking dovin basal set in the base of the throne made it impossible for Jacen or his opponents to venture closer to the throne than the shallow moat that encircled it without being tugged violently to the yorik coral floor.

Jacen took advantage of the gravitic anomaly now, as one of the slayers lunged for him. He leapt high into the air, and the warrior flew under his feet, only to be pulled to the floor facefirst, so that