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“That would be my guess.” Luke’s blue eyes narrowed. “And the people—any idea where they came from?”

Jacen looked again. “The clothing is pretty bad, but some of it has pirate insignia on it. Rim raiders that the Yuuzhan Vong ran into and made into slaves?”

“I think so, too.”

His nephew shivered. “The way they feel in the Force is just not right.”

“I know. It feels almost as if they’re dying by degrees.”

“What is the sense of killing your labor force?”

Luke shrugged. “If they were able to pick them up so easily on the Rim, perhaps they think the supply is infinite. It might also be that they’re adapting their slave control technology to the inhabitants of this galaxy. Maybe they don’t mean to kill them, but they need more work on their control devices. I don’t know.”

“It’s definitely creepy, no matter what is happening.” Jacen stretched out on his belly, lowered the macrobinoculars, and looked at his uncle. “What are they doing here?”

Luke pointed at the plinths. “Anything familiar about them?”

“Not really.”

“Okay, use the Force. Concentrate on the flow of life within the valley.”

Jacen closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Everything is moving in, toward the plinths, along the vines.” His jaw hung open for a second, then he looked at his uncle. “These plants are like a big solar collector. They’re channeling energy and the nutrients they’re sucking up back into the valley, toward the things. That sand is black because of a nectar the plants are flooding into it.”

“That’s what I sensed.” Luke pointed a finger at the plinths. “Unless I miss my guess, I’d say those plinths are coralskippers in their infancy. We’re looking at a shipyard. They’re growing a squadron right down there, and they’re using slave labor to help do it.”

The youth studied the valley again, then shook his head. “Growing fighters? How efficient can that be?”

Luke accepted the macrobinoculars back from him and opened a small compartment on the device. He snaked out a small cable and connected it to his comlink, then focused on the plinths. “The ships look fairly well along, and Belkadan has been under Yuuzhan Vong control for less than a month. That output would rival an Incom factory turning out X-wings, and since these ships are living and can heal, the wastage rate is lower than we get with our machines. What’s stunning here is the speed with which they’re able to grow these ships. This is serious trouble.”

He turned off the macrobinoculars, unhitched them from the comlink, and returned them to his pocket. “We got some good visuals. Come on.”

Jacen looked puzzled. “Shouldn’t we wait until dark to free the slaves?”

“We have other things we have to do first.” Luke pointed toward the west. “There are more slaves over there. Either they’re growing more coralskippers, or they might be growing other components for the ships. We need to see what is going on.”

Jacen followed him as they worked their way west. They came across one valley that resembled the one they’d just vacated, save that what had been plinths were simply small rocks in the ground. The village was completely overgrown, and Luke caught no evidence of slaves in the area.

One difference he did discover was a dozen-meter-long bit of stone that appeared to be lifeless obsidian. It had the outline of a coralskipper, but where there had been a cockpit opening on the one he’d examined on Dubrillion, this one remained sealed in stone. Luke ran his hand over the fighter, letting his fingers play over the irregularities in its surface.

Jacen frowned. “I don’t get it. Why did they leave one behind?”

“Birth defect?” Luke raced a finger along the line of the cockpit canopy. “It grew without a separation here. Could have been a local microbial infection, or just lousy genetics. Perhaps the xenoforming of the planet was intended to sterilize the nurseries, then free up the sort of nutrients that the plants need to feed the ships. Something went wrong with this one, so they dumped