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“As am I. Strange things.”

The two Jedi continued on in silence—at least, audio silence. When one is attuned to the Force, the emotions playing through another can feel as sweet as music sounds, or as harsh as breaking transparisteel looks. Excitement tinged with resentment trailed off Ganner, so Corran decided to give fewer orders and invite Ganner’s input on little choices, like how to work around a rising line of stony outcroppings that capped the hills overlooking the lake. Ganner gladly took the lead, and once they had removed their sandshoes, they made good progress through the rocks.

At the pinnacle they paused, then slipped into shadows and descended toward the sand-strewn lake bed. They kept behind cover as much as possible, assuming that if the Yuuzhan Vong were there, they would have had the equivalent of infrared monitors available to them. At the base of the rocks they stopped and studied the flat expanse before them.

A village of sorts had been laid out on the lake bed, but clearly the designer had been working with some logic that Corran couldn’t understand. Closest to their position were small rounded buildings, bowl-like and inverted, with any opening in them pointing farther east, away from the Jedi. Corran counted two dozen of the stone huts, gathered in four rough ranks of six each. Beyond them came a trio of larger buildings, on the same design, and closest to the rising sun was a single, very large building—easily large enough to house a freighter and have room left over for storing cargo between trips.

Two things struck Corran about the buildings. The first was that they reminded him of mollusk shells. He knew of sea life that appropriated the castoff shells of other creatures, and found it easy to imagine that the Yuuzhan Vong had just come down and grown domiciles for themselves. He had no idea what they did with the creatures that actually grew the shells, but assumed they either moved on to grow the larger ones, or likely were a prime source of food.

The second thing that he noticed was that he got a Force sense of inhabitants only in the smallest of the shells. He glanced over at Ganner. “Something is wrong with the people.”

The other Jedi’s eyes narrowed. “It is as if there is static coming through the Force from them. Their link to the Force is weakening. I think they’re dying.”

“Good insight. And you get nothing from the larger shells?”

“Shells? Of course, that’s what they are. No, I don’t.”

“So, if there are Yuuzhan Vong around, they’re likely in those bigger ones.”

“That would be my assumption.” Ganner pointed a finger at the village and circled it around. “Notice anything about the slashrats?”

Corran stretched out with the Force. He found slashrats easily enough, but they were all twenty meters from the Yuuzhan Vong village. They were active and would move toward it, directly or at an angle, then turn back. Some would even tunnel deep under it but never come up through the heart of it. “Do you think they’re able to repel the slashrats?”

“I don’t know.” Ganner pulled his sandshoes from where he’d fastened them over his back to climb, and started to buckle them to his boots. “A quick look might tell us something.”

The older Jedi frowned. “We’re not very agile in these things. Going down there could be suicidal.”

Ganner smiled coldly. “I have an assist that makes me more agile.”

“You’re not going down there alone.”

“You will be too slow. If we get into trouble, you’ll be—”

“I’ll be waiting for you to use your assist to get me out.” Corran pulled on his sandshoes. “Trista should have you all knowledgeable about what is normal on this rock, so keep your eyes open for anything unusual down there. Let’s get samples of the sand and figure out what keeps the slashrats back.”

“I’m not stupid, you know.”

Corran arched an eyebrow at him. “You say that, but you’re the one who suggested going down there.”

“How smart are you for going with me?”

Corran rolled his eyes. “Just move it.”

Ganner led the way, and the slashrats gave them a wide berth. The two Jedi slipped into