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The seed shifted itself around so its nose swung into line with his approach vector. Sensors gave him no read on energy weapons powering up, which disturbed him less than getting no power readings for propulsion. How is that thing moving?

Before any answers suggested themselves, Gavin quickly kicked the X-wing into a barrel roll to starboard and leveled out with his crosshairs covering the seed. He triggered a quick blast and waited for the seed to explode, but that didn’t happen. As the quad burst neared the target, the bolts all whirled into an invisible vortex and vanished into a pinpoint of white light.

Emperor’s black bones . . .

The seed jetted forward, swinging around to bring its nose to bear on the X-wing. Gavin started to roll port and dive, but something shook his ship. In a heartbeat Catch started screeching and the X-wing’s forward shields collapsed. Something dully red blossomed on the seed’s nose, then shot toward the X-wing. It hit hard and splattered a bit, then what appeared to be molten rock started melting through the fighter’s metal flesh.

Warning sirens blared, drowning out Catch’s panicky tones. Bright red damage flags began to scroll up over the primary monitor, all but one of them moving too fast for Gavin to read. The one he could see reported a premature ignition of a proton torpedo’s engine, which lit up the whole port magazine and tore the X-wing apart.

Stunned, Gavin sat back in his seat as the screens went black and the cockpit’s hatch cracked open. He glanced at his chronometer and shook his head. “Catch, we lasted twenty-five seconds. What was that thing?”

A human orderly appeared at the edge of the cockpit. “Colonel Darklighter, the admiral sends his compliments.”

Gavin blinked and stroked a gloved hand over his brown goatee. “His compliments? I lasted less than half a minute.”

“Yes, Colonel, very true.” The orderly smiled. “The admiral said he would meet you in your office in an hour and explain why you are to be congratulated on doing so well.”

Gavin sat behind his desk, idly punching up holographic images on his holoprojector plate. The first picture showed him and his two sons—orphaned boys who had lived near the Rogue Squadron hangar after the Thrawn crisis—all smiles. The next showed the boys two years older, still smiling despite being all dressed up, standing with Gavin and his bride, Sera Faleur.

She’d been the social worker who had helped him through the adoption process for the boys. Gavin smiled as he remembered squadron mates telling him that their mixed marriage couldn’t last. They were both human, but she came from Chandrila, having grown up on the shores of the Silver Sea, and he was from Tatooine, yet despite the differences in their homeworlds, they easily made a life together.

The next image showed Sera and Gavin with their first daughter; after that came shots of them with their new son and then another daughter. An image made as a New Year’s greeting card showed all seven of them together. Gavin easily remembered how happy they’d all been together. Prior to meeting Sera he’d pretty much resigned himself to never finding someone to love, but she’d been the balm to heal his broken heart. She’d not made him forget the past and the lover he’d lost, she’d just helped him recapture the joy of life and all its possibilities.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, Colonel.”

Gavin looked up through the image of his family and shook his head. “No, Admiral, not at all.” He shut off the holoprojector, relieved that the Bothan admiral’s arrival had stopped the cycle of pictures right there, at the happy times.

Admiral Traest Kre’fey bore a striking resemblance to the other members of the Kre’fey family Gavin had seen: the late General Laryn—the admiral’s grandfather—and the admiral’s brother, Karka. Despite having spent a certain amount of time in the company of Bothans, Gavin couldn’t remember any outside the Kre’fey family whose fur was pure white. Traest didn’t have the golden eyes the other two had; instead his were mostly