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A moment later, the metal parted and insectile eyes shoved their way into the cockpit. Kyp thumbed his lightsaber on and the energy blade plunged through the creature. Kyp turned it off again. Its noise was muted by the fact that almost all the atmosphere in the cockpit had disappeared through the hole in those few moments; Kyp’s flight suit activated, its energy shield technology holding atmosphere in around him, keeping pressure on his skin. “Grutchin problem solved,” he said.

“Sorry about that,” Jaina said. Her voice was muted.

Kyp glanced at his sensor board. He, Jaina, and Jag were outbound from the engagement zone. Maybe twenty coralskippers were in pursuit.

But there were now other friendlies on the board, a cloud tagged Rogue Squadron, a capital-ship-sized blip tagged Lunar Tide, approaching from the approximate direction of galactic spin. “Let’s go that direction,” Kyp suggested.

“We’ll do that, Kyp,” Jaina said. “Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Han sat, limp and gray, in his seat and forced himself to take deeper breaths.

Leia didn’t look any better than he felt. “We raised her that way, Han, whether we intended to or not.”

“I know.”

“So we can’t exactly criticize her.”

“Since when does logic interfere with my right to complain to her? Especially when she does something that stupid?”

“Han.”

“I’m twenty years older than I was this morning. Twenty years, Leia.”

“You’re starting to sound like Threepio.”

He scowled at her. “Am I really?”

“Just fly. The faster we get to the Maw, the faster we can return.”

FOURTEEN

Yuuzhan Vong Warldship, Coruscant Orbit

The laser beam, a meter thick, flashed from the depths of space to strike Tsavong Lah’s worldship.

It hit with the force of a turbolaser battery, pouring damage onto the worldship surface, superheating the yorik coral there, scarring deeply into it.

Less than a second later, a void materialized beneath it, intercepting it, swallowing all the damage. The void remained there as the damage continued to rain down. Then, a minute later, the laser attack ceased, and the void disappeared.

In the worldship control chamber, Tsavong Lah took the news of the attack with puzzlement in his manner. “Extent of damage?” he asked.

“Minimal,” Maal Lah said. “The damage is already regenerating. Within a day, there will be nothing but a battle scar.”

“And you have not found the vehicle or emplacement that fired it.”

“No, Warmaster. Though it appears that it was fired from beyond the orbit of this system’s outermost planet, and took considerable time to reach our worldship.”

“Demonstrating merely that they have enough spotters on the planet below, and that those spotters have enough communications gear, that they can keep track of this worldship’s position while it remains in orbit.” Tsavong Lah shrugged. “Why would they demonstrate this knowledge in a way that gains them no advantage?”

“I do not know, Warmaster.”

Tsavong Lah considered, barely distracted by the twinging sensations brought on by the parasites burrowing their way through the flesh of his arm.

A thought occurred to him, a discouraging one. “Trace the course of that laser attack.”

“We have already done so, Warmaster.”

“Trace it beyond the Coruscant system. What other planetary systems are directly along that line?”

Maal Lah gestured to one of his analysts, and within moments the analyst brought them the answer. “Pyria,” Maal Lah said.

“Open the villip to my father. And bring Viqi Shesh to me.”

Borleias Occupation, Day 39

Though the doors to the special ops docking bay were open, and the X-wings of Rogue Squadron were maneuvering through them to land, Jaina, Kyp, and Jag were directed to land in the kill zone, only a few dozen meters from the front entranceway, in an area where no other vehicles were situated. One officer stood there alone, and as they came in for a landing, Jaina recognized him: Colonel Celchu.

Her heart couldn’t sink much. It was already somewhere around her ankles. But she felt it descend the final few centimeters