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“Excellent.” Kueller turned his back on Yanne. “Carry out your orders.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kueller felt Yanne stare at him a moment before leaving the room. When Yanne was gone, Kueller signaled one of the guards to him.

She bowed her head, clearly frightened. “Yes, milord?”

“Bring Gant to me.”

“Yes, milord.” She clicked her heels and disappeared.

Gant wasn’t nearly as talented as Yanne, and he didn’t even fall into the same category as Femon. Neither of them did. But Gant would be Kueller’s next choice for an advisor. Best to start training him now. Kueller had a feeling that Yanne wouldn’t be with him much longer.

This time the cold felt as if someone were pelting her with ice cubes. With a shaking hand, Leia put Alderaan on automatic, amazed that she was able to do that much as she felt death all around her. This wave wasn’t as strong, but it lasted longer, which made it even more terrifying.

She couldn’t pinpoint its location, but the feelings were the same: sudden shock and betrayal, followed by fear, and then nothing, except a broad expanse of chill.

She braced herself to see Kueller’s face, but surprisingly, it didn’t surface this time. Instead, she felt Luke.

It was a small sense: one of great pain and great effort, but it was a sense all the same. Luke was alive.

He was alive.

She reached for him. Luke?

And got no response. But instead of being discouraged, she was heartened. At least she hadn’t hit that white wall she had hit before.

He was alive.

She swallowed. They were entering the Almanian sector. Soon the fleet would show on whatever kind of monitoring equipment Kueller had. Her time would be limited, and she would have to act quickly.

She was still alone in the cockpit. She had kept the military personnel out with the promise of allowing them to help once the battle started. By now, she should have felt tired, but she was curiously elated. She loved this feeling. She had had it several times in her life. The first was the day she met Han. After the experience with the interrogation droid, after watching Alderaan shatter, after losing everything, she should never have been able to run through those corridors, blast her way into that garbage bin, and shoot her way to the Falcon. But she did.

Han called it a core of strength within her, but it was more than that. No matter what, she would never give up. She would win and take risks just as Han did. She had proven that when she had sent the fleets to Koornacht the year before.

Now she would have to do it again.

Only this time, it was her own life she gambled with. Hers and Luke’s.

She just hoped she would be able to contact him before she reached Almania. Her plan depended on knowing where to find him.

Almost as if it heard her thought, a private message light appeared on the controls before her. It had come on the channel she used with Luke, a private channel that they had relied on ever since she had gotten the Alderaan.

She shut off any speakers to the rest of the ship, then ordered the computer to play the message for her.

She glanced at the screen.

CODED, IT READ, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.

She acknowledged the coding. The Alderaan knew who she was. No need for a retinal scan. The computer skipped all of the preliminaries and went straight to the message.

IT IS IN BINARY. DO YOU WANT ME TO TRANSLATE?

Luke had never sent a message in binary before. But she didn’t know his circumstances. This might be the best way for him to reach her.

She asked the computer to translate and waited until the message scrolled onto the screen.

NEW-MODEL DROIDS DANGEROUS. TO BE SAFE, SHUT DOWN ALL DROIDS. REPEAT. NEW-MODEL DROIDS DANGEROUS. TO BE SAFE, SHUT DOWN ALL DROIDS.

There was no signature. But the message continued to scroll, repeating over and over.

Leia studied the message. It made no sense. If Luke was in the kind of trouble she believed him to be in, he wouldn’t have sent a message like that. Unless it was another code.

Or unless it was true.

She shuddered, and buzzed the galley. “Lieutenant Tchiery to the cockpit, please.”

The lieutenant