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“A chunk of the Imperial City that is popularly known as the Invisible Sector, primarily because most people don’t want to admit it exists. It’s large enough to swallow up three or four of the largest metropolitan areas from elsewhere in the galaxy, but here it’s just one precinct out of many. Invisec is a contraction of the name and is used by folks who frequent it to refer to the area.”

“You mean the Alien Protection Zone.”

“Right, sure, if you want the Impspeak designation, but only the military uses that. Citizens don’t talk about it, or call it ‘there,’ or refer to it as invisible or unseen, or the witty ones confess slumming down there by saying they disappeared for a while. Invisec is largely made up of the APZ, but it extends around it and has little satellite sectors elsewhere in the city. Think of it like Mos Eisley, but uglier, nastier, and less hospitable.”

Worse than Mos Eisley? Gavin blinked. “Is that possible?”

“That’s the thing about evil, Gavin, it doesn’t diminish when you spread it over a larger area. It’s rumored Vader built a palace near Invisec because, for him, it was as attractive as a seashore sunset is to most folks. The black market thrives down there. Aliens who have work permits can leave Invisec and work in other locations. Those who don’t are forced into working at the factories that have been built on the edges of Invisec.”

Looking past Mirax and out through the cockpit viewscreen Gavin saw the dark city below rise up toward the ship. It seemed as if towers lunged to impale the Skate but the Sullustan pilot deftly steered the ship around them. Down and down the ship glided, flitting between towers and around through canyons, pushing lower and lower through layers of light and shadow until they reached a point where Liat had to turn on the ship’s running lights or be left without a means for orienting the ship.

The Sullustan slowed the ship and brought it down below the overhanging edge of a building. Dark fungi and white lime stained the walls. Gavin couldn’t identify the stone used to construct the building, but it seemed to be ancient and covered with odd, twisty runes like nothing he’d ever seen before. “What does the writing say?”

Mirax laughed. “That’s not writing, Gavin, those are the trails of granite slugs. Hawk-bats tend not to get down this deep.”

“Granite slugs and hawk-bats?”

“Hawk-bats look good riding the thermals—just as long as you don’t suck one into an engine. They prey on granite slugs and get the occasional borrat. Borrats get as big as two meters long.”

“Sounds like womp rats from back home.”

“Sure, except these things have tusks, spines, armored flesh, and claws that can dig through ferrocrete. The only good thing about them is that they tend to be solitary.” Mirax flipped some switches overhead. “And there are all sorts of extraterrestrial beasties that someone brought to Coruscant and let loose. Most are benign, but …”

Gavin shivered. And why was it I agreed to this duty?

The Skate slowly began an ascent, which Gavin thought would bump them against the bottom floor of the building above, but he discovered they were rising through an open hatchway in the overhang. “This is convenient.”

“A lot of transport of goods goes on at the lower levels in the city—it keeps traffic lighter up above. This building used to be outside Invisec, but as the construction droids slice a piece off one side of Invisec, the un-homed push out and take over new areas of the city. It’s a slow migration and Invisec generally gains two kilometers for every one it loses.”

The Pulsar Skate drifted forward and put down its landing gear. It came to rest in the large, dark basement of the building, squeezed in between trash middens, hydro-reclamation processors, and the heart of the building’s heating and cooling facilities. Liat killed the repulsorlift drives but left the external lights on, providing the only strong illumination in the facility.

Mirax unstrapped herself from the command chair and punched a button. Gavin heard a whooshing hiss followed by the sound of