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Just then a voice came over the comm speaker. It was Jacen.

"Raaba, is that you? If you need our help, we can take you aboard."

Nolaa Tarkona muted the speakers.

"Yes, it's perfect!" she said. "Accept their offer. That is how we can begin to spread the plague among the humans-with those Jedi as our first victims."

A rumble of outrage was building deep within Raaba like the boiling of a geyser. Even after all that Raaba had done, these humans-Lowie's friends

- were worried about her. They were willing to help. But Nolaa Tarkona had been right, in a way: in every revolution there must be sacrifices, and Raaba owed her allegiance to the Diversity Alliance. Her leader was dying, and she could not abandon her.

Nolaa toggled the comm speaker back on. Again Jacen's voice spoke.

"Hey, Raaba, are you there? Are you all right? Do you need our help?"

Below, New Republic ships bombarded the asteroid with a stream of turbolaser fire and proton torpedoes. Pressurized domes exploded just as Raaba wished she could explode to release the pressure building in her.

"Yes, we are coming, we accept," Nolaa Tarkona hissed. Shaking her head with a low growl in her throat, Raaba came to a decision. Her long Wookiee fingers flew over the controls of the star skimmer, setting a course and sending them sailing out and away from the asteroid. She increased their speed toward the Diversity Alliance armada. Faster, faster. She allowed herself to transmit only one message, not by voice but by a brief encoded burst that she flashed toward the Rock Dragon before starlines stretched out around them.

Together, Raaba and her leader Nolaa Tarkona plunged into hyperspace.

Behind them, unable to resist the concentrated barrage of firepower from the New Republic fleet, the Emperor's weapons depot erupted in a chain reaction of fire and dust, sparkling as it crumbled into nothingness.

Boba Fett sat in Slave IV, rising up out of the plane of the asteroid belt and watching the continuing battle below with some amusement. Tyko Thul had paid him for his efforts, and Fett was once again between bounties. The passion and devotion some people gave to their causes, their sacrifices, never ceased to amaze him. It seemed a terrible waste of energy, and not profitable. But then, it wasn't his business to understand. Avoiding all contact with other ships, Fett cruised away, setting a new course. It wouldn't be long before he had another bounty assignment....

OVER THE NEXT few hours the Bomaryn ships and the New Republic fleet rounded up the last remnants of the Diversity Alliance armada. But despite the excitement, the time passed as slowly as a century for Raynar. It would have been a kindness, he thought, if the shock of his father's death had thrown him into a numbing fog that blurred the hours while he waited for the space battle to end, while he waited to go aboard the Tradewyn and speak with his mother, to explain to her what his father had done and why. Instead, Raynar experienced every excruciating moment as if it were an eternity. How could he break the news to his mother that, after months of searching, after hopes that had been repeatedly renewed, Raynar had been unable to save his father?

In the docking bay of the cavernous Calamarian cruiser, Raynar refused even to get out of the Lightning Rod. He could think of seeing no one but his mother, could think of nothing but her pain - and his own. Zekk came and went, bringing Raynar reports of the final skirmishes with the Diversity Alliance armada. Raynar heard, yet did not hear, Zekk speaking.

Even the news that Nolaa Tarkona had escaped meant nothing to him. His mind absorbed little of the information, as his spirit curled into a tight ball of grief. Raynar was only vaguely aware that Lowie had not left the Lightning Rod either and sat somewhere close by, keeping watch but saying nothing.

Later, Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka also came in to see him, one by one. To his great relief, the young Jedi Knights did not try to cheer him up, did