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Ynos shook his shaggy head in despair. "There will be more deaths and injuries like this. Many more, and there's nothing we can do about it.

The miners buy burrowing detonators and turn them loose in our fields faster than we can clear them. We'll never have happy lives again.

We'll all starve."

Han Solo forced an optimistic expression and put a hand on the old man's shoulder as three farmers gently carried their friend's body away.

"You won't starve tonight. The Falcon has plenty of food packs in its prep unit. I can make you all a decent meal, something to give you strength. It's not much, but it's the best we can do right now."

Ynos looked at them, hunger in his eyes. Jaina could see he desperately wanted to accept the offer.

"No argument," Han said, before the limping man could think of anything to say.

One by one, the other villagers approached, eyes still wide with horror at the death they had witnessed, but ready to see how Han and the young Jedi Knights intended to help them.

Before Han Solo and the young Jedi Knights prepared evening meal in the Millennium Falcon, the villagers all worked together to dig a grave for the man who had died that afternoon. They buried him in an area already dotted with mounds, and Jacen realized with shock that each mound was a grave. He doubted that many of the dead had fallen prey to natural causes.

Anobis appeared worn out and stretched to its limits, as if it were making a last gasp for life. As far as Jacen could tell, agricultural settlements such as this one continued fighting only out of sheer habit, not because of any lingering convictions. The current of hatred ran too deep to be diverted by any rational arguments.

The fanners ate the Falcon's food supplies with great gusto as Jacen and Jaina served meal after meal from the galley. Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Em Teedee welcomed guests and cleaned up after each one, while Zekk and Anakin tinkered with the food-prep unit to see if it could produce the meals faster.

The sun of Anobis set in a coppery orange glow behind the ominous mountains where the enemy mining villages were located. The smoke in the air made the colors more vivid. Keeping to herself, Anja gazed toward the craggy shadows with something akin to longing, while the farming villagers looked at the mountains with fear and loathing.

Outside, Han ate with old Ynos. The village leader seemed content that his people had received this small reprieve. "So who speaks for all the farmers?" Han asked. "Is there a council I could talk to? What would it take to bring about a cease-fire between the miners and farmers-stop all this death and destruction, even temporarily?"

Jacen paused in his serving to listen to the old farmer.

"Each of the farm communities is separate and independent, though ours is one of the largest," Ynos said, wiping his mouth. "I can speak for these people as well as anyone else. I know how they feel."

He heaved a great sigh. "You saw what happened this afternoon.

It is a common occurrence. Day after day, our people are slaughtered indiscriminately by brutal weapons that strike unarmed targets. None of us are soldiers. The graveyard beyond the village is filled with the innocent victims of the miners' hatred."

Jacen saw his father shoot a glance over at Anja, his face troubled.

Jacen was confused because the young woman had told a completely different story about how much pain the farmers caused the people in the mountains. He would have to assume that neither story was exactly correct.

As twilight turned into deeper dusk, the most physically fit young men and women finished eating their fill of the donated rations, then went out as sentries to guard the village. The mine-laced fields sprawled toward the forests and mountains in the west, while behind them rocky hills etched with canyons looked just as inhospitable. Night insects, birds, and more sinister-sounding creatures bumbled and set up their songs around the darkening plain, particularly from the rugged hills to the east where the brush fire still