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Star Wars: Genesis part One-
Beginnings End

Chapter I

One year after the alliance between the New Republic and the Empire

“Admiral Tarckok?”

“Ah, Commander Harsa!” the lone human said, turning to gaze down at his subordinate. He ran his pale hand through slicked back blond hair and leaned against the guardrail on the observation deck to better see his first officer. He smiled thinly and asked, “So how goes the construction on the Lispa 9-13’s and their new pilots?”

The Chiss soldier glanced at the data pad in his hand and read off the numbers. “All two hundred eight pilots have responded to the steroids with a two percent increase in brain mass, along with improvements in dexterity, aim, and stamina. Only twenty three have developed uncontrollable mental illness as a result.” Commander Harsa paused, knowing what he had to say next would not be received well. “We have only been able to construct 215 9-13’s because we have not received the next shipment of parts. A message from one of Elder Quarrcta di Donna’s aids states that the parts were needed for his ship so we are to find a new source.”

“What!” Tarckok snarled. Harsa cringed slightly, wondering who the Admiral would punish for this new inconvenience brought about by the leader of the Chiss sect, the Cragon. Time and again he had hindered their efforts for his own purposes and had gotten angry when they fell behind schedule. “Where are we supposed to get those parts?” Tarckok stomped down the ramp from observation deck and paced in front of Harsa. He was the only human in the Cragon army, and yet he had managed to acquire the respect and fear of all those who served aboard his battle cruiser Threnody. “The only other way to get them is to go into New Republic or Imperial space. Or if we want to be suicidal we can go to the Ssi-ruuk. Blast Quarrcta into the void! The final 9-13’s wont be built until I receive full compensations for the insanity that Elder is sure to inflict.”

“Then might I suggest we take the remaining thirty pilots and place them at the gunner stations. Their increased aim will be a great asset there,” Harsa indicated.

Tarckok nodded, his thin lip still curled in disgust. “Fine, do that. And since we don’t have to complete the ship order, we can still make our move on Asendra in six weeks. Do we have conformation that Skywalker will be there?”

“No,” Harsa said, tucking the data pad under his arm. “But he hasn’t missed a Conference of the Worlds yet, and this being the first with Imperials in attendance—besides assassins that is—he will be sure to be there.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want our Jedi to miss all the work we’ve been doing just for him,” Tarckok purred.

Harsa smiled, feeling the first stirrings of anticipation for the revenge that he and his people would soon be receiving. Then a rumor he had heard about Skywalker’s woman having entered into a delicate condition flickered into his thoughts. “Will we be . . . showing any of the other the Jedi our hard work?” he asked somewhat concernedly.

“There’s no plan for it. But if there are other Jedi feel free to test our new weapon on them. That way if we accidentally kill Skywalker we have others to amuse the public with,” Tarckok told him.

S e a r c h f o r S k y w a l k e r

Chapter II

Two standard weeks later

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master and teacher of the ways of the Force, slammed the flat of his hand down on the button on his alarm clock as he nuzzled his face against his fellow Master—among other thing's—neck.

"Why do we keep that thing?" Mara Jade-Skywalker murmured, letting her hands drift down to his waist. "We always wake up before it goes off anyway."

Luke grinned even though there was no way she could see his face. "Because sooner or later we’re going to wear ourselves out and we won't wake up in time."

"That's true," Mara agreed, nipping his shoulder. She waited until he had moved himself onto his knees before she wrapped her leg around his thighs and neatly rolled him over onto his back and pinned him to the bed.

"So tell me something, Luke," Mara said, tossing the blanket off of her back and shaking her head to cast her red-gold hair out of her face, "how are you on the subject of children?"

Luke blinked blankly at her for a moment, caught completely off guard by the question. "Uh . . . I don't know. I wasn't even aware that we were trying for one. Though it would explain a lot," Luke paused and gave his wife a suspicious look. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Mara said, not meeting his eyes and affecting a totally innocent air about her, which just told Luke that she was about to drop a bombshell. "It's just that you're, um—you're getting one." Luke continued to gaze blankly at her for a moment before the implications of what she had just said finally sank in.

"You mean . . . you mean you're . . ." Luke began incredulously, sitting up and letting his hand brush lightly against her stomach. Mara nodded, waiting to see what would happen, surprised at her nervousness. But she realized that she had no reason to worry as Luke's surprised expression was quickly wiped off of his face by a grin that slowly began to form on his lips. " . . . pregnant?"

Mara bit her lip and nodded. Luke cried out as the joy that built up inside him drove him to releasing it in the quickest possible way. He kissed Mara passionately then, hugging her to him with one arm, and placing his free hand on her abdomen, unsure how to thank her for giving him a gift he had not expected to receive so soon in their marriage. Mara smiled when she felt the Force stir within her as Luke used it to touch the child growing within her center.

Luke released her and shook his head in wonder, feeling as though he had just gone into shock, suspecting that he had. "I can't believe that I never noticed before," he said in wonder. "You'd think a Jedi Master would be a little more observant."

"Well, usually your attention is diverted when you’re down there," Mara commented playfully. Luke grinned with her and twisted her around beneath him again.

And about thirty seconds later there was a knock on the door.

"Blast it!" Luke growled. "Why do they always knock at the worst possible time?" Luke sat up and glared at the door to their bedroom for a moment as if it was to blame before he decided to ignore the intrusion. But the person persisted and Mara finally got fed up and slipped out from beneath him to answer it, throwing one of Luke's long, white shirts on as she padded softly to the wooden door.

"I'll get it. It's probably just Drent having a crisis," Mara called from their small, unadorned living room.

"Uh—Good morning Master Jade-Skywalker," Drent, one of Luke's new apprentices stammered by way of greeting. "There is a m-message for Master Skywalker waiting." Mara leaned against the door jam, knowing the prospect of being near two Jedi Masters was just short of terrifying for the apprentice.

"Master Skywalker is busy right now, Drent," Mara said patiently, "and I want you to tell who ever it is that they should start checking to see what the local time is on Yavin 4 before they call us."

Drent's face paled visibly and he had to try several times to get the rest of his message out of his dry mouth. "B-but I j-just thought that Master Skywalker w-would want to know if-if President Leia Organa S-Solo called him, so I-I came here—"

"It's Leia? Well, why didn't you say so! All right, I'll go get him. And Drent, calm down and do try to breathe," Mara said, letting the door close.

Mara stopped at the door to their bedroom, grinning when she caught him searching for his pants. She went back into the main room and retrieved them from where they been "casually" draped over a chair. Returning to their room, Mara threw the pants at Luke and said, "Leia's calling for you."

"Uh—thanks," Luke answered, pulling the pants down from where they had landed on his head. Quickly pulling them on, Luke grabbed a shirt and left the room, reassuring Drent on his way out. He padded softly down the cold stone hallway, realizing about halfway to the communications room that he had forgotten to put on socks. Sighing, he reflected about where his cold toes would rather be for the duration of the journey. Well, a Jedi ignores discomfort so he could focus on the greater good . . . though what good his waking up before the sun and the gas giant that Yavin 4 orbited was still in question. The hallways were made of the same black rock that made up the rest of the Great Temple, gilded in gold to herald the approaching dawn. The dampness of the lush jungle that surrounded the great moon could not penetrate the thick cold walls, though the air was constantly tinged with the sweet smell of growing vegetation. Luke went down the turbolift and passed through the Audience Chamber onto the communications room. An obvious add-on, it was covered with all sorts of technical equipment, communications mostly, but it also had tracking, ship identification, and an extensive library of all the Jedi knowledge that Luke had collected over time.

"Good morning, Luke," Leia Organa Solo said. Her brown hair, placed in an intricate design of braids and ribbons and clips, was further highlighted by the evening brilliance of Coruscant's sun. She smiled in obvious amusement when she saw her twin brother stumble into range of the holoprojector.

"Ugh," was all Luke said in answer. "Why the early call? I do actually use my bed, you know."

Leia giggled as if reacting to some private joke. "Hmmm. But whether it's for sleeping or something else is open for discussion." Leia commented dryly. But upon seeing Luke's sleepy expression deepen to mild annoyance, she hurriedly continued. "So, have you had any big news lately?" Luke glared at her for a long moment but he finally gave up, a huge smile broke through the façade and he quickly found himself grinning like an idiot.

"You know, I’d expect you to be a little more subtle. But yes, she told me! And let me guess—I'm the last to know as usual." Luke responded, the joyous note in his voice and the sparkle in his blue eyes negating the sting to his words.

"Well, no . . ." Leia said, trying to laugh and think rapidly all at the same time, "I don't think Anakin has figured it out yet."

Luke opened his mouth to respond but he was interrupted by a young voice, in the midst of disruptive puberty, from outside the holoprojector field that shouted, "Yes I have! Threepio told me!" Luke and Leia laughed together at her youngest child's remarks.

"Well, at least the press hasn't found out." Leia noted.

"Thank the stars!" Luke exclaimed in mock fear. "That is not the way for me to find out about my impending fatherhood. I'm getting too old to survive that sort of shock." Leia laughed gently at that, suddenly becoming very aware of the gray streaks just starting to show in his sandy brown hair. She absently touched her own streaks, knowing they had come far to early in her life, knowing she had grown up to soon. Abruptly her laughter stopped.

"So are we both," Leia added, the comment seeming to suck the humor out of the air.

Not liking the sudden awkward silence that prevailed over the siblings, Luke sought to break the quiet. "So is that why you called me at 5:00 am?"

"No," Leia answered, glad that Luke had lifted the brief consternation between them. "I just wanted to ask you if you were coming to the Conference of the Worlds. I could really use you there. I mean, I hate to ask you now that you just got such big news, but . . ." Leia trailed off when she saw Luke start to shake his head.

"I have two new students here that haven't been properly introduced to the place yet. I have an entire class that’s at a delicate part of their training. And not to mention all the other students and Jedi I really don't want to leave alone . . ." Luke said and then he shock his head again but this time he was smiling.

"What?" Leia asked, wondering what the joke was.

Luke looked up and grinned more broadly. "And Mara's gonna be so mad when she finds out that I'm leaving her with all this mess . . ."

"Like hell you are!" Mara said, entering the room from where she had been listening by the door and then gave Luke a rough shove in the shoulder. "I'm coming with you—that Conference is likely to last for a month or two and it'll be easier if I'm there when Luke starts to be overprotective then have him calling the Academy every two hours."

"I would not!" Luke said, pitching his voice to sound like that of a whining five-year-old.

Leia giggled when they started to bicker childishly and she was forced to shout to interrupt them. "Alright! Han and I'll be by to pick you up." Leia giggled again as she received the slightest wave of acknowledgement before she ended the transmission.

The Asendrian bazaar was already bristling with activity when Luke, Mara, and Leia’s husband Han Solo set out early that morning. The white dwarf star cast an eerie light on all that inhabited that world. It was as if the dying solar system was determined to get as much attention as possible before its star waned and all life surrounding it followed. And it was doing a good job of it. Asendra was one of the best worlds for selling all sorts of products—whether it is legitimate or not. But it had never been a place for agriculture and that art had been all but lost on this industrialized world. There were little other uses for the rock slowly being enveloped by the cold indifferent sun.

It had been chosen for the first Conference of the Worlds since the alliance between the New Republic and the Empire because it was a sort of middle ground. There were some senators and other bureaucrats in the Republic dubious of going to the Empire’s territory for fear of treachery and vice versa for the Empire’s politicians. But since Asendra had stayed neutral through most of the conflicts of the civil war, it was considered “equal ground”.

Most of the market places like the one the group of friends made their way through were covered with a protective macrodome to safeguard the potential customers form the industrial pollutants that encompassed Asendra. But if any oxygen-breathing organism were to leave the confines of the bubble, they would die of asphyxiation in less then five minutes.

Luke was thinking about this rather absently as the three walked down the sidewalk, occasionally picking through some of the wares. Luke was also thinking, with a great deal of facetiousness, that no matter how many times they all came to the Conference of the Worlds, it always took them at least a month to remember that only Leia was forced to sit through the dissertations and discussions. So Han, Luke and Mara had narrowly escaped death by tedium and headed for the famed agora of the capital city of Asendra, Atha.

Mara had bent over a table to look at a belt she and Han were arguing over when the unthinkable happened.

Someone shot Luke.

He had stayed out of the quarrel, having no opinion or care of the affair, when the beginnings of an impression of danger tugged on his consciousness. Having learned from many painful mistakes not to ignore it, Luke started to turn towards the strange sensation. There was an air circulation conduit directly behind him and the dark, wide, unfrequented pipe was the perfect place to hide. It had just entered his line of sight when there was a gentle poof, and something small and mechanical slammed into the back of his neck. He cried out in alarm rather then pain; the noise attracted Han and Mara's attention.

"What is it, Luke?" Mara asked, sensing his alarm and seeing it on his face. The pair looked on in astonishment as Luke reached up to his neck and wheezed as if he couldn’t get enough air down his throat. Then his eyes rolled back as he sagged to the ground. Han jumped forward and caught Luke with one arm, reflexively pulling out his blaster with his free hand. Mara withdrew her lightsaber from her belt, dropping into a combat stance in front of Han and Luke.

Suddenly a salvo of laser blasts emerged from the tunnel and Mara's lightsaber activated with a snap-hiss as she blocked the bolts with the lightning reflexes unique to the Jedi. The crowd screamed and broke away, running for cover from the unexpected attack on their peaceful city. Han tried to move with them, dragging Luke along and noticing that the Jedi was barely aware of where he was.

Mara stepped back from the conduit a few paces, trying to get a better look at her assailants and get more room to use her long blade. She needn't have worried about getting a chance to see them. She received more then a good look at the aliens as the blue skinned humanoids pouring out of the tunnel. Mara gasped as the name of their race, a name most people inside of the Outer Rim would not know, came to her.

"Han! They're Chiss!" Mara yelled over her shoulder. They were all wearing an indistinguishable dark green uniform, each carrying a high-powered blaster rifle, with the exception of one. The insignia on his uniform seemed to imply someone of high ranking, a commander at the very least. He was directing his troops with the ease of someone who was either a veteran or he loved his work—but form the gleam in his red eyes Mara suspected both. And unlike the other Chiss, he carried a strange weapon, looking similar to a modified tranquilizer gun. Lifting the rifle he pointed it at Mara's temple and fired.

Mara ducked and jumped to the side, grunting as her slowly expanding abdomen hindered her process. Mara glanced up, half expecting the object that had discharged form the weapon to explode over her head. But it continued on to strike the table with the disputed belt. She saw a brief electrical charge leave the object and enter the wood and she fleetingly speculated over what that would do if it hit her.

She didn't have to think about it for long. Even as she had looked at the device, the commander had the gun ready and aimed to fire. Mara could feel another object strike the back of her neck and for a moment nothing happened besides a slight contraction of her neck muscles. Mara turned around to face the Chiss commander but even as she was standing back up she felt the electrical current enter her throat and go up her spine. It hit her head and it was as if an important part of her mind just shut off, leaving in its place a continues, monotone shrill.

Mara clutched at her skull and collapsed back onto the ground, dropping her lightsaber and screaming in pain, waiting to pass out as Luke had. But instead her sight seemed to dim and her body nearly paralyzed. Yet somehow she still had enough maneuverability to attempt to stagger to her feet. She got to her hands and knees before one of the guards slammed the butt of his riffle across her face and Mara fell to the earth.

"Mara!" Han cried, the crowed surging passed him as he stopped in a moment of indecision. He looked at Luke who had his arm thrown over Han's shoulders, his head lolling backwards and his eyes rolling. Han turned from one helpless friend to the other and swore in frustration. He dragged Luke over to a chemically stained wall and let his contorting body slump against it; Han checked the power settings on his before he lifted the end to bear on the Chiss soldiers. He managed to fire off four shots before any of them retaliated. The first few missed him as Han ducked and rolled off in one direction and another. But then as Han pushed himself to his feet a blast slammed into his shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He just managed to scramble to his feet before another blast whizzed by his ear. Diving behind a table to catch his breath and attempt to come up with a better plan then firing at a bunch of hostile aliens intent on killing him, Han cautiously looked around the corner when he realized that they had stopped blasting.

But what he saw sent him to start cursing in utter frustration. They had picked up Mara's inert form and were already carrying it down the tunnel, and two others had started to drag Luke bodily across the street. Han had to fight down the urge to go after them, knowing that as soon as he left his hiding place the five soldiers that had their guns aimed at him would shoot him down in a second.

Then he saw Luke shake his head groggily, as if he had just woken up after someone had punched him out good. As he lifted his head, Luke saw that he was about to be hauled into the conduit and he balked, struggling to find more time to pull himself together. The Chiss tried to tug harder and Luke's eyes snapped open and Han felt a certain sense of relief—Luke could use the Force to get out of this easy. Both of the Chiss that had a hold of his shoulders were shoved back . . . a step. But even as the energy force hit them, Luke screamed in pain and the strength of his paroxysm shook him lose from his captures. One of the Chiss slammed his rifle across Luke's face, drawing blood. Luke slumped to the ground with a sickening thud and all Han could do was watch helplessly as they dragged him through the tunnel and the sirens sounded too late.

Chapter III

There was nothing you could have done, Han," Leia said comfortingly as they sat in the administrative office of the Atha security force.

Han just shook his head, refusing to be comforted. "No. Maybe if I—"

"—were a Greedon you could have deflected the bolts with your shell," a man said as he strode into the suite. He was well groomed with a trim black goatee and clothes that were well made yet would allow him to easily slip into any crowed. "But unfortunately you're just a lowly human and those nasty lasers hurt when they hit." The man paused to inspect Han's shoulder. "Ah, I see you've already figured that out. Has anyone seen to that yet?"

"No, Karrde," Han growled, annoyed at him for stating the obvious and for being right. "I've been trying to help get Luke and Mara back. What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be getting some information for Admiral Pellaeon?"

"And as Supreme Commander of the Empire, Pellaeon is here just as President Leia Organa is. I came to give him some information and arrived just as all hell broke lose. And the Chiss took Mara which gives me every right to be here." Talon Karrde, the only man the Empire and the New Republic trusted enough to be in charge of their joint intelligence group, added as he stared at Han without flinching and yet conveying his carefully concealed concern to all those in the room who knew him. Who knew why the simple fact that one of his people being involved made all the difference.

Leia smiled softly in response, understanding him all to well. "Of course. How did you find out it was Chiss?"

"I had people in the bazaar. They saw you get attacked and once they heard Mara yell out what they were, they reported back to me. I still make it a point to keep the areas around me covered." Karrde said, sinking into a chair the Atha commissioner had resided in before he finished questioning Han. "Unfortunately," Karrde added, "they went out of the dome and no one could follow them. We're currently scanning planetary traffic to see if anything unusual happens—" As if on cue, Karrde's comlink beeped and he dug it out of his pocket.

"Yes . . .? What's their heading . . .? All right, get the Wild Karrde ready; we're going after it. I was right,” he said, putting the comlink away and addressing Han and Leia again, “a shuttle of unknown origin matching the description of one of the fighters Mara and Luke saw at the Chiss military base on Nirauan just blasted off the planet without authorization."

Han nodded; he stood and rotated his injured shoulder. "That'd make sense considering what they did to the place. Let's go."

"Oh, no you don't!" Leia said, catching Han's good arm and holding him fast. "I'm not letting you go out there with your arm in that state. Chewbecca and I'll—"

"Do a better job of flying the Falcon while I go in the gun turrets. I let Luke and Mara down once today already, I'm not about to do it again." Han interrupted, looking at Leia with determination in his eyes. Leia pressed her lips together in a thin line and nodded tersely before all three rushed out the door.

The shuttle sped through the deathly stillness of space, its sublight engines working at full capacity in a vain effort to outrun the multiple ships chasing them; cruisers, snub fighters, and freighters alike. The sleek ship, at first glance appearing like that of a TIE fighter, soon reviled itself to be anything but. It was easily twice as big, and its speed, through it could reach considerable rates, was designed to build slowly, nothing like the New Republic and Imperial ships that pursued it now. The dark blue shuttle aimed its nose towards the thick asteroid field that surrounded the Asendra system. But it didn't even get relatively close as a Yt-1300 Corellian freighter shot past.

Chewbecca shut off the Millennium Falcon's sublight engines and twisted the freighter around using just the thrusters before Han's Wookiee copilot threw power to engines again. The Falcon sped in a direct line towards the shuttle as Han sent off a barrage of low powered laser bolts from the gun turret in an attempt to disable the craft. But all the blasts did was splatter harmlessly off the vessel's shields. The Falcon was forced to twist into a corkscrew to avoid a headlong collision with the shuttle. They slipped under the shuttle and the craft shot off a round of laser blasts that were stopped by the Falcon ’s deflectors.

"We could get though their deflector shields if we used proton torpedoes," Leia shouted at Han from where she sat in the pilot's seat in the cockpit.

"Yeah, that would work real well!" Han retorted. "The only thing is we'd blow them up while we're at it!"

Chewie roared into his com as he checked the sensor readings. "Chewie's right, Han. No ship with a tractor beam strong enough to hold our runaway will get here in time! The Mon Calamari cruiser is just leaving the planet!"

"Then we'll just have to stall them until the cruisers get here!" Han growled, gritting his teeth and shooting off another burst of blaster fire. He was rescued when a squadron of X-Wings soared into the battle; Han quickly identified them as Rogue Squadron. The Falcon swooped down and out of the intricate pattern the X-Wings wove around the shuttle, forcing the craft to swerve and veer to avoid the laser blasts and the snub fighters.

The Falcon plunged and soared to the side, the X-Wings leaving them free to scan the area to see what the shuttle had been racing for. There was an empty asteroid field that surrounded the seventh planet in that solar system. The asteroids were unusually thick except for the random pockets of clear space, which occasionally let sunlight to the barren planetoids beyond. Even as Leia thought about this, she saw one of the giant expanses slowly orbiting towards them now. Except the sensors we telling her that there was no light was getting through . . .

"Chewie bring 'er around to coordinates 228º. I think our shuttle has some really big friends!" Leia said, scanning out the view port for the starship she knew was hiding there. Sure enough, the shadowy battleship was there, framed by the misshapen asteroids. "Do you see it Han?"

"Yeah. So that's where our little buddy over there was headed. Get Talon on the com; he's probably got something big enough to take care of that thing here. Or he knows someone who does." Han muttered, starring at the massive spaceship.

"Yeah, I know the New Republic who's got a really slow moving cruiser on its way here and I know the Empire who's got a slightly faster Star Destroyer almost here. But I think they'll do something before we reach them." Karrde said after Leia had gotten him on the transmitter. "But until then the Wild Karrde and the Falcon will just have to do." After receiving agreement from Leia, Karrde signaled his first officer to head towards the ship with the strange azure coloring.

The Wild Karrde had just reached the edge of the asteroid field when the star ship suddenly jerked into motion. Its turbolasers started firing without warning and began to blast away the asteroids that floated between it and the shuttle. The Wild Karrde and the Falcon veered away to avoid the bolts that never seemed to miss their intended victims. The ship emerged from the debris just beneath the two retired smuggling ships. Yet even though one of its own shuttles was under obvious threat by their attackers, the starship was going relatively slow. And the reason soon became very evident as the cargo bay doors on the starship opened and at least two dozen more heavily armed shuttles emerged into space to join the battle.

Leia set the com frequency to an open channel to reach all their ships. "Watch out! We got enemy ships coming at you from 222.56 degrees! Watch it Corran! You've one coming up right under you!"

"I see it! I'm on it!" Rogue Nine answered, altering his X-Wing's direction to avoid the verdant laser blasts aimed at his exposed belly. The fleet of strange crafts cut into the swarming X-Wings, Y-Wings, and TIE fighters like a knife through tumarian butter; splitting the Republic and Imperials aside and creating a path for the licentious shuttle caught in the maelstrom. The Imperial Star Destroyer started to open fire on the unidentified battleship even though it was far to far away to cause any real significant damage.

The Wild Karrde dove down into the melee while the Falcon changed course to intercept the limping shuttle. Han fired off another volley of low powered laser fire, putting more exertion on the shuttle's already straining shields, forcing the craft to take power from its sublight engines to keep them up. The Falcon closed in, Chewie preparing to use their weaker tractor beam to slow them down. The computer had just gotten a lock when the entire ship was rocked by a direct hit from the battleship. The Falcon twisted to the left then veered sharply to the right to avoid another hit, completely losing their lock on the shuttle. Han gave up on the gun turret and raced to the bridge to help with the steering as the Millennium Falcon was forced to turn and evade the uncannily accurate turbolaser fire coming from the starship. Han reached the cabin and Leia scampered out of the way as he jumped into the pilot's chair. In the split second of inattention another blast slammed into the Falcon's deflector shields, sending the freighter spinning. Han fought desperately with the controls, bringing the Falcon out of the dive just in time to dodge another shot. But even as Han fought desperately to elude the turbolasers the shuttle continued steadfastly to the battleship. By the time Han had gotten the Falcon under control the craft had by that time entered the already opened shuttle bay.

"NO!" Leia screamed, rushing towards the view port and reaching out as if she could stop the ship with her own hands. "Han! Han, we have to go after them! Get in that ship or—"

"We can't, Leia! Even if we got we have know idea what we’d be up against. We just gotta hope the Chimaera's tractor beams can hold it." Han said, gritting his teeth and reluctantly moving the Millennium Falcon away from the battleship, recognizing the Star Destroyer as Admiral Pellaeon's flag ship. Leia turned furious eyes on her husband until she heard the dejected acceptance in his voice—and the sad truth to his words. She swallowed her sharp retort before it could leave her lips and stared grimly ahead. She reached out into the Force and tried to touch Luke's mind but a black wall met her. Either Luke was still unconscious or . . .

Leia's dark thoughts were interrupted when Han gripped her hand briefly. "Luke's been in worse then this. He'll be fine." Leia smiled down on him and agreed, even though they both knew that they couldn't be sure just how grave a situation Luke was in.

They headed for the dogfight only to find that most of the unknown ships had started to retreat to the battleship. The TIEs and snub fighters had been holding their own and now Leia got the sense from them that they thought they had their opponents on the run. They started to chase the enemy, serving to hasten the willing retreat. Leia flipped the switch to set the com back on to a broad frequency.

"All ships! Do not let the unknown craft reach the battleship. Repeat, under no circumstances let the unknown craft reach the battle ship!" Leia barked into the comlink. There was an almost immediate response as the faster TIE fighter increased their speed in an attempt to cut off the receding shuttles. The Falcon soared down to intercept the wave of enemy ships. The wave broke in a chaotic culmination of emerald laser fire and azure hulls. Han began to wish he hadn't left the blaster cannons as the Falcon started to take heavy hits while Chewie scored very few with the manual controls. But Leia seemed to anticipate his thoughts as she volunteered to go to the cannons. There was a brief moment when Han got a glimpse of the Star Destroyer engaging the battleship, drawing its attention from the small ships it was easily destroying with its turbolasers.

The Falcon had made its way to the "bottom" of the brawl when he saw the massive bulk of a Mon Calamari cruiser passed slowly beneath them and it seemed that the shuttle's battle technique became a great deal more frantic. And the reason quickly became apparent.

The battleship, while taking heavy damage at the hands of the Imperial Star Destroyer, had reached a hyperspace jump point and had begun to close the shuttle bay doors. The shuttles were all making desperate breaks for the battle ship, even though they could never get to it before the looming threat of the Mon Calamari star cruiser and the immediate threat of the Star Destroyer scared it into hyperspace.

The Mon Cal cruiser closed in and opened fire on her prey. The shuttle bay doors closed with a thundering clunk lost in the noiselessness of space, catching the tail end of one of its own shuttles beneath it and causing another to crash into its side in a brilliant explosion. The battleship's engines lit up in indigo flame as the ship jumped into hyperspace, chased by a sister's grief ridden call.

"What do you mean, you don't know where they went!"

The tactical officer cowered slightly when President Organa Solo's blazing eyes burrowed into him, threatening to pin him to the floor with their desperate fury.

"N-no ma'am," the officer stuttered. "We tracked their course as far as we could but they aren’t going to any place where there is any locale for them to put up a base. And all the remaining enemy craft detonated as soon as the battle cruiser entered hyperspace."

The President glared at the innocent Sullustan. "Of course not. They’re Chiss, they would go out beyond the outer rim to their home world—"

"With all do respect, Leia," Admiral Ackbar commented in his meringue Mon Calamari voice, "but we have no records of where the Chiss home world is and nor do we have any record of planets out where the unknown battleship is estimated to be. And even if we did, I doubt that he—" Ackbar gestured to the Sullustan, "—would know anything about it." Leia turned her fiery gaze on Ackbar for a moment before she collapsed back into her chair and buried her face in her hands.

Admiral Pellaeon gazed at her shuddering form for a moment before he said, "Grand Admiral Thrawn might have kept something in the Imperial data base. I can get my people working on it right away."

"We can also send reconnaissance craft to their estimated exit point and see if they're waiting for us of if they left a trail to their next location." Bel Iblis added as Leia lifted her face and looked vaguely at each speaker.

"And what if they go to a space port? I doubt they would be stupid enough to leave their ship out in the open." Ackbar interjected.

"That's what I'm for, I do believe," Karrde cut in, glancing around the assembly of leaders quickly gathered in the council room on the Star Destroyer. "Once you pick up a trail, my people can do the rest. We'll probably find the Chiss home world and Luke and Mara while we're at it." Karrde added.

Leia's expression had slowly lightened up as more ideas were put on the table, her mind now whirling as it started to formulate plans of her own. "Good point," she said, her enthusiasm building as she rose and started to pace the room. "I want you to make this you main priority. We have a squad of Y-Wings here right now that we can send on recon. We'll have Rogue Squadron on the ready if our new friends are there waiting for us. I want medical frigates on the ready in case Luke and Mara need immediate care. Admiral Pellaeon, if you have any interdictor cruisers in the area they would be—" Leia stopped her pacing to stare in puzzlement at the assembly of whom was staring right back at her as if she'd just lost her senses. "What?" Leia demanded.

"Uh-President Organa Solo," Pellaeon began, rising to his feet, "I believe it would be better if we took care of the details—" He suddenly stopped talking when Leia's eyes once again filled with fury.

"What he means is that you have other duties to attend to and there is no need to neglect them when someone else can—" Karrde intervened, trying to save Pellaeon form Leia's wrath.

Leia's gaze swept imperiously across the room as she felt her anger rise. Of all the times for the men to start worrying about their women folk getting too overwrought . . . Leia quickly quelled that thought with a Jedi meditation technique Luke had taught her. "You will not take me away from this. And don't give me that 'you're too involved' bull. I have been involved lots of times and I usually succeed so don't stop me now." Leia stopped and put her hands on her hips and raised and eyebrow. "So are you men just going to sit there or am I going to have to do everything myself?" Karrde broke out into a grin as did many of the other senators and admirals who knew her. As she turned to leave the room she was forced to hide the grim smiled at Pellaeon's surprise.

Leia left the council room and strode rapidly down the corridor to the bridge. The rest of the party had to hurry to keep up with her swift stride. She entered the turbolift and tapped her foot restlessly as she waited for everyone else to enter. She started to eye the buttons indicating the deck impatiently as she slapped the back of one hand against the palm of her other. She was still fidgeting restlessly when Karrde stepped up beside of her.

"I assume you’ll not be attending the rest of the Conference until Luke and Mara are safe." Karrde commented softly into her ear. Leia glanced back at him with a gaze that told him he didn't even have to assume that. "Of course. Then who will?"

"I'll get Vice President Ponc Gavrisom to do it. All this whole thing is about is a preview of what we'll be arguing about for the next five years until the next one. I'm sure Gavrisom can serve as a walking talking recorder till this is all done and over with." Leia answered in a low voice, turning her glower back onto the control panel.

——————————————

It was almost a day later when Leia was pacing in the command center on Coruscant—a planet that was completely covered in one city and had become the centre of the New Republic unknown millennia before. She glanced over and saw Karrde looking at her with a bemused expression on his face and she pivoted sharply on her heel to bring herself to a stop. The Y-Wings had already left but all they had been able to do was confirm that a ship had exited hyperspace recently. But they couldn't be sure if it was their rogue ship or someone else's. They also hadn't been able to find the ship's jump point or any clue as to where they were hiding—especially since there wasn't so much as an asteroid for them to conceal themselves with.

Leia was trying frantically to keep herself from tapping her foot when she heard an explosive blast of twittering answered by a prissy argumentative voice. Leia turned around and felt a smile start to curve on her lips.

" . . . Well, I don't care what you think Artoo," C-3P0, a golden protocol droid normally called Threepio, declared. "I was told to bring this message to Mistress Leia and just because you got to take that message about the Death Star to Obi-Wan doesn't mean I have to tell you what mine is." The small R2-D2 unit squawked in outrage and bleeped something that didn't sound particularly polite. "How rude! And just for that you can't even listen when I talk to Mistress Leia. Even though you wouldn't have even considered telling me unless you wanted to get me upset—"

"Hello Threepio, Artoo," Leia interrupted, smiling warmly, surprised at the pleasure of this respite from the waiting. "What's the news?"

"Vice President Gavrisom wishes for me to tell you that he has just received reports of a disturbance on Tatooine. He said that some agents have been hearing some rumors of a revolt." Threepio said quietly, glaring at Artoo to make sure the little droid kept his distance. Artoo groaned as if he thought the whole thing was very beneath him and swiveled his head away. This seemed to placate Threepio but Leia saw the astromech droid sensor dish tip in their direction.

"Do they have any idea when this revolt will happen?" Leia asked, gesturing for Karrde to come over. The intelligence agent casually got to his feet and walked over to where the droid and human where talking.

"Uh, no Mistress Leia," Threepio answered after quickly scanning his memory banks and starting at Karrde's sudden appearance. "But they do believe it has something to do with the water shipments coming to the planet. They think they're getting less then Detoia desert inhabitants because Tatooine is closer to the Outer Rim."

Karrde snorted in mild amusement. "How appropriate. They start complaining that we don't pay enough attention to them because they're on the outer edge when our attention is actually well beyond them." Leia shushed him and searched her mind for what to tell Threepio.

"President! We have word from the recon mission. They found the battleships escape vector and have been able to track it to an unexplored star system 26500.32 light years further out. They wish to know whether or not to proceed." A com officer called from his terminal pit, interfering with Leia's thoughts.

"No. Tell them to wait for backup." Leia answered, the Tatooine revolt forgotten. "Karrde, do you have your ship ready?" The former smuggler nodded. "Good, then get ready to leave—the trail could already be gone."

Chapter IV

Mara felt her mind swirling in darkness, falling onward into eternity in an endless spiral of madness. She clawed at the air with her hands but they found nothing to grab on to. She opened her mouth to scream but the blackness poured in and choked her, suffocating her. She felt as if her lungs would burst and she felt Death's cold hand gripping her soul . . .

And then she coughed and opened her eyes to see a cup of cool, clear water being tipped to her lips. She lifted weak hands to the cup and stopped its flow while she swallowed its exquisite liquid down her parched throat. When she was finished the almost painful draught Mara brought the cup back to her mouth and greedily gulped the rest of the liquid down.

"Dat be enough for yea now," a kind, gentle voice murmured softly. Mara blinked her eyes until her fuzzy vision cleared and she saw an old Chiss woman remove the cup form her hands and set it beside her along with a tray that had a strange looking casserole on it. Mara tried to sit up but the plain, unadorned room—or rather cell—began to swim around her and she hastily let her head fall back on the floor again before she passed out.

"I guess they hit yor head a wee bit too hard, dinnea they now. Ah, I cannea say I'm surprised. You lok a great deal bettar den most who come do this mournful place. An' yor friend loks a wee bit worse than yea, I'd say." Mara blinked in confusion at her comment before the brief fight at Atha came back to her. The Chiss soldiers, the struggle, and the device at the base of her neck. And Luke . . .

Mara scrambled to a sitting position and swung her head around and almost immediately regretted it. She gritted her teeth against the immense nausea and let her gaze fall on the still figure lying on the floor. She lifted a trembling hand to Luke's pale face, touching his cheek where a line of blood dribbled down. It was warm. She touched his neck and found the pulse strong if not steady. She saw his chest rise and fall in shallow breaths and knew he was not all right but he was at least alive.

Mara let her head drop to her hands as she firmly told her protesting stomach to settle down. She felt a clump of bile rise in her throat and realized that she was about to have her now daily bout of morning sickness.

"Oh, dear! Yar be turning green!" the old lady exclaimed. "Oho, wait till I get a pail!" The Chiss woman rushed to the door of the prison cell and waved her wrist in front of a orange panel, causing the door to open and her to rush out. She returned almost immediately with a bucket and placed it ahead of Mara who grabbed it before it could hit the floor and heaved. She vomited for several minutes and thought she would keep going until she filled up the pail when her riling gut subsided. She wiped her hand across her mouth and nose and lay back down on the floor with a groan.

The old woman glanced at the bucket and then at Mara and then at the bucket again. "Now dat be a wee bit different than what I be expecting from yea," the old lady said. "But, than, dat's what I hear pregnant humans do."

"How'd you know that?" Mara asked, her voice croaking and her brows furrowed in confusion as a mild sense of violation overcame her.

"Ah, I read the med. report dey did on yea. If yea can call it dat." The old lady commented dryly as she gingerly picked up the pail by the handle and placed it outside of the cell then closed the door. "Really all dey do is tell yea what's wrong an' dan send yea to yor 'room'."

Mara nodded in understanding and then slowly pushed herself to a sitting position again to look eye to eye with the woman. "Thank you for caring for me and my husband then. I'm grateful."

"It be nothing," the old lady said kindly. "But my staying in ‘ere for a while would not be seen well, an' dan I wouldn't be commin' back. So I'll leave this 'ere fresh pail with yea and dis food—dunnea worry, it's ok for humans." The old woman said as she stood and left. Mara thanked her again on her way out and then glanced dubiously at the food. She knew she was hungry but she wasn't so sure she wanted to chance throwing up again. She decided the latter concerned her more and crawled over to Luke's prone body and gently tipped his head to better see the wound. It had all but stopped bleeding by then, and Mara dipped the cuff of her shirt into the water and carefully wiped the laceration clean. Luke moaned and stirred at her ginger ministrations. Mara grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently, calling softly to him.

"No . . . I don't wanna get up, aunt Beru . . .when am I ever gonna use math anyway . . ." Luke mumbled. Mara shook him again and was met with more ranting that was even more incoherent. She touched the back of his neck and found the device still there and realized with a start there was still one on her neck as well. That might explain the nausea and Luke's further disorientation. She brushed Luke's forehead with her fingers and concentrated, thinking to put him in a healing trance. But as soon as she started to touch the Force she felt an electrical shock shoot into her neck. Mara screamed in pain and fell backwards, narrowly missing the platter.

"So that's what they're for," Mara said to herself hoarsely. "And that would explain why Luke's still out. Having the Force cut off like that probably put him into shock." She pushed herself to a siting position yet again and looked around the room. Standing up, Mara proceeded to inspect every wall, crack, corner and crevice to find any weaknesses but came up with none. But what she did find was a set of two buttons on the three walls that did not have a door. She thought briefly about whether or not she should push any of them to see what happened, but a memory of a concentration camp's prisons where they had the exact same situation stopped her. Whatever button was pushed, a poisonous gas came out to kill the occupants. But then she though, if these people had gone through so much trouble to get them here, why kill them now?

Quickly making a decision Mara picked the first button and pressed it. There was a small whirling and then a click and nothing happened. She kept waiting for the sound of hissing gas to break the deathly silence but no sound came. Mara rolled her eyes in irritation and pressed the second button. There was another click followed by a whiling noise, except this time a long, thin panel opened up on the wall directly below the buttons and a hollow, rectangular box with a cushion and blanket on it moved out. Mara glared at the thing that had caused the brief moment of fear and kicked it. She went over to Luke's body and carried him over to the bench, gingerly setting him down lest she disturb him. He moaned and stirred as she retrieved the two platters and set them down on the floor beside the bed. Luke opened his eyes and then groaned and closed them, covering his face with his hand. She poured some water into another cup and waited for him to wake up. Luke finally took his hand away and stared vaguely at the ceiling before he looked at Mara.

"Ugh . . . where are we?" Luke mumbled, rubbing his temple and frowning when his hand came away with blood on it.

"I think we're on a Chiss ship," Mara answered, propping Luke up and tipping the glass to his mouth. He gulped thankfully until it was completely empty before he came up for air. Mara lowered him carefully to the mat again and pulled one of the trays to her. She was about to ask him if he was hungry when he gasped in pain and arched his back off the bed. "Oh, yeah, don't use the Force."

Luke glared at her and growled, "Next time I'd appreciate a little warning!"

"I'll remember that," Mara said smiling grimly and holding up the tray. "Anything look good?"

"Not really, but I'm too hungry to care," Luke answered, pushing himself upright and taking the platter. Mara felt her stomach begin to turn and looked away. "Are you all right?" Luke asked, gently brushing her red gold hair out of the way to better see her face.

Mara smiled weakly. "I'm fine. Just a little morning sickness, that's all. I'll be as good as new in an hour," Mara assured him. Luke just gave her a dubious glance and then continued to eat the strange food.

"Do you know why we're here?" Luke asked between morsels.

"No," Mara answered. "The only person I've seen besides you is an old lady who brought the food. And she didn't tell me much beyond the fact that the food was all right for humans to eat."

Luke dropped the strange looking utensil on the plate and set the food aside. "So, what do we do now?"

"I don't know," was all Mara said. "We can wait until someone comes to tell us why we're here."

"Yeah, I guess. Is there any way out? You said there was an old lady here, what did she do?" Luke asked hopefully.

Mara gestured behind her to the orange panel on the wall and answered, "All she did was wave her wrist over that panel to open and close the door. She probably has an implant in her arm that allows the security system to know who's opening the door and whether or not they're allowed."

"Is there any way to rig something up to make the sensors think that one of the ‘keys’ have been waved in font of it?" Luke suggested.

"I suppose," Mara said skeptically. "But what could we use? The only thing we have that's even remotely mechanical are these things on our necks and if you know a way to get them off then I’d like to hear it. I guess we could try and pry—" Mara's spoken thought was interrupted when the door suddenly slid open to reveal the silhouette of a humanoid.

"Good, you're awake," the human said by way of greeting, stepping into the cell along with two armed guards. "I do hope you like your accommodations."

"Oh, yeah," Mara said sarcastically, "they're great. They don't even treat us this good on Coruscant."

The human smiled and came to a stop in the middle of the room. "I'm glad to see that you are so comfortable seeing as you're in such a gravid condition." Mara's lip curled in a false snarl used to cover up the sudden fear she felt when she heard the smug tone in the man's voice. Luke's hand touched her arm reassuringly. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here and who I am."

"The thought had occurred to us," Luke commented dryly.

"Then I will introduce myself. I am Admiral Tarckok and you are on board the Chiss battle cruiser Threnody to prevent you from interfering with our plans." The Admiral smiled again that smug and self-assured smile and waited for their response. Luke just looked on blankly, waiting for the man to continue when Mara stirred.

"Tarckok . . . I know that name . . . " Mara murmured.

Admiral Tarckok grinned. "Oh, you probably heard it in the Emperor's court or saw it when you were researching Grand Admiral Thrawn. You see, when Emperor Palpatine sent Thrawn to the outer regions, I was sent with him on his star destroyer as one of his top interrogators. And when he returned, I was left behind." Tarckok's voice, as he spoke, turned from mocking to bitter in an amazing transformation. "And I was left to the mercies of the cult of Chiss extremists called the Cragons, who have decided that they should be the rightful rules of this galaxy, not the Republic."

"So why capture us?" Luke asked. "My sister may be the President of the New Republic, but if you think she'll turn it over to save two people you're wrong."

"Of course not. My superiors are not that vain as to think that taking control would be that easy. No, but they are also not vain enough to think they can take control without knowing the history of their future territory. And they have found that you, Luke Skywalker, seem to have a deciding factor in a lot of events dictating who gains control." Tarckok smiled again and now his eyes burned as with a kind of fever. "And I was sent to make sure that this time you would not have the chance."

"Then why take Mara?" Luke demanded.

Tarckok shrugged. "She was there. But now that we know about her . . . delicate condition we have decided to use it to our advantage. Your father helped to hold together the Empire, you helped to hold together the New Republic, and your son will help to hold together the Cragon Dynasty." Tarckok's smile twisted into a malicious sneer. "We don't want to break a family tradition."

Mara's eyes burned with anger and she glanced at Luke to see his reaction and found him staring at Admiral Tarckok with wide eyes and a pale face. "Never," Luke whispered softly, almost lethally.

"Well there's a small problem with that, Master Skywalker," Tarckok said, his voice dripping with acerbity. "You don't really have a choice."

—————————————————————

"Now I know this will be hard, but I want you to try to be subtle. I know it's a new concept besides the usual blow-it-up scenario, but I think it might help if we don’t attract a bunch of Chiss with really good aim and lack of morals to us."

"You know, Karrde," Corran Horn said, "we're not that blunt."

Karrde looked down at the former CorSec agent turned X-Wing pilot in Rogue Squadron and grinned. "No, but only because everyone else here seems to be as blunt."

Corran opened his mouth to respond but at that moment he saw a Twi'lek throw a Kellonian that had beat him in a sebacc game across a table and Corran was forced to agree with Karrde's assessment of the bar they were in. They had followed the Chiss battle ship to this star system and had found a bristling trading center, mostly located on the solar system's fourth planet, Kellonia. The Alliance had decided to send as few people as possible to the unknown and unexplored areas past the Wilder Regions.

Talon Karrde and Han Solo had insisted on going because of their personal stakes and they were allowed to come because of their experience in getting into places where they weren't supposed to be. They came in their own ships—the Wild Karrde and the Millennium Falcon—since they were built to be used in such situations. Karrde's crew and Chewbecca came along with them but stayed on their respective ships. Wedge Antilles, as the original commander of Rogue Squadron, was taken along incase of the inevitable dogfight they would get in. And then there was Corran Horn. He had been brought along not only because of his supreme skills as an X-Wing pilot and training in CorSec but for another, unpublicized skill given to him—his training as a Corellian Jedi. Both Wedge and Corran had their X-Wings safely stored in the cargo holds of the undistinguishable freighters they were using to infiltrate the strange places they would have to go in.

As soon as they entered the system they realized the folly of attempting to follow the missing battle cruiser. Even as the newly arrived ships watched, eight different yachts entered hyperspace and their sensors told them moments later that the battleship was long gone. So it had been decided to land on Kellonia and search for any traces the battleship might have left. And somehow that search had led them to the stingy bar on the outer edge of the trade capital of Kellonia.

Corran shrugged and downed the rest of the liquor the locals all seemed to be enjoying. The booze was bitter on his tongue and burned going down. But the dryness in the air and his consequential dehydration overrode any protest his taste buds or throat might have had. He clunked his glass down and stretched muscles made taut within the cramped confines of the freighter’s cockpit, turning his head to the side and catching a glimpse of the leering face of an anemic old creature. It seemed vaguely humanoid except for the large amount of tentacles protruding from its mouth and the spindly legs that were so long that the knee bent well over the creature's head. It had leathery blue skin with green spots on its back. Corran sat up in his chair and craned his neck to better see the creature, knowing that he was being unbelievably blunt with the grand gesture. Suddenly a tingling of the Force made him start to turn around again when a sharp, shrieking cackle sounded behind him—Corran cried out and fell out of his chair in surprise. He twisted desperately to get to his feet before his assailant could reach him as everyone else at the table and half the patrons drew their guns.

"Oh, you be kind to let an old man take you seat, little fleshy!" the elder creature said as he clambered into Corran's chair. "But that noise you make be too much. " The rest of the aliens in the bar just chuckled and put their weapons away and went back to their business. Corran remained on the floor for a minute longer, catching his breath and wondering how this old "decrepit" creature had managed to almost completely undercut his Force abilities. He slowly got to his feet, never taking his eyes off the continually leering alien as he took a stool from an empty table.

"Who in the universe are you?" Han demanded.

The bar once again resounded with the high pitched squeal of laughter. "Yeema be a friend. Don't worry, Yeema be a friend!" Yeema ranted, bouncing up and down in what was now his seat.

"And why would you be our friend?" Karrde said evenly, exchanging looks with the rest of the group. "We have never been here before and have no contacts here."

"Yeema know! Yeema know you be looking for Jedi, Yeema know where Jedi went!" Yeema squealed in a voice meant to be a whisper but it probably carried to outside of the cantina.

"I didn't know we were being that obvious," Wedge commented.

Yeema squealed again and hopped up and down as if he found the entire thing absolutely hilarious. "No, no. Yeema hear you headwords, Yeema hear your headwords worry. Yeema know what Jedi look like, and Yeema know you look like Jedi!" Yeema finished proudly.

"Yeema seems to know a lot," Corran said, causing the alien to beam even brighter and flap its tentacles. "But what does Yeema mean by 'headwords'?"

"Yeema hears the words you have in head, but don't always say. Yeema can make the words change to help Yeema or let Yeema know what Yeema wants! Yeema make fleshy think Yeema over there and make Cragon think Yeema not there to see data card." Suddenly Yeema seemed to feel a moment's sadness. "And Yeema hear fear in Jedi, fear for little one."

It took Karrde a moment to make sense of the alien's choice of words before he realized Yeema was telepathic. And then the rest quickly became more clear—he had seen the Cragon, whoever they were, and had wanted to know what they were doing so he looked on a data card that had information about Luke and Mara on it. He had probably scanned the battle ship and found the only two humans on board and somehow gotten their impressions. But that only left . . . "Who is the little one, Yeema?"

Yeema's eyes narrowed and he leaned close enough to Karrde for him to be able to smell the local liquor on his breath. "Little one be little Jedi!"

"The child," Corran said immediately, "they're afraid for their child. But why? Mara's only four months pregnant."

"Maybe the Chiss have no need for a baby and they threatened to kill him?" Han suggested softly. The rest of the companions looked at him fearfully, each knowing the possibility was all to good but prying that it wasn't.

"No! Little one carry on family line, little one carry on tradition of father and father's father!" Yeema said ominously. "Little one to stand beside Cragon as father and father's father stood by the great powers of their time!"

Wedge's eyes narrowed. "Who are the Cragon? Part of the Empire?"

"No, silly fleshy. Empire not exists here in the dark lands! Cragon rule here. Cragon rule where Empire's champion tried and failed. Cragon take your friend!" Yeema moaned and then he wailed, "Cragon kill Jedi!"

Chapter V

"What do you mean kill them?" Han asked in alarm. "Why go to all that trouble just to kill them?"

"Cragon vengeful! Cragon want Jedi pay. Only want older Jedi, but like having weaker Jedi. Take little one from weaker Jedi then kill them both. Yeema knows!" Yeema said.

"Yeema said Yeema knew where they went," Corran stated eagerly, "can Yeema tell us?"

Yeema nodded excitedly. "Yeema will, Yeema will! But Yeema afraid for Yeema. Yeema hear headwords of bad men in bar. Yeema distract headwords but hard when Yeema get distracted Yeema's self. Yeema take fleshies to Yeema's home and show them data card. Then fleshies will know what Yeema knows! And then fleshies can find little one and break the tradition."

They arrived at Yeema's home to find it littered with all kinds of what most would think of as trash, but with one look at the place Corran found himself wondering just how much Yeema did know.

"Come to Yeema little card! Card cannot hide from Yeema forever!" Yeema cackled as he started digging through a rather large pile of what looked to be fairly new findings. He threw unwanted baubles in every which direction, heedless of where they went—or who they hit, for that matter.

"Hey! Watch it Yeema, you almost hit me with that—OW!" Han yelled as a metal box rebounded off his head.

"No time!" Yeema declared, "Yeema has no time! Ah! And now Yeema has what Yeema seeks! Here is answers." Yeema hopped off of the pile and shoved the data card in Karrde's hands. Karrde inserted the card into a data pad and the others clustered around him to read it.

Report #5484-86272

The raid on Asendra was a better success then we had originally intended. Fitting Master Skywalker with the Force Inhibitor was pitifully easy. We were also able to capture Master Skywalker's wife, Master Jade-Skywalker, in the process. I suggest that keeping the child alive after the parents have been taken care of would be a profitable idea if we are able to train him to follow our orders as Emperor Palpatine did with Darth Vader. And I am sure our men would not be so sloppy as to allow a way for our servant to break free of our control.

We will subject Master Skywalker to the standard amount of beatings—to keep him under control, especially since he has a habit of escaping confinement, and to lessen the objection he would naturally put up when we take away his wife. Medical reports show that she will be in need of assistance when she goes into labor.

We will kill Master Jade-Skywalker as soon as we are sure the babe will have no need of parental assistance and I will be sure that Master Skywalker is present and conscious. We will then take him to the K'ti'ma System and put him on K'ti'ma V and place him near one of the aeries of the creatures that have been observed to be quite voracious and relentless after birth.

We will bring the Threnody back to K'ti'ma once we are sure the creatures are done with their meal and then bring the remains of dear Master Skywalker back to the dying New Republic.

"By all the deities in the universe . . . " Han murmured.

Corran took the data card from Karrde's hand and had to run a Jedi calming technique through his head twice before it had enough effect that he trusted himself to speak. "Yeema, what kind of sick people are the Cragon?"

"Cragon sick, very sick. Think the All was theirs by birthright and think Jedi take it away. Cragon think to avenge their loss but all Cragon do is doom themselves. Jedi come back and free the All to what if should be! And the All is not Cragon!" Yeema's voice started out soft but rose as his fury did. "Cragon must not have their way! Palpatine better than Cragon!" Corran looked up from the data card at the creature in surprise.

"Why are the Cragon so bad Yeema? What did the Jedi do to make them this way?" Wedge asked.

Yeema's dark eyes seemed to lose focus as he searched back through his memories. Suddenly his voice changed; it became stronger, younger, the words remembered as if they were from his own time. "Long ago, when the Force was young and strong with its new Followers—who so long ago did not even call themselves Jedi, for that would come soon—the Cragon split away from their brethren. They had heard of the Force Followers' power and they wanted their own. But, as with all people, not all Cragon could have it . . .

"The Force followers heard of this craving and they worried. Creeta di Donna was the hungriest of the Cragon. He saw the Force Followers' power and his dark soul dripped with envy and greed. Creeta clawed his way to the supreme position of power in the Cragon Dynasty and ordered the scientists to find a way to overcome and then steal the Force Followers' powers. And then the dark day came when the Cragon were able to discover what it was that enables the Force Followers to use their abilities when others could not.

"A part of the mind that every creature has . . . a part that cannot be probed by conventional means but one that if disabled could be manipulated. It speaks to the Force Followers, whispers the Force to them. The Cragon learned how to remove this part of the mind from the Force Followers they captured and transplant it into their own people.

"And as the Cragon's power grew, so the Force Followers' power weakened. For when the Force is taken away, they cannot live with the grief and they pass on to the Beyond.

"A strong Force Follower, by the name of Jedis, realized their danger and knew that the Cragon's defeat would not come without a grave price. And then he was given a Vision—he saw his people enslaved by the Cragon Dynasty. He saw the Force Followers joining together in one united front and he knew the Cragon could not oppose such a force!