“Oh, my goodness,” C-3PO bleated as the Falcon dropped out of hyperspace with a sort of flat thud that sent them all a centimeter into the air. “It’s another one of those terrible Yuuzhan Vong interdictors!”
“Relax, Threepio,” Han said, his voice so dry he sounded almost bored. “The inertial dampeners are just being a little cranky, that’s all. Lando’s so-called technicians were a little less than thorough.”
“More likely they didn’t understand the extent to which this ship is put together with chewstim and wishful thinking,” Leia joked. “No one else has ever been able to repair this thing except—”
She broke off, and Han knew why. The unfinished thought, except you and Chewbacca, was true. He and Chewie had made the Falcon galaxy-famous for doing the impossible, but it had almost always involved the Wookiee and him improvising circuits even as their shields were failing.
“You can say it,” he told her.
“Look, Han,” Leia said softly. “He can never be replaced—”
“No,” he replied, more sharply than intended. “Not with Droma, not with you.” His voice softened. “But he could never have replaced you, either, Leia. Let’s leave it at that, huh? I like my new copilot just fine.”
“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
“I mean, she’s a little mouthy for my taste, and kinda snooty, but at least she’s easy enough on the eyes—even with the new hairdo.”
Leia’s tender expression was metamorphosing into something less benign when the mass detector bleeped and C-3PO cried, “I told you! I absolutely told you!”
“Threepio,” Han snapped, “have you ever been fired from a concussion missile tube?”
“No, sir. Of course, I did nearly fall out of the garbage-ejection tube a short time ago, which I must admit was terrifying, simply terrifying. I—”
“Threepio!” Han shouted.
C-3PO cocked his head and put one golden finger to the slit that implied his mouth. “Perhaps I should go see what Artoo is doing.”
“Yes, do that.”
Meanwhile, Leia had been analyzing whatever it was that had come out of hyperspace right behind them.
“It’s a freighter,” she said.
“A freighter? Here?” They were in occupied space, not far from Tynna.
Leia brought up the profile, revealing a blocky drive married to a long series of detachable storage pods headed up by a narrow habitation compartment. “Kuat Drive Yards Marl-class heavy freighter,” Leia confirmed.
“Out here?” Han repeated incredulously. “She’ll be easy pickings for the first Yuuzhan Vong ship she runs into. And where could she be going? Hutt space?”
“Maybe it’s a relief vessel,” Leia said. “Or a smuggler running weapons to the Hutts.”
“That thing’s got no legs,” Han said. “Any smuggler worth his spice would know better.”
“Well, there it is,” Leia said.
“I can see that.” He set his lips. “I just had an unpleasant thought.”
Leia nodded grimly. “I just had the same thought.”
“Yeah. Have they seen us yet?”
“I doubt it.”
“Let’s keep it that way. Run silent and let them pass. We’ll see for sure where they’re going.”
“Why don’t we just ask them?”
Han gave her a brief open-mouthed stare. “Boy, do you have a lot to learn. Let me handle this, willya? I know what I’m doing.”
“Right. I’ve heard that a time or two. I’ve usually had cause to regret it.”
“At least you always lived to regret it, sweetheart.”
When the Falcon powered down, Jacen was deep in meditation. He’d spent hours coaxing his wants, needs, and expectations into corners of his mind far from the conscious, surrendering himself into the silent flow of the Force.
He tuned out the sensations of the Force around him: his mother, the lesser voices of his father and the Noghri, the faint impressions of the droids and the ship itself. He wasn’t searching for anything at all, merely trying to become a part of the living Force, detached from the particulars of it. Just to feel it ebbing and flowing through him, not even seeking understanding, for in seeking one often missed what was sought, or came to an understanding tainted by desire.
Desire, like fear and anger, had to be released.
For a brief moment he almost found that center he was searching for, the universe spreading out in its entirety, and in that instant he saw again a vision of the galaxy tipping, of a fundamental imbalance waiting to happen.
There, memory and desire betrayed him. He saw himself facing Warmaster Tsavong Lah, his mother bleeding at his feet. He saw his brother, Anakin, confident and cocky after his escape from Yavin 4. He saw himself, only days before, slaying the two living coralskippers and their pilots.
The death of one diminishes us all. Surely that had to be the case with the Yuuzhan Vong as well, though they didn’t appear in the Force.
Which was impossible, if the Force was what the old Jedi Masters said it was.
He actually wished Anakin were here, so they could have one of their arguments. Anakin now held that what they knew as the Force was only a manifestation of something greater, more overarching, something Jedi could only glimpse. To Jacen that felt utterly wrong, and yet it was hard to dispute that it fit the facts as they stood now.
Anakin also thought of the Force as little more than an energy source, something with which the Jedi worked their wills. That also felt wrong, and yet Jacen now seriously questioned the opposing view, that the Force had a will of its own, and that the proper role of the Jedi was to understand that will and work through it.
Neither extreme felt right in Jacen’s gut, and yet he had no answer of his own. He had abandoned his vow not to use the Force, but it had given him no more certainty about when or how it ought to be used, or what a Jedi ought to do. Again, Anakin’s certainty was both enviable and worrisome. Anakin was determined to oppose evil, and just as determined that he could know what evil was, even without the Force to enlighten him.
Maybe Anakin was right. Jacen knew that he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. He had been given gifts and learned to use them, and it was incumbent on him that he find the proper way to do so. But how was he to judge? Who was he to judge?
Maybe he had been wrong to strike out on his own, to leave the apprenticeship of Master Skywalker. But somehow, he knew, Uncle Luke’s path could not be his, no more than Anakin’s could be.
As it was, he took each situation as he found it. He’d hated killing the Yuuzhan Vong, but the situation hadn’t suggested or allowed for any alternative other than the death or capture of his family. It may have been a bad choice, but at the time it was the only one he was capable of making.
He tried to untangle himself from this internal dialogue, but the more he tried, the more frustrated he became, and he was on the verge of admitting failure anyway when something changed around him.
He came back, bringing the near world into focus, and found everything off but emergency lights.
“Dear me!” C-3PO moaned. “I knew it!”
“Threepio?”
“Master Jacen! You’re conscious!”
“What’s going on, Threepio? How long have we been powered down?”
“Ever since that mass came out of hyperspace,” C-3PO said. “I wanted to help, but Captain Solo was quite unpleasant.”
“I’m sure it’s not you he was mad at, Threepio,” Jacen assured the droid. “I’ll go see what’s going on.”
“Look there,” his father was saying as Jacen entered the cockpit.
“I see,” Leia breathed. “Yuuzhan Vong.”
Jacen studied the long-range scanner readouts. “They’re attacking that freighter?” he asked.
“No,” Han said. “They ain’t attacking it, kid. They’re escorting it.”
“Escorting? Where are we?”
“One jump from the Cha Raaba system,” Han replied.
“Cha Raaba? That’s where Ylesia is, right?”
“Kid gets a gold epaulet,” Han murmured.
“And Ylesia is where the Peace Brigade is headquartered,” Leia added. “So that ship—”
“Supplies for the Brigade and the Vong,” Han concluded. “Couldn’t have figured it better myself. Looks like Lando was right, only if the Peace Brigade is moving stuff inside Yuuzhan Vong space, someone must be moving it to them from outside.”
“Well, we have to stop them!” Leia said.
“What?” Jacen asked. “Why? They haven’t attacked us. They don’t even see us.”
“True enough,” Han said. “Gives us a nice advantage.”
“But—I thought this mission was about setting up networks for refugees and intelligence. No one said anything about taking the fight to the enemy.”
“Hey, Jacen,” Han said, “it’s not as if we’re going out of our way to harass collaborationist shipping, though why the thought of doing so should upset you I can’t imagine. But there they are, and here we are—”
“Can we just disable them?” Jacen asked.
“Jacen,” Han said, turning to face him, his eyebrows lifting. “Jacen, in case you didn’t notice, there’s a war on. Now, I know you’ve gotten all mystical on me lately, and I’m trying to be understanding, but if you expect the rest of us to go along with your philosophy of the day, think again. You stick with the Force and let me deal with this. Anyway, for all you know that freighter could be full of slaves and sacrifices. You really want to leave them to the mercy of the Vong?”
“I don’t feel anything like that in the Force,” Jacen said firmly.
“Jacen,” Leia chimed in. “You know I respect what you’re trying to do, but you have to understand something—”
“I understand,” Jacen interrupted. “I understand that you told me this mission was about something I could get on board with, and now in the middle of the flight you’re changing the coordinates. I’m not trying to tell you what to believe. But when you brought me along on this trip—”
“When I brought you along on this trip,” Han roared, “I never said you could be captain, and I didn’t tell you this is a democracy. Jacen, I love you. But sit down, shut up, and do as you’re told.”
Jacen was so stunned by his father’s anger that it did not, at that moment, even occur to him to continue the argument.
“Great,” Han said. “So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take out that Yuuzhan Vong escort, and then we’re going to make the freighter an offer.”
“Offer?” Leia said.
“Yep. We’ll offer not to blow her open if she surrenders quietly.” He checked his panel. “Power in five minutes. Jacen, get down to the turbolaser.”
Jacen hesitated, a painful, sickening knot growing in his gut. “Okay.”
“And I want you to use it if needed.”
“I will. Sir.” And with that he stalked out of the cockpit.