THE NEW JEDI ORDER Dramatis Personae Admiral Ackbar; retired military officer (male Mon Calamari) Nom Anor; executor (male Yuuzhan Vong) Kyp Durron; Jedi Master (male human) Jakan; high priest (male Yuuzhan Vong) Traest Kre'fey; military officer (male Bothan) Tsavong Lah; warmaster (male Yuuzhan Vong) Lowbacca; Jedi Knight (male Wookiee) Ayddar Nylykerka; director of intelligence (male Tammarian) Omas, Cal; politician (male Alderaanian human) Onimi; Shamed One (male Yuuzhan Vong) Danni Quee; scientist (female human) Fyor Rodan; politician (male human) Dif Scaur; director of intelligence (male human) Supreme Overlord Shimrra (male Yuuzhan Vong) Luke Skywalker; Jedi Master (male human) Mara Jade Skywalker; Jedi Master (female human) Han Solo; captain, Millennium Falcon (male human) Jacen Solo; Jedi Knight (male human) Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (female human) Princess Leia Organa Solo; diplomat (female human) Sien Sow; military officer (male Sullustan) Tahiri Veila; Jedi Knight (human female) Vergere (female Fosh) Nen Yim; shaper (female Yuuzhan Vong) They appeared without warning from beyond the edge of galactic space: a warrior race called the Yuuzhan Vong, armed with surprise, treachery, and a bizarre organic technology that proved a match- too often more than a match-for the New Republic and its allies. Even the Jedi, under the leadership of Luke Skywalker, found themselves thrown on the defensive, deprived of their greatest strength. For somehow, inexplicably, the Yuuzhan Vong seemed to be utterly devoid of the Force. Despite an initial victory, the New Republic forces lost more than they won. Countless worlds were devastated, countless beings killed-among them the Wookiee Chewbacca, loyal friend and partner of Han Solo, and later Anakin Solo, Han and Leia's younger son. The only ray of light in the darkness was the birth of Luke and Mara's son, Ben Skywalker. The New Republic unraveled a little more with each setback. Even the Jedi began to splinter under the strain, especially as the Yuuzhan Vong turned their attention to hunting down Jedi in particular. The fall of the capital world of Coruscant, and the capture of Jacen Solo sent hopes plummeting-and sent Jacen's twin sister Jaina spiraling downward into revenge and retribution. Scattered after the fall of Coruscant, the panic-stricken surviving members of the New Republic Advisory Council struggled to save themselves, pausing only long enough to set up what was intended to be a mock defense on the planet Borleias-an attempt to buy time that fooled no one, least of all the Jedi. Under the command of Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker, the Borleias defense succeeded against all odds, a victory-if a small one-at last for the New Republic. Meanwhile, the missing Jacen Solo was undergoing the educa tion of a lifetime at the hands of Vergere, a fascinating creature whose loyalties were a mystery and whose powers were beyond compare. In doing so, he discovered the key both to sabotaging the efforts of the enemy to reshape Coruscant into the image of their legendary homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar, and to finding the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force. Now, at last, as the tattered New Republic works to build on its recent victory and readies itself to strike back at the Yuuzhan Vong, a changed Jacen is on his way home . . . Chapter 1 As she sat in the chair that was hers by right of death, she raised her eyes to the cold faraway stars. Checklists buzzed distantly in her mind and her hands moved over the controls, but her thoughts flew elsewhere, amid the chill infinitude. Searching . . . Nothing. Her gaze fell and there she saw, on the controls at the adjacent pilot's seat, her husband's hands. She drew comfort from the sight, from the sureness and power she knew was there, in those strong hands. Her heart leapt. Something, somewhere in all those stars, had touched her. She thought: Jacen! Her husband's hands touched controls and the stars streamed away, turned to bleeding smears of light as if seen through beaten rain, and the distant touch vanished. "Jacen," she said, and then, at her husband's startled look, at the surprise and pain in his brown eyes, "Jacen." "And you're sure?" Han Solo said. "You're sure it was Jacen?" "Yes. Reaching out to me. I felt him. It could have been no one else." "And he's alive." "Yes." Leia Organa Solo could read him so well. She knew that Han believed their son dead, but that he tried, for her sake, to pretend otherwise. She knew that, fierce with grief and with guilt for having withdrawn from his family, he would support her in anything now, even if he believed it was delusional. And she knew the strength it took for him to suppress his own pain and doubt. She could read all that in him, in the flicker of his eye, the twitch of his cheek. She could read him, read the bravery and the uncertainty, and she loved him for both. "It was Jacen," she said. She put as much confidence in her tone as she could, all her assurance. "He was reaching out to me through the Force. I felt him. He wanted to tell me he was alive and with friends." She reached over and took his hand. "There's no doubt, now. Not at all." Han's fingers tightened on hers, and she sensed the struggle in him, desire for hope warring with his own bitter experience. His brown eyes softened. "Yes," he said. "Of course. I believe you." There was a hint of reserve there, of caution, but that was reflex, the result of a long and uncertain life that had taught him to believe nothing until he'd seen it with his own eyes. Leia reached for him, embraced him awkwardly from the copilot's seat. His arms went around her. She felt the bristle of his cheek against hers, inhaled the scent of his body, his hair. A bubble of happiness grew in her, burst into speech. "Yes, Han," she said. "Our son is alive. And so are we. Be joyful. Be at peace. Everything changes from now on." The idyll lasted until Han and Leia walked hand in hand into the Millennium Falcon's main hold. Through the touch, Leia felt the slight tension of Han's muscles as he came in sight of their guest-an Imperial commander in immaculate dress grays. Han, Leia knew, had hoped that this mission would provide a chance for the two of them to be alone. Through the many months since the war with the Yuuzhan Vong had begun, they had either been apart or dealing with a bewildering succession of crises. Even though their current mission was no less urgent than the others, they would have treasured this time alone in hyperspace. They had even left Leia's Noghri bodyguards behind. Neither of them had wanted any passengers at all, let alone an Imperial officer. Thus far Han had managed to be civil about it, but only just. The commander rose politely to her feet. "An exceptionally smooth transition into hyperspace, Captain Solo," she said. "For a ship with such-such heterogeneous components, such a transition speaks well of the ship's captain and his skills." "Thanks," Han said. "The Myomar shields are superb, are they not?" she said. "One of our finer designs." The problem with Commander Vana Dorja, Leia thought, was that she was simply too observant. She was a woman of about thirty, the daughter of the captain of a Star Destroyer, with bobbed dark hair tucked neatly into her uniform cap, and the bland, pleasant face of a professional diplomat. She had been on Coruscant during its fall, allegedly negotiating some kind of commercial treaty, purchasing Ulban droid brains for use in Imperial hydroponics farms. The negotiations were complicated by the fact that the droid brains in question could equally well be used for military purposes. The negotiations regarding the brains' end-use certificates had gone nowhere in particular, but perhaps they had been intended to go nowhere. What Commander Dorja's extended stay on Coruscant had done was to make her a close observer in the Yuuzhan Vong assault that had resulted in the planet's fall. Vana Dorja had gotten off Coruscant somehow-Leia had no doubt that her escape had been planned long in advance-and she had then turned up at Mon Calamari, the new provisional capital, blandly asking for help in returning to Imperial space just at the moment at which Leia had been assigned a diplomatic mission to that selfsame Empire. Of course it wasn't a coincidence. Dorja was clearly a spy operating under commercial cover. But what could Leia do? The New Republic might need the help of the Empire, and the Empire might be offended if its commercial representative were needlessly delayed in her return. What Leia could do was establish some ground rules concerning where on the Falcon Commander Dorja could go, and where was strictly off limits. Dorja had agreed immediately to the restrictions, and agreed as well to be scanned for any technological or other secrets she might be smuggling out. Nothing had turned up on the scan. Of course. If Vana Dorja was carrying any vital secrets to her masters in the Empire, she was carr...
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