A short, very Raynar-like sigh escaped Raynar’s lips. “There’s nothing more you can do here. And we don’t wish to involve Jedi in this fight.”
“There isn’t going to be a fight,” Zekk said. “Jaina and I will turn them back.”
“Not this time,” Raynar said. “The Chiss intend to bring this to an end, and they won’t be intimidated by Jedi tricks.”
“There’s no harm in trying.” Jaina summoned her utility belt and began to buckle it on. She did not understand why the Chiss were suddenly changing strategy and launching a major assault, but in a war, some things you just did not have time to figure out. “Where are you expecting them? Zekk and I will-“
“No. We don’t wish to risk the lives of our friends in this matter.”
“What do you think we’ve been doing?” Zekk asked, buckling on his own belt. “We’re here to keep the peace, and we’re not leaving-“
“There is no longer a peace to keep,” Raynar said. “And you are leaving.”
Suddenly his voice felt like it weighed a thousand kilos, and the urge to do as he ordered grew almost overwhelming. There was more going on here than Raynar was telling.
Ambush.
The thought had barely flashed through Jaina’s mind before a Taat in Raynar’s retinue began to drum its chest. Raynar listened intently, then met Jaina’s gaze and shook his head.
“You have always been too headstrong for your own good, Jaina. Do not try to figure this out, or-“
“It won’t work,” Zekk said, leaping to the same conclusion as Jaina. “If you destroy the Chiss fleet, the next one will only be bigger.”
Raynar let his chin drop in another old-Raynar gesture. “Now you’ve done it.” The urge to depart suddenly vanished. “Now you must stay.”
“We weren’t leaving without Lowbacca, anyway.” Jaina sounded more certain than she was; Raynar’s will had felt like it was more than a match for her stubbornness. “And Zekk is right. The Colony isn’t strong enough to destroy the entire Chiss space force.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Raynar said. “We only need to hold them off until the Hapans arrive.”
“Hapans?” Jaina climbed out of the sleeping cell onto the walkway with Raynar, causing a soft clatter as his retinue scrambled to make room for her. “What are Hapans doing out here?”
“Defending the weak,” Raynar said. “Jacen convinced Tenel Ka to send us a fleet.”
At least now Jaina understood why the Chiss were attacking. They wanted to destroy the Qoribu nests before reinforcements arrived to complicate the job.
“Jacen convinced Tenel Ka, or you used Jacen to convince her?” Jaina was thinking of how Raynar had nearly forced her to leave just a few moments earlier-and of the irresistible call that had summoned her and the others to the Colony in the first place. “Your touch can be very compelling.”
“Perhaps, but even we are not strong enough to control Jacen,” Raynar said. “He has moved beyond our control-or anyone else’s. You know that yourself.”
Jaina could not argue. During Jacen’s five-year journey, she had felt him growing steadily stronger in the Force-but also more distant and isolated, like a hermit retreating to his mountaintop. At times, he had seemed to vanish into the Force entirely, and at other times she had sworn he was floating just above her shoulder.
To tell the truth, it had given her the creeps. She had started to feel like she was sharing a twin bond with a different brother every few weeks-or like he was practicing to be dead or something.
“Jacen wouldn’t send you a fleet,” Zekk said. He jumped up onto the adjacent side of the sleeping cell, into the middle of a steady line of Joiners streaming past toward the communal refresher. They smoothly detoured down another walkway, and both the conversation and the morning parade continued unabated. “That could start a war between the Chiss and the Galactic Alliance.”
“Or prevent one between us and the Chiss,” Raynar countered. “Perhaps he is willing to run the risk.”
“Even Solos don’t like odds that long,” Jaina said. “When Chiss feel threatened, they don’t back off. They get mean and aggressive.”
“You can’t do this,” Zekk added.
“What we cannot do is allow the destruction of the Qoribu nests.” Raynar’s retinue abruptly started for the exit, and he turned to follow. “Once the ambush begins, you will be free to fight or leave, as you wish. Until then, you remain our guests.”
Jaina started after him. “Raynar!” When a pair of knobby-shelled bodyguards moved to cut her off, she used the Force to shove them into a sleeping cell, then said, “This is madness!”