[Dark Nest] - 1(135)

Raynar continued moving away from her. “It is self-defense.” Again, his voice grew heavy and commanding, and this time it contained an edge that suggested he would abide no more argument. “You will return to your proper barracks and remain there until the battle begins.”

Jaina felt an overwhelming urge to obey, but there was a darkness in his tone that alarmed her, a hint of brutality so utterly alien to Raynar Thul that she knew it was not him alone speaking. She planted her feet on the walkway and, drawing on Zekk for the strength to resist the compulsion to start toward the barracks, touched Raynar in the Force.

The murky presence inside him was so caustic that she recoiled and would have lost contact had Zekk not bolstered her through their meld. Jaina began to feel her way through the bitter darkness, searching for Raynar’s pride and idealism, trying to find the core of him that she sensed was still there.

“They want this war,” she said. “They’re the ones who convinced you to establish your nests so close to Chiss territory.”

Raynar stopped, but did not turn around. “They? Who is they?”

“Your shipmates on the Flier.” Zekk stepped past Jaina and, shuffling along the walkway, started toward Raynar. “Lomi and Welk.”

“Lomi and Welk are dead.”

Jaina found something pure and compassionate inside the Prime and touched it. “Then who attacked the Shadow on her way in?”

“Insect mercenaries hired by the Chiss,” Raynar answered instantly.

Zekk stopped a step behind Raynar. “You have proof?”

“We have no time to look for proof.” Raynar reluctantly turned around, and his retinue of insects began to file back toward the discussion. “We are too busy defending our nests.”

Jaina sighed inwardly. It was the same circular logic they encountered every time they tried to investigate the mysterious attacks.

“What about the attack on Saba?” Zekk pressed. “I suppose you’re going to tell me she attacked a Joiner by mistake, and he took her lightsaber away and wounded her?”

“Yes,” Raynar replied. “That is the best explanation.”

Jaina tightened her hold on the core of benevolence she had found. “Raynar, they’re blinding you to the truth. The best explanation-“

“We are tired of telling you!”

The murky presence welled up inside Raynar and swallowed the pure center that Jaina was holding, and she found herself suddenly adrift in a void of biting darkness. Instinctively, she reached for Zekk and opened herself to their meld, but instead of his strength, all that came to her was cold, stinging shadow.

“Raynar Thul is gone,” Raynar said.

Jaina felt herself turning. She tried to fight the compulsion, to lock her gaze on Raynar and keep it there, but she simply did not have the strength to fight him. She stepped away and started for the barracks.

“We are all that remains.”





THIRTY-TWO


A long, golden arrow curved through the heart of the hologrammic flight control display, tracing the route of the stolen skiff from the repair hangar to its current location on the edge of Ossus’s gravity well. The reckless manner in which the skiff had cut through the approach zone of the planet’s primary spaceport suggested the pilot had been eager to get away from the Jedi academy as quickly as possible. But Luke had already known that. Escapees liked to move fast.

“Thirty seconds before she can jump,” a flight controller reported. A large-headed Bith with an auditory data feed in one ear, he was seated at one of a dozen control stations surrounding the hologrammic display. “She still won’t acknowledge our signal.”

“Keep trying,” Luke said. He could feel the anxiety of the XJ3 pilots trailing the skiff-a pair of young Jedi Knights flying their first security rotation. They were worried they would have to blast it out of space. “Do we know yet whether she has company?”

“Not with certainty,” said the Bith’s supervisor, a blue-skinned Duros woman named Orame. She stepped to an empty terminal and clacked a few keys. An inset of a repair hangar security vid appeared at the base of the flight control display. “But we did find this.”

The inset showed Alema Rar striding through a darkened repair bay, two cases of food goods floating through the air ahead of her.

“We think that shadow-“

“Enhance the cases,” Mara said. Along with Han, Leia, and several others, she had accompanied Luke up from the hangar floor as soon as the stolen skiff had streaked skyward. “Bring up a label, if you can.”

The Duros typed a command, and the carton label filled the image.

“NUTROFIT GELMEAT,” Mara read.