Only the revulsion that Zekk poured into the meld stayed Jaina’s blade. She was still so filled with battle lust that she had not even realized she was about to kill the two Chiss in cold blood. It was happening again. She was surrendering to the rage that had consumed her after Anakin died-giving herself to war, with no thought to anything but vengeance and victory.
Shuddering in disgust, Jaina deactivated her lightsaber and knelt next to the two soldiers. Her blade had cauterized their wounds, so they were not losing much blood. But they were both shivering and much too quiet. She rolled them onto their backs, then removed the first soldier’s helmet. His blue skin was covered with perspiration, and his red eyes were distant and unfocused.
Jaina shook him by the chin, trying to bring him back to alertness. “Where’s your medkit?”
The Chiss clamped a hand weakly over her arm. “Why?”
“You’re going into shock,” she explained. “You need a stim-shot, or you’ll die.”
“You?” the second soldier gasped inside his helmet. “Trying … to save us?”
“Isn’t that what we just said?” Jaina demanded.
“No!”
The first soldier pushed her away, surprising her with his strength.
“Don’t be afraid.” Jaina poured soothing emotions into the Force, trying to calm and comfort the pair. “The Colony will take care of you. We’ll even give-“
The second soldier snapped a vape charge off his utility belt and pulled the activation pin. “We know what you’ll … do.”
“Hey!” Jaina did not dare use the Force to yank the canister from his hand-the charge would detonate the instant he released the trigger. “You’re not getting this. The Colony is good to prisoners. You’ll hardly know-“
“That your bugs are eating our insides?” The Chiss nodded to his companion, then said, “We’ll be waiting on the other side, Jedi-“
Jaina sprang into a backward Force flip and tumbled away in a high arc, thumbing her lightsaber active again and batting aside a flurry of maser beams as she came down in the murky ribbon of a jungle stream.
The vape charge detonated as she splashed into the water, a dazzling flash of white that tore the air itself, stealing the breath from her lungs and leaving her half blind, shaking, and confused. She was not all that surprised the two soldiers had refused to surrender-but the reasons they had given distressed her. Could they really believe the Colony fed its prisoners to its larvae?
Jaina had no time to debate the question, for another cold shiver of danger sense was racing up her back. She brought her lightsaber up and spun around to block… and found the two Squib volunteers peering down the streambank at her, their dark heads and power blasters poking out from beneath the trunk of a fallen mogo.
“Take it easy, lady,” the one on the left said. His muzzle was a little longer and sharper than that of his companion, who had a crooked streak of white fur tracing an old scar down one cheek. “We just came to see if you were still alive.”
“Apparently so,” Jaina said. She lowered her lightsaber, but did not deactivate the blade. “Be careful. I sensed something dangerous up there.”
“You don’t say?” Longnose exchanged glances with Scarcheek, then said, “Then I guess it’s a good thing we came along.”
“Yeah,” Scarcheek agreed. “You’re real lucky to have us looking out for you.”
THIRTEEN
Deep
beneath
the
new
Defense
Force
command
compound
on Coruscant-already known among military personnel as “the Dark Star”-there lay a dozen planning facilities so secret that Luke had never officially been informed of their existence. At the moment, he was in PaAR Five-PaAR being the acronym for “Planning and Analysis Room.” That Cal Omas had actually summoned him-and Mara and Jacen-into one of the secret rooms, he took as a good sign. Perhaps the Chief of State was ready to put the trouble between the Jedi and the government behind them.
Their escort led them along a dimly lit walkway past a projection pit displaying a three-meter hologram of the planet Thyferra. Around the edges of the pit were arrayed several banks of work stations where dozens of communications officers, intelligence analysts, and system operators labored to keep the information displayed on the hologram up to the minute. From what Luke could see, the situation wasn’t good. The green swaths of continental rain forest were speckled with colored lettering that showed the dispositions of various villages, forces, and facilities. The planet’s largest city, Zalxuc, and most of its villages had already turned red, indicating they were known to be under enemy control.