Invincible (45 page)

“At least you’re out of the tank,” her mother said, entering the cabin behind him. “Now we can actually
talk
instead of just smiling and waving.”

“Smiling and waving wasn’t so bad. It was good to know you were out there.” Jaina grew quiet, then said, “But I
do
have a lot of questions.”

Her father’s face turned somber. “Zekk?”

Jaina nodded. “For starters. Any word?”

“Nothing,” he said. “They’ve found a few StealthX pieces floating around, but there were several lost, so it’s impossible to know whether any of it came off his.”

“What about his rescue beacon?”

“There’s no sign that it was triggered,” her mother said. Unlike the rescue beacons of most starfighters, the StealthX beacon wasn’t automatic; it had to be activated by the pilot or his astromech when he went EV. “But the Mists
are
pretty thick around there.”

“And no sign of him in the Force, of course,” Jaina surmised. That was actually the most likely way someone would find him—but only if he was conscious enough to reach out. “I sure haven’t felt anything.”

“Luke said they’re going to keep looking.” Her mother stepped over next to the hoverest and looked as though she wanted to touch Jaina, but that was strictly forbidden, of course. “But Mirta Gev sends her thanks.”

“She made it back to Mandalore okay, then?” Jaina asked.

“Not exactly,” her father said. “She’s safe—”

“And healing nicely,” her mother added. “So is her husband…Ghes Orade, I believe.”

“Just not on Mandalore,” her father added. “Turns out Fett can’t go back there—ever. Neither can his granddaughter.”

“What?”
Jaina couldn’t imagine the force that would prevent either of the two from returning to their home. “Why not?”

“The Moffs,” her father explained. “They were pretty mad about that commando raid on Nickel One, so they made a special strain of nanokiller just for Fett and dropped a few tons of it into Mandalore’s atmosphere. If he or Mirta ever go back there, it’s just a matter of time before it gets them.”

“That’s terrible.” Jaina thought of Mirta and her plans with Ghes, and she
felt
terrible. “Are you sure?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” her mother said. “Tahiri reported it during her first questioning, and the Moffs confirmed it.”

“They claim there’s no way to fix it,” Han said. “A
Mand’alor
who can never set foot on Mandalore—kind of poetic justice, isn’t it?”

“It might be justice, but I wouldn’t call it poetic,” Jaina said. “It’s just sad…especially for Mirta.”

A silence fell over the room just long enough for her mother to shoot her father a “be careful” look, then Leia said, “Well, we
do
have some good news.”

“Jag is coming to see me?”

“As soon as he can,” her father promised. “He’s pretty busy with the peace conference right now. The Moffs seem to keep getting the idea that
they’re
the ones who won this war.”

“
Won
?” Jaina raised her brow. “The war is over?
Completely?
”

Her mother nodded. “They’re having the ceremony now.” She retrieved the remote from its storage pocket in Jaina’s hoverest cabinet and pointed it at a vidscreen suspended near the ceiling. “We might be able to catch the last part.”

As the screen activated, it showed the image of a large dais that had been erected in the vast main hangar of a Star Destroyer. At the front of the dais stood a podium and high table bearing a single sheet of flimsiplast covered in scrawls that appeared to be the signatures of the long row of dignitaries seated at the rear of the platform.

A tall, regal-looking woman in a white admiral’s uniform, with green eyes and long copper hair going to gray, was taking the podium to tremendous applause, and a caption at the bottom of the screen read
NEW ALLIANCE CHIEF OF STATE DAALA
.

“Daala?” Jaina gasped. She stared at the screen in disbelief for a moment, then finally snorted and looked back to her parents. “Very funny, guys, but I’m not really in the mood for practical jokes.”

Her parents glanced nervously at each other, then her father said, “No joke, kid. That’s the only hitch with the peace deal. Bwua’tu wouldn’t take the job—he said he’s an admiral, not a liar—”

“What he actually said was that he didn’t think he was cunning enough to last in the job,” her mother interrupted. “And then he recommended Admiral Daala instead.”

“I think the old goat’s got a thing for her,” her father said.

Her mother shot him a scowl of exasperation. “The admiral’s feelings are speculation, of course,” she said. “But Daala turned out to be the only universally acceptable choice.”

“Universally?” Jaina asked.
“Really?”

“Well, some of the Moffs squirmed a bit,” her father admitted. “But then Jag worked out a deal where Daala promised to let bygones be bygones—as long as half of the new Moffs are female.”

Jaina’s head was spinning. Female Moffs. Daala in charge of the Alliance. That wasn’t going to be good for the Jedi. But maybe it didn’t need to be, if it meant an end to the war.

“Daala might not be
that
bad,” her father said. “Give her a chance.”

“Okay.” Jaina turned her gaze back to the vidscreen, where the admiral was at the podium, waiting for the applause to fade. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

Jaina’s mother turned up the volume. After a moment, Daala began to speak in a deep, cultured voice.

“What can I add that has not already been said here today?” she began. “If this war has taught us anything, it is that we
all
lose when we fight. My friends, the time has come to try a new way—”

Here, she had to stop and wait for the applause to die down again—and it took nearly a minute.

When she was finally able to continue, she said, “The way of cooperation, so that we can all win
together.
”

More thunderous applause.

Daala motioned for quiet, then continued, “My friends, it is my promise to you here today that sometime in the not-too-distant future, we will live in a galaxy where our space navies exist to
better
our societies, not defend them—where we won’t
need
Jedi to sort out our differences and mete out justice, because we will be living under a government that
is
just.”

The crowd rose to its feet, roaring and cheering, and Jaina realized with a cold shudder that Jacen had not failed. He had sacrificed everything—his name, his family, his reputation, his life—to unite the galaxy. And now here Jaina was, watching the birth of a galaxywide league of worlds dedicated to working together in peace.

Had Jacen
won
after all?

“Hey, take it easy, kid.” Her father stepped in front of the vidscreen. “Daala’s not
that
scary.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Jaina said, glad to be looking at his face instead of Daala’s. “It’s not Daala. I was just thinking of…of what Caedus sacrificed. At the end, there was a second when he just stopped fighting so he could warn Tenel Ka.”

Jaina could not bring herself to look at her parents when she told them this next part, but she
had
to tell. They deserved to know.

“I think he became Jacen again for a second before I…before I killed him.”

“Jaina, it’s okay.” Her mother started to reach for her arm again, then barely caught herself. “If you had hesitated,
you
would be the dead one.”

Jaina shook her head. “I could have given him a second,” she said. “If I had, maybe he could have made Tenel Ka understand in time to save Allana.”

Jaina forced herself to look back to her parents and was amazed to see that they didn’t appear all that upset. In fact, they looked a little bit guilty.

“Yeah, about that,” her father said. “There’s something we haven’t been able to tell you yet.”

Jaina frowned. “What?”

Her mother went the door and opened it, then said, “Amelia, would you come in here for a minute?”

Jaina looked to her father. “Amelia?”

“A war orphan,” he said. “Turns out the kid’s Force-sensitive. Your mother and I are going to be acting as guardians while she’s at the Jedi academy.”

Jaina began to grow very suspicious. “An
orphan
?”

“That’s how it was explained to us,” her mother said. “But it’s possible the mother just felt the Jedi academy would be a safer environment than she was able to provide.”

She ushered a nervous-looking child of about four or five into the room. The girl had a swarthy complexion and short-cropped black hair, and for a minute, it actually fooled Jaina. But the button nose was a bit of a giveaway—as was the familiar hint of her brother and Tenel Ka in the girl’s Force presence.

“Hello, Jaina,” Allana’s small voice said. “They tell me we’re going to be sisters now.”

Jaina smiled, her heart suddenly filling with a joy she had not thought imaginable just ten seconds earlier. “I guess we are, Amelia. Welcome to the family.”

about the author

T
ROY
D
ENNING
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost, Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Star by Star,
the
Star Wars: Dark Nest
trilogy:
The Joiner King, The Unseen Queen,
and
The Swarm War,
and
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Tempest
and
Inferno,
as well as
Pages of Pain, Beyond the High Road, The Summoning,
and many other novels. A former game designer and editor, he lives in western Wisconsin with his wife, Andria.

THE STORY CONTINUES…

But for the Jedi, many of whom had once looked to Jacen Solo for inspiration, the transition has been anything but smooth, as Luke Skywalker strives to chart a new course for the Order, and gropes for an understanding of what ultimately drove his nephew to embrace the dark teachings of the evil Sith Lords.

The road to reconciliation has been harder still for Han and Leia Solo, who have now lost both their sons. Some measure of solace comes in the form of Allana, Jacen’s Force-sensitive daughter, whom the Solos have adopted at the request of the girl’s mother, Queen Tenel Ka of Hapes. But Han, especially, craves the distraction of action, and so he, Leia, and Allana embark on an investigation into the origin of the
Millennium Falcon, the charmed starship that has seen Han through so many
years of adventure.

By all indications, their quest should be safe, innocent: something to keep them interested and busy. But as they piece together the clues of the past, hints of a more profound mystery begin to reveal themselves, and a faceless threat lies in wait—one that has already launched a tentative assault not only on the Jedi Order, but on the Force itself.

STAR WARS: MILLENNIUM FALCON
12.30.08

B
Y
Troy Denning

Waterdeep

Dragonwall

The Parched Sea

The Verdant Passage

The Crimson Legion

The Amber Enchantress

The Obsidian Oracle

The Cerulean Storm

The Ogre’s Pact

The Giant Among Us

The Titan of Twilight

The Veiled Dragon

Pages of Pain

Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad

The Oath of Stonekeep

Faces of Deception

Beyond the High Road

Death of the Dragon
(
with Ed Greenwood
)

The Summoning

The Siege

The Sorcerer

Star Wars:
T
HE
N
EW
J
EDI
O
RDER
:
Star by Star

Star Wars:
T
ATOOINE
G
HOST

Star Wars:
D
ARK
N
EST
I:
The Joiner King

Star Wars:
D
ARK
N
EST
II:
The Unseen Queen

Star Wars:
D
ARK
N
EST
III:
The Swarm War

Star Wars:
L
EGACY OF THE
F
ORCE
:
Tempest

Star Wars:
L
EGACY OF THE
F
ORCE
:
Inferno

Star Wars:
L
EGACY OF THE
F
ORCE
:
Invincible

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible
is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.