"Maybe they don't know who we are or what… happened."

Jaden shook his head, his eyes fixed on the cockpit. "No. They know I killed one of them. The holo-log said they had an empathic connection, maybe even a telepathic one. They know."

"Stang," Khedryn murmured.

For a time they stood there, staring up at the unseen crew through the swirl. Finally Jaden shouted up at the cockpit.

"If you leave I will have to come after you."

He gave that a moment to register and still received no response. He deactivated his saber, turned away from the fighter, and walked through the cold and snow for Flotsam.

"Let's go, Khedryn."

"Go?" Khedryn said, and hurried after him, looking back over his shoulder at the fighter.

"We are either dead or we're not. Their choice."

Khedryn fell in beside him, partially hunched as though in anticipation of a blow.

Jaden did not flinch-though Khedryn did-when a shriek tore through the sky, not the cannons on the CloakShape fighter, but the wail of engines failing, of superstructure collapsing.

Jaden turned, already flashing back to his vision, and looked up to see the sky on fire. An enormous ship-it could only be Harbinger-streaked across the upper atmosphere, leaving a fat line of fire kilometers long.

"Stang," Khedryn said in a hush.

With the suddenness of a blaster shot, the cruiser exploded, the fireball starting in the rear engine section and racing forward along the length of the ship until the entire vessel vaporized into a billion-billion tiny, glowing particles that lit the sky like pyrotechnics.

Jaden watched, not breathing, as they started to fall to the surface, a rain of evil. He lived alternately in the present and the memory of his vision. He felt the oily touch of the Lignan, the familiar nudge in his very being impelling him to darkness. The feeling did not elicit in him the horror he remembered from his vision and he wondered what that meant. He resisted the pull-his will, his ability to choose, was something internal, unconstrained by the external.

The CloakShape fighter's engines fired and Khedryn and Jaden watched it accelerate skyward, its form a black silhouette against the still-glowing sky.

"It is heading right into the debris," Khedryn said. "What are they doing?"

Jaden understood exactly what they were doing. They were taking in the Lignan's power.

"I will have to come after you," he said again, more softly, unsure how he felt about the words.

Another boom sounded far above them, not an explosion but a sonic boom, a ship entering or leaving atmosphere. At first Jaden assumed it was the CloakShape exiting the moon's atmosphere, but instead he saw a familiar disk cutting its way through the sky, falling out of the ruin of Harbinger's death. Junker looked wounded, incomplete without Flotsam attached to its fittings and Khedryn in its cockpit.

Jaden imagined it passing the CloakShape fighter and its crew of dark side clones on its way down, imagined paths crossing, lines meeting at angles, currents intersecting. He thought of Relin and felt profound sadness. He knew the ancient Jedi would not be aboard Junker.

"That is Junker!" Khedryn said. He took Jaden by the shoulder, shook him with joy. Jaden winced from the pain but could not stop smiling himself.

With the ship so close, Khedryn tried to raise Marr on his suit's comlink. No response.

"Look at the way she's flying," Khedryn said, joy giving way to concern in his tone. "She's on autopilot."

Jaden reached out with the Force, felt Marr's faint Force presence, felt, too, that the Cerean was near death.

"Let's move," he said, and they ran for Junker as it started to set down.

EPILOGUE

Khedryn's voice exploded over the comlink. "He's awake!"

Jaden jumped up from the table in the galley, spilling caf, and hurried to the makeshift medical bay aboard Junker. Khedryn had converted one of the passenger berths off the galley into a rudimentary treatment room. Transparent storage lockers held a disorganized array of gauze, scissors, stim-shots, antibiotics, bacta, synthflesh, and any number of other miscellaneous medical supplies and devices. Jaden had to credit him for thoroughness if not orderliness. Khedryn and Marr had already seen to their wounds as best they could. They could get better treatment when they returned to Fhost.

Marr lay in the rack, a white sheet covering him to the chest. He blinked in the lights, trying to shake the film from his eyes. Khedryn held his hand the way a father might a son's.

"Jaden," Marr said, and grinned through his pain. Jaden had never been so pleased to see a chipped tooth and could not contain a grin of his own.

"It is nice to see your eyes open, Marr. Things were touch-and-go for a while. You'd lost a lot of blood."

Marr looked away and spoke softly. "My eyes are opened."

Jaden did not know how to respond, so he filled the moment with a question for which he already knew the answer.

"Relin did not get off Harbinger?"

Marr shook his head, still looking away. "He never intended to."

"No," Jaden said. "He didn't."

Jaden saw in Relin his own fate. A slow drift toward the dark side. He had never gotten an answer to his questions. He remained as adrift as he had before receiving his Force vision. He wondered at the purpose of it all.

Wireless pads attached to Marr's body fed information to the biomonitoring station beside his bed. Jaden eyed the readout. Khedryn followed his eyes.

"Not bad, eh?" Khedryn said, smiling. Deep purple colored the skin under his eyes. His broken nose looked more askew than his multi-directed eyes. A flexcast secured his shattered wrist, though he'd need surgery when they reached Fhost. "Tough as ten-year-old bantha hide, this one."

Marr smiled. Blood loss had left him as pale as morning mist. Jaden sat next to the bed, looking on two men who had shed blood for his cause.

"That nose looks bad," he said to Khedryn.

Khedryn nodded. "I thought I'd wear it this way for a while. Goes with my eyes. But maybe it's a bit much. What do you think, Marr?"

"Keep it as is," Marr said. "Then I won't have to worry about you spilling secrets to dancing girls."

"Good point. Fix it I will. As soon as we get back to Fhost. The nose and the wrist."

"How did you break it?" Marr asked Khedryn.

Khedryn swallowed, put a finger to the side of his nose. "Long story, my friend. I will tell you the whole thing over our third round of keela back in The Hole."

"We found the bodies on Junker," Jaden said.

"Massassi," Marr said. "That's what Relin called them."

Jaden knew the name, though he had never thought to see one in the flesh. "What happened on that ship, Marr? They looked to have died from decompression."

"Long story, my friend," Marr said. "I will tell you everything over our fourth round of keela. Good enough?"

"Good enough," Jaden agreed.

"You're buying, Jedi," Khedryn said.

"I am, indeed."

Silence descended, cloaked the room. Only the rhythmic beep of the monitoring station broke the silence. Jaden knew he had to report back to the Order, tell Grand Master Skywalker of the cloning facility, the escaped clones, the Lignan and what it could do, but for the moment he simply wanted to enjoy the company of the two men who had bled with him.

"What's next for you, Jedi?" Khedryn asked. "You're welcome to fly with us for a time."

Marr nodded agreement.

Jaden was touched by the offer. "Thank you, both. But I'm not sure that will work well. As soon as possible, I will report back to the Order via subspace. Then I'll have to track down the clones."

"Clones?" Marr asked. He started to sit up, hissed with pain, lay back down.