Reunion

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Introduction to the
Star Wars
Expanded Universe

Excerpt from
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: The Final Prophecy

Introduction to the Old Republic Era

Introduction to the Rise of the Empire Era

Introduction to the Rebellion Era

Introduction to the New Republic Era

Introduction to the New Jedi Order Era

Introduction to the Legacy Era

Star Wars
Novels Timeline

Thanks to the all-important support team that made this journey so much more interesting and enjoyable than we dared expect: Kirsty Brooks, Ginjer Buchanan, Chris Cerasi, Leland Chee, Richard Curtis, Nydia Dix, Sam Dix, Nick Hess, Christopher McElroy, the Mount Lawley Mafia, Ryan Pope, Michael Potts, the SA Writers’ Center, Kim Selling, Sue Rostoni, Stephanie Smith, and Walter Jon Williams. We would particularly like to single out Greg Keyes, Jim Luceno, and Shelly Shapiro for helping (with apparently boundless patience) tie so many threads together. From a continent that sometimes feels far, far away indeed, ta muchly.

Neither moved; neither spoke. They stared unflinchingly into each other’s eyes.

Surrounding her, hidden by shadows, Tahiri could sense an alien landscape. She could tell from its pull that it was big, yet at the same time not large enough to contain the two of them. She wanted to look down and see it, to understand this strange and disturbing ambiguity, but she couldn’t afford to do so, not even for a second—for a second was all it would take to lose her purchase on this precarious balance of power. One blink of an eye and she could be dispelled into the darkness altogether, never to return—and she had no intention of ever allowing that to happen. This world was hers, and she would remain like this for as long as it took to ensure that it
stayed
hers. It was just a matter of time. All she had to do was be patient, be
strong
.

Soon
, she told herself.
It will all be over soon. Just another moment …

But that moment seemed as long as the blackness around her was deep. It was a moment that stretched back to the explosion that had first given birth to the universe, and forward to the time when eternity would turn all the suns cold. It didn’t matter, though. She would endure a thousand such moments to ensure that the world below did not fall to Riina.

Yes, that was it. Riina: the other girl’s name. She
wanted to destroy Tahiri and take the world from her. Tahiri could feel the girl’s intentions as though they were her own.

I will not succumb
, she thought determinedly.
I am Tahiri Veila; I am a Jedi Knight
!

And I am Riina of Domain Kwaad
, the girl said in response.
I shall not succumb, either
.

With that, Tahiri’s mirror image finally moved: her hand went to her side and removed the lightsaber from her belt.

A lightsaber
, Tahiri thought,
not an amphistaff
. Riina wanted everything she had, and she fought with everything Tahiri had, too.

The light from the blade revealed something of their surroundings. To one side there was a dry and rocky ground that stretched out forever, and to the other there was a chasm of terrible blackness, an emptiness that pulled at Tahiri, drew her to the edge of the precipice upon which she stood. She could tell from Riina’s fearful gaze that this same emptiness was tugging at her, also. One wrong move and either of them could fall into an embrace of eternal nothingness, leaving the darkened world to the other.

The notion renewed her resolve, and with a snap and a hiss that echoed throughout the landscape she activated her own lightsaber.

The two advanced slowly toward one another until the two bubbles of light from their lightsabers touched and they were standing face to face. Then, in unison, the two blades rose into the air and came down sharply at the other’s head. They connected in midair with a deadly crackle, sending sparks arcing into the darkness …

INFILTRATION

Han Solo fought the urge to wipe a droplet of sweat from his brow, knowing that such a gesture would be seen as a sign of nervousness, and thus give the others a clue as to what he was holding.

“What’s it to be, Solo?”

Han went for a stall, his second in as many minutes. “Let me get this straight. It wasn’t enough that you guys got tired of using integers—or that you weren’t satisfied with just using real numbers, either. You had to start messing with imaginary and transreal numbers as well.”

The larval-stage Ruurian bounty hunter’s face was locked in a sneer. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Why should there be a problem?”

“Then get on with it!”

One corner of Han’s mouth curled up into a half grin. His opponents were starting to lose their patience. That could work to his advantage.

“So you’re saying that we can use
any
arithmetic operation we like. We can divide, subtract, multiply—”

“I know what you’re doing,” growled a bad-tempered Givin, its skeletal jaw clicking impatiently against its upper “lip.” Given its species’ predilection for mathematics, Han imagined that it was the Givin who was responsible for the changed rules. “You can’t bluff us, Solo.”

“Perhaps the great Han Solo has lost his edge.” The
fourth player, Talien, a Yarkora with numerous gold rings dangling from each enormous nostril, uttered a contemptuous snort.

Han glanced down at the chip-cards in his hand. “Or perhaps it’s just that my math is a little rusty.”

He laid the cards on the table, resigning himself to winning the strangest game of sabacc he’d ever played. The three
³
√23 chips that the last round had dealt him stared up at the ceiling in staves, flasks, and coins. His decision to ditch the idiot card and take a chance on fate had paid off.