Refugee: Force Heretic II by Sean Williams

Author:Sean Williams [Williams, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 978-0-307-79561-8
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-03T14:00:00+00:00

EPILOGUE

Jacen stared at the result in disbelief. He could feel the combined attention of everyone in the room as the data from Wyn’s search through the library’s records flowed down the holopad in front of him. Listed was every system that had gained a planet in the last sixty years. Saba and Danni had already examined most of them during their search of CEDF’s files, and the rest had turned out to be either ordinary planetary acquisitions or fleeting encounters with the living planet. All told there were fifteen acquisitions and a further forty encounters. But unfortunately—and frustratingly—each of them could be ruled out.

Jacen shook his head in dismay. “It’s not here.”

“It has to be here,” Mara said. “There’s nowhere else it could have gone!”

“Unless it’s hiding somewhere in the rest of the galaxy,” Luke said, wearily.

“But we’d know about it if it was,” Mara said.

“Perhaps we just haven’t looked hard enough. It might be in one of the smaller backwaters—like the Minos Cluster, for instance.”

“Or maybe it left the galaxy altogether.” Danni’s voice was heavy with gloom. “Or perhaps it just died.”

“No,” Jacen said. “It didn’t die. We have holos of it around two of the systems it visited, remember?” Jacen was finding it hard to keep the frustration from his voice.

“And it can’t have left the galaxy, either—not unless it knows something about hyperspace that we don’t.”

“Or it’s found a way to exist without a sun,” Luke put in.

Jacen shook his head. “I refuse to accept any of those possibilities.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Fel’s was the voice of cold reason. “If you’ve looked and you haven’t found it, and you’ve ruled out every other possibility, then where does that leave you? Perhaps Zonama Sekot really is nothing but a legend.”

“No,” Jacen said firmly. “No, I can’t believe that, either. Vergere wouldn’t have lied to me.”

“Can you be absolutely sure of that?”

“Yes.” Jacen met the one-eyed stare of the assistant syndic with stubborn determination. “Yes, I can. Zonama Sekot is real. All we have to do is find it.” He turned back to the hologram. “Somehow …”

“Well, you now have the support of the Houses if you want to continue looking in Chiss space,” Fel said.

Jacen felt exhausted. His uncle’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, reassuring him. Saba and Mara brushed minds with his to offer their support, too. He was grateful for the gestures, but he was unable to silence the doubt that Soontir Fel had given voice to. What if Vergere had lied to him? What if Zonama Sekot was just a dream?

From far away, almost a quarter rotation around the galaxy, he sensed Jaina’s capitulation to exhaustion at the completion of her duty. He occasionally felt flashes of his twin sister, even from so far away. It felt good, he thought, and wished he could do the same. He’d barely slept since arriving on Csilla, and it was getting so that he couldn’t think straight anymore. His body felt weak, hollow

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