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® BETRAYAL BY AARON ALLSTON Galatea in 2-D BARD’S TALE Series (with Holly Lisle) Thunder of the Captains Wrath of the Princes CAR WARRIORS Series Double Jeopardy DOC SIDHE Series Doc Sidhe Sidhe-Devil Star Wars: X-WING Series Wraith Squadron Iron Fist Solo Command Starfighters of Adumar Star Wars: NEW JEDI ORDER Series Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand Star Wars: LEGACY OF THE FORCE Series Betrayal Exile TERMINATOR 3 Series Terminator Dream Terminator Hunt ® BETRAYAL AARON ALLSTON D BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK L Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as “unsold or destroyed” and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it. Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. 2007 Del Rey Books Mass Market Edition Copyright © 2006 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization. Excerpt from Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines copyright © 2006 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization. “In His Image” copyright © 2005 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization. “In His Image” by Karen Traviss first appeared in Vader: The Ultimate Guide, in April 2005. “Two-Edged Sword” copyright © 2006 by Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization. “Two-Edged Sword” by Karen Traviss first appeared in Star Wars Insider, Issue 85, in January 2006. Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2006. ISBN 978-0-345-47735-4 Printed in the United States of America www.starwars.com www.delreybooks.com OPM 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 acknowledgments Thanks are due to my partners-in-plotting Troy Denning and Karen Traviss, to my Eagle-Eyes (Chris Cassidy, Kelly Frieders, Helen Keier, Bob Quinlan, Roxanne Quinlan, and Luray Richmond), to Shelly Shapiro of Del Rey, to Sue Rostoni and Leland Chee of Lucas Licensing, and to my agent, Russ Galen. T H E S TA R WA R S N O V E L S T I M E L I N E 1020 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Darth Bane: Path of Destruction STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader 10-0 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope 33 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Darth Maul: Saboteur* 32.5 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope The Han Solo Trilogy: The Paradise Snare The Hutt Gambit Rebel Dawn 5-2 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Cloak of Deception Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter 32 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE The Adventures of Lando Calrissian The Han Solo Adventures 29 27 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Rogue Planet YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope STAR WARS: A New Hope YEAR 0 STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE Outbound Flight 22.5 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope The Approaching Storm 22 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope 0-3 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine Splinter of the Mind’s Eye 3 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope Republic Commando: Hard Contact 21.5 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope STAR WARS: EPISODE V THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Shatterpoint 21 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Tales of the Bounty Hunters 3.5 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Cestus Deception The Hive* Republic Commando: Triple Zero 20 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Shadows of the Empire 4 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope STAR WARS: EPISODE VI RETURN OF THE JEDI MedStar I: Battle Surgeons MedStar II: Jedi Healer 19.5 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Tales from Jabba’s Palace Tales from the Empire Tales from the New Republic The Bounty Hunter Wars: The Mandalorian Armor Slave Ship Hard Merchandise The Truce at Bakura Jedi Trial Yoda: Dark Rendezvous 19 YEARS BEFORE STAR WARS: A New Hope Labyrinth of Evil 6.5-7.5 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope X-Wing: Rogue Squadron Wedge’s Gamble The Krytos Trap The Bacta War Wraith Squadron Iron Fist Solo Command 8 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope 19 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Hand of Thrawn Duology: Specter of the Past Vision of the Future Showdown at Centerpoint 22 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope 25 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope Boba Fett: A Practical Man* The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime Dark Tide I: Onslaught Dark Tide II: Ruin Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse Balance Point Recovery* Edge of Victory I: Conquest Edge of Victory II: Rebirth Star by Star Dark Journey Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand Traitor Destiny’s Way Ylesia* Force Heretic I: Remnant Force Heretic II: Refugee Force Heretic III: Reunion The Final Prophecy The Unifying Force 35 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Courtship of Princess Leia A Forest Apart* Tatooine Ghost 9 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire Dark Force Rising The Last Command X-Wing: Isard’s Revenge 11 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Jedi Academy Trilogy: Jedi Search Dark Apprentice Champions of the Force I, Jedi 12-13 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope Children of the Jedi Darksaber Planet of Twilight X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar 14 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Crystal Star 16-17 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Dark Nest Trilogy: The Joiner King The Unseen Queen The Swarm War The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy: Before the Storm Shield of Lies Tyrant’s Test 17 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope 40 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope Legacy of the Force: Betrayal Bloodlines Tempest Exile Sacrifice Inferno *An ebook novella The New Rebellion 18 YEARS AFTER STAR WARS: A New Hope The Corellian Trilogy: Ambush at Corellia Assault at Selonia dramatis personae Aidel Saxan; Prime Minister, Corellia (human female) Ben Skywalker (human male) Brisha Syo (human female) C-3PO; protocol droid Cal Omas; Chief of State, Galactic Alliance (human male) Cha Niathal; admiral, Galactic Alliance (Mon Calamari female) Gilad Pellaeon; admiral, Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance (human male) Han Solo; captain, Millennium Falcon (human male) Heilan Rotham; professor (human female) Jacen Solo; Jedi Knight (human male) Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight (human female) Kolir Hu’lya; Jedi Knight (Bothan female) Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight; copilot, Millennium Falcon (human female) Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (human male) Lysa Dunter; ensign, Galactic Alliance (human female) Mara Jade Skywalker; Jedi Master (human female) Matric Klauskin; admiral, Galactic Alliance (human male) Nelani Dinn; Jedi Knight (human female) R2-D2; astromech droid Syal Antilles; ensign, Galactic Alliance (human female) Tahiri Veila; Jedi Knight (human female) Thann Mithric; Jedi Knight (Falleen male) x D R A M AT I S P E R S O N A E Thrackan Sal-Solo; Chief of State, Corellia (human male) Tiu Zax; Jedi Knight (Omwati female) Toval Seyah; Galactic Alliance scientist-spy (human male) Tycho Celchu; general, Galactic Alliance (human male) Wedge Antilles; general, Corellian Defense Force (human male) Zekk; Jedi Knight (human male) chapter one Coruscant “He doesn’t exist.” With those words, spoken without any conscious thought or effort on his part, Luke Skywalker sat upright in bed and looked around at the dimly illuminated chamber. There wasn’t much to see. Members of the Jedi order, even Masters such as Luke, didn’t accumulate much personal property. Within view were chairs situated in front of unlit computer screens; a wall rack holding plasteel staves and other practice weapons; a table littered with personal effects such as datapads, notes scrawled on scraps of flimsi, datachips holding reports from various Jedi Masters, and a crude and not at all accurate sandglass statuette in Luke’s image sent to him by a child from Tatooine. Inset into the stone-veneer walls were drawers holding his and Mara’s limited selection of clothes. Their lightsabers were behind Luke, resting on a shelf on the headboard of their bed. His wife, Mara Jade Skywalker, had more personal items and equipment, of course. Disguises, weapons, communications gear, falsified documents. A former spy, she had never given up the trappings of that trade, but those items weren’t here. Luke wasn’t sure where she kept them. She didn’t bother him with such details. Beside him, she stirred, and he glanced down at her. Her 2 AARON ALLSTON red hair, kept a medium length this season, was an unruly mess, but there was no sleepiness in her eyes when they opened. In brighter light, he knew, those eyes were an amazing green. “Who doesn’t exist?” she asked. “I don’t know. An enemy.” “You dreamed about him?” He nodded. “I’ve had the dream a couple of times before. It’s not just a dream. It’s coming to me through currents in the Force. He’s all wrapped up in shadows—a dark hooded cloak, but more than that, shadows of light and . . .” Luke shook his head, struggling for the correct word. “And ignorance. And denial. And he brings great pain to the galaxy . . . and to me.” “Well, if he brings pain to the galaxy, you’re obviously going to feel it.” “No, to me personally, in addition to his other evil.” Luke sighed and lay down again. “It’s too vague. And when I’m awake, when I try to peer into the future to find him, I can’t.” “Because he doesn’t exist.” “That’s what the dream tells me.” Luke hissed in aggravation. “Could it be Raynar?” Luke considered. Raynar Thul, former Jedi Knight, presumed dead during the Yuuzhan Vong war, had been discovered a few years earlier—horribly burned during the war, mentally transformed in the years since through his involvement with the insectoid Killik race. That transformation had been a malevolent one, and the Jedi order had had to deal with him. Now he languished in a well-protected cell deep within the Jedi Temple, undergoing treatment for his mental and physical afflictions. Treatment. Treatment meant change; perhaps, in changing, Raynar was becoming something new, and Luke’s presentment pointed toward the being Raynar would someday become. Luke shook his head and pushed the possibility away. “In this vision, I don’t sense Raynar’s alienness. Mentally, emo- S ta r Wa r s : L E G A C Y O F T H E F O R C E : B E T R AY A L 3 ………………… truncated ………………. waited decades to defeat the Jedi. You used trillions of lives to achieve it. Will I ever be able to think enough steps ahead of you? “I feel Dark Jedi are not suitable for the Imperial Army.” “With the right commander they would be.” “And who would train them?” “You, Lord Vader.” “I prefer ordinary soldiers. They don’t covet power. I would spend all my time watching my back.” “Indeed you would,” said Palpatine. It had been a game at first, an annoying one, but just verbal sparring; the Emperor neither lied nor told the truth. Now it had ceased to be a challenge, and Vader longed for a simpler relationship. There was a very fine line between strengthening a man through constant challenge and turning him into an enemy. “Perhaps the solution to having to watch your back is to make your enemy watch theirs instead,” said Vader. I will come for you one day. “Or have others want to watch it for you,” said Palpatine, and turned to leave his apprentice alone in the anteroom. Vader now knew there were no Force-users, dark or otherwise, whom he could wholly trust—his own Master least of all. Vader had no loyalties beyond himself, except for his interest in the well-being of the likes of Lekauf, men with no extraordinary gifts or powers whatsoever. Unless, of course, you counted simple honesty as a gift. At that moment he thought it the equal of any Force power. Yes, Vader preferred ordinary men made excellent by effort. The part of him that was Anakin Skywalker remembered the few things he had struggled to achieve— love, excitement, freedom—and thought how much more they had thrilled him than his prodigious and easy powers. He had been a man himself, once. Thinking of Lekauf, he wondered if he would ever choose to be one again. The adventure does not stop here. Keep reading for an excerpt from the second book in the thrilling Legacy of the Force series: ® BLOODLINES Karen Traviss Available now from Del Rey Books Atzerri system, ten standard years after the Yuuzhan Vong war: Slave I in pursuit of prisoner H’buk. Boba Fett’s private record. “Whatever he’s paying you, Fett, I’ll double it,” says the voice on the comlink. They say that a lot. They just don’t understand the nature of a contract. This time it’s an Atzerri glitterstim dealer called H’buk who’s overstepped the mark with the Traders’ Coalition to the tune of four hundred thousand credits. The coalition feels it’s worth paying me five hundred thousand credits to teach him—and everyone else—a lesson about honoring debts. I agree with the Traders’ Coalition wholeheartedly. “A contract’s a contract,” I tell him. Slave I is close enough on his trail for me to get a visual on him: I swear he’s flying an old Z-95 Headhunter. No hyperdrive, or he’d have jumped for it by now. And no wonder he’s surprised. An old, old Firespray like Slave I shouldn’t be able to catch him on sublight drive alone. But I’ve fitted a few more . . . extras recently. The only completely original part of Slave I now is the seat I’m in. “My laser cannon’s armed,” says H’buk, breathless. “Good for you.” Why they always want a conversation, I’ll never know. Look, shoot or shut up; I know you’ll have to come about to target me with that cannon, and in that second or two I’ll take out your drives anyway. “The galaxy’s a dangerous place.” The Headhunter executes a neat turn to port with its aft maneuvering jets and the Slave’s laser locks on to the Headhunter’s drive signature, matching its turns and loops with no need for guidance from me. His engine flares in a ball of white light. The fighter begins an uncontrolled roll and I have to gun it to get the tractor beam locked and haul H’buk in. The grapple arms make a satisfying chunk-unkkkk against the Headhunter’s airframe as I secure the fighter against the casing above Slave’s torpedo launcher. The sound of that reverberating through your hull, I’m told, is just like a cell door closing behind you: the point at which prisoners lose all hope. Funny; that would only make me fight harder. H’buk is making the noises of panic and pleading that I hardly notice these days. Some prisoners are defiant, but most give in to fear. He makes me offers all the way back to Atzerri, promising anything to survive. “I can pay you millions.” The contract is to deliver him alive. It’s very specific. “And my stock holdings in Kuat Drive Yards.” I think it’s the silent routine that gets to them in the end. “Fett, I have a beautiful daughter . . .” He shouldn’t have said that. Now I’m angry, and I don’t often get angry. “Never use your kids, scumbag. Never.” My father put me first. Any father should. Not that I ever felt pity—or anything—for H’buk, but I’m satisfied now that he deserves everything that the Traders’ Coalition is going to do to him. If I were the sympathetic kind, I’d kill him. I’m not. And the contract says alive. “Want to negotiate a landing fee?” asks Atzerri Air Traffic Control. “Want to negotiate an ion cannon?” “Oh . . . apologies, Master Fett, sir . . .” They always see my point. Landing on Atzerri is a little tricky when you’re hauling a crippled fighter on your upperworks. I set Slave I down on the landing strip, lowering gently on the thrusters, feeling the aft section vibrating under the load. And I have an audience. The coalition wants to show they can afford to hire the best to hunt down anyone who crosses them. I oblige. A bit of theater, a little public relations: like Mandalorian armor, it makes the point without a shot needing to be fired. I walk along Slave I’s casing to clamber up onto the Headhunter’s fuselage and crack open its canopy seal with the laser housed in my wrist gauntlet. So I hit H’buk harder than I need to, and haul him out of the cockpit to rappel down ten meters to the ground on the lanyard with him. It hurts deep in my stomach. I don’t let anyone see that. Then I deposit the prisoner on the landing strip in front of the men he owes four hundred thousand credits. It makes the point. I like making points. Presentation is half the battle. “Want to keep the starfighter, too?” asks my customer. “Not my taste.” The spaceport utility loader comes to remove it from Slave I. I hold out my palm: I want the rest of my fee. He hands me the outstanding 250,000 creds on a verified chip. “Why do you still do this, Fett?” “Because people still ask me.” It’s a good question. I ponder it while I sit back in the cockpit and catch up with the financial headlines on the HoloNet news as Slave I heads for Kamino on autopilot. My doctor is meeting me there. He doesn’t like the long journey but I don’t pay him to be happy. Now I find I’m thinking of a daughter—Ailyn—who I haven’t seen in fifty years, wondering if she’s still alive. You see, I’m ill. I think I’m dying. If I am, then there are things I’ve got to do. One of them is to find out what happened to Ailyn. Another is to decide who’s going to be Mandalore when I’m gone. And the third, of course, is to cheat death. I’ve had a lot of practice at that. ® Read each book in the series Book 5 Sacrifice by Karen Traviss Paperback Book 6 Inferno by Troy Denning Paperback Book 7 Fury by Aaron Allston Paperback Book 8 Revelation by Karen Traviss Paperback Book 9 Invincible by Troy Denning Hardcover • On sale 5/13/08 Book 1 Betrayal by Aaron Allston Paperback Book 2 Bloodlines by Karen Traviss Paperback Book 3 Tempest by Troy Denning Paperback Book 4 Exile by Aaron Allston Paperback www.legacyoftheforce.com