"Be true to the hive, " Jesson said.

"Yes. "

"How can a human understand so well? "

Obi-Wan smiled. "We all have a hive, " he said.

"Twenty-seven, twenty-six . . . "

"Stand, X’Ting warrior, " Obi-Wan said, putting durasteel into his voice.

Jesson stood.

"Fifteen, fourteen . . . "

He made his way back to the chair and sat down. The countdown ceased.

"Are you prepared to continue? "the voice asked in Basic, after a series of X’Tingian pops.

Jesson answered in affirmative clicks.

There was a pause. The rotating hologrammic sphere was moving more swiftly now. But a single layer remained over the egg chamber.

"Answer, "the machine said. "Who ate our eggs and now hide their young? Whose web of fear ensnares them? Who stole the sun but now live in shadow? "

"It’s too simple, " Jesson whispered.

"Sometimes simplicity is the best disguise, " Obi-Wan said. "Don’t try to be tricky.

Answer with truth. "

"But that is what I did before, " Jesson said. "And both times I was wrong. "

"This was created by your own people, " Obi-Wan said. "They would not make it impossible for you to succeed. Trust your forebears. "

But Obi-Wan felt a slight prickle at the back of his neck. Something. A warning? A clue?

Something. What was it? Something about the array of weapons around the chair? The nozzles. The questions. Apparently simple for an X’Ting . . .

But the answers were wrong.

Obi-Wan’s instinct was screaming at him, but he couldn’t put his finger on what, exactly, it was trying to say. Couldn’t, but had to. This was the last chance, and if he couldn’t help his X’Ting companion, all was lost, and his cause was set back irreparably.

Still, in the depths of his heart, he felt a simple answer, heard it echoing with the truth of the Force.

"Answer truthfully, " he said again. "Don’t try to be clever. Don’t try to second-guess.

Give it the answer that you know to be true. "

Jesson nodded. "The spider people, " he said. "Once, they were the lords of this planet.

Once, they drove us from the surface. We sent them to the shadows. "

His hands splayed out on the control panel, and his eyes were locked on the rotating sphere. What? What . . . ?

It rotated more rapidly, and a thin whining sound arose in the room, seemed to envelop them. Then the sphere accelerated faster still, and the segments fragmented and flew away.

"Answer incorrect, "the voice said. "Egg termination has begun. "

Obi-Wan stared, shocked. How wrong could he have been? Rarely had his insights been proven so horribly wrong. Perhaps he could burn through the floor with his lightsaber and save the royal pair . . .

He triggered his weapon and blazed it into the floor’s pentagonal gold seal. Beneath it, he imagined, was a case-hardened durasteel vault door. The hologrammic image was melting, blazing, even as the first sparks leapt from the floor and the room filled with smoke.