Cover Artist: Drew Struzan

The New Republic Fifth Fleet has been completed and is demonstrating it's capabilities for the Senate before being deployed, when a new Senator named Tig Peramis accuses Princess Leia of having dreams of conquest like Darth Vader. He is reprimanded and the problem seems to be at an end. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker has decided to leave the Jedi Academy in the hands of Streen and go off on a retreat. Leia discovers that he has come to Coruscant, but is surprised that he doesn't come to see her. Lando Calrissian finds himself feeling bored and so makes his way to the office of Hiram Drayson, where he is given the assignment of trying to recover an unknown vagabond ship. The viceroy of the Dushkan League begins diplomatic talks with Leia and succeeds in keeping everyone completely off-balance while Lando manages to trick his way onboard the vagabond ship with his team of Lobot, C-3PO and R2-D2. Just as his team thinks they've managed to begin recovery operations, the ship jumps to hyperspace, taking Lando and his team with it. Back on Coruscant, Luke meets a woman named Akanah who claims that she knew Luke's mother, and is persuaded to help her find her people. Eventually, Leia's talks with Nil Spaar end when he launches his ship, killing several bystanders in the process. He leaves Coruscant after spreading lies about Leia, and while she contemplates resigning her position, his Yevethan people begin a war of conquest in the Koornacht Cluster. Admiral Ackbar and Hiram Drayson find proof of Spaar's lies and confront Leia with them, and she decides to stick it out and stand up to him.

This wasn't too bad of a story, but I did have a couple complaints about how some characters were portrayed. First off, Luke was written as wanting to retire from the world and being quite untrusting, but the minute a strange woman shows up claiming to know his mother, he jumps to help her without even the slightest independent verification of the truth of her statements. Secondly was Leia. She was one of the most arrogant characters I have ever read. She made up nicknames for her security detail simply because she would rather not admit they exist. When people she had known for years told her anything, she automatically believed that they had some hidden agenda, because there was absolutely no way that she could be wrong. Overall it's not a bad story, but with characters not acting the way that they should, it makes it more difficult to get into the book.