And all of a sudden this Ben starts spouting off terms that Jacen hadn't been sure he'd know -- Jedi, the Force, clouding other people's mind. But one particular phrase makes him blink. "The Empire?" He sits up, looking bewildered. "Do you mean the Imperial Remnant?"

This was all getting incredibly confusing by the minute. The Empire had been overthrown a long time ago, a few years before he'd been born. Tatooine was many, many light-years away from Coruscant. And while the Yuuzhan Vong hunted the Jedi as ferociously as the Empire did, the new order didn't have to go into hiding with the same desperation Obi-Wan was displaying.

Then something occurs to him, and he stares at the older man. Tatooine. The Empire. Ben.

Could it be?