Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen

• ISBN 978-0345463036 ; A 333-page paperback edition was published by Del Rey on September 27, 2005.
• ISBN 0739320351 ; An abridged CD version was released by Random House Audio on September 27, 2005.
• ISBN 832412604X ; A 280-page Polish paperback edition was published by Amber.

As the Star Wars saga continues, the heroes of the New Jedi Order encounter an insidious and all-consuming evil.

Despite being granted new worlds, the Killiks are still experiencing conflict. An unknown enemy is assaulting their new colonies, leading the Killiks to place blame on the Jedi. The Skywalkers and Solos rush back to the Unknown Regions to investigate, where they uncover a threat more recognizable and frightening than they anticipated. Adding to the danger, the Dark Nest is targeting Mara Jade. Will Jacen's prophetic vision spark another galactic conflict or prevent one? The Killiks harbor a deadly secret, which is the most perplexing and dangerous of all.

Luke, Mara, Han, and Leia must venture into the uncharted territory between right and wrong to uncover the truth. A peculiar and devastating dispute is on the verge of erupting into chaos, setting Jedi against each other and endangering the entire galaxy.

Jaina Solo and Zekk are still connected through their Joiner bond since their time with the Killiks, and the story begins one year after the Qoribu crisis. They are pursuing thieves who are pilfering Tibanna on Bespin and discover that the criminals are under the sway of black membrosia. They are horrified to realize that the Gorog, or the Dark Nest, remains a threat.

The Killiks are experiencing difficulties with the Galactic Alliance in the Utegetu Nebula, where the Colony has established their nests since the Qoribu Truce. The Killiks are allegedly providing refuge for pirates and smugglers who are stealing starship fuel and operating on black membrosia. Han and Leia Organa Solo, along with C-3PO, journey to the planet Woteba, the nest of the Saras, to learn the Killiks' perspective on the pirates and smugglers from UnuThul. If Han and Leia can ascertain the nature of this harboring, then Chief of State Cal Omas will grant the Ithorians a new home planet. UnuThul denies any knowledge of the pirates and smugglers but fulfills another promise made by the Colony: to inform Mara Jade Skywalker, who is accompanied by her husband, Luke, Saba Sebatyne, and R2-D2, why the Dark Nest is targeting Mara. It turns out that the founders of the Dark Nest were not Lomi Plo and the late Welk, as previously believed, but the wife and daughter of the late Imperial bank accountant Daxar Ies, whom Mara killed during her time as Emperor's Hand. Mara had killed Ies for embezzling two billion credits from Emperor Palpatine's personal bank account. After killing Ies, she broke into his home to find a list of all the other bank accounts where he had placed the two billion credits. When Ies's wife and daughter arrived home and caught Mara, her conscience prevented her from killing them, so she sent them to hide in an unknown location in the galaxy and change their identities. Therefore, the Dark Nest's hatred of Mara originates from Ies's wife and daughter's anger towards Mara for killing Daxar.

Before UnuThul reveals this to the Skywalker-Solo group, they discover that Woteba is experiencing an epidemic called the Fizz, which is killing the Killiks. Following the meeting where UnuThul tells Mara why the Dark Nest is after her, Luke and Han, with C-3PO and R2-D2, agree to stay on Woteba to locate the Dark Nest and discover the nature of the Fizz. The Killiks believe that the Galactic Alliance gave them the Utegetu Nebula knowing that the Fizz would kill them, as this epidemic is spreading throughout all the planets in the nebula, as revenge for the Killiks causing so much trouble during the Qoribu crisis. After the others leave Luke, Han, C-3PO, and R2-D2 on Woteba, the four of them encounter Alema Rar and the Dark Nest. Alema makes a deal with Luke: if the Galactic Alliance leaves the Dark Nest alone, they will not interfere with Luke and Han's efforts to combat the Fizz. Alema promises to seal the deal by unlocking a code in R2-D2's memory banks that will reveal more footage of Luke's parents' past each week. The footage she shows them reveals Anakin, promising his wife, Padmé Amidala, that he will prevent her death in childbirth while she is pregnant with Luke and Leia. Regardless, Luke and Han continue their journey to solve both the Fizz problem and the Dark Nest problem, going behind the Dark Nest's back.

Meanwhile, at the funeral of Sien Sovv, Cal Omas makes a statement about Sovv and his life, as part of Sullustan funeral customs. His statement suggests that Sovv's death was due to foul play. Sovv and his crew were killed when their ship collided with a smuggler ship because the crew of that ship was under the influence of black membrosia. Omas blames not only the Dark Nest for Sovv's death but the entire Killik race. He considers the New Jedi Order incompetent in solving the Killik problem and tells Kyp Durron and Kenth Hamner at the funeral that he will take matters into his own hands if the Jedi do not solve this problem soon.

Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker secretly arrive on Hapes in response to a call from Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo, interrupting a camping trip on Endor. Tenel Ka reveals to Jacen, and unintentionally Ben, their new baby daughter, whose birth Tenel Ka slowed using the Force. The baby is a week old but should have been a few months old based on the last time Jacen and Tenel Ka met. Tenel Ka explains that because the baby was born out of wedlock, which is forbidden in Hapan customs, revealing her existence to the rest of the kingdom is dangerous, especially if her paternity is discovered. The Dark Nest attacks Tenel Ka's palace, and Jacen and Tenel Ka learn from Ben, who still has a connection to the Gorog, that the Dark Nest wants to kill the baby. The Gorog's attempt fails when Jacen and Tenel Ka kill the assassins, and Tenel Ka deduces that her manipulative grandmother, Ta'a Chume, hired the Gorog to assassinate the baby.

Jacen interrogates Ta'a Chume by mentally torturing her with the Force to discover why she wanted her great-grandchild dead. She reveals that the Dark Nest came to Ta'a Chume seeking navigation technology for unknown reasons, as Ta'a Chume never asked them why they wanted it. She made a deal with them: if the Dark Nest assassinated Tenel Ka's daughter, they would receive the navigation technology. Ta'a Chume wanted the baby dead because, as heir to the Hapan throne, she threatened Ta'a Chume's future attempts to reclaim the position of Queen Mother. She also did not want the throne to be ruled by the child of two Jedi. In retaliation for trying to kill his daughter, Jacen puts Ta'a Chume into a coma. He then experiences an apocalyptic vision of an eternal war involving people, Chiss, and the Killiks.

Back on Woteba, Luke, Han, C-3PO, and R2-D2 track down five smugglers—one Neimoidian and four Aqualish—who are trading starship fuel to members of the Dark Nest for star amber. A fight breaks out between the two groups, and the smugglers and Dark Nest members are killed by the Fizz. Luke and Han deduce that the Fizz is a chemical that kills anything on Woteba that harms the planet. They tell this to UnuThul, who, in the Colony's gratitude, gives them a spinglass replica of Luke's X-wing that he flew to destroy the first Death Star in the Battle of Yavin, and a spinglass replica of Han's Millennium Falcon. However, Alema returns and convinces UnuThul to imprison Luke and Han long enough to become Joiners. During their imprisonment, they unlock another holofeed from R2-D2's memory banks that shows Anakin, now as Darth Vader, hunting down Jedi children at the old Jedi Temple during Order 66. This unsettles Luke and makes him meditate to calm his feelings about his father's horrendous actions. Han decides to formulate a plan for him, Luke, C-3PO, and R2-D2 to escape with the help of Jae Juun and Tarfang, who are running the spinglass replicas for the Killiks, which they have delivered to the Fifth Fleet. Han shatters his Falcon replica, revealing Gorog assassins in disguise. Luke and Han kill the assassins, and they realize that Juun and Tarfang have delivered something that can destroy the Galactic Alliance.

At the New Jedi Temple on Ossus, Cilghal discovers from the sample of Fizz that Leia and Saba brought back that the Fizz was part of a biological terraforming system that destroys anything that does not align with the ecosystem of Woteba. This applies to all other planets in the Utegetu Nebula because the blast that formed the nebula ingrained the biological agents of the Fizz into the planets, which is why they did not have any animals when Han, Leia, Alema Rar, Jae Juun, Tarfang, C-3PO, R2-D2, Cakhmaim, and Meewalh first found the nebula. Leia and Saba depart via the Millennium Falcon, with Mara in her StealthX X-wing starfighter, back to Woteba to extract Luke, Han, C-3PO, and R2-D2 and tell the Killiks about the Fizz. However, the Galactic Alliance has set up a blockade run by Admiral Nek Bwua'tu on Cal Omas's orders, who has decided to take matters into his own hands. When Leia and Saba try to penetrate the blockade with Mara, they are captured and held prisoner by Bwua'tu's forces, though Mara manages to evade capture.

When Omas decided to take action against the Killiks by setting up the blockade, he also took advantage of the New Jedi Order's apparent lack of leadership in Luke's absence on Woteba by having Corran Horn become temporary leader of the Order. Omas knows that Corran will act as his temporary puppet in controlling the ruling faction of the New Jedi Order, while Kyp Durron decides to take action against this government-Jedi alliance, as he did during the Yuuzhan Vong War, to save Luke, Han, Leia, Mara, and Saba. This causes a rift in the New Jedi Order, and Jacen decides to take advantage of this distraction to gather his peers who worked alongside the Killiks at Qoribu to make a preemptive strike against the Chiss to halt the coming eternal war that he has seen. They then make a raid on a storage facility with no Chiss casualties, but Jaina disapproves of her brother's actions for intentionally starting the conflict when they could have done it with stealth (considering that they were flying in StealthXs). After the mission, Jaina vows to Jacen that she will never fly with him again.

On Woteba, Luke, Han, C-3PO, and R2-D2 escape the planet, thanks to Juun and Tarfang, and travel to an unnamed world in the Tusken's Eye after a brief battle against pirate forces working for the Dark Nest. The group then boards a nest ship for one of the Killik nests, which travels into hyperspace towards the Murgo Choke, where the Alliance blockade is set up to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the Utegetu Nebula. This begins the Battle of the Murgo Choke.

Aboard the Admiral Ackbar, Bwua'tu's battleship where Leia and Saba are imprisoned, the two Jedi escape but fail to convince Bwua'tu to call off the blockade. When the Dark Nest attacks using the spinglass busts given to them by Juun and Tarfang, Leia convinces Bwua'tu to work with her to survive. Leia, Saba, and Bwua'tu, along with the surviving crew members of the Admiral Ackbar, decide that it would be best to abandon ship to the enemy due to the Dark Nest's internal attack. Before abandoning ship, Leia and Alema engage in a lightsaber duel, a rematch from their last encounter on Woteba in the previous novel. Leia severs one of Alema's lekku, winning the duel, but Alema escapes.

Aboard the Gorog nest ship where Luke, Han, C-3PO, R2-D2, Juun, and Tarfang are traveling to the Murgo Choke, they travel along its length so that Mara, in her StealthX, can blow the hyperspace generator for the nest ship and Luke can kill Lomi Plo. When Luke duels Lomi Plo, it turns out that she is invisible, the unseen queen of the Dark Nest, because she uses the doubts of others to remain invisible through the dark side of the Force. The doubt that Plo uses against Luke is the doubt stemming from UnuThul's story that Mara was indirectly responsible for the Dark Nest's existence by sparing Dexar Ies's family. Although Mara successfully destroys the Dark Nest ship's hyperspace generator, Lomi Plo escapes, and Luke, Han, C-3PO, R2-D2, Juun, Tarfang, and Mara retreat to the Mon Mothma, Admiral Bwua'tu's new flagship since the Killiks took the Admiral Ackbar. Luke narrowly survives a decompression death from his leaking spacesuit resulting from his fight with Plo. The characters aboard the Mon Mothma are saddened by the events of the Battle of the Murgo Choke, as well as the Jedi Knights' Chiss raid.

As a result of these events, the Swarm War begins.