Then he turned to glare at his wife.

She gave him a look that was all innocence. "What?"

"Don't you have to clear things like this through the Temple before you rush off?"

"Theoretically, yes. But not this time. It's better to help a friend and take your punishment than be refused permission and not be able to help."

"All right, how about this: Kessel? Kessel?"

"Innocent beings live on Kessel. Even the energy spiders don't deserve to die just because they spooked you."

"Nothing spooks me."

"Then you won't mind going back."

"I do mind. Did you forget about Allana?"

From the way Leia froze, it was clear that she had had forgotten Allana, perhaps only because Leia was sleep-fogged. Allana-known to everyone but Han and Leia as Amelia and never referred to by her real name except in the utmost privacy-was the daughter of Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka, conceived before Jacen's recent efforts to gain mastery over the galaxy. She was Han and Leia's granddaughter, raised for her first five years by Tenel Ka, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium. At the end of the war between the Alliance and the Confederation, Tenel Ka falsely announced Allana's death to protect her from those who might kill her to gain the Hapan throne. Tenel Ka had sorrowfully given the care of her daughter to Han and Leia. The girl, now seven, lived these days under the guise of Amelia, adopted daughter of the Solos. forgotten Allana, perhaps only because Leia was sleep-fogged. Allana-known to everyone but Han and Leia as Amelia and never referred to by her real name except in the utmost privacy-was the daughter of Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka, conceived before Jacen's recent efforts to gain mastery over the galaxy. She was Han and Leia's granddaughter, raised for her first five years by Tenel Ka, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium. At the end of the war between the Alliance and the Confederation, Tenel Ka falsely announced Allana's death to protect her from those who might kill her to gain the Hapan throne. Tenel Ka had sorrowfully given the care of her daughter to Han and Leia. The girl, now seven, lived these days under the guise of Amelia, adopted daughter of the Solos.

If Han and Leia raced off to Kessel, they'd have to take her along or leave her behind with near strangers. Allana's aunt Jaina was no stranger, but her life as a Jedi was an active and dangerous one. Luke and Ben were gone. There was no one else left whom they could entrust with Allana.

"We take her with us." Leia's voice was decisive.

"Don't get mad at me to cover up the fact that you forgot." Han pointed an accusing finger at her. "We agreed to settle down-as much as possible-for her sake. We agreed that we couldn't drag a little girl around the galaxy as we stupidly try to fix other stupid people's stupid problems."

"That's just it." There was a note of desperation in Leia's voice. "We weren't able to do anything anything for Luke. We can't do anything to stop the bureaucratic catastrophe that's descending on the Jedi Order right now. But we might be able to help a friend." for Luke. We can't do anything to stop the bureaucratic catastrophe that's descending on the Jedi Order right now. But we might be able to help a friend."

Han considered. When she put it like that ... he'd never regretted marrying a woman who could out-argue him on just about every issue, but he was often inconvenienced by it. "Of course, if we just take off this morning without telling anyone where, you won't get a.s.signed your own government spy."

"Observer. And you're right. We wouldn't be accompanied by a nosy intruder who inconveniences you as much as me."

"And Allana wouldn't have to put up with a stranger."

"Also correct."

"We already lose a lot of private time raising a little girl. Add a government spy and we lose the rest."

Leia nodded, encouraging him to continue down that line of reasoning.

"And it could be put off even longer if the Falcon Falcon's hyperdrive were to fail somewhere out there-"

"It's happened before."

"Sabotage, always sabotage." He grinned at her. "You're going to be in such trouble with Kenth Hamner when you get back."

"That's what I keep you around for. To drag me into trouble."

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say." Han leaned forward for a kiss.

"Master Han, your caf. Master Han? Mistress Leia? Oh, dear."

RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT NEAR THE JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT.

"How did you manage to get free of your Head of State duties? And bodyguards?" Jaina asked.

Jag leaned against the door frame where they'd just arrived. This was one hallway of a residential high-rise; the pa.s.sageway, its walls decorated with brown rhombuses against a tan background, spoke of a decorative style several years old, but was meticulously clean. Even now, a mouse droid affixed atop a circular cleaning attachment was gliding down the hallway, buffing dirt up out of the carpet and sending a faint, sweet smell of cleanser into the air.

"Most of what my delegation does is negotiate insanely minute points." Jag looked as though he found that prospect about as attractive as a bowlful of worms. "I let my advisers and advocates do that, and at the end of the day I veto every decision they've made. Thus is the balance of power between ruler and bureaucrat maintained. In the meantime, I get to spend my day with you you. And I tell my bodyguard that you're protecting me. That's where your ferocious Jedi reputation helps me."

Jaina shook her head. "The system is unimaginably broken." She pressed the b.u.t.ton beside the door. Beyond the door, a chime faintly sounded.

"But fun," Jag said.

The door slid open but no one stood there. There was only a short green hallway beyond, a door open and brightly illuminated at the far end. Jaina caught the scent of freshly cut gra.s.s, if her nose did not deceive her. She gave Jag a quizzical look and preceded him in. The door slid shut behind them.

The hallway opened into a large chamber that had probably been intended as a living or family room. But where overhead glow rods would normally shine comfortably and placidly, there were brighter light fixtures, emitting, Jaina suspected, the exact frequencies of sunlight. Where comfortable, padded furniture should sit, instead rested weatherproof outdoor furnishings of light, foamed durasteel supports and colorful strapping-there were chairs, lounges, even a patio table with a large umbrella overhead. One picture viewport, as tall as an adult human and twice as long, admitted light and a view of buildings fifty meters away, stretching upward and downward as far as the eye could see from Jaina's position; streams of airspeeder traffic at just the alt.i.tude of this apartment added a dash of fast-moving color.

Tahiri Veila, former Jedi, former Sith apprentice, stood up from a piece of lounging furniture as they entered. Blond and attractive, she wore a simple, tight-fitting jumpsuit in gray. She was, as usual, barefoot. Her lightsaber was not at hand but lay nearby, on the patio table. Her expression was just a touch uncertain. The scars on her forehead, earned during the Yuuzhan Vong War, were not visible; Jaina doubted that they could have faded in just the few months since she had last seen Tahiri, so they were probably concealed by makeup.

Tahiri nodded to them. "Jedi Solo, Colonel-I mean, Head of State Fel."

Jag spoke, his manner brusque: "Tahiri."

"Please, sit down. Can I get you anything? Caf, water-"

"No, thank you." Jaina took one of the lightweight chairs and sat facing Tahiri; Jag did likewise. Tahiri settled again on her lounger.

Jaina gestured at the gra.s.s. "Please tell me that your refresher doesn't have a dirt floor."

That broke through Tahiri's discomfort and she grinned. "No, perfectly normal tile." She looked over her living green carpet. "I've always preferred being barefoot to wearing shoes ... but most places just aren't that comfortable. Overheated permacrete, carpets where they glare at you for tracking in dirt ... Now that I have some credits to spend, I decided I wanted a home where I could be comfortable. And this is much nicer than Tatooine desert sand."

"Now that you have credits and aren't living by anyone else's rules," Jaina amended.

"That's right."

Jag leaned forward. "We're here to ask you a few questions about Jacen Solo."

Tahiri's uncertain look returned. "You really don't need to say Jacen Solo Solo. When his sister comes to talk to his former apprentice and Jacen is mentioned, I'm not going to suppose you mean some Jacen who waits tables."

"Of course." Jag gave Jaina a pained look. "In informal circ.u.mstances, I really am redundant and stuffy, aren't I?"

Jaina nodded. "Yes, but you're pretty." She returned her attention to Tahiri. "You've heard about the Grand Master and his sentence."

Tahiri nodded. "I heard about his farewell. I thought about going, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't be welcome."

"Not by everyone ... We're trying to get a better handle on Jacen's thought processes. What made him turn. When When he turned. It's all part of an effort to help the Grand Master-to help Uncle Luke-make his case for his return to Coruscant." he turned. It's all part of an effort to help the Grand Master-to help Uncle Luke-make his case for his return to Coruscant."

"People have been trying to understand Jacen for two years." Tahiri shrugged as if the task were hopeless. "No, people have been trying to understand him since we were apprentices. Since you two and Anakin were children together. They've been coming to me since he died. Jedi and government investigators and doctors and the press."

Jaina gave her a sympathetic look. "Any friends among them?"

Tahiri hesitated, then shook her head. "I'm not sure I have any friends. Not that I blame anyone for that. Anyone but Jacen and myself."

Jaina resisted the urge to join in with Tahiri's critics and give the younger woman a verbal beating. It wouldn't help in this situation. "You're not likely to make any, either, as a bounty hunter. You need to come back to the Order, Tahiri."

"Not until I know who I am. What What I am." Tahiri smoothed an errant strand of blond hair back from her cheek. "I've been more things than I can count. Tatooine girl, adopted Tusken Raider, Jedi, Yuuzhan Vong hybrid, Sith apprentice, addict ... I've got to get rid of all of them for a while. Learn how to hear myself think." I am." Tahiri smoothed an errant strand of blond hair back from her cheek. "I've been more things than I can count. Tatooine girl, adopted Tusken Raider, Jedi, Yuuzhan Vong hybrid, Sith apprentice, addict ... I've got to get rid of all of them for a while. Learn how to hear myself think."

Jag nodded. "So think about Jacen. What have you figured out about him that you haven't told anyone? Details too subtle or seemingly inconsequential, information that n.o.body ever asked about."

"I can't tell you when he became a Sith." Tahiri's expression became unfocused. "Only that it might not be important when he did, or even that that he did. I think Sith was just another thing, another set of armor and weapons and disguises, that he put on top of Jacen. Like 'Jedi,' or 'Solo.' He was always Jacen ... until he rejected that, too, and became Caedus." he did. I think Sith was just another thing, another set of armor and weapons and disguises, that he put on top of Jacen. Like 'Jedi,' or 'Solo.' He was always Jacen ... until he rejected that, too, and became Caedus."

Jaina shook her head, not comprehending. "You're saying that it didn't matter matter when he became a Sith?" when he became a Sith?"

"Something like that." Tahiri snapped back to the here and now. "I think it matters more when Jacen broke broke. Maybe he broke when Vergere tortured him for all that time. Maybe he broke when he was a kid, when he and you and Anakin kept being handed off to nannies and protectors while your mother and father were off doing other things." Tahiri raised a hand to forestall a biting response from Jaina. "I'm not criticizing. They were being pulled in too many directions at once, by too many responsibilities, and when that happens, something gives." She frowned, trying to puzzle something out. "I think maybe he broke at some other time, whenever it was he decided that the galaxy was a huge, nasty place that had to be tamed. Whatever gave him that idea, it made such an awful impression that he had to become even more awful to confront it."

Jag looked dubious. "You don't think Lumiya broke him."

"I think she shaped shaped him." Now Tahiri looked vulnerable, far more open than when Jaina and Jag had first entered her presence. "I've been broken. I was broken by the Yuuzhan Vong. I broke when Anakin died. And again when I learned that I could be with him again, in little moments. Every time you break, outside forces can shape you, and you can't do anything to stop them. No, I don't think it matters when Jacen became a Sith. I think it matters when he broke." him." Now Tahiri looked vulnerable, far more open than when Jaina and Jag had first entered her presence. "I've been broken. I was broken by the Yuuzhan Vong. I broke when Anakin died. And again when I learned that I could be with him again, in little moments. Every time you break, outside forces can shape you, and you can't do anything to stop them. No, I don't think it matters when Jacen became a Sith. I think it matters when he broke."

Jaina and Jag exchanged a glance. Jaina said, "That's an interesting theory."

Tahiri managed a bitter little laugh. "Solo-speak for That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"No, I'm serious. I'll pa.s.s it on to the Grand Master. Right or wrong, it suggests some avenues of investigation we haven't considered."

"Oh." Mollified, Tahiri relaxed. "Thank you."

As they were departing, Jaina, seized by a sudden impulse, embraced Tahiri, something she had not done in years, and Tahiri held her in turn.

On the walk to the turbolift, Jag said, "I'm afraid I can't find a way to forgive her so readily. She a.s.sa.s.sinated a man I respected very highly."

Jaina nodded. "I had a lot of respect for Admiral Pellaeon, too. But who really killed him? The woman we just talked to, who's trying to find her way back from a very dark place, or the woman of two years ago?"

"One descends from the other. They're inextricably linked." Stopping before the turbolift, Jag pressed the b.u.t.ton to summon the car. "Does someone shed all responsibility for what she's done when she suddenly decides it was wrong?"

"Neither one of us has ever been broken the way she has." Jaina found her voice was unusually gentle. "Maybe we're too hardheaded, or too stupid, or we've just never run into anything that could damage our core selves the way it happened to her. How do you know what we'd be capable of doing in her situation?"

Jag thought about it and merely shrugged. "The Jedi have more faith in redemption than I do. I'm not saying my way is best. Just that I'm not sure I could do what you do. Forgive something that monstrous."

"I hope I never make a really big mistake in your presence, then."

JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT.

AS A SENIOR J JEDI K KNIGHT-ONE WHO, IT WAS SAID IT WAS SAID, WAS UNDER CONSIDERATION WAS UNDER CONSIDERATION for the rank of Master-Jaina warranted private quarters when staying in the Temple. They were small and bare, but offered her more peace than the dormitories reserved for younger Jedi Knights and apprentices. for the rank of Master-Jaina warranted private quarters when staying in the Temple. They were small and bare, but offered her more peace than the dormitories reserved for younger Jedi Knights and apprentices.

At her desk, she studied preliminary information a.s.sembled on her behalf about the Chief of State's bounty hunters.

The Quarren was almost certainly Dhidal Nyz, an inventor specializing in imprisonment and capture technologies. He had made some of his fortune capturing high-value fugitives, some from patents and military contracts.

The dark-haired woman had given her name as Zilaash Kul to both Luke and the press. There was no mention of her in Jedi files, and she had no criminal record. Holos that showed her lightsaber had been magnified and strenuously a.n.a.lyzed, only to reveal that its hilt seemed to have been modeled on that of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi's last lightsaber, the one the legendary Jedi had carried aboard the Death Star Death Star on his final mission-a weapon reasonably thought to have been lost when that asteroid-sized s.p.a.cecraft had been destroyed. on his final mission-a weapon reasonably thought to have been lost when that asteroid-sized s.p.a.cecraft had been destroyed.

The Skakoan was a known quant.i.ty. Hrym Mawaar was a bounty hunter with decades of experience, known for returning to his home system and spending years as an elected member of law enforcement between bouts as a bounty hunter.

The YVH droid, fourth on Jaina's list, was the one who caused her the most concern. It was not a droid at all. Vrannin Vaxx, a human mercenary from Dorvalla, had distinguished himself during the Yuuzhan Vong War but had been horribly burned and maimed during a personnel shuttle crash late in the war. He chose not to replace with prosthetics the two-thirds of his body that had been irreparably destroyed. Instead, his family, a wealthy mining clan, had somehow acquired a black-market YVH 1 droid and had it repurposed as a cybernetic body for Vaxx. All that remained of his human self was packed into the droid torso.

Only because there wasn't as much room within Vaxx's carapace as there was in genuine YVH droids was he less formidably armed than a true Hunter droid, and he more than made up for it with human experience and ingenuity. Jaina had received a report that he had survived Leia's laser attack on him and was already repaired and back on duty.

Jaina brought up the file of the next bounty hunter, the Rodian sniper, but her door chimed. Absently, she said, "Come."

The door hissed open and her brother Anakin, dead these sixteen years, walked in.

Jaina froze, a chill running down her spine. This wasn't Anakin as she remembered him, sixteen and dressed in Jedi garments. He was older, fully adult, and taller, perhaps even a centimeter taller than Jacen had been. He wore street clothes in black and crimson and had a professional-quality holorecorder on a strap around his neck.

He also wore Anakin's smile as he advanced on her, hand outstretched. "Jedi Solo."

"Uh." She stood and automatically took his hand. When their palms came together she realized, with distracted embarra.s.sment, that hers was sweating.

"You probably don't remember me. It's been more than fifteen years." He absently wiped his palm on his tunic. "My name is Dab Hantaq."

"Dab Hantaq." Some familiar element in the name kick-started Jaina's brain. "I know that name."

"During the war, the Yuuzhan Vong War I mean, I was kidnapped by Senator Viqi Shesh-"

Jaina sagged just a little in relief, the mystery solved. "-and you were used in her plot to try to kidnap my cousin Ben."

"That's right. You might remember me better as Tarc, the name she gave me."

"Right, right, little Tarc." Jaina sat and made an effort to rea.s.semble her shattered Jedi calm. "Have a seat."

Dab glanced around. There was no other chair. He smiled again. "I'll stand, thanks."

"What can I-what are you-"

"I've been a.s.signed to you." From his belt, he unclipped a small identification folder and opened it. On the left side was the circular shield of an Alliance marshal. On the right was an identicard with a holo of his face, name, and vital statistics. "I'm really a doc.u.mentarian, but also a licensed investigator because that helps, and there was just a mad hiring scramble for people with certain skill sets and any experience with the Jedi-"

"You're my observer observer?"

He nodded and reattached the ident.i.ty folder to his belt. "The whole Alliance marshal thing is a matter of convenience, really. They gave it to me so I could bully my way through all sorts of obstacles when following you around. I'm really more about capturing the moment-"

"This will never work. Never, never."

He gave her a look of sympathy. "Because of my resemblance to your brother. I knew when your name came up for me in the random rotation that it was going to create trouble. Since it's going to cause you distress, I'll have myself put back in the pool."

"Yes. I mean, no. I didn't mean it would cause me distress." She clamped down on herself, uneasily aware that it had already caused her much more distress than she would ever admit. "I meant, this whole observer thing will never work. In general."