Sera and Kallista waited at the docking port as Tess Daro and Varun Numarkos approached on one of the station's automated repulsor trams.

"Captain Daro, how wonderful it is to see you!" Kallista said with a little bow as the two officers stepped from the car.

"Hello, Kallista. How are you?"

"I'm very well, thank you, Captain, quite enjoying my new crew and vessel."

"Good afternoon, Kallista," Numarkos greeted her with a broad smile.

"Varun-nagrasha, I hope you've been well. I spoke to your aunt just the other day. She's doing quite well, although between you, me, and the charging socket, I think she still works much too hard."

"That sounds very much like aunt Dee-nagrasha," Varun laughed.

"It's my honor to introduce you to my mistress, Sera Rendix, captain of Allegra's Heart, and co-founder of Rixon Charter Service." She turned to Sera. "Captain Rendix, please allow me to introduce Captain Varun Numarkos. He served in Sector Force Seven-Six-Seven before joining the analysis branch of New Republic Fleet Intelligence. Captain Numarkos is the liaison officer to the DSF Intelligence Division."

Sera shook both of their hands. "I don't think I had the pleasure of serving with you, Captain Numarkos. Welcome to Allegra's Heart, both of you."

"Thank you Captain Rendix," Varun answered, "and, no, I came aboard after Razorclaw's ground units had joined the New Republic on Jakku."

"Captain Rendix, I'm Tess Daro. Remember me?"

"How could I forget the assault shuttle pilot who flew my Ballista team from one end of the quadrant to the other?" She smiled and extended her hand.

Tess returned the smile. "Javelin Squad leader, right?"

"In another life, but yes, that was me, Captain."

"Call me Tess."

"Sera."

Tess looked out the window at their ship. "Corellian YV Nine Twenty-nine, isn't she? Looks like you've modded her, too."

"Inside and out, although I can't take any of the credit," Sera said, then added, "Good eye, Tess."

"Used to see these in the Rim when I was a kid on my parent's salvage rig." She got a faraway, melancholy look in her eye.

Sera smiled. She knew how much it meant that Tess might actually get to see her parents. Sera could remember almost nothing about hers beyond scraps of memories, almost dreams. She remembered what they'd done with her, though. Occasionally her loathing for them receded by a degree, and she thought it might be interesting to see them, just long enough to understand why they'd sold her to the vicious Amberdyre syndicate. "Let's see if we can get them back for you."

Tess smiled. "Well, Sera, permission to come aboard?"

"Of course," she answered, ushering them through the docking ring. "Yuzu here will take your bags to your cabin."

"Welcome aboard Allegra's Heart, Captain Daro-nagrasha, Captain Numarkos-nagrasha," Yuzu greeted them in his most gladsome tone. "I hope you'll have a pleasant stay on board. If there's anything I can do for either of you, please do let me know."

"Is he a Filvian droid?" Varun asked, watching Yuzu unload their luggage.

Sera's mouth twitched. "No, but he likes to think he is. Reiko-iksha swears she didn't teach him any of the honorifics." That drew another chuckle from Numarkos. As they walked aboard, she casually mentioned, "Doc said to expect one passenger."

"Last minute decision," Varun answered. "Fleet thinks it's worth sending someone to take a look. And Tessa…"

"They don't think I can be objective under the circumstances." She had a sour look, but didn't seem displeased about having Varun along.

"That won't be a problem, will it?"

Sera's smile didn't lose a bit of its luster. "Not at all, Captain." Not for anyone except Doc, maybe. If this mining facility, or whatever it was, was as important as Nanvarr seemed to think, she'd need all her people in top form. She hoped the months they'd put behind them since Jakku was enough to take most of the sting out of Taz's and Tess's breakup. But she'd been in the trenches long enough to know that hearts were fragile things, even the hearts of strong people like Doc. She made a note to keep an eye on him, at least for the first couple of days.

"Call me Varun. I expect on a ship this size we're all going to get to know each other pretty well. Tessa tells me the flight's going to take more than a week."

"Probably close to two says our pilot." They arrived at the lift. "Kalli will take you to your cabin, unless you'd like separate ones."

"No," said Tess with a little smile. "One cabin is good."

"Great. Listen, when you've settled in, come to the salon and I'll introduce you to everyone."

----------------------------------------

The crew of Allegra's Heart and their guests sat around the big table in the passenger salon. It reminded Tess of booth seating in the canteen at Arclight, where she and the other student pilots would gather after a training evolution or the latest of their never-ending exams. They'd slide along the smooth pleather until every one in her training squadron had crammed into the booth so tightly they could hardly move.

While the reverie unwound in her mind, she looked around. In addition to the salon's big forward viewports, Reiko had installed ambient display panels in the lounge's domed front end. The effect appeared as if they were looking out into the broad panorama of space. On the screens, Juraxis Alpha receded past the port side of the ship.

Over the intercom, Lyra announced, "Transit to lightspeed in three, two, one, mark." There was an almost imperceptible stutter in the ship's motion as the starfield became a mass of blurred lines that resolved into the familiar, sometimes disorienting blue and white formless void of hyperspace. The displays dimmed along with the viewports.

"I love what you've done with your ship Sera, Reiko. It's really marvelous."

"Thanks, Tess," Rei said, leaning against Sera and looking inordinately pleased with herself.

"Just how much did you modify this ship?" Varun asked.

Reiko piped up. "Well, probably half of the major systems. The dorsal and ventral defense turrets are custom, repulsors, one of the ion drives, hyperdrive, main reactor, all of the power converters, medical bay —"

"And the galley," Taz added, sharing a grin with Reiko, who sat beside him at one end of the booth bench. Kallista brought a tray of khaff, milk, and mugs, then left and returned with sandwiches.

Lyra entered the salon carrying her datapad and sat across from Taz at the other end of the wraparound bench. Kallista poured her a glass of blue milk while she picked out a sandwich from the stack and began eating. After a couple of bites, she pulled a thin data cable from her pad and plugged into the holoprojector on the table. A navigational map hovered in the air.

"We're here, at Womrik, headed for Leritor." One of the stars blinked a bright yellow. The map shifted as she spoke. "We'll catch the Manda Merchant route rimward to hook up with the Triellus Trade Route." She took another bite of her sandwich and chased it down with a drink of milk.

"It's a straight shot up the Triellus as far as Handooine, then we cut over to Mon Cala, then —"

"Prousley's Rim Run out past Lothal to Baros," Tess finished. "Nice plot."

Lyra nodded. "Thanks, Captain Daro."

"Call me Tess," she responded and put out her hand.

"Lyra. Lyra Nimor." The two pilots exchanged handshakes. The hologram frazzled where their arms passed through it.

"That's a lot of jumps," Reiko said, interlacing her fingers with Sera's.

"That's the easy part. We've lined up a couple of cargo drops along the way, but that should only take a few days, as long as we don't run into pirates or marauders. Baros is the end of the Prousley's, so we'll head galactic east from there and start plotting by nav sensors."

"If there is an Imperial installation out there then maybe they've placed some jump beacons we can follow," Tess suggested.

"Maybe. We have Imperial military sensors and comms, plus tactical and nav suites, so we might be able to pick up encrypted beacons if we get close enough. If not, we'll be feeling our way and it'll take forever," Nimor finished, looking sour at the thought.

Varun looked surprised. "Where'd you get all the Imperial tech?"

Reiko's mouth twitched into a mischievous smile. "A damaged VT Forty-nine Decimator we found on Jakku. Isn't it great?"

"It's convenient, at the very least," he acceded. "And the name? Who's Rixon?"

"We all are," Reiko answered, pointing to each of the women, "Rendix, Nimor —" She tapped her chest — "and Hudson. Mix and match the letters, and you get Rixon."

"And you, Oktos-grasha?"

Taz waved his hand and leaned back. "They're the owners. I'm just the help."

"Well," Sera said, "It sounds like we're going to be spending plenty of time together. Let's try to make the best of it."

----------------------------------------

Taz found as many excuses as he could to spend time in engineering or the medbay. He wasn't trying to avoid Tess and Varun especially, but he'd convinced himself that the less he saw of them, the less likely he was to commit some error, say something inappropriate, or reach for her out of instinct or need.

It turned out that force-fitting major subsystems from an Imperial assault transport onto a civilian freighter meant a near-constant stream of maintenance and adjustments. Allegra's environmental control software didn't talk to the VT-49's power converter circuits very well. The one ion drive they'd taken from the Decimator had a different power curve than the CEC unit it was matched with. Ditto for the repulsors, half of which were stock, the other half from the Kuat Systems' vessel. They both caused him no end of problems when he was trying to steer the ship. The military-grade communications and sensors worked well enough, but the clusters needed frequent realignment. So in practice, Taz hardly needed to worry about finding things to keep him busy; Allegra threw new distractions at him every day.

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Sera, Taz, and the droids had spent most of the day making their first cargo drop in the Teth system, a major port along the Triellus. What was supposed to take a couple of hours dragged on much too long, thanks to a port workers' strike that the local Hutts had whipped up. The Empire had ruled Teth until about a year ago, and while the civil government still functioned, it was rapidly losing ground to the resurgent criminal underground run by the giant slug clans.

After calling their broker to apply pressure and making some carefully directed 'civil donations' to the appropriate Hutt lackey dockmaster, they finally offloaded their cargo of cryofluid and machine parts, and picked up the promised seventy metric tons of ramakorm maize. It was late in the evening before Taz and Yuzu finished securing the load in the holds.

Rubbing a throbbing headache from his temples, Taz grabbed a cold supper from the galley cooler and headed up to the medbay. He swallowed a couple of analgesics, then sat at the small desk with his nerfburger. He looked up some maintenance data for the ambient temperature regulator, which had been running a little hot, but after a few sentences he decided he wasn't really interested in reading technical manuals.

He switched to Master Jorun's journal. Taz pored over the diary entries, searching for references to the mental skills that Nanvarr had tried to teach him — sensing the feelings of others, persuading them to take actions favorable to him, and even probing someone's mind for knowledge they might not want to share. Taz considered the immense potential for abusing those abilities, and indeed, Nanvarr had said much the same. But there might come a time when he would need information that might not be freely given.

After an hour he sat back and rubbed his eyes. Perusing volumes of old handwriting hadn't been the best idea after a long day. Taz thought a quick shower before his overnight watch might do him some good. He slid the stool back when Numarkos stuck his head through the door.

"So this is where you've been hiding out, Oktos-grasha." He flashed a smile that didn't extend to his eyes. "Do you have a few minutes?"

Taz switched off the screen. "It's a little late, Numarkos-grasha."

"It won't take long. You can call me Varun, by the way. We were both Razorclaws. No need to be so formal."

Taz shrugged. "What is it, Numarkos-grasha?" The corner of Varun's mouth twitched. Whether he was amused or annoyed Taz couldn't say. He didn't much care, either.

"You're probably wondering why I'm accompanying you. It's not like Tessa needs an escort."

Why are you calling her Tessa? She hates that name. "No. She can take care of herself."

"That she can," Varun agreed, smiling. When Taz didn't respond, he spread his hands. "Hey, I'm trying to make an effort here, Oktos. I know what happened with Tessa and me wasn't easy for you."

You don't know. Anything. Taz wondered, for just a second, how it would feel to smash the smug intelligence officer's head against the door jamb. Repeatedly. Probably just great, until Tess found out. "What happened with me and Tess is between us. Tell me why you're here. That's what you came to do, isn't it?"

"Sure, okay. We've had intel for years indicating that the Empire's scouring the galaxy for sources of high-grade kyber crystals. Both of the Death Stars used them and there were plans for other superlaser platforms. A lot of them. There are rumors of hidden shipyards out in the Rim, and even beyond. So when I saw that those log entries referenced kyberite, well, it's easy enough to put two and two together."

"You think that's what the Fonidian operation is for? Building superlasers?"

"That, and maybe some other things. That's what I'm going to find out."

"What other things?"

"Portable weapons, maybe. Even as small as a blaster, or a lightsaber." He aimed a pointed stare at the former medtech.

"How do you —" Taz started. But of course he'd know. Tess would have told him, even though he'd asked her to keep his secret.

Varun cracked another annoying smile. "It wasn't Tessa," he said, guessing Taz's thoughts. "She confirmed it when I asked, but you let out your own secret when you used the Force to heal those troops on Jakku. We Filvians are a chatty bunch. Word gets around, even if it's just rumors." He paused to see if Taz would respond. "In any case, the New Republic is taking a keen interest in Force-adepts like you."

"What would they want with me? I can barely use it."

"That's not what the troops said," he answered with a wave of his hand. "With the right training, you'd be an exceptional asset."

"Asset? For what?"

"Intelligence gathering, tactical operations, any of a hundred other things."

"I'm not joining New Republic Intelligence, or any other branch."

"No need to join, Oktos-grasha, you can be a contractor. Might actually work better that way."

Taz shook his head. By contractor, he meant mercenary. "Not happening. I did my part for the Rebellion and the New Republic."

"Look, Oktos, I get it, but you're needed out there. The New Republic is just that — new. It's saddled with massive debts from the war, a reconstituted Senate that doesn't even have taxation authority figured out, and a thousand other problems. We beat the Empire; they signed a piece of paper that said so. But there are dozens, if not hundreds of self-styled Moffs and warlords out there now — fleet admirals and field marshals who think they're going to be the next one to sit on Sheev Palpatine's throne.

"Thousands of systems are still under Imperial domination for all practical purposes, because some task force commander has a dozen starships that he can use to enforce his will. To be frank, we don't have the ships to oppose them. Most of the planetary and sector forces were disbanded by the Empire. What's left is barely enough to run anti-piracy patrols. Taking on all those Imperial holdouts in a comprehensive way just isn't in the cards right now. Might not be for years, and by then it'll probably be too late for a lot of systems.

"We're trying to balance the scales. To do that, there are certain... initiatives we're spinning up, to throw out the Imperial trash. One of those involves training a cadre of your kind to act as force multipliers, so to speak."

Your kind? Taz didn't much care for the way Numarkos referred to Force users. "Not interested."

"Don't dismiss it out of hand. You'd get the best training, equipment, protection, you name it. And I hear the medical plan is top-tier."

Taz uttered an irritated sigh. The offer of training was attractive, but he could already see there'd be too many strings attached. And if Numarkos was telling the truth about the state of the New Republic, he had trouble believing they'd be able to make good on any of it. "I told you, I'm done. I'm not joining any cadre, officially or otherwise."

"You might not have the luxury of making that choice, Oktos-grasha."

"What is that, some kind of threat?" The hairs on the back of his neck stiffened.

"I'm just saying that things are far from settled in this galaxy. There might come a time, maybe sooner than you think, when you have to choose a side. And, well, if you're not with us, it's going to be hard for some to believe that you aren't against us."

"It must be nice seeing everything as a binary choice," Taz nearly snapped.

"I don't, actually. Pretty much everything in the world of intelligence is some shade of gray. But if it's New Republic versus a resurgent Empire, or another power — Hutts, Black Sun, Corporate Sector Authority, or some cartel we haven't even heard of yet — well, I know who I'm siding with."

"Me too," Taz said, getting to his feet.

Varun stepped aside to let him pass. "Yeah? Who's that?"

He stared down the intel officer. "The innocent people of the galaxy who get caught in the middle and end up paying the price." He closed the medbay door. "I'm late for my watch. Excuse me."

Taz stalked away, feeling angry and oppressed. He'd kept his meager Force talents secret because the Empire would likely have hunted him down if they'd learned about him. Now the New Republic wanted to turn him and those like him into their assets. As far as Taz could tell, that was just replacing one kind of tyranny with another.

He hurried into the cockpit. "Sorry Lyra, I got —" He drew up short and started. Tess was sitting in the copilot's seat. She and Lyra looked at him. He cleared his throat. "I'm here to relieve you."

"You're late, Oktos."

"Yeah. Got held up. Sorry."

She made a skeptical noise in her throat. "Sure." She pushed the seat back and stood. "The conn's yours until oh-six-hundred. Remember, nav checks every two hours." She slipped past Taz in the narrow cockpit, then looked at Tess. "You staying a while?"

"Maybe for a while," Tess agreed, curling a lock of dark hair around her finger.

"Well make sure he doesn't blow us up or fly us into a sun or something." She didn't look like she was joking. "'Night."

Taz scowled after her. He was as capable of monitoring the ship's systems and their plot through hyperspace as anyone else, he just lacked experience. Taz didn't normally take the pilot's station for his watches; that was Lyra's chair. But asking Tess to move would have been rude. He dropped onto the still-warm leather and adjusted the seat and the control column. He made a mental note to reset them, lest he endure another tirade about messing with her station.

Taz checked the controls and ran a quick sensor sweep. Tess watched him silently. He felt acutely uncomfortable. "You two getting to know each other?"

"Just passing time. Swapping stories, that kind of thing."

"She usually doesn't like passengers on the command deck."

"Fellow pilot. I think she's cutting me some slack." Tess said, smiling. "She seems to know what she's doing. Reiko and Sera put together a good crew."

"Mmm."

"How've you been? Adjusting to civilian life I suppose?"

"I suppose." Taz wished for something to do besides stare out into hyperspace. He also wished the hard knot in his stomach would go away.

"Hey, Taz," she opened quietly, "I know things didn't… end very well between us. I was hoping that maybe we could have the conversation we should have had on Jakku."

Taz's heart sank. Reliving that anguish was the last thing he wanted. He looked over at her, hoping the subdued cockpit lights hid his drawn face. "I'm not sure there's much more to say, Tess." He remembered Sera saying that Tess had looked as hurt as he had after their breakup. "Is there?"

She fidgeted with her hands. "When I realized what was happening with Varun and me, I was heartsick, because I knew what it would do to you. I never wanted to see you in pain, Taz, and I knew if I told you... Anyway, I was scared, and a coward. That's why I didn't write back. I'm really, really sorry about that. I just wanted you to know that it wasn't your fault and that I didn't mean to hurt you, even though I did."

He nodded tightly, dread stabbing under his ribs. He felt the anger creeping up again, and he pushed it away. "I know," he forced himself to utter, and wondered if she noticed the little tremor in his voice.

"I, ah… the 'gram you sent me. I really appreciated what you said. It couldn't have been easy to write."

"No," he agreed. They both stared at the instrument panels for a while.

"Have you… found anyone yet?" When he didn't respond she suggested, "Lyra seems nice."

"She's my crewmate."

"I was your crewmate."

"You were always… more than that to me." He didn't want the awful wash of feelings that came with those words.

"Still, I think if you did find someone… I just think someone like her would be good for you."

His frustration bubbled over. "Why, because she's a pilot like you? She barely tolerates me most of the time. Besides, why are you pushing her on me? Did she tell you she was Imperial?" He said it like an accusation. Tess recoiled, and he instantly regretted what he'd said.

"I'm not pushing her on you," she objected. "Does it matter if she's Imperial? She told me what happened on Jakku, and how you helped her. She showed me where you healed her arm. I don't think it mattered to you that she was on the other side, did it?"

"I'm a medic. It was my job," he answered, careful not to let himself lose control this time.

Tess softened her tone. "I don't think that's it at all, Taz. I think you healed Lyra, Sera, and all those others because you're a good man who wants to take care of other people. Everybody but yourself, it seems." She waited for him to respond, but he had nothing to say.

He could hardly deny it; Sera had told him almost the same thing a few months ago, after he'd lost her.

Tess let out a little nervous laugh. "You know, it's hard to believe what you did, even seeing it with my own eyes, and knowing how you healed yourself back on Narendri Prime."

Relax, you idiot, she's trying to be nice. He took the change of topic as a good sign. "My control is, well, terrible. What I did, I still can't really explain, and I don't know if I could do it again. The troops in our battalion wanted to make me into some kind of hero, like that Jedi who destroyed the first Death Star. I didn't want anything to do with that. To be honest, I kind of wish I'd never done it."

"Why? You saved people's lives. You saved Sera and Lyra."

"And bought myself some unwanted attention."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter." His chest felt tight, and he took a deep breath. "I don't mean to sound rude but I was planning to realign the medium-range sensor cluster. I'm going to be bouncing back and forth for the next few hours, so..."

Tess made a polite grin and got up. "Alright, Taz. I'll leave you to it. Talk to you tomorrow."

She'd nearly left the cockpit when he asked, "Why does he call you Tessa?"

Her chuckle was genuine and warm. "It's sort of a joke. When I was in rehab at Arclight medical, learning to use my voice again, I'd try saying my name, Tessalyn, but only 'Tessa' came out. Varun teased me because he knew I didn't like that name. It became a kind of goad, a way for him to encourage me when I was discouraged, or to cheer me up. I was depressed a lot back then." She paused for a moment. "Eventually I grew to like hearing him say it." She looked back and saw how uncomfortable he was. "Bet you regret asking."

"Is Numarkos… Is he taking care of you?"

In the dark cockpit, he couldn't see the brief smile that lit her face. "Yes. Yes he is."

Taz felt the knife twist under his ribs. "Good. Goodnight, Tess."

"Goodnight, Taz."

He got up as soon as he heard the lift heading down. He'd lied about the sensor alignment, but it actually seemed like a good idea. At least the work would keep him from thinking about Tess Daro, and how much he still ached for her.