Interstitials: Jaina

Though waiting around for the suspected infiltrator to leave their job was tedious, Jaina couldn't hate getting a few moments of downtime with Jacen and Mara. Between Mara's sickness, Jaina joining the Rogues and then the investigation, she hadn't had much of a chance to really spend time with her Aunt. It was a quiet relief to see her so much more healthy and practically glowing, animated and energetic as Jaina knew her to be, from the year or so that Mara had taken the young Jedi under her wing.

It hadn't been a very conventional apprenticeship and Mara was not a conventional Master, but they had clicked and clicked well.

Jacen seemed in a better mood than he'd been in, with less of his gloomy uncertainty and the angst that sometimes drove her up the wall. They talked about Centerpoint and he passed along her younger brother's decision there, along with Jacen's own suspicions about everything Anakin didn't say. He told her about that moment in the control room, with their little brother's hands on the controls, ready - and able - to wipe out Yuuzhan Vong on a scale that was almost unimaginable.

Jacen came out of that affair feeling like the will of the Force had been upheld.

Jaina…held her tongue about her friend Anni, about all empty seats in squadron ready rooms, about the bunks that get cleared out, about the gut-wrenching flashes in the dark that meant another capital ship, filled with brave sailors, just went up like a funeral pyre.

Instead, as they kept eyes on the catering place, Jaina focused instead on relating some of the lighter, funnier stories. Even on some of the deadliest fronts of the war, beings had ways to keep up their spirits.

She shared one of the best stories from just over a month ago. They all had a morning briefing - and when she said morning, Jaina leaned on the word and Mara smiled knowingly - and all the Rogues made sure to show up to the ready room before Colonel Darklighter. They all took their usual spots, flightsuits buttoned up and ready to go, professional as you like. They even left a nice, steaming mug of caf on the podium for the Colonel.

Colonel Darklighter greeted them all with his usual cheerful wave, holding a datapad in his off-hand. Everyone was rapt and at attention, backs straight and not a slump or slouch among them. The Colonel took the podium, glanced to the duty chart to his left, noticed the caf and smiled. He opened his mouth to kick off the briefing, just as he finally looked up.

And the Colonel blinked, ceramic mug halfway to his lips.

Jaina's Jedi training had her as innocent as the rest of them, fingers laced on the half-desk in front of her.

Slowly, Colonel Darklighter replaced his caf on the podium, looking to each Rogue in turn. Under his steady, searching gaze Jaina didn't flinch or blink.

"I'm beginning to understand why Wedge is going grey," the Colonel observed, mildly, finally reaching for his caf again. Then he went right into the morning's briefing, laying out CAP rotations and refreshing everyone on duty shifts. They started breaking as the briefing went on. Major Forge chewed on her bottom lip as her shoulders hitched every now and then. Kral Nevil kept taking long, calming breaths. Major Varth kept it together as well as Jaina did, steepling her fingers and nodding seriously along with the Colonel at times.

No one commented on the criss-crossed tracks of bare feet that ran up the walls of the ready room, across the white-painted ceiling and back down the other side again. No one mentioned how there were at least four different sized tracks, from three different species. No one observed that a bucket of graphite grease went missing from the hangar the previous afternoon.

Jacen tentatively asked if she'd used the Force. Jaina scoffed - who needed the Force when you could link arms, back to back, and then walk right up the wall?

At least, Jaina observed with a smirk, that was her theory.

Her aunt brought up stories about Uncle Luke, smirking as she recounted old classics about their early years together, back when Aunt Mara's main pastime was needling the Jedi Master. They were stories Jaina had heard a dozen times already, but she laughed like it was the first time hearing them, enjoying the moment of simple and normal family. Aunt Mara's love was a gentle glow in the Force, swelling even as she sarcastically mimicked Uncle Luke's voice.

Time passed at the tapcafe pleasantly and Jaina could almost pretend the galaxy was at peace, up until the Yuuzhan Vong infiltrator strode out of the building opposite. He looked for all the world like any other human male, albeit with a blank, empty expression that matched the blank, empty space the Force was convinced he was.

Then it was back to work.

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

The Yuuzhan Vong was laid out on a table with a pretty excessive amount of restraints criss-crossing his body. The ooglith masquer floated nearby in a transparisteel tank, hopefully being kept alive for further testing. Getting their hands on a living masquer was a coup for NRI. Colonel Loran mentioned they'd managed to roust other vong before, but invariably the fights ended up with dead masquers and dead vong, which crimped NRI's attempts at working on a living masquer. Jaina hoped there might be some breakthroughs in rapid detection of vong agents, now that a living one was in custody.

The vong, still sedated and wearing a green-grey paper gown, ended up waking up in the transport. Aunt Mara had pumped about a half dozen stun blasts into him before he went under again and now they were playing it safe with a sedative drip, though one that Doctor Eicroth said would probably kill a wampa.

Doctor Joi Eicroth was a blonde woman, a little shorter than Jaina and with a firm handshake and an all-business demeanour. The exobiologist was on NRI's payroll, tapped for her extensive experience including her exceptional performance during the Teljkon Vagabond affair. She primly stripped off disposable gloves, tossing them into a bin and tapping a few final notes into a datapad.

Jaina had eyes only for the vong. It was the first time she'd been this close to one. Jacen and Anakin had been fighting them on the ground, but she had been flying since essentially the start of the war. There was something diminished in the alien as she looked him over, head to toe, that turned it from a mysterious monster into just some other being. He looked ferocious, certainly, with ritual scars and spiraling tattoos across most of his body, but laying there unconscious, it was…just a being. Nothing special.

"At this point, the most we know about their physiology is that we can be sure we don't know enough. Take this sedative-" Eicroth gestured. "I'm not sure how he's able to metabolize it without going into cardiac arrest."

"We found out that stun blasts aren't nearly as effective on them as other beings," Mara observed. The Stokhli sticks took him down initially, but even a wookiee would still be out cold from three blasts, not waking up less than ten minutes later.

The chamber was a blend of secure room and laboratory, with tools and equipment securely locked away behind magnetically sealable cabinets. With everything shuttered up, it could serve as a jail cell, but a doctor like Eicroth could turn it into a medical theatre to…examine…an occupant.

Her Jedi training said that experimenting on a living being was unconscionable.

The Rogue in her said it was an easy price to get an edge on an implacable enemy.

The vong, strapped down at forehead, neck, wrist, ankle and waist, was muscular and pale. Short-cut black hair stuck up from his elongated scalp and Eicroth speculated wearing a masquer was easier with less body hair. Tattoos in red and blue and teal spiraled around his bare limbs in concentric circles and made a starburst around his left eye. Inked sacs under his eyes were blue-black and talons sprouted from each fingertip. Eicroth reported there were apparently no biot implants, at least none she could detect with a deep tissue scan.

Warriors just like this one tried to kill her twin and her little brother. Warriors just like this one she blew away on the daily, turning coralskippers into pebbles.

Tekli, Cilghal's apprentice, took blood and tissue samples from the vong, sealing them in cryogenic containers to send out to other labs and to work with herself. The diminutive Chadra-Fan seemed inured to the idea of experimentation, which made Jaina feel a little bit better at her own callous estimation of it.

The others in the chamber were, of course, Jacen, but also Colonal Loran - who Jaina wouldn't be caught dead calling 'Face' and Lieutenant Colonel Kalenda, who was trying to reclaim a measure of respect after the Elan catastrophe. Colonel Loran's eyes were narrowed, not a hint of his famous bonhomie. Jacen sat in a chair, leaning forward with his fingers interlaced while Colonel Kalenda was off to the side, speaking quietly into a comlink.

"Stunners or not, you three found him in record time. Seriously, Mara, there's no Jedi I can poach away from the Praxeum? I promise I'll return them lightly used and I'll pay them." Colonel Loran didn't look away from the vong and Jaina sensed a complicated blend of hatred and guilt locked up behind the Colonel's neutral expression and calm tone.

"I can't say, Face. You'd have to ask Luke."

The Colonel sighed.

"I have. All of you Jedi are way too altruistic and busy to end up as spooks." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, this is excellent work. We've got analysts digging through his 'history', such as it is, and we're hoping we'll pick up a lead. If we can roll up this entire chain, I'd be a shoo-in for a promotion."

"We'd also clear a Senator of potential treason," Jacen observed.

"Yeah, that's nice enough too. What else can you tell us, Doc?"

Eicroth consulted her datapad again, gesturing down toward their 'guest'.

"I haven't had enough time for anything but preliminary scans, but I can tell you that getting a live one is a huge boon. I've dissected the bodies recovered from the fronts, but a living creature always has a lot more to tell than a dead one."

"Being," Jacen muttered, quiet enough only Jaina heard. "Not creature."

"I can tell you they have an incredibly robust nervous system. It's why it shrugged off the stuns so well. Their muscles are much denser and their fast twitch muscle fibers react almost before the signals reach them. Incredible reaction times, which I'm sure the Jedi here know well."

Jaina couldn't help but nod. Sometimes 'skips seemed almost prescient with how they'd know right before you locked them.

"Stellar immune system as well, which is to be expected for their fervor for self-mutilation. The way the masquer interfaces with their pores would, in theory, open them up for a truly horrific amount of infections, but I don't even see a single spot of inflammation."

Eicroth continued her analysis, regaling them with all the ways the Yuuzhan Vong were, apparently, the perfect custom tailored warriors. Which Jaina could've told anyone. They were a species that exalted biology and showed a mastery over genetic engineering and organic design that made Arkanians look like children playing with blocks. Of course they would perfect themselves too.

"What's interesting is the amount of damage this one shows." Eicroth flicked a hologram on, an elongated but generally humanoid skull appearing in midair. She traced bright lines that wound around the long parietal span of the skull. "Those are all artificial breaks. We had been assuming the elongated skulls of vong were just genetic, but this might indicate that they do some form of headbinding, or maybe other ways of enhancing the shape."

"Why?" Kalenda asked, tucking her comlink away.

Eicroth shrugged.

"I couldn't say. There's no biological benefit to it, as far as I could tell. Aesthetic, maybe? A sexual signifier? Cultural one? There's a lot we might never know and all I can tell you is what the body tells me. He has other breaks in his fingers and limbs and I suspect, based on the shapes, the breaks in his legs were to add height."

Jaina winced. She couldn't imagine how agonizing that could be even with painkillers, which of course, the vong would die before touching.

"I'd like to get into his brain, of course, but that'll need a higher authority than you, Colonel."

Face nodded while Jacen blanched.

"So…what next?" Jaina asked, unable to help herself. It was fast approaching midnight and her oncocidals made her a lot more tired than she usually was.

"So we keep digging," Colonel Loran said. "Again, huge thanks to you three for getting us this. We're going to try interrogation tomorrow and we'll let you know if he gives us anything. Probably won't! But it's worth a try. Mara, we'll pass you any new intel as soon as it hits and is vetted. Don't wait on me, or us, if you think you've got a lead. NRI wants this source locked down and out and they're willing to turn a blind eye to Jedi shenanigans."

Given some of the more sour opinions on Jedi among the Senate and in some branches of the military, Jaina was happy to hear Colonel Loran's vote of confidence. Friends of the Jedi were growing few and far between, despite the best efforts of Jedi to take up the fight and save lives.

"Thanks, Face. Jacen, Jaina - let's head back to the apartment. You two need to catch some sleep."

"You too, Aunt Mara," Jacen argued. Jaina sensed something from Mara, like a hidden smile. She wasn't quite sure what it meant.

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

Colonel Loran woke up them all up after barely five hours. He looked haggard, probably because he hadn't had any chance to sleep, but he had a triumphant grin.

"We've got a flight track, we've got three contacts he's been seen with, and we've got flight tracks for them too."

The three of them clustered around the apartment's holoprojector. Jacen had thrown a robe over his sleepwear, but Jaina, by habit, slept in fatigue pants and a tank-top.

"What about the vong?" her Aunt asked. "Were you able to get anything out of him?"

Colonel Loran waved a hand dismissively.

"Nah, he killed himself."

Jaina started.

"What?" she blurted out.

"Turns out his tongue was some kind of biot. When we woke him up it crawled down his throat and shredded his lungs. Drowned in his own blood, very nasty, et cetera."

Jacen turned away, taking a few paces out into the living space of the apartment. With no small amount of satisfaction, Jaina felt his inner turmoil. It was hard to value the lives of the vong when they didn't value them themselves. Could've told him that, given how she ended up space. She focused back on the Colonel, who was laying out their findings for Aunt Mara.

"We've been tracking suspected Peace Brigade ships since the organization made itself known. There hasn't been much of a pattern to them, which would fit for opportunists grabbing up whatever surplus they could, but curiously enough, the ship this vong came over in was recently registered to one CorDuro. When we found his contacts - Peace Brigade, by the way - and we looked into their ships, which had been hauling in refugees from the Rim, guess what?"

Mara's lips quirked.

"CorDuro?"

"Stop reading my mind, Jedi scum. CorDuro it was. Now, that alone isn't damning, except that all three ships were sold at auction by CorDuro…three months ago. On the same day. To a buyer who doesn't exist, where they then had registrations swapped around in…" Colonel Loran drug out the last syllable with relish. "Hutt space! Honestly, this isn't a smoking blaster so much as it is a criminal still trying to wipe off their fingerprints before the constabulary arrives. NRI has had eyes on some Peace Brigaders embedded in CorDuro for a while now, mostly through the Bothan Spynet, and this kind of cinches the deal."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"How did you get the vong's associates so quickly?"

Hm. It was a rapid turnaround from taking in the vong yesterday to Colonel Loran managing to find other Peace Brigaders only a few hours since they got back to the apartment.

"Oh, that's because their operational security was a complete joke. What do you get when you take someone who hates all technology and have them try to be a sneaky spy with a bunch of fringer fanatics who barely know how to spell?"

"You pulled com records." Mara's tone was knowing.

"That and we also pulled security footage for the tenements he had a place in. They actually met up with the vong at his own place and never did anything about the holocorders just outside the building. We were able to pattern match to a known Peace Brigade agitator, a nasty customer of an Anx. He was singing quick after we showed him the vong's dead body."

Jacen rejoined them, wedging in between Jaina and Aunt Mara.

"What does this all mean for CorDuro? Are the Duros themselves compromised? That would be…" Jacen trailed off, frowning. Jaina agree. Duro was a major gateway to the Core and while the world was a toxin-laced dumpster of a world, the orbital cities were famous and influential hubs of spacers, shipping and construction. It wouldn't make any sense for the Duros to throw in with the vong, though - they had everything to lose and almost nothing to gain.

"We're thinking neither, at the moment. We don't think CorDuro has anything other than lower-level sympathizers who are funneling out these surplus freighters to the Peace Brigade. As for any larger conspiracies, that's doubtful too. Our main thought though, is that there's a good chance that given how potentially widespread this frieghter-for-cash program is, there might be a controller over on the orbital city CorDuro is based on. Someone to manage things and make sure everything runs smoothly, since for all we know, it's these cheap freighters that are propping up the smuggling and raiding the Peace Brigade is doing."

"And a higher level controller might have connections or at least knowledge about Senator Shesh's office."

"Right in one, Lieutenant." Jaina beamed at Colonel Loran's recognition. She only knew him by reputation, but though the Wraiths had left Fighter Command decades ago, they were still a bit of a legend of very mixed provenance among pilots and in a weird way, sort of like the Rogues' odd cousin. "This vong was a low level agent, but some of his communiques had tidbits that had to have come from the Senator's office. He wouldn't know the mole, but I would bet next month's hazard pay whoever sent him along to Coruscant did. Or does. And my gut's telling me to check Bburru and CorDuro."

Mara chewed on her lip for a moment, arms folded under her breasts and fingers tapping out a pattern on her bicep.

"I agree. It's logical, it fits, and regardless of if CorDuro is directly involved, we can't let the Peace Brigade keep this kind of support. If we can link this to Shesh's mole, all the better, but we need to cut out this rot and soon."

"Then I can count on you to head it off?"

The prospect of getting out and doing something woke Jaina up better than any recaf.

"Us?"

"I hate to ask it," Colonel Loran said in a tone that indicated he really didn't, "but NRI can be slow and I'm worried our picking up of these guys is going to get noticed before I can get approval for agents out there. Plus, if there's vong embedded in CorDuro, you'll see them coming a mile away where me and mine wouldn't."

Mara turned to Jaina and Jacen.

"I have Jade Shadow fueled up and standing clearance for the launch already filed. Are you two ready for this?"

She spoke to both of them, but Jaina sensed it was more aimed at Jacen. Nothing in the Force, her Aunt was too careful for that, but asking if Jaina was up for a mission was like asking a krakana if it liked water. Her brother, to his credit, nodded firmly, face set and serious.

"Of course, Aunt Mara. This is the kind of thing Jedi are supposed to do. I'm ready to go."

"Same," Jaina chipped in, trying not to sound too excited. She was a Lieutenant in the New Republic Navy, a Jedi Knight and an ace to boot. She did not get excited like a girl. "Born ready."

Well, she tried.

"I'll bounce everything we have over. Mara, the encryption key is same as last time. Take care, all three of you, and contact me if you need anything. We'll keep digging away from our end here on Coruscant."

She packed in record time, throwing clothes into a small luggage and snapping up a handful of toiletries she'd accumulated in her convalescence. She sensed Jacen packing in his own guest room next door and pushed a friendly nudge to hurry it up. Her twin poked her back with an exaggerated sense of calm, the equivalent of whistling innocently. Jaina laughed, zipping up her luggage and then hauling it out to meet her Aunt, who already had a bag slung over her shoulder. Of course Aunt Mara had a go-bag always ready for sudden calls.

That wasn't a bad idea to have, actually. Jaina could work one up that would easily fit into her X-Wing's limited cargo space and keep it on hand. In fact, given the number of capital ships that went down and left squadrons without homes - and the mess that happened at Dantooine - having a quick bundle of spare clothes and sundries in case the worst happened to Ralroost…

She shoved down the dark thoughts. Jacen followed shortly after and then they were gone, apartment locked and dark, down to the Skywalkers' airspeeder and through traffic that never died, to a private hangar and a steel-grey yacht waiting on humming repulsorlifts, engines lit. Jaina had never been on Jade Shadow since it had replaced her aunt's previous ship, the Jade Sabre. It was sleek, deadly and minimalistic. It didn't quite have the personal touches Sabre did, but it fit Mara. Her aunt directed them on where to stow their gear, offering for them to get back to sleep while she took Shadow out and plotted the jump to Duro.

Jacen took her up on it but Jaina demurred, wanting to see the cockpit and at least takeoff.

It was SoroSuub, which of course meant that perfect blend of luxury, ergonomics and laser-focused efficiency. Mara gestured Jaina into the copilot seat, which was sinfully and ridiculously comfortable and supportive. Could she swap out her X-Wing's couch with this one? And keep it from Colonel Darklighter? She smirked, imagining Major Varth helping with a wink and a finger over her lips. Her flight leader, despite having several years on Jaina, kept things loose and familiar and treated Jaina more than fair despite her youth.

Mara snapped her fingers again and Jaina started, looking over to her aunt.

"I said: do you want to take her out?"

It was a really, really stupid question.

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

Duro filled the cockpit, ugly and grey-brown. The orbital cities were specks, only really visible by the holographic overlay Jade Shadow marked each with. Their target, Bburru, held the CorDuro headquarters and was the largest of the twenty major cities. Unfortunately, given the bored voice of the Bburru flight controller over their com, their luck was up. Maybe it was a little too easy how quickly they'd found the vong and Colonel Loran had given them this lead, but Jaina had let herself get caught up in the momentum of it all.

Now, Bburru was claiming that all traffic in the Duro system was being restricted to only ships with permissions, due to 'ongoing security concerns'. Jade Shadow, without a previously established flight-plan and without 'sufficient authority tags' was being directed to either leave the system or set down on the planet at the SELCORE refugee centers. There, the bored controller informed them, they could take a public orbital bus up to the city, as long as they passed quarantine and customs. It was the process, the Duro sniffed. And no Jedi was going to get special treatment.

"I bet he's Peace Brigade," Jaina hissed after her aunt killed the link. Mara just sighed, shaking her head.

"It's easy to fall into the mindset, Jaina. Black and white, where everyone who doesn't like you is a Sith or something. People are complicated and it's never that simple. He was tired and he'd given the same spiel a hundred times today, I'd wager. It wasn't about us - we just gave him a way to vent his frustration in a specific sort of way by being Jedi."

Jaina grumbled, but didn't contest her aunt.

The flight from Coruscant to Duro was only a few hours, courtesy of the Corellian Run, so Jaina just took a catnap there in the copilot seat and its unreasonably comfortable cushioning. Jacen was still back in the staterooms, but she sensed her twin's light dozing. He'd be awake very soon. Another hour or so to the surface, then she was sure they could bull through the 'security' and 'quarantine'. If Jacen didn't like Jaina using the Force to, well, smooth their way along, he could take it up with her later. Aunt Mara surely wouldn't mind - there were times when you had to do what you had to do and a conspiracy around a Senator and a major Core shipping concern was definitely one of those times.

Her mom had mentioned the SELCORE facilities on Duro a few times. The deal had been that the various Duros consortiums that held sway over the system and the world would allow refugees to set up environment domes, so long as they undertook work to begin to roll back the planet's rampant pollution. Sort of a work-for-housing deal, which struck Jaina as awfully mercenary, but then again, Duro did have a bit of a reputation for their shrewd business sense. At least they accepted refugees, even if her mother had been frustrated by the scope of the work project demands.

Too many other worlds just turned their backs on the desperate and needy.

Something about the world growing in the cockpit made her frown. It must have been evident in her presence in the Force as well, as her aunt spoke up.

"Something the matter?"

"Not quite," Jaina assured her. The feeling wasn't wrong, just strange. Unexpected? She focused, honing her sense like a blade and jabbed her mind toward the planet. She felt living minds - very few for a whole world, centered mostly all in the same area. The SELCORE domes, undoubtedly. She felt misery, depression. Sorrow. Mourning. Cautious hope, serious determination. And she felt-

"Kyp!?" she exclaimed. And another, whose presence was nothing like a Jedi Master's, but was one that Jaina knew almost as well as her twin. "And dad?!"

In the staterooms, she felt Jacen jolt awake at the backwash through their bond.

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

She didn't really believe it until the Shadow's ramp dropped and the chemical-tinged, antiseptic scent of the sealed hangar dome invaded the yacht. There, right at the bottom of the ramp, were-

Her dad had his arms around her before Jaina knew she'd run down the ramp. She clutched at him, digging her fingers into his rumpled jacket. He held her tight, like he did when she was a kid. How long had it been? She felt taller. Hugging him felt different. The Rogues had her bouncing all over the galaxy for months. He'd…vanished. She buried her face against his shirt and smelled the familiar smell of her father.

"Hey, dad," she said, muffled, definitely not teary.

"Hey, kid," he whispered back. She did not focus on how shaky his voice sounded or how fragile he felt in the Force. Or how she felt guilt rolling off him like an Anoth lightning storm. Finally she stepped back and he kept his hands on her shoulders, looking Jaina over at arm's length.

"You look good," he managed. "I - heard about," his voice cracked, failed. Jaina felt a subtle pulse of the Force from Kyp, who was waiting a few strides back. It was entirely directed toward Han and her father noticeably marshaled himself. "I'm so proud of you, Jaina."

Her father told them how much he loved them. As long as she could remember, the old smuggler Han Solo was free with affirmations of his love of his children. She knew he wasn't the greatest with other people, but his lopsided smile (just like her little brother's) and the feeling behind his words kept Jaina going in some of the harder times, the tougher nights at the Praxeum when she felt homesick.

But he'd never really said he was proud of her. She surreptitiously wiped at her eye, passing it off as scratching at her scalp implant. The motion drew her dad's attention and his face darkened.

"It's fine! Seriously, it's itchy and that's it. I'll have it off in another week. Tekli just checked me out. Don't worry dad, I'm tough as nails. I'm your daughter, it's in the blood."

"Yeah," Han said, not letting go of her shoulders. "You're my daughter." He pulled her in for another hug and she was more than happy to let him, because there was no one around who'd ever tell any of the Rogues.

She let go and gave Jacen space to greet their dad. Theirs was less tearful, probably because Jacen hadn't almost been blown to atoms by a hypermatter reaction. While Jacen and their dad were talking, pitched low, Mara swept down the ramp, eying Master Durron.

"So that's where you vanished off to."

Kyp grimaced.

"Yeah, it's me. I hope I wasn't giving Master Skywalker fits about what kind of atrocities I might be out there signing off on."

Mara exhaled, not quite a sigh and Jaina bristled at the slight toward her uncle.

"Kyp, you know it's not like that. I'm just glad you're okay. You vanished after the meeting on Coruscant and no one knew where you went, not even Wurth. You left your Dozen behind."

"I didn't have a dozen, Mara. They had all died. Again." The other Jedi Master subtly twitched his head toward Jacen and Han. "I had places I needed to be. People I needed to see."

The feeling Kyp had sent toward her dad…

"You're here for dad?" Jaina demanded, closing the distance.

"Of course. You know what I owe him. And you know what kind of place he's been in." Kyp didn't quite scowl at Mara, but didn't quite not either. "Someone had to be there for him."

The subject of their whispering cut in, oblivious to the content of their hushed exchange.

"So, I'm sort of the boss around here, since all of these good folks apparently couldn't do better than a smuggler past his expiration date." Her dad jerked a thumb over his shoulder, aiming for the airlock out of the hangar dome. "It's why you got the luxury pad, instead of having to park out in the muck with the rest of us."

As if on cue, a mustachioed alien popped the airlock, peering in around the half-opened hatch. Jaina didn't recognize his species: humanoid, but with a shock of white hair, dropping mustachios and a broad, hooked nose with slitted openings along it. And, apparently, given it appeared over his shoulder, a fairly prehensile tail.

"Hey! If it's not the Skywalkers! Roaky, introduce me to your family! Come on, you've had to deal with mine!"

Jacen mouthed 'Roaky?' at Jaina, who shrugged. The alien bounded over and she saw the strangest but best change sweep over her father. His aura of guilt punctured, his slumped shoulders straightened and when he swept a hand through his hair in irritation, suddenly it was Han Solo standing there again, not the hounded man that she couldn't quite mesh with the dad she'd known.

Then and there, she knew she had to meet this man and understand just what he'd done for her father - what he'd done and none of his family had, so that she could properly thank him.

Nudging Jacen along, they followed Kyp, the as-yet unintroduced alien who kept up a steady and unending stream of barbs and banter with Han, and Mara for the hatch.

Suddenly, she was very glad for obstinate Duro traffic controllers and paranoid megacorps.