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“No,” said Allana.

Leia remained firm, at least on the outside. Looking down into Allana's anxious face, she didn't feel anywhere near as decisive. “It'll just be for a few hours. Chance is going to be there. He'll be with Nanna.”

Han, standing behind Leia's chair, gave his wife's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Leia and I can't keep you safe while we're firing off bombs in the caverns. You need to be on the garrison moon. Especially if there are more groundquakes.”

“No.”

Leia took a deep breath. Arguing with Allana was so much like arguing with Jacen had been. The child was very bright and she intellectualized, rationalized like someone far beyond her seven years. Sometimes the only thing Leia could use to win was pure willpower. “Allana, this isn't open for discussion. Han and I have decided.”

“The garrison moon is up in space. There's something waiting for me up in space.”

Leia looked up at Han, but he seemed as baffled as she was. She turned back to Allana. “Something what?”

“Something scary.”

“Allana.” Han's voice was not harsh, but there was a warning tone to it. “You shouldn't try to get out of things you don't want to do by fibbing.”

Leia schooled herself to remain absolutely impassive. The number of times Han had gotten out of things he didn't want to do by lying … well, not to Leia, but to just about everyone else …

“I'm not fibbing! There really is something up there. It talked to me.”

Leia frowned. “When?”

“When I—when I was outside the main building the other day. While you were underground.”

“What did it say?”

“It wanted to know who I was. It was sad but scary.”

“Did anyone else hear this?”

Allana shook her head. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “It talked through the Force.” Searching her grandparents' eyes, she continued, more desperately, “I know the difference between what's real and what's not. This was real.”

“Give us a minute.” Han gestured for Leia to accompany him outside Allana's temporary bedroom.

Once they were in the hallway with the door shut, Han whispered, “What do you think?”

“She's telling the truth as she understands it. Which means there may actually be something out there.” At a loss, Leia shrugged. “With the time we have available, we have three choices, none good. Leave her here in the main building, which means danger if the ground-quakes get bad during our operation, which they very well may. Take her on the Falcon, where we'll be dealing with high explosives, potentially dangerous animal life, bogeys, and perhaps collapsing caverns. Or send her to the garrison moon, where, if she's right, something may come after her.”

Looking unhappy, Han considered. “If we have to choose one of those, I'd choose the one where we can watch after her ourselves.”

“Me, too.”

Han punched the door button. The door slid aside.

Allana stood just inside, looking up at them, her face shining as though she'd heard the entire exchange. “I can go?”

Han stooped to pick her up. He straightened without even a fake groan or a you're getting too heavy comment. “You can,” he told her. “If you promise to be a good member of the crew. That means following orders, even the ones you hate.”

“I promise.”

“All right.”

“And we fib all the time. Every time you call me Amelia, that's a fib, isn't it?”

Han scowled at her. “Don't confuse the issue with facts. Leia does that all the time, and I hate it.”

ARMAND ISARD CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, CORUSCANT

Seff Hellin stepped through the hole he'd burned in the permacrete mere days before and pulled the metal sheet into place again. With luck, this was the last time he'd have to do that, the last time ever.

He was so close to his goal that he could feel himself trembling. The isolation he'd felt for so long might at last come to an end. He still wasn't sure how he'd recognized Valin over the holorecordings of the man's trial—how he'd instantly realized that it was the true Valin, not some imposter—but he had.

Soon he would free his fellow surviving Jedi Knight. And