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“Then I’m sure you don’t understand,” Han said. “Nobody understands Barabels except Barabels. It’s too bad Tesar and the others aren’t here. Maybe they could do something.”

“That would be nice,” Leia agreed. “But she didn’t say anything about them—”

“And it’s dangerous to ask—I know,” Han said. “Any guesses what they’re up to?”

Leia shook her head. “Not really. Saba hinted that she has someone keeping an eye on Daala. That might be them.”

Han scratched his jawline for a moment, then nodded. “Makes sense,” he said. “Barabels are pretty good at thinning out vermin.”

“Han! That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, but it’s true,” he countered. “Am I right?”

Leia smiled. “You’re right,” she admitted. The lift stopped, and they stopped out onto the infirmary level. “Speaking of missing offspring—”

“Just talked to her,” Han said, waving his comlink. “She and Barv have been off exploring. They’re on their way.”

Leia frowned. “Exploring?”

“Relax, will you? Allana’s a kid—she’s got to have some fun,” Han said. “Besides, they’re still in the Temple … somewhere.”

“I don’t like it,” Leia said. “Not while we’re having all this trouble with Daala.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to her,” Han said. “But don’t worry, she’s on her way. She’s not going to want to miss this.”

“Bloah!” Allana kicked the hatch, then stepped back and nearly tripped over her pet nexu, Anji. She braced a hand on the wall and caught herself, then wiped the hair out of her eyes—inadvertently smearing her brow with grease, dust, and a whole bunch of other stuff she really didn’t want to think about. “Someone welded this one closed, too!”

Anji began to scratch at the base of the door, and a soft rumble sounded behind Allana—a deep voice suggesting in its native Ramoan that maybe little girls shouldn’t use words like bloah. Allana spun around and shone her glow rod up into the big green face of her best friend, Bazel Warv.

“I’m not a little girl, Barv,” she said. “I’m a famous xenoarchaeologist exploring a twenty-five-thousand-year-old temple.”

Bazel rumbled again, offering the opinion that smart women like famous xenoarchaeologists probably didn’t use words like bloah, either.

“Probably not,” Allana admitted. “At least not when someone’s listening.”

She consulted her datapad again, then swung the glow rod back and checked the hatch number.

“But that door isn’t supposed to be secured like this. You’d better use your lightsaber to cut it open.”

Allana ran the glow rod along one edge of the hatch, illuminating the silvery smears of two welds. Bazel shook his head and said the welds looked fresh, which meant someone had probably sealed the hatch for good reason.

“Then why didn’t they enter it on the Temple maintenance log?”

Allana held the datapad above her head for the huge Ramoan to inspect. He peered at it for a moment, then suggested that whoever had done the work had just forgotten to file a report.

Allana sighed and lowered the datapad. “Look, Barv, it’s going to take an hour to go back around. That means I’ll be in trouble and you won’t be there when they let Valin and Jysella out of carbonite.”

When Bazel didn’t have anything to say to that, Allana looked up from the corner of her eye and added, “And you do want to be there, don’t you? I mean, while everyone else got to break into the detention center, you were stuck watching me and Anji—”

Bazel interrupted, informing her that guarding her and Anji was the most important job in the whole plan. Leia and Taryn had told him that three times—each.

“Yeah, sure,” Allana said. “But you and Yaqeel are part of the Unit. That means you’ve got to be there, right?”

Bazel sighed, then used a big hand to pull her behind him, asked her to hold Anji, and ignited his lightsaber. Two minutes later, the hatch was open, and the most awful odor Allana had ever smelled was coming from inside. Anji, of course, bounded straight through the opening.

“Stang!” Allana gasped. “What is that poodoo?”

This time, Bazel did not complain