• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Why, I think I’ll formulate Mistress Amelia’s next lesson plan.”

“That’s not exactly—”

“And I’ll do so without following the recommendations of the Alliance Department of Education. I shall do it my way.”

Han gave him a mock scowl. “You interrupted me.”

“Oh. So very sorry.” C-3PO headed aft.

R2-D2 followed, tweetling.

“What do you mean, I’m a ball of fire today? Artoo, I’m warning you …”

When they were gone, Leia hugged Allana even more tightly. “Are you all right, sweetie? You’ve been very quiet.”

“Uh-huh. I was just kind of wishing we hadn’t come to Klatooine.”

“I know. Bad things happened. But imagine how much worse they might have been if we hadn’t come. If your grandpa hadn’t been very clever, the Klatooinians might have stayed slaves, or lonely freedom fighters, a lot longer.”

“Yeah, I know. When you’re the only one who can fix something wrong, it’s your duty.”

“That’s right.”

“But sometimes I like it like this. Just flying around in the Falcon. No duties.”

Han grinned. “Tell you what, kiddo. When I’m too old to do anything but brag and flirt, I’ll give you the Falcon, and you can fly around and hide from duty.”

“Do I have to take Threepio?”

Allana didn’t quite understand why Han and Leia started laughing and couldn’t seem to stop.

LIGHT-YEARS FROM NAM CHORIOS, AWAY FROM TRADE ROUTES AND other well-traveled spaceways, Gavar Khai formed up the remnants of his flotilla.

Some of his frigates were initiating crucial repairs. Crew members were being swapped around. Long-distance shuttles were still arriving from Nam Chorios, carrying Sith and specialists who had been left behind.

Those on Kesh would not be amused by Khai’s loss. His failure. He wondered what it would cost him.

His sensor officer called out, “Ship at extreme sensor range.”

His communications officer added, “It’s hailing us.”

Khai glared at the two of them. “Be more specific. What type of ship?”

“Ship, sir. Abeloth’s Ship.”

Khai blinked. “Open communications.”

The main monitor resolved into a new picture—Abeloth in all her alienness, surrounded by the pulsing reddish surfaces of Ship’s interior.

Even though it was only a comm signal, Khai felt the impact of her presence in the Force. There was rage in her eyes, rage and pain. Whatever the Jedi had done to her on Nam Chorios, clearly she was still feeling it. Khai saw some of his Sith bridge officers wincing under the power of her hurt.

“Gavar Khai. Our mutual enemy is proving to be too much for us to deal with individually.”

Khai nodded. “Perhaps.”

“Let us discuss this.”

“I’ll be here for a little while. Let us indeed discuss this.”

CORUSCANT

Every skyscraper on Coruscant had them, little rooms tucked away in inconvenient corners, folded in between utility conduits, shoved up against angled ceilings. Sometimes they were walled off entirely, sometimes accessed by locked portals decorated with signs reading AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. The best ones tended to be claimed informally by building managers or maintenance staffers, furnished with cast-off chairs and sofas, used as secret relaxation spots or sabacc gathering-holes. The others ended up as storerooms or were forgotten entirely.

This one was one of the forgotten rooms. A trapezoid-shaped chamber situated between two turbolift shafts, it was twice as long as a man but broad only at the entry end, narrowing to a dusty nook at the far end. It was completely unfurnished. When Tahiri found it, after prowling this high-rise middle-income residential tower for several furtive hours, it didn’t even have a glow rod wired into the ceiling fixture. She’d had to sneak off into an untrafficked hallway and steal one from there, wiring it into place herself.

Now she lay atop her confiscated bedroll, listening to the frequent, insanity-inducing whoosh of the turbolifts going by.

In the heart of the most populous city in the galaxy, a city that spanned an entire world, she was completely alone. Such an odd feeling. Her only possessions were the contents of tourist bags set aside after nightfall on a pedway and not carefully watched