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He nodded and I stepped away from him, retracting the lightsaber’s blade. I turned to stalk back down the alley to the street. Even without the Force, I would have heard the snap of his blaster being pulled from the holster. Already three meters away, I turned, lit my lightsaber, and deflected the first shot into the alley wall, where it left a little guttering flame. Two more shots missed wide, I blocked a fourth to my left with the lightsaber, then saw that the fifth would miss right and drill the Kubaz struggling to his feet.

I reached out with my right hand and blocked the bolt, sucking as much of the energy in as I could. The shot stung, sending a jolt up my arm, but I shunted the pain aside and funneled the spare energy into telekinesis. I closed my right hand into a fist, then pulled. I wrenched the blaster from his hand, snapping a couple of fingers as I went, then tossed it high onto a roof.

“Remember my message.” I turned again, smacked the Kubaz in the head again with the lightsaber’s butt, and vanished into the night.

Three days later the Fastblast and its crew departed Courkrus for destinations unknown.

Other crews were not so easily frightened. The Blackstar Pirates felt invincible in their sanctuary behind the Mynock Hole and I knew my intervention there would shake them to their core. In an earlier visit as Jenos Idanian, I took a seat that gave me a clear vision of the datapad they used to gain entry into the back. By casually studying the people going in I learned they used a four digit code, but most of the pirates hit the numbers too quickly for me to read them exactly.

I waited for an older man well into his cups to approach the door and set myself. He punched the number in and waited for a light to go on and a tone to sound before he would be free to push the door open. I reached out with the Force and simply made him forget he’d seen the light and heard the tone. He frowned, then more carefully and precisely punched the code in, letting me read from his actions what the combination was.

A rainstorm hit Vlarnya the evening I decided to carry my war to the Blackstar Pirates, and the atmospherics certainly added to the tension growing in the Aviary. It also helped that virtually everyone wore hooded cloaks as sheets of rain lashed the city. I was soaked by the time I reached the Mynock Hole, but went unnoticed among the other dripping, cloaked figures in the cantina. I even swept into the back area warded by pirates without being the subject of much scrutiny. Moving with authority and raising a hand to the datapad to punch in the combination appeared to be normal to the pirates seated there, so I only needed to devote a tiny slice of the Force to making them lose the seconds of their life in which I passed them by.

I punched in the code and pushed the door open. What I found beyond it surprised me because of the opulence. Muted red and gold glow panels gave the foyer and parlor beyond it a warm feel. Doorways across from the entry and in the two side walls provided access to corridors that I guessed led to rooms meant for private pleasures. I caught just enough of the tang of spice in the air to guess what some of the pirates were enjoying, and a half-dozen men and women attired in unseasonably brief costume, lounging vivaciously on overstuffed furniture, suggested what others would find to content them.

And through the doorway at the far end of the parlor I heard the cheers and groans I’d long associated with gambling. With the small self-service bar to my right, the Blackstar Pirates’ haven seemed to make available most of the idle-time delights considered desirable throughout the galaxy. This was a place where everyone could have fun.

To my left a silver 3PO droid with a missing eye sketched a brief bow and extended his hands toward me. “Check your weapons, Master?” Beyond him I saw a small caged enclosure chuck full of blasters of every size and description, with another 3PO droid locked in, shelving weapons and retrieving