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One by one they likewise freed their gun arms. I set myself to pick off blaster fire, but none erupted, no angry whines filled the alley, no red bolts burned toward me. Instead, blue, yellow, red, orange and purple lightsaber blades sprang to life in their hands. Five of them, hissing in concert, like a krayt dragon hungry for the meal wrapped up in my clothes.

They advanced, and I realized there really wasn’t any way things could get much worse.

FORTY-SIX

Then a sixth silhouette appeared at the mouth of the alley and a green lightsaber sprouted in his hands.

Great, now we have the whole rainbow represented. I lifted my left hand from my blade’s hilt and waved him forward. “C’mon, pal, one more won’t make any difference.”

I wished I felt as brave as those words sounded.

The man at the alley mouth started forward. “No one need die here tonight.”

I knew that voice! Luke!

And I recognized in his warning to those I faced a directive to me. I slid to the right and blocked a red slash low right, directing the red blade away and into the brick wall. Pivoting on my left foot, I snapped a sidekick into my foe’s belly, driving her back. I discovered she wore an armored breastplate, which partially shielded her from the strength of my kick. The armor, however, didn’t stop her from catching her heels on debris and going down, temporarily taking her out of the fight.

Luke engaged Yellow and Purple as I ducked beneath a blue slash and twisted to bring my left hand up. I caught my foe on his chin with the heel of my hand. The blow shifted the mask he wore up a couple of centimeters, temporarily blinding him. A quick punch to the throat choked him, then I grabbed him by the clasp of his cloak and flung him into the alley wall. His armor clicked hard against the bricks, then he dropped back all boneless and the deadman switch on his lightsaber shut it off.

I parried Orange’s cut and caught his wrist in my left hand. I shifted my right hand up, then whipped it down and across. My lightsaber’s heavy pommel caught Orange right behind the right ear, or where the right ear would have been on a human. As Orange dropped senseless to the ground, his hood slid back and I saw he was a Rodian.

I reached down and flicked his lightsaber off, then straightened up as Luke rose above Red. From her I only got peace, a peace I found vaguely reminiscent of the peace I’d imagined surrounding Mirax when Exar Kun showed her to me. “New trick?”

Luke shut off his lightsaber and I did the same with mine, plunging the alley into darkness. “Old one, one of yours. I hit her and knocked her out. Just easing some of her pain now.”

“Nice sense of timing. If you hadn’t arrived, the five of them would have killed me, clean and quick.” I shivered. “How did you find me?”

In faint light from the street, I saw Luke’s expression sharpen. “I knew, if you had learned all you needed to learn, that I would meet you here, and that we would be allies.”

I felt a chill run down my spine. “I see.”

Luke’s voice lightened slightly. “As for the when, with that I needed some help.” He turned back up the alley. “Are we clear?”

A silhouette framed itself in the alley, prompting me to laugh. “I see no pursuit.”

“Ooryl?” I hopped over Orange’s body and ran forward. “Ooryl, what are you doing here?”

“I am a Findsman.” The Gand shrugged as if that should have explained everything. “The important thing of being a Findsman is not knowing where to look, for that is easy. It is knowing when to look. I knew the when was now, and went to Master Skywalker to tell him that. He pointed me here, and I brought him now.”

Luke waved us back into the alley. “We have to get our sleeping friends out of here. We have a ship, but I need somewhere else to keep them. They know where Mirax is.”

I nodded. “Can’t be far from here, because Tavira brought them within a day of hearing we had Jedi trouble here. Who are they?”

“I don’t know.” Luke shook his head. “We better find out