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By Root 1022 0

in that direction but were diverted—another groundspeeder, this one an inconspicuous blue, settled down on the parking pad adjacent to theirs. At the controls was Tahiri Veila, blond-haired and green-eyed, a few standard years younger than Jaina; she was dressed in a utility worker’s gray jumpsuit. Beside her was Doran Tainer—tall, fair-haired, brown-eyed, square-jawed, and blandly handsome as any holodrama leading man, but incongruously dressed in brown grass-stained field-worker’s garments. Both were Jedi. At the moment, neither looked like it.

In the speeder’s backseat was something roughly the size of a grown human woman, wrapped in a brown cloak from its calves to the crown of its head. Only feet protruded, clad in brown leather boots.

Heart suddenly pounding, Jaina slid out from under Zekk and leapt over to that backseat even as Doran said, “It’s not what you think.”

Jaina whipped the cloak away from the head and shoulders of the body—and revealed the features of a brightly polished silver protocol droid, its photoreceptors dim. “What’s this?” she asked. “Where’s Tiu?”

Doran offered her a pained smile. “She’s in Thrackan Sal-Solo’s mansion.”

“Captured?”

“No,” Tahiri said. “Hiding.”

“Hiding?”

“We ran into a trap,” Doran said. “It sounds like you did, too. Lots of guards. Several combat probots. A couple of YVH droids. Not a tenable situation. So we decided to run away.”

Tahiri gave him a reproving look. “There was nothing we could accomplish there. So I ordered a nice, clean withdrawal. Which would have been fine if Brilliant Notions here hadn’t had his great idea.”

Now Jaina fixed Doran with a hard stare. “Which was what?”

Doran shrugged. “We ran into this deactivated protocol droid in the room from which we decided to stage our retreat. And it occurred to me—I could dress it in my clothes, Tahiri and Tiu could carry it out, and it would look like they were taking the body of a fallen comrade to safety. They knew three of us had gone in, they’d watch three of us escape…and I’d hide there, see what I could find out in the wake of this disaster.”

“And a naked man the size of a dwarf Wookiee is going to stay hidden for how long?” Jaina demanded.

Doran winced. “That’s what Tiu asked. In almost those exact words, as a matter of fact. So I said, ‘Forget it.’ And she said, ‘No, it’s a good plan, except for the fact that, as usual, you introduced a fatal flaw. We pull out the fatal flaw and it’s viable again.’”

Jaina nodded. “And fixing the plan meant substituting a tiny Omwati woman for a big slab of hanging meat.” She seethed, but held her anger deep. She didn’t want any member of her operation left behind on Corellia…but she had to admit that a resource, hiding out in Thrackan Sal-Solo’s opulent home, could prove invaluable in the days to come. And Tiu, despite bearing the distinctive delicate blue skin and opalescent pale hair of her species, was very, very good at stealth and hiding games.

She covered the protocol droid’s face and stood back from it, then pointed at Doran. “You. Get some bacta patches for Zekk’s burns and whatever Kolir needs to deal with her mouth.” Then her gaze fell on Thann. “You. Get us a vehicle.”

CORELLIAN ORBIT

Han Solo sent Millennium Falcon down a course that was in a slightly lower orbit than Klauskin’s formation of ships and back in the direction from which they’d come. In his wake came the squadron of A-9 Vigilances.

“They’re not breaking off,” Leia said.

“I can see that,” Han said, his voice testy. “Do they not believe their transponders? Do they think I’m pretending to be Han Solo?”

Green laserfire flashed past the cockpit’s starboard viewports. Then the Falcon shook as her stern took a hit from one of the pursuers’ shots. Both Leia and Han could hear C-3PO’s wail of “Oh, dear…” waft out from the transport’s central areas.

Han added some side-to-side slew to their movement and rose, climbing into a higher orbit—almost into the path of a Mon Calamari heavy carrier, Blue Diver.

“Han, what are you doing?” Leia’s voice conveyed a hint of worry.

“These vessels won’t