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Suspicious, scowling, Allana backed away from her. “Tell me.”

“I’ll show you instead.” She reached into her robe pouch and brought out a device, a hand-sized holoprojector. She set it on a table and activated it.

A hologram of Tenel Ka, doll-sized, swam into resolution. Tenel Ka smiled, her expression hopeful, and spoke. “Allana, time is short. First: bantha excess glow rod.”

Allana lowered her injector pen and smiled. Her gaze was fixed on the image of her mother, and her thoughts were so transparent that Leia could hear them as speech carried through the Force: The words. The real words.

“These people are going to bring you to me. Go with them, and trust them as you do me. And know that I love you, and I’ve missed you more than I can say.” Tenel Ka raised a finger to her lips and blew a kiss, then faded away.

Allana looked up at her rescuers. “We can go now?”

Leia nodded. “We can go right now.”

“Can I leave a note for, for Jacen?”

“I’m afraid not, sweetie. You can comm him once we get to Hapes. You don’t have time to pack.”

“That’s all right. Everything that’s mine is still at home.”

Impossibly, Saba stood, even got her lightsaber up to deflect the next wave of blaster bolts aimed at her. Smoke rose from her back and legs, and stretches of her skin were charred, bleeding…but she was upright, standing on shaky legs.

Luke didn’t turn toward Ben, but pitched his voice to make it easier for the boy to hear. “Get her out of here.”

“Remember why I’m here, Grand Master.”

Vexed, Luke tightened his jaw and nodded. He raised his voice. “Master Sebatyne: extract.”

“This one iz still—”

“Leaving.” Luke’s tone was unyielding. “Remember what we’re here for.”

Beyond Jacen, the metal shutters were coming down across the viewports. It wasn’t surprisng; the explosions had to have weakened the viewport housings, and the ship’s diagnostics were sealing everything up before the atmosphere could explosively escape. Besides, all of a sudden there were more ships to see out there, and some of them were approaching the Anakin Solo, laser batteries flashing.

Luke gestured toward Jacen. Jacen raised his lightsaber and his left hand, ready to ward off any attack, but Luke’s gesture was a diversion. His exertion in the Force picked up one of the YVH droids and hurtled it backward, against the faltering viewport.

The transparisteel buckled and the droid was lost to space. Air, rushing past the Jedi, tugged them forward, and Jacen staggered back toward the viewports, but then the shutters came down, sealing the bridge.

Meanwhile Luke felt a pained exertion in the Force as Saba leapt up to the walkway and walked—limped—off the bridge.

Three YVH droids were left. And Jacen. Against Luke and Ben. Jacen was Luke’s match, which meant Ben had to cope with three combat droids. The odds weren’t good.

Then the odds changed.

As he batted blasterfire with his lightsaber, Luke felt a surge of emotion in the Force: innocent joy, a little girl’s delight at going home.

Jacen visibly paled. “Allana…” Suddenly he charged, crossing his own combat droids’ streams of blasterfire, forcing them to cease fire for brief moments.

He came at Luke but leapt laterally, flying across empty air to one of the doorways leading aft, utterly ignoring the Jedi.

Luke snapped a command to his son: “Extract! Warn Leia, Jacen’s coming!” He got his lightsaber up and deflected new streams of blasterfire, then began backing toward the bridge’s blast doors, toward his son.

Keeping his father and the nearly impenetrable blaster shield Luke represented between himself and the YVH combat droids, Ben backflipped through the blast doors and darted to the right, getting behind the cover the door frame represented. He slammed a palm across the SHUT button and thumbed his comlink. “Aunt Leia, extract! Jacen’s coming.”

Her voice came back clear and calm: “Already extracting.”

“Go fast.” Ben glanced over his shoulder and saw that the corridor was clear of personnel—the only living thing