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“Just assembling my gear—my current kit.” Jag pushed up the visor of his helmet, revealing his eyes and the bridge of his nose.

Jaina approached and rapped her knuckles against his chest. It rang, the noise dulled by the cloth covering it. “And the breastplate, too.”

“Not exactly the height of fashion, is it?”

“Well, I’ll forgive you for wearing too much shiny stuff if it’s useful.”

“Oh, it’s all useful.” Jag tapped each item in turn as he explained. “You’re familiar with the helmet, the breastplate, and the crushgaunts.”

Jaina nodded.

“The backpack is a thruster. It’s not much use in Coruscant-level gravity, but in low-grav conditions it will me get around, help make up for the fact that I can’t do Jedi leaps. The blaster pistol I designed from the ground up.” He drew it and managed a creditable Han Solo spin around his trigger finger, despite the presence of his crushgaunts. “It’s oversized, so I can draw and fire it while wearing the gauntlets; it’s engineered to function in the temperatures and vacuum of deep space—I can fire it while extravehicular.” He holstered it again. “Plus, it has a feature I don’t think any blaster has ever had.”

“What’s that?”

He shook his head and the bridge of his nose crinkled.

Jaina guessed that he was grinning at her. She felt a flash of annoyance but let it pass. “All right, keep your little boy’s secret.”

He gestured at the material of his flight suit. “Laced with cortosis alloy. Not much—with the Temple and the academy at Ossus both abandoned, Master Luke could supply me with only a little. But a little still means that a graze from a lightsaber could result in minor or no damage instead of an amputation. The belt pouches, full of surprises for Alema. The boots…” His voice trailed off.

“Yes?”

“Keep me from stubbing my toes.”

She sighed. “Funny. Or not.” She looked over his battle array. “How long have you been working on this?”

“I’ve been carrying pieces of it for years, gradually adding items as I learned more about our quarry.” He shrugged; his entire torso rose as one piece. “It doesn’t make me a Jedi…but we don’t need another Jedi. We need something she can’t predict. Also, if I take the crushgaunts off, I can pilot a starfighter in this. The suit offers all the usual virtues of a flight suit.”

“Well, I have something your suit doesn’t have.” From her belt, she extracted a piece of flimsi and held it up before Jag’s eyes.

He focused on the astronomical coordinates written on it. “Is that what I hope it is?”

“Probable coordinates for Brisha Syo’s habitat. Care to go there and have a picnic?”

“Definitely. You tell the tall fellow with half a name. Should I invite your parents?”

Jaina nodded. “I think they have a right to be there.”

ABOARD THE ANAKIN SOLO

Allana’s breath came in gasps and she rolled over in her bed, her eyes closed, her face flushed.

In his chair beside her, Caedus winced. The nightmares had come again for her. It had been two days since her collapse, and she’d alternated between deep sleep and troubled dreams. The medical droid had said it was a not-unusual reaction to emotional trauma, but those dispassionate words did nothing to ease the pain Caedus felt.

Then Allana’s eyes opened. She looked around, confused, trying to make sense of her surroundings, and caught sight of Caedus.

She drew away from him, huddling against the wall. She reached for her thigh, her hand coming up with the injector pen her mother had given her long ago, the self-defense weapon with which she had once subdued a dangerous assassin.

She was brandishing it against him, her own father, and Caedus felt a pain as sharp as if she had plunged it straight into his heart.

Emotion made his voice hoarse. “Good morning, Allana. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

She lowered the injector but did not return it to its hideaway sheath. “I want to go home.”

“This has to be your home for the time being. You’re safer here than anywhere.”

She shook her head. “I’m safest with Mommy.”

“Bad people keep coming for you when you’re with your mother. You need to be here.”

“They all died,