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“I will fly the ship to the rendezvous point now,” 4-LOM said.

4-LOM flew the Mist Hunter out of the galaxy at a point near the galactic equatorial plane, and he used the massive gravitational forces of the galaxy itself to propel the ship toward the rendezvous point.

Which was almost exactly where Zuckuss had intuitively known it would be.

The exact point was two degrees off. Soon, from their pilots’ chairs, 4-LOM and Toryn saw the scattering of lights that was the Rebel fleet.

Or what was left of it.

Seeing it lifted Toryn’s spirits. She looked from the fleet to the galaxy below, and thought how her future was bright again. The Rebellion was not ended. It still had an army, reduced though it might be.

Toryn handled the communications and brought them in to a hero’s welcome. Friends and family crowded around Toryn and the others, and many wept to see them. Toryn and everyone on her ship had been listed as missing, and everyone believed them to be dead, or worse. General Rieekan himself came to welcome them back, and to get news of the eighty-four once given up for lost now on Darlyn Boda, and the eighteen others presumed still alive on Hoth. “I had feared the worst for you,” he told Toryn.

Two-Onebee and Effour-Seven rushed Zuckuss to sickbay. The Rebels made way for them. 4-LOM started to follow—Zuckuss was so vulnerable now, and the Rebels provided no security for him—but Toryn stood in front of him.

“4-LOM,” she said, “I want you to meet General Rieekan. General, this is 4-LOM, one of the two who rescued us.”

The general extended his hand to the droid, and 4-LOM shook it. “You must excuse me, sir,” 4-LOM said. “My partner has been taken to sick bay without me and without any guards.”

4-LOM started off at once. Zuckuss had been out of his sight for 1.27 Standard minutes. He did not know how to calculate the odds for assassination amongst these Rebels, but in other places that 4-LOM knew well, Zuckuss would be dead already. Two-Onebee and Effour-Seven could not protect him.

“4-LOM!” the general called after him. 4-LOM did not stop. The general actually ran to catch up to him. “4-LOM,” he said. “You are safe here. Your partner is safe. I give you my word on that. Murder is not our way.”

4-LOM slowed down a little, but he did not stop walking. “Thank you for your reassurance, General,” he said.

The general walked with 4-LOM. “We are forever in your debt,” he said. “I understand you and your partner want to join us. We need fighters with your skills. Once your partner is healed, let’s talk about your first assignments.”

They were at the doors to the sickbay. “Thank you again, sir,” 4-LOM said. He paused and looked down at the general. “I remember once living the way you describe life here: in safety and trusting others. But that was a long time ago.”

“I understand,” the general said. “I won’t keep you from your partner’s side.”

4-LOM entered the sickbay. The light was subdued there, and it was quiet. Even in his rush to get there, processors in his mind had recorded the faces and voices of the people he passed, matching them to the Imperial Most Wanted List and his guild’s list of posted bounties. 4-LOM analyzed those recordings now and calculated the wealth represented by the Rebels he had passed.

Their combined wealth staggered him. So many had posted bounties. The bounty on General Rieekan alone could have bought a moon in the galactic core. It could have bought worlds on the rim.

But there were other acquisitions, worth much more, somewhere in this fleet.

Zuckuss was not the only patient in the sickbay. As he walked along, 4-LOM heard others talking there.

And what he heard from one room made him stop.

A bounty hunter was lucky if a bounty included a recent hologram. It was the rare bounty that carried not only a hologram, but a recording of the acquisition’s voice. The patterns of two of the voices he heard speaking matched the voices of two of the Empire’s most wanted Rebels: Luke Skywalker and