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Guiding her three children through the gate ahead of her, Leia nodded to S-EP1 as she passed by. “You can lock down the perimeter, Sleepy,” she said. “We’re in for the night, and everyone else can stay out till morning.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Jacen and Jaina ran on ahead along the flower-lined path, and unexpected laughter and delighted squeals came back to Leia moments after they were out of sight. Leaving Anakin ambling on alone, she hurried toward the house to see what the cause of the commotion might be. But after only a few long strides, she was brought up short by the sight of Luke carrying Jaina in one arm, with Jacen at his other elbow. The three of them were all smiles, though Luke’s faded quickly when he saw Leia’s expression.

“Been to the Fleet hospital, I hear,” Luke said, making room on the other arm for Anakin. “How’s Han doing?”

“Better,” she said. “He’s out of the tank now, and looking more like himself. This was the first time I took the children. What are you doing here?”

“Belatedly accepting an invitation,” he said, showing a rueful smile.

“Help me get the children to bed,” she said.

That took some time, for Luke’s surprise appearance had swept away any hint of sleepiness. The children would literally not let go of him without a promise that they would see him in the morning.

“But right now, your mom and I need to talk,” Luke said firmly. “So it’s lights out and eyes closed for you. Think about your father and send him healing thoughts, so that he can come home as soon as possible.”

Leia watched and listened with a passive curiosity. When she and Luke were finally alone in the warmly lit family room, she asked lightly, “Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”

He laughed. “I haven’t changed as much as you probably wish.”

“Did you find what you were hoping to?”

The laugh faded from his eyes. “No,” he said. “But as happens sometimes, I found something else. I don’t know if I can explain what.”

“I can feel a difference in you,” Leia said. “You feel—calmer.”

“A lot happened,” he said. “I learned from some of it. Leia, I still want to know who our mother was, and what she gave to us. That still matters to me. Not knowing is an empty hole inside me, and some of what Akanah told me would fill it so well that I still want to believe it.”

“But you came back.”

“It’s the one little piece that maybe I did find that brought me back,” Luke said. “A lesson about love and family from a woman I never met, and probably never will. Leia, it’s crazy for me to be chasing a hope from Core to Rim when you and these kids are right here, real as can be. And if you’d still let me be part of loving them, and teaching them, and sharing your delight at watching them grow—well, I’m the Jedi uncle you’re looking for.”

Her eyes misting, Leia went to him and gathered him into a long, fiercely glad embrace. “Welcome to my family, Luke,” she whispered, both offering and accepting the familiar and comforting warmth of connection. “Welcome home.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael P. Kube-McDowell is the pen name of Philadelphia-born novelist Michael Paul McDowell. His prior works include the 1985 Philip K. Dick Award finalist Emprise and the 1991 Hugo Award nominee The Quiet Pools. His contributions to the extended Star Wars saga, the “Black Fleet Crisis” novels, were New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers. Most recently, The Trigger, a 1998 collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clark, was praised as “an epic thriller,” “solid, intelligent, serious entertainment,” and “what near-future SF should be: clever, thoughtful, thrilling, and human.”

In addition to his twelve previous novels, Michael has contributed stories to a variety of leading magazines and anthologies including Analog, Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, After the Flames, and Alternate Presidents. Three of his stories were adapted as episodes of the George Romero horror-fantasy television series Tales From the Darkside (two with Michael’s own teleplays). Outside of science fiction,