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“Where were you before two months ago?” Skeck asked.

C-3PO fell silent for a long moment. “Artoo, just where were we before that?”

The astromech honked and razzed.

“None of my business? Oh, here we go again. This little droid can be very stubborn sometimes. In any case, as to where we were … I think I recall acting as an interface with a group of binary loadlifters.”

“Loadlifters?” Archyr said. “But you’re programmed for protocol, aren’t you?”

C-3PO looked as distressed as a droid could look. “That’s true! However, I can’t imagine that I’m mistaken! I know I have been programmed for—”

“Get ahold of yourself, droid,” Skeck said.

Shryne brought the five of them to an abrupt halt. “This isn’t the way to the south entrance. Where are we?”

C-3PO gazed around. “I believe that we have somehow ended up in the royal residence wing.”

Archyr’s pointed jaw dropped. “What the frizz are we doing here? We’re a hundred and eighty degrees from where we want to be!”

Skeck aimed the ionizer at the astromech’s photoreceptor. “You can navigate a starfighter through hyperspace and you can’t get us to the south gate? Any more tricks and we’re going to fry you.”

Shryne stepped away from everyone and activated his comlink. “Jula, any word from—”

“Where in the galaxy have you three been? I’ve been trying to reach you for—”

“We got turned around,” Shryne said. “We’ll fix it. Any word from our bundle?”

“That’s what I wanted to tell you. He moved.”

“Where to?”

“The east gate.”

Shryne blew out his breath. “All right, we’ll get there. Just make sure you tell him to remain where he is.” Silencing the comlink, he rejoined the others.

“East gate?” Skeck said when Shryne relayed the bad news. He turned himself through a circle and pointed. “That way, I think.”

The astromech began to chitter. Shryne and the others looked to C-3PO for a translation.

“He says, sirs, that the quickest route to the east gate will involve our ascending one more level—”

“We’re supposed to be going down!” Archyr said in exasperation.

“That’s true,” C-3PO continued. “But my counterpart advises that unless we go up first, we will be forced to detour around the upper reaches of the Grand Ballroom atrium.”

“Enough,” Shryne said, ending further argument. “Let’s just get this over with.”

With the astromech leading, rolling along on its three treads, the five of them filed into a turbolift and rode it up one floor. No sooner had they arrived than R2-D2 made a sudden left into the stately corridor and hurried off.

“What, all of a sudden it’s in a rush?” Archyr said.

“Artoo, slow down!” C-3PO called, struggling to keep up.

The astromech disappeared around a bend in the corridor. Skeck muttered a curse and drew the ionizer again.

“I think it’s trying to get away!”

The three of them began to race after their quarry, dashing around the same corner only to narrowly avoid colliding with a regally dressed woman cradling a sleeping baby in her arms.

Stopping suddenly, the astromech loosed an ear-piercing screech and extended half a dozen of its interface arms, waving them about like weapons.

Confronted with the sight, the woman pulled the baby closer to her with one hand while the other reached out to slap a security alarm stud set into the wall. Rudely awakened by the astromech’s screech and the blare of alarms, the baby took a quick look at the droid and began wailing at the top of its lungs.

Exchanging the briefest of panicked looks, Shryne, Archyr, and Skeck about-faced and ran.

Bail’s assured posture in one of the reception room’s elegant chairs belied his sense of raw desperation.

A few meters away, standing at one of the tall windows, Darth Vader gazed out on crowds of demonstrators who were becoming more turbulent with every passing moment.

The cadence of his deep breathing filled the room.

This is Leia’s father, Bail told himself, certain of it now.

Anakin Skywalker. Rescued somehow on Mustafar, and returned to life, though now confined to a suit