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“Good morning,” Kyp said. “Sleep well?”

“Not bad, considering my bed was a block of ice,” she replied. “What’s going on?”

“Yuuzhan Vong recon just popped into the system. Not much of an outfit, but I don’t want them to find us here. If we hurry, we can jet out the back way before they’re any the wiser.” He locked his gaze on her. “That means I’m going to have to ask for your decision—now. If you won’t take this to someone in the military, I’ll have to do it alone. I’ll never convince them, but I have to try.”

His sincerity and urgency burned fiercely in the Force. Jaina remembered the column of sunfire, creeping toward the Yuuzhan Vong weapon. It wasn’t as if Kyp didn’t have proof. She at least owed his evidence a hearing, didn’t she?

“I’ll go to Rogue Squadron with it,” she said. “It’s the only place I know where I might still be welcome, and Colonel Darklighter will know what to do. But I’ll need your data.”

“Packed up and ready to go. And I’m going with you, just to make sure you get there.”

“That might not be a good idea. If Uncle Luke isn’t safe on Coruscant, I can’t imagine you would be.”

“Or you, for that matter,” Kyp added. “After all, you were last seen fleeing with them. I was hoping you could arrange a rendezvous someplace else.”

Jaina hesitated. “We could try that—I could send a message to Colonel Darklighter. But what if the Yuuzhan Vong or the Peace Brigade traces the communication?”

“You’re a smart young woman. I’m sure you can think of someplace you and Darklighter know that you can refer to obliquely.”

“Sure, probably.”

Kyp’s grin expanded again. “Good.” He jerked his head in the direction of the bay. “I took the liberty of refueling your X-wing and giving it the once-over. I’m afraid there’s no time for you to give it a personal inspection. We’ve gotta haul jets.”

“Okay,” Jaina said, “but if I flame out from a cracked nacelle, I’m holding you responsible.”

“Don’t worry. I prefer my friends uncooked. Especially my more attractive ones.”

“Boy, you’ve been practicing that flattery stuff, haven’t you?” Jaina shot back. “I’ve already agreed to help you. No need to pour frill syrup on honeycrust.”

“I wasn’t,” he replied, smiling that annoying smile again.

They reached the X-wings in silence, where Kyp’s people were already arrayed. There were more than a dozen and one, now, and she recognized few of them. They all had a certain raggedness to them, a look of almost never sleeping. They had eyes as hard and glinting as Corusca gems, and they looked at Kyp as if he were some Master of old.

“All right,” Kyp told them. “We want to fly quiet this time. Most of you know we seeded a moon of the sixth planet with a signal emitter. They’ll go there first and find nothing but a wayward probe. Keeping the planet between us and them will allow us a sunward course. By the time we need to change our vector, the solar radiation ought to cloak us from their long-range sensors. Then we put the sun behind us and make the jump. Any questions?”

There were none, only a swelling sense of pride and confidence. Jaina tried to shrug it off—these weren’t her feelings, after all. But it was infectious.

“Great,” Kyp said. “As soon as we’re out, I’ll trigger the thermal charges. They won’t find a thing, and we can always dig in here again.”

They cleared the planet without incident, keeping comm silence until they were well around the primary. There, Kyp peeled off from his wing and came alongside Jaina. He signaled for her to switch to a private channel.

“Ready?” he asked, when she’d made the switch.

“I didn’t think we had reached the node.”

“The Dozen are headed to another hiding hole. We’re heading Coreward. We split up here.”

Jaina nodded. “Just give me the jump, so I can lay it in.”

“Coming,” Kyp said.

They made the jump, and then another. After that they had a long realspace jaunt through another uninhabited system.

“Jaina?”

“Still here,” she said. Kyp was only about ten meters away. He had his cockpit light on, so she could see his face