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“No, not until she wakes up. Then who knows what kind of mind tricks she’ll pull? Better this way.”

Jaina watched the muzzle of the weapon calmly. “Right now you guys look like heroes,” she said. “Nobody knows you weren’t planning to help. Nobody has to. Kill me, and all that changes.”

“Hey, she’s right,” the Rodian—Jith—said.

“No, don’t be a fool,” Prann said. “We’ve got all those other pilots on board. Somebody will talk.”

“Good point,” Jaina said. “Are you going to kill them, too?”

“Prann, come on,” Vel pleaded.

“I’d take his advice,” an infinitely more familiar voice said, from behind her.

Prann jerked the gun up and fired as Jaina whipped her head around. She was in time to see a large, furry mass intersect the bolt with a blazing bronze lightsaber and send it whining into the bulkhead, missing its intended target—her father.

Lowbacca—the furry mass—growled and leapt toward Prann, followed closely by Alema Rar, whose lightsaber was also blazing. Then the air was suddenly full of blaster fire. Lowbacca slashed through Prann’s weapon and then knocked him to the ground with an elbow strike; Rar leapt straight at the bridge crew. Her mother and father were suddenly in front of her, Leia blocking any shots coming their way and Han taking careful aim so as not to damage the consoles.

It didn’t take long for Prann’s people to give up in the face of the furious and unexpected attack. Within a few moments they were all disarmed.

Jaina let her breath out in a long sigh. “Hi, Dad, hi Mom. I was wondering how long you were going to take.”

Prann was picking himself up off the floor, rubbing his jaw.

“We stopped to pick up reinforcements,” Han told her, indicating Alema Rar and the rest of Twin Suns.

Leia moved to stand next to her. “Are you okay?” she asked, putting her hand on Jaina’s shoulder.

“Never better,” Jaina said.

Her dad was staring Prann down.

“Look, Solo,” Prann said, most of his bluster suddenly gone. “I don’t want any trouble from you.”

“You were holding a blaster on my daughter. What do you expect from me, a kiss and flowers?”

“Oh—yeah.” Prann muttered, almost as if to himself. “I was just—angry, you know. I wouldn’t have really done anything.”

“The rest of you,” Han shouted. “I want you back at your posts, because this crate isn’t going anywhere until every last Alliance ship has made it out, understand?”

The crew complied immediately, and the Twins went around collecting the discarded weapons.

“This is our station,” Prann said. “We earned it.”

“Hey,” Han said, “what’s your name?”

“Erli Prann.”

“Erli Prann. Can’t say as I’ve ever heard of you. But Prann?”

“Yeah?”

Her father’s fist suddenly lashed out, cracking the butt of his blaster against the side of Prann’s head. Prann dropped as if Han had used the business end of the weapon.

“If you ever touch my daughter again, I’ll kill you,” he said.

When he looked up, Prann’s crew was staring at him.

“Well?” he thundered. “Don’t you all have something to do?”

They jumped back to their tasks as if they’d been working for Han Solo all their lives. The lasers and ion cannons started firing once more, covering the Alliance fleet as it gathered speed for hyperspace.

“And somebody get me the code to these stun cuffs!” he demanded.

The Dreadnaught was suddenly receding instead of getting closer. So were the other capital ships.

“Well, look at that,” Wedge said. “It worked.”

“They think we’re overloading our core, don’t they, sir?” Cel asked.

“Yes, Lieutenant, exactly,” Wedge replied. “But they won’t buy it for long.”

He turned to the pilots. “Hard about. Point us toward that space platform. And get the shielding efficiency back up in the power core.”

“Sir, the interdictor is down,” Cel noted.

“Brilliant. Control, order all ships to lightspeed.”

The Yuuzhan Vong shook off their uncertainty pretty quickly when they saw the Mothma’s drive turn their way. They gave chase like a pack of voxyn.

Up ahead of him, he had the satisfaction of seeing the rest of his ships vanish into starlight.

“We can ramp