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Mirax smiled grudgingly. “You know, that cockiness of yours really drives my father nuts.”

“But you love it.”

“Well, when you were a pilot it was attractive.” She shrugged. “In a Jedi Knight, well . . .”

“Yes?”

“Well, the Yuuzhan Vong should take it as a warning.” Mirax kissed him once, softly, then her kiss hardened. Corran let his hands slip down and around her back to draw her into a tight embrace. In her kiss, in her body, he felt an urgency and intensity, fueled more by love than any sense of loss or fear. “I will miss you, Corran, so much.”

“Me, too, Mirax.” He clung to her fiercely. Through his mind flashed scenes from their life together. The first time he ever saw her, her face as she slept peacefully in the wake of passion, the tears and smiles after the birth of their children, and even that spark of pain hidden behind an impassive mask as she watched a child try and fail, knowing that she could not make the failure right. “I love you, Mirax. Always will.”

“I know.” She kissed him again, then smiled. “You know, I’d love to take the next twelve hours to say good-bye to you properly, but they need the ship berth.”

“Bureaucrats have no romance in their hearts.” Corran kissed her again. “Whatever you were thinking for us to say good-bye, figure that’s how we’ll say hello again, and take a week doing it.”

“You have yourself a date.” She kissed her fingers, then pressed them to his lips. “Be careful, Corran. I know you’ll be brave.”

Anakin found Chalco tightening the restraining straps on a couple of the Ithorians in the Skate’s lounge. “You weren’t going to tell me you were leaving?”

Chalco patted the young Ithorian on the shoulder, then turned to face Anakin. “You’ve been busy doing Jedi stuff. I didn’t want to interrupt. Mirax needed some help, and one thing flowed into another, you know?”

“That explains why you’re here, but not why you didn’t say good-bye.”

The man frowned. “Always said you were a smart kid. It’s like this, Anakin.” Chalco leaned down, resting his hands on the youth’s shoulders. “Going after Daeshara’cor, I kinda wanted to be a hero, and you saw how that turned out. I went to rescue you, and you turned around and rescued me. I guess I figured, well, I’m not really hero material.”

Anakin frowned at him. “Hey, you did rescue me. As you said, if you’d not brought the blaster, I’d not have taken Daeshara’cor down. And, you know, what you’re doing here, helping these people escape, is heroic.”

“Sure, maybe, but not the sort of heroism you’re going to need.” Chalco patted him on the cheek. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy I met you. Proud, in fact, to know a Jedi like you. I mean, we’re friends, right? I’d like having a Jedi friend—and more important, I’d like having you as a friend.”

“We’re friends, Chalco.”

“Good. Then, look, my friend, the reason I’m getting my sorry carcass off this world is so there will be one less person that needs rescuing, okay?” He smiled and straightened up. “And I was planning to comm you, you know. Leave you a message or something, so we wouldn’t get weepy and all.”

“I believe you.” Anakin smiled, then looked to his right as a comlink on a shelf started to beep. “Should I?”

Chalco nodded. “It’s Corran’s.”

Anakin picked it up and answered. “Anakin Solo here.”

“Anakin, where’s Corran?” Wedge Antilles’s voice was easy to recognize even over the comlink. “I thought I was connecting with his comlink.”

“You did. He’s outside with his wife. I can get him.”

“It’s okay. Tell him to wait there. I’m on my way to that docking bay anyway.”

Anakin frowned. “What’s the matter?”

“A Yuuzhan Vong cruiser showed up at the edge of the system and dumped out a shuttle. Its ID transponder registers as the one Elegos A’Kla took out to meet with the Yuuzhan Vong.” Wedge’s voice became lower. “All we’re getting is a recorded message, playing over and over. It’s from Elegos, to Corran, conveying to him the compliments of a Yuuzhan Vong commander.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Jaina Solo watched the auxiliary