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Leia nodded. “I know you. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about what would happen when we finally got rid of the Vong. I was thinking about taking up the old trade again.”

“Sure you were.”

“In an elder-statesman way, of course. And I was thinking that someone with your skills and connections, Leia, could be a tremendous asset to that sort of operation.”

She just looked at him for a moment, her expression somewhere between amusement and outrage. “You think I should be a smuggler?”

“Sure, why not? You’re through with politics, you said so. Maybe you should follow me around for a few years. Like I did with you, when you were busy helping rule the galaxy.”

“You didn’t follow, you visited.”

“Well, that’s as close to following as I could manage. I’m sure you’d be better at it than I was.”

“I may not be a politician anymore, but I’m still, well, honest.”

“Mistress Leia, Captain Solo …” They were the musical tones of C-3PO.

Han and Leia looked to the back of the cockpit, where the Protocol Droid stood in his usual posture of nervous diffidence. “What is it?” Han asked.

“It’s the children, sir. I was wondering what sort of games and entertainments I should find for them. They are, well, bored.”

“They can’t be bored yet. We’ve only been here two minutes.”

Leia nodded. “It takes Han at least three.”

Han shot her a glare. “Break out the hologame board.”

“Well, I did, sir, but they appear to think it’s somewhat old-fashioned.”

“Old-fashioned? That’s one of the few systems that was installed new in the Falcon.” Then Han frowned. It had been new when installed, which was, oh, nearly three decades ago.

Leia smirked at his expression. “See-Threepio, let the younger ones train with lightsabers against the remote. They won’t want to, since it’s so antiquated, but tell them it’s the same one Luke first trained on, and bring up his scores to give them something to compete against. The older ones … um, put up some simulations on the quadlasers and let them run through those.”

Han nodded. “That’s more like it.”

“If they don’t want to work with equipment that old, tell them it’s a history lesson.”

“Yes, Mistress Leia.” The droid returned the way he’d come.

Han glared at her. “Leia, you’re just asking to walk from here.”

She just smiled at him.

Twin Suns Squadron came on-station in an empty region of Pyrian space. The twelve members of the squadron broke into four shield trios and moved out from the center of their zone while the pipefighter remained behind, maneuvering itself to be more and more precisely at the exact mathematical point the Operation Starlancer coordinators required of it. They directed their sensors outward to give them earliest possible notification of a Yuuzhan Vong intrusion.

Occasional, low-volume comments crackled up from the comm board, which was set to squadron frequency. At the four stations of the Starlancer mission, nothing was happening—nothing but pipefighters setting up.

“I like your design.” That was Kyp, the volume of his voice louder than the settings she’d set up for her comm. system. She glanced down and saw that he once again was routing a message through their astromechs for privacy.

Jaina turned to look through her canopy at Kyp’s X-wing, which was floating mere meters off to her starboard. He was also looking back at her. “What design?” she asked.

“Your X-wing coloration. I like it for its effectiveness.”

“Oh, right.” She’d arranged for her X-wing to be painted a glossy white; on each flank was a picture of a running voxyn. The reptilian beasts, designed by the Yuuzhan Vong to detect and slaughter Jedi, had all been killed or doomed by the young Jedi Knights’ expedition to the worldship around Myrkyr, and Jaina did not remember them fondly—they had killed too many of her friends and colleagues. But she did like the idea when Sharr had expressed it to her. She liked the mixed signals it sent, appreciated its ambiguity. Did it mean that she identified with a creature created by the Yuuzhan Vong? That though she was a Jedi, she did not fear it and had