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“Yavin 4,” Luke said, suddenly feeling old and out-of-touch. “I teach there.”

“Hm,” the boy said. He led them around another disassembled X-wing to the back of the bay.

“You’re overhauling all X-wings in this way?” Luke asked.

“Yes, sir. We’ve also combined some similar systems on other starfighters.” The boy’s enthusiasm was charming. Luke remembered feeling that way about new technology himself once.

“How can the Republic afford this?”

The boy shrugged. Clearly, financing was not his business. “I don’t know, sir, but we’ve been doing it for more than a month now. Keeps us all busy, I’ll tell you. I haven’t had more than a day off since the changes began.”

He stopped in front of a maintenance platform. The X-wing on it was almost unrecognizable as a starfighter. Artoo moaned softly as though mourning for a dying friend.

Luke bit back his irritation. “How long will it take to reassemble the ship?”

“Sir?” The boy sounded startled.

“I need it this afternoon. Is that possible?”

“They just started on the computer system, sir. We can’t have it to you for the next day, maybe more.”

“I don’t want the changes made,” Luke said. “How long to reassemble it as it was?”

“I’m afraid we can’t, sir. General Antilles’s orders. He says the old X-wings aren’t stable enough for space use.”

“Mine’s fine,” Luke said. “I’d like it shortly.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Forgive me,” Luke said, feeling the inevitable wave of frustration he felt whenever he had to pull rank. “I’m going to be leaving on diplomatic business for my sister, Leia Organa Solo, the Chief of State. I would like to use my X-wing. I need it this afternoon.”

The boy peered into the workings of the ship. “I’m really sorry, sir, but they’ve already taken out the memory and the astromech hookups. The socket is still there, but we have nothing to hook it to. If they’re running true to form, the pieces have been recycled already.”

“I have the memory chips. My R2 unit picked them up earlier.”

The boy wrung his hands together. “Sir, if you’d look at the interior …”

That had been precisely what Luke hadn’t wanted to do. He was afraid he’d see an old friend gutted and nearly destroyed. He climbed onto the edge of the bay and peered in. The entire astromech area had been pulled and disassembled. Even though Luke hadn’t worked extensively on an X-wing since the Battle of Endor, he recognized a mess when he saw one. The X-wing was already half-converted.

He patted the ship’s sides, and Artoo moaned again. “Put her back the way you found her,” Luke said to the boy.

“But, sir—”

“I’ll deal with General Antilles. You just fix my X-wing.”

“Sir, we can’t have it for you when you need it.”

Luke nodded. “I realize that. Get me an older X-wing, one you haven’t upgraded, and I’ll put the memory chips in that. It’ll have to do for this mission.”

The boy looked chagrined. “I’m sorry, sir. We disassemble the X-wings when they arrive. It’s quick and easy. We don’t have any that you can use.”

“Surely there are some on Coruscant.…” Luke’s voice trailed off at the boy’s expression. Nothing in the New Republic ever ran smoothly. When something finally did, it turned out to be a problem.

“I can give you a substitute X-wing,” the boy said, “but it will be one of the new ones. Your chips won’t work, and neither will your astromech unit.”

“Will Artoo fit in the new X-wing?”

The boy shook his head. “It’s strictly a one-person vehicle.”

Luke sighed. He didn’t like his choices. He wanted to be in a starfighter so that he had speed and the ability to enter into planetary defenses unnoticed. He could take a bigger ship—Leia would probably let him have the Alderaan—but that meant he had to take a support staff larger than Artoo. It also meant that he would be noticed as he traveled across the galaxy, and it meant that he would have to explain why Leia wasn’t with him. Han had already left with the Falcon. And all the other ships had the New Republic insignias.

“You’ll work with my astromech unit,” Luke said. “Artoo-Detoo knows that X-wing better than anyone. I want it fixed