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He didn’t like the smug tone in her voice. “You must have gotten more coolant than you thought.”

“How do you plot that?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Hey, Corran, I’d be the first to say Hal Horn’s boy was smarter than Erisi is pretty.”

“But you thought I’d be with her.”

“Everyone makes mistakes, and you’d have been making one if you’d stayed with her.”

Corran shot Mirax a wry grin. “She’s possessive and you’re, what, being protective?”

“There are only so many of us out here, Corran.” Mirax plucked at the shoulder of her sleeveless tunic. “She wouldn’t be good for you.”

“And who would? You?”

“In your dreams, CorSec.”

The look of surprise on her face coincided with the remark’s sting in his heart. He wouldn’t have thought so automatic a response, tossed off with the speed of a reflex that had been well exercised, could have bothered him. In his previous career he’d heard the same line delivered hundreds of times, with more and less vehemence, by every creature that ever tried to get its mouth around Basic words. He’d shrugged it off without really hearing it more times than he could count.

The surprised expression she wore told him that she hadn’t meant to speak without thinking. She seemed to be second-guessing her comment as much as he was wondering about the effect it had on him. The automatic dismissal hurts because I expected to merit something more than that. And she shot back so sharply because I dared suggest she wouldn’t be better for me than Erisi—and her own reaction surprised her!

Corran crossed over and sat at the foot of Ooryl’s bunk. “Look, Mirax, it’s been a long day and tomorrow is going to be tough. I meant no offense.”

“I know. I was picking on someone in your unit. I’m a little mad at the Thyferrans right now. The price of bacta is going up—they’re blaming an Ashern attack on a processing plant. I used to turn a tidy little profit on shipments, but I can’t raise the money to buy a lot. I’m left running foodstuff and parts, which is not the way to get rich.”

“I wish I could help.”

“Sure you do.” She shook her head, all the while smiling. “If I wanted to kill my father I’d send him a holo and tell him Hal Horn’s son said he wished he could help me make some runs.”

“Somewhere in orbit between Corellia and Selonia my father’s ashes are trying to recoalesce to stop me.” He smiled and patted her blanketed knee. “I do mean it, though.”

“I believe you. Wherever you’re going tomorrow, if you run into anyone on the ground who can sign an exclusive import/export deal, think of me and get it on a datacard.”

“If I’m on the ground tomorrow, the only thing that will get exported is me, and I’ll be exported to Kessel.”

“I’ll make you a deal on the spice you dig up.”

“You’re all heart.”

She drew her knees up and hugged them to her chest. “It’s going to be nasty, is it?”

“About the only thing we have going for us is that they don’t know we’re coming.”

“That’s something, then.” Mirax reached out and touched the medallion he wore. “Is that what I think it is?”

“I don’t know. It was my father’s good luck charm.” Corran took it off and passed it to her, complete with the gold chain. “It’s a coin in a collar that lets me put it on a chain. My father used to keep it in his pocket, but I lose things too easily like that. So what is it that you think it is?”

Mirax turned it over and back in her palm and peered at it closely. “It’s a Jedcred.”

“What?”

She frowned. “Jedcred is what my father used to call them; it comes from Jedi credit. It looks like a coin but was really a commemorative medallion struck when a Corellian Jedi became a Master. A dozen or so would get minted and distributed to family, close friends, the Jedi’s Master, and favored students.”

Corran raised an eyebrow. “How do you know so much about it?”

She smiled sweetly. “Have you forgotten, my dear, that I make my living by bringing that which is ordinarily rare to those who want it? Collectibles like these can fetch a fine price, especially since the Emperor cornered the market on Jedi Knights.