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Wedge smiled openly. “We’ll hunt you down and bring you back here.”

“The galaxy is a big place.”

“You might think that, but it’s getting much smaller all the time.” Wedge shrugged nonchalantly. “The Emperor couldn’t hide from us, don’t assume you could.”

Corran nodded. “You weren’t that hard to find before, Patches, you won’t be again.”

“You don’t scare me, Horn.”

“I’m not interested in scaring, just catching, Thyne.” Corran bent down, retrieved Thyne’s breathing mask, and shoved it onto the man’s face. “No matter where you go, I’ll find those double diamonds of yours, just like last time. Count on it.”

Wedge nodded to the guards. “Take him outside and prep him for shuttle transport.” Inyri started to follow, but a guard stopped her in response to Wedge’s hand signal. “Ms. Forge, I’d like to speak to you alone.”

Inyri turned slowly and stiffly. “We’re hardly alone.”

“You’re not required to go with Thyne.”

She glared at her parents, then looked at Wedge. “I’ve made my choice to be with him. Leave it alone. It is no one’s business but my own.”

“Look,” Corran began, holding a hand out toward her, “we can protect you from him.”

“Oh, like you protected my sister?”

Corran’s hand dropped back to his side. The same horrible sensation he’d felt when Lujayne had died rippled through him. He knew the pain in Inyri’s voice had triggered the memory, but he felt he was also sensing the part of her that had died when she found out about Lujayne’s death. Asked to choose between the memory or Inyri’s pain, he couldn’t have decided which hurt him more, but the inability to redress either frustrated him like nothing else.

“I did, we did, everything we could to protect Lujayne.” Corran tapped a hand against his chest. “We didn’t know her as long as you did, nor as well, but you know what your sister was like. You know how good she was at making people feel welcomed and at ease and valuable. She did that with us, too.”

He pointed at the airlock. “It may not be my business what you do with Zekka Thyne, but I’m certain your sister wouldn’t have wanted you to go with him. Lujayne’s gone, but that’s no reason for the people who loved her and respected her to let you get into trouble. Thyne is everything your sister was not.”

“You don’t know him.”

“And maybe you don’t either.” Corran held his hand out to her again. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I do.” She folded her arms resolutely. “I am.”

Wedge shook his head. “You will have time to reconsider—up to and including your final drop-off.”

“Is that all?”

Wedge frowned. “You might want to say good-bye to your parents?”

“Why? That didn’t keep Lujayne safe.”

“It didn’t get her killed, either.”

Wedge’s reply seemed to soften Inyri for a moment. Her gaze flicked toward her parents, and for a heartbeat, Corran thought she was going to come to her senses. Then her eyes hardened and she fitted the breathing mask back over her face. Without a word she turned on her heel and stepped into the airlock.

Wedge turned and looked wordlessly at her parents.

Kassar hugged his wife. “You tried, Commander. That is all we could ask.”

The rest of the exchanges went fairly smoothly. Wedge resorted to threats a couple of times when Doole balked at giving him the people he wanted, but by the end of things they had managed to pull 150 political prisoners from Kessel in exchange for picking up sixteen of the most hardened and despicable criminals the galaxy had ever known.

And by the end of the process Corran had found someone they could use to keep Thyne in check. Wedge suggested a deal to Doole but the pretentious Rybet dismissed it as one where he got nothing. Wedge had suggested he consider it goodwill and after a flyover by the airborne portion of Rogue Squadron, Moruth Doole decided it was in his best interest to play along.

“And this is the last time I deal with your Rebellion. Kessel stands alone from now on!”

Wedge smiled at Doole’s image. “Then we won’t come back, unless we’re returning some of your friends to you.” He disconnected