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“That’s true, because if you did, I’d see to it that you stopped feeling altogether.” Mirax squeezed his fingers. “Are you sure about this? Don’t you want to talk to Iella about it?”

“She’d tell me I’ve been an idiot for not asking you to marry me sooner. She and Diric were as close as any two people I’ve ever seen; and despite the pain she’s been through, I don’t think she’d have surrendered one moment of their happiness together to make her feel better. For as long as I’ve known her she’s had a habit of predicting how many weeks my relationships would last, and she was always on target. With us, no prediction.”

“Always did think she was smart.” Mirax held her right hand up. “One last thing, Corran: You realize that I’m not walking away from my lifestyle or my father. The Mirax Terrik you get is the Mirax Terrik you know.”

“I think your father and I have an understanding, but even if we didn’t, you’d be worth it. Realize I’m not going to change either.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Corran arched an eyebrow. “So?” He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. “Will you marry me?”

Mirax lifted his hand from the table and kissed it. “Yes, I will, Corran Horn.”

The tension in him exploded in a nervous laugh that freed a single tear to roll down his cheek. He slipped his hand from hers, then pulled off the gold chain and Jedi medallion he wore. “This station isn’t a good place for finding jewelry and I didn’t want to ask Zraii to machine up a Quadanium ring, so all I have to offer you is this.” He held the medallion out by the chain, but Mirax refused to take it.

“Corran, I know how much that medallion means to you. It’s your good luck piece. I won’t take it, especially just before the coming assault.”

“Mirax, you’ve just agreed to marry me. Any luck left in this thing has clearly been drained. You’re the most important person in the galaxy to me, so if this will keep you safe, or even if it will remind you of me, it’s better off with you than hanging around my neck.”

She accepted it from him and stared down at the medallion resting in her palm. She ran a thumb over Nejaa Halcyon’s profile and slowly smiled. “Do you think our children will look like him?”

“Better him than your father.” They both laughed. “At least for the boys, that is. If our daughters look like their mother, I’ll be as pleased as possible and as protective of them as your father is of you.”

Mirax looped the chain over her head and let it slip beneath her clothes. “I’m going to find you something that’s just as special as this is. Maybe I’ll talk to Zraii about fabricating something for you, something you’ll never forget.”

“Like what?”

“A ring, maybe, made from the Lusankya’s hull. It held you captive the way you hold my heart captive.”

“You’re good, Mirax, very good.”

“I’m the best, Corran, and you always push me to excel.”

He smiled. “So, when do we break the news to your father?”

Mirax paled slightly. “The when comes after the how I think. Give me some time to figure that out. We can tell Wedge, though, and some of the others, but that can wait until tomorrow. We have other things to do tonight.”

“Such as?”

“You, Corran Horn, have asked me to marry you, I have accepted and I intend us to do everything right in our marriage.” She stood up from the table and dragged him up after her. “Toward that end, there are certain things I think we should practice until we perform them perfectly.”

Fliry Vorru found it easy to read the emotions running through the two ship captains. The briefing Ysanne Isard was giving them clearly frightened Captain Lakwii Varrscha. Though the woman stood taller and was more muscled than Ysanne Isard, she lacked the vitality that gave Isard her commanding presence. That the woman had risen so high in Imperial service marked her as competent, but Vorru felt her rise had much to do with the fact that she had hitched her career to that of Joak Drysso and his rising star had dragged her along to the limits of her abilities.

Joak Drysso, in contrast to Varrscha, was small and blocky,