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Face slouched, bored, in his chair in the comm center. Every so often, Admiral Trigit wanted to chat and Face had to be here for it.

The comm officer’s voice came over the ship intercom. “The shuttle Yellow Rover has just announced its arrival to system ship control.”

Face straightened. Yellow Rover’s innocuous arrival was the signal that the New Republic attack was half an hour away.

Minutes later the comm officer announced a transmission from Implacable. Face brought up Trigit’s image.

The admiral looked irritable. “Darillian, are you sure you blazed a clear enough trail for Rogue Squadron to follow?”

Face nodded. “I couldn’t make it too obvious, Admiral. If I operated outside our normal procedures, their Intelligence people might note it and realize we were allowing them to follow. I simply made sure that Night Caller was within range of Obinipor’s planetary sensors, spent the maximum appropriate time on course before jumping, and made sure to jump through a couple of inhabited systems where our presence would be noted by Rebel spies. They know where we are.”

“A simple game of follow best.”

The phrase didn’t ring a bell with Face. He simply nodded. No hint showed up on his main monitor to help him.

The admiral frowned. “Follow best,” he repeated.

Face smiled. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m still being distracted by our battle plan. In fact, I was wondering, since my few TIE fighters don’t constitute a significant improvement to the strength of your squadrons, if they might have the honor of escorting Implacable once the battle starts.”

“Don’t change the subject, Darillian. You follow best.”

Finally words sprang up on the main monitor. Face glanced over them, tried to look relaxed. “You follow best by following from in front. Thus your prey never knows that he’s not actually the predator. Standard Imperial Intelligence doctrine.”

“You’re rather slow with a catchphrase that is practically a reflex among former Intel officers from Coruscant.”

Face began to sweat. He hoped Grinder’s visual translation program would not pass that particular imagery along. He made his tone a sad one. “Do you know how long it has been since I saw my home, sir?”

“Two years, seven months.” Trigit glanced off to the side. “And six days. Thank you, Lieutenant.” He returned his attention to Face. “Why is it that you don’t know something that should be second nature to Captain Zurel Darillian?”

“Because I’m not Captain Darillian,” Face said. At Trigit’s expression of surprise, he continued, “Not the Darillian who left home two years, seven months, and six days ago. Everything changed after I left the last time.” Data began spilling across his monitor, pertinent facts about the real Captain Darillian, as Night Caller’s bridge crew tried to keep Face ahead of Trigit’s prying questions. “I’m not the Darillian I was before the Lusankya fled Coruscant and my wife died in the disaster that followed. I’m certainly not the compressed set of data in your memory that you think is Captain Darillian.”

“You’re evading the question—”

Face continued as if he hadn’t heard the interruption. He glanced away from Trigit’s face, tried to inject even more gloom into his tone. “An irony to that, of course. That one woman I adored killed the other woman I adored. I’m sure someone finds it funny.”

“You’re—what did you say?”

Face returned his attention to Trigit. “When Ysanne Isard launched the Super Star Destroyer Lusankya from its berth on Coruscant, the building in which my wife and I made our home was among those destroyed.”

“I know that. It’s a matter of Imperial record. What was that you were saying about one woman you adored?”

Face could have cheered. He’d finally pulled Trigit off the tracks of his interrogation. “Oh, there’s no use hiding the truth anymore. It can no longer hurt anyone. I loved my wife, Admiral, but Ysanne Isard was a goddess to me.”

“You’re joking.”

“Did you ever meet her?”

“Of course. Several times.”

“I, too. And I was dumbstruck each time. By her intelligence, by her power, by the sense that she had destiny wrapped around her like