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He slipped his arm from her grip and posted his fists on his hips. “You have a problem with my having Baz watch you, Mirax?”

She studied her father for a moment, all tall and defiant, and felt years slip away. When she was a child he’d been her hero. He told great stories and lived large, talking to her of places she’d only visited in dreams. After her mother died, Booster used to take Mirax with him in the Pulsar Skate on any runs that he deemed safe. When she couldn’t go with him, he left her with friends—including Wedge Antilles’s family prior to the death of Wedge’s folks. As a child she had worshiped her father and felt safe because he had been there to take care of her and protect her.

Then Hal Horn caught up with him and Booster was sent to the spice mines of Kessel for five years. Though not yet legally an adult, Mirax took command of the Pulsar Skate and built her own business. Instead of hauling highly illegal cargoes for next-to-no profit margin, she specialized in exotics for which people paid a great deal. Her father’s reputation, and a certain amount of sympathy for his current situation, had given her a legitimacy and entrée into the shadowy side of the Empire’s economy, but she quickly made marks for herself and earned respect in her own right.

In short, while her father was on Kessel, she grew up from being his daughter into her own person. But he never saw that. I don’t know if any father would, but I know mine didn’t. Even after leaving Kessel he hadn’t gotten in touch with her, and only a chance meeting a couple of years earlier on Tatooine had reunited them.

She purposely kept her voice soft, but she met his hard stare without flinching. “You’re going to want to think a lot about what I’m going to say, Father, and that means you’re going to want to listen, then walk away to think. If you don’t, you’re going to get into a discussion you won’t like and one you will lose. And you’ll lose more than just the argument.”

Booster slid his hands around to the small of his back. He glanced serenely around the Errant Venture’s bay, nodding to a few people, waiting for the pace of activity to pick up again. He then nodded to his daughter. “Go ahead.”

“I’ve never had any complaints about having you as my father. Your getting tossed into the spice mines didn’t bother me. Your gruff bluster about Corran did grate a bit, but I understood. I have been overjoyed that you’ve come back into my life, and I’m very proud that you have the Errant Venture and are making it work. I’m proud to be your daughter, but I’m also more than your daughter.”

Mirax turned back and patted Baz Korral on the arm. “Yes, having your friend keep an eye out for us did get us out of trouble. By the same token, for all we know, the presence of his Verpines in the building alerted the bad guys to something unusual going on. They might have been thinking Baz here was planning some sort of raid of his own, so they set a trap and we fell into it. While he did pull us out of trouble, it could very well be your meddling that got us into trouble.

“And, look, I know this isn’t a male-female thing—though I do know you wouldn’t have alerted Baz if Corran were going to Commenor on the same mission we were.”

“True enough.” Booster’s expression tightened. “I’d have tipped the enemy he was coming.”

“And break my heart? Thank you, Father.”

“Mirax, you know I don’t mean anything by that …”

“No, Father, you don’t see that by making such cracks you show you don’t trust my judgment. You don’t trust my choice of husband, and you didn’t think Iella and I could handle ourselves on Commenor.”

Booster frowned. “But you came here first, looking for help to get in.”

“Right, and if we needed any more help, we would have asked.” Mirax took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. “Father, I’ve grown up. I’ll always be your daughter, but I’m not your little girl. I’ll accept your help when I need it, seek your counsel when I need it, and even listen to you when I don’t, but I don’t want you sneaking around behind my back to do things