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Tionne gestured up into the night sky of Yavin 4. The other students around the flagstoned courtyard stood up to watch. Just then, the twins Jacen and Jaina emerged from a low stone arch in the side of the Great Temple, hoping to observe Tenel Ka at her exercises. Instead, they all saw a glowing light streaking toward them like a tiny meteor.

"Hey, it's a ship!" Jacen said.

"Not just any ship," Jaina added. "I'd recognize it anywhere!"

Jacen blinked. "Hey, Dad never told us he was coming!"

Within a few moments the ship swooped down with a roar of its sublight engines and powered-up repulsorlifts. The flat, pronged disk of the Millennium Falcon settled with a loud hiss onto the landing pad.

Talking excitedly with each other, Jacen and Jaina rushed from the courtyard out onto the close-cropped weeds of the landing field to greet their father. The modified light freighter's boarding ramp extended, and Han Solo strode down it. A lopsided grin appeared as his children greeted him with wild enthusiasm.

When Chewbacca bounded down the ramp, Tenel Ka heard a bellow of greeting from behind her. She turned to see Lowbacca on one of the pyramid's stone ledges above the training area. He swung himself over the ledge and scrambled down the sloping temple blocks to reach the ground. Chewbacca roared a response to his nephew.

Lowbacca had been very troubled recently, and Tenel Ka could sense many deep thoughts working through his brain. She had decided to honor her Wookiee friend by letting him fight his own battles... unless he asked for help. But when she saw the expressions on Chewbacca's and Lowie's faces, Tenel Ka grasped a strange and interesting fact.

Although the twins had been surprised by the unexpected appearance of the Millennium Falcon, Lowbacca had known full well that the ship was coming.

- ---------------

JAINA REALIZED SHE was grinning like an idiot as she hugged her father.

"What are you doing here? We didn't even know you were coming."

Beside her, Jacen gaped at Han Solo's unfamiliar costume of tattered cloth and furs. His hair had been cut raggedly, and he looked much tougher. "Blaster - bolts, Dad!

Why are you dressed like that?" Before Han Solo had a chance to reply, Jaina glanced behind him. Even in the dimness she could see that some of the Millennium Falcon's plating had been replaced with dark anodized hunks of metal, new storage pods had been mounted on the bow, and a second transmitting dish was attached to the rear. Her jaw dropped. "And what did you do to the Falcon? It looks so different!"

"One question at a time, kids," Han said, laughing and holding his hands palm out at chest level, as if to ward off an oncoming charge. There've been a few problems in the Outer Rim recently, so in her official capacity, the New Republic's Chief of State-" 'You mean Mom," Jaina said.

"Right." Han's grin was boyish. "Anyway, she's been after me and Luke to do some scouting for her. Says I need to keep busy or I'll get old too fast. And ever since he started this Jedi academy, your uncle's made it a practice to spend some time away from Yavin 4, just to make sure his skills stay at their peak performance. Still, we figured it might be a good'idea to keep a low profile, though, so 'You disguised yourself and the Millennium Falcon," Jacen finished for him. Jaina continued to stare at all the lumpy, patchwork modifications to the light freighter.

"And Luke, too." Han Solo nodded behind them to where their uncle, clad in a rumpled brown flight suit, emerged from the base of the temple.

"Hey, Han, did you bring the last components for those new shield generators?" Luke called. He brushed a greasy hand down the front of his stained outfit. He looked very much like a down-and-out pilot who had deserted his post.

"You bet, Luke," Han said. 'Leia's worried about your Jedi academy with the Second Imperium on the loose, so we've got to install those new shield generators and get them running with enough power to stop an attack."

"I still think my Jedi Knights would do a good enough