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"Look, there's Mom and Anakin,' Jaina said, pointing out the front viewports, shading her eyes from the bright afternoon sunlight.

Watching his father dash down the ramp of the Falcon and swing Leia into his arms, Jacen suddenly remembered why he had felt so excited. Tonight, the entire Solo family would be together to celebrate his mother's birthday.

Jacen snatched open his crash webbing.

He grinned a challenge at his sister. "Race you!" Before she even had a chance to say "What are - you waiting for?" he scrambled out of his seat and headed for the exit.

That evening hundreds of torches flickered in the warm night air, decorating the Great Temple on Yavin 4. They burned at each corner on all levels of the pyramid, running in brilliant zigzagged columns up both sides of the stairways.

Jaina looked down the long wooden tables that had been used for her mother's birthday feast. The Jedi students and instructors, the New Republic engineers, and the few dignitaries who had come from Coruscant were just beginning to disperse, but Han, Luke, the twins, and Anakin would stay for a smaller, more private celebration, along with the family's closest friends, Chewbacca, Lowie, and Tenel Ka. Surrounded by her husband and children, Leia seemed unusually relaxed and contented.

"Happy birthday, Mom," Jaina said.

"I couldn't have asked for any more wonderful gift than to have my whole family with me," Leia answered. "It's such an unusual occurrence these days. And your father was very mysterious about this trip you all took."

Jaina suddenly wondered if she and Jacen had made the wrong choice for their mother's present. Would Leia be disappointed by the gift they had brought? Would it bring back too many painful memories about her lost home of Alderaan? What if it only saddened her?

Han put his arm around Leia. "The kids have a presentation to make.

They got you something special." Jaina glanced at Anakin, who quickly got the message. Her younger brother had always been perceptive. "I'll go first," he said.

Anakin flicked his ri-inge of straight brown hair away from his eyes and gently set a wrapped package the size of his fist on the table in front of his mother.

Leia carefully untied the strings and pulled back the glittering mesh that covered the gift. "Oh, Anakin. It's beautiful," she said, holding up a tiny stone replica of the Great Temple, a small ziggurat complete with the most meticulous details.

"I used the hologram as a pattern. I made this out of broken stone shards from the temple, pieces crushed too finely to use in the rebuilding. It's to reraind you of what the temple will look like again, once weire all finished."

Jaina's throat tightened at the sight of the massive pyramid, intact again, if only in miniature. She nodded to Jacen, who reached beneath his seat, pulled out the gift that they had brought, and placed it on the table with a soft thunk.

Their mother gave them a grateful smile.

"It's heavy-what is it, a rock?" Jaina had prepared a speech to go with it, but suddenly she found she couldn't remember the words. She watched silently as her mother unwrapped the brightly colored cloth that held the shard of Alderaan.

Lowbacca and Tenel Ka both looked on intently, in silence.

Leia studied it, ran her fingers over the metal's sparkling, faceted surface as if it crackled with electricity. "It's from Alderaan, isn't it?" she asked in a whisper.

'We wanted you to have a special piece of your home," Jaina said in a strained voice.

"We know how much Alderaan meant to you, and that the Empire destroyed itbut in a sense, it's not really gone. We're children of Alderaan, too, because you passed on what you learned there to us. In a way, the spirit of Alderaan is very much alive."

"It's from the core of the planet," Jacen added. "From its heart."

Tears filled Leia's eyes. 'Yes, I know it's from the heart," she said.

"From Alderaan's, and from yours, as well. The heart is the one thing the Empire could never destroy. Those of us who survived-who weren't