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Of course, I've programmed a droid or two for protocol, but it's simply not the same. They're so dull."

"Well, really!" Em Teedee exclaimed before Lowie slapped a furry hand over the translating droid's speaker grille.

"This is my favorite ceremony," Raynar said wistfully.

"Mine too," his mother agreed. "It reminds me of the days when I lived on Alderaan. I grew up in Terrarium City," she said. "My parents were on the ruling council.

It was a beautiful serene place, and every home was surrounded by plants and fountains like this one. I left to study at Alderaan University."

"Where you met father," Raynar put in.

"Yes." Her forehead wrinkled slightly at the mention of her kidnapped husband. "I was studying music and business, and Bor-nan was studying business and art. We took Several' courses together and found we had similar goals. When we finished our studies, we formed this trading company."

"Where were you when Alderaan was destroyed?" Jaina asked in a hushed voice.

Aryn flinched, struck by yet another painful memory. "Sometimes I wish I'd never left, that I could have spent those last few days there....

"She sighed. "Bornan is an excellent businessman, and he believes in overseeing negotiations personally. We were in the middle of very sensitive trade talks with one of the Imperial worlds when our home was obliterated."

Aryn seemed lost in her reverie when a guard entered the room, bent down, and whispered in her ear.

"What is it, Mother?" Raynar asked.

Aryn scanned the circle with a look of alarm. Then' she turned to the security officer. "It's all fight. Tell them," she said.

"A few minutes ago security noted a brief transmission that came from inside the Tradewyn. We tried to trace it, but couldn't find the source."

Raynar clasped his mother's hand. Uncle Tyko stood abruptly.

"Prepare for another hyperspace jump," he said to the guard.

"Immediately!"

The guard rushed to carry out his orders.

Tyko looked down at his sister-in-law.

"It can't be anyone here in this room," he said, "but I fear we may have a traitor aboard the Tradewyn."

FOR JAINA, THE bridge of the Tradewyn was a wonderland filled with the highest quality computers, gadgets, and communications equipment available in any market.

She and Lowie exclaimed over each discovery of technological wizardry.

She thought briefly of her friend Zekk, with whom she had spent many of her younger days on Coruscant, scavenging technological gadgets from the abandoned underlevels and tinkering with them so that old Peckhum could have something to sell. She and Zekk had gone their separate ways, though, He had fallen to the dark side and joined the Shadow Academy.

Even after he had been defeated, and forgiven, Zekk still could not forgive himself.

He had struck out on his own in hopes of building a new life. He had decided to become a bounty hunter, and Jaina wished she could contact him somehow, and-get news of him in return. But here, hidden as they were with the Bornaryn merchant fleet, no one in the galaxy would know where to find them.

After the Ceremony of Waters, Raynar took turns with his mother conducting the tour of the flagship, and proved almost as knowledgeable as she was on the subject.

The young Jedi had come to the bridge while Tyko prepared the ship for its next hyperspace jump, hoping to keep one step ahead of any pursuers that might be after them or Bornan Thul. The Tradewyn's jump elicited a tingle of excitement from the Jedi students. All of them had seen many such jumps, but rarely from the open bridge of a city-sized starship.

Tyko paced the bridge, a heavy frown corrugating his forehead, his hands clasped behind his back, as Raynar and Aryn Dro Thul continued the tour.

"What are those?" Jaina asked, spying an unusual console.

"Our weapons systems," Aryn replied.

"Targeting for the entire fleet is linked through here."

"Everything can be controlled from the bridge of the Tradewyn," Raynar added.

"Concussion missiles,