Ny understood why Skirata indulged his sons so shamelessly. She'd give in to just about anything they asked of her.

"There's matchmaking," she said carefully, "and then there's forced marriage."

Jaing grinned. "Yes, but where's a pensioner like you going to meet another eccentric trillionaire at your time of life?"

"I haven't got got a kriffing pension." She clenched her back teeth. If she laughed, it only encouraged them. "Just give me some thinking time. And don't bug your dad about it, either." a kriffing pension." She clenched her back teeth. If she laughed, it only encouraged them. "Just give me some thinking time. And don't bug your dad about it, either."

"See? She's got the mother thing down pat." Mereel wasn't deterred by Ordo's temper.

"Next stage is just wait until I tell your father just wait until I tell your father."

Ny knew the only way Mereel could have learned that was from holovids. These clones had a devoted father, but they'd never known a mother or anything resembling one.

The constant joking about it made her wonder if it troubled them at some subconscious level, or if it was just that they loved their dad, saw their brothers settling down happily, and wanted the same for Skirata because they thought there was some universal remedy for a broken heart.

Ny wasn't immune to that. The prospect of filling the void in her life was all too easy to grab without thinking. Why else had she flung herself into this, when she could have lived out her widowed years quietly and never needed to worry about the Empire kicking down her door?

Jaing inserted a probe into the navigation console and consulted the readout on his datapad. "There you go-bogus tachometer readings all sorted. We've just come from Phindar. Did we all have a good time there?"

"Can't wait to do it again." Prudii yawned. "Wherever it is."

Ordo didn't join in. He was the serious brother, constantly on duty and checking every detail. Besany was very much like him. Ny suspected that their children were going to be beautiful but unsmiling perfectionists who had to have jokes explained to them.

Cornucopia headed for the RV point with Mereel's contacts, just one more commercial vessel inbound for a freighter way station, nothing special, nothing dangerous. headed for the RV point with Mereel's contacts, just one more commercial vessel inbound for a freighter way station, nothing special, nothing dangerous.

Ny wondered where to dock to take on supplies on the way back. Ordo followed the transponder traces on the monitor, audio headset held to one ear.

"Mereel, can you confirm this is Teekay? Hyperdrive service vessel showing as registered to the HealthiDrive HealthiDrive franchise division, showing eight-zero-five." franchise division, showing eight-zero-five."

"That's it. Send him the code."

"Receiving confirmation." Ordo nodded a few times, eyes fixed on the screen.

Whatever was happening, Ny couldn't hear the conversation. "Okay, Ny, dock at pier nine-delta and they'll come alongside there."

It was just routine, she told herself. She'd stopped here a dozen times before over the years, a handy station for emergency repairs or to break a journey if she was flying the two main routes between the Core to the Tingel Arm-usually the Hydian, sometimes the Perlemian. All she had to do was behave as she had on every trip for the last forty years. If she was boarded, she was just another pilot with four Mandalorians as paying passengers, nothing out of the ordinary at all. She let the computer take over the final approach and marveled that even after four decades of hauling freight and surrendering her ship to automated systems, she still hated taking her hands off the steering yoke.

Cornucopia settled onto the platform. Locking clamps moved to secure the freighter's landing gear with an alarming settled onto the platform. Locking clamps moved to secure the freighter's landing gear with an alarming thunk thunk, an almost-forgettable routine that now felt unpleasantly like being handcuffed.

Mereel put on his helmet to seal his suit, then checked his blaster. "Okay, just let Teekay dock for a repair, and I'll handle the air lock transfer," he said. "And I just want to remind you shabuire shabuire that I've played meat-cans before." that I've played meat-cans before."

"Were you good at it?" Ny asked.

"Fooled the aiwha-bait, and they know clones better than anybody. Ordo's done it, too." Mereel disappeared down the aft bridge hatch, boots clanging on the ladder. "We've done it a lot lot."

"He's not expecting trouble, is he?" Ny asked, making a blaster shape with an extended thumb and forefinger.

"Habit," Ordo said. "We're opening the door in a rough neighborhood."

"It's just a freighter stop."

" Any Any neighborhood is rough when we show up." Prudii chuckled to himself. "You'll be neighborhood is rough when we show up." Prudii chuckled to himself. "You'll be ori'mando ori'mando one day, Ny..." one day, Ny..."

The transfer only took minutes, but it felt a lot longer. Ny wandered down to the side doors of the cargo bay and watched as a droid and a young human male in HealthiDrive HealthiDrive franchise coveralls steered a heavily laden repulsor through the inner air lock. It looked as if they'd cleared out an Imperial quartermaster's store. franchise coveralls steered a heavily laden repulsor through the inner air lock. It looked as if they'd cleared out an Imperial quartermaster's store.

"Anyone call for a fuel injector gasket?" Gaib asked.

"Good. Nice to see you in character." Mereel nodded at the dull gray plastoid crates as the repulsor came to a halt in front of him. He opened a lid. " Four Four suits, Gaib. Did you get matching sets in all the latest spring colors or something?" suits, Gaib. Did you get matching sets in all the latest spring colors or something?"

" Ten Ten suits." TK-0 glided in between his human associate and Mereel. "We know how you like to go in mob-handed. So we thought-why not score a few more than required? suits." TK-0 glided in between his human associate and Mereel. "We know how you like to go in mob-handed. So we thought-why not score a few more than required?

Easier than going back for extras."

"You think of everything," Mereel said.

"You can do that with a positronic brain." The droid plunged his manipulators into the boxes and began extracting white plastoid armor plates. "Did you know an organic's brain is sixty percent fat? sixty percent fat? Disgusting. How can you bear to keep all that Disgusting. How can you bear to keep all that mush mush in your head?" in your head?"

Mereel held an armor plate against his chest for size. "This is the new design? Not bad.

Not as stylish as a kama kama and pauldron, though." and pauldron, though."

Jaing and Prudii clattered down the ladder and pounced on the helmets. They had to strip out the Imperial comms and interface components and replace them with their own secure systems. And they looked completely delighted to be doing it. Ny found it hard not to think of them as kids-heavily armed, battle-hardened, and lethal, but still kids. They had an endearingly childlike capacity for enjoying things.

"Anything else you might be needing?" TK-0 asked, extending an arm to Mereel, metal palm upturned.

"Oh, I think this'll keep us going for a while." Mereel placed a stack of cash credits in the droid's manipulators. Ny tried to estimate how much this had cost from the stack of chips-five hundred thousand, a million?-and then remembered that the interest on Skirata's fund for one week wouldn't even be dented by that. The numbers were just too much to take in.

I wish he hadn't told me about the fortune. It's not like I even asked.

Ny was learning never to ask too many questions in the company she kept now. It wasn't just the reaction it might provoke. It was the risk of hearing the answers and wishing she hadn't, because once she knew something it could always be beaten out of her if someone else knew she had information.

But she was curious about the suits, and asked anyway, more to calculate the chances of getting caught than to learn anything. "They won't miss ten new suits, then."

"We won the contract to service some of the suit systems," Gaib said. "So we can mark defective suits as returns returns. Only we don't. We mark them as keep keep and and sell for a sell for a reasonable profit reasonable profit. And this new army is a lot bigger than the Republic's-millions upon millions. They wouldn't notice a thousand thousand missing suits." missing suits."

"Or the fact that it's costing them two hundred creds for every servodriver I bill for."

TK-0 probed inside a helmet and drew out tiny chips and hair-fine gold wire. "You know we could have retrieved your consignment consignment for you, don't you? You could have stayed home. Door-to-door delivery, our five-star service." for you, don't you? You could have stayed home. Door-to-door delivery, our five-star service."

Jaing looked up from the dissected lining of the helmet he was working on. "It's not that simple. It's people people-smuggling."

Ny wondered why Jaing had told him that much-or that little. The droid certainly knew who Niner was now, and that he had an illegal comm kit in his helmet. But in this game, nobody had anything more on their business associates than their associates had on them. Ny had learned the ecology of crime very fast since meeting A'den.

We all need to keep our mouths shut. One gets caught, we all get caught. We all have to to...trust one another. one another.

She enjoyed irony. There was, as the sages said, honor among thieves.

Ny Vollen, taxpayer and honest citizen, was now a criminal, and she accepted that was what she was. She saw how easily it happened, and why, and knew now that she could never sit in judgment on any being again, because she was as fallible as anyone.

"Come on, Mer'ika Mer'ika." She assembled the plates from one suit on the deck. "Let's make sure we've got the full set."

"Anyone would think you didn't trust us," Gaib said cheerfully.

"Oh, I do," Ny said. "I think it's the law-abiding folk I need to keep an eye on."

She used to be one of them. She wondered what Terin would have thought if he'd been around to see her now.

He'd have understood. She was sure of it.

Special Unit briefing room, 501st legion HQ, Imperial City Commander Roly Melusar was a mongrel, but Darman didn't hold that against him. Commander Roly Melusar was a mongrel, but Darman didn't hold that against him.

In fact, he took an instant liking to the man. He walked into the briefing room with Ennen, deep in very quiet conversation. Whatever had gone on when Ennen demanded a Corellian cremation for Bry, Melusar appeared to have done something that Ennen approved of.

Ennen sat down next to Darman and Niner.

"Well?" Niner asked.

"Good man," Ennen said. " Decent Decent man. Bry's at rest now." man. Bry's at rest now."

So he'd managed to get whatever rites mattered to him. It boded well. Melusar had sprung from nowhere in the last twenty-four hours to take over day-to-day command of the unit from Sa Cuis, who had simply vanished without explanation in the way that spooks did.

Melusar seemed relaxed about his new role as he stood on the dais at the front of the room. Darman tried not to make snap decisions about beings, but it was hard to resist.

Melusar was all right. He just knew it.

"Where's Creepy?" Fixer's voice was a gravelly whisper on Darman's helmet comlink.

That was his nickname for Sa Cuis, although there were others, all much less flattering. "I hope he's on a fifty-klick run to sweat some of that padding padding off his backside." off his backside."

Boss cut in. "Probably in some dimly lit room, showing some forgetful citizen the value of electrodes for jogging the memory."

Darman didn't dare turn his head to look for them in the small audience. When he checked his wide-angle visual feed, they were just anonymous helmeted figures in black armor like his own. But he was reassured to know the Delta boys were still around.

Nothing was said about Sev now-absolutely nothing nothing-and Darman had no idea what the guy's brothers were up to.

They were alive. That was all that mattered.

"Agent Cuis has been retasked on recruitment issues," Melusar said. What the shab shab was that? The more bland the explanation, Darman thought, the scarier the reality would be. "Forgive me if I repeat anything he's said already, gentlemen. But let's take a moment to remember our comrade Bry. I didn't know him, but you all did, and I know you're going to miss him. I'm truly sorry." was that? The more bland the explanation, Darman thought, the scarier the reality would be. "Forgive me if I repeat anything he's said already, gentlemen. But let's take a moment to remember our comrade Bry. I didn't know him, but you all did, and I know you're going to miss him. I'm truly sorry."

Melusar leaned on the lectern-tall, light brown hair, bony-and something about his earnest face and direct eye contact reminded Darman of Bardan Jusik. The gray Imperial uniform was just a detail, not the sum of the man himself. After a brief silence, he carried on. He walked slowly up and down the platform as he spoke to the commandos, gesturing to emphasize his words-more like he was trying not not to use his hands, nothing like the performance a politician would put on-and seemed the kind of man who believed what he was saying. to use his hands, nothing like the performance a politician would put on-and seemed the kind of man who believed what he was saying.

"The galaxy will be a safer place for every citizen if we eradicate Force-users," he said.

"I don't just mean Jedi. I mean all all of them. I can't blame you for dismissing this as some half-wit mongrel officer mouthing the Emperor's party line, but make no mistake-stamping out these Force cults buys us of them. I can't blame you for dismissing this as some half-wit mongrel officer mouthing the Emperor's party line, but make no mistake-stamping out these Force cults buys us all all stability and security. Take a look in your history books. See just how many wars Force-users got us into." stability and security. Take a look in your history books. See just how many wars Force-users got us into."

Melusar definitely had their attention now.

And he knew what clones called randomly conceived beings: mongrels. Roly Melusar wasn't like Cuis at all. He knew what his men thought, and he treated them as the cynical, weary, suspicious veterans they actually were.

"Wow," Fixer muttered. "He knows we're not like the rest of the Five-oh-first."

"That's because we wear black, and they wear white," Ennen said. "We must be the bad guys."

Niner didn't tell them to shut it. He seemed mesmerized by Melusar's no-nonsense attitude, too. Usually, he'd fidget in his seat if he had to sit still for any time, clicking his teeth impatiently, but he was frozen now-and totally silent. Darman couldn't even hear his breathing. He'd switched off his helmet-to-helmet comms. In the other rows of seats commandos shifted position. Some leaned forward a little as if they were watching a riveting movie, and some relaxed as if they realized they didn't have to put on a show of gung-ho Imperial enthusiasm for the commander anymore. Melusar was-as far as any mongrel officer could be-one of them.

That was it. That That was what reminded Darman of Jusik. Melusar felt he was in this fight with them, not just leading them, and it wasn't an act. Nobody could fake sincerity that well. was what reminded Darman of Jusik. Melusar felt he was in this fight with them, not just leading them, and it wasn't an act. Nobody could fake sincerity that well.

Melusar went on pacing, slapping the back of his right hand into his left palm to punctuate his words. He spoke like a regular Coruscanti, no airs and graces or expensively educated vowels. When he talked, he seemed to speak for everyone Darman knew and loved.

"What have I got against Force-users?" Melusar paused for a moment and seemed to be gathering his thoughts, as if he were in the middle of a debate over an ale with buddies in a cantina. " Everything Everything. The Jedi held positions of power and influence for millennia, all unelected, all unaccountable to the likes of us-the ordinary beings of the galaxy. We bankrolled them for generations. We armed them. We stayed out of their internal business, and we turned a blind eye because we thought they got the job done. Those guys really really knew how to organize themselves to get the best meal ticket from us regular dolts-but there are still other sects out there, all capable of doing the same thing if we let them. The Force will manifest itself as the Force pleases, and we can't take a blaster to that, but the knew how to organize themselves to get the best meal ticket from us regular dolts-but there are still other sects out there, all capable of doing the same thing if we let them. The Force will manifest itself as the Force pleases, and we can't take a blaster to that, but the training training, the secret organizations, the cabals that whisper in government ears- that's that's our business. our business. That That we can stamp out." we can stamp out."

The commandos just watched. Darman fully expected someone to stand up and clap, or at least cheer. Melusar paused for breath, looked around, and then seemed to remember a point he'd missed.

"You know what disturbs me most? They can influence your thoughts." He looked like he meant it. "They can make you hallucinate and do things you don't want to, and you wouldn't even know it'd happened. That's the most dangerous thing of all. But it stops here, and it stops for good."

Darman had seen mind influence at work, and it hadn't seemed quite like that to him.

But then the Jedi he knew were...

Etain always asked permission first. She used it to help Scorch calm down. And Jusik, he- he- Darman managed to hold on, but only just. Etain was vivid in his mind again, not filtered by that distance he struggled to put between him and the pain, and all he could think of at that moment was how he'd reacted when she told him she'd had a baby and that it was his.

He would have given anything to change that moment. He would have rewritten history so that he'd flung his arms around her and told her how happy he was. But he hadn't done that. He'd walked away in silence.

Can't change the past. Only the future. Stop it. She's gone. Stop it. Right now. Get back on track, find something to focus on, do something that matters. back on track, find something to focus on, do something that matters.

Commander Melusar went on talking. For a while Darman could hear every word, but the meaning wasn't sinking in. He switched off his helmet mike and let the tears roll down his cheeks. Not even biting into his lip managed to distract him this time.

When he got a grip again, Melusar was standing at the front row with one boot on the seat of a vacant chair, arms folded, discussing- discussing discussing-the issue with a commando.

It was Jez from one of the Aiwha Squads, one of Skirata's original hundred-strong training company. He'd taken off his helmet. Their old boss, General Zey, had been a nice enough guy, the poor shabuir shabuir; but there always seemed to be a moat around him that you couldn't cross even when you could see what lay beyond it. Melusar wasn't distant at all. He was right in the mud with them.

"Caf and cookies at briefings next," Scorch said, but the I've-seen-it-all tone of his voice had softened a bit. "Maybe a commando-of-the-month scheme, a crate of ale for the most mission-focused man."

"Or you could have General Vos back, if you prefer that that management style..." Ennen muttered. management style..." Ennen muttered.

Niner was still unusually silent. Darman swallowed, unable to wipe his nose and eyes without taking off his helmet. Melusar was still holding forth. Jez was listening intently.

Everyone was riveted.

"Here's one scenario," Melusar said. "What happened to all the other Force-using sects? If your kid's showing Force powers, then the Jedi show up and want to take it. The other sects don't want their Force-sensitives poached by a rival. They go underground to avoid the Jedi Council. Now that the Jedi have had their butts kicked, are those other sects going to feel it's safe to come out?"

"Not if they read my task list..." a voice said, and everyone laughed.

They'll take Kad. But if he isn't trained to use his powers, he'll have a quiet life, and Palpatine won't go after him. If the Jedi come back-they'll take him. Palpatine won't go after him. If the Jedi come back-they'll take him.

That's my reason right there. Even without what happened to Etain. Even without the war. war.

Darman's carefully constructed barrier between his two personas had finally crumbled.