"Yeah, we could just walk away from Mandalore and the Empire," Skirata said. "Find a remote planet. Build a small town. Move in. Let the Death Watch make a big mistake with Palps and get eaten alive, or let Shysa fight his guerilla war. Churn out cutting-edge pharmaceutical products. Drink ne'tra gal ne'tra gal on the porch, indulge a vast army of spoiled grandchildren, get old, and let everyone else do the fighting." on the porch, indulge a vast army of spoiled grandchildren, get old, and let everyone else do the fighting."

Ordo gave him a little frown. "Logistics, Kal'buir Kal'buir. We'd have to ship in everything on a dump like Cheravh, and freight gets noticed."

That was Ordo, all common sense. Skirata reminded himself that this whole thing was about Ordo and the rest of the boys.

The sow got to her feet and trotted off, pursued by her litter. Skirata liked Kyrimorut.

The stay so far had been short, but it was already full of bittersweet memories. The unfinished memorial for the fallen clone army, the crops breaking the surface of the soil, and the idyllic spots around the lake where he could fish were all things he didn't want to leave. And wherever he looked, he could see Etain, from the moment she let him first hold newborn Kad to the moment he stood by her funeral pyre. This was his shabla shabla clan home, and everyone living here had put their blood and sweat into it. So had Rav Bralor. She'd restored the place brick by stone by plank for him. Part of Skirata refused to be driven from it. It was a very un-Mandalorian thought. clan home, and everyone living here had put their blood and sweat into it. So had Rav Bralor. She'd restored the place brick by stone by plank for him. Part of Skirata refused to be driven from it. It was a very un-Mandalorian thought.

We're nomadic. Isn't that what Mando'ade were all about? Isn't that what we still are at heart? It's dangerous to get too attached to one place. at heart? It's dangerous to get too attached to one place.

He thought of Master Altis, smart enough to base his Jedi academy on a ship. He was actually looking forward to meeting the man. He had to. He wasn't sure why. He was certain that a Jedi Master would know how to take care of his own kind. In a few hours, he'd rendezvous with him in neutral space and look the man in the eye.

"They're very appealing when they're little," Ordo said absently.

"What are?"

"Roba. They're cute."

The babies were play-fighting, ramming one another with their snouts and squealing as if they were having fun. They still had coats of striped ginger hair that camouflaged them in undergrowth until they were big enough to cope without their mother. Roba sows were fearsomely protective. Skirata gave them a wide berth.

"Doesn't pay to get too attached to them," he said. "That's going to be our breakfast."

He felt bad about that for a moment. "Like Mij getting too fond of Scout. She's going to want to go back to her Jedi buddies one day soon."

Ordo was still staring at the baby roba. "Where do you draw the line?"

"What, between house pet and food?"

"Protectiveness. Saving folks. Maze saved Zey, just like you saved us. Mij and Uthan seem to want to save Scout. When does it become crazy to keep rescuing things?"

Rescue was an instinct, a moment's unconscious reflex. Skirata hadn't even had to think about stepping between Orun Wa and the young Nulls to save them. It was simply something that demanded doing. He didn't regret a second of it; it never occurred to him that it might risk his own life, or cause endless ripples of trouble down the years, and even if he had he wouldn't have cared. It just didn't matter. Maze obviously felt the same about Zey. Soldiers would die for their buddies. It was the way of the galaxy, the best part of it, that beings cared so much for others that they did dangerous things so that someone else could live.

"Is this another hypocrisy lecture?" Skirata asked.

"Never, Buir Buir."

"It's okay. Even I can see that I've got double standards. Ny keeps me fully aware of that."

Skirata realized he'd started referring to her as casually as if she were his longtime wife. He edged into the open pen and stood still, one eye on the huge sow. The animal would break his legs if she charged him, and he didn't want to think what her sharp tusks would do to soft tissue. Two of the litter broke away from the others and trotted up to him.

Breakfast or pets? You're right, Ordo, there's no logic in it.

The babies just wanted to see if he had food for them. They were already learning to root in the mud and find their own dinner. He felt a tug at his heart, but it wasn't quite an overwhelming drive to pick them up and keep them in the house, although he knew many folks would do exactly that.

"In the end," he said, "we know which lives we have to save, and those come first.

Even if we take insane risks to do it."

Ordo just nodded. The sow turned toward Skirata and let out a long warning grunt that sounded as if she was gearing up to ram him. As soon as her head dipped for her attack run, Skirata found agility he thought he'd lost twenty years ago and almost vaulted over the wall. She raced up to the half-open gate and stood rumbling a warning, even though she could have carried on and chased Skirata around the yard. This was her turf.

She wanted the filthy human interloper to leave her kids alone, that was all.

"She knows she'll be on Fi's plate one day," Ordo said. "What has she got to lose?"

Skirata decided to leave a couple of weeks before he let anyone venture into Keldabe again to check if there was any aftermath from Priest's death. They might not have found his body yet. But Reau would know something bad had happened to him.

"Come on," Skirata said. "Let's clean our boots and then go rendezvous with Altis."

Altis was due to comm them anytime now to say he was inbound. All Skirata could think of was how different things might have turned out if this Altis had run the Jedi Council, and not Yoda and his cronies. That was the trouble with the people who should should have been in charge. They never really wanted the power that they were better equipped than others to wield. have been in charge. They never really wanted the power that they were better equipped than others to wield.

Jusik let Ordo take the Aggressor for the journey. It made sense to pack some firepower and speed, even if Altis and his gang were as peaceful as beings could get.

Skirata took no chances these days. The fighter dropped out of hyperspace and waited at the coordinates, giving Skirata time to simply gaze out of the viewport at the sheer emptiness of speckled space, something he rarely had a chance or inclination to do. It really was beautiful, clean, so utterly miraculous and perfect compared to the sordid events on most planets that he wondered if Uthan's virus ever looked up at an apparently majestic ruby sky and didn't realize it was inside some shabby humanoid that cheated and killed.

This was why he didn't spend time contemplating starscapes. He remembered now.

Ordo cocked his head, listening on his comlink.

"Here we go, Kal'buir Kal'buir. It's a cargo ship, Wookiee Gunner Wookiee Gunner. They're preparing to let us dock alongside."

"I admire a man who doesn't overcompensate with a Star Destroyer," Skirata said.

"I'm going to treat him with caution."

Trust was a funny thing. They were now going to dock with a ship, not inside its bay but alongside, with a fragile corridor of flexible plastoid and durasteel as their only shield against hard vacuum. Somehow, both sides thought this was less risky than landing on a planet. Skirata felt suddenly foolish. Ordo maneuvered the Aggressor into position and the docking ring sealed with a grinding sound that reverberated through the fighter's airframe.

"Pressuring up," Ordo said, and hit the control. "You can board when the light shows green, Master Altis."

It was a demonstration of goodwill, Skirata knew. The Jedi was prepared to step aboard a Mandalorian starfighter alone, taking all the risk. Maybe the docking hadn't been such a rash move after all.

Skirata eased out of his seat and stood watching the inner hatch. The plate retracted, and he found himself staring at an ordinary looking human male-gray hair, late sixties, maybe even seventies.

So this was Master Djinn Altis.

He walked like a workman or a scruffy college professor, with no brown robes, tunic, or monastic look. And he just felt different different.

"I'm Kal," Skirata said. "This is my son, Ordo."

Altis held out his hand. "We're in the same line of work," he said. "Salvage."

"People-salvage."

"We could form a union, then."

"My boy Bard'ika Bard'ika likes you." Skirata winked. "And that's a powerful recommendation. likes you." Skirata winked. "And that's a powerful recommendation.

You still up for helping us out?"

"When do you want us to take your guests?"

"One of them asked to stay for a while. Kina Ha and Arligan Zey-I want their memories of my base wiped first."

"You can always reach us, anytime you're ready."

"But we already knew you were willing to take the Jedi off our hands, so we're here to talk more broadly, aren't we?"

"We are." Altis unsettled Skirata. He managed somehow to be both very ordinary and also radiate an ancient authority. "We're all on the run."

"I had this idea," Skirata said. He heard Ordo inhale, rightly so, because he hadn't fully discussed any of this. " We We want to rescue clones and keep our planet free of scumbags. want to rescue clones and keep our planet free of scumbags.

We hear stuff from extraordinary places and there's nothing we can't buy, build, invent, steal, or slice. You have all kinds of extra talents most of my clan don't have, and a different intelligence network, so I think we could occasionally help each other out."

Altis chewed his thumbnail. "There's a but. I hear it."

"But I'll only help you if you don't play a part in putting the Jedi Order back in power. I'll only help you if you don't play a part in putting the Jedi Order back in power.

Because we hate those shabuire shabuire for more reasons than I've got time to list." for more reasons than I've got time to list."

Altis roared with laughter. He seemed to find it genuinely funny, as if Skirata was sweetly naive about Jedi politics.

"We've never been close, us and the mainstream Jedi Order. We're the crazy relative in the attic that nobody talks about." Altis coughed to clear his throat. "About half of our community these days isn't Force-sensitive, so you can imagine how hard this is for a more ascetic school of Jedi thought to handle."

"Well, here's something for free, to show goodwill. You might think you're the harmless eccentrics, but the Empire's singled you out as a potential rallying point to rebuild the Jedi Order, and it thinks that lots of the surviving Jedi will try to regroup around you."

Altis wasn't inscrutable or serene, and he didn't look as if he was trying to be. He frowned. "Oh, that's worrying."

"Plett's Well." It was just a trick, throwing in one scrap of half-understood information to see what else fell out. Jaller Obrim would have been proud of him. "You're still moving kids there?"

That was a real real flier, based solely on a snatched line of radio comms mentioned by Darman, Skirata watched Altis's pupils flicker. flier, based solely on a snatched line of radio comms mentioned by Darman, Skirata watched Altis's pupils flicker.

"Ah, Kal, you are are well-informed. I ought to be scared of you." well-informed. I ought to be scared of you."

"Not at all. Only if you hurt my boys. All I'm saying is that if you help us out occasionally, we'll help you out. You might want to start by faking your death. We're good at making that look convincing. And we'll help you find somewhere to hide that's not on the database that your more careless colleagues managed to lose."

Skirata paused for breath as much as effect. Yes, he'd definitely got Altis's attention.

"One day, I know I'm going to get the bill for this," Altis said.

"It'll be a favor. Probably for one of the boys. Maybe for their families. Like you, we just want to be left alone to get on with our lives."

"So where do we go from here?"

"I'll comm you when we get our Jedi situation sorted out."

"We'll be there. Stay safe, Kal Skirata."

"K'oyacyi, Master Altis."

Altis winked. " Djinn Djinn, please."

Skirata stood and watched in silence while Altis crossed back through the narrow sleeve of plastoid and the air lock at the far end snapped shut behind him. Ordo sealed the Aggressor's hatches, waited for the red indicator to turn green, and disengaged from the docking ring.

"Worth the journey?" he asked, moving the fighter away from Wookiee Gunner Wookiee Gunner's hull.

"I think so." Altis was different. Skirata didn't want that. It blurred the line. Before long, he'd be what Darman accused him of being; soft on Jedi. He couldn't afford to forget the bigger picture just because Djinn Altis wasn't the kind of Jedi he was used to. "If only because he can give us tips on how to handle housing a whole community on a wandering ship."

"If you can't get rid of Force-users," Ordo said, "then you might as well buy a bunch of your own."

"Not that I think Altis is buyable, but he knows a mutual interest when he sees it."

Skirata decided he probably had been a bit generous in his offer, and the dumbest way to open negotiations was with a concession. But nothing had been traded yet. Two old guys who had to find a way to work together in a galaxy that wanted them dead had sized up one another and decided they could get on. That was all that had happened, nothing more.

"Jaing was right. We'll find a use for them, and they'll find a use for us."

"So here we are, drawing a line between one kind of Jedi and another."

"Isn't that what we did with Bardan and Etain?"

"Yes," Ordo said. "I suppose it is."

Ordo was an outspoken lad. If he had any real misgivings about Altis, he would say so plainly and undiplomatically. Instead, he programmed a course for Mandalore on the nav computer and took the Aggressor up to jump velocity. The transition to hyperspace always left Skirata feeling off-balance for a moment or two. When he focused on the viewport again, the serene starscape that made the galaxy look like a really nice place to live was gone.

I gave Altis another bonus, didn't I? Maybe I'll save that card for later.

Skirara had shaken the man's hand. And he was still infectious, still carrying a virus that would protect against the FG36 bioweapon. Now Altis would spread that to all his followers, and another population would be immunized.

"I should have billed you," he muttered to himself. "Never mind."

Gym locker room, Special Operations barracks, 501st Legion headquarters, Imperial Center Center Darman had his best ideas in the 'freshers.

He always did. It was something about the soothing effect of hot water hitting the crown of his head, and the continuous rainfall sound of the shower. He hovered in a relaxed state closer to dozing off than being awake.

He knew now that he'd made a serious mistake by not grabbing the chance to desert to Mandalore when Ordo came for them. There was no point trying to do the best for Kad from so far away when he was always going to be relying on others to take the information he'd gathered and do something productive with it.

"Dar? You asleep in there or something?"

Darman let the voice drift over him. It was Niner. He could wait.

No, he was going about this all the wrong way. He could be stuck here for the rest of his life, and that wasn't going to be as long as a regular human's. He didn't have time for another mistake. There was one solution. Examples of it had been staring him in the face for a year or more.

"Dar! You're going to be as wrinkled as a strill's shebs shebs if you stay in there much longer." if you stay in there much longer."

Darman couldn't break off from his train of thought to answer. When Fi needed help, when Skirata needed to get him out of that medcenter before they pulled the plug and let him die, Besany and Obrim went in and got him. When Skirata needed to save the young Nulls from the Kaminoans, he went and did it himself did it himself. Even the evacuation on the night of Order 66-even though it ended so terribly for him and Etain, and for Niner-Skirata and the team went in and pulled people out.

You have to do things for yourself.

Kal'buir showed you everything you needed to know to be a good father. showed you everything you needed to know to be a good father.