chapter 1:
Jaina teases Zekk about how he’s always working on the Lightning Rod. He tells her that the ship means a lot to him. It was with him when he was learning how to trust the Force again. Besides, everytime he works on it, she shows up. So it reminds him of good times with his friends, too.
Jacen, Tenel Ka and Lowie appear. Zekk wonders what caused all this and asks if they’re planning a trip. He also asks where Anja Gallandro is.
Jacen checked in on her this morning, but she wasn’t feeling well. Because she was shaking all over, they guess she’s going through spice withdrawal. She tried to blow it off as unimportant.
Anyway, it’s not really a trip they have planned. Jaina points up to the Thunderbolt landing. Old Peckhum disembarks and embraces Zekk. He asks where the young lady Zekk has been talking about is. Zekk admits Anja isn’t feeling well.
Meanwhile, Anja has checked every inch of her quarters and every bit of her few possessions. There is no more andris.
She’d told her friends she wasn’t addicted. But that doesn’t explain why her hands are trembling and why she is panicking at the thought of not getting another dose. She doesn’t even know why she’s here anyway.
Czethros had tried to kill the young Jedi on Cloud City and had failed. Now, he’s disappeared and she has no way to get ahold of him. He’d been the one to introduce her to spice, telling her that only weaklings got addicted and she’d believed him.
He’d lied to her about so many things. He might be lying about how Solo killed her father, too. That’s what so hard to accept. She’d had a purpose in life hating Han Solo. He was the blame for all of her problems. Giving up that hate is going to be hard.
That’s why she keeps snapping at her new friends, even though they’ve done nothing to earn it. Determined she’s under control, she tries to convince herself that she’s not lying to herself either.
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