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"Millennium Falcon"


Jedi Cool
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Introduction:
 
Han Solo had first seen the ship a few years before he’d joined the Rebel Alliance sitting on Nar Shaddaa.  He’d seen her for what she would become someday.  It had been easy to envy what Lando had, but he knew his friend didn’t deserve this ship.
 
He’d been drawn to her, but had never dreamed he would win her in a game.  While he imagined her origins, it had never occurred to him to ask Lando how she got the name Millennium Falcon.
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chapter 1:
 
60 years before the Battle of Yavin at the Corellian Engineering Corporation, Soly Kantt watches the line of YT-1300s being assembled.  It’s already a classic ship despite having been on the market for less than a year. 
 
He’s lost track of how many have come past him, monitoring a display when a tech runs to him to report a faulty control valve on one of the fuel droids.  Kantt jumps up and orders the droid shut down.  The program doesn’t respond and it is not ovveriding either.  The droid continues to pump fuel into YT 492727ZED.  It’s a form of liquid metal that powers the freighters to great speeds.  Kantt notes the fuel cells are about to redline.
 
It’s going to come out hot.  He moves quickly to the data-keeping department where the ship has pushed itself out of line, knocking aside several droids, clipping other ships in line, causing them to spin
 
This has halted the line, piled up droids and caused sounds of molten metal popping against the viewport.  He hopes it’s over and that the ship has exploded, but it’s avoided all that and is moving to the sublight engine testing station.
 
This rogue ship cannot be matched by the sled pilot.  The ship’s sudden twists and firings of the thrusters are intermittent.  To Kannt, it’s as if the ship is deliberating taking evasive action.  The wranglers are finally able to get alongside it and quiet it. 
 
The tech notes that YT had a hero’s birth.  Kantt tells him that it’s just a freighter out of a 100 million.  The tech rather thinks it’s one in a 100 million.
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chapter 2:
 
19 years before the Battle of Yavin, the Battle of Coruscant is raging.  The pilots of YT 492727ZED have slipped it in past a transport.  Jadak and Reeze had hoped this would be ordinary, but the Separatist attack has surprised everyone. 
 
Reeze thinks they should be flying the ship for the private sector, but Jadak tells him that the smuggler life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.  The Home Fleet has reverted to real space in response to the abduction of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.  Getting down to the surface of the planet is going to be difficult.
 
They pull up the battle net, spot the Invisible Hand and pick up reports that Jedi Kenobi and Skywalker are aboard with the Chancellor.  Some Republic ships haven’t figured that out and the Guarlara keeps firing on it.  They watch the ship falling apart as it heads into the atmosphere, taking bets on whether it will make it.
 
Following it in is probably their best shot and breaking ground.
 
Though the ship’s escape pods are away, the Hand continues to fly with remarkable skill down to the planet.  Reeze asks if it could be Anakin Skyawlker.  Jadan doubts it’s Palpatine, unless he’s got skills he hasn’t revealed yet.
 
They are followed by a couple of clone fighters that eventually break off to help the Hand which crashes below.  That’s when they are noticed.  Jadak tells Control that they are the Stellar Envoy out of Ralltiir, heading to the Senate Annex.  After providing the authorization code, they are cleared to land at the Senate Building.
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          •    The quip about Palpatine is funny.  Yes, indeed, he does have skills he hasn’t revealed, but we did learn in a couple of books that he was a pretty good pilot, too.
          •    Of course, we know that the Battle of Coruscant took place in Revenge of the Sith
 
 

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chapter 3:
 
The Stellar Envoy lands and the pilots meet with two Senators – Largetto and Des’sein - each representing worlds far from the Core.  A Jedi stands off to the side, waiting, with a toolbox.
 
Des’sein nervously asks if Jadak has the carry case.  Inside, they find exactly what they need and compliment Jadak on his flying.  Senator Fang Zar rushes out to tell them the Chancellor has been returned safely and that Master She’’s friends have, too.
 
Martial law has been rescinded and Count Dooku is dead.  Des’sein reminds them they must continue their plans until they know what the Chancellor’s intentions are.  He asks them to deliver the Stellar Envoy to allies on Toprawa.  An Antarian Ranger named  Folee will take possession of it there.  They are given a code phrase: Restore Republic honor to the galaxy.
 
Reeze explains they’ve grown rather fond of the ship and were hoping to buy it instead.  Fang Zar tells them that the ship itself is vital to the mission.  They will be given funds to get back to the Core and another ship waiting for them when they return. 
 
The Jedi needs to modify the ship first.  It is like a key to restore Republic honor to the galaxy. 
 
Armand Isard watches the crowd gathered to greet the Chancellor when he’s told that the three Senators have taken possessions of a carrycase brought the pilots of an old freighter.  The three in question are known to be members of the Delegation of 2000.   Jedi Master J’oopi She’ is also there.  No intel on what’s in the case. 
 
Isard doesn’t like this idea of a secret meeting, especially with Jedi who have been snopping around lately.  He has shock troopers sent to disrupt the meeting and hold the Senators on some pretext.  Master She will stay out of it if the reason is credible enough.  The couriers should be arrested and charged with possessing a stolen code, impersonating emergency personnel and violating restricted airspace.
 
After getting set up, Jadak and Reeze are preparing to go when Master She tells them that shock troopers are being sent to arrest the Senators.  He’s taking them to safety, but the couriers need to take off now.
 
Jadak and Reeze lift off, knocking off rapelling shock troopers as they go.
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          •    Ah, our good friend Armand Isard, seldom seen, mentioned more often. 
          •    Did the Delegation of 2000 exist at the Battle of Coruscant?  Didn’t that come together when Padme met with several senators later during Revenge of the Sith?
 

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That happened in chapter 2.  For now, the ship is going by the name Stellar Envoy per Jadak.

 

chapter 4:
 
Isard learns that the Senators were tipped off ahead of time.  He has the freighter prioritized.
 
Stellar Envoy takes advantage of the end of the blockade to move quickly through ships, avoiding the V-wings and ARC-170s pursuing them.  Reeze hears they’ve been designated an enemy target.  Jadak brings the ship as close as he can to the Republic cruisers.
 
Knowing the ARCs will keep following them, Jadak decides they will have to throw off the scent and head to Nar Shaddaa instead.  In hyperspace, they wonder what the Jedi installed.  Reeze mentions they could just repair the ship at Nar Shaddaa and keep going.
 
Jadak reminds him that the mission comes first.  If they do their part, it could turn out right in the end.  Reeze protests that this is almost over anyway.  Count Dooku is dead and they might not be needed.  Jadak offers to reconsider if it’s all over by the time they reach Toprawa.
 
When they revert to realspace, the ship dies.  With no way to move or communicate, they cannot get out of the way of a huge Corellian ship moving to leave orbit.  On Nar Shaddaa, the bigger ship gets their way.  Jadak and Reeze are about to eject themselves in an escape pod when the ship comes back online and spirals
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chapter 5:
 
A month later, Stellar Envoy is still on Nar Shaddaa.  Bammy Decree is greeted by a couple of bodyguards for Rej Taunt and ushered into the steam room. 
 
Taunt tells him that he agreed to see him because he got word that Bammy has talent.  He asks about the ship.  Bammy says it’s an old YT-1300, but it’s a classic ’25.  It’s easy to maintain, fuel efficient and low profile.  It does need some work since it was involved in a collision about a month or so back.
 
Taunt knows which one he means.  It hit a huge cruiser after the pilots ejected in a pod and were flatted when the ship spun at the last second.  The ship was hit hard, but it was built for that.  No one else is interested in it.  The core is sound.  Taunt wants bunking for himself and whoever he wants to bring along, as well as secret compartments to keep snoppy customs officials out of the way.  No fancy weapons that might attract pirates, though.
 
Bammy offers to put a transponder on it that will confuse anyone who needs to know which ship it is.  They are ahead of the new Imperial techs anyway.  He’ll leave the name to Taunt.
 
Bammy gets to work on the ship which takes a lot more repair than he’d been led to believe.  His full mechanic staff is back after a month of celebrating the end of the war.  While few here are that enthusiastic about the idea of Emperor Palpatine, most think that Palpatine will spend a lot of time solidifying his power in the Core. 
 
His newest employee – Shug Ninx – has been tasked with finding someone who can provide a new droid brain for the ship.  Sadly, the kid didn’t know that Masel was a bad source.  He’s an arms dealer who worked for both sides during the war. 
 
Masel has a line on some gear from a Separatist tri-fighter.  He’s got someone who can do the tricky conversion for them, but they’ll need the schematics.  Bammy decides to think about it, returns to the freighter and finds one of his techs with a module pulled from the droid brain.  It’s the flight recorder.
 
Bammy spends a lot of time looking through the history of the ship.  It had spent its first 12 years ferrying supplies within the Corellian system where it had developed a reputation for her speed and maneuverability, but also had its quirks, depending on the pilot.  It went through many names, Corell’s Pride, Fickle Flyer, Meetyl’s Misery, giving joy or despair to its pilots.
 
Eventually, the company went bankrupt, sold off its ships and this one went to Kal  and Dova Brigger who named it Hardwired, moving freight with it.  The ship’s hyperdrive was upgraded then.  They eventually got in trouble with the Smugglers’ Confederacy in the Cularin system which resulted in Dova being executed.  Kal renamed the ship Wayward Son and meeting his end when he allied himself with a former smuggler named Stark dealing in bacta on Thyferra.
 
The ship became the property of Republic Group which renamed it Stellar Envoy.  It’s possible that even Jedi piloted it as a holoimage shows Plo Koon, Qui-Gon Jinn and Adi Gallia standing in front of a ship that might be the same one.
 
The last pilot, Jadak, a prizewinning swoop racer, had jumped from Coruscant and had probably been damaged during the flight from the battle only to collide with another ship when it arrived here.  To Bammy, it seems a cruel way for a swoop racer to die.
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          •    The Troiken incident occurred during the Stark-Hyperspace War and is detailed in the Dark Horse Comics’ story of the same name.
          •    Shug Ninx is an early name in the Star Wars EU.  He appeared in Dark Horse Comic' Dark Empire series, then in the Han Solo books The Hutt Gambit and Rebel Dawn.  He was mentioned, but not seen, in the Jedi Eclipse duology.
 

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chapter 6:
 
The ship, now called Second Chance, now belongs to Rej Taunt whose colleague, Lu San, is impressed with the workmanship.  It’s been refitted with living spaces and a galley.  Taunt was so excited to test it out he’d even taken a job from Black Sun that he probably wouldn’t have ordinarily.
 
It had taken 13 years for Black Sun to recover from the assassination of several heads.  There are signs that it’s reorganizing now under Dal Perhi and Xizor.
 
He isn’t excited about dealing with Colicoids, though.  They are insect-like species that sometimes eat their own.  Taunt is advised that he will have to keep from showing his neck. 
 
It doesn’t quite turn out as it should.  Soon, Taunt is fleeing from the system, hoping to erase the incident from his memory.  The meat had barely gotten off-loaded when they were tearing into it.  Somehow, Lu San made the deal happen.
 
Then one of Taunt’s bodyguards stretched his neck to work out a kink in his shoulders and the feeding frenzy resumed.   Lu San tries to intervene, but the Colicoids smelled the fear and tore him apart.  It’s a miracle they got away with the cargo intact. 
 
Sadly, the buzz droids begin disabling the entire ship.
 
Bammy Decree doesn’t understand how Pistoeka sabotage droids got aboard.  Taunt explains he bartered for them, but the important thing is how to deactivate them.  Bammy tells him to shut down the control computer that came with the deal.  Taunt yells that it is off.  They never activated it.  It’s like the droids are trying to reverse all the modifications made.
 
Bammy tells him to bring the Pistoeka control computer online and have it task the droids to revert to standard programming.  After that, jettison all of them.  Taunt will have to get an inventory of all the damage.  Bammy will get the parts and have a ship bring him out so he can make repairs. 
 
He no sooner gets off the comm. when an Imperial Assault ship and a Destroyer escort arrive.  They are being told to prepare for boarding.  The droids have already been jettisoned and Bammy had told them to retask them to their original programming.  His colleague tells him that their original programming was to disable Republic vessels.
 
The escort Destroyer ends up flying into their midst.  Taunt tells the pilot to warn them off, but the Imperials think it’s a trick and are threatening to open fire.  The deflector shields are almost penetrated when an explosion shows outside the viewport.
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          •    We met Dal Perhi in Coruscant Nights #1: Jedi Twilight.  Of course, we all remember Xizor.
 

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In the beginning, there was nothing Han Solo wouldn’t do for his ship, even if it meant rescuing someone from the Corporate Sector that would be able to upgrade her.  His adventure with Doc and his daughter, Jessa, was only one adventure that allowed him to live a life free of piloting Hutt barges. 
 
 
chapter 7:
 
Decades later, Allano Solo sits on the maintenenece access rim calls to her grandmother to try it now.  It doesn’t work.  The Millennium Falcon has found itself pulled out of hyperspace due to an uncharted gravity well.  The power core has shut down.
 
Allana is seven years old, as loved by Leia as her own child.  To the outside world, Allana is the Solo’s child, adopted by them after the death of her parents and using the name Amelia.  In reality, she is their granddaughter, daughter of their late son Jacen and the Queen Mother of Hapes, Tenel Ka.  Court intrigue makes life on Hapes dangerous for Allana anyway, but, it would only increase if it becomes known Allana was the daughter of a Jedi, especially Jacen. 
 
When the Imperial Moffs unleashed a nanovirus intended to kill the Royal Family, Allana had survived, but it was decided to pretend she hadn’t.  Han and Leia have taken her in, intending for her to divide her time with them and the Jedi Academy which has been relocated to Shedu Maad.  That hadn’t worked out as Tenel Ka felt she would be safer with her grandparents and Allana’s hyperactiveness makes it hard for her to sit through lessons.
 
It pains Leia to see so much her son in his daughter. 
 
Allana never speaks of the man who had been her father for a brief time and, at the height of his power, had abducted her.  Leia knows that she hasn’t forgotten about him, but has buried him in her bad memories.  She worries that those memories will be repressed to the point where it will cause problems for Allana later. 
 
It’s similar to what Leia experienced when learning Darth Vader had been her father and fearing her children would follow Anakin Skywalker’s footsteps.  It had happened to Jacen who had once represented a hope to the new Jedi Order before descending into the lust for power that had required his death.
 
It had been necessary, but painful.  She had carried him, given birth to him, nurtured and loved him.  His death haunts her and she feels she failed him. 
 
Allana asks why her grandpa keeps the old ship.  Leia tells her it’s like an album of holoimages that hold memories for the keeper.  This ship reminds him of everything that’s happened. 
 
Han appears, believing the ship has been fixed, and asks what they’re talking about.  Leia admits that they’re talking about the Falcon.  Allan reminds him that her mother gave them a brand-new ship.   Han tells her that the fun of piloting is being responsible for the levels, the gears and the repairs.
 
He knows that there’ve been a lot of them lately.  It’s hard to explain the appeal of this ship to a child who grew up wearing the finest clothing.  She goes to the engineering station and finds a small object in a curved bulkhead.
 
Han’s never seen it before which makes Leia laugh.  Threepio can’t say for certain what it is, but it might be an old transponder or transceiver.  Leia thinks there’s something special about it.  So does Allana.
 
It’s a mystery and Leia thinks they should follow it as they would a treasure map.  It’s been here a long time, maybe even since before he had the Falcon.  Han tells her that it could have also been put there by any number of people who’ve been aboard it since, even spies. 
 
Allana asks who owned the ship before he did.  Leia tells him how he won the ship from Uncle Lando in a card game.  Lando had done the same thing, winning it from a professional gambler at Cloud City, but Han doesn’t know who owned her before then.  He and Chewie tried to find out a few times, but something always got in the way.
 
He’s heard rumors,but doesn’t know which ones are true.  Finding out would be hard because most of them are probably dead by now.  Leia suggests they start with Lando. 
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          •    Han had his adventures rescuing Doc in Han Solo at Stars’ End.
          •    The time is 43 years ABY.  Luke and Leia are about 62, Han is about 72, Lando isn’t any younger, Jaina would be 34.
          •    I want to point something out here.  In Leia’s musings, her son, Jacen, was taken by a lust for power the same as Anakin Skywalker.  She isn’t thinking about how he tried too hard to save the galaxy.  She isn’t thinking about how he loved his daughter so much.  She is thinking in terms of power. 
          •    Also, I’m not sure I can see how Leia finding out Darth Vader was her father is the same as Allana having Jacen for one.  Allana had known Jacen before she knew he was her father, of course, but she loved him as a friend.  Leia had no such positive connection to Vader. 
          •    I’d also like to mention that the Falcon went through a complete overhaul in that one book where Han was complaining about everything from the new carpet on up.  If the Falcon was worked on that completely, why did this transceiver, which we assume is what the Jedi put aboard the ship before Jadak and Reeze took off, never get noticed?
 

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chapter 8:
 
On Obroa-skai, a group of physicians and med droids examine the patient.  They are sure they can bring him back this time.  Dr. Sompa isn’t expecting any surprises here as the patient is in excellent health and has the body of someone half his age.  His colleagues resent his pet project.
 
He thinks they can give this person a chance to live.  His body has been kept alive, his mind has been kept sound.  He’s been given dreams and memories.  If there are psychological problems, they can treat him with therapy. 
 
When the patient’s eyes open, Dr. Somba addresses him as Captain Jadak.  He explains the man has been in a medical facility in a vegative state for a long time.  They kept him in a coma until they were sure his injuries had healed. 
 
They specialize at keeping beings alive long past their normal life spans, but Jadak is a medical miracle.  Jadak can speak, but he has prosthetic legs now.  He is told that Reeze didn’t survive and that they do not know what happened to the ship.  He’s been here for 62 years.
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          * Has he been at Obroa-skai for 62 years?  If so, he’s endured at least one Imperial attack and the Yuuzhan Vong assault and capture of the world.  Does anyone believe he would have survived the latter?

 

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chapter 9:
 
Jadak floats in a bacta tank.  He’d been kept in sedation for the two weeks after he’d emerged from his coma.  He wasn’t allowed to view the HoloNet or look at himself in a mirror. 
 
If he had lived naturally, he would be 93 right now, but he’s merely skipped over 60 years of his life.  Dr. Sompa and his colleague, Dr. Bezant, are always on hand to help him through the difficulties of working through the fake memories he was implanted with.  A wife and children that don’t exist, for example.
 
Now, he’s in the tank, a holoscreen mask on his face, allowing him to learn what has happened over the past six decades.  The Clone Wars were a ploy to eliminate the Jedi and put the galaxy in the hands of a Sith Lord before he was brought down by the son of Anakin Skywalker.  Years of fighting finally put a New Republic in place that lasted until the Yuuzhan Vong invasion which transformed several worlds.  The most recent government, the Galactic Alliance, had been in the hands of another young Jedi who’d embraced the corrupt teachings of the Sith before being replaced by a former Imperial admiral.
 
He learns of the deaths of his many friends and family members.  He almost appreciates his prosthetic legs as they are far better than what others have suffered.  He finally does a search on himself, finding history has been unkind to him.  He did throw a race and betted against himself, but the Hutts had threatened him and his family.   The Republic Group came to him with the need for a pilot who opposed Palpatine’s power-grabbing.
 
He had refused the offer,then had a change of heart.  He’d infiltrated cartels and other organization, doing what he was told and piloting the Stellar Envoy through the thick of many fierce battles.  There are no facts regarding his death.
 
Some of the Republic Group Senators has survived to see the defeat of the Empire, but all of them are dead now.  He cannot remember any of the details up to the accident, though.  Most perplexing, if no one is left alive from the Republic Group, who has been keeping him alive?
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          •    The chapter specifically mentions the Vong seeding Obroa-skai which certainly means that the author hasn’t forgotten the Vong were here.  So, how indeed did a comatose man hooked up to infidel machines survive?
          •    Jadak refers to his time with the Republic Group as serving the Delegation of 2000 throughout the Clone Wars.  But, again, the Delegation, so far as I know, was formed shortly before the end of the Wars by Padme and her colleagues.
 
 
 

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chapter 10:
 
Lando and Tendra greet their friends warmly.  Lando can’t believe Amelia has grown so much in one year.  Thankfully, Allana doesn’t seem thrown by her assumed name.  The Calrissians do not know who she really is. 
 
Lando points out his son, Lando, who’s nicknamed Chance because he’s his father’s lucky star.  Han asks what happened to the cane.  Lando admits his wife convinced him it made him look older than he is.  He was allowed to keep the mustache, though.
 
Allana explains they’re here to find out about everyone who ever owned the Falcon.  Lando admits letting Han win the ship in a card game and suggest they go sailing on his water vessel, the Windchaser.
 
On the bridge, the water flowing beneath them, Lando asks if Han and Leia are alright. Han tells him they’re beginning, too.  Having another child help, but he generally just tries not to think about the past.
 
Lando starts by telling him about Cix Trouvee who had wild swings with his gambling luck.  He was desperate when he used the ship in a game and Lando felt bad about winning it for a short time.
 
He doesn’t know what Cix is now though. 
 
Han asks if business is still good.  Lando tells him that competition has picked up.  The Colicoids are only one of the speices trying to get back into droid-making.  They had been forced to disband under Palpatine, but they claim to have documentation that it was only for a short period of time.  With a new fair-trade agreement, they are petitioning the courts to allow the Colla-Arphocc Automata to operate. 
 
Daala isn’t a fan of insect species at all, but her hands are tied.  Lando has had some dealings with her and thinks she’s trying not to repeat past mistakes. She doesn’t seem to want to be a dictator, especially since star systems seem willing to put their differences behind them.  People are finally figuring out that the Core affects the Outer Rim and vice versa.
 
This isn’t to say that Lando is completely comfortable with her.  He’s not happy with her ties to the Mandalorians or the Remnant.  He often wonders what people were thinking when they put her in office.
 
Han tells him that nothing seemed less sane at the time than his daughter killing his son.  Besides, he and Chewie got even with Daala for what she did to them.  If he was going to take revenge on everyone who’d tortured him over the years, he’d have to start with Leia’s father.
 
Lando opines that the Mon Calamari would rather see a Yuuzhan Vong in office rather than a former Imperial war riminal.  The Jedi aren’t very excited either.  Han admits that Luke isn’t sure where his Order stands either.  Daala doesn’t think a just system requires overseers.  Han himself tries to stay out of it.
 
He does show Lando the old transceiver Allana found.  Lando didn’t install it, so supposes that Cix or someone before him did.  In the meantime, he offers Han the wheel.
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          •    Is there some reason why Lando and Tendra don’t know about Allana’s true story?
          •    I, too, wonder why Daala was made Chief of State.  From Invincible, it sounds like a bunch of planetary leaders or senators or officers or someone decided that Bwua’tu’s suggestion was a good idea.  Isn’t there a general election held?  Wasn’t that what Jacen and Niathal were going to do once the war was over? 
          •    Let me get this straight…the Galactic Court is going to decide whether or not a company can reform based on documentation signed by Palpatine?  Really?  Isn't that kind of like the World Court taking legislation Hitler signed off on in consideration when making its ruling?
 

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chapter 11:
 
Jadak wakes up with the words Alliance for the Restoration of the Republic on his lips.  He gets up, eats, dresses, walks down the corridor, greeting people he can’t avoid.  Sompa warned him there would be frustrating moments, but he can’t get past the idea that he’s left something undone.
 
He’s told that he is requested to head to Dr. Sompa’s office.  Annoyed, he arrives and finds, not the doctor, but an exotic female calling herself Koi Quire with Core Health and Life Insurance.  She tells him that the Republic Group took out a policy on him 62 years ago. 
 
It was a health policy including accident coverage.  She has been sent to deliver his indemnity of 10000 credits.  It’s not a lot after the cost of his treatment, but it’s enough to help him live for about a year on Obroa-skai.  He’d rather not.  He asks where she’s from. She explains that her world was Firrerre which is now a quarantined planet after being poisoned by one of her own who allied to the Emperor.  The lucky ones who escaped slavery found a new life on Belderone.  Jadak doesn’t want to live there either.  She admits she didn’t either. 
 
But she cannot tell him anything about the accident.  He doesn’t understand why Republic Group took out a policy on him or why her company would keep paying for decades while he was in a coma.  He wants to know if there was a policy on Reeze, too, and if someone was held liable for the accident.  She cannot answer any of these questions.
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     •    The world of Firrerre was the planet of Hethrir, the acolyte of Vader from The Crystal Star.
 

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chapter 12:
 
One of Lando’s techs, a Cerean named Tal-lik-Tal, confirms it’s a pre-Imperial transponder manufactured during the Clone Wars.  There are no symbols, model or serial numbers.  It was probably installed for covert use and it is still active.
 
He’s made attempts to question it using old codes, but it will only transmit its messasge in response to a predefined signal.  He does suggest not reinstalling it.
 
The psychotherapist asks Jadak how he’s doing.  Jadak admits that his body seems to know that a lot of time has passed, but his mind can’t keep up.  He doesn’t sleep well, his hands shake, and he feels like he’s stuck in someone else’s body.
 
Everytime he sees a documentary on Palpatine, he can’t help but think that he just saw the man on Coruscant last week.  He has Alliance for the Restoration of the Republic stuck in his head.  It’s like a loop. 
 
She admits she warned Dr. Sompa this could happen.  There are drugs he could take, but she can’t advise using them.  As it is, she can’t be of two much help because he’s being released.  His body is healthy and he is adapting to his legs.  This facility does not specialize in rehabilitation. 
 
He doesn’t understand why he was brought here.  Dr. Sompa is too busy.  He just wants to know about the accident and who has been paying for his care.  Dr. Bezant admits that she is as curious as he is.  He was brought to the facility 40 years ago and has been treated as Dr. Sompa’s special project since then.  Only he knows where Jadak was before then.
 
That night, he goes to Sompa’s office and finds his file.  He was languishing in a public hospital on Nar Shaddaa for the first 22 years of his life.  There is no mention of the insurance company paying for his care.  He suddenly remembers that he and Reeze had jumped the Stellar Envoy to Nar Shaddaa, ran into trouble, tried to ecape in a pod and had accidentally jettisoned into the hull of an incoming ship.
 
The images flood in.  They had left Coruscant right after the rescue of Palpatine.  Prior to that, they’db een at the Senate Annex meeting with Republic Group Senators Des’sein, Largetto, and Fang Zar.
 
He looks up the Senators on the HoloNet.  He remembers the Jedi.  The Jedi had installed something on the ship and he was supposed to deliver the ship to Toprawa.  There was something about restoring Republic honor. 
 
Jadak tries to do a search for the Stellar Envoy, concentrating on collisions above Nar Shaddaa the year of his accident.  He finds the specific incident in question and learns the ship was claimed by salvagers.
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chapter 13:
 
An auction is going on at the Hydians Auction House, formerly of Chandrila, but moved to Epica during the Yuuzhan Vong war.  It’s an example of Republicana which is now rare since the Vong invasion.  Most pieces are quite valuable now, including the statue that had once stood at the Galactic Courts of Justice and is up for bid right now.
 
Lord Oxic is hoping to claim the price, but he is being outbid by an employee of the Trouvee family.  Koi Quire slides into the seat next to him, expressing her condolences for the loss. 
 
She tells him his investment is on the move.  He took off after being allowed to visit Sompa’s office.  Dr. Bezant made sure he had the code for reasons of her own.  Koi explains he didn’t quite buy the insurance policy explanation.  He did a search for Nar Shaddaa.
 
Oxic doesn’t understand why Palpatine’s opponents would hide the treasure there.  She thinks it’s more likely he was trying to find out more information on his copilot or hoping to pick up his life from there.
 
Oxic tells her to have Cynner pick him up before others get involved.
 
 After Han and Chewie returned from the Corporate Sector, the ship started acting up.  It would go faster than any other ship one moment or develop a glitch in the middle of a bad situation the next. 
 
It was as if the ship was trying to get him the attention of the Imperials.  Even the return to the Death Star to help Luke had been almost the ship’s idea.  It’s silly to think the Falcon could have a mind of its own.
 
It had broken down at Hoth, leading to a lot of private time with Leia.  He’d been falling for her before then, but this just cemented it. 
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chapter 14:
 
Han had hoped to blend in, but the crowd at Oseon 7 is already gathered at the ramp, welcoming them.  They are given every amenity on the way to the hotel.  The planets in the Centrality had largely been able to develop their own eccentricities, but Oseon VII has become a tourist attraction by virtue of the annual Flamewind. 
 
Lando and his droid at the time, Vuffi Raa, had navigated a Flamewind almost 50 years ago with the Falcon.  It’s also a gambling center with casinos stretched out along a strip known as the Ribbon.  The Consortium PlanetDreams, Inc is responsible for the architectural structures along the Ribbon and is owned by Cix Trouvee.
 
They are told, however, that Trouvee passed away a few weeks ago, but his children are still here and will be happy to speak with them.
 
While Leia and Allana admire the facsimiles on the Ribbon of famous structures from other worlds, Han chats with some of Trouvee’s children.  His son, Doon admits his father was proud to have once owned the ship and followed all of Han’s exploits.  They even have holoimages of him with the Falcon.   The family is delighted to see how the ship used to look even before Lando owned her.  Han asks why Cix offered the ship up in a game with Lando.
 
Doon offers to tell him the tale if he has the time.
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          •    The chapter refers to Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon.  There are also references to the StarCaves of ThonBoka from the book of the same name.
 

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chapter 15:
 
Cix Trouvee had learned to gamble early on and set off to become a professional gambler.  He spent as fast as he won and often left behind debts and broken relationships.
 
One thing that was consistent was the quirky Millennium Falcon.  It was an old ship, though, and cost him a lot to maintain. He’d never thought of selling it until it broke down and caused him to miss a high-stakes match.  Knowing he needed a big score to maintain his lifestyle and deal with the ship, he decided to enter into a bet involving Imperial forces and insurgents at Yag’duhl a month later.
 
The Empire had learned a space station was being built there and decided to target it with their new Star Destroyer Desolator.  The insurgents learned about this and decided to try to destroy the ship.  This was five years before the Battle of Yavin, so dissidents were considered nuisances then. 
 
The Hutts weren’t interested in defining victory, so decided to base the bet on the number of ships destroyed on each side.  Cix felt bad for betting on a battle, but he did a lot of research, talking to information brokers, arms dealers and drunk Imperial officers. 
 
He checked into the weaponry and ships that the two sides would be using.  Though the insurgents would be using ancient Z-95s, a lot of the pilots were graduates of the academies or even Naval veterans.  They joined up voluntarily.  Many of the Imperial pilots didn’t.
 
There were a lot of factors that he had no information on, including who was going to be in command. But he made his bet. 
 
The battle was fierce until the Imperial hit the remote that was designed to count how many ships from each side was destroyed.  Believing that intelligence was being fed to the insurgents, the Star Destroyer targets the gambling establishment.
 
Patrons ran to their ships.  Cix had his copilot bring the deflector shields up while he tried to find out the score.  Ships trying to depart were targeted.  The space station was destroyed.  Cix found out that he won big, then had to get out of the system first.
 
Sadly, two TIEs were shot down by friendly fire before the last Z-95 jumps to lightspeed.  Since the battle wasn’t over with yet, the number of kills increased turning Cix from a winner to a loser.
 
After that, everyone he owed money to was after him so he decided to enter the Cloud City sabacc tournament.  He just enough for the entry fee.  He made it to the third day, but he had the Falcon in the pot and a hand he didn’t think anyone could beat.
 
Except Lando did. 
 
After he lost the ship, though. Cix had a streak of good luck that lasted the rest of his life.  He used to joke that losing the ship was the best thing that ever happened to him.  The children don’t know how the ship got its name or how their father got it, but his copilot, Waglin, might know.
 
Han and Leia explain to Lando a couple of days later what they learned. The copilot told them that Cix had bought the ship from the Molpol Circus owned by Vistal Purn who now organizes creature shows. 
 
Right now, he’s on Taris.  Lando knows the place.  He and his family were there not long ago negotiating a deal with the government for some YVHs to deal with a well-armed criminal organization that has oved in.  He had a strange encounter with a Jedi named Seff Heflin
 
Leia and Han remember him.  He was about 14 when the academy students were moved from Yavin IV to the shelter station.  Lando tells him Seff wanted to know the details of the YVH deal and what Lando thought of Daala employing Mandalorians as her bodyguards.
 
Lando finally figured out that Seff was wondering if Tendrando had ever thought of building a Mandalorian Hunter droid.  He might still be on Taris, especially if Luke sent him there to look into the criminals. 
 
As the Falcon departs, Waglin reports that they are on their way to Taris right now.   The Solos may or may not be helpful, but they have a lot of influential friends.  Besides, Solo is slower than he used to be.  He’ll still need a good reason to help.  Waglin adds they have a little girl traveling with them so she might provide a way to get to them.  Old-timers have to stick together, after all.
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It might be interesting to read a Slave I story (or, perhaps, one of the Love Commander), but the significance of the Millennium Falcon inspired this one.  It's the only book I'm aware of that focuses on the history of a ship.

 

chapter 16:
 
The galaxy has changed since Jadak was young.  Basic is used but combined with Outer Rim accents.  Wookiees and Corellians are staying home, putting out their own fires.  Security is tight even on Nar Shaddaa.  Jedi were rare back then and are almost never seen now.  Militias and security droids have appeared.  The Trade lanes are less packed. The near-mythic race of Mandalorians give him a start when he sees a few marching down a spaceport.
 
People seem less open now than they were before.  It’s as if no one wants to disturb the peace anymore.  The security cameras certainly don’t encourage it. 
 
He didn’t like running out on Sompa whom he does owe for prolonging his life, but hated learning he was being toyed with.  Hopefully, he’s got a lead on any pursuers that he could use to change his identity.  That used to take a couple of hours on Nar Shaddaa.  Who knows how long it takes now?
 
Flitcher Poste spots his mark and follows him.  The man seems awkward here, but not unaware.  He carries only a small case.  He could be an undercover copy.  Poste decides not to pickpocket, but to find out more.
 
The man’s clothing is of the type someone might have gotten from a hospital.  He walks as though he has prosthetic legs, so he could be a war veteran.  Poste gives up when the man starts to head to the Corellian sector, but then spots a couple of heavies up to know good watching the man, too.
 
The stranger seems to have spotted them because he quickly changes direction and weaves through traffic easily.  The two goons follow quickly.  No one who knew him would expect Poste to do this, but he jumps into his speeder and heads up to the newcomer, telling him to get in.
 
The man jumps in, tries to drive the speeder before giving it up to Poste, telling him not to get distracted.  The man knows Poste is hoping to get something out of this.  There wasn’t anything in the case anyway. 
 
He has Poste pull over so he can trade places.  The man flies while Poste fires a shot into the repulsorlift of those pursuing them.  When they land, he offers Poste some credits, then asks him to check around for any mechanics who might’ve been working the salvage yards 60 years ago.
 
Two days later, Jadak meets with Poste who tells him he’s got someone coming who may be able to tell him.  An elderly Bammy Decree comes in.  When Jadak asks about a YT-1300 that collided 62 years ago, Bammy knows he means the Stellar Envoy.
 
He rebuilt the ship from the top after the collision.  It was sold to Rej Taunt who renamed it Second Chance.  Unfortunately, Bammy had used a computer built by the Colicoids, so, when Taunt was hauling some buzz droids for Black Sun, the computer activated the cargo and they started dismantling the ship.  After being jettisoned, they went after an Imperial cruiser.
 
Bammy asks his name. Upon hearing it’s Jadak, he assumes he’s the son of the pilot, but Jadak assures him he is the actual pilot.  Taunt would know where the ship ended up, but he ended up on Oovo IV and then the prison Carcel.
 
Three hours later, Bammy leaves, having told him everything he could remember from the flight recorder. 
 
Jadak, knowing he needs Poste’s extra set of eyes and his knowledge of the modern era, explains to the young man that the Stellar Envoy may have held the key to a treasure.  He was told by those who paid him to deliver the ship.  He doesn’t know what the treasure is, though.
 
Poste isn’t sure he wants to go with a man who has people after him, but Jadak expects they are just hoping he will lead them to the treasure, too.   He knows it’s possible the ship has been destroyed over the past 60 years.  If so, he’ll pay Poste for his services and they’ll part ways.
 
Otherwise, they split the treasure down the middle.  They’ll start at Carcel.
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


          •    Oovo IV was where Aurra Sing ended up for a short time.
 
 

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chapter 17:
 
Lord Oxic has purchased the star map sphere that had been one of those housed in the Jedi Temple.  It was found during the reconstruction following the Yuuzhan Vong war.  He shows it to Koi, admitting he shouldn’t be wasting time.  They should have a judgment on the Colicoid case the next day.  It’s important that their star witness be ready. 
 
As a collector of authentic Republicana from Coruscant, Oxic has spent a fortune on his love.  He’d spend many happy years on the capital before the Clone Wars, then spent the wars as a defender of those charged with sedition.
 
He finds himself in a position of being both a judge and a jury now, confronting his employees on their botched job.  The man is not a criminal and shouldn’t be treated like one. 
 
Remata explains they didn’t expect the reaction they got.  The guy knew he was being followed.  Oxic tells them they could have found a less conspicuous place to reveal themselves. Remata doubts it would have made a difference.
 
Oxic laments agreeing to Sompa’s plan.  He should have told Jadak the truth and they could have gotten him at the hospital.  Now, he’s been given a mystery.  Koi admits they aren’t really sure if he’s still on Nar Shaddaa. 
 
However, security cams identified the man he was with as Flitcher Poste who has a small-time criminal record.  They may be partners now. She told Cynner to keep an eye on the kid which wasn’t a problem for a while.  He went around one day asking about mechanics who’d been in business for the last 60 years.  She has a feeling Jadak is looking for his old ship.
 
They did learn that there was a meeting at a tapcaf with an old mechanic who used to work for Black Sun.  She asks if Senator Des’sein said anything that let Oxic to believe the ship was important.
 
Oxic thinks back on his old friend who had managed to survive the post-Republic era to live to a ripe old age.  At his bedside, Des’sein had spilled his secrets.  The Republic Group had feared Palpatine’s growing power.  Believing he would not give it up so easily, they hid a treasure on a remote world, hoping it would be enough to restore the Republic.  The key to that treasure was a pilot named Tobb Jadak who had disappeared just days before the end of the war in Stellar Envoy.
 
Shortly after the Battle of Endor, documents belonging to Armand Isard that failed to find their way into his daughter’s hands fell into Oxic’s lap.  There was a brief mention of the ship which had been pursued from Coruscant.  Clone pilots lost the ship but logged its hyperspace jump.  After some hunting, Oxic had learned it had gone to Nar Shaddaa and that Jadak was comatose.
 
He used his own funds to move the man to an exclusive medical facility on Obroa-skai and hired Sompa to oversee his care.  It’s possible Jadak knows the location of the treasure. 
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chapter 18:
 
In disguise, Han waits on Taris until Vistal Purn finishes handing out the prizes at a pet show.  Leia, Allana and Threepio are watching the show from the stands.  Han cannot help but noticed how fascinated his granddaughter is with even the most repulsive animals.  She gets that empathy from her father.
 
That train of thought doesn’t leave him as he remembers the story of the “Little Lost Bantha Cub”.  His son had gone to the zoo with Jaina, had been kidnapped, rescued his own mother from Tsavong Lah, watched his little brother die and was tortured.  He helped end the war and spent five years studying the Force before returning a changed man.
 
He doesn’t know how his son grew into what he did.  How he allowed Jacen to grow apart so caught up in his own beliefs that even the Jedi were turned against him.  He worries that Allana has inherited those traits.  How closely will they have to watch her?
 
He wants to be able to forgive Jacen.
 
Allana asks for a treat. Han flings her up on his shoulders and carries her to the concession stand, happy that she isn’t attending the academy.  He and Leia had promised each other that their next child would not be a Jedi.
 
While he’s ordering, Allana spots a creature with long, floppy ears, two big feed, wearing a vest and carrying a cane.  He’s staring at her as if he wants her to follow him.  She hurries off after it into a small turbolift.
 
Leia senses Han’s confusion and goes to the lobby.  She doesn’t think Allana is in any danger but tells Threepio to alert security about a missing child.  She moves around, letting the Force guide her until she finds a small service turbolift.
 
She’s not sure why Allana would have gone there.  Taking regular turbolifts down, she finds herself in an area for bioengineered animals. 
 
Han is attacked by a Rodian and a Duros at the staircase.  The altercation causes spectators to worry, especially when Han uses a hover booth to try to get away.
 
Allana follows the creature to the end of an aisle when two men appear.  One holds the animal, the other asks if she would like to see their prize pet up close.  It’s a Chandrilan squall and might let her pet him.
 
Allana doesn’t think this is a good idea.  She starts to back up, but he pulls a blaster.  She lets the Force fill her up.  The squall bites the nose of the man who’s holding it.  Other animals attack the other man, too. She runs into a humanoid confronts her, fires a weapon at her and she goes black.
 
Leia feels this and runs quickly to the center aisle, flying across the room when she sees the three beings with her granddaughter.  The door closes.  She tries to pull it open without success.  Her lightsaber is still aboard the Falcon.  She runs back the way she came.
 
Han is confronted by two guards who tell him they have his kid and order him to head to the lobby.  He will get the child back as soon as he’s done something for them.  He is to contact Lando Calrissian and arrange for the delivery of 20 YVH to Ord Mantell by noon the next day.
 
Han tries to buy time for Leia to get here.  He tells them that Lando is immune to blackmail and has held a grudge for years.  One of them asks if he just doesn’t care about losing another child which sets Han off.  While he’s trying to throttle the man, he hears a lightsaber ignire.
 
Leia senses a Force presence down in the lower-level detention rooms.  It can’t be Allana.  She hears two screams, then Allana runs out the doorway to her.  She screams Jacen’s name.
 
Leia grabs her and feels the negative energy coming from her.  She tells Allana not to do that.  The child angrily tells her she won’t let them hurt her.  Leia assures her that no one will.  Allana cries that her mother gave her a needle. She wants it.
 
Leia holds her and setps through the doorway.  She hears a thrumming noise and sees Seff Hellin moving through another passageway.
 
Han had thought the lightsaber was Leia’s, but he sees a Jedi in his mid-twenties is here instead.  Two GA Intelligence officers arrive, too.  Leia appears with Allana.
 
Seff tells the Intelligence men that he didn’t have a choice.  The men were threatening Captain Solo’s child so he could procure weapons for them.  Han explains he had no idea how they knew he was here. 
 
Intelligence had hoped to round up the whole gang, but the Jedi here ruined that.  They want to take him into custody.  Leia insists Seff cooperate, but he moves with blinding speed and disappears.
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  • About Han and Leia promising that their next child won't be a Jedi...they will not be able to control if their next child has the Force or not.  If so, would they really allow this child to go untrained?  Didn't the Old Republic Jedi caution parents of Force-sensitive children that going without training would make it hard for a child to control the powers and that such children often feel isolated.  Isn't it possible that a fourth Force-sensitive Solo might resent Han and Leia for not giving him or her a chance to do what the older siblings got to do?

 
 

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chapter 19:
 
At the Carcel prison, Jadak and Poste find that Rej Taunt is doing rather well.  They ask him about the Stellar Envoy which he remembers as the Second Chance].  He tells them that the Imperials wanted to execute him for the deaths of the cruiser’s crew, but he was sentenced to life instead. 
 
After being transferred from one prison to the next, he ended up here due to the mechanisms of the Black Sun vigo who had ordered the buzz droids.  Taunt had taken out a contract on Bammy Decree who was found in Nomad City on Nkllon and turned over to the vigo .  Impressed that Taunt honored the debt, the vigo set up him here in comfortable surroundings where he is given information to feed to prison authorities.
 
He’s been living a nice life here for decades while the rest of the galaxy rotted.  Jadak tells him he’s interested in buying the ship.  Taunt offers to tell him what he did with it if Jadak and Poste will do something for him.  He wants revenge revenge on the Colicoids for what the droids did to his crew and his future.
 
Vistal Purn shows the Solos a Tamac’s Zantay Aura which will produce many valuable chitliks.  An advisor to Chief of State Daala is said to have some, too.
 
Leia asks if he can tell them about the time he owned the Falcon.
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          •    Nomad City on Nkllon was first mentioned in Heir to the Empire.
 
 
 

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chapter 20:
 
Purn grew up on Generis where his parents operated a wilderness ranch.  He learned to pilot an airspeeder so he could ferry guests in and out but wanted to see the stars.  Gradually, more wealthy guests arrived and he got stuck entertaining their children.  He ended up being so good with the kids that the parents often invited him to come visit their far-off homeworlds.
 
His planet was far out of the way, so they didn’t have to worry about the Empire so much.  He wanted to learn to fly but didn’t want to put up with years of compulsory Imperial service.  After apprenticing with shipping companies, he became a freelance pilot and was hired by the Molpol Circus.
 
They traveled from world to world with exotic animals, live music and entertainment.  The Millennium Falcon was already part of their fleet when he joined. He grew very fond of her, but fell in love with the circus’s chief aerialist, Sari Danzer, who very much knew her importance to the attraction.
 
She was very demanding, but he pressed on, joining the clown squad so he could be near her.  The Falcon was used to transport the owner, ringmaster and other VIPs, while the rest traveled aboard a cramped passenger vessel.  Though she didn’t think much of the Falcon, he offered her the chance to travel in a private cabin aboard it.
 
He spent days cleaning it, imagining how he’d woo her during the time, and was overjoyed when she agreed to travel with him.  They were in the middle of a romantic dinner when the fearsome Black Hole pirates attacked.
 
The ships were ordered to put down on Regosh where the lander was hijacked, leaving the animals to mill about unrestrained.  As the evening came, predators started attacking the poor creatures.  The only thing to do was to get the animals to the Falcon. They started with the smaller animals.
 
He lost sight of Sari, assuming she’d taken refuge somewhere, but found her sitting on the main hold’s deck, crying.  She told him that she didn’t join the circus for the applause, but because she loved animals.  For his willingness to rescue them, she believed she would fall in love with him.
 
It took four trips to take the surviving animals off Regosh, but the attack was so costly that the owner had to sell everything, including the Falcon, which was bought by Cix Trouvee.
 
Purn worked as a ringmaster for several other shows until he found his calling judging pet shows.  So far as he knows, the owner of the circus bought the Falcon from someone who was using it as a medical vessel.  The owner’s name was Dax Doogun, but he doesn’t know where the man is now. 
 
He did marry Sari, though.
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chapter 21:
 
On Holees, Poste and Jadak appropriate a couple of business suits from some unwilling execs.  They have blasters, a couple of Taunt’s bodyguards and a small alloy case that starts to take Jadak back.
 
He remembers part of the conversation on the Senate docking berth. 
 
The world of Holees is a legalist’s dreamworld.  Jurists and legal experts are revered, souvenirs are crafted representing famous cases.  Right now, the biggest one consuming the world is the one brought against the Galactic Alliance by the Colicoid Colla-Arphocc Automata which had been forced to disband at the end of the Clone Wars.
 
A celebrity attorney claims to have a document that bears the personal seal of Emperor Palpatine stating the ban on war droids had expired a year earlier.  The Colicoids now want to be able to compete again.
 
Posing as representatives from Desicare Deodorant, Jadak and Poste pull blasters and force a video to be played on the holoscreen in the courtroom.  The star witness is being escorted by someone Jadak recognizes as Koi Quire from that Life Insurance company.  The attorney is Lord Oxic.
 
The holorecording displays an image of a creature called a hueche that appears in 3D, alarming the spectators and startling the star witness to the point where it rolls down the ramp in a ball, tries to leap the fence, but is propelled by Taunt’s henchmen into an speeder truck.
 
Jadak and Poste jump into an airspeeder to get to the spaceport.  Poste yells that the Colicoid witness has gotten out of the vehicle and is rolling down the street.  The truck is chasing it. 
 
Having done their part of the deal, Poste and Jadak head to the spaceport, board a freighter and head to their bunks where Poste sings a song he learned as a child to remind himself of all of his possessions so he wouldn’t lose them.  He explains an old-timer told him it was a mnemonic.
 
Jadak remembers being told that the phrase “ Restore Republic honor to the galaxy” is a mnemonic aid..
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          •    I’m still stunned that any attorney would present evidence based on laws crated by Emperor Palpatine.
 

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chapter 22:
 
In hyperspace, Allana and her hand puppet, Muzzle, have become confederates.  She has been in low spirits since leaving Taris.  Leia asks if she wants to talk about what happened.  Allana admits she’s sad because she overheard her Grandpa saying they’ve reached a dead end.
 
Leia assures her that it probably isn’t but presses about what happened on Taris.  Allana says she hates the ones who tricked her into following the squall.  Leia tells her that they wanted to force Grandpa into having Uncle Lando send them war droids.
 
Leia is more concerned that Allana yelled Jacen’s name when she ran from Seff.  Allana explains that Seff felt the same way in the Force that Jacen has felt.  It scared her, then, and it scared her with Seff, too.  She was afraid that she would be hurt.
 
Leia assures her that Jacen would have never hurt her and that he would have changed the galaxy for her.  She asks if Allana misses him.  Allana admits she does sometimes.  She asks if her grandmother wishes he was still alive.
 
Leia is sorry he had to die.  Jacen was sick in the Force in a way that made him dangerous to others.  Anger and hate are paths to the Dark Side which is why she was concerned when Allana ran from Seff.  Jacen was angry, too, because he couldn’t have his way.
 
Allana says she’s only sad now, but Muzzle thinks that’s stupid.  Leia tells her it’s not.  Sometimes, you can’t help but be sad.
 
Han comes in to tell them he’s gotten ahold of Luke who seems a bit melancholy.
 
Leia tells Luke that they’ve traced the Falcon to the last two people who owned it before Lando.  Luke has already been advised about Seff Hellin by GA Intelligence.  Leia adds that Allana told her that Seff reminded her of Jacen. 
 
Luke laments that this is just another reason for Daala to mistrust the Jedi.  Seff’s abilities bother him, too. He feels certain that the Masters would know if Jacen had taught Seff or any other Jedi how to do some of the things he learned.
 
For right now, Seff is at large, GA Intel has Mandalorians looking for him and Luke is recalling all the Jedi, including Jaina.  He does ask Leia an odd question.  If Vader had known Leia was his daughter when he destroyed Alderaan, would Leia, had she been a Jedi at the time, have killed him?
 
She really can’t answer that.  She might have tried or she might have made the same choice he did.  Luke tells her that there are rumors the Jedi had been willing to kill Palpatine at the end of the Clone Wars because he was too dangerous.  Leia reminds him that Palpatine claimed that.  There is no way of knowing what the Jedi intended to do. 
 
She offers to come back to Coruscant, but Luke wants the chance to persuade Daala that the Jedi can police themselves. 
 
Han and Allana come in with the news that they’ve found that Dax Dooun is alive and lives on Agora.
 
Oxic had tried for a stay of one day when his star witness was abducted, but it hadn’t been enough time.  He suspects Chief of State Daala, with her well-known stance against Colicoids, was behind this.  The only thing he can do now is make a complaint to Coruscant.  That doesn’t help his case now.
 
Koi Quire comes up to him and tells him that the pilots of the speeder truck were captured and identified as working for Rej Taunt, a name Oxic knows very well as someone who has outbid him on Republicana many times. 
 
Koi also shows him a holoimage of two coherts who left the planet right after that.  Oxic is stunned.  She explains that Jadak and Poste were the ones who infiltrated the media platform and forced the hueche image onscreen.  They are connected with the attempt to transport the Colicoid to the spaceport.  She also thinks Jadak recognized her.
 
It’s possible Taunt knows where the Stellar Envoy is.  Their organization is reaching out to someone in Carcel who has promised to keep an eye out for those two. 
 
Dax Doogun is honored to speak with Han.  He purchased the Falcon from Parlay Thorp, a doctor who visited remote worlds.  She used the credits to open a research facility on Hijado and a clinic on Enferm where she became an expert in aging and rejuvenation.
 
Right now, she heads the Aurora Medical Facility on Obroa-skai.
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          •    I’d also like to point out that Leia seems to have a remarkable insight into Jacen’s fall.  Note:  she knows Jacen loved Allana and would have changed the galaxy for her.  That is absolutely true.  She also knows that Jacen’s anger stemmed from not getting his way. 
          •    If Luke thinks the Jedi should police themselves, perhaps he should get on that task then.  I simply find it incredible that he would believe that the Masters would know if Jacen passed on some of his knowledge to others.  What about Jacen did anyone, up to and including Luke himself, know for certain?
 
 

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