Prolouge

Bail Draygo-Darklighter stood staring at the twin suns as they journeyed towards the horizon and listening to the universe.

The universe talked to Bail sometimes, and sometimes it sang. Mostly it murmured. When it was loud it was hard for him to think his own thoughts rather than those of the universe. He knew that Sera and Gavin and Tahiri worried about him when that happened, that they thought there was something wrong with his mind, but he knew there wasn't. He was Different. Tahiri was Different too, but the universe didn't speak as loudly to her, so she thought its song was just part of her. But Bail could hear it clearly, and it told him many things. Right now it told him, among other things, that Tahiri was behind him.

"Hi Tahiri."

"Hi Bail. You shouldn't be wandering around. You know how you are when you get like this."

"Huh?"

"Last time you took the speeder out to the old Sorcerer's Hut and passed out. I know you can tell when you're not all there, and you should know better than to wander around when you're being weird."

He smiled both at her teasing and at her warning. "The Sorcerer asked me to visit his house."

"He disappeared before either of us was born, Bail."

"The universe told me. The Sorcerer is part of the universe."

"Did the universe tell you anything interesting today?"

"Yes. My sister's coming soon."

"Bail, you don't have a sister. It's in the adoption records."

"Well, the records are wrong. And my name's not Bail." He could never remember what his real name was. Someone had hidden it. Usually he forgot that Bail wasn't his real name, but sometimes the universe reminded him.

Chapter 1: The Corellian Job

Jaina Draygo was looking for a job, so she wore her blastsword. She only ever for it when she was looking for a job, or a fight, or when she had one of her usually accurate hunches that a fight was looking for her. Of course, those hunches might only be right because she took the blastsword with her when she had them.

The Adumari weapon made her identifiable. It was well known, where her face was not. Jaina Draygo had managed, for the most part, to stay off the wanted posters, but the girl who, on her first smuggling run, had managed to get caught up in the Adumari planetary conflict and come out of it not only her life but a half-dozen medals from four different Adumarian constituencies, not to mention one of the planet's distinctive weapons, tended to build up something of a reputation. It had been the first of several instances where Captain Jaina Draygo had gone against her better judgment – the latest had been that fiasco on Dathomir a year back- come out with a higher profile – not exactly something a smuggler aimed for – and, in the last case, a new partner. The high profile helped, she had to admit, when she was looking for jobs, since people knew her name and tended, if anything, to overestimate her capabilities. The partner helped because Tenel Ka Djo had learned to deal with the modern world quickly and, after a couple months, had made the best co-pilot Jaina had ever had, and because she was nearly unbeatable in a fight.

The point was, Jaina Draygo had a tendency to get involved in do-gooder escapades completely foreign to what she like to think of as her character, and she wore the distinctive result of one of those escapades on her hip when she was looking for attention, or expecting it.

Ask and ye shall receive.

The man, square faced and black haired, his eyes obscured by a visor – one of those Bothan data-gathering models if she wasn't mistaken – sat down beside her and ordered an Ebla beer, sipped on it for a while before turning to her.

"You're Jaina Draygo?"

"How many other people in this sector carry a blastsword?"

"Very few, I would imagine." He held out his hand. "Jaq. Jaq Antillies. I have a job I believe will interest you."

"And what leads you to think that?"

"You have a reputation for taking rather unusual jobs. And I have a rather large amount of valuable and rare, if traceable, goods. I suspect you're an astute enough businesswoman to make a profit off of them without getting into much trouble."

"Are you trying to flatter me, Mr. Antillies?"

"That is simply a agreeable side effect of telling the truth in this case, Ms. Draygo."

"I never actually said I was Draygo."

"But you are."

"Of course. Now what's the nature of this job of yours?"

"I want you to get me into the Corellian system, then get me and four other individuals out."

Jaina whistled.

"Will you take the job? I promise you, the compensation will be more than adequate."

"We'll discuss it with my partner. Follow me."

She got up and began walking towards the hanger where the Kestrel was docked. She knew he'd follow.

------------------------

She found Tenel Ka at work in the speeder bay on her bowcaster. Tenel Ka was the only non-Wookie she'd ever use such a weapon, she apparently liked having something closer to the weapons of her homeworld, even if it was hybridized with modern technology.

Tenel Ka looked up even before Jaina was through the open doorway. She seemed to have a preternatural sense sometimes, claimed to be a witch at others. Tenel Ka said the only reason Jaina had never seen her use magic was that she believed that if she used it too much it would become a crutch. Tenel Ka always preferred to rely on herself. She also claimed her father had fallen from the sky. At times Jaina wondered if her partner was completely there mentally.

"Tenel Ka, we may have a job."

"This is good. We will require more credits soon, if we are to continue to eat."

"Funny, Tenel Ka."

Jaq stepped forward.

"Our potential employer?"

Jaq gave something of a miniature bow. "Jaq Antillies at your service, Miss…?"

"I am Tenel Ka Djo of the Singing Mountain Clan. Of Dathomir."

Jaq's eyes widened and he turned to Jaina "Then the stories about you and Dathomir are true."

"Unfortunately."

Tenel Ka spoke up. "It was indeed foolish of you to involve yourself, Jaina Draygo, but I am thankful that you did."

"Yeah. Right. My stupidity aside, Mr. Antillies here has a job for us if we're interested. He wants us to get him into the Corellian system, then get him and some friends out."

"And he needs smugglers to do this why?"

"Corellian system's been close practically since the Rebellion and the Old Empire fell. Thrackan Sal-Solo staged an uprising when Ysanne Isard's coupe destabilized the galactic government for a while and set himself up Diktat, declared Corellia's independence, and interdicted the entire system somehow for a few months and by the time the New Empire got there he'd turned Centerpoint station into some kind of superweapon. No one gets into the past Corellian Security these days unless they're very, very good."

"And are we 'very, very good' Jaina?"

"I think we are, Tenel Ka."

"Does this mean," interjected Jaq, "that you'll take the job?"

"You haven't told me exactly what the pay is yet, Mr. Antillies," Jaina replied.

"I can't yet. I'm afraid the nature of the goods is such that it would reveal more about my mission than I wish you to know."

"We will take the job." This from Tenel Ka.

"What!?"

"We must take this job, Jaina Draygo. I sense it."

"You- what!?" But even as she protested, inarticulately or not, she knew she would do it. As insane as it was, she trusted Tenel Ka's hunches, and she trusted her instincts. And her instincts were telling her, more strongly that they'd told her anything ever before, that she had to take this job.

It wasn't just that she and Tenel were running out of food and fuel money. It wasn't just curiosity. It wasn't just about her and Tenel Ka. This was, Jaina's instincts told her, about something bigger, much bigger than them, or her, or even staying alive and flying – and Jaina Draygo had an unfortunate tendency to get herself involved in things about something bigger than herself.