A/N—This story was originally supposed to be a relatively short story, but I got the sudden idea to tie it into a longer one that I have been working on for over a year. I tried adding a bit of backstory to explain how our characters had gotten to where they are here, but I think the way I just 'plunk' you into Danni Quee's hotel room works better. It seems more...Star Wars-y this way.

Chapter 1—All bad things...

Danni was just pulling on her soft pink pullover sweater when the doorbell rang. Reaching out with the Force, she smiled as she sensed the unmistakably calm presence of Tenel Ka Djo. Plucking her Vong bracelet off of the bathroom countertop, she made way her way to the front door.

Her smiled faded away when she opened the door. Before her stood a tall woman with jet-black hair and two arms. Warily, she appraised the woman as she again reached out with the Force. Sensing her apprehension, the woman's grey eyes sparkled with mirth, "Yes Danni, it is I. May I come in?"

Opening the door wider, the blonde woman could not stop blurting out the obvious, "You have a mechanical arm!"

Giving her friend a wry look, Tenel Ka answered, "I do." She rolled up the left sleeve of her teal polo shirt to show Danni the sock at the top of the prosthetic that fit over what remained of her left arm. Gesturing at the sensors embedded in the cloth, "These sensors..." she explained while turning slightly to allow Danni to see the harness that ran across her back, "...and the ones running between my shoulder blades along my spine, allow a reasonable facsimile of real movement and allow some feeling."

Danni could see where the harness ran all the way across Tenel Ka's back, looping around her other arm. The curious scientist in her mind got the better of her, "May I look?" After her friend nodded, "This harness looks almost like a holster."

The Hapan woman nodded again, "I believe that is where they got the idea. The doctors were rather curious when I told them I wanted a temporary prosthetic."

Danni raised the back of her friend's shirt to get a closer look. Curious, she ran her fingers along the skin underneath where the sensors were located and felt a small metal strip just below the skin on one of the Queen's vertebra. "The interface system?"

Again, Tenel Ka nodded, impressed with Danni's understanding of robotics. "Yes. There is a sensor just under the skin that looks exactly like the one on my harness and that is spliced into my nervous system." She could feel Danni move the sensor on her harness to take a look. The now black-haired woman continued, "The harness gives the arm decent stability, so I don't have to worry too much about what I can and cannot do with it. It is not as dexterous as a full-up prosthetic, but it serves its purpose rather well."

Danni snorted as she continued to examine the sensors, "And that purpose is?"

"Escape. There is a shortage of one-armed Jedi women in the galaxy. I cut my hair so that I can either color it quickly or wear a wig." With a half-shrug, she continued, "Combined with my new arm, I am able to disappear."

Her scientific curiosity quelled, Danni pulled Tenel Ka's shirt down. "Or maybe sing in a band?"

Tenel Ka spun around, "How did…" She stopped, seeing Danni's amused look.

"Gadell and I were at the Blue Oyster a few nights ago…" she paused, noticing the queen's satisfied smirk; the Queen Mother had been trying to set her up with her security chief for a couple of weeks now. Frowning, Danni continued, "It's not like that." Tenel Ka's smirk got bigger. With a loud sigh, the older woman continued, "Anyway, we were at the Oyster to watch Kenara's band, 'The One-Armed Bandits', play." Shooting her Hapan friend a knowing look, "Imagine my surprise when I sensed a familiar presence from the lead singer."

Tenel Ka tried, and failed, to keep from laughing. After a few moments, she sobered, "You didn't tell Gadell?"

"Are you kidding? He'd have a heart attack!" Danni smiled, "No, your secret is safe with me." Her smile turned predatory, "For now."

The Queen Mother tried to glare at her friend. "You would not…"

Danni interrupted, "And pass up a chance to blackmail royalty? I think not."

In mock seriousness, Tenel Ka chastised her friend. "It is a treasonable offense to threaten the Crown."

Danni laughed as she shook her head. "Only if I am Hapan." Winking, she continued, "Besides, who would threaten a fancy hairpiece?" She paused, thinking for a second, "Speaking of Gadell; where are he and Allana, anyway?"

"They were going to grab a bite to eat and then return to the Survivor for tonight."

Danni nodded. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Tenel Ka's expression turned serious. "Yes. The longer we wait, the more dangerous it gets."

"True." Danni agreed and looked at her chrono. "Okay, I'm supposed to meet him in about thirty minutes. We will come back here after dinner."

Her friend nodded. "I will be ready." The two of them had spent the last month intricately planning for tonight. It was time to save Jacen Solo from himself.

_(_)_

Only offering token resistance, Jacen allowed himself to be talked into coming back to Danni's hotel suite after dinner again; it definitely beat being by himself in his sparse apartment, and he enjoyed being with her. He liked her easy smile, and the way they could talk without her getting judgmental. To be sure, Danni often disagreed with him, but she always had logical reasons for why she thought him wrong. Not for the first time since she had entered his office that day, Jacen thought of just how much he missed having someone to talk to; everyone else either ignored him or was just out-right hostile. As they sat together on opposite ends of the couch watching some holo-drama, Danni was the first to break their comfortable silence, "Can you spend the night again?" Danni asked teasingly, an impish grin on her face.

"I'd better not. You know how the neighbors talk." Jacen replied warmly. He had spent the last couple of nights in her suite, the two of them sleeping in separate bedrooms. After spending so much time alone, both of them seemed to just enjoy being in each other's company and reveled in their shared friendship. Briefly, Jacen wondered what might have happened if he hadn't been so keen to wander the galaxy searching for…well, he still didn't really know what he went searching for. Perhaps it is better to revel in what is and not what might have been. Shifting on the couch to be able to look at her directly, "I've sensed that you have been on edge. What's wrong?"

Danni refused to look at him as she took a deep breath. Staring out the patio door at the lights of Coruscant, she answered, "I've been meaning to ask you a question for the last few days, but I could never seem to find the right time." He furrowed his eyes, not sure where she was going with this. Danni sighed again, trying to brace herself for the storm certain to come as soon as she finished her next sentence. Trying in vain to stop her hands from trembling slightly, she answered in a whisper, "Why did you do it? Why did you kill Nelani?"

Jacen's eyes grew very wide. "What did you say?" His voice remained composed, but he clearly taken aback by her question.

The blonde astrophysicist had gotten off of the couch and took a couple of steps towards the patio door. "I know that you killed her. I just would like to know why."

Jacen stood, but remained in front of the couch. He said nothing as he watched Danni stare out into the night. This was it; this was his sacrifice. He just never expected Danni to be the one. At that moment, Jacen realized that he did love her. Perhaps not the way she wanted, or even deserved, but it was the truth just the same. No one, not even Tenel Ka, made him think things through the way that Danni Quee did, and he loved her for it. He felt his eyes moisten as he realized what he must do. I'm so sorry, Danni. You will save the galaxy. Jacen looked down at the floor as he delved into the Force for some clue about what the future would hold. Strangely, the Force was silent this evening. Taking a deep breath he drew his lightsaber from his belt and drew it back as he prepared to ignite it. He looked up…

…Right into the muzzle of a blaster a meter and a half from his face. Danni had turned and drawn her holdout blaster so fast, that Jacen didn't even hear her move. Her positioning was perfect; she was too close for him to block a shot, and too far away for him to knock the blaster from her hand before she could fire. It was as if she expected this to come about. Impressive. He lowered his hand with the still unlit lightsaber down to his side. Danni backed up a pace, still keeping the blaster leveled at his face. She had gotten the drop on him once; she doubted that she could do it again.

Acidly, Danni spit out, "I've been dead for a decade; you'd be doing me a favor." She paused, taking a deep breath, "Are you planning on burying me in some unmarked grave as well?" For the second time that evening, Jacen furrowed his eyes together in confusion. Danni's tone stayed ice-cold, "Your quest to rule the galaxy ends here."

"I have no desire to rule the galaxy. I just want to make the future a safer place."

Danni shook her head slightly, "By killing Nelani?" Her tone got a little more desperate, "I've had visions, Jacen. I've seen you burn a planet, I've seen you dueling with Mara, I've seen you flying with Allana in your lap in a snub-fighter engagement…this has to stop. You have to stop. Now.

Jacen allowed a small smirk. He took on an air of condescension, "Don't believe all that you see, Danni. 'Always in motion, the fu….." His smirk disappeared and his tone became one of uncertainty, "…ture….. is." Every Jedi knew of Yoda's lesson to Luke Skywalker, but Jacen had never really taken time to think about what it meant. Until now. He killed Nelani because of a possible future. His lightsaber slowly dropped from his hand as he backed a couple of steps into the wall behind him, clearly shocked. He raised his hands in front of his face, to look at them. His voice became a whisper. "What have I done?" His danger sense flared, and he looked up at Danni who still had her blaster pointed at his face, never sensing the person in the other bedroom with a large blaster pointed at his chest. A look of surprise flashed across his face as he felt an incredible icy pain coming from his ribcage. As his world faded to black, his last thought was…Most impressive.

For a long moment, the suite was eerily quiet. Her gun-hand trembling slightly, Danni slowly lowered her blaster as she came to grips at the thought of aiming it at her friend. Finally, the Hapan Queen Mother stepped out of her hiding spot. "What took you so long?" Danni demanded of her friend, almost yelling. "He was going to kill me." She looked over at Tenel Ka, her face contorted with rage. Using the Force, the one-time Jedi wrenched Danni's blaster from her hand, catching it with her prosthetic left hand, never lowering her own blaster as she did. Suddenly, Danni understood: Tenel Ka had wanted Jacen to kill her. Idly, she considered calling Jacen's lightsaber to her, but realized that she would be dead as soon as she tried. Instead, she simply glared back at the grey eyes that were trying to burn her through.

"You've been sleeping with him!" Tenel Ka screamed at her. "All this time, you were the one that I should have been worried about." Tenel Ka's voice became one of icy authority, "If I so much as even hear about you coming to Hapes, I will have you killed."

"You think that I'd…" Something inside of Danni snapped. She was tired of having to prove herself to everyone. For the last ten years, she had tried to prove to the Yuuzhan Vong that not all the galaxy wanted them dead. She had tried to prove to the galaxy that the Vong were a race worth saving; trying to prove to the Alliance that her research on Zonoma Sekot was worth the credits they were spending; trying to prove to the Jedi Council that she could be both a scientist and a Jedi. All of it for naught. Danni had concluded some time ago that not one of them believed her. The Vong and the galaxy at large would ever only have an uneasy peace; to the Alliance, she was 'out of sight, out of mind'; the Jedi ignored her altogether. She didn't know which one was worse. On top of everything, one of the three people whom Danni counted as friends had been on the verge of killing her; another had just threatened to do so if she ever saw her again. She was tiredof it all. Tired of trying. Using her anger that was roiling inside her mind, she mentally crumpled the memories of the last few weeks with Jacen into a ball and threw them at Tenel Ka. Here's your proof, bitch.

Tenel Ka staggered backwards with the onslaught of images: Danni and Jacen sharing pizza and breadsticks at Danni's suite; the two of them chatting on a park bench while watching the sunset; them together at the Symphony; sharing étouffée at a Mon Calamari restaurant, still wearing the same formal wear that they had on for the symphony; the tapas restaurant that Jacen insisted on going to earlier this evening. These earlier memories all shared the same ending: Jacen giving Danni a kiss on her forehead, never noticing her sad smile, before retiring for the night to the same bedroom that Tenel Ka had just vacated. She felt Danni's heartache, felt her longing; felt her wishing to be Jacen's love, but pragmatic enough just being Jacen's friend. She also felt her resolve: Danni was going to save Jacen, or die trying, as much for Tenel Ka and Allana as for herself.

Tenel Ka had never felt so ashamed. She had heard Danni's comment when she threw her memories, and realized that she deserved the sentiment. Why did she act so irrationally when it came to Jacen? Tenel Ka holstered her blaster and tossed Danni's back and watched as the older blonde caught it with casual grace. As Danni replaced her blaster into the spring-loaded holster on her right arm, Tenel Ka vowed to never question her loyalties again.

"All three of us have been lonely for far too long." Tenel Ka said softly, as a way of apologizing, "I should not be jealous because the two of you had an opportunity to spend time together. The galaxy is a lonely enough place, as it is." Danni said nothing, but gave her a quick nod.

Tenel Ka continued in hushed tones, "I do not think that he intended to strike you down."

Danni stared at her in disbelief. When she finally found her voice, it was filled with feelings of betrayal, "Then you weren't paying attention. He drew his lightsaber on me when my back was turned." She continued, her voice raw with emotion. "He thought me unarmed. He was going to kill me." As a single tear traced down her left cheek, she continued, "Tenel Ka, how many more times are you going to make apologies for him? Until he tries to kill Allana?"

Tenel Ka shook her head, trying to ignore the last comment. "No. I've practiced with Jacen a great many times over the years. He is much faster than that." She looked at Danni, certainty showing in her face, "I think that he wanted you to stop him."

Danni did not look convinced, but they did not have a lot of time to discuss this, so she merely shrugged as she walked over to where Jacen was lying prone on the floor. "Do you have the IV? We are going to need to keep him incapacitated for about the next thirty-six hours and the 'stun' setting on that blaster is only good for about twenty minutes." Tenel Ka nodded as she made her way back into the second bedroom. A few moments later, she came back with an IV bag filled with general anesthesia, enough to keep Jacen unconscious for forty-eight hours. She also was pushing a hover-chair with a medical kit in the seat, and had a blanket thrown over her shoulder. As she handed the IV needle to Danni, who had knelt next to Jacen on his left side, she noticed the older woman's hands were shaking slightly. Her eyes narrowed as she cocked her head to one side, "Are you sure you can do this?"

Danni took the needle from her, and took a deep breath. "I'll be fine. It goes away when I have to concentrate on something." She grabbed Jacen's left wrist and tapped it a couple of times, trying to find a vein. As his veins became visible, she used her left hand to keep his arm steady and took the cap off of the needle with her teeth. As she did this, Tenel Ka noticed that her trembling did go away when she concentrated. Danni used her left hand to pull the skin on his wrist taut and gently inserted the needle with her right hand. When the small tube attached to the IV needle filled with a small amount of dark red blood, Danni was satisfied that she had found a vein. Attaching the line leading from the bag to the receiver end of the IV needle, she opened the valve to allow the anesthetic fluid to enter Jacen's bloodstream. Pulling a blood-pressure cuff from the med kit, Danni wrapped it around his right arm and inflated the cuff as she grabbed a stethoscope from the kit. After a few moments of listening to his pulse and checking his blood pressure, Danni remained convinced that he would remain out for the foreseeable future. More to herself than anything, she said quietly, "There. Sweet dreams, Mr. Solo."

Looking up at Tenel Ka, Danni asked, "You do have a blood pressure machine on your ship, correct?" Tenel Ka nodded. "Good. Keep an eye on his BP, checking it frequently. If it gets to low, close this valve a bit." She pointed at the plastic valve that controlled the amount of liquid flowing from the IV bag into Jacen's arm. "If it starts to climb, open the valve a little." Tenel Ka gave her another nod, this time a bit more apprehensively. Danni gave her a smile, "Don't worry, we'll make sure that he is properly sedated before you launch."

"Okay." Danni looked over at her red-haired friend and said as she stood up, "Care to give me a hand getting Mr. Deadweight here into the…" She stopped as Tenel Ka had already used the Force to pick up Jacen and guide him into the hover chair. Danni shrugged, arranging Jacen's arms a little so that he wasn't sitting on them, making sure that the IV line did not have any kinks and hung the IV bag from the hook raised on a thin pole at the back-left corner of the chair. "Huh, that was easier than I expected." Tenel Ka merely raised one eyebrow as she wrapped the blanket around Jacen's torso. "Okay, I forget about the Force sometimes!"

Danni walked into her bedroom and returned with a black cap with a gold interlocking 'CU' on the front. "It's my alma mater, the University of Commenor. I still don't know why it is 'CU' not 'UC'." I'm babbling. Stop! "Anyway… " She explained as she put the cap on Jacen's head, with the bill pulled down low. "It should help us avoid being recognized. You ready?" Again, Tenel Ka merely nodded. She certainly gets quiet when preparing for a mission. Making sure that she had her holdout blaster in place, and her room key, Danni opened the door to her suite and allowed Tenel Ka to push Jacen out into the hallway. They both hoped that she hadn't caught Jacen's flare in the Force.

As they made their way down to the speeder, Tenel Ka noted that Danni stopped talking. As they got off of the turbolift, she gave a polite nod to the older couple waiting to get on. Through the Force, she caught the thoughts of the gentlemen: How nice- this lovely young woman taking her husband out for an evening stroll before bed. The elderly man gave Tenel Ka a sad smile and patted Jacen affectionately on the shoulder as he shuffled by. Too many young people destroyed by the war. Tenel Ka turned and gavethe gentlemen a shy, sad smile.

Not using the Force, as the two women did not want to tip themselves off to anyone, they managed to get Jacen loaded into the speeder. The only difficulty was trying to fold the 'easily storable' hoverchair into the trunk of the speeder. "Do you sense anything?" Tenel Ka asked, as she got behind the wheel of her rental speeder.

"No, and that worries me a little." Danni replied as she settled into the passenger seat.

"Me as well." The Hapan said, as she maneuvered the speeder off of the parking ramp and into traffic. "Keep looking." Danni only nodded.

Driving through Coruscant's heavy traffic, both women nervously kept their senses expanded as far as they dared, hoping to catch a sense of whom they knew would surely be looking for Jacen by now. Neither of them said a word on the twenty-minute ride to the spaceport, they were both knew that they were most vulnerable to attack while in the speeder. Only once Tenel Ka's Rock Dragon was in sight, did they visibly relax. "How long to do the preflight?" Danni asked as the speeder pulled alongside the ship.

"About twenty minutes." The queen replied, pulling the hoverchair out of the trunk. The blonde woman nodded as they maneuvered Jacen into the chair. Tenel Ka continued, "You get him situated in my cabin while I start the preflight." Again, the scientist nodded as she checked the IV tube and solution bag.

"I'll take care of him from here, you go get the ship ready." Danni said, as she moved to the back of the hoverchair and followed Tenel Ka into the ship, pushing the chair. The young queen took a left at the top of the ramp to make her way into the cockpit and pointed to her right down the corridor, indicating where her quarters were located.

When Danni found what she assumed was Tenel Ka's quarters, she was a bit taken aback. Not because of its grandeur, but because of its utilitarian design. It looked as though two interior walls had been removed, combining three separate compartments into one relatively spacious one. On the left wall, there were three military-issue wall lockers; on the right was a doorway leading to a private 'fresher, complete with shower. Against the back wall, centered in the compartment, was a queen-size bed, the frame of which looked as if it was originally from a mid-range hotel. A simple nightstand sat to the left of the bed, on which sat a blood-pressure monitor. Danni shrugged. She had gotten to know Tenel Ka fairly well over the last month, so she did not know why she thought that the Rock Dragon would be lavish.

Danni did not trust her levitation skills enough to move Jacen over to the bed without dropping him, so she awkwardly wrangled him onto the right side of the bed and positioned the hoverchair next to the bed to act as a stand for the IV bag. Next, she carefully removed Jacen's shirt; she wanted the blood pressure monitor to get accurate readings and she did not want his left sleeve to interfere with the IV. After divesting Jacen of his shirt, she proceeded to wrap the pressure-cuff around his right arm and started the machine to take a reading.

As the machine went through its procedure, the scientist proceeded to restrain her 'patient' using the seatbelts that she found under the bed. Everyone knew that you were supposed to use proper restraints when in your cabin, just in case, but no one ever did. Idly, she wondered how many people used the belts for other purposes.

With an audible 'beep' the monitor finished its procedure, and Danni was pleased that Jacen's blood pressure had not changed much from her earlier reading. As long as his BP stayed where it was, he would be comfortably asleep for the duration of the Dragon's 30-odd hour flight. She set the machine to take readings every twenty minutes and established an acceptable range for the readings. If any check of his blood pressure fell outside her prescribed range, the machine would sound an audible alarm to warn Tenel Ka that she needed to change the flow from the IV.

After Danni was satisfied that Jacen was as secure as possible, she took the blanket from the hoverchair and laid it over his body, placing his arms on top. Sitting by his side on the bed for a few moments, she simply watching his chest as it rose and fell rhythmically. As she affectionately mussed his too-short hair, she took hold of his left hand. What happened to you, Jacen? Whispering, almost pleading, "Please don't leave me, Jacen. All of my friends are gone. You are all that is left." She felt her eyes start to water. "I don't know why you wanted to kill me." She wiped her eyes with her right hand, "I know that it wasn't really you." Danni plucked a piece of lint from his right cheek. "Tenel Ka will find the real you; he's in there somewhere."

Danni's back was to the door, and she did not hear Tenel Ka stop at the doorway. Smiling sadly, she continued to caress Jacen's hand, "I know about you and Tenel Ka. She is a lovely woman, and Allana is adorable. You are a very lucky man." Behind Danni, the Hapan queen smiled slightly. "I know that we can never be, but I still need you in my life. Jacen, please, know that regardless of happens from here on out, I still love you." She watched him breathe for a few more moments, and then bent over to kiss his forehead.

As Danni looked over the settings on the blood pressure machine one last time, Tenel Ka said softly, "My preflight is complete-it is time for us to leave." Danni simply nodded, too emotional to trust her voice, as she turned and walked over to where her friend was standing.

Her voice trembling slightly, Tenel Ka tried to convey her appreciation, "Thank you for all that you have done, Friend Danni." The blonde's green eyes widened with surprise; she understood Dathomori customs well enough to know what her friend's syntax was meant to convey. Again, she merely nodded as she tried to pass by her friend and into the ship's central corridor. Before she could pass, Danni felt a hand on her arm. As she turned she saw the tears forming in Her Majesty's grey eyes. "I am sorry. For earlier. For…everything."

Danni gave her a small smile, and before she could react, found herself in a big hug. Caught off guard, she returned her friend's embrace. "It's okay. Just bring him back. We need the real Jacen."

Tenel Ka released their embrace and held her friend at arm's length, and gave her a small nod. "That is a fact."

A/N: I know that anesthesia is usually administered as a gas; but I changed it here for the purposes of story-telling. Bonus points to those who recognize the emblem from Danni's 'University of Commenor' hat!