CHAPTER TWO.

Solo glanced at the princess beside him as he hurried them through the barely lit alleyways and couldn't help wondering if she'd ever seen this side of Coruscant. In direct contrast to the crowded street they'd just left, these side streets and alleys were inhabited by shadows only. Some of the shadows moved from time to time, but Solo knew to ignore them until they materialised into something threatening.

He led her to a rundown apartment complex and, although she seemed relieved to be out of the rain, she lost none of her wariness. Leia had said very little since leaving the Falcon, and Solo wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or not. He appreciated the fact that she seemed to trust and defer to him in this venture, but it was unlike her and therefore made him suspicious.

She followed him up several floors and along an unlit corridor to a nondescript door. Solo performed a subtle hand gesture at the hidden surveillance he knew was covering the door and, a moment later, a voice demanded out of the darkness, "Who's she?"

Solo recognised the voice and replied flatly, "She's with me, Joh."

Without thinking, he took hold of the princess' hand, wanting to be able to pull her to safety should things suddenly go bad. He felt her hand tense in his own as the door opened, and just inside was a human male who stood only marginally taller than the princess. He stuck his head through the door and looked either way down the hallway. "Where's Chewie?" he asked, then moved aside so they could enter.

Solo let go of the princess' hand so she could enter the room ahead of him, saying nothing until the door had closed behind them. Then he muttered noncommittally that Chewie was waiting for them elsewhere.

Inside, the dimly lit apartment was full to the brim with clutter. Droid parts, computer parts, engines from who knew what. Solo even recognised part of a speeder bike just visible in the next room.

"Hey, Solo, long time no see," the man said amiably, but Solo could see him studying the princess intently.

"Vierstrujaux," Solo said, beginning introductions, and deciding he would give Leia a false name, just to be safe, "this is-"

"Princess Leia Organa," Vierstrujaux said, almost reverently, then tore his gaze from the princess to look at Solo. "So the rumours are true," he said. "You are running with the Rebs now."

Solo glowered at him, wondering how the man had recognised the princess so quickly. He glanced down at the girl by his side to reassure himself that she was still looking 'scruffy' and realised that her hair, damp from the rain, looked it's usual colour in the dim light and the Kivvidan markings were barely noticeable. She looked like a slightly scruffy version of herself.

"I'm not here for the Rebels, Joh," Solo told the information broker irritably. "I'm here for me. For my father to be exact. Can you tell me where my brother is?"

He felt the princess' surprise because she was standing so close, but she concealed it well; her gaze never wavering from their host, who met the question with what Solo could only describe as amusement.

"Sure I can tell you where he is," Vierstrujaux said, eyeing the princess again. "I don't even have to look that one up!" He smiled at Solo. "He's working for Imperial Intelligence."

It was like a blow to the sternum, and genuinely took Solo a moment to recover. The thought of his younger brother becoming an integral part of the great and deadly monster that was the Empire horrified him, and he couldn't even look at Leia, afraid of the disgust he would see on her face. Yet he had been part of that monster himself once, so who was he to judge?

"Is he on Coruscant?" Solo asked stiffly.

"Oh, yes," Vierstrujaux said, moving deeper into the apartment and indicating that they should follow him. "He's with the Science and Development branch."

Of course he is, Solo thought sourly. Like their father, Brennon Solo had been blessed with a brilliant mind and a photographic memory. He had been on an accelerated learning program since he was three and had never quite been able to understand why his older brother wasn't able to learn at the same rate.

Solo had not been able to understand it either, and it had left him with a strong sense of inadequacy as far as his family was concerned. The fact that he was able to calculate equations and hyperspace logarithms that usually required a sophisticated computer was beside the point. He could never match his brother; therefore he just wasn't good enough.

The last time he'd seen Brennon was at his own Academy Graduation. But the brother, who was four years his junior, had barely managed a civil word to him after the ceremony. Brennon had never forgiven Han for tearing their family apart when their father had been required to move them to Coruscant, and Solo could respect that. Had their positions been reversed, he was sure he'd have felt the same way. But it had all seemed so black and white back then, so life and death to the fourteen-year-old Han Solo had been at the time. Coruscant had represented certain death. Solo had felt that in ways he had never been able to explain. He still couldn't. So not thinking about it had always seemed a viable and sensible response.

Going to Brennon like this was the last thing Solo wanted to do, but he knew his brother could help them.

"Can you get me a secure contact?"

"I can vouch for my end, but not for his," Vierstrujaux admitted, then added, "Think about it Solo. He works for I.I. Do you think his link would not be monitored?"

Solo sighed, then nodded. "I'll keep it brief."

He followed Vierstrujaux into the next room, which housed a cluster of computer terminals and a convoluted array of connections, and watched as the man set about finding his brother's comlink code. Leia's followed them into the room, and Solo decided she looked nervous.

He turned his attention back to Vierstrujaux's efforts and saw that the man had succeeded already. A small visual of Brennon Solo was flashing on the screen beside his comlink code, and Solo felt his mouth go dry.

He was about to walk back into his brother's well-ordered and no doubt comfortable life and screw it up completely. Did he really have that right? Then he decided, fuck it. Perron was Brennon's father too.

Solo reached past Vierstrujaux and hit the 'call' switch before he could change his mind. A moment later his brother's face filled the screen, answering his comlink with a laconic, "Solo here."

Solo stared at his younger brother for what seemed an inordinately long time, then managed to croak out a, "Hey."

Brennon frowned out of the terminal at him and Solo could see that his brother had matured in the last ten years. His face was stronger; all the boyishness Solo remembered gone. Recognition settled on Brennon Solo's face and his hazel eyes darkened.

"What do you want?" was the terse demand.

Still angry with me, Solo thought, but was comforted by the fact that Brennon had at least recognised him. "Can I see you?" he asked.

"Why?"

Solo considered his words carefully, then said, "It's about Dad."

A wave of horror swept across Brennon's face and he asked hurriedly, "He's not dead?"

"No," Solo replied flatly, giving nothing away. No reassurance, no comfort, no facts. "Can I see you?"

Brennon breathed heavily and didn't try to hide the resentment in his voice as he said, "Where?"

Solo hastily wrote some coordinates down on a piece of flimsy he found lying nearby, held it up to the screen briefly then scrunched it into a ball in his hand.

"Can you get there in half an hour?" he asked.

His brother stared at him for a long moment then sighed heavily and nodded. "You couldn't have picked a worse time," he muttered, and disconnected.

The terminal reverted to blue and Solo looked at Vierstrujaux. "Destroy this," he said, handing the smaller man the crumpled piece of flimsy.

Vierstrujaux put it straight into the nearby garbage atomiser, and it disappeared in a small flash of energy.

"Thanks, Joh," Solo said, and headed for the front door.

"You're aware that Jabba's upped the bounty on you?" Vierstrujaux said as they reached the door.

Solo nodded. "I'd heard."

"Watch your back Han."

"Always do, Joh, but thanks for the warning."

"I get the feeling he's serious this time."

Solo nodded, and led the princess out the door and down the dank hallway.

The fact that Vierstrujaux had bothered to repeat his warning meant the threat from Jabba was probably much worse than Solo had thought and Vierstrujaux had implied. Solo couldn't help wondering just what it was the small man wasn't telling him. If he'd had more time, he would have attempted to buy the information from him. Vierstrujaux was, after all, a black-market information broker.

Perhaps he would find the time to come back and ask him after he'd got this thing with his father settled?

The minute they stepped out of the building and into the dark, rain-drenched street, Leia hissed, "Brother?"

"Don't start," Solo told her flatly, and set a quick pace. His long-legged gait meant the princess had to jog to keep up, but that didn't appear to phase her capacity for speech.

"Don't give me that," she snapped under her breath. "This is big, Han. You should have told us."

"Why?"

"He's your brother!"

"So? I didn't know if he would help us. I still don't."

"Does he hate your father too?"

"I don't hate Dad"

"Does he? He didn't look happy to see you."

Solo swung to face her and she almost ran into him. "He's Imperial Intelligence, Sweetheart!" he hissed violently under his breath. "How happy do you think he's gonna be to see me? I'm about to ruin whatever life he's made for himself here and he knows it."

"Just like your father knew it," Leia muttered, half to herself.

Solo bridled. "Did he say that?!"

"He said something to that effect, yes."

Without another word, Solo turned and stalked away.

By the time they stopped at a nondescript street corner twenty minutes later, Leia was feeling totally bedraggled and irritable, and Solo wasn't speaking to her. The street was dank and depressing, and there was a foul smelling pile of rubbish nearby. Brightly lit advertising droids passed slowly overhead, claiming their products to be all a sentient being needed for happiness, while private airspeeders and droid taxis whizzed by.

Leia sighed and found a crate she could sit on while they waited, pushing it closer to the wall so she could get as much cover from the precipitation as possible. Solo stood several metres away, hunched into his coat.

Despite her curiosity about Solo's brother, Leia found herself dreading the meeting. As Solo had so virulently pointed out, his brother was working for Imperial Intelligence; the risk of discovery for all of them was enormous. And the closer they got to actually re-tasking the microchip lodged in her brain, the more reluctant Leia became. There was comfort and a distinct sense of freedom in being officially dead.

He arrived fifteen minutes late: a dark shape emerging from the darkness, wearing a long coat against the weather, just like his brother. Without a word, Solo retreated into the derelict building Leia had been leaning against, and she and the dark figure followed.

Solo moved into a room off the main corridor, which was in a state of collapse, and risked lighting the small luma he carried on his belt. From the small amount of light, Leia could see they were in a small room, but that was as much as she could discern about it. She felt herself being scrutinised as they arranged themselves into a ragged semi-circle, then the stranger turned to his brother and asked, "What's happened to Dad?"

No introductions, Leia thought. He wants to know as little about us as possible.

"Shenegar has him," Solo admitted grimly.

"Here? On Coruscant?"

"As far as I know. That's part of the reason I need you."

Leia was studying the shadowy face of Solo's brother, looking for similarities. Dark hair, dark eyes. But that was how they all looked in this light.

"Why does Shenegar want him?" the man wanted to know. His accent was still Corellian at its core, but there was a strong Coruscant influence. Leia guessed he had been on the Imperial capital for a long time.

"A discovery he made on Galadan," Solo said. "Something the Empire thinks it can use."

"How'd they find him?"

"He saved my life," Leia confessed. "On Galadan." Once again she found herself being scrutinised.

"And you are?" he asked.

"A friend of Han's."

He looked back at Solo. "Where's the Wookiee?"

"We need to get Dad out of Shenegar's labs," Solo said, ignoring the question. "To do that, we need to get in. And the quickest and simplest way in is-"

"As an employee," his brother finished.

Solo nodded. "We need our microchips re-tasked."

His brother shook his head emphatically. "You know how dangerous that is."

Solo rolled his eyes. "But you can do it?"

"Not to mention illegal."

Solo sighed, "Bren, you know the sort of things they're gonna be making him do; we have to get him out."

Bren, Leia repeated to herself. I have a name to put to the face at last.

"We will get him out," Leia said, the determination in her words razor sharp. "With your help or without it."

"But with your help increases the chance of us getting Dad out alive," Solo added.

"I can't do it," Bren admitted.

"But you know someone who can," Solo finished for him.

Bren nodded reluctantly. "I could call them and see-"

"No calls," Solo said emphatically.

"It's the middle of the night in their part of the world!" his brother protested.

"All the better for our secrecy not being compromised," Solo observed bluntly. "Let's go."

"Now?"

Bren was obviously anything but enthusiastic, Leia decided. And, while she could understand the man's reticence, she couldn't help feeling irritated with him too. This was his father they were trying to rescue. And she and Han were the ones who would be risking their lives doing the rescuing; all Bren had to do was help them re-task their microchips.

"Yes, now," Solo said irritably. "You think I'm here to enjoy the sights? I don't want to spend any more time on Coruscant than I have to." He indicated for Bren to move towards the door. "Come on."

Sighing, Bren Solo wiped a hand across his face, regarded his brother for a moment, and then headed out.

The minute they stepped out into the rain, Bren reached into his coat pocket and Solo reacted by reaching for his blaster and demanding, "What are you doing?"

His brother froze then carefully pulled a device out of his coat pocket and showed it to them as he said, "Calling an airtaxi." The device was a comlink. Solo shook his head and Bren insisted, "This person is on the other side of the planet, Han; it's gonna take us half an hour to get there by taxi."

"And the comlink is registered to?" Solo asked dogmatically.

Leia watched Bren's face as he rapidly followed his brother's reasoning. The comlink was registered to him from Imperial Intelligence. All activity on it would be monitored and documented. Sighing, Bren put the comlink back in his pocket. Solo smiled cynically and headed off down the street.

As they approached the nearest public transport system minutes later, Leia heard Solo's brother lean over and tell him, "You'll have to pay; everything I have can be traced."

Solo nodded, paid for their passage, and soon they were sitting in a semi-crowded carriage, which was rushing them through the tunnel transport system.

Leia took the opportunity to study Bren in light that, while not good, was much better than the dark streets they'd come from, and was surprised how alike Han and his brother were. Their mannerisms were surprisingly similar. Both sat hunched into their coats with their legs straight out in front of them; each a conflicting mixture of introversion and extroversion.

There were facial differences; Bren had a much stronger nose than Han and his hair was darker, but their eyes were identical, right down to their indecisive hazel-green colour. Knowing that Perron's eyes were brown, Leia decided it must have been a trait both had scored from their mother.

Bren brushed a lock of damp hair back out of his eyes with his hand, and Leia noticed that he had a definite grey streak at the front. The sort that looked trauma or chemical induced, and she couldn't help wondering which it was.

He caught her studying him, and Leia glanced away, then reconsidered and met his gaze. There were as many questions about her in his eyes as she had about him. The first and foremost of which was probably, 'why was she with Han?' Did he think she was Han's latest female conquest? Probably.

Leia looked back at Solo, surprised that she didn't feel outraged at the suggestion. Maybe it was the underlying fear of what they were about to do that was putting it in perspective? Whatever it was, what other people might wonder what she was doing with Solo wasn't important, so Leia found she just didn't care.

She found it interesting that Bren did not disagree with the fact that they needed to get Perron away from Shenegar's labs, and couldn't help wondering what sort of inside knowledge he night have.

"So, Han, what have you been up to?" Bren asked suddenly.

Solo smiled guardedly and said, "Ah, you don't really want to know; you're just asking to be polite."

Bren smiled broadly, and Leia could tell it was genuine, and the likeness between the brothers increased dramatically.

"How did you get hooked up with Dad?" he asked Solo, and Leia answered, "He was helping me investigate something."

Bren regarded her with humour in his eyes. "Do you have a name or do I just get to call you 'hey you' for the rest of this trip?"

"Leia," she replied cautiously, and was rewarded with a sharp look from Han that told her he thought she should have given a false name.

"Hi, Leia," Bren said softly, so as not to be overheard, then held his hand out to shake hers in greeting. Feeling awkwardly polite in such low socio-economic surroundings, Leia gave him her hand and he gripped it warmly.

"Brennon Solo," he said. "Please don't judge me by my brother's manners."

Leia removed her hand from his and smiled tentatively, "I'll try not to."

He looked back at Solo and teased, "Bet Dad was pleased to see you."

"As thrilled as you were," Solo said caustically, then added, "Dad was more abusive though."

Brennon laughed. "I can imagine." His expression suddenly turned serious. "Yet you're willing to put your life on the line to save him. Why? You know you're putting yourselves in mortal danger doing this, don't you?"

Solo rolled his eyes. "What do you want me to say? Something pathetically sentimental?"

"You just went up in my estimation."

"Oh, please!" Solo said, glaring indignantly at his brother. He shifted uncomfortably then looked away and swore under his breath.

"How long has Dad been in custody?" Brennon asked.

Leia looked at Solo, waiting for him to answer and, when it became evident that he wasn't going to, she turned to Brennon and said, "Four days. It took us three to get here from Galadan."

"Three days from Galadan?" Brennon looked impressed. "Fast ship."

Leia expected the comment to trigger a torrent of bragging from Solo; there was nothing he liked better than talking about his ship. Yet he remained silent and Leia couldn't help feeling impressed with his restraint.

"They were transporting him by SD?" Brennon asked and Leia realised he was trying to calculate how long his father had been on Coruscant. Solo nodded a sharp affirmative and Brennon concluded, half to himself, "You're hoping to get to him before they reactivate his chip."

Leia and Solo both remained silent. The seriousness of what they were trying to do must have finally sunk in because Brennon wiped a hand across his face and lamented to himself, "What the hell did you discover, Dad?"

Thinking of Luke and Chewbacca waiting for them, Leia leaned towards Solo and spoke close to his ear, "Hadn't you better check in?"

"I did," was the flat reply, but Solo was obviously caught up in his brother's musings because he asked, "And what have you been doing with your time, buddy? What great steps forward have you made in the name of the Empire?"

The words were deliberately inflammatory, and Brennon glared at him.

"You wouldn't understand," he said.

"Oh!" Solo said, suddenly animated. "Oh, of course not!" He leaned towards his brother and hissed, "How stupid of me! I was forgetting-"

Brennon raised a warning finger and Leia had to smother a smile. "Don't start on the stupid brother routine, Han. You know that's not it. We have different goals, you and I. Mine is science; yours is - What is yours, Han? Money? Excitement?" He glanced at Leia. "Women?" Shaking his head he muttered, "I never could figure you out."

"At least I haven't sold my soul," Solo growled.

For a moment Leia thought Brennon might actually hit his brother and was furious with Solo for being so deliberately antagonistic. What Han thought of his brother was currently beside the point. They needed Brennon's help, and it seemed to Leia that Solo was doing his best to thwart that.

But instead of taking the bait, Brennon jammed his hands deep into his coat pockets and said, "That's rich coming from someone as selfish as you."

They lapsed into simmering silence, and Leia stared at the floor, refusing to meet either man's gaze lest it be construed as taking his side.

They changed transport systems twice, and it was over an hour before they emerged into the part of the world they were aiming for. This time they were close to the surface and it was genuinely dark.

Once again Leia found herself traversing a hallway in an apartment complex, but this one was not derelict. Not in literal terms anyway. It was seriously run down and overcrowded with tenants; a hotbed of various races that thrummed with an atmosphere of hostility.

Not somewhere any sentient with a gram of self-preservation would consider going unless he or she was armed to the teeth. And, although armed and able to defend herself, Leia was grateful for Han's presence.

Brennon knocked on the door of a nondescript apartment, which opened to reveal a dishevelled female whose sleep they had obviously interrupted. She was tall with short dark hair and the golden eyes of a Caridan native. She apparently knew Brennon, because a jaded expression took up residence on her face and she admitted them without a word.

She waved them towards an adjacent room and told them in gravelly Basic, "Go through."

Brennon led them into a small room that had been jam-packed full of clinical equipment, and Leia felt acutely anxious. This was it. No turning back. She would be back on the microchip list. Not as herself admittedly, but traceable nonetheless. She felt Solo touch her arm and looked up at him, unable to disguise her trepidation and feeling appallingly weak and pathetic because of it. She expected to see irritation and annoyance on his face, but instead his eyes were repeating what he'd said to her in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon: You don't have to do this; I can do this alone. It gave her the courage she needed; Solo had to be feeling as horrified about this as she was.

The tall woman walked in, closing the door behind her, and briefly scrutinised them as she moved to a workstation almost buried under spare parts and flimsy.

"New recruits?" she said to Brennon. "Haven't seen these ones before."

"Yeah," he muttered half-heartedly and she fixed him with a piercing, golden-eyed gaze, then smiled and turned back to her console. She hit a switch and a large percentage of the room whirred to life, including an MD droid in one corner, which seemed to wake with a start.

"Bitch!" it spat, riveting everyone's attention except the woman's. "You shut me down!"

"I did," the woman responded, sounding not the least bit apologetic.

"Why you-" it started virulently, emerging from its corner, and the woman interrupted calmly, "We have company, Tam."

"You shut me down!"

"I needed some sleep."

"You shut me down!"

The Caridan woman sighed heavily, paused what she was doing to look over her shoulder at the droid and said, "Get over it." She turned in her seat to look at Brennon. "Is this a simple re-task or is it more complicated?"

Bren looked at his brother and the woman switched her questioning gaze to Solo. "Are your chips active?" she asked.

Solo and Leia both shook their heads.

"I hate you," the MD droid said.

The Caridan smiled. "Of course you do," she said fondly, then asked Solo, "Who's first?"

Solo indicated himself and stepped forward.

"I mean it," the droid said.

The woman indicated for Solo to sit opposite her, beside the MD droid.

"Well, mean it while you're scanning his chip," she said.

Leia sensed Solo's nervousness peak as he forced himself to sit beside the outraged med-droid and, knowing his dislike for droids, considered that maybe she should have gone first. The likelihood of Solo blasting the droid was high and she wondered whether she should point this out.

The droid extended an arm with a specialised scanner, lifted it to Solo's head, and found itself facing the business end of a blaster.

"You fuck with my brain and I'll splatter yours all over that wall!" Solo told it coldly.

The MD took a step back. "I don't have to work under these conditions," it said.

"Tam," the woman growled.

Reluctantly the MD lifted the arm and the scanner circled half of Solo's head.

"Alright," the Caridan said as data started appearing on her screen. "Got some lovely Imperial Navy ghost codes here. What are we re-tasking to?"

"Level 6-B scientist," Brennon answered. "Imperial Genetics and Research. Shenegar's department."

"Permanent or temporary?"

"Temporary," Solo said firmly.

"Need I.D?"

"Yes," Brennon replied.

"Coming now," she said.

The MD droid leaned its vocoder close to Solo's ear and whispered quickly and snidely, "If I wanted to fuck with your brain, asshole, you'd be too fucked with to do anything about it!"

Solo jerked his head out from under the scanner and leapt from the seat, his blaster aimed point blank at the droid's head. The MD droid laughed maliciously.

The golden-eyed female sighed and shook her head at Solo. "Oh, stop it, you're just encouraging him."

"Are you finished?" Solo demanded, looking at her.

"Yes," she said tiredly. A data card emerged from her console and she handed it to him. "Swipe this, then allow yourself to be scanned. It will code your chip to what is on the card."

"How long is it good for?"

"Forty hours from first activation."

Solo seemed satisfied, but Leia was worried that it wouldn't allow them enough time. Nevertheless, it suggested that their chips would revert to inactive once the forty hours was up, and that was encouraging.

The woman regarded her expectantly, and Leia took Solo's place in the seat beside the MD droid. 2-1B Medical Diagnostic droids were part of an elite corps of droids that housed an organic brain, usually from someone who had suffered a physical trauma that left them on permanent life-support. The choice to become a droid, so to speak, could not be an easy one, yet it seemed it gave them a wonderful empathy with other sentients because most of them chose medicine as a trade. Leia had never come across one with quite this much…personality, and couldn't help wondering if it had failed the psychological transfer.

Her future in the hands of a reject Medical Diagnostic droid, Leia concentrated on not moving while the droid held the scanner to her head.

Finally the woman said, "There is a ghost senatorial code here, but this chip is dead. I'll need to reactivate it before I can re-task it."

It was what Leia had expected, and she nodded acquiescence.

"I've set it on basic citizen," the Caridan woman added. "It will be re-codable from that." A data card spilled from the console and the female handed it to Leia. "Done," she said.

Leia felt the MD remove the scanner. She turned and thanked the droid, and got to her feet.

"How much?" Solo asked as Leia pocketed her data card, and the woman glanced at Brennon then quoted a price.

Now she knows we're not I.I, Leia thought warily.

Solo paid the amount in cash, without quibbling or bargaining, then walked out of the room.

He was waiting for them in the hallway when Leia and Brennon emerged from the apartment.

"Now we get to go our separate ways," Solo told his brother matter-of-factly, and there was no hiding the relief in his voice. Han Solo was back in control and happy about it.

Brennon stopped his brother's immediate departure by holding out a small data card to him and said, "Han."

"What's this?" Solo said, taking it.

"My address. I should be able to find out exactly where they're holding him."

"Are you insane?"

"Guess it runs in the family," Brennon admitted with grim amusement. "Come for dinner tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll have the information you need by then."

Solo was regarding his brother with a mixture of dismay and respect. Brennon's help would be invaluable, but they were all aware of the compromise and danger helping them was going to put him in.

"Come for dinner?" Solo repeated. It sounded so inane, so ludicrously normal.

Brennon's irritation flared and he said in a low voice, "He's my father too," then added sourly, "Maybe you can help us pack?"

"Us?" Solo said sharply.

"My wife and I," his brother replied, and Leia groaned inwardly. The ripples of affect were widening.

"You have a wife?" Solo was genuinely shocked.

"Yes, Han," Brennon confessed tiredly, "I have a wife. A very pregnant wife. Like I told you; you couldn't have picked a worse time. Now get out of here before you compromise me any more than you already have."

Leia met Solo's glance and, without another word, followed him away down the hall and out of the building.

Brennon Solo watched his brother and the girl hurry away, then turned and went back into the apartment they had just left, wondering how his life could get so messed up in such a short time.

Dor'in was waiting for him, and Tam, the MD droid, was in the main room beside her. She handed Brennon a cup of hot caff, which he accepted gratefully.

He sat and sipped thoughtfully from his cup for a few moments before asking the golden-eyed woman, "Any idea who the girl is?"

"An ex-senator," Dor'in replied. "A dead one."

"Obviously," Brennon muttered sarcastically.

"I liked her," Tam opined, but they both ignored him.

"Any chance you could look her up?"

Dor'in shook her head. "Any sort of search would create interest I'm sure you don't want."

Brennon sighed heavily and put down his cup. "I'd better go. Raella's gonna be wondering what the hell is going on."

"Are you going to tell her?"

Brennon considered his wife briefly then shook his head. "Not until I have to."

"Where will you go?"

"I don't know," he said. And why would I? Brennon thought sadly. I wasn't going anywhere a couple of hours ago. "Corellia?"

"Probably a good choice," Dor'in said.

One that would hopefully save his professional skin as well as his physical one. But Raella would hate it. Raella was Coruscant born and bred, and considered Corellia outer rim.

"Tell Raella you're taking her to Tatooine," Tam suggested with humour. "Then, when you get off at Corellia, she'll be relieved!"

Chuckling, Brennon got to his feet. "Thanks," he said simply, and left.