Chapter 2:

A/N: Thank you so much if you reviewed last chapter, particularly if you reviewed it the first time around, too! You have no idea how happy you make me :)


Bounty hunter Viin Nord sank into one of the soft, plush, seats offered to him by D-1PO, one of the updated and enhanced (at least, that's what the advertisements said) Protocol Droid line. Although, in his experience, the more they upgraded Protocol Droids, the more annoying they became. This particular one had a combination of fussiness and pomposity so nauseating it should have been outlawed in every system inhabited by civilized life forms.

"Might I offer you a drink, sir?" D-1PO inquired politely.

"No," Nord answered curtly. He certainly deserved to celebrate— Skywalker had quite a large price on his head— but he wasn't going to blow this now by getting even mildly inebriated.

"Sir, we have any type of alcoholic beverage a being might wish for. Shall I bring you some Corellian Whiskey, perhaps?" D-1PO plowed on relentlessly.

"Were your auditory sensors not upgraded along with the rest of you, rustbucket? I said, NO."

"It would have been politer to accept our hospitality, you know," D1PO said, with more than a hint of malice coloring its voice. "But what should I expect from an ill-mannered bounty hunter like you?" He turned and minced out of the room.

Luckily for Nord's career and D-1PO's head, a bland-looking man wearing the rank insignia of a flight officer strolled into the room. "The Admiral will see you now," he said, a bit indifferently. "Follow me."

As he stood up, Viin Nord resisted the childish urge to make a rude gesture at the protocol droid, and instead contented himself with a final filthy glare over his left shoulder. That would be much better, considering the likely possibility that the room was being monitored. Even if no one besides a droid-hugger activist would give a womp rat about it.

The flight officer checked to make sure Nord was following, and the two turned into an impeccable metal hallway. Several twists and turns later, he paused and waved his passcard in front of a control panel. Nord could see that the opening door was nearly a quarter meter thick and had a slot on the top and bottom probably meant for a blast-proof security door that could slam down in case of emergency. Either by design or accident, the Star Destroyer's interior was beginning to look reminiscent of a fortress.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to turn over your weapons," said the officer.

Nord snickered.

"I'm afraid it's policy," he persisted.

"I can see you're not the brightest glowpanel built into the floor beneath the Admiral's feet," Nord commented. "The Admiral won't care about my weapons. I'm a professional."

Nord could see that the flight officer was still going to protest, but another, apparently higher-ranking man stuck his head out of the room and beckoned the two forward.

The room was dazzlingly lit. After his eyes adjusted a moment later, they took in a small, austere area with a rectangular table in the center. Seated at that table was a sharp-looking woman with pale skin and medium length dark hair. He presumed that this was the infamous Admiral Talinia, judging by the two bulked-up and heavily armed bodyguards standing behind her on either side. Harder to place was an obese red-haired man in the corner. Must be an advisor.

She spoke in the tone of one accustomed to issuing orders and having them obeyed at risk of death and dismemberment. "I am Admiral Talinia. Sit down." Nord did so. "You have information leading to the capture of a highly placed Rebel officer?"

"I do."

"I'm impressed," said the Admiral. "That kriffing gravel-maggot Cracken tightened security after incompetents such as Zsinj were a bit too conspicuous about their infiltrations. Imperial Intelligence had never recovered from Cracken's crusades."

Nord smiled tolerantly. "Well, you're going to be even more impressed when you hear that I've got Luke Skywalker on my ship."

With any other client, he might have been concerned that they might steal his ship and he could forget about ever receiving the bounty. After all, what kind of people wanted the galaxy's biggest goody-goody gone?

But large organizations such as the Empire and New Republic could typically be considered reliable, since they would probably need to hire bounty hunters in the future. Also, Talinia would have a keen appreciation for the man who captured Luke Skywalker. The loss of the New Republic's precious hero, a dip in their morale, and endless interrogation possibilities all in the capture of one man. True, Skywalker didn't know everything about the New Republic, or even close to everything. But still, the Death Star was destroyed by one proton torpedo. Perhaps he had one crucial piece of information Talinia could learn.

Talinia silently started praying. "Alive or dead?" Emperor's black bones, she would even pray to that accursed Jedi witchcraft if it got her the right answer.

Nord paused, just to see the Admiral sweat a bit. "Skywalker is alive, of course. Bounty's higher that way."

Talinia nearly cheered...until she had the most alarming thought of her entire life. "Wait a second," she breathed in abject horror. "Did you say that Skywalker is alive and alone on your ship?" She began to have visions of a huge smirking cartoon Luke Skywalker standing on a pile of stormtroopers. As disturbing as that mental picture was, the small white stormtroopers were admittedly quite adorable. War-hardened as Talinia was, she nearly started crying as she saw the animated Luke Skywalker wave cheekily at her as he left a ruined Starkiller behind, and faded off into the distance . . . .

Nord looked vaguely affronted. "Of course I didn't. My ship is crawling with yslamiri. My second in command has a blaster trained on him as we speak. Or rather, she has a blaster trained on his unconscious, drugged, bound, form."

Talinia still looked a little worried. Nord felt compelled to reassure her. She was about to pay him an exorbitant amount of currency, after all. "He'll be fine." That was a very slight stretch.

Oh well, Skywalker was still relatively undamaged. The drugs would wear off eventually.

Talinia looked relieved. She beamed. It was quite a bit like looking at a gundark the instant before you, your family, and the surrounding metropolitan area disappeared into its jaws. Nord did not envy Skywalker one bit. "Well then, if you would be so kind as to give me your account number, the bounty will be paid in full." Talinia turned to one of her bodyguards. "Call for some backup so we can remove Skywalker from the ship."

The bodyguard nodded. Nord took out his account number.


Chief of State Leia Organa Solo had allowed them the use of her own Presidential lounge. Elegantly decorated in celadon green, it was furnished with chairs made of mahogany wood loosely arrayed in a semicircle. Abstract pieces of sculpture from Mon Calamari were artfully placed on slender transparisteel stands.

The air was heated to a comfortable temperature, and most importantly, it had been swept for listening devices and cleared by security.

Booster Terrik stood at the back of the room as he surveyed the group. Present were Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian, all three pilots. General Airen Cracken and Iella Wessiri of NRI were gazing into space silently, and Booster's own daughter Mirax was chatting softly with her husband, Corran Horn as they waited for the Chief of State and her husband, Han Solo, to arrive.

Leia finally strode through the door, Han following close behind. Booster could see she had something clutched in her hand, but he couldn't get a good view of it. He mentally shrugged as the two of them wordlessly took seats by the wall.

Mirax stepped to the middle of the semicircle. "One standard week ago, General Cracken asked me to infiltrate Drinn Loekai's organization. I was not incognito; I merely used my smuggler contacts to meet with Loekai and offer my services to him. I arrived at his ship for an interview. That's where I saw Luke. He was disguised, but I've known him long enough to recognize him."

Cracken spoke up. "Commander Skywalker was also infiltrating the organization."

Mirax nodded. "We briefly met that night, in my quarters, and he told me as much. But after I woke up the next morning, the ship was in an uproar. Luke and Loekai's best contracted bounty hunter, a man named Viin Nord, had both disappeared in the same night. I don't have to tell you what that looks like."

Wedge Antilles frowned, and addressed a question to her. "Still, how do you even know that Luke was Nord's prisoner?"

"I did a little investigating. All of Nord's personal belongings had disappeared with him, but Luke's remained in the quarters he was assigned. That would suggest that Nord knew that he was going to be leaving, but Luke did not." Mirax answered.

He persisted. "General Cracken said that Admiral Talinia was the one to capture the Commander."

"Admiral Talinia has the largest bounty on him, so it stands to reason that Nord would deliver him to her. That was also confirmed by a tip we received a few hours ago; the same sum offered for the bounty was deposited into one of Nord's credit accounts. "

Wedge accepted this. "So what else do we know?"

Cracken winced slightly. "That's pretty much it."

"So what's the plan?"

"We have a few leads to follow up. The bounty hunter Viin Nord, for one. He probably won't return to Loekai, but we still know his account number. Admiral Talinia is another obvious lead. Eventually, she might contact us herself and attempt to negotiate with Commander Skywalker's life."

Cracken gestured at Iella. "Iella will lead the rest of you in this investigation, except for Booster and Chief of State Organa Solo, of course." He turned to Leia. "We told you and your husband as a courtesy. I will make sure you're kept updated."

"Thank you." Leia paused, and then spoke with uncharacteristic uncertainty. "I might have something that will help." She stood up and showed them the object Booster had seen her bring when she arrived. It was roughly rectangular, but Booster had never seen anything like it.

"This is a form of modified Jedi holocron technology. Luke found it on the planet Felucia, where the Jedi Aayla Secura was killed, and Mirax recovered it from his belongings on the smuggler base. A normal holocron records the words and images of a Jedi Master, and is usually only accessible to a force-user. This holocron is much more advanced. The writings that were stored with this holocron tell us that it combined Caamasi and Kiffu Jedi techniques. The Caamasi are able to share memories with others. When viewing one of their memories, you share their perceptions and thoughts. Kiffu Jedi were masters at psychometry, the technique of touching an object and detecting the impressions and the events surrounded it. The last Jedi of the Old Republic found a way to combine these technologies— don't ask me to explain how. It was empty when Luke found it, but he figured out how to put his own memories into the holocron and access them again. He found it useful because memories that were stored in the holocron only show you a person's direct thoughts, but not their perceptions. Or in other words, you see things more from the perspective of an outside viewer, without your former feelings coloring the memory."

"That's very interesting," said Janson. "Does it also work as a Jedi radar?"

Leia gave him an annoyed look. "I don't know how, but I can feel that this is the key to . . . something. Probably finding Luke. I know that Luke couldn't possibly have had time to record the memory of however Viin Nord attacked him, but perhaps they can answer some of the questions we have."

Personally, Booster had no idea of how Skywalker's memories were going to help them. Sure, it would be great to access the memory of Luke's disappearance, but he obviously didn't have a chance to store that particular memory in the holocron. He could still sense a "but" coming from Leia, though.

"The only problem is," Leia began, "It's not like the memories are labeled, so I don't know which ones to view. And there are hundreds of memories in here."

That's the only problem? Booster thought. He looked politely befuddled. "So Leia, you're telling me that you have a feeling that a randomly picked memory of your brother's, recorded by archaic Jedi technology, probably from before he even met Viin Nord, is going to tell us how to find him?"

Leia flushed slightly, but stuck to her blasters. "Well, the memories are mostly in chronological order, so I'm not likely to pick one from a year ago. But in essence, yes."

Booster reminded himself that Leia was the sister of the man who had literally blown up the Death Star with his eyes closed. Her feelings might actually be right . . . and she must be serious. She didn't really have control over intelligence affairs, but she was also the Chief of State and could probably take vengeance on Airen Cracken in the form of a budget cut. Airen could take death threats from Imperials any day and laugh in their faces, but the mere mention of a budget cut was enough to make him grovel at Leia's feet. Really, the man had no shame.

Apparently Cracken was thinking the same way as Booster, because he replied, "Well, we don't have all that many leads to begin with, so I don't see any harm in trying that as well. Perhaps all of you could pick a time to meet for that? Now if you'll excuse me, I have quite a bit of work to do." He exited before the dreaded topic could come up.


A/N: I promise to not wait too long between updates (it's already mostly finished, so I have no excuses!). College is my life now, *sigh*.