True to his word, Tiros returned in less than a minute, carrying a small bag in one hand.

"What's that?" Lotah asked, standing up to give him access to Tian's body.

Tiros emptied the bag on the bed next to Tian, and out fell a spool of thread, meant to mend clothing, and several needles. "A while back I met a smuggler who told me about this method. It's well known among smugglers, because it takes so few supplies and it can keep you alive long enough to get some real medical supplies. It's called making stitches." He was struggling to thread one of the needles.

"You're going to sew him together?!" Lorb exclaimed.

"It might work," Lotah murmured, watching intently. "If it stops the blood flow, he'll stay long enough for us to get some other supplies."

"That's the idea," Tiros said. "Sort of." He now had the needle threaded, and made a large knot in the end of the thread. Then he leaned over his son's body, and very carefully pushed the needle through the top several layers of skin on one side of wound. He pulled the thread until the knot was right up against the skin, then pushed the needle through the skin on the other side.

Glancing up, he saw Lotah. "You, push the sides of the wound together." Lotah put her hands on either side of the wound and slowly pushed them together, until one side touched the other. As she did, Tiros pulled the thread tight and knotted it at the other end. Then he bit off the excess thread, and made another knot. "Don't let go, or he'll pull the stitches and be worse off then when we started."

That said, he pushed the needle through the skin again, a few centimeter away from the first stitch. The entire wound was fifteen or twenty centimeters long, and it took Tiros almost twenty minutes to finish closing the wound, but he did it. Melana and Kenneth came in part way through the ordeal, and silently seated themselves on one of the bunks and watched. Lotah's arms were spasming by the time Tiros finished, but the blood flow had already been reduced to a trickle, and that was worth having sore muscles.

Tiros wiped his bloody hands on a clean spot of the bed sheets, although most of them were saturated with blood. Picking up the tube of cream again, Tiros smoothed a little of the cream along the seam he had created. "He'll be all right, now. Regardless of whatever else we get to help him, those stitches have to come out by tomorrow night, or the skin will grow around it."

"Tomorrow night?!" Lorb exclaimed. "I've seen injuries a lot less severe than that, and they put good men out of it for weeks! He's lucky to be alive! That wound won't be healed by tomorrow night!"

"Among other things, my son inherited a very good regeneration process from his mother," Tiros said, and Lotah remembered that Tian was only half-human. She looked at the wound, and sure enough, there were tiny bridges of skin growing across the wound. "He got cut up pretty bad before, from here to here," he gestured from hip to hip, "across the stomach. I sewed him up like this, and by that evening he was good as new. Of course, it wasn't quite as bad as this, but he should be fine in a few days." Tiros sounded a whole lot more confident than he looked.

Then he turned and looked at Lotah, then Melana. "But even he wouldn't have survived that shot if it weren't for you two. And I thank you for that. What did you do?"

"It... it was a healing technique that Melana learned, and she taught it to me," Lotah stammered.

"Neat trick. How's it done?" Kenneth asked.

"It is very complicated," Melana said smoothly. "And you would not be able to do it."

"Why not?"

Melana looked pointedly to Lotah then glanced at herself. "There are slight differences between us," she said as if it were obvious. Surprisingly, Lotah's lying sense didn't go off, but then she figured it out - Melana hadn't actually lied, she'd just lead them to believe that it was because they were female instead of the truth. It was important to remember that distinction, that fine line between lying and assuming.

"Oh, I get it. It's a girl thing," Kenneth said, repeating the obvious. It was really amazing how clueless he was. Then Lotah noticed something - he was lying. About what? Maybe he didn't get it, and that's what he was lying about, but her sense didn't usually warn her when someone thought they knew more than they did. Weird. Lotah resolved to keep a closer eye on Kenneth. There was just something weird about him, something that didn't fit.

Neither Tiros nor Lorb looked convinced with that explanation, but they chose not to pursue it. "Whatever the method, I can't thank you enough for saving his life," Tiros repeated.

Lotah was developing a sense of right and wrong, and it wasn't any Force sense. So she was forced to say, "It was the least I could do. Tian attracted her attention in order to save my life, and in the process got shot. Helping him isn't enough to repayment, but it was the best I could do."

Tiros nodded. "Where is she?" the question came out as a growl.

"She is unconscious and tied to the bench in the main room," Melana said. "You may have her to do with her what you will, but after I question her." Lotah was startled by the statement until she realized that there were probably some rules about blood-debts or something from Melana's home planet, so naturally the cat-woman was following them.

"Then let's go see if she's awake," Tiros said, standing. There was a cruel expression on his face that Lotah had never seen before. But then, she had never seen him when Tian was hurt before, either. She shivered, and couldn't tell if it was from anticipation of what Tiros would do, or from the devotion that this father and son exhibited for each other.

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

As it turned out, the woman was not awake, but Lorb had bought a hypo full of stimulant somewhere, and when he injected the woman, she groaned weakly, and her eyes fluttered open. "What the..." she muttered, looking around. Then her eyes focused on Lotah. "You little bitch! Freak!" She opened her mouth to say more but then she noticed Melana and the others watching her. Her mouth closed abruptly, and a determined look replaced the outraged one. "What do you want?"

"The information we came for," Melana said evenly. "And which has been paid for in blood."

A cruel look crossed over the woman's face. "He's dead, isn't he? That brat who tried to shoot me, he's dead?" Tiros's face got very red, but at a motion from Melana he didn't mention the fact that Tian was still alive.

When no one refuted her claim that Tian was dead, the woman smiled. "Served him right. He was stupid to join in a fight he couldn't win. You'll all die too, and soon." Then, as she realized that she might have said more than she meant to, she shut her mouth again.

Melana glanced at Lotah. "She knows more," Lotah murmured, and Melana looked back at the woman. Lotah realized that Melana knew about her now, everything about her now. No one had ever managed that before, and Lotah didn't know what she would do. Common sense dictated that she should run now, before Melana summoned the police or a bounty hunter or something. But she couldn't leave Tian now, not after he almost lost his life saving hers. And she couldn't leave Tiros either, not after he had thanked her like that, like she was a regular person, instead of a thief or a slave.

It was too much. She had never felt like this before, not even with Gabrielle. Gabrielle had been the first person ever to be really nice to her, been her first and only friend. But Gabrielle had been so much older than her, and Tian was much closer to her own age, and...

By the stars! What was she thinking?! Lotah brought her attention back to the questioning.

"If you don't tell us, you will die," Melana said in that controlled voice of hers. Another of those devious half-truths, most likely the woman would die even if she did tell, based on Tiros's earlier comments.

The woman suggested that Melana do something that Lotah doubted any humanoid, no matter how athletically skilled, could do to themselves.

"Where is the id from?" Melana demanded again, but this time Lotah felt a definite surge in the Force. Only years of practice and control enabled Lotah to pretend she hadn't felt it, but she did look at Melana. What on earth was the woman trying to do? Lotah thought back to her lessons with Op, but couldn't remember ever having heard of anyone being able to force an answer out of someone using the Force.

It did seem possible, though, as the woman's face took on a blank expression. "It's from Hibris II," she said in a subdued voice. Then the push through the Force stopped, and the woman shook her head. "What the hell? How did you do that?"

Melana ignored the question. Instead she asked in a regular voice, "Why was there such an attempt to hide the location of this planet?"

"They didn't want you to show your ugly face down there."

Melana sighed, closed her eyes, and Lotah felt another surge through the Force. "Why?"

"There's an Imperial base down there. They have a deal with the Malikite Poisoners - security for poison. The Malakites don't tell where we have our base, and in return we supply the Malikites with some special poisons and slaves."

"Slaves?"

"There's a local population," the woman said under the force of Melana's persuasion. "A bunch of pre-starflight natives. We sell them off for a couple extra credits."

"What is your part in this?"

"I'm an Imperial agent," the woman said unwillingly. "They planted me in the J'din to eliminate anyone who came looking for Hibris."

"So you're not actually a member of the J'din?"

"I am, but only a lower level member. I intercepted the message you sent before that kid could give it to my superiors, and arranged the meeting to kill you all."

"Why'd you try to capture Lotah?"

The woman blinked several times, coming out of the trance Melana had put her in. "What's it to you?" she sneered, then blinked. Lotah saw her go pale. "I told you," she whispered, staring at Melana with frightened eyes. If Lotah hadn't been so angry and disgusted with the woman, she would have felt sorry for her.

The woman blinked again, retaining her arrogant mask, but by now it was clear that was all it was - a mask. "I don't think I'll tell you," she said with a smirk.

Lotah felt another surge in the Force, but this time the woman shook it off. "Uh-uh. Can't trick me again."

Melana glanced at Lotah, then straightened up. "I think that's all we're going to get out of her," she said quietly. Lotah wondered what they were going to do with the woman now. They couldn't just let her go, and they couldn't turn her in - she'd rat on them in a matter of minutes. Then she remembered what Tiros had said, and looked up at him. He was staring at the woman, his expression twisted with anger.

"You said I could have her," he said to Melana, who nodded. He made a step towards the chair. "Lotah, hold her." Lotah shook her head and backed up. She wanted no part in what was going on here. Tiros frowned. "Lorb?" Lorb also shook his head. "What's wrong with you people?" he growled.

Then he stopped. "What am I saying?" he whispered, and stumbled out of the room.

Everyone watched the empty door for a minute, the Lorb asked, "What do you think happened?"

"I think he came to his senses," Melana said quietly. They all waited in silence, even the woman, for another minute. Then Tiros came marching back through the door, holding his blaster in hand. Before anyone could do anything, he fired one shot into the woman, who let out a strangled scream and then fell silent.

Lotah started to jump at Tiros, then controlled herself. The beam had been blue-white, a stun beam, not lethal. As Tiros started untying the woman, Lotah asked, "What are you going to do with her?"

"I'm going to take her back to that damn alley, dump her body there, and leave a note telling the real J'din that she's an Imperial agent. Let them deal with her as they see fit."

A second after Tiros delivered that speech, Lorb moved to help him carry the woman out of there. Lotah didn't move. The woman would most likely die, but there was very little help for it. If they let her go or turned her over to the police, she'd betray them in minutes. The J'din might not kill her - but either way, this would keep her occupied for some time, so that she couldn't warn anyone that they were coming. At least this way the blood wasn't on Tiros's hands, and Lotah wouldn't have to think of that crazy look in his eye every time she saw him.

Again she wondered what was the bond between a father and son that it would almost drive a person crazy to be separated.

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

The next morning Lotah snuck out before anyone was awake to retrieve her bag. Everyone was still asleep when she got back, and she stowed the bag back under her bed, and lay down again. No one seemed to have noticed the bag missing the night before, so probably no one would notice that it was back now. They'd almost found the id, so soon this quest - job, she firmly reminded herself - would be over, and she could get back to life as normal. Whatever that was.

Tian was resting comfortably, as comfortably as he could, given his present condition. He hadn't woken up yet, but Lotah sneaked a peak at his wound, and discovered a thin layer of skin covered most of it. It would certainly break if the stitches were removed now, but that there was that much improvement already was a good sign.

Once everyone was up, they made immediate plans for departure, and were on their way only three hours later, not a bad wait, considering the bureaucracy. Tian even woke up briefly during the wait, long enough for them to tell that there had been no damage to his head, and for them to ask if there were any other injuries that he could feel that they'd missed. Then they left him and Tiros alone for several minutes, until he went back to sleep.

The ship lifted off smoothly, even with only Tiros at the controls. Or maybe Lorb helped him. At the time, Lotah was picking through her pack, organizing it, wondering what she was going to do once they'd found the id and Melana's mother's killer had been found. Her old life - run, hide, find another job... run, hide, find another job... it seemed rather pointless now. After all, she couldn't run forever. Sooner or later someone would get lucky, or she'd get careless, and then what would all of her work for the past year have been for? All signs that she'd ever been free, ever existed, could be gone in a second, and then what? Maybe she could find something to do, something to show the universe that she existed. She could free some slaves, or something like that. It'd be more dangerous, but at least it would be something, and she wouldn't have wasted her entire life doing nothing but running. She filed that thought away for later.

There was a small jolt as they entered hyperspace. Tiros came into the room and stood next to his son. He was almost obsessive about keeping an eye on Tian, especially since it was obvious that no one was going to hurt him while they were on the ship, and the boy wasn't going anywhere. "We've entered hyperspace," he said to the room. It had been ridiculously easy to find the planet Hibris II after all the time they'd spent searching for it - it had only taken ten minutes Lorb to find the supposedly secret sight. That made Lotah suspicious - it could be a trap - but hadn't said anything. What were they supposed to do? Not go because it *might* be a trap? Melana wouldn't stand for that, and actually, neither would Lotah. She found that she was as anxious to find the id as Melana, even though it would mean an end to this job, and saying goodbye to Tian.

"Lotah, would you please come to my quarters?" Melana's voice came over the com.

Lotah jumped and tried to control her face - all this time she'd been making plans about what she would do after this job, grand plans for the future, and she'd completely forgotten that Melana knew her secret! She'd be lucky if she was still alive at the end of this job, let alone free! The only advantage she had was that Melana was also wanted by the Imps, so she might be able to use that as a bargaining chip. Taking a deep breath, she controlled her fear, and walked to the cargo bay.

Melana was sitting on her bed, waiting very patiently for Lotah to arrive. Too patiently - she was meditating. Lotah knocked gently on the metal wall, it boomed hollowly, but Melana didn't stir. Fine, if she wants to play games, I can do that, too. Lotah sat down, leaned against the wall, set herself in a half-trance, and waited. They both sat in silence for almost a half-hour, then Melana suddenly opened her eyes and said, "Who trained you?"

The question was unexpected, and Lotah almost answered without thinking. She'd already opened her mouth to say, 'Op,' when she realized what Melana was attempting to do. She'd felt the surge in the Force, and now knew what it meant. Controlling herself, she said, "Who trained me in what?"

Melana smiled. "I think you know." Pointing one hand at Lotah, she closed her eyes again. Lotah gasped as the Force rushed at her - she hadn't felt anything like that since Op died. Instinctively she pulled back, fearing the strange touch on her mind. It felt far too much like the touch she'd felt after Op died. But almost immediately Melana pulled back. "Who trained you to sense that?"

"Sense what?" Lotah asked again, trying to maintain some pretense at innocence.

"Don't lie to me," Melana said quietly, but there was a cold hardness in her voice. "You went out early this morning, and you came back with your bag. Were you planning to leave?"

"I, ah..."

"The woman mentioned a bounty on you, so I checked. Did you know there's a ten-thousand credit bounty on your head?"

"Ten thousand?" it was all coming too fast - all her secrets were coming unraveled right here.

"Where were you going this morning?" again Lotah felt her using the Force, compelling her to answer.

"I... I was going to leave."

"Why?"

"I... I was afraid." Lotah rose. She had to get out of here before Melana forced the whole truth out of her!

"Sit down!"

"No!" Lotah was trembling, shaking violently as she fought against Melana. No one had ever tried to do this to her before, and she'd never learned how to fight it.

But she did know how to use the Force. She took a deep breath, let it out, and took another. A few more breaths and she was calm again, and the Force flowed through her. "Sit down!" Melana ordered again, but now Lotah was in control. She walked towards the canvas.

"Lotah, wait!" there was no compulsion in Melana's voice, but Lotah didn't stop. If she stopped, she might not be able to start walking again. "Lotah..." Melana's clawed fingers wrapped around Lotah's arm.

"Let go of me," Lotah said, trying to shake the hand off.

"You were going to leave," Melana said quietly, letting go of Lotah's arm. "But you didn't. Why?"

Despite her intention to walk out, leave and never look back, Lotah stopped. "I... I couldn't leave you guys now. Not after you risked your lives to save me. Not after Tian almost lost his."

"You said you were scared. Of what?" Melana didn't give her a chance to answer before she continued, "Oh, stars. You're a runaway. You weren't set free, you ran away. You're an escaped slave - that's what this is all about. When did you run?"

"I have to go."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do." But she couldn't move. Melana had all of her secrets. If she left now, there could be officials waiting for her right outside the hanger.

"You're terrified," Melana said, sounding surprised.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. I can tell when you're lying to me, you know."

"I know." The tired words came out before Lotah could censor them.

"But you're trying to control it. That's Jedi training."

"It is?" Op had never mentioned the Jedi, but it was possible that he had known them. Then a thought struck her... Could Op have been a Jedi? She hadn't known about Jedi when she knew him, and now there was no way to find out. Then something else occurred to her. "You're a Jedi, aren't you?"

Melana shook her head. "I'm only an apprentice."

"But you were at that Academy, weren't you?"

Melana nodded. "I left to find out how my mother died."

"And that's why the Imps are after you."

"It's possible, although I don't know how they would have found out." Then she said, "But that's not why I asked you in here."

Lotah remembered what she had been trying to do. "I... I have to go."

"Who are you running from?" Melana asked, and again Lotah paused.

"My... my old master."

"Is that who posted the bounty for you?"

"I think so."

"So you weren't freed." Lotah shook her head, wondering why she wasn't leaving. "When did you run away?"

"Over a year ago. Right after she did this," Lotah touched her own back.

"Are you going to run away now?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"We're in hyperspace."

"Oh." Lotah stared at the canvas wall for a few minutes. Finally she asked, "What are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"About me. Ten thousand credits is a lot of money, and it would keep bounty hunters off your back."

"You mean, am I going to turn you in, report you to the authorities for a fee? No. However, I may tell Master Skywalker about you, when this is all over."

"No!"

"Why not?"

"I'm a thief! That new government will throw me in jail just as fast as the Imps would!"

"I doubt that. I'll make a decision about that later. In the meantime, will you tell me who trained you?"

"No."

"Why not?" Because I still want to have something that you don't know. Because I don't know if you would turn me in once you knew my secrets. Because I don't know what's wrong with me now, and I want some time to think about it.

"He's dead, and I don't want to talk about him," Lotah said, and reached for the canvas.

"You're lying again." Lotah ignored that statement, and pushed the canvas aside, and Melana made no move to stop her. In fact, she could feel a little satisfaction coming from Melana's quarters, and she wondered why Melana had let her go so easily.

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

Tian groaned, and tried to roll over on his side. Big mistake. Pain shot across his chest, and he groaned again, louder this time. "Tian?" asked a soft voice. Lotah.

Tian opened his eyes, and was blinded by a flare of light. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, and in a few seconds his sight cleared. Lotah was leaning over him, her violet eyes watching him - full of concern? For him? Tian wondered if she really was worried about him, or if she was just acting again.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. Her voice was worried, but she could be acting.

"Not great. What happened?"

"Don't you remember? Tiros said that you woke up before."

"I think I remember him talking to me a little. I think I was half asleep. What happened before that?"

"You got shot," she said, glancing at his chest. He raised a hand to touch it, but she slapped it away. "Don't touch the bandages. Your father took a good while to make those stitches things, and I don't think he wants to do it again."

"He had to stitch me up?"

"Yes, but he said that you should be fine in a couple of days. Certainly by the time we reach Hibris."

"What's Hibris?"

"It's the planet where the id is grown," she said, glancing at one of the walls for a second. "Wait here, I'll go get Tiros. He'll want to talk to you."

"Like I could really move," he said, smiling weakly. She gave him a small smile and walked out of the room.

A few seconds later, Tiros entered. He didn't approach Tian for a moment, he just stood a few feet away and stared. "Dad?" Tian asked, trying not to let his voice crack. Even this short look at his father had told him a lot - about the worrying, about the anger, about the fear... "Dad, I'm really sorry."

It was if a dam had broken. Tiros suddenly rushed forward, bending over to hug his son. Tian tried not to cry out with the pain of the pressure on his chest. "How many times do I have to tell you?" he exclaimed accusingly, "Heroes die young."

"Sorry, I just saw her going to shoot Lotah, and I..." he trailed off, realizing how stupid the argument sounded now.

"I knew it, you're gone on that girl, aren't you?" Tiros said, his tone a little less hoarse.

"She mentioned some planet - did we at least get the information we wanted?"

"Yeah, the bitch talked before we sent her back to her cronies."

"And?"

"We're headed for an Imperial-controlled slave-world named Hibris."

"Imps again?"

"Yup."

"We're still here?"

"I couldn't exactly leave with you laid out like this. Besides, those two women saved your life."

"What?"

"What do you remember?"

"I think... I remember... a flash of light, and some pain. I thought I saw..." he struggled to grasp at an elusive memory, but it slipped away. *That* annoyed him, and he continued to search his memory as he finished his answer. "I know I remember talking to you for a few minutes, before."

"When Lorb and I arrived, Melana was doing something to you, I'm not sure what. It looked like she was meditating or something, but you weren't dead yet and Lotah said it would help. Then she told me to untie her, and she started doing the same thing that Melana was, and I saw you getting better. They haven't really said what it was that they did, but you could have, should have died from that shot."

"I should have?"

Tiros nodded, his face grim. "I've been around for a while, and that shot would have been instantly fatal to most people, luckily for you that you're not most people. Still, what they did was miraculous. I... we owe them for that. We're in this until it's over."

"You owe them?" Tian asked, trying to joke.

"Absolutely. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," that came out in a rush, as if he didn't want to admit it. "Now you promise me you won't do anything else that stupid, or I may take a blaster to you myself. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest when I first saw you."

"Dad..." Suddenly that elusive bit of memory came to the surface. "Dad, I just remembered something," he said. "Remember when we first me Lotah, and I thought I saw something jump from her bag into her hand?" At his father's nod, he continued. "Well, I'm not sure, but I think, before I blacked out, that I saw her look at that woman, and then the woman went flying across the alley. She didn't touch her, I'm pretty sure. I think."

"But you're not sure."

"I'm not even sure that my name is Tian, right now. But I think that I really did see that, that I wasn't hallucinating." Something about his father's face made him ask, "Does that mean anything to you?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. Forget about it for now. If you were hallucinating, then there's no problem. And if you weren't, and she's what I think she is, then we're in no danger from her anyway."

"What do you think she is?"

Tiros shook his head. "I'll keep an eye on her, but I don't want to say anything without proof." He made a complete change of subject and said, "So how are you feeling?"

"Better, actually. That immune system of mine must be working overtime. How long until I can get up."

Tiros smiled. "Take it easy - the stitches come out tonight. You stay in bed until tomorrow morning, and then we'll see how you feel. In the meantime, I have what little information we have on Hibris, and a few holo's I don't think you've seen yet. So what do you want to start with, work or play?"

What Tian really wanted was to get Lotah back into the room, so that he could talk to her some more, try and figure out whether she was acting or not. But since that wasn't one of his options, he shrugged. "Work before play."

Tiros gave him a broad smile. "That's my son." He pulled out a small flimsy.

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

Melana walked into the small room that Lorb was using for his sessions with Cahi. The computer was getting better at running the simulations of flying the ship, and that information she had found on Lotah was good to have, even if Melana hadn't needed it this morning. Lotah had surprised her, first being able to resist the force of Melana's order, and then deciding to open up on her own.

Well, sort of, Melana reminded herself. Lotah still hadn't told who had trained her, which was definitely the most important information she had. Master Skywalker would love to hear about anyone talented enough to train Lotah as well as she had obviously been trained, even if he was dead now. It seemed that most people that strong in the Force ended up dead.

She wondered what Lotah's limits actually were. During the fight, she had used the Force to throw the woman across the alley with the strength of her mind alone, and it had looked like she was completely under control at the time. Of course, she might have been acting instinctively, to save herself, but raw emotions tended to lead to the Dark Side, and Melana would have recognized that. Or so she assumed.

"Hello, Melana," Cahi said as she entered. Her face appeared on the main screen, then switched to a holoprojection in the middle of the floor. Suddenly Melana found herself looking down at Cahi, who stood quietly in front of her, hands clasped behind her back, smiling cutely. "What do you think?"

"It's new. Did Lorb set it up for you?"

"Yeah," Cahi smiled foolishly. "He's really nice. He says that he might even be able to install some more projectors, so that I could even walk around the ship."

"I think you should wait on that. I don't think the others would understand if there was suddenly a holographic girl walking around the ship."

Cahi nodded, then said, "Melana, why won't you let anyone but Lorb know about me?"

"It's just a feeling."

"Then you don't really have a reason?"

A few weeks ago, that would have really bothered Melana, to have her orders questioned like that, but now she just ignored it. "No, no logical reason."

Cahi studied her face for a minute, then asked, "Are you really a Jedi?"

"You were listening in on my conversation with Lotah." Melana's tone was accusing, although she had expected that Cahi would eavesdrop. She eavesdropped on almost everything else that happened on board. Melana couldn't really blame her, if this ship had been her entire world, she probably would have listened in as well.

"You didn't say I couldn't," Cahi said defensively.

"No, I didn't," Melana replied with a sigh. Dealing with species other than her own could be trying, even with her increased tolerance. Cahi was so defensive about everything. "But I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone - including Lorb, about that discussion. Anything that Lotah and I talk about when we're alone is private. All right?"

"All right. I promise I won't tell. Cross my database." And Cahi giggled. This last phrase and the giggle served to remind Melana that Cahi still was a child, which didn't reassure her. As a rule, children weren't very discrete, or good at keeping secrets. Or so she had heard. On her world, children grew up very fast, and were kept away from most potential enemies until they learned to be circumspect.

"Good."

"So, are you?" Cahi asked.

"Am I what?"

"Are you a Jedi?" Cahi was not to be diverted from the topic.

"You weren't listening in very well. If you had been you would know that I'm still an apprentice, not a Jedi."

"Oh. Is Lotah a Jedi?"

"I don't know. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. I'm not qualified to tell."

"Oh." The holographic figure began skipping in a circle around Melana. Every now and then Melana's body would shield Cahi from one or more of the holoprojectors, and parts of her body would disappear for a second at a time, only to reappear when she moved away from Melana. It was a little disturbing, and very annoying. "What's it like at the Jedi Academy? Do they teach you to move rocks with your mind?"

"Where'd you hear about that?"

Cahi shrugged. "I read it somewhere. Well, what do they teach you?"

"Telekinetics is one of the things that I was taught, although I'm not very good at it yet."

"What else to they teach you?"

"Healing techniques, meditation..." Melana was deliberately leaving out the mind control and lightsaber techniques, although she was far from being ready for the latter. Actually, after this journey was over and she went back to the Academy, she was going to study Jedi healing techniques. The past few weeks had piqued her interest in healing, rather than fighting. Funny that her talent seemed to lie there, rather than in fighting. Ten generations of her ancestors would roll over in their graves if they knew.

"Is that how you saved Tian's life?"

"Yes."

"How did Lotah know the healing techniques?"

"I... I'm not sure," Melana answered, suddenly struck by the realization that she really didn't know how Lotah had learned the technique. Now that she thought about it, she had probably taught the girl. Lotah had to be intelligent to hide herself from the bounty hunters - even with the Force to help her, it was no easy task for a young girl. As soon as Melana had helped heal her the first time, Lotah must have known that Melana could use the Force. And yet she had controlled herself well enough that Melana never even realized that Lotah could sense the Force, much less control it. She hadn't even suspected that anyone on board knew what the Force was until just a few days before, when the multiple stirrings in the Force became too numerous to be coincidence. In all honesty, Lotah probably had more control over her talent than Melana did. Anyone with decent training could learn new things just from observing them - and she had provided plenty of things for Lotah to observe. "She probably learned it from me."

"You promise you'll let me fly as soon as we find who killed your mother?"
"I don't make promises I don't keep," Melana said, managing to control her anger at having her word questioned. Cahi just didn't understand.

"Melana?" Cahi asked after a minute.

"Yes?"

"Would you tell me a little about the Academy?"

"You were there for a while, don't you remember?"

"I was there, pretending to be a normal ship. I never got to leave the hanger."

"Didn't Artoo tell you about what was happening?"

"Yup, but I want to hear it from you. Living creatures tend to see things different than machines like me. PLEASE?"

Melana sighed and rolled her eyes. Cahi was the most illogical computer program that she had ever heard of. Still, what harm could it do? And besides, what else was she going to do? She'd already examined what little information they had on Hibris, checked on Tian, confronted Lotah... that had provided less information than she would have liked, but Lotah obviously wasn't going to open up to her now. "All right. What do you want to hear about?"

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

"Captain, we've found them again."

"Took you long enough!" Captain Randel snapped. It had been almost three weeks since they'd been able to find the ship and that damn girl. They'd traced them through two star systems since the last time they'd seen the ship, the last one had been some world almost completely covered by water. And they wouldn't have even been able to find that if not for the 'hunch' of their guest.

The sidetrack they had to make to pick him up was responsible for them loosing the girl in the first place, but she did have to admit that his methods worked - even if she had no idea what they were. After that little excursion in the Retryv, which seemed absolutely useless to Randel, except perhaps as a balm for Pol's ego, they went back to the last known position of the ship the girl was in. Of course, by then she was gone, and they traced her to the next system, where the trail went cold. They would have lost them completely, except Pol went into his room for several hours, and when he came out he announced that they were at that stupid water world. Having no better options, Randel followed his instructions, and sure enough, the ship in question had been seen leaving the system just a few days earlier.

Randel did not like things happening on her ship that she didn't understand, and the longer Pol stayed on her ship, the worse her temper got. By now all of the men were tiptoeing around her, and the tension was almost palpable.

"Where are they?"

"Right now they're in hyperspace, traveling to the Hibris base."

"The Hibris base?" That was the world from which Randel received her orders, or at least they were relayed to her from there, including the one that sent her on this wild goose chase to catch the girl. Including the one that had put Pol on her ship. It was also supposed to be secret. "How did they find out about the base?"

The answer was quick in coming - at least response time was improving. "We got a report from the agent who has infiltrated the group. He says that they managed to capture one of our own agents undercover in one of the criminal organizations on Enistap. The cat woman forced answers out of our agent."

"How?"

"I... I'm not sure. The agent didn't say. He said she just asked, and the woman answered."

"She is Jedi," Pol said quietly. "Do you need more of an answer?"

Randel spun. She hadn't realized that Pol was on the bridge until he spoke. Damn him! She wanted to yell at him, but command had put him on this ship and given him leave to go anywhere he wanted, so there wasn't anything she could do. Quickly turning back to hide her anger, she snarled, "Continue with the report."

"Our agent says that after they questioned her, the group stunned her and left her out where the criminal organization would be sure to find her."

"Her cover was blown, any criminal organization worth infiltrating would kill her."

"I believe that was the idea, sir. However, we won't have to worry about her. Our agent injected her with a poison. He wasn't in time to keep her from talking, but she will have been long dead by the time the criminals find her. They won't get any information from her."

Randel nodded. "That was good work. We still have no way of getting in contact with this agent, do we?"

"No sir."

"Very well. Set a course for Hibris II, and inform the authorities to be on the lookout for our ship. If they see it, they should track it, but don't attempt to capture or destroy it. We've spent all this time looking for the girl, and I don't want to loose her now."

"Yes, sir." Randel left the bridge, brushing by Pol on the way. He didn't seem to notice, his eyes fixed on the view of the stars. Once she got to her quarters, Randel brought up all the information she had on Lotah, and then all the information she had on the cat woman. There was no sign yet that they'd even realized how close they were to each other. How ironic.

There was a knock on her door, and a second later it opened, despite the fact that she hadn't given permission. Not surprisingly, Pol stepped through. "What do you want?" she said, not bothering to hide her irritation.

As always, he didn't seem to notice. "I have been meditating. The girl is much stronger than she was last time we met."

Last time we met? Randel had been on the girl's trail ever since she ran away a year ago, and had been observing her for some time before that. Pol had never been near her in that time. "And when was that?"

"It doesn't matter," he replied, much to her annoyance. "What does matter is that you will not find it as easy to catch her this time as you did last time." There was a hint of disapproval in his voice, which annoyed her further. He was surely referring to the fact that she had lost the girl after less than a week the last time, only a few weeks after she had caused the death of the girl's owner. The fact that a fifteen-year-old slave could escape her had not looked great on Randel's records.

"She was given to me the last time," Randel replied, keeping a firm reign on her emotions. "I didn't realize at the time that she was Force-sensitive, or that she knew how to use her powers. All I was supposed to do was make her dislike me, so that Command could appear to rescue her. If they had told me why they wanted her, I wouldn't have left her in a room with a simple bolt across the door."

"I've been told that she ran away after a beating you gave her."

"I was under orders to make her hate me. And slave owners are supposed to keep control over their slaves - otherwise there is no point to having a slave." Randel had been raised in a wealthy family, one that owned many slaves. She had seen her father deal with slaves all her life, and knew how to deal with them herself. That girl had sorely needed a beating, even if she hadn't been under orders.

"You went to far. You were only supposed to turn her against you, not encourage her to use her powers to escape," Pol said. This was the first time he had actually accused her of wrongdoing, and even if his accusation had been justified, which is wasn't, there was no way Randel was going to take that from a subordinate.

"You go to far," she said. "From now on, until we find that girl, you are confined to your quarters. Once I have found her, she will be delivered to you as promised. Until then, I am going to run this search as I see fit." She pushed a button on her desk, and a man from security immediately stepped into the room. "See him," she pointed a finger trembling with rage at Pol, "to his quarters, and see that he doesn't leave."

Pol left without incident, and Randel sat down in her chair, trying to get control of herself. How dare he?!