The fleet was on the move. A long series of hyperspace jumps confined Harvan to the flagship, all non-essential shuttle transfers suspended until they reached the next rallying point. For the first time in many days, there was no need to eat alone in his cabin while he planned his next line of questioning.

Instead, he went down to the mess hall.

It buzzed with life and noise, several hundred people from nearly as many species jostling past and talking to one another. He collected a tray and the appropriate ration packs, noting with some surprise that they were of a superior brand to the ones he had been choking down recently: clearly someone had managed to secure new supplies. As he looked around for somewhere to sit, he caught his name being called out through the hubbub.

"Sahtou! Over here!"

He followed the voice across to a Zeltron and a Sulustrian sitting in the corner of the room, both clad in the loose coveralls of Alliance engineers. Kaitis and T'deum Zun. They had been part of the first rebel cell he had joined, the first people to give him shelter after he threw away his old life. He thought of them as friends and hoped they reciprocated.

"Where the skotz have you been hiding, then?" Kaitis asked as soon as he sat down, spearing a choice bit of unidentifiable protein with her fork.

"Assignment for the General," he answered, trying not to make it sound in any way interesting. Which given that he was speaking to an empath and someone whose ears could pick up every minor modulation in his voice was likely a futile effort.

Zun snorted, proving the point. [We're all on assignments from the General on this ship. Why's this one kept you out of the mess for weeks on end?] He swirled the contents of his plate. [I mean, you've been missing all . . . this.]

"Yes, it's a great trial," Harvan admitted dryly, "But I'm afraid I can't tell you." He shrugged apologetically. "Sorry."

"Hmph." Kaitis leaned towards him. There was grease smeared across her cheek, as usual. "You know it looks like you're part of the rumours going around, right?"

He felt his stomach turn over. "What rumours?"

[Lot of shuttle flights at odd hours,] Zun said around a mouthful of food, [Top-ranked bodies flying out to one of the outlier corvettes. All very hush-hush.]

"Been taking any hush-hush shuttle rides lately, Harv?" Kaitis prompted.

"You know if I say I can't talk about my assignment, I really can't talk about it." Giving them a pleading look, he applied himself to his meal.

"OK, OK, you win. But we're definitely not the only ones who want to know. Especially after General Solo nearly knocked Commander Skywalker's block off in front of the entire second shift ground crew."

Harvan fumbled his cutlery, making it clatter against the tray. "Excuse me?"

[Wow, you really must have been busy not to hear about that! Sure. They were really going for it the other day, all the way along starboard access and out into the main hanger. Heard Ackbar threatened to kick them off the ship afterwards. No one has any idea what they were actually arguing about though.]

"The rumour," and Kaitis stressed the word, "is that we pulled some high-ranking Impie off the Death Star and Skywalker's trying to get the Princess to help interrogate them."

There was of course no question who 'the Princess' was.

Harvan stuffed his mouth full and chewed determinedly.

"No wonder Solo flipped his top," Kaitis went on when it was clear he was not going to contribute further to the conversation, "Asking her to be in the same room as someone like that after what the Empire did to her! After Alderaan! What was Skywalker thinking? His own sister, damnit!"

The news that Commander Skywalker was actually the long-lost twin brother of Leia Organa had been greeted with relative indifference by the fleet. This was, after all, the first Jedi in a generation, the Death Star-Killer and a young man who had survived duels with both Darth Vader and the Emperor himself. Few coincidences would have seemed too far-fetched.

[Keep it down, will you?] Zun muttered, glancing at the next table over. He rubbed at his overlapping jowls. [I'm sure Ackbar could find the time to kick us off the ship too.]

"Yeah, well." Her lip twisted but she lowered her voice all the same. "I'd have wanted to knock him on his behind too, is all I'm saying."

Harvan sighed. "Yes . . ."

Zun sighed too. [You're still not going to tell us anything, are you?]

He was saved from having to come up with another way of saying no by a sudden jolt running through the deck plating. All across the room, people cried out as their trays went clattering across the tables.

Zun and Kaitis looked at each other. "That was the hyperdrive."

[It's not supposed to do that.]

A klaxon blared, followed moments later by a booming Mon Cal voice. "Imperial interdiction blockade! All hands to battle stations! All hands to battle stations!"