Czul's question bothers me until the holoconference. I had not thought previously about the consequences of killing Tyber Zann. Will the criminal underworld, or Zann's Consortium in particular, be out for blood? Are my friends safe? They were put in danger once before, due to one man's personal grudge with Tyber Zann.

The call comes through. When I answer, a projection of a thin, bemused human appears. His bare head reflects some light cast upon him from the room he occupies, and he sports a toothy grin. "Hullo, droid," he begins amicably. "I understand you're lookin' to make a deal."

"I seek information. Data that was smuggled out of the Imperial Archive, around the time Palpatine declared himself Emperor."

"Ain't real specific."

"Would you have such data, then?"

The man laughs. "You pay me enough and I got anything you want."

"The data I am looking for would be a map. A star chart, more specifically."

He rubs his chin. "A star chart that moldy old Palpatine didn't want anybody to see again? Sounds juicy. What you want it for? Hopin' to score some intel on an old secret project of his? Lookin' to salvage a wreck from a battle he didn't want people to see?"

"No. My interest is of an archaeological nature."

His grin becomes wicked. "Diggin' up old bones, eh? Best be careful, lest you end up buried with 'em, eh? Place the Emperor didn't want people to go, it wouldn't be very nice, hm?"

"I do not believe that is a matter of concern for this business discussion."

"All business? C'mon, you gotta have more to say than that."

I add wry amusement to my voice as I respond, "Not to an infochant. You would not be willing to tell me anything I wish to know for free. It would be unfair to expect anything different from me."

That draws a guttural laugh. "True enough, tinny. So, how much is this data worth to you?"

"I am prepared to offer eight hundred credits for the information I seek."

The man grips his chest theatrically. "You wound me, tinny! I couldn't possibly part with somethin' like this for anything less than twelve hundred."

Annoyed, I counter, "I could not possibly transfer twelve hundred credits to someone who calls me 'tinny'."

The man holds up a hand in a gesture of peace. "All right, all right, fair. How about sir, then?"

"For a 'sir', I could pay eleven hundred."

His grin returns. "Well then, sir, you got yourself a deal. What's the name of the place you're lookin' for?"

"Tython."

He pulls out a datapad and thumbs through its contents. "Well I ain't never heard of such a place, but there's a map here what's got it. Transfer the creds, and I'll send the file."

True to his word, he sends the map once he has the credits. "Thank you. It has been a pleasure doing business with you."

The man gives a mock bow, and the holoconference ends.

Sabina and Xi enter the room as I analyze the star chart. "Any luck?" Sabina asks.

"See for yourself." I display the star chart in holo.

Xi walks into the holo, checking for familiar systems. She looks apprehensive. "This is the way to Tython?"

"The chart appears authentic, yes."

"But, all these gravity wells…"

I nod, pointing out several wells in the projection. "Navigating past these black holes into the system would be incredibly difficult." I manipulate it with my hands to expose something I deem a possible point of entry. "However-"

Sabina scoffs. "What are you, nuts? You can't hyperspace through a nebula. The electrical field alone would extend in from realspace and fry the ship's systems."

"Normally, yes," I concede, "but a ship with sufficient shielding could, in theory, pass through a nebula in either hyperspace or realspace with little difficulty. Although I must admit, I've no idea where to find such a ship."

"I can look into it, if you can calculate the jumps," Xi agrees reluctantly.

"It will be a complicated trip, and my own navigation skills are a bit rusty. I shall return to the ship and run the calculations while performing diagnostics this evening."

I am prepared for memories of my old masters during my diagnostic. It is clear to me now that my memory core is in a cycle of self-repair as of late, and is in the process of removing corruption from old memory files. But what comes to me this evening is different. This memory is very clear-and it is of Oki.

I lie on a table in the repair bay on the Starbrand. Oki has been performing a diagnostic at my request. He looks upon me with an expression of guilt that he quickly wipes from his face as he sees that I have reactivated.

"Ellie. How are you feeling?"

An irrelevant question. He has done no repair work, only a diagnostic. Why ask? "The same."

He looks relieved for some reason. "The diagnostic went well. It seems that your systems have repaired the glitches caused by the lightsaber combat protocols you borrowed from that Imperial droid those years ago."

"I am glad to hear it. To find that my brain were anything less than perfectly functional would be...disconcerting." I look to the side. There is a small cube-shaped object placed on a table nearby. It appears to be giving off a faint blue glow. "What is that, Oki?"

In his eyes, is there a flash of embarrassment? No, it must be a misinterpretation by my facial recognition programming. He smiles and replies, "That, Ellie, is the thing that I sent Pandora Squad to retrieve."

"The Wookie, the detective, and the wayward knight?"

He nods. "It took them some time, and their missions were trying and dangerous, but they retrieved what they sought."

"Suljo Warde."

"Yes. They found Warde, and completed his Holocron. It's the Holocron that you see before you now."

"It seems such a small thing," I remark. "Why bring it here?"

Oki shrugs. "I thought I would ask you to take a look. The secrets of Warde's foresight are stored within, but not the details of the device's creation."

I stand from the table and walk over to the device, picking it up to examine it. "I am afraid I am in rather over my depth with such a thing, Oki. What of Warde? He created it, perhaps he could provide insight."

"Suljo Warde has been placed in the brig, for his own safety and the safety of others. A darkness had taken him, but Tenda and her companions brought him here alive, relatively unharmed. They say they managed to turn him from evil."

"You remain unconvinced?"

"I'm not sure what I think. Warde seems to have believed that the future was set, and was sure that his death in combat with those three was inevitable. Now that he has survived, he's rethinking how he views his power. He's guilty and volatile. Not in the best position to teach anyone anything."

A fair point. "Why worry about such things, Oki? You have his Holocron, and if it can teach what you need, why learn how it works?"

A frown. "I need to learn to make one of my own."

"For what purpose?"

He turns away. "Jedi make Holocrons to pass on their teachings once they've become one with the Force."

"I fail to see why you would need that, Oki. You are quite young, by human standards, and healthy. As a commander, you are sometimes, but rarely in danger from the war." It dawns on me. "Warde's prescience. You have seen something."

"Nothing's set in stone, Ellie."

"But you have seen something."

He sighs. "The Starbrand will be in danger, soon. Zann is coming. And...something else."

"Let me go after Zann," I plead. "If I can make a definitive strike, he will be unable to cause us any more trouble."

"Ellie," Oki warns, "that's exactly how Suljo Warde ended up how he did. He foresaw terrible events that he caused while trying to take action to prevent them. It cast him down the path to the Dark Side."

"Well, we must be able to do something," I reason.

"We can prepare for all eventualities. Ellie, you need to understand that a Jedi's life is one of detachment and sacrifice. A Jedi must always to be prepared to let go of people and things in their life."

"Yes, Jedi can lose things they are attached to, and they should be prepared for that. I understand that much. But we are talking about your life, Oki. Does that not matter?"

He gives me a hard look. "The hardest lesson a Jedi must learn, Ellie, isn't to let go of family, or friends. It's to let go of themselves."

"Letting go does not mean throwing your life away!"

"No," he assents, "it doesn't. Nor does it mean forgetting who and what you've lost. Ellie, when you let go of something, or someone, you don't pretend they were never there. Letting go is about understanding that nothing lasts forever. It's about accepting that some day, everyone dies. Even people you love."

"Even yourself?"

He nods. "Everyone dies, Ellie. You, of all people, would know that."

Unbidden, memories of the deaths of companions in the war, of the Jedi who first set me free, of my old Mandalorian master, and of Fors Kentari come to mind. "Indeed I do, Oki."

Though I return to consciousness when my calculations are complete, an image remains in my mind-a young woman, her face buried in the chest of a burned husk of armor containing the remains of Fors Kentari. Her short, bright pink hair tosses as her shuddering sobs increase in frequency. "You...you monster," she says to me. Around us, factory noise rumbles. I realize that this cannot be a memory-I should not be able to hear her so clearly.

"He could have been saved," she insists.

I know nothing that I can say, other than, "I...I am sorry, Shimmer. I am sorry."