I swear I only closed my eyes for a second.

My eyelids slammed back open at the sound of Jamie crying. Within an instant she was off her swaddling blanket and back in my arms. I cooed and prayed to every god I knew of that she would just stay quiet.

"It's ok," I said, letting my forehead fall forward to gently rest against hers. "Please, be serene."

Perhaps she was smarter than she appeared or perhaps it was an inborn connection I wasn't aware of yet, but her crying abated.

More importantly, there was no set of thundering footsteps heading toward us, threatening to kick us out of the building.

I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at Jamie before setting her back down on her blanket. There wasn't any furniture in the tiny apartment. It was just a single room with an ionic cooktop. The bathroom was down at the end of the hall.

However, when I drew back the curtains I still had to admit that the view was nice, aside from the Blood Battalion troopers that now roamed the city streets. Nordic was filled with them and they didn't look like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

I pulled it shut when Jamie once again started to get fussy.

"Sorry. I won't forget you again, I promise."

Next to the cooktop was the only piece of furniture I owned, a bare crate filled with odds and ends, including a rusting skillet and a dwindling number of small silver disks.

The cooktop was cool to the touch. However, once it was switched on, the pan placed over it grew hot. I poked a hole in the disk and it slowly expanded as oxygen rushed inside. The hole eventually closed up and the silver disk became a round white orb that I had to roll around in the skillet to keep from burning.

Of course there were better ways of getting it warm, but the only options I had on hand were either the pan or roasting it over my lightsaber, so this was the lesser of two evils.

A tiny bump formed to signal it was done, so I pulled the skillet away and held the orb against my forearm.

"Seems about right," I said, before turning off the cooktop and picking Jamie up once more. "You'd better not chew through this one. We're running low."

The fussy child gladly pulled the raised section into her mouth, suckling from the orb until it grew smaller and smaller.

She pulled away with only a tiny amount left inside, yawning wide to expose the three little teeth sprouting in her mouth.

"I should probably start trying soft foods, I guess. Maybe I can find a tome on this stuff," I whispered, although I knew that would just be more money that we didn't have.

I was well aware that force-powered pickpocketing wouldn't pay the bills forever and even though the Jedi had been careful to keep no records, in case the Empire ever came down on us, every moment out on the streets remained a worrisome gamble.

There was a store nearby whose security was lacking at the rear entrance and there were very few vaults on Centrallis that a lightsaber wouldn't be able to cut through.

"I suppose I can just add those crimes to the list," I said, looking down at the sleeping girl and thinking back to abandoning her mother in that tunnel. "I know I'll have to explain that someday, why Thayla isn't around, but if it's a choice between you and anybody else, it's always you, kid."


"I want my ship back."

"Your speeder is going to save lives," said the tiny visage of Ahor, displayed on the hangar's command console. "We don't have the kind of heavy weapons needed to stop the Blood Battalion's heavy speeders conventionally. The mining speeders could help break their line."

"Well, it's a no from me," Jon said, believing wholeheartedly that that was the end of the subject.

"You can't use it in Shilrakaen anyway, and unfortunately for you this call was a courtesy, not a plea."

"Ahor, you blasted-"

"The Rabble thanks you for your generosity," he stated, before ending the call.

Jon threw his hands up in frustration and yelled, "If I come back and they've so much as moved the seat out of place, I'll chop him in half."

His anger did fade eventually, of course, but not before scaring the living daylights out of a few of Shilrakaen's human police force, whom Carnada had instructed to guard the hangar.

Jon quickly noticed that the metal on their 800-UT rifles was shiny and new, but he shoved it out of his mind. He could always drag his friends to a shuttle and blast his way out of Shilrakaen if the Blood's inevitable invasion was too much for Carnada's forces to handle.

Not to mention, there was something much bigger weighing on his mind.

The ARC-99 fighter finally landed and he knew Jamie was inside before her little head popped into view.

Mutual anxiety turned into mutual excitement as the eleven-year old ignored the safety ladder and simply jumped straight from the cockpit to her father's arms.

"Wookie, it's so good to have you back," he told her, kissing her cheeks and her forehead. "What did they do to your hair?"

Jamie rubbed her scalp, where peach fuzz had just barely covered the bare skin. "I got used to it."

He set her down on the ground, picked her up and hugged her again, and then set her back down on the ground.

"Are you ok? What did they do to you in that pit?"

"I'm ok, dad."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, but I am hungry."

"Ok, if you say so. We'll go get some lunch." He took her hand and the two of them headed for the nearest door. "I think you'll like it here. The city is pretty nice, for now."

"Ok."

Despite her insistence, Jon still sensed a strange energy within his daughter. Something was different about her. "Are you sure that you're ok?"

"Yeah."

"Did they hit you? Did they touch you somewhere they shouldn't have?"

"Dad!"

'They're strangers. Just answer the question."

'No," Jamie told him. "They didn't send anything my way that I couldn't handle."

And that was where it clicked into place for him, seeing within his daughter much of the same energy he had once carried.

Well, he still did.

However, one ray of hope did show itself when the hangar doors finally opened.

Without hesitation, Jamie looked up at her and called out, "Mom."

The reaction wasn't as excited as she had been with her father, but she still ran up and wrapped her arms around Thayla.

"Mandalore said you were causing her headaches. Good job."

Thayla laughed and wiped a few sparse tears from her eyes. "Thank you, but I'm just happy to know that you're ok."

"I'm glad you made it," Jon said. "We were about to get something to eat."

"Ok, but we should stay close to the apartment."

"Why?"

Thayla's eyes suddenly became sullen. "Things in Davn are escalating. This might be the end."