Emvee fussed over Jaina's hair as if it was for an occasion of universal importance

Emvee fussed over Jaina's hair as if it was for an occasion of universal importance. The battered old service droid had been salvaged from space wreckage on their last trip away from Coruscant. The droid was repaired by Anakin and had been reprogrammed by Winter successfully to act as a hairdresser for herself, Leia and Jaina. The droid was making a meal of a job that would have only taken twenty minutes by a professional from outside the palace.

"Emvee," Jaina whined. "Why do you always take so long to do my hair? It would only take me or mother five or ten minutes."

"Well mistress Jaina," the droid replied in his mechanical monotonous voice. "With your uncle Luke and Lando Calrissian making special trips from their own responsibilities to see you today you will need to look nice for them."

Jaina sighed. It was the first group reunion for a while when not under fire or involved in something dangerous. So far she'd only left the room once to see Jacen before enjoying, if that was the word, an unlavish breakfast. Then it was back to their individual rooms to prepare themselves for Luke Skywalker's arrival. Threepio had been with Jacen all morning whilst she had been stuck with Emvee, something the cat wouldn't drag in. Even Threepio would be better than Emvee, even if he was the most irritating droid she knew. There was a knock on the door and Han Solo, her father entered.

"Still preening yourself?" He asked simply, putting on his famous lop-sided grin that won females over.

"Yeah, Emvee won't hurry up and finish." Jaina looked at her father pleadingly.

"Hurry up you rusty bag of bolts!" Han ordered with a smile.

Emvee gave one final tug and everything fell into place.

"Great," Han sighed before turning to Jaina. "Now come along, the Shadow Chaser dropped out of hyperspace a few minutes ago. Is your brother ready?"

"I'll just check."

Jaina stepped out into the corridor and went along to her brother's room. As she reached the door, it opened and Jacen appeared, dressed in the same brown jumpsuit as hers.

"We have definitely known each other far too long." He sighed, looking himself and Jaina up and down. "Any sign of anyone we know dad?"

"Your uncle Luke dropped out of hyperspace not long ago. Now hurry up, we were supposed to meet him on the east platform."

They trooped down the corridors, meeting Leia and Anakin on the way. They reached a large door, which slid open as the sleek shuttle Shadow Chaser touched down. A few moments later the hatch opened and Luke Skywalker, Jedi master and hero of Yavin stepped out to greet them. The faithful Astromech droid Artoo-Detoo close behind.

"Long time no see," he said with a smile on his face. "How are you guys?"

"Fine, just fine."

Han cut in. "Have you seen Lando yet?"

"No, I haven't. Though he told me yesterday that he was expecting to arrive shortly after me." The door opened and a New Republic officer entered. "Captain Solo, a ship is entering the system. It's the Lady Luck sir."

"Thank you," Han replied. "Well! Looks like Lando has arrived. In style as usual. Where's he landing?"

"Platform 136, sir." The officer replied before turning on his heel and returning to his post.

"Come on," Leia said. "Let's go and meet the galaxy's gift to business."

Everyone laughed, with Artoo beeping a kind of chuckle, and they headed for the platform where the Lady Luck was due to land.

Lando exited the Lady Luck with his arms full of gifts. Packages for everybody, whom he hadn't seen in a good while. Jacen was very pleased with his present, an old Imperial stormtrooper blaster, still in excellent condition in spite of its age. Jaina was given a large metal box in which were some odd bits of machinery and electronics.

"What is it?" She asked.

"A deflector shield system that can be used on craft up to and including B-Wing size. But don't go doing what you did with that hyperdrive on crashed spacecraft."

Jaina went bright red and wished that the ground would swallow her. She had hoped people had forgotten about the TIE Fighter she repaired.

"Hey kids." Han interrupted. They turned to face him.

"I thought now that you are fully fledged Jedi and able to survive by yourselves on planets, you may want to explore the galaxy a little more freely. So I pulled strings and managed to get you these little things." He picked up a comlink.

"Raiyth bring on the surprise package." A few moments later the sound of engines was heard and two Dodonna Blissex A-Wing starfighters landed neatly either side of the Lady Luck.

Jacen's eyes would have popped out on stalks if they could. Jaina could hardly speak. Although the A-Wing was due for retirement, with the introduction of the Gencore Phoenix intercept fighter, the ship still had legendary status.

One of the cockpits opened up to reveal the pilot, a youngish man with short, very dark brown hair and a scar across his left cheek. He wore a kindly smile and his eyes twinkled as if when he was in an A-Wing, he was in paradise. He jumped out of the craft before a droid could provide a ladder and raced over to where they were standing. Jaina winced as the pilot's feet hit the floor. He'll break something doing that she thought to herself. The pilot nodded to the twins then turned to face Han.

"Lieutenant Tainer reporting General Solo."

Han acknowledged with a nod and turned to the twins.

"Meet Lieutenant Raiyth Tainer of Raptor squadron. He will be teaching you how to fly the A-Wing. What he doesn't know about A-Wings is not worth knowing. Take care and don't break anything."

The twins were still speechless. The others smiled.

Raiyth was an A-Wing ace with eighty-seven enemy kills to his name. He was nicknamed the Star 'Destroyer' because of his tendency to attack Star Destroyers instead of fighters. He had received the scar on his left cheek when the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse had tried to kill him. Needless to say, he gave the ship a nasty gash in the port bridge wing before limping back to his command ship.

"Come and have a look at the loveliest ships in the galaxy!" He invited. The twins needed no telling again. They ran to one of the ships and ran their hands over the surface.

"It's not smooth like an X-Wing's body." Jacen complained.

"I don't think it was designed to be smooth but just look at the shapes on the craft. Aren't they streamlined?" Raiyth replied whilst catching up.

"You're starting to sound like an art critic." Jaina giggled. As Raiyth started to show them around what he termed to be the 'finest starfighter ever built.'

Several hours later the twins were in the air over the palace, learning how to handle the A-Wing properly. Jacen was in Rogue two, whilst Jaina was in Rogue three. Raiyth took up the lead in Rogue one.

"Now remember that the Empire is still around somewhere so be careful where you go." Raiyth warned them. "The A-Wing can beat most things including the TIE Advanced, but the Imperial craft to look out for are the missile boat and TIE Defender. The only way to get either of them is to sit behind them at the same speed and don't stop firing until they are no longer a problem."

Jacen thought for a moment. Then opened his comm channel.

"Sounds like the Empire had the better fighters after all."

"Jacen, the Empire was far superior in terms of technology but what they failed to do was deploy the TIE Advanced, TIE Defender and missile boat in sufficient numbers to combat us. They relied on the greater numbers of simpler TIEs like the Fighter, Bomber and Interceptor. They may have been as fragile as paper, but in numbers they were more dangerous to a craft than a Star Destroyer.

"Anyway on with the craft itself. You probably know roughly how to fly a starfighter, you have had flight training and I know that you spend some time in the combat simulators whenever you happen to be on board a Calamari Cruiser. Follow me up into space."

The three sleek craft pointed their noses upwards; two more wobbly than the leader and shot up out of the atmosphere into space switching from repulsorlifts to sublight drives as they exited the atmosphere. They orbited the planet whilst Raiyth went over what was going to happen. Following his lead, the twins turned their craft towards the hyper buoy that Raiyth had activated.

"This hyper buoy will take us to a junkyard not far from here. Full of old bits of spacecraft it makes great target practice. When we get there fly around and shoot at anything except A-Wings okay?"

The three A-Wings closed with the buoy and approached to 0.5 klicks. One after another they activated their hyperdrive and several minutes later dropped out into an area full of metal debris. For the next hour or so, the twins darted around the area, blowing up old bits of container and pieces of starship. Raiyth's voice came over the comm channel.

"Okay, that's enough for today. Head for the Coruscant hyper buoy."

The twins started to turn the ships. As Jaina targeted the buoy on her CMD, her elbow hit the hyperdrive lever and she shot into hyperspace on an unknown course. Raiyth checked his sensors. Jaina's A-Wing had entered hyperspace. What had gone wrong? She had not plotted a course, which meant that she could have died from flying through a star or another planet. Occasionally, people got away with it, he'd done it himself at one point. But only very occasionally. He entered hyperspace for Coruscant and prepared to break the news to Han and Leia.

More to follow!!! I guess you're wondering where the Devastation's gone? Well, she'll turn up again in chapter 3 - but only as far as a conversation about her. You'll just have to wait! :D