Commander Ritk knocked on the door to the young Jedi's cabin. It has been 4 days since they fled the planet with their collective tails between their legs. At least that is how he felt about the whole situation especially since his captain had stayed behind to make sure the Widowmaker would never fall into the aliens' hands. The image of her death will forever be burned into his eyes as he watched from the bridge. They had gotten to a safe altitude when she set off a chain reaction with the power core. The power core had been twitchy anyways since the crash. It was not so much as rigging it to blow, as the surviving engineer had explained to him later, it was so damaged that it hard to keep it from blowing in the first place. That is why it had been on stand by power and they had been using batteries for everything. The Captain had to stay behind since they had no way of insuring that the reaction would happen only after the Double Trouble was clear. It was a blow to the crew, they all knew that she was staying behind, but the power of her sacrifice still touched them all deeply. Even the storm troopers, the most cold-blooded men he had ever served with, left their helmets on as he gave a short eulogy.

The door was opened by the Jedi's little droid; it was standing in her doorway blocking access. Ritk gave him a tight little smile, amused by the over protective little droid. If it wasn't on the bridge-helping crewman Lit plot a hyperspace course it was in her cabin standing watch over her.

"Who is it?" He heard the Jedi call out weakly from inside.

The droid spun its dome around and beeped and whistles at her.

"Let him in."

The droid made some sour notes at that request.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm strong enough to talk, plus he wouldn't bother me unless it was important."

The droid spun its dome around to 'look' at him, he was sure if it had a face it would be glaring at him right now. With one last sour note it back up so Ritk could enter the room. He saw the young Jedi in the same position that she had been since she passed out on the bridge. She was laying on her back with a feeding tub snaking under the cover to her left arm, her right shoulder heavily bandaged. Her color was getting better and she didn't look like she was knocking on deaths door anymore.

"Captain, I just wanted to let you know that we have left hyperspace and waiting for the Mon Mothma to arrive."

"Thank you Commander, how did the repairs to my ship go?"

"Our repair work was haphazard but holding. We should be fine but your ship will need some time in the shop once you get back to your Jedi base." Ritk had always been worried that they would miss some important military secret from one of the main powers on that planet, due to their lack of computers to tap into. The Jedi had also expressed fears that they would pull a hare out of their hat when they were not expecting it. Just as they evacuation was commencing, just after the relief pilot was in place, two innocent looking barges showed them that their fears weren't unfounded. The two barges, from a minor power even, had been secretly been refitted to a crude kind of missile launch platform. Hundreds of crude but effective missiles were hurdled at the Double Trouble. The shields had stopped many initially but they had overloaded the shields for less then a minute long enough to cause some damage. The Jedi's ship had suffered some hull damaged that his crew fixed with the few tools she had on board; some repairs, such as to her escape pods, was left alone since they were not essential to the safety of the ship. "Your escape pod is damaged beyond our abilities to fix it. We figured it best to leave it alone since the seals are holding ok. The quad-guns are still inoperable, the concussion missiles launchers are out."

"Great, first mission and I do years worth of damaged to my ship." The Jedi said grimly, "Yea this is going to look good on my report."

"I wouldn't worry to much about the damage, in operations such as this one some damage is expected. You would be surprise how much is forgotten in the light of success." Ritk said with a small grin. He lost his grin when the Jedi didn't return his smile. "What?"

"I'm not sure that many would consider this a successful operation."

"Why? You located and rescued 218 Imperial citizens against all odds. You took on an entire planet and came out ahead."

"Yes, but how many natives died while I was rescuing you and your crew?" she said looking down at her bed, "I'm sure many of the Jedi would be asking questions such as; 'Why didn't you contact the natives?' Or 'Was it necessary to attack the complex?' I don't think they will understand. A Jedi is supposed to preserve life, to take steps to limited the number of deaths. I'm not supposed to go around letting hundreds of thousands die. Now I will have to sit through many of them taking apart every move I made and listen to them tell me how they would have done things differently. How I should have done 'B' or 'C' but not 'J' unless I did 'O' first."

"Ah yes, hindsight is always nice. What you may have thought might happen suddenly become a fact that you knew but chose to ignore."

"Exactly," she said with a small grin, "nice to see I'm not the only one having to deal with this."

"Well you're not, such desk jockeys are the bane of all fighting men and women. I assure you that when I arrive back to Imperial space I too will have them circling around me. The last toast to the crew and I will still be echoing through the hall when they will start telling me how they would have handle the situation if they had been in charge." Ritk said with some sadness, he knew much censure will fall on his Captain and she won't be able to defend herself. The dead make such lovely scapegoats since they have a hard time being heard. "Granted there are a couple moves I would have made differently but that is what hindsight is really for. It is not there so some pompous windbag that would defecate himself at the sound of the first blaster being fires can point out how wrong you were. Hindsight is there so you can learn how not to make the same mistake again, so the next time you can get all your people home in one piece."

"Yea there is a lot that I have learned from this trip." She said sounding stronger and surer of herself. "I will have a lot of questions to answer when I get back but Commander Ritk I have to tell you the truth. As I look back over the past week, taking into everything I had to do to get you people home; I have to tell you over all I would do everything the same way."

"Everything?"

"Pretty much," she said nodding her head, "oh I would have taken some extra guns so we wouldn't had to use the grenades but all in all the mission was to find you guys. Once I found you I was to assist you in returning home. I tried to do it in the Jedi way but was cut off from any help. That is what sealed the plan, without help I had to do things the way I did."

"And if you had help available?"

"Then everything would have been different, if they knew where I was no matter what happened to me they would have known where you were and could finished in my place." The young Jedi struggled to sit up in her bed. Ritk was not surprise to see her in a jumpsuit with the right arm cut off, the girl had a modesty streak in her that just about everyone would consider extreme. Jedi Master Skywalker had briefed them about her quarks while she was still out, and to Ritk's experienced ear, he sounded a bit dubious about most of the instructions. However odd they may have been, Ritk and the rest of the crew didn't question them. To them she was their hero and they were willing to do just about anything to help her. Plus Ritk knew annoying a Jedi was not the way to live till retirement. "If I had known that the rest of the fleet, yours or mine, was on the way to help us, I could open discussion with the natives and laid the ground work for a peaceful resolution. Or at worst I could stalled them, distract them long enough for the others to get the job done."

"In a perfect universe."

"Yes," she said with slightly twisted lips, "and we all know how perfect the universe is. I'm ready for the inquest, mentally, but I just wish that I didn't have to go through it." She then looked at him in an odd way. "Commander, I hope that you too have a easy time when you get back. If you should run into any problems, remember what your captain had done. Many will see her as a coward, as a failure; but she did sacrifice herself for a great cause. She died so that you and the rest of her crew could continual to serve the Force."

Ritk didn't know how to responded to that statement and was saved by his comm. link beeping at him.

"Yes?"

"Crewman Lit, sir. The Mon Mothma has just dropped out of hyperspace."

Ritk looked over at the Jedi, she was motioning for his comm. link. He surrenders it since she was the captain of this vessel.

"Sallie, this is Captain Tahiri. Signal them and then lay in an intercept course. Tell them that I'm requesting that they tractor in the Double Trouble in their hold."

"Yes, ma'am." Crewman Lit said then after a short pause she resumed. "Ma'am I'm familiar enough to land your ship without any assist."

Ritk started to form a rebuke on his lips but it died as the Jedi held up her right arm, wincing slightly as she did so.

"I know Sallie, but you been flying my ship for four days with no real break. That and everything else that you have been through for the past year, I think you deserved to let someone else do the hard work. And if they so much as scratch the pain you can help me take it out of their hides."

"Yes, ma'am." Ritk could hear a slight amused tone in the crewman's voice. After another pause she came back. "Mon Mothma agrees with the assist, they didn't sound too happy about it either. Medical teams will be standing by in the main landing bay, along with Jedi Master Horn," Ritk saw a small wince on the Jedi face that had nothing to do with her injuries, "and the Captain of the Mon Mothma. Intercept course laid in, ETA 15 minutes."

"Very well, I'm sending the droid up to the bridge. Hopefully he can let you know ahead of time if they screw up and going to dent my ship."

The droid let out some tones and whistles, the Jedi just glared at him. The droid gave out a very human sounding sigh and started heading to the bridge.

"Yes ma'am, bridge out."

"Commander, could you please have them see to Doctor Hegerty first then have them check the rest of your crew. I can hold out until the rest of you get checked out."

"You should still have that shoulder looked at."

"Oh I will, but I have a feeling Master Horn will want to talk to me before I go for a swim. I just don't want any of your people to interfere and hold up their own check ups waiting for me. I'm sure that they have everything ready for you but if you run into any trouble let me know, I try to get it for you."

"Thank you, Jedi Tahiri. And in case the powers to be don't allow me to say this later, I want to thank you for all that you have done. In the future if you have any need please know that there are some in the Empire that would be willing to help you."

The Jedi crossed her arms, one fist on the opposite shoulder, and gave him a deepest bow that she could give sitting in the bunk.

"I thank you Commander Ritk for your kind words, you do me more honor then I deserve."

Corran stood waiting on the flight deck as the Double Trouble lifted up through the landing bay hatch in the deck of the landing bay. He was well aware of the injuries that Tahiri had suffered and the damaged to the ship from the briefing Luke had sent him. The primitive missiles had, very temporary, brought down the shields on the port side. None of the missiles had been strong enough to crack the hull enough to make it unsafe for space travel, except in a few places which the Imperials had done hasty but effective repairs. But seeing it just renewed his anger at the whole situation.

He knew, he just knew, that something like this would happen with her running around on her own. During the mission to Coruscant then later to Zonama Sekot, Tahiri had expressed concerns about her Jedi training. She had felt that since her merging, or whatever happened to her, that she was no longer a properly trained Jedi and need a new Master. Without additional training her incomplete Jedi training could lead her down the Dark Side. Corran had the same fears that she had about her merging but he was more worried about some deeply hidden Yuuzhan Vong impulse raising up and taken hold. During the long hyperspace jump on Zonama Sekot Corran had discussed with both Luke and Mara his fears and Tahiri's fears about her training. Luke felt that she was selling herself short and so was Corran. He felt that she would be able to handle herself in a proper Jedi manner after she completes some missions on her own. Corran had voiced his concerns but in the end he bowed to Luke's decision.

And now we see the results. He thought as watch the landing gear extend to the deck.

"I'm sure she ok dad." Valin said from his spot on his left.

"Yes, but it is not her injuries I am worried about."

"She didn't do anything too wrong …"

"She did everything wrong." Corran turn to look at his son, his son had grown a lot during the Yuuzhan Vong war and in a way he was glad that Luke was willing to allow Valin to complete his apprenticeship with him. It was difficult sometimes being a father and teacher but Corran felt that it would do more good in the long run for both of them. "Tahiri actions made a serious problem worst."

"She did the best she could dad."

"No Valin, she didn't." Corran said watching the main hold-loading ramp down. "You will help the crew with the Imperial while I talk to Tahiri."

"Dad …"

"No arguments Valin." Corran said looking at his son who was now as tall as he was. Valin looked like he might argue some more but visibly decided against it. He nodded his head as they started walking towards the Double Trouble.

Inside the hold Corran could see the tired, dirty but satisfied grins of people who know that they will soon be home. They had suffered much in the past few months he could see that clearly in their faces.

"Master Horn?"

Corran turned and saw an Imperial Commander standing to his right, his uniform was torn and Corran could clearly see the abuse that he had suffered.

"Yes Commander?"

"I'm Commander Ritk, I just wanted to take a moment to say 'Thank you' for sending Jedi Tahiri out to find us. Without her assistance I do not believe any of us would be alive right now."

"We are glad," Corran never thought he would ever get use to saying that to an Imperial officer, "that Tahiri was able to locate you and your crew. After all the help that the Widowmaker extended to Master Skywalker and his mission to find Zonama Sekot and being pulled into a emergency hyper jump we would be shrinking in our responsibility if we had taken any other course."

"Yes, I see." The commander's eyes seem to harden around the edges, "Well what ever the reasons may be, without her help we would all be suffering a fate worst then death. Even if she did it in a less then optimum manner, after all the proper Imperial response would have been more effective."

"Yes, I sure blasting every native into ash would have been more efficient." Corran said.

"Without a doubt." The commander said with a small grin. "Good day to you sir."

Corran watch him walk out of the main hold with the assistance from one of the Mon Mothma medical personal, thinking how you could take the Imperial out of the Empire but never take the Empire out of the solider. In many ways the natives had been very fortunate that it had been Tahiri would found them first and not the Empire. He could imagine the wasteland that the Empire would have left behind if they had found the crew of the Widowmaker first.