"N-no."

Kyp watched Jaina shake her head at Jacen's question and had to push back the emotion beating at his shields.

"Ok." Jacen sighed, his disappointment seeping from behind his mask. "Si said to tell you 'hi'."

Jaina nodded, but Kyp could see it was just a perfunctory response.

"When—" her voice had a shake to it that wasn't there before, "are mom and Dad leaving?" evidently, someone had explained to her that Han and Leia didn't normally live here.

"I don't know." Jacen admitted, shrugging. "Dad asked one of the maintenance techs to move the Falcon to the resident hangar yesterday."

"Oh." Jaina nodded, playing with her fingers.

"The medics said you could probably leave in a few days."

Again, Jaina nodded, but seemed dazed.

"Well, I guess I'll go. Keil's probably giving the crèche workers a hard time." Jacen stood up.

"Ok." Jaina nodded, still focusing on her fingers.

As if on impulse, Jacen hugged her at the last second. "I love you, sis."

Jaina's shoulders were stiff, and she simply nodded.

Kyp never thought he would actually feel sympathy for Jacen Solo, but at the moment, he couldn't help being sorry for the younger man.

There was nothing left of Jaina Solo. No laughing, teasing pilot and Jedi with sparkling eyes. No memories of a past, of Han and Leia, of Luke and Mara. No memories of growing up with a twin brother, or of wielding a lightsaber, or of flying in the Rogue Squadron. No memories of Kyp Durron.

Only a frightened, shattered young girl.

"Hey, kiddo." He pushed the door open and sauntered in.

Jaina looked up from wringing her hands and smiled. "Hi."

"What are you doing?"

She shrugged self-consciously. "N-nothing , really. My brother just left."

Kyp made a point of looking over his shoulder incredulously. "Really? The guy who just walked out?"

She nodded.

"Are both of his parents the same as yours?"

Jaina blinked, her eyebrows lowering. "Yes." She said slowly. "Why?"

" 'Cause he's sure not as pretty as you are." Kyp drawled.

He laughed when she blushed.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a flatterer?" she asked slowly, the left side of her face lifting in a small smile.

Kyp grinned. "A couple of times."

The smile faded slowly. "No BlackAngel, and no movie. Why are you here?"

The old Jaina would have filled he lingering silence with a long, drawn out 'so'. The girl sitting in front of him seemed to be avoiding the letter 's' like the Death Seed.

Kyp shrugged. "I don't know. I just like talking, I guess." He shot her a wry grin. "You watched my holos and played my games without screeching, I thought maybe you'd take a stab at being the only one to listen to me."

"Oh." Her voice was quiet.

Kyp waited, sighing inwardly when she started playing with her hands again.

"So, have they told you when you're going to get out?" he sat down in the chair Jacen had been occupying earlier.

She shook her head. "My brother says sometime in the next few days, but I think he may be thinking optimistically. They haven't told me yet."

"Oh. Are you anxious to get out of this place?"

She shrugged. "It's not that bad, really."

"Huh." He made a face. "Every time I've been in here, it's seemed like forever, counting the days to get out." He exaggerated a grimace. "I've had better food in jail."

That coaxed a laugh out of her. "Jail? That sounds like a story to hear. How did having that on your record affect the medics?"

Kyp grinned. "Quite well, actually. I think I probably intimidated them. They didn't boss me around nearly as much the last time as they had the times before."

Jaina laughed again. "How many times have you been here?"

Kyp pretended to have great difficulty counting. "More times than you could imagine, sister."

"Oh come on," Jaina joined in his light banter with a smile, "how could you possibly require medical attention more times than you can count?"

Kyp shook his head. "Huh-uh, Rain. That's my secret."

She smiled. "Oh, really? I could just go ask the medics you know. They happen to do a very good job of keeping records around here."

Kyp wiggled his eyebrows at her. "That's confidential information, and if you somehow managed to bribe on of the techs to let you see it anyway, it's all filled with jargon, so you'd never figure out why I was in here."

"Yeah, well, they must be bribable if you can convince them to let you come in and stay past visiting hours." She shot back.

"Nah." He shook his head matter of factly. "I just give them my smile, and- poof! –they let me in." he grinned.

Jaina stared open mouthed. "Ok, so flattering and arrogant, too." She shook her head slowly, the half-smile reappearing. "Why do I have a feeling this is going to be fun?"

Kyp shrugged. "Dunno, but I ain't arguing." He grinned. "Or complaining."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So it turns out the situation may be worse than we first thought." Luke sighed, crossing his arms.

"Good thing Jacen convinced you to check out Eclipse now, huh." Mara raised one eyebrow.

"Yeah, Mar, we all know you like being right." Luke smiled.

"Just don't forget that I always am." Mara fired right back.

"Moving on…" Kam cleared his throat. "We should probably increase security until we have Eclipse ready for habitation."

Mara snorted. "From Tahiri's story, it might be years before we've got that place up and running."

Luke rubbed his forehead intensely. "Force, I hope not."

"How many modulators do we need again?" Kam asked.

"Eight." Luke grimaced. "Ion-motivated ones, at that."

Kam whistled lowly. "Those aren't that easy to find anymore either."

"Exactly." Luke nodded. "However, thanks to our faithful outlaws," he hid a smile, "we will be receiving exactly eight of such within the next standard month."

Kam frowned. "I dislike dealing with criminals, however petty and even loyal."

"Yeah, well," Mara's face clearly said she did not approve of anyone questioning Karrde's reputation, "without help from these 'criminals' we wouldn't even be here to discuss atmospheric moderator/modulators."

"True," Luke broke in smoothly to prevent a heated argument, "and GAI released a statement yesterday saying they would be investigating any and all special orders. It would definitely raise questions if we put out an order for numerous ion-powered modulators."

"Questions we do not have time to answer." Mara added.

"All of which is true." Kam nodded.

"Anyway, once we get the new controls installed, we need to have a planned evacuation method in place."

"Instead of just all jettisoning out of here in the Errant Venture like last time?" Kam asked dryly.

"Exactly." Luke nodded. "Booster and I don't really…. Um… get along? Asking him for favors grates like nothing else."

"Nice to know how you feel about my father."

The three Masters turned to see Mirax Horn enter the room, a sardonic smile on her face.

"Yeah. Hey, Mirax. Where's Corran?"

"At Security, trying to convince one of Taan's little 'creatures'" she grimaced, "that he's not a dangerous infiltrator." She stopped in front of the closed trio and crossed her arms. "I'm not sure if I should be irritated with the girls for programming those nosy little monsters, or thankful that they're so thorough."

"Well, I know what I am." Mara declared loudly, rubbing her back. "Irritated. One of those things chased me halfway down the hall to the med center today."

"That would be the one we found shot to pieces." Jacen exclaimed, entering the room. "You had Taan in knots examining the thing for signs of Yuuzhan Vong evidence."

"No comment." Mara only replied cryptically.

"Jacen." Luke nodded at his nephew. "What brings you here?"

Jacen held up a flimsiplast printout. " Transmission from GAI."

"Really?"

Jacen nodded, eyeing the flimsiplast sheet in his hand. "Sent this to us this morning. More intell. info."

" You mean GAI is actually on top of something for once?" Mara was sarcastic.

Her comment failed to produce any smiles.

"Actually, from the tone of the entire note, I have a suspicion that this was more of Iella's project than GAI as a whole." Jacen suggested. "The Alliance has never been particularly friendly to the Jedi."

Luke nodded. "It's not likely they would feel so inclined as to pass on privy information to a group they barely tolerate."

Jacen was tapping his thumbs on his chin- either in thought, or anxiety. "Either that, or they're a fair amount more worried about the Yuuzhan Vong than they've admitted, and we're their best choice at a successful scapegoat."

Luke stared at him. "Thank you for your pure cynicism."

"Realism." Mara and Jacen answered in unison.

"You're right about one thing, though." It was Kam's turn at peacemaker. "This note does resemble Agent Antilles' style more than GAI's info center."

"It does." Luke nodded. "Which means we can probably take it in full confidence."

"When is Eclipse scheduled to be done?" Mirax wanted to know.

"Karrde hasn't said yet." Mara shook her head. "But it'll be at least a standard week."

"Maybe we should contact my father just as a precaution. Make sure he's in the area in case of emergencies."

Luke nodded. "I think you're probably right. I'll send Booster a fruit basket if it helps."

Mirax laughed. "I don't think that will be necessary. His grandchildren are here. He'll come."

"No matter what anyone says, Booster Terrik is a softy." Mara said dryly.

"Just don't let him hear you say that."