The elevator ride wasn't anywhere near long enough, I've never been so nervous in my life - facing the Emperor didn't count, then I'd been terrified not nervous. All to soon the doors opened onto another elegant lobby with blue and gold plated walls and a pair of ornate double doors that slid aside at my approach.

I stepped through them and came to a full stop. I was in a small garden of raked sand and two kinds of stones, big jagged boulders and wide smooth flags, planted with a few shrubs, crevice plants and colorful lichens, all centered around a still pool reflecting the blue Coruscanti sky through the high glass vault overhead.

Chani was sitting on one of the flat stones at the edge of the pool, apparently meditating, but she looked up as I circled the water towards her.

"Nice." I said.

"It is isn't it?" she agreed, then gave me a little smile. "Don't look so worried, Dov's a sweet kid - not like mine."

"What's wrong with yours?" I asked, voice pitched carefully low.

"Nothing, except she thinks she already knows it all."

I grinned. "Sounds a like somebody I used to know."

Chani puffed out an annoyed breath. "Don't you start! I've had enough of that from Kensai, thank you!" I laughed. Apparently Chani's old teacher, Anuril Windu, thought she'd gotten what she deserved too. "Your cell's the one on the left. Dov is waiting for you."

Ouch. Time to face my Padawan - Force help us both!

A short, curved passage sloped upward to a big round room, its windows shaded by blinds, with two beds and some low pieces of furniture that could be either benches or tables, or both, made of glass and metal. Dov was sitting on one of the beds but jumped nervously to his feet as I entered.

I looked at his pale face and asked: "Are you as scared as I am?"

He blinked. "M- master?"

I winced theatrically. "Yikes, that's going to take some getting used too." and sat down on the other bed. "I don't know what they told you about me, Dov - if anything - but the fact is I've been a Jedi knight for..." I thought a minute. "Not quite a week." I shrugged. "I don't think I'm ready to teach anybody - but the Masters say differently, so I'm going to do the best I can. Be patient with me, okay? I'm learning too."

"Yes Master," the kid said, a little taken aback, then: "I mean I feel the same way. I don't know anything about being a Jedi!"

'Well, like Master Dai-Men once told me; a teacher is just a guide along the path, we've all got to find our own way. " I grinned at him. "What do you say we do our best to grope along together."

Shyly he grinned back. "Yes, Master."

"So, sit down and tell me about yourself. How old are you, Dov?"

"Thirteen," he said. "Mom says that's the usual age for becoming an apprentice."

I nodded. "That's what I hear too - but I was much older myself. I guess Kensai Rho taught you the basics?"

"That's what she says." he answered dubiously. "But I all I know is kid stuff: making pebbles float, plants grow, a little super running and jumping. There's got to be more to the Force than that!"

"Oh there is, there is." I assured him. "But it sounds like you've got a better head start than I did. I was brought up in the Outer Rim, Tatooine, where did you live?"

"On our ship, the Aurora Venture, we're free traders."

"Wow! I would have killed for a life like that." I exclaimed with unfeigned enthusiasm. "You must have really been around, even at your age."

"Sure have." Dov said proudly, beginning to relax. "We've been to hundreds of worlds - even Tatooine. But Mom and Dad wouldn't let us get off the ship there - it's pretty wild they say."

"They're right." I assured him. "At least the port cities are. The backland moisture farms are something else again. I was bored crazy practically my whole childhood." I shook my head remembering. "I couldn't wait to get off that rock, I had my heart set on going to the Imperial Academy."

My Padawan's eyes widened. "The Academy! You must have been crazy -" he blushed. "I mean -"

"No, you're right, it would have been a very bad move. But I didn't know that at the time. You see my aunt and uncle who raised me never told me about my Dad being a Jedi Knight."

"Mom and Dad didn't tell us anything either," he said, "until a couple of years ago when Arkady and I found Mom's lightsaber and worked out what it was."

I sighed. "We can't really blame them. It must have been hard to know what was best to do with the Jedi being proscribed and all."

"Guess so." Dov conceded.

Our little talk helped a lot, I know I felt more comfortable and I think Dov did too as we settled into our new quarters. Neither of us had much gear, our tunics, robes, etc. took up only a tiny corner of the big closet adjoining our room, Beyond it was an equally spacious 'fresher with a sunken tub big enough to swim in.

"Those old Senators sure did themselves proud didn't they?" Dov remarked.

"The perks of office." I agreed. Then added, "Some of them were worth it." thinking of Leia.

My Apprentice went down early, to help cook dinner, but I was alone for less than a minute. "You handled that very well." a familiar voice told me.

I turned to see Father sitting on the curved table-bench under the window. "I hope so. I still can't believe Dai-Men would do this to me - not to mention the kid!"

"I agree with him." Father said. "You are already a much wiser man and better Jedi than I ever was, Luke, for all my advantages."

"Yeah, well, they didn't stick you with an Apprentice when you were my age." I said, embarrassed.

His smile vanished. "No." he said quietly. "It was I who insisted on taking one against the Council's advice."

I blinked. "You had an Apprentice, what happened to him?" Oops, wrong question!

But Father smiled wryly. "Oh he survived the experience, barely. Raj was very briefly my Padawan, Luke, didn't he tell you?"

"No." I said, genuinely surprised.

"I can certainly understand why." Father said grimly. "I'll have to talk to him too - if he'll listen after what I did to him."

I didn't know what to say to that. Luckily Father changed the subject. "Did they tell you this was your mother's apartment?"

I gaped. "No! was it?"

"Oh yes. And this," he glanced around, "was her bedroom - our bedroom. You and Leia were conceived right here." I looked at the two narrow beds and he grinned. "Of course we had different furniture."

"You'd have had to." I agreed.

The minute I stepped out of the elevator on the main level Kamakazura, Mylo's wife, spotted me through the archway to the long dining room and waved. "Luke! Somebody to see you."

"Thanks." I waved back and turned to head in the opposite direction, down the hall to the terrace.

It was Han and Leia. My sister greeted me with a kiss, then gave our surroundings a regally critical glance as we sat in the council chairs; me in mine, Leia in Mylo's and Han in Chani's. "This is nice." she decided. "Not overdone like so many of these senatorial penthouses."

"The original tenant had very good taste." I agreed, and grinned. "This was Mother's apartment."

Leia looked at me blankly. "Mama? but she wasn't a senator."

I stared back. "Yes she was. Don't you remember, after she served her two terms as Queen of Naboo she became a senator - "

"Amidala of Naboo!" Leia said blankly, then fiercely. "Stupid of me, stupid! I heard Dai-Men telling you all about your mother - I was so impressed, she's my biggest hero - but I didn't think it through, of course she's my mother too!"

"That's the way it usually works." I said mildly.

"But she died." Leia said helplessly. "Padme Amidala died in the Jedi Insurrection, I've even visited her tomb on Naboo. How could she have been living with me on Alderaan three years later?"

"Because she didn't really die of course." said a voice behind me.

It was Kensai Moriah, wearing a soft white robe that reminded me a little of the loose dress I'd seen Leia wear.

"You're supposed to be dead too." my sister told her. "I nearly had a heart attack when I saw you at the meeting."

"Really? How odd." The old Jedi lady came down a flight of steps and drifted across the floor to sit next to me in her own council chair. "Well as you can see I'm not dead. I've been living on Coruscant these last years."

"On Coruscant!" Leia echoed in disbelief. "What were you thinking? This is the last place for a Jedi to hide."

"Oh I wasn't hiding, my dear, I was working." she stopped to think about that for a moment. "Yes, was, that work is over now." she looked at me. "Isn't it?"

"Yes, Kensai. The Emperor is overthrown." I assured her.

"Oh good. So now we're ready to move on to the next stage."

"Yes, Kensai. Rebuilding the Jedi Order." I said.

"And the Republic." she agreed. "That will be your job for a while yet, Leia."

"Terrific." said Han, finally getting in a word. "So I'm going to be stuck on this anthill for who knows how long!"

"Nobody's making you stay." my sister snapped over her shoulder.

He gave her his most roguish grin. "A guy likes to be around his wife, sweetheart."

"Does that mean what I think it means?" I asked, grinning myself.

Leia actually blushed, Han of course didn't. "Yup. She finally hooked me, Kid."

"Hooked you? You're the one who proposed!"

"Only because you kept dancing around it." Han looked at me. "That's a politician for you."

"She gets it from our mother." I told him.

He rolled his eyes. "Great! You mean it runs in the family?"

"On the female side. Along with a taste for smart mouthed pilots." I answered.

Moriah smiled. "Oh dear, yes. I must say I rather fancied that pilot of Amidala's myself."

"Father?" I asked in surprise.

"Oh no, Luke. Not your mother Amidala, your niece. Leia and General Solo's elder girl."

"Huh?" said Han

"What?" said Leia.

"But of course she hasn't been born yet." the Kensai reminded herself. "Why you two aren't even married, are you?"

"No, but they're going to be - very soon I hope." I said.

"Well it seems we got to talk to Leia's brother - her other brother I mean Valorum Organa - first." Han explained.

"I can't go anywhere quite yet," Leia continued, "but in a month or so things should have settled down enough for me to get out to New Alderaan for a royal council.

"Seems the surviving princes and princesses have a lot of stuff to talk about." Han put in. "Including our marriage."

"We're going to need a council decree," Leia said impatiently, "especially since you're dead set on staying a commoner."

I looked at him questioningly. Han shrugged. "C'mon, Kid, can you see me as a prince?"

I grinned at the thought. "No, not really."

"Jedi can't hold titles." Moriah said.

We all stared at her. "I'm not a Jedi, Kensai." Han said firmly. "I was training for one but that was a long time ago."

She tilted her head sideways, like a bird. "Have I gotten confused again?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm no Jedi." Han told her, even more firmly.

"Not now." Kensai Moriah agreed tranquilly.