Chapter 1
I suppose I should have expected something when Master Skywalker sent for me after I returned from my first Bounty Hunter missions. I wasn't technically his student, but he still looked out for me.
He told me he had a mission of a very delicate nature that would need my skills and that, if I was willing, I would be paired up with Jaina to go under cover.
Apparently we needed to infiltrate some fancy to-do. Jaina would be the one doing the infiltrating; I would be the one sneaking into the fourth storey room to retrieve the information and release the political prisoner they were flouting as dead. I was to help the prisoner escape to the ground and then become a distraction. I wasn't to harm anyone, that was made very clear, but the Jedi needed to set the world straight.
The world of Corriban.
I wasn't sure why the name rung a bell in my head, but it did. Alarm bells. Loud ones, that told me with every instinct I shouldn't go. When I analyzed them, with Master Skywalker waiting for my reply, I didn't know why the name would alarm me. I should have guessed, but I didn't. Instead I ignored every instinct that told me to refuse and I agreed to go.
Jaina, now sixteen and blossoming into a wonderful young lady, was my closest friend, and my secret love. I knew that was why I wasn't able to destroy her, but if I had my way she'd never know my feelings. I wasn't worthy of her, I wasn't in her league and I firmly believed she could do much better than the street rat who'd been lying to her from day one.
We landed on Corriban without event, having taken my ship, the very ship that Peckhum had found me stored away on, and quickly disappeared into the loosely populated streets.
I felt an eerie sense of foreboding the moment we landed on the planet. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, chill-bumps appearing on my skin the moment I stepped off my ship. I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach I couldn't really identify.
I didn't understand it. Not at first, anyway. I'd never been on this planet, to my knowledge, so I couldn't even grasp why it was making me nervous. As we walked the streets, pretending to be tourists, I noticed people staring at me oddly. Not a good thing when you're trying to be inconspicuous.
Jaina pointed out several shops she wanted to check. The hardware, the tools and a café.
I'd frozen, images flashing in my mind. I knew this place. Sweat had broken out all over my skin as everything suddenly made sense. I knew this place because this was where I'd been born. That café was the same one my father had allowed us as a "treat". A cold shiver had slid down my spine.
This was where I'd made the decision to begin running.