The trouble with Imperial captivity is that you lose track of time.

Since Han was brought in, the only time indicator was that they fed him soon after his imprisonment. It didn't help that he fell asleep sometime afterwards. He already doubted whether he'd been here one day or two.

I'm really going crazy.

The door opened, and Han watched the stormtroopers throw another person into the room. It was a woman, with dark brown hair… like Leia's, he suddenly thought. Could it be? But then, his mouth flew open as he looked at her. It wasn't Leia, but he did recognize her, although she looked very different without her hair color…

"Mara?" he said.

"Han Solo," Mara acknowledged.

"Are you okay?"

"Let's see. Chased off Coruscant, captured by Boba Fett, kept sedated to prevent me from using the Force, imprisoned by some insane admiral with delusions of grandeur, and stuck in a cell with the second most annoying man in the galaxy. Yeah, I'm okay."

Han looked at her. "The second most annoying man in the galaxy?"

"Yeah. Skywalker gets the top slot."

Han took that in. "Luke! You know where he went?"

"What do you mean?"

"Leia told me that Luke and she had a fight, and she sent me to find him, and, quote, 'save him from his own foolishness,' unquote. She said she couldn't be more specific. Do you know what's going on? And why did you color your hair?"

"Yes, Solo, I do know what's going on," Mara said. "And Luke suggested changing the hair when we found out about the bounty. See how well that worked."

"Well? Why did Luke leave?"

"You first."

"Very well," Han didn't want to be next to angry Mara Jade when he had nowhere to run. "I left Chewie with his family, and first went to Yavin Four—the most obvious place."

"Too obvious."

"True. So I was coming back to Kashyyyk, and then, around Myrkr—"

"Myrkr?"

"Yes, Myrkr. That's where the Imperials pulled me out of hyperspace with an Interdictor, and got a tractor beam on me. And then they sent stormtroopers about the Falcon, and stunned me. I woke up on the Star Destroyer, the admiral gave me his 'The Empire will be back' speech, and then threw me in here."

Mara thought for a moment.

"Okay," Han said. "Your turn. But first, can't you do something with the Force?"

"You think I haven't thought of that? Or that the Imperials haven't? They have ysalamiri nearby."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Right. So Luke and I left Coruscant and went to Tatooine."

"Why there?"

"Just seemed like the least likely place anyone would look for us. But then we went to Ord Mantell."

"Why?"

"Luke thought there was trouble brewing in the Imperial Remnant, so he wanted to be close enough to do something."

"He was right about the trouble part."

"I still have no clue what this admiral is after. When I asked why he put a bounty on me, he said 'I want your eyes'."

"Huh?"

"That's what I thought, too."

"We can think about that later. It's not like we lack the time."

"So we headed to Ord Mantell," Mara continued. "And we got a surprise there. In the cantina, while we were there, four thugs were about to beat a twelve-year old boy. So Luke went over to them for a talk."

Han chuckled. "Are all their limbs still attached to their bodies?"

"Surprisingly, yes. And do you know who the kid turned out to be?"

"Who?"

"Baron Fel's son."

"Fel has a son? How did he get there?"

"I never found out. We just left the cantina and started to talk when Fett struck. He used a whole bunch of droids to overwhelm me and Luke, and stunned me. I woke up in a holding cell on his ship. I have no idea what happened to Luke or Jag—that's the young Fel's name—but Fett…"

"Yes?" Han asked her.

"Apparently, Luke cut off his right leg."

"Hard to believe Fett's still alive and in business."

"He might have come out just for this bounty. It was ten million."

"TEN MILLION?"

"Yes."

"The admiral must consider you important."

"I wish I knew why."

"I suspect you'll find out."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"So, that's how you got here. But you said you knew why Luke ran away in the first place. Well? What didn't Leia approve of?"

Mara looked at him for a long time and sighed. "Luke's choice of a wife."

XXX

Luke and General Fel were walking through the corridors of the Empire of the Hand military headquarters. They were actually underground—the building appeared to be one-story from the outside. The conference room was on floor minus five.

"Now, Skywalker, you must understand this. I trust you. No one else here does. Parck allowed this because he trusts me. But he insisted on ysalamiri being brought in."

Luke nodded. He actually expected something like this. As for his lightsaber, he left it at the Fels' home, being absolutely certain he would not be allowed to bring that in.

"Some other people will here will be less trusting than Parck. General Kell, in particular."

"What's his department?"

"Army special ops," Fel replied. "We're here."

The door opened, and they went in. There was a large oval table with display screens at each seat and a large screen on the back wall. Imperial officers—five humans and a Chiss—were sitting around it. Luke looked to the head of the table. Admiral Parck appeared quite similar in appearance to Pellaeon, but his eyes burned with a fire unseen in the other old admiral. Even without the Force, Luke got the sense that this man would go to great lengths to complete the tasks he set for himself.

"You're late, Fel," a short man sitting on Parck's right said. "Entertaining your Jedi more important than a meeting of the high command?"

Fel took a seat opposite the man. "That was uncalled for, Kell," Parck said firmly. "There is a reason I allowed Skywalker in here, a reason that will be revealed shortly. But I suggest we introduce ourselves to Skywalker. Kell, you first."

Kell glared at Parck.

"I'm General Kell, commander of Army special operations units. And with all due respect, sir," he turned to the admiral, "We don't need the Jedi. The Empire always got along quite fine without them."

Fel leaned back. "Do you really believe that? Then please tell me why we're here and not on Coruscant?"

That prompted some murmurs. Kell, fuming, sat down.

The next person to introduce himself was a tall blond human with a large scar on his forehead. "Admiral Recus Norell," he said. "Director of military intelligence."

A short, bald officer gave Luke a hostile glance—not as hateful as Kell, but enough for the Jedi to notice without the Force to aid him. "Rear Admiral Zalis Taldine," he said. "Commander, 3rd Fleet."

The man next to Luke—he was much younger than the others—turned to him. "Colonel Jerrem Queder," he shook Luke's hand. "Commander, 501st Stormtrooper Legion."

Luke winced at that. "Vader's Fist," as the 501st was known during the Rebellion, was famous for its ruthlessness—and the skill of its men. He wondered how this one compared. The commander appeared more amiable to him than the other officers. I should talk to him later.

The Chiss was almost impossible for Luke to read. He was very tightly controlled. "General Albon'ath'eredo," he said. "Director of weapons research."

"You can call him Nath," Parck told Luke. "All right, to business."

"Take a look here," he hit several buttons on his console, and an image appeared on the screen behind him. Luke immediately recognized it. It did not bring back the best of memories.

"This is the Galaxy Gun. It's about twenty times the length of a Star Destroyer. It was used during Palpatine's supposed return eight years ago."

"There was nothing supposed about it!" General Kell said. "I saw the Emperor with my own eyes!"

"Master Skywalker, do you care to explain?" Fel asked.

The Imperials turned to Luke. He cleared his throat. "Palpatine has used the Force to transfer his consciousness into a clone body. I don't know how many times he did that—I'm not sure if he still had his original body at Endor. But you all know a clone is never the same as the original, and, of course, Palpatine couldn't use ysalamiri the way Thrawn did. His last incarnation was definitely bordering on insanity."

"Skywalker," Parck said, "What do you know about the Galaxy Gun?"

Luke straightened himself. "It was essentially a long-range Death Star. Its missiles had very fast hyperdrives, and could get across the galaxy in hours."

"We know all that. What happened to it?"

"It fired a missile at Byss, around which it orbited. The explosion destroyed it."

"Well, someone is very curious about it."

"What?"

"Do you know how Palpatine—if it was him—kept its construction secret?"

"Well, unless one knew the hyperspace routes for the Deep Core, going there would be suicide."

"Couldn't your Jedi tricks have done the job?" Kell sneered.

Luke glanced at him. The truth of the matter was, he could have used the Force to navigate the Deep

Core and find Byss. It was an oversight that became apparent only in retrospect.

"I was busy, and at the time, there were no other Jedi," he said.

Kell was about to say something else when General Nath spoke up.

"Actually, that's not the whole story. There were a number of Imperial facilities created in the Unknown Regions post-Endor—and some pre-Endor. We found some only recently."

"You didn't know?"

"Apparently, Palpatine—the reborn Palpatine, I mean—either didn't know what Thrawn was doing here, or he knew and didn't approve, or he may have supported it, but didn't trust Thrawn. Thrawn, after all, was well known for defying Palpatine when he thought his orders were not militarily sound. We have lost ships in mysterious circumstances around that time."

"Palpatine's forces attacking us! Preposterous!" Kell protested.

"We have no time for that debate," Parck said. "My point is, someone—a third party—has been, in the past few months, searching for the plans of the Galaxy Gun. And they found quite a bit."

"Who found them?" Colonel Queder spoke up.

"We don't know."

"I think it was the New Republic," Kell glared at Luke.

The Jedi Master smiled. "Sorry to break your bubble, General, but the New Republic wouldn't send out so much as a probe droid to find plans for the Galaxy Gun."

"And why is that? Because they're a really nice people and would never use such a weapon?"

"No," Luke said. "Because they already have them."

"Where?" Kell demanded.

"I don't know, and do you think I would tell you if I did?"

Parck considered that. "So whoever did this would not know about it."

"Doubtful," Luke contested. "More likely, they decided they had a better chance in the Unknown Regions. The NRI revamped its security procedures after the Darksaber incident."

"All right. So we don't know…"

Fel stood up. "I've been using my contacts to investigate something else. Specifically, the bounty on former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade."

"It was routed through a bunch of middlemen and front companies, but I did get to the end of the chain. The originator was Admiral Roxad Sarim. The new Supreme Commander of the Imperial Remnant."

"I never liked him. How did he get that position? There were many—"

"He defined himself by his opposition to Pellaeon. There are rumors—unconfirmed—that he was behind the assassination."

"Excuse me, General," Kell looked at Fel, "But what does the bounty on this Mara Jade has to do with the subject at hand?"

"Parck?" Fel asked the admiral.

"Some of the installations require an identification of someone from Palpatine's inner circle—like an Emperor's Hand. If you try to force your way in, they self-destruct, and all your efforts go for naught."

"But Admiral," Taldine was skeptical. "I don't see what's the issue here. With its current resources, the Remnant can't build a Galaxy Gun without stopping maintenance on its fleet."

"Perhaps they are not seeking to build a Galaxy Gun."

"Of course. They're looking for the plans just out of curiosity," sneered Kell. "I should probably add 'naïve' to my opinion of Jedi."

"What I meant," Luke said, "Was that they weren't looking to build the whole thing. The Galaxy Gun is nothing special—it's the missiles that had all the new tech. And there were only two pieces of tech that would make a difference—the nucleonic bombs and the ultra-fast hyperdrive."

"The nucleonic reaction induction is well known. It wouldn't be difficult to make the bombs," Nath said.

"The hyperdrive, then."

"I don't understand," Colonel Queder said. "Isn't speed just a matter of the power? Why can't we make a hyperdrive that fast?"

"We can, and we have," Nath told him. "The problem is navigation. The computers can't keep up, and the ship, unless it's very lucky, will collide with something. We have no idea how these missiles got around that problem."

Luke looked around. "I don't know how they did it, either," he said. "But I know how it can be done."

"Oh?" General Kell stared at him. "Some Jedi trick again?"

Luke didn't want to argue with Kell. "Essentially. I'm willing to get into a ship with a hyperdrive like that and prove it."

General Nath looked interested. "Unfortunately, we don't have a manned craft like that."

"We don't have time, either," Parck said. "Maybe later."

"If there is a later," Fel said.

"Yes. Always that." Parck leaned back and closed his eyes. Luke felt sympathy for this harsh man, whose life—like his own—turned out to be, he now realized, very difficult.