"Valin and Jysella were sure that it was Tahiri, Master Hamner?" Jacen asked.

"Quite sure, Jedi Solo," Hamner's holographic representation replied. "Valin even said that, as dark and as tainted as her presence was, it was unmistakably Tahiri."

Jacen sat back in the Solo Quest II's pilot seat and looked out through his cockpit's viewport at the star-studded blackness of space as he absorbed this information. Even putting aside the idea that Tahiri, who was so much younger and less experienced as a Force-user than Corran Horn, was able to kill him, the fact that she had gone through with it at all, even as a Sith, shocked him to his core. After all, Tahiri had practically been apprenticed to Corran during the Yuuzhan Vong War, both before and after Jacen's younger brother, Anakin, had died; the thought was almost unthinkable.

Then again, Jaina had gone through with killing Aunt Mara, who had not only been briefly apprenticed to their aunt toward the beginning of that war, but was also part of the Skywalker-Solo clan. If Jaina could do that, then Tahiri, who had gone through so much more just on account of her Shaping by the Yuuzhan Vong, and who didn't even have any familial relationship to Corran, would have certainly been able to kill him.

Still, even with all that considered, and even with what Kyle Katarn told him about Tahiri's fall not long after he, Luke, and Kyp Durron had returned from Chiss space in their mission to neutralize Alema Rar and Gorog, Jacen still had trouble believing that Tahiri had gone this far down.

What had happened to her? What had the Sith done to her that the Yuuzhan Vong had failed to do?

"I know this is hard for you to take in, Jacen," Hamner said after he had given him a few moments to himself, "which is why I'm wondering if you're still willing to go through with this mission."

Jacen composed himself before he said, "Yes, I am, Master Hamner. I can assure you, I won't allow whatever feelings I have for Tahiri get in my way of learning whatever the Sith uncovered about Centerpoint Station." Indeed, she was practically like another sister to him, and if he could put aside the idea that Jaina was still out there, escaping justice for Mara's death, so that he could continue to do what had to be done, he could definitely do that when it came to Tahiri. And the fact that both she and Jaina fell to the dark side and killed a Jedi Master to whom they had each been apprenticed didn't escape him.

Nor did it escape Jacen that both Mara and Corran had also gotten on his bad side ever since the Killik crisis had started. Mara had disgusted him with her suggestion that he kill Jaina before it was too late—something that he now almost wholeheartedly agreed with—and he and Corran had butted heads lately because of the latter's lack of faith in the former's judgment. In a bizarre way, Jacen couldn't help but feel as if he was somehow responsible for their deaths, more so than their actual killers, and that only increased his sense of guilt over them.

"Good," Hamner said, as if he was responding directly to Jacen's thoughts. "And just because Tahiri was found fighting alongside a Sith who turned out to have been part of the Centerpoint Party, that doesn't mean they would have been the only Sith to have infiltrated that party. So while Tahiri may very well be instrumental in dismantling whatever plans that the Sith may have for Centerpoint should you capture or kill her, Jedi Solo, you shouldn't rule out the possibility that it may not end there with them."

"Of course not," Jacen agreed evenly. "Which is why I won't give up on my search for Candak Hecluse."

Hecluse was the name of one of Thrackan Sal-Solo's Centerpoint minions, as learned from the info that Cal Omas provided to Jacen before he left Shedu Maad. He just so happened to bear enough of a resemblance to Jacen that it might be feasible for the Knight to replace him with a few facial prostheses. Hecluse may have only been a few inches shorter than Jacen, but that was nothing that a little mind-trickery couldn't fix when it came to the weak-minded in the Centerpoint Party—which, considering that they were largely made of xenophobic nationalists, would probably cover the vast majority of Thrackan's followers.

"Speaking of which," Hamner said, "have you gained any leads on Hecluse's whereabouts?"

Jacen nodded as he put his disbelief for Tahiri and even newfound grief for Corran to the back of his mind. "Thanks to an anonymous tip I've acquired, Hecluse and several of his friends were last spotted at an orbital cantina over Qiilura. I'm currently in waiting at a likely hyperspace dropout point between that world and the Corellian system. I'm estimating that this system, which only has a couple inhabitable worlds and a few moons, is the most likely because it's the most expedient route between Qiilura and Corellia. Assuming they're operating on schedule, I'm expecting Hecluse and his comrades to drop out at any moment, though I'm giving them a minimum of a two-hour window before I jump out of here and see if I can find a new lead."

By anonymous tip, Jacen meant Shada D'ukal, who, although she was in mourning over Talon Karrde's death, was still willing to help out if it meant stopping the organization of Force-users that had killed a man she had greatly respected and admired. And while the Smugglers' Alliance had been a great ally to the Jedi Order and Galactic Alliance in the past, Jacen wanted to err on the side of caution in disclosing that kind of information when it came to a stuffy bureaucrat like Hamner.

After all, he didn't want to get lectured by him over using the likes of smugglers or pirates for help.

"Very well," the acting Grand Master said. "And I have just talked to Master Durron; he is still waiting for you one jump away from the other end of where the Hawk Runner should emerge." The Hawk Runner was the name of the ship for which Hecluse served as a crew member; its function was to ferry weapons and space from outside the Corellian system. "Report back within three hours, regardless of whether or not you made any progress."

"Yes, Master Hamner, I will."

Then Hamner shut the communication off to leave Jacen alone. And after a quick hypercomm call over to Kyp to confirm Hamner's words about him, Jacen sat back patiently and waited.

As he did, he again stewed in his guilt-ridden thoughts for Jaina, Tahiri, and everything else that had gone wrong since the Killik crisis started for a few minutes past the next half-hour before a ship dropped off several thousand kilometers in front of the Quest. Once again putting those thoughts away for the present with a certain amount of relief, Jacen took a quick moment to make sure that his ship was registered as the Idiot's Array. Then he hailed the other ship, the CR90 corvette christened the Hawk Runner.

"Excuse me," Jacen said over the comm, "but would you be willing to help out a fellow cargo runner? My hyperdrive's shot to the Nine Hells, and I'm even willing to pay for your time if you'd be willing to lend me some parts and help in repairing it." He made sure his tone sounded naive and a tad gullible, as if he wasn't expecting any dishonesty or had even heard the term "pirate" before.

A moment later, a gruff-sounding voice asked, "You sure you got the cash to get our help here, mister? We don't come cheap, I have to tell ya."

"Well, I'm carrying about several million credits for some banker on Kuat. I'm sure he'd be able to understand if he lost maybe a few thousand so that I could get my ship up and running again."

"Oh, I'm sure he would," the gruff voice replied as a certain light air came over his tone. "I'm sure he would. Give us a couple minutes there, fella, and we'll be dockin' with ya in no time."

"Thank you, you have no idea how much you're helpin' me out," Jacen said before he ended the communication.

When Hecluse and five of his friends boarded the Quest—the seventh member of the Runner's crew remained at the helm as its pilot—Jacen was waiting for them by the airlock where their ship and his had docked. He had an idiot's grin on his face as they filed in.

"Okay, so if you're all willing to follow me to the engine room, we can-"

As expected, he was cut off as soon as all six Centerpoint stooges stood before him with their sidearms suddenly pointed at him. With an exaggerated clown-like frown, Jacen raised his arms slowly beside his head.

The fourth smuggler to Jacen's right, whom he recognized as the Runner's captain, Gefdoon Slenas, regarded the naive-seeming captain of what he believed to be called the Idiot's Array with a dawning sense of recognition.

"Hey, guys," Slenas said, "does this nerfhead look familiar to you?" Jacen recognized him as the voice at the other end of the comm.

"Yeah, he kinda looks like Candak if he got pretty," the second smuggler to Jacen's left said.

"Oh, shut up, Druff," Hecluse replied snidely; he stood as the penultimate smuggler to Jacen's right. "Like you could win any beauty contests yourself."

Indeed, Druff looked like his nose had seen the losing end of one too many cantina brawls, given how crooked it looked.

"Hey, knock it off," Slenas said. "I'm serious. Does this guy look familiar to any o' you?"

"Well, now that you mention it, Cap'n," Druff said, "he does look a little bit like..."

Only then did Slenas' eyes widen once it clicked into his mind. "Jacen Solo! Waste him!"

But it was too late; the lightsaber that was hooked from behind him was telekinetically flown right into his hand. Its green blade activated and he, with the aid of a burst of Force-speed, immediately deflected all of the blaster bolts directly back upon the barrels of each of the Corellians' sidearms. The weapons flew away, their barrels reduced to charred ruins, from their owners' hands, and as they each grabbed their wrists in pain, Jacen used the Force to knock all six of them back to the bulkhead behind them, reducing them to unconsciousness instantly.

"Hey, guys, what's going on over there?!" Jacen heard a moment later as he moved toward Slenas' downed form; it was coming from the other end of the airlock. "I heard shooting! You alright?"

Jacen moved out of sight; once the pilot came into view, Jacen knocked him out with a single punch to the face.

Less than half an hour later, all seven of the Hawk Runner's crew awakened back aboard their ship, with Slenas lying on the deck of the cockpit next to Hecluse and Druff (though, thankfully, with all of their clothes still on them). After they picked themselves up, and Slenas saw that the pilot, Zhex, was recovering from being slumped over the helm, he turned around and saw that the last three members of his crew were also picking themselves up from lying sprawled in the passenger compartment.

"Is everyone alright?" Slenas asked.

After a short series of casual verbal confirmations from his crew, he asked, "Does anyone here remember what happened?"

"Last thing I remember, boss, is boarding that YT, then nothin'," Druff answered while he rubbed his forehead as if from a hangover.

"Same here," Hecluse said as he repeated his cohort's motion.

Slenas got pretty much the same answers from the rest of his crew in short order.

As he shook his head to clear out the minor headache that he got upon awakening—he didn't want to seem weak in front of his subordinates by grabbing at it like they were to their own gourds—it was only then that he looked upon Hecluse more clearly.

"Something wrong with your throat, Candak?" Slenas asked.

"What, Cap'n?" Hecluse asked as he stopped rubbing his forehead.

"You don't quite sound like yourself," Slenas elaborated.

"What are you talkin' about, Cap'n?" Hecluse asked. He then looked around at his cohorts. "Any o' you think I sound different? Huh? Anyone?"

As Hecluse spoke, however, the thought about his voice change suddenly sounded like a ridiculous one in Slenas' head. As well, even the dawning thought that he looked slightly different—as if his face somehow looked plastic and fake—began to fade away into that of a weird brain fart in the captain's mind.

After a short silent moment, each of the other crew members agreed with Slenas' new assessment.

"Well, I don't know where you came up with that, Cap'n," Hecluse said. "Must've been part o' whatever knocked us out."

"Well, whatever knocked us out," Slenas said, "we gotta make sure none o' the merchandise is damaged or missing before we return to HQ. Zhex, you stay at the helm and blast us outta here in case there's trouble. The lot o' you, check the cargo hold; I want a thorough sweep of it before I check for myself."

As his crew dutifully obeyed his orders, Slenas went to check on the ship's systems to make sure that there was no sabotage from whatever robbed him and his crew of their short-term memory. When he was reasonably content with his checks in those areas, he went back to Zhex to make sure that everything was fine on his end, too; all systems were nominal, it seemed.

Finally, when the crew came back and each individually informed him that nothing was missing from their haul, Slenas made good on his promise and checked for himself. It only took a few minutes to do, but in the end, he was satisfied.

"Alright, boys," he said as he walked away from the now-closed cargo hold and back to the cockpit. "Let's get back on track. Helm, bring us about on the shortest heading for home."

"Aye, sir," Zhex replied as he went about inputting the hyperspace coordinates for the Corellian system. Moments later, the star-studded blackness before them stretched out into long lines past the viewport's vantage point before they formulated into the blue background of hyperspace.

But as the Runner began its next hyperspace trip, the thought that Hecluse wasn't entirely truthful about himself remained niggling at the back of Slenas' mind. Nevertheless, said subordinate, who was really Jacen Solo in prostheses that made his features seem as gruff and haggard as the man that he was posing as, tended to his duties obediently on the way back without incident.

Meanwhile, in another hyperspace corridor at the same time, the Solo Quest II, as piloted by Jedi Master Kyp Durron, was heading to Tatooine with the real Candak Hecluse stuncuffed to the metal bed-frame of the ship's guest quarters, struggling vainly. But even if he could somehow escape, he wouldn't get very far before Kyp's Force-senses would have alerted him to any trouble that the man would have posed; as such, his charge was in no more of a position to leave his grasp than his X-wing was since it was currently slaved to the Quest as both vessels travelled at lightspeed.