The Imperial looked at Jaina, appraising her. "Interesting flight suit you have there, ah, ma'am. You military, by any chance?"
"I'm on extended leave from my unit," she answered, with a little frown. Jaina's extended furlough from Rogue Squadron was still something of a sore point with her.
But Lannier showed no indication that he recognized the implied warning. Instead of being annoyed or intimidated, he seemed to gain in confidence. "Yeah?" There was definite contempt in his tone now, but he seemed more puzzled than aggressive - maybe even a little amused. "So, what do you fly, exactly?"
Anakin tensed, glancing urgently at his sister to try to communicate an unspoken warning.
Jaina had been taken aback by Lannier's first question, but with a pilot's speed, she had reacted to the challenge. Then he'd shrugged off her response, and she was annoyed by the way he'd continued with the same Imperial attitude. Anakin had a bad feeling that she was about to make some sort of mistake.
Tahiri must have sensed the danger too, as she stepped forward quickly, catching the soldier's attention. "Hey, Lieutenant...?" she began.
The Lieutenant's gaze flickered to her, then back to Jaina.
"That would be none of your business," she said to him.
Uh-oh. Like a TIE Fighter breaking free of a tractor beam lock, the Imperial had slipped out from under Tahiri's mind-trick.
Then he smiled.
"But you're some kind of starfighter pilot, right?"
Jaina allowed herself a smug grin. "Yeah. Pretty good. I've simmed against your TIE Pilots pretty well, too."
"Good," the officer said, and gestured to his troopers - a funny gesture, thumbs and finger crooked in a specific command. "That means we can conscript you for the Imperial Starfighter Corps."
Jaina blinked. "What!"
"Hey, hang on," Anakin interjected. "She's a citizen-"
The stormtroopers had their BlasTechs levelled now. And they didn't respond well to mind tricks. "The Imperial Navy asserts the right to conscript all speed-pilots of proven capability. There is a Galactic conflict going on, Captain Solo, and your sister just got drafted. Don't get in our way."
Anakin realised he had his hand on the grip of his gun. He kept it there, staring down the jerk in uniform.
"You don't have to do this," Tahiri tried. But the Imperial still wasn't listening.
Lowie added the most threatening noise Anakin had ever heard from him.
Anakin flicked the safety on his blaster onto stun - then frowned more darkly, as a new thought struck him. He glanced for just a heartbeat back to the stormtroopers' BlasTechs, confirming that their setting switches were on kill.
Great.
He looked back at Lannier's eyes, hoping he looked the right sort of angry.
The problem wasn't that the Imperials had their guns set for casual murder. Four Jedi wouldn't really have a problem handling two stormtroopers and a jerk with a service-pistol, but when they were deflecting back kill-shots from the dumb guys, someone might get hurt, and he really wasn't sure he wanted to cut down Lieutenant Lannier in cold blood in the crossfire before he grew up and learned to not be an idiot.
And his subordinates really didn't deserve his stupidity to get them shot.
Hell of a time to get a conscience, he thought.
"It's okay," Jaina sighed, with a gesture for the three of them to relax. "Lieutenant...?"
"Lieutenant Lannier, conscript. But you can call me sir."
Jaina gave him a fake smile. "You're making a big mistake here, Lieutenant."
"Really?"
"Really."
The Imperial shrugged blankly. "I don't care if you're the long-lost daughter of the emperor himself, conscript. You're coming with me."
He gestured with his pistol.
Jaina sighed, tense, and the Stormtroopers slipped into the funny mood that meant they were performing eyeblink targeting with their HUDs.
Even at this close range, Anakin reckoned he could deflect the bolts in time. He stepped forward, deliberately drawing their shots towards him.
"Listen," Tahiri tried. She was at his shoulder, combat-ready.
If they moved now, none of the Imperials would survive more than about three seconds. Anakin knew it. They all did.
"You really think you can take on the Empire?" Lannier scoffed.
"Maybe we just don't want to hurt you," Jaina answered, with a twist of a smile. She gestured for the rest of them to stand down.
Anakin responded with a frown, and Tahiri followed his lead. Lowie didn't sound pleased.
"Easy," Jaina said. "If we just stand here, some idiot might get shot." She jerked her head at Lannier. "Hapspir. Barini. Corbolan. Triaxis. I assume you recognise at least the first part of what I just said, Lieutenant?"
Lannier blinked, and seemed to be having difficulty picking up his jaw. Anakin just grinned.
The code had been Aunt Mara's personal recognition sequence, when she'd been Palpatine's personal assassin rather than Luke Skywalker's wife—a magic password which had literally opened every door in the Empire. The trigger phrase still worked on current Imperial computer systems, and Mara had long suspected that the same would also be true of Imperial personnel, which was part of why she'd shared the override with Anakin and Jaina.
Anakin had never been entirely sure about whether he could pass himself off as a high-level Imperial agent, but Mara had said it always worked when she'd been a teenager with a lighsaber, and evidently, the trick worked for Jaina as well.
"Uh," Lieutenant Lancock said, stiffening awkwardly to attention. "Ma'am."
"Is the Grand Admiral on board?" Jaina asked, with a smirk.
"Ah, that may be classified, ma'am."
"That's a yes, then. I think you should pass my full recognition code up to the bridge. Hapspir. Barini. Corbolan. Triaxis. You got that."
"Uh, yes, ma'am," Lancock said, and at Jaina's swivel gesture, he turned and strutting down the ramp with what dignity he could muster.
"You sure about this?" Anakin asked.
Jaina nodded. "Short cut to the bridge, where even if I don't get a personal audience with the Grand Admiral, I can talk to someone smarter than this guy. If I haven't sorted this out by the time they finish your search, get to Bespin. Get onto the holonet as soon as possible." She gave him a meaningful look. "If you can be as quick as you were when you landed on Yag'Duhl, I'll be happy. Comm mom and dad. Fel. Get everyone on our case." She glared at the Imperial, who was talking to another officer half-way across the hangar deck. "It'll be a lot more fun that way."
Anakin smiled, just a little. "You're sure about this?" he asked.
"Yeah." A nasty edge had suddenly appeared in Jaina's aura, dark and dangerous and ruthless. She didn't just want to get the Turtle released and find out why Chimaera was at Bespin - she wanted to make Lannier suffer. "You okay, Little Brother?"
"I just hadn't figured having to fight with my sister over this." May the Force be with you, he almost said, but something made him hold his tongue. "Good luck."
"Thanks," she smiled, and the four of them embraced quickly. "You two keep an eye on my brother, okay? Don't let him do anything dumb."
"If you come this way, ma'am," Lannier said, reappearing at the foot of the ramp. "Welcome aboard the Chimaera."
"Thanks," Jaina shot black. "I don't plan on staying long."
Lowie gave a mournful song, as Jaina disappeared from view. There were still the two techs with the scanning set, and a stormtrooper at the bottom of the ramp.
Anakin silently eyed up the options. "Easy, big guy. We wait, and see if they play smart."
"So, what do we do now?" Tahiri asked.
"Hope she gets this sorted out fast," Anakin said. "And that the Grand Admiral doesn't decide to conscript her anyway. If not, get to Bespin. See if Uncle Lando's people can help." He paused, and glanced around to make sure the stormtroopers were out of range, lowering his voice. "But first, Lowie here sees if he can contact Bespin by comms, or failing that, he slices the Star Destroyer's own hypercomm transceiver, and we bounce a signal back to New Republic space."
Tahiri grinned. Lowie made a noise that sounded a lot less moody than anything else he'd said that day.
Anakin nodded, pressing his smile into a firm expression. "Yeah. Get a message to mom and dad. Or Uncle Luke." He paused. "Or Borsk Fey'lya."
Tahiri looked at him. "That bad, huh?"
"Yeah." Anakin nodded. But Jaina was disappearing deeper into the armoured corridors of the Empire, and while he was pretty sure she thought she had the situation under control, there was a niggling feeling he couldn't quite identify, like he'd felt when Jacen and Raynar had tried to use a skifter to cheat at cards. Maybe worse...