Ferlis Vender had been a janitor on Centerpoint Station for close to twenty-five years, and for the most part, his duties had been simple as they were boring. He would sweep up whatever litter had been left behind by the station's more slothful residents, wash whatever needed washing, and even dust whatever needed dusting. But since the Killiks had arrived to do whatever they were doing with the Corellian government on Centerpoint, Ferlis had found something new to clean up: aged Killik bodies.

Every now and then, a nymph that had reached the end of its life cycle would keel over and die in various areas of the station. And since the Colony didn't bother with funeral rites for individual members, janitors like Ferlis were left to clean up the corpses. Sometimes, it was easy, with the members that were the size of thumbnails or pups being swept into his cleaning apparatus. Other times, Killiks the size of the average humanoid, or even that of a child, had to be taken away on stretchers. From there, the carcasses were disposed of via airlocks on trajectories that would take them to the Five Worlds' sun.

But today, something different had happened.

Upon arriving to clean up no less than twelve dead Killiks in one of Centerpoint's food courts, Ferlis and the four other janitors with him were stopped by a CorSec officer who held a hand out before them.

"What's going on here?" Ferlis asked. "I thought we were takin' care o' this."

"Last minute adjustment here, gentlemen," the officer said. "We'll be taking care of this."

"Really?" Ferlis asked as he looked past the cop to find that, indeed, a contingent of CorSec were in the midst of cleaning out the Killik bodies from the food court and placing them into specialized hovercarts with opaque tops. He looked back at the officer and asked, "Why does CorSec need to clean up here instead of us?"

"You don't need to worry about it, sir," the officer intoned. "I'm sure you have duties elsewhere."

Sensing that if he said another word, the officer might have him, if not the rest of his team, arrested for some poodoo like disturbing the peace or obstruction of justice, Ferlis and his colleagues turned and went back the way they came. Besides, multiple Killik corpses had been reported in various refreshers a few levels above.

After the janitors were gone, the CorSec contingent had finally finished removing the insectoid carcasses where they had fallen and brought them out of the food court.

Several minutes later, however, instead of simply allowing the vacuum of space to blow the bodies out toward the Five Worlds' sun, the hovercarts containing the dead Killiks were loaded onto various shuttles that were sent immediately to Corellia.

. . .

"Unacceptable," UnuThul said stiffly. "You cannot leave, Master Skywalker. Not now."

The Joiner King and Luke both stood in the hangar bay of the former's flagship, Oroboro's Memory, surrounded by Killiks of various hives.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Luke replied patiently, "but as I just explained, you don't need me here. You have everything under control and the Corellian government is cooperating to the fullest extent with you."

"But what about Abeloth? How could you wish to depart even after everything that we have told you about her?"

Luke sighed. "As much as Abeloth is a threat should she ever escape from her imprisonment in the Maw, you said so yourself that the only way she could escape is if Centerpoint is destroyed. And since that's not likely to happen in the near future, I don't see why I should continue to be here while my son is... facing certain issues back on Shedu Maad."

"You are the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. There is no better mediator to act on our behalf with the Corellians should anything remiss happen between us."

Luke shook his head. "Any other well-trained Jedi can do what I can do here. If something should happen between the Killiks and Corellians, then the Jedi I will assign-"

"No! We will not accept anyone else! We will not accept any other Jedi!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to," Luke intoned. "Because I refuse to stay here any longer than is absolutely necessary, Your Majesty."

UnuThul's resultant growl was emphasized by the angry clicks emanating from the mouths of all the Killiks around him and Luke. The Grand Master, meanwhile, stood resolute, with neither his body language or Force-presence giving anything away about his current state of mind.

When the Killiks' clicks finally ceased and the hangar bay fell quiet again, UnuThul said, "We will allow you to leave, Master Skywalker. But know this: you will rue this decision, for the galaxy may very well fall because of your petty concerns for your son."

"And have you had any visions that tell you that this will be the case, Your Majesty?"

A look of concern passed over UnuThul's scarred visage. "Well... no, but-"

"Then I have no basis of placing my petty concerns for my son over this." Without another word, Luke turned and headed for the Jade Shadow.

And as promised, no one else in the hangar bay stopped the Grand Master of the Jedi Order from departing.

Mere minutes after Luke's departure from the Corellian system, however, news of Prime Minister Aidel Saxan's assassination by Killiks was reported.

. . .

Klass touched the N3 Allanar light freighter down in a clearing in one of Adumar's various forests. After cycling the ship down, he looked at Judicar and said, "Alright, you gotta help me get the camo over this thing so it won't be spotted."

Judicar nodded as she unbuckled her crash-webbing and followed him out of the freighter. Klass led her to the edge of the tree-line where he pulled up an entire section of what turned out to be false bark from a tree. He then pulled out a large brown sheet that took him nearly two minutes to remove as well as four metal spikes and an old-fashioned hammer; he placed the latter five objects into various pouches on his belt.

Klass handed one end of the large sheet to Judicar, led her back to the freighter, said, "Stay here and hold onto this," and then proceeded to circle the ship while heaving the large sheet over the vessel. Once that was done, he quickly rushed to his left, grabbed a corner of the sheet with a hole in it, and began hammering one of the spikes into the hole. He repeated this process for the other three holed corners of the sheet until he took one good look at it and said, "There. Now anyone seeing this from above-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know how camouflage works," Judicar interrupted. "So what now?"

There wasn't a hint of offense in Klass' passive demeanor over the Sith's rudeness when he said, "Now I'll take you to my family. If you'll follow me."

More than thirty minutes of walking through the forest later, they arrived at a wooden cabin. While Judicar remained several meters behind him, Klass walked right up to the door and gave three knocks, followed by a pause, then two knocks, followed by another, and then one knock.

Less than half a minute later, the door opened, and a pale man about Klass' age with wide, bloodshot eyes, greasy brown hair, and torn and dirtied clothes stood there for a moment scrutinizing the new arrival before him. The pale man then looked over at Judicar and asked, "Who's this?"

"Nice to see you, too, Majesh," Klass said sardonically. He then turned and said, "This is Jaina Solo. Jaina, this is my brother, Majesh."

"Hello there," Judicar said with a polite nod of her head. She didn't want to shake this man's hand; she was worried she might catch some disease or two.

Instead of responding to Judicar in kind, Majesh looked at Herush and said, "So you finally came back to us, huh? What kept ya?"

"You know damn well what kept me," Herush said with a bitter tinge of anger in his tone.

"Oh, c'mon, man, you were laggin' behind!" Majesh said with an annoyed shake of his head. "We had to cut ya loose!"

"You and the others are lucky I didn't rat you out after!" Herush exclaimed as he levelled an accusatory finger up to his brother.

Majesh scoffed. "As if you'd do that. That would mean Mom woulda been in prison, and you wouldn't do that to her. Why do you think we never bothered to move outta here after you got caught?"

Herush sighed in defeat as he dropped his arm back to his side. "She still here?"

"And kickin'," Majesh said with a nod. "Wanna come in?"

"Wouldn't be here if I didn't," Herush replied evenly.

Majesh stepped out of the way and waved a hand in for Herush; he stepped into the cabin.

Judicar took a few steps forward, only for her to halt suddenly when Majesh exclaimed, "Whoa! You stay put right there, Missy! You don't come in unless Mom says it's alright, you got that?"

"Majesh, c'mon-" Herush started.

"Rules are rules, Herush," Majesh intoned. "She's a stranger, and Mom don't trust strangers. Neither do I, for that matter."

"Majesh, you don't understand-"

"It's alright, Herush," Judicar said. "I'll wait."

"Look, Jaina, it may take a while-"

"I'll be fine," Judicar said with a calming tone. "I leave it to you to convince your mother that I'm trustworthy."

Herush looked between Judicar and Majesh before he nodded at the former. He turned away, prompting Majesh to slam the door closed.

The Sith stood there for a few moments, looking around her surroundings. Only the sounds and sights of birds and other non-threatening animals gave her the sense of security to finally break out of being small through the Force and open herself back up to it; one never knew when there were hidden dangers, such as a particular well-hidden and clever predator lurking where she might not see it.

Her Force-senses, however, told her exactly what her normal senses told her; she was in no immediate danger. And she could also sense the general mood and feelings of the people in the cabin. Along with Herush and Majesh, Judicar could also sense at least four other people; whether they were other relatives or trusted associates of Herush's mother, she didn't know. But in any case, Judicar could sense mixed feelings of distrust and relief from everyone inside, including Herush. Judicar's Force-senses might not have been strong enough to let her know what exactly was currently being said by everyone inside, but she was somewhat glad that she could at least sense the general sentiment of what was going between them all.

As she kept her Force-senses opened, though, Judicar's eyes widened as something within her own being caught her attention.

Minutes later, the door to the cabin opened again and Herush stepped out to find Judicar sitting up against a nearby tree, staring blankly ahead. He walked up to her and asked, "What is it, Jaina?"

She looked up at him, her expression unreadable to him, before she said, "It's nothing, Herush. Just got tired of standing around waiting, is all."

"Well, you don't need to do that anymore," he said. "I just convinced my mom that you're trustworthy. So you can come on in and meet her and the rest o' the family."

"That's great," she said with a slight smile as she allowed herself to be pulled up to her feet by Herush.

When they got inside and Herush closed the door behind them, Judicar looked and found Majesh and four other humans—two men who looked slightly younger than Herush, a woman who looked slightly older than him, and another, much older woman who was clearly his mother—looking back at her with suspicious gazes. Accompanying each of those gazes from the ones who were roughly Herush's age were pale visages that matched Majesh's; the oldest woman, however, looked no different than the average older woman. But instead of wearing clothes befitting someone her age, she wore a black apron over her chest with white garments underneath; simple black rubber gloves and boots completed her wardrobe.

"Alright, Jaina," Herush said as he sidled up next to her. "You've already met Majesh. So I'd like you to also meet my brothers Boisk and Gornae, as well as my sister Ivip and my mother, who doesn't like to hear her name spoken of by any of her children."

"Damn right, boy," the older woman said as she stepped forward. "You only refer to me as Mom, Ma, Mama, or Mother. And I can introduce myself well enough to your new friend here." She stopped a meter away from Judicar, eyed her up and down a few seconds, and then stuck her gloved hand out mechanically. "My name is Quisa. Quisa Klass."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Klass," Judicar said as she shook the other woman's hand. "I'm Jaina Solo."

"I know well enough who you are, Miss Solo," Quisa said as she stopped the handshake. "So we'll see in time if it was nice to meet you."

Judicar's outward expression remained unchanged; inside, though, a conflicting sense of anxiety and anger mixed in with her previous self-discovery rattled around in her troubled mind.

Quisa looked to the one offspring of hers who wasn't horribly pale. "Now, Herush, does Miss Solo here know anything about spice refinery?"

"I'm afraid she doesn't, Ma," Herush answered.

"Of course not," Quisa said with an annoyed tone. She turned her gaze back to Judicar. "Everyone here who lives in this cabin pulls their weight, you understand, girl?"

Judicar nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good," Quisa said. "Which means we'll have to teach you how to refine spice. We'll get you a coat and apron, and then we'll get you to work right away."

. . .

Despite censorship of what could be shown on the news in the Corellian system, images of the blaster-ridden bodies of Prime Minister Saxan and several CorSec officers and Killiks in her office were displayed all over the HoloNet for everyone, including outside the system, to see.

As such, Head of State Dur Gejjen was the first person on the HoloNet to actively call out the Killiks for their supposed involvement in the Prime Minister's death.

"We cannot stand for this!" Gejjen declared angrily throughout the HoloNet. "It is quite clear that the Killiks have been planning for this ever since they entered our glorious system! Which is why I, Head of State Gejjen of Corellia and Centerpoint Station, declare war on these bugs in memory of our great Prime Minister! And standing behind me are the leaders of the four other worlds of our system."

One by one, holotransmissions from the worlds of Selonia, Drall, Talus, and Tralus followed, each of them agreeing that Head of State Gejjen would be granted emergency powers as acting Prime Minister of the Corellian system in a state of war.

Once the holotransmissions from the other leaders had passed, Gejjen's visage returned over the HoloNet and he said, "Anyone who so much as complains about the bypassing of democracy at this time will be summarily arrested and imprisoned until such time as this war between our nations ends! And to UnuThul and your Colony of insects, I say this: prepare for some bugspray!"

After the holotransmission ended, Opak Djalnis, whose ship was now in space, far from Drescus, looked at the holographic representations of each member of his family.

"While I don't much care for how over-the-top Head of State Gejjen declares war on the Killiks," Opak said, "he still did his job effectively. Now is everyone in position?"

All of his family members reported in the affirmative.

"Good," Opak said. "Then off to Corellia we go. And I don't think I need to tell any of you to have your shields up." He cut the transmission before setting a course for the Corellian system.