Luke managed use of a small holomap in the corner of the CIC bunker and brought up the frame of the Imperial Palace.

Kess stood next to him and watched the lines draw the massive building to a three-dimensional image. The exterior pyramid of it was clear and detailed, but the insides lit up only partial detail of the entrance lobby and a few meeting rooms. She waited for the rest, but nothing else came up.

"That's it?" Widened eyes turned to him. "That's all we've got?"

Luke nodded reluctantly. "The worst part is that this information is already ten years old. The interior could be entirely remodeled by now."

"Can't Vanech help us a little bit?"

He shook his head, "He's never seen the inside. And because of that shield, we're going to have to go through the front door."

Her shoulders slumped. Her eyes stared at the empty space inside the exterior frame. The thing was as big as a mountain, and they had to fumble around blind to try to find her brother, amidst a battle no less.

"So," Luke sighed and leaned his elbows on the edge of the map. "I'm thinking we use your idea."

"My idea? What idea is that?"

"Go up the elevator."

Her mouth stretched.

Luke began and pointed at a spot near the top. "Han and I saw him on this balcony. There is sure to be an elevator that goes right to it. So, you and I get in there and head for the central throat of this thing, and we go straight up to the top."

"You don't think they're going to lockdown the lifts the moment the battle begins?"

"Oh I know they will," Luke said, "Which is why we're not going to use the lift. Just the shaft. Like you did on Frakkan."

"But," her breath coughed. "That was thirty five floors! It took hours! And I was dying when I got to the top. This has got to be hundreds of levels. We're not going to make it up there until the next morning."

"Not if we're equipped with climber's grips. It's a long trip, I grant you, but we can harness ourselves up and let the grips pull us up the cables pretty quickly."

Kess angled her head to consider that.

"The key is, they have to lose us once we're in there. Crix is going to cause a diversion so we can slip in the front entrance, and they'll see us go in, but as soon as we get beyond the outer security layer, we need to get lost. The less they know where we are, the less resistance we'll run into."

She sighed hard and nodded. "That makes sense."

Then she pointed like this was madness. "We're going to go in there alone? Just the two of us?"

Luke pointed at the outside base of the Palace. "Once we get in there, Crix is going to hold fast on the exterior to make Palace security think they're successfully holding is back. It'll draw most of them to the outside walls to hold their position, which will give us more freedom of movement in the deep of it."

"How are we going to get down there?"

"We split up. I'm going down with Five and Artoo. You're going down with Han. Where ever we're able to land inside the Precinct, we'll travel on foot and rendezvous with Crix's team somewhere around here."

"Why don't we just go down with Crix's team?"

"Backup." He said. "In case one of us doesn't make it down."

Her eyes turned to him again. Luke was dead serious. Dead serious. This was, by far, the toughest and biggest battle the rebellion had ever attempted. The risks were huge.

He spoke quiet and dark. "This is going to involve lightsaber action against blaster fire, Telekinesis on locked doors, Persuade on guards, and no doubt killing a few people that don't succumb to all of the above." His eyes shifted to her. "We're going to need to use the full compliment on this one, which means we're going to need to be crystal clear of any distraction."

Kess inhaled with resolve and rolled her shoulders back, still staring at the map. "I want you to train me more." Her eyes shifted over. "I want to be ready for this."

Luke shook his head, then he offered. "What if I had Vanech train you more?"

Her brows knitted.

"You're used to me. You know my weaknesses. You need practice going against something you can't predict."

Her eyes drifted to nothing. She nodded. "You're right." She sighed hard at the map. "I gotta get back to work on the Falcon."

"Dinner later?"

It shattered her focus. Especially that Luke would deliberately shatter her focus from the mission.

He shrugged. "You've been distracted by things that have nothing to do with this," he motioned to the holomap. "Let's get away from it all and see what we can sort out."

Kess wondered what things he had in mind. She wondered if he knew the things that were distracting her had little to do with him. She was worried about her future in general. She tried to envision her life beyond a week from now, but nothing concrete was there to trust. She didn't even know how was she going to afford an apartment in the Big Apple when she didn't have a job. Kess accepted that she didn't have to think about it consciously for it to be a distraction.

And she needed to be crystal clear.

"Yeah. Let's." She nodded and turned away to release some of her worries on a wrench. "I'll comm you when I head home from the Falcon."