"Just a standard check-up. I'll be back in about an hour." Ben had just landed on Ord Mantell, the nearest planet to where he had been drifting in space. Holding the metal tube, he headed off to find a nice tap-caf.

He chose a corner table, which gave him a good view of the door, and at least some privacy. After placing his drink order, he started working on how to open the thing. It was a cylinder about a 6 inches long, tapered at each end, with a miniature short-range engine. Obviously it had used a target lock on his ship to draw itself close enough. There was a small hatch on one side, which he opened. blaster bolts exploded from the hatch, and Ben stumbled backwards, falling out of his seat. The bolts flew towards him, fast and furious. He somehow managed to get his lightsaber out, and started deflecting them into the walls and ceiling, being careful not to harm any of the beings in the caf. Finally he slashed his blade across the hatch, burning the metal shut.

Great going, he thought to himself. Now how am I supposed to open it?

He looked up, and discovered, much to his chagrin, that every single being in the room, and some on the street outside were staring at him.

"Way to keep a low profile, genius." He muttered to himself. He sliced the end off the capsule and extinguished his blade.

"Jedi business, nothing to see here." He said waving his hand and using a Force-suggestion.

"Jedi or no, you still gotta pay for that!"

Ben sighed and handed a credit chip to the owner. "Sorry about that. I honestly didn't know that would happen." The owner just shrugged. "As long as you're paying for it."

Ben sighed and sank into his chair. Well, there goes half my savings. Now, back to this thing.

He used his lightsaber to cut off the end of the tube, shook it, and a datapad fell out. Finally, results! He switched on the datapad, and eagerly read what Vestara had written.

Ben-

I'm sorry to lead you all the way out here, but I had to make sure no one was following you. I need to speak with you. Urgent! Follow the coordinates below, they are real this time. You will need to make many jumps, as I am outside of charted space. I love you. see you soon.

Ves

He practically sprinted out of the caf, and then ran the rest of the way to the hangar, eager to get under way.

~O~

"No leads?" Jag asked anxiously.

"No leads." Han confirmed. "Whoever did this is obviously a master. I've been searching almost non-stop for over 24 hours, and nothing."

Jag buried his face in his hands.

"Don't be too hard on yourself kid… you probably couldn't have prevented this. Sooner or later every Solo kid gets kidnapped by some power-hungry villain." Han sighed. "I never stopped it, that's for sure."

"Is that really supposed to make me feel better? I shouldn't worry because it happened to the rest of the family?" Jag demanded. "Look at Jaina! She's heartbroken and worried, and we are getting nowhere!"

"Not quite," said a voice from behind them. "while you two are out here moaning about how sad I am, I have been investigating."

Jag and Han turned to find Jaina, with a defiant sparkle in her eye.

"You found something?" Han asked. "How? We've searched that room three times!"

"You searched it, maybe. But you two don't have the Force on your side. I went back to the hospital basement and meditated for a while."

"And?" Han said. "Are you just gonna stand there like a Ranchor chewing on a Gamorrean, or are you going to tell us what you found?"

"I found…" Jaina paused dramatically, "Absolutely nothing."

"What?!" Jag and her father demanded at the same time.

Jaina shrugged, a coy smile on her face. "I said, I found nothing. I couldn't touch the Force anywhere in that room."

An expression of understanding dawned on Jag's face. "Ysalamiri."

"Exactly."

Han was still lost. "But why would they put Ysalamiri in that room? It wouldn't affect Jag."

Jag grimaced. "Maybe they weren't expecting me. Or maybe they were just prepared for anything. Like you said. Master."

"It doesn't matter why they put it there. What matters is that we have a lead! There's only one place you can get Ysalamiri." Jaina turned to her father. "Does Karrde still run that business on Myrkr?"

Han shrugged. "Probably not personally, but you know he has his fingers in everything in the kriffin' galaxy."

Jaina spun around towards her room. "Great! I'll go get packed."

Han turned to look at Jag. "So, you gonna to try to talk her out of going in her condition?"

Jag raised his eyebrow. "Is there any point to trying?"

~O~

I feel immense sympathy for every mother, everywhere. Vestara thought to herself. She had been taking care of the baby for only eight hours, and she had already sworn to herself that she would never have children. Davin was small, floppy, and always hungry. She tried her hardest to keep him from crying, but it was simply impossible.

At least Karick had untied her limbs. Of course, he had also set up an impenetrable force-field around her. She had tried to stick her hand through it, but it was like pushing on a rock. When she wasn't trying to hush the squirmy baby, she was attempting to formulate a plan of escape. So far, she had nothing. She couldn't use the Force, she couldn't leave the small circle encompassed by the field, and she sure as hell couldn't fight one, possibly two, Force-users while carrying a baby.

And then there was Ship. She still hadn't seen Ship, and that worried her. He could no doubt fit into this cave, so why hadn't he come? She had expected him to try to turn her again, or at the very least gloat about how easily she had been captured.

The only thing that gave her hope was the fact that Ben was coming for her, or so Karick had said. Of course, that also worried her, since she knew he was walking into a trap.

Her train of thought was broken by the whimpering of the baby. She sighed, and started to prepare another bottle of the synthi-milk that Karick had tossed through the force-field. She picked up the baby and was disgusted to find that he smelled. What the shaka am I supposed to do with it now, she wondered. Ben, you'd better hurry.

~O~

"Well, she's keeping the little thing fairly quiet so far." Karick muttered to Alyah. "I'm shocked. And more than a little disappointed."

Alyah looked up from polishing her lightsaber. "We've been over this. We need them both alive or we have no leverage."

"Why do we need leverage? Skywalker shows up, we kill him. The Solos show up, we kill them too. Easy." Said Karick smugly.

"What if Skywalker brings his father? Hm? You think you're ready to take him on?"

Kraick sighed and leaned back against the craggy wall of the cave. He and Alyah had set up their camp near the mouth of the cave to prevent anyone from reaching Vestara and Davin, who were trapped further back. It was a long, narrow winding cave, more like a passage, and they had found a place that was out of sight of the force-field, but still within earshot.

"With our master's help we could defeat him." Karick stated.

"Our master has made it very clear that this is our fight. He will not intervene." Alyah looked at him warily. "You are too impulsive. It will be your downfall."

Karick snorted. "I'm not impulsive; I just want to kill someone."

"You sound like a child whining for sweets."

Karick decided to change the subject. "I think your lightsaber is polished enough."

Alyah held her obsidian colored lightsaber up to the light and inspected it. "So it is." Without any warning she leaped at Karick, igniting her lightsaber mid-jump. She swung at him, but his ruby-colored blade was already there. They remained locked together just long enough for Karick to say, "You'll have to do better than that," before he spun away. They clashed together, their blades weaving a scarlet web.

A while later, Karick finally made it past her defenses and stood with his blade at her throat. "Let's not forget who the better swordman is." He gloated. "In fact-Oof!"

He glared reproachfully at the bedroll that had just smacked into the back of his head.

Alyah's blue eyes twinkled. "And let's not forget who has a better control of the Force."

Karick was about to reply, but was cut off by a yell from the back of the cavern.

"If you two are done killing each other, would you mind grabbing me a fresh diaper?"

~O~

Again, terribly sorry for the break in chapters. Not only did I get a job, but I also discovered the TV show Supernatural. So, I have been catching up on all nine seasons. But, never fear! I hope to be pumping out lots of chapters soon!

On a completely unrelated topic, the other morning I was lying bed thinking. (Shocker!) and I said to myself, what if with all the advances in technology, we eventually evolve so far that we use nothing mechanical, only biological things. Then I said to myself, what if, since our culture is so messed up, we eventually start seeing pain as a good thing. Like, tatoos are a sign of bravery and rank. THEN I thought, 1,000,000 years from now, we could probably use our biological ships to explore new galaxies. That's when I realized that in the future, we could be the Yuuzhan Vong. And now I am convinced that my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-gr eat grandson is going to kill Anakin Solo. So, I've vowed never to have kids. (okay, kidding about that last part, but still, thoughts anyone?)

May the Force be with you all!

-VJ