The silence in the kitchen was heavy and oppressive, interrupted only by the soft tack-tack-tack of the advancing sweep hand of the mechanical chrono on the wall. Five untouched cups of cooling caf sat in front of them on the table but noone seemed to do anything but stare into the depths of the black liquid. Myn risked a quick glance at the faces of his family.

Kolot was unreadable as usual but the gentle movement of his right paw as it was tracing the edge of his cup revealed that his mind was lightyears away. Selan's face on the other hand was hard and the edge of his jaw was more pronounced than usually. His hands were clenched into fists, so hard that his knuckles had begun to turn white, and it was obvious that he was struggling to keep his anger in check.
Myn's mother provided a stark contrast to the red-hot fury of her husband for she looked as ashen as Myn felt. Her face was almost drained of blood, she looked like a porcelain doll with alabaster skin and raven hair but the impression was ruined by the wide-eyed look of fear she was sporting.

The fifth person on the table seemed to be curiously unshaken if the look of concentration on her face was anything to go by. There was a continuous flicker in Kirney's eyes, almost as if she was processing thoughts like a droid would process data behind the stoicly calm façade of her features.

Someone inhaled and he looked at his father, expecting an outburst but the string of corellian invective, most of which belonged to the category his parents had forbidden him to use as a kid, came out of his mother's mouth.

He exchanged a startled look with his father, then focused his attention on Jaleela. "You okay, Mom?"

She looked up and he could see her hands were shaking. "No, I'm not. How can I be okay when my only child is about to be drawn into this filthy business?" she exclaimed. "Why can't they sort their issues themselves? Why do they have to bother us ordinary folks?"

"Because they're so used to others being at their beck and call that they never bother to ask themselves what consequences their actions may have." Kirney's voice was hard, almost Imperial, but there was a derisive lilt to her words that revealed underlying emotions such as disdain and anger. "Power is the worst drug known. It'll corrupt anyone, regardless how moral a person is. Once you've been exposed to it you're starting to change. It gives you an unconscious arrogance which you can't see unless someone else points it out to you." She exhaled slowly, a sign of her agitation, and wrapped her hands around her cup of caf.

"But why Myn?" Jaleela was close to bursting into tears so Selan reached out and gave her hand a supportive squeeze. "Why can't they use their own stooges?"

"Because, regardless how we feel about it, Myn is the most logical choice from Horn's point of view," her husband said soothingly despite the barely restrained fury still evident on his face. He let go of her hand and began to tick off points from a mental list. "Number one: He has only recently resigned his commission as a member of the New Republic Armed Forces so he's a person the New Republic will trust rather than someone working for the Corellian authorities. Number two: He was a member of Rogue Squadron which gives him avenues and contacts other people don't have. Number three: He has a natural interest in staying outside the scanning range of the more imperially-minded members of the Corellian society so he's not inclined to leak information to them. And last but not least: He's used to dealing with sensitive and top secret information and is not likely to break under the strain."

"You sound as if you understand them," Myn's mother shot back accusingly and gave her husband a look of appalled disbelief.

"It's simply cold expedience," Kirney said but at the same time she half-closed her eyes. "Although I hesitate to discard any other ulterior motives just yet. I know far too little about Rostek Horn to do so." She gave a shrug. "Or maybe it's paranoia left over from a previous existence. I don't know."

Myn sighed and rose to dump his caf into the sink. "Another reason might be that Horn seems to think I should have an interest in wishing Corellia part of the New Republic. He's obviously not aware of the fact that a little distance to Coruscant is just what I want." He returned to the table and sat down, shaking his head. "This is why I hate politics."

Jaleela looked into each of the four faces around her still sporting the expression of disbelief. "You are all awfully accepting. How can you be so calm?"

Myn held up his hand for her to see, palm down. It was shaking. "Don't think I'm not disturbed, Mom."

"Lamenting what happened pointless," Kolot spoke up, breaking his own silence. "Can't change that Myn was asked. Need to figure out what we going to do."

"We?" Myn raised an eyebrow. "I don't want to be rude, buddy, but this ain't about you."

The Ewok shook his head. "Myn wrong. It also about us," he continued and let out a frustrated sigh. "What happen to you influences parents. And Kirney. And if Kirney affected then Kolot affected, too. This dangerous situation. Nobody can guess outcome. But also great chance to make life more secure. Should not let ourselves forget that, should not let worries affect judgement."

They nodded at that, either unenthusiastically like Myn and his father, absent-mindedly like Kirney or reluctantly like Jaleela.

"So, Kolot thinks we have two options. First is simple – say no. But second not simple – accept. Should think this one through before making decision. Need to make plan, need to see what dangers may happen and how can avoid them. Then, and only then, Myn can make decision not based only on emotions."

Myn frowned at the Ewok. "If you ask me that's a straightforward operation. Anyone can ask for a personal audience with a High Councilor. And if I ask Wedge for his help …"

"It ain't that simple I'm afraid," Kirney interrupted and shook her head. "There's no guarantee that you'll get an audience to begin with. And even if you get one it may take weeks, if not months. And the longer this datacard is in your possession the greater the danger of something slipping out becomes."

"Not to mention," Selan added darkly, "that you'll be screened by New Republic Intelligence whose agents may or may not stumble across Kirney here. And I'm sure we're all keen to avoid that."

"Very much so," Myn muttered quietly.

His girlfriend gave him a pointed look. "There is one more problem you need to be aware of. Intelligence may want to recruit you as an informant, or at least someone who does the odd job for them."

Myn closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. "This is getting less and less appealing."

Selan pursed his lips as a sudden thought took root in his mind. "And if you ask me you should avoid involving General Antilles, or rather any member of Rogue Squadron, that is."

His son opened his eyes and stared at him in confusion. "Why do you think so?"

Selan stared at the table and traced patterns on its surface with a finger. "Rogue Squadron is a highly visible unit. Its members are celebrity and as such they're of interest to the holoshills. There's always the danger that you might be observed entering Rogue Squadron HQ."

Myn's face betrayed his skepticism. "Don't you think you're overstating a little bit?"

Kirney chuckled darkly. "Have you forgotten the 'Top Ten of Wes Janson's Hottest Dates'? If I remember correctly you found that one greatly disturbing."

He winced at the memory of that particular show. He'd covered for Wes after one of these dates since the perpetual nine-year-old had failed to show up for duty the next day and Myn had sweated blood and guts, afraid that Janson had gotten himself into trouble with the civil authorities. He'd given Wes a piece of his mind when the Tanaabian had shown up again in the evening, even if the whole episode had gone by without consequences. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered and hoped he didn't blush. "I remember."

"So how will he gain access to Councilor Beruss if he has to avoid General Antilles?" Jaleela inquired curiously. "Other than joining the line of people in front of the Senate Hall, that is."

Myn exchanged a somewhat pained look with Kirney, a look which she returned. "I don't have much of a choice," he began and heaved another sigh. "I've got to ask a friend of mine who's with Intelligence right now. Maybe he can arrange for a meeting or he can get me in touch with people who can arrange it."

"Which brings us back to the problem of being scrutinized by New Republic Intelligence," Selan remarked almost casually. "Something we very much want to avoid."

Kirney nodded. "Which is why getting in touch with Face is the only viable route for us to go. We know Face. We were squadmates. We know how he thinks, what kind of person he is. That makes it easier to predict how he will react. And," she added and spread her hands, "he'll have more incentive to help Myn because he's a friend. Not to mention that he'll understand that Myn doesn't want to be bothered by Intelligence or any authorities just because he's agreed to play the messenger boy this time."

"But he's just a lowly Captain," Myn said with a frown. "I don't like the idea to ask him and have him running to Cracken. I'd like to avoid him for the good General has a tendency to see people as resources only. Not to mention that he has issues with taking a no."

"So make it inofficial, just a friend visiting another friend," Selan threw in. "Hi Face! Long time no see. How are you? You see I have this little problem and wondered if you could help me."

His son grimaced. "Two tiny problems with that. Problem A: Face has an apartment in an NRI safehouse. Problem B: I don't have his comlink frequency."

A frown of confusion creased Kirney's forehead. "Why that? Did he change comlinks?"

Myn sighed. "No, nothing like that. When I left Coruscant I dumped my old comlink with all the saved frequencies. I thought I wouldn't need them anymore since I hadn't planned on talking to them ever again." He looked up and sought Kirney's gaze. "I wanted to protect you. I thought if I vanished without keeping in touch, and without a way for them to find me, they'd have no chance to accidently find you."

"Oh Myn," she whispereded, touched by his protectiveness, and reached out to stroke his cheek.

Giving her a shaky smile he continued, "And yes I know they could find me if they put their minds to it. But in a galaxy with hundreds of quintillions, septillions or whateverillions of inhabitants that's going to take a while. Not to mention that the New Republic doesn't have access to the population databases of a large number of planets."

Kirney withdrew her hand and concentrated on the issue at hand again. "So you get in touch with Face and hope he can arrange an unsupervised and unrecorded meeting with Councilor Beruss. And then? I mean what happens afterwards? Face may not be happy with you vanishing into thin air again. And this time he'll know you're on Corellia so he'll have a place to start looking if he wants to get in touch with you."

"I know." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "But he's the only one I can ask. I don't trust anyone else apart from the Rogues and Wraiths, but in reality only Face and Wedge would be able to help me."

"Isn't grandson of Horn in Rogue Squadron?" Kolot asked quietly.

Myn looked at him curiously and nodded. "Yes, he is."

"So couldn't you …?"

"No," Myn interrupted hastily. "Not him."

His father arched an eyebrow. "You've got issues with Horn's grandson?"

"Well ..." Donos fidgeted. "More like he has issues with me. The first thing he said to me when I came to Rogue Squadron was that I didn't belong there and shouldn't be in a snubfighter cockpit at all. I always had the impression that he was observing me, waiting for me to crack up again so he could pounce on me and have me shipped off to some mental asylumn."

Now both of his father's eyebrows rose towards the hairline. "That's all?"

"No." He shook his head again. "The man's a former CorSec investigator. He has that sixth sense and he'd know I didn't level with him. He'd start digging until he had his answers. In a way that would be worse than being screened by Intelligence."

Not to mention that he's the grandson of a Jedi Master, he added quietly. He'd know I was hiding something.

"Okay." Selan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "So the only viable avenue is this Face person. Right?"

"Yes."

"So let's talk about contingency plans. What happens when … ?" He cleared his throat. "For example if your friend happens to be unavailable."

"I …" Myn swallowed the lump in his throat. "I don't know. I don't know anyone else in Intelligence. The other Wraiths aren't commanding officers and don't have the freedom to act as Face does."

Kirney exhaled in vexation. "In this case I don't see an alternative to involving General Antilles. He's got the rank and the connections, he's not that big a friend of Intelligence, he hates political wrangling as much as we do and he's helped Myn so he isn't a stickler for protocol. On the other hand, however, he's pretty public a person." She gave an exclamation of disgust and threw up her hands. "I feel like going in circles."

"Which means I don't have much of a choice." Myn's voice was resigned. "It's either Face or Wedge. There are no other options."

"Of course there are," his mother snorted un-ladylike. "You can tell Horn where to shove this datacard and have him look for someone else to play the messenger."

A strained smile appeared on her son's face and he shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not an option anymore, Mom. It's not that I want to do this, it's more that I can't really say no." He held up a hand when Jaleela opened her mouth to object. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I mean it. I didn't give it much thought when I resigned my commission since I thought I wouldn't be bothered if I kept a low profile. That doesn't work anymore. I don't want to live my life expecting to be arrested any time I venture out of the door. I don't want to worry that you could be held accountable for my service with the New Republic Armed Forces. I don't want to watch my back all the time, I don't want to consider any living being a potential danger. If I wanted that I could have accepted the transfer to Intelligence, but I declined precisely because I didn't want such a life."

"You're sure about this," Jaleela said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I am." Myn exhaled slowly. "I don't like it, I don't feel comfortable about it, but I don't see a way out of this, either. I just want to get over with this."

Kirney's gaze was resigned. "So it's agreed?" she asked. "Shall I contact Horn about the payment issues?"

Myn nodded, a far-away look in his eyes, and said, "Do it." Yes, he was going to do this. And then the galaxy could go hang itself for all that he cared.