When he came into the room of his son Myn stopped dead at what he saw. The large holo screen on the wall showed scenes that could have been taken directly from Myn's memories. Except that the only times he'd sat in a TIE had been with the Wraiths and during the operations against Delak Krennel.

Selan was sitting in a chair in front of the screen, headphones over his ears and his hands on what looked like a simplified version of an X-Wing's control stick and throttle. Myn watched, flabbergasted, as the simulated TIE made a quick roll to starboard followed by a long curve which brought him straight onto the tail of … a TIE interceptor. There were four laser beams erupting from around the cockpit which blew the opposing TIE to bits.

That shook him out of his stupor and he moved up to his son to put a hand on his shoulder. The boy jumped at the unexpected contact and whirled around.

"Dad," Selan exclaimed and hurriedly hit a switch on the keyboard. The picture on the screen froze. Pulling off his headphones he turned to his father and stammered, "I can explain …"

Myn silenced him by holding up his hand. "I'm not here to lecture you," he hushed his son. Gesturing at the screen he asked, "What is this?"

Selan gave him a look of utter disbelief before he caught himself. "That's Starfighter Combat 6, Dad, with the Defender of the Empire addition." He gestured at the screen. "I'm in the middle of the campaign against the traitorous Grand Admiral Zaarin and …"

Again Myn held up a hand. "It's okay. Come to the living room, please. Your mother and I have to tell you and Alina something."

"Dad," came the howl of protest. And somehow Selan managed to draw out that single syllable into at least five or six, a feat – as Myn had learned – only teenagers were capable of.

Myn gave him a look that had the boy scrambling to comply. Sighing he moved out of the room and closed the door. This was really going to be a fun evening.

In the living room Kirney was still consoling her daughter when her husband and son arrived. Selan sat down heavily on the couch, but at the far side of the couch away from his sister, and crossed his arms in a silent gesture of defiance. Kirney raised an eyebrow at her husband but he merely shook his head and sat down in one of the armchairs across the low table.

"Before we begin," Myn began solemnly, "we need to make sure that you understand that nothing of what you are going to hear today is to be repeated to anyone else. Nothing! If anything were to get out we would be forced to run and hide, to assume new identities and begin new lifes. You wouldn't be able to see your grandparents and friends again. Ever. Is that clear?"

The look of wide-eyed surprise on both of his children's faces would have been comical if the situation had been another.

Selan looked at his father, then turned to look at his mother … and gaped. "You're joking, aren't you?"

Kirney shook her head. "No, we aren't. It is time for you to learn about a part of our history which we haven't told you, yet. This part isn't fun at all, but you're both old enough to hear the story. We don't want to lie to you. But you must promise that you will not discuss any of that with anyone. This is vital. Do you understand?"

The kids exchanged a stupified glance and nodded. "I promise," Alina said.

"Me, too," her brother agreed.

"Very well then." Kirney took a deep breath. "Alina, you thought that I met your father in school. That isn't true. In fact I had never been on Corellia before I set up my shuttle business here." She swallowed and tasted bile. "The truth is I was born on Coruscant, not on Corellia. And not as Kirney Slane, either. The name I was born with was Gara Petothel."

Myn remained silent and settled for watching the reactions of his children. Selan wore his 'You've-got-to-be-kidding' expression as he darted looks at his parents. Alina, on the other hand, simply sat there, eyes wide and disbelief written across her face.

"But … but …," she stammered. "I thought …"

Kirney forced a smile. "You thought I was a Corellian?" She shook her head. "Most of my childhood and youth was spent on Coruscant, especially after I had reached the age for compulsary school attendence. But before I travelled a lot with my parents …"

"But why the name change?"

"We'll come to that," Myn threw in and gave his wife's hand a squeeze. He knew the next part was not easy for her. "You'll understand when you hear who your mother's parents worked for."

Selan was not to be silenced, though. "Are they still alive?"

Kirney shook her head sadly. "No. I was eleven when they were accused of being rebel sympathisers and executed by Imperial Intelligence." She swallowed and wiped a solitary tear from her cheek. "I remember that day, I don't want to but I do. I was at school, in the middle of my math lesson, when two agents came into the classroom and uncerimoniosly dragged me away and into a speeder."

"Your mom and dad were spying for the Rebellion?"

Kirney winced at the streak of pride in her son's voice. Myn gave her hand another supporting squeeze and she flashed him a grateful if pained smile. "No, Selan. They were members of Imperial Intelligence."

The boy gasped and turned ashen. "What?"

"They were spies, yes, but they were spying for the Empire."

"But …" Alina was more confused than ever. "Why did the Imps kill them if they were their own agents?"

"Ever heard the name Ysanne Isard?" Myn raised an eyebrow at his daughter. "Or Iceheart?"

Alina thought for a moment. "She was one of Palpatine's successors, wasn't she? She dumped that virus on Coruscant when the New Republic attacked the planet."

He nodded. "But before that she was Head of Imperial Intelligence. And she did not tolerate slacking or failure. Any agent who didn't perform at one hundred percent efficiency … " His voice trailed off and he made a cut-throat gesture to make his point.

Alina swallowed. "Kriff … And what happened to you?"

Kirney ignored the ugly word and shrugged. "They kept interrogating me for hours, maybe even days. I don't remember. I was scared stiff … I thought they were going to kill me as well. But then, suddenly, I was released."

Selan thought he understood. "So you ran and hid from the Empire, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't run. I could not." Kirney sighed. "I know you will not understand this, but … As a kid growing up on Coruscant you were constantly told that the Emperor was a nice man, a good man, and that the rebels were all evil creatures who didn't want peace and harmony in the galaxy."

Selan gave a disbelieving snort but a stern glare from his father stopped whatever he wanted to retort.

"I had no way of knowing the truth, no way to know that they were telling me lies. Those lies were everywhere: in school, in holodramas, in the news, even in the stuff we did in our theater group. I grew up with this as the absolute and unshakable truth, so when I finished school there was no question for me that I'd serve the Empire in whatever capacity possible." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "As it turned out that was Imperial Intelligence as well."

"What?" Alina couldn't believe her ears. "You were a spy, too? After what they did to your parents?"

Kirney met her daughter's disbelieving stare headon. "Yes, I did. You must understand: if a lie is repeated often enough you start believing it. That happened to me … so I went to Intelligence and was trained as deep cover agent."

"What's that?" her son asked with a frown. "You mean you went undercover?"

"Yes." Kirney nodded. "I was trained to become someone else, to fool everyone around me that I was a nice and dedicated member of the Rebel Alliance, to bury everything about my real self deep within myself and to achieve the goal of the mission without anyone noticing."

"And …" Alina bit her lip. "What were those goals?"

Her mother gave a half-hearted shrug. "Data gathering mostly. Like troop strengths and movements, orders, technical specifications and the likes. Sometimes I had to falsify that data, too. Or enter viruses into computer systems, manipulate computers so that my Imperial superiors were given access to sensitive data …"

There was something approaching relief flickering across Alina's face. "So you never killed anyone?"

Kirney flinched, her gaze dropping from the faces of her children. She did not want to see the revulsion that was surely going to become visible on them. "Not directly," she said quietly. "But sometimes that still was the outcome." Pulling herself together she forced herself to look her kids in the eyes again. "Make no mistake about it – I was aiding the Empire and every time I sent them secret data this could – and probably did – cause people to lose their lives." She cast a long glance at Myn, just to steel herself, before she finally came to the worst part of the tale so far. "And the last time I went on such an assignment I almost killed your father."