An hour later, dressed in the robes of a Jedi Grand Master, Luke strode into the front of the police station where the Force told him his son and ward were being held prisoner.

If the station commander was a tiny bit shocked at having a living legend in his outer officer he hid it well, although not from Luke's Force senses. For a second Luke half-smilingly remembered his own youth, when his uncle had visited him in Mos Eisley's lock-up after a bar brawl had turned deadly.

Luke, after enduring repeated bouts of verbal abuse, had thrown a barstool in the direction of the voice, only to hit a bounty hunter ten feet from the target point. Blasters had been drawn on several sides, and Luke had been forced to duck behind the bar. Two beings had been killed, and Luke had been very lucky his uncle had managed to get him off with a caution.

He was shown to the cell Ben and Vestara were locked in. He was slightly satisfied that the cell had four YVH droid guards standing outside it.

He was searched, his Lightsaber was surrendered and then he was admitted. Inside the cell, Ben seemed to be holding up fairly well under the scrutiny, but Vestara was huddled against the far wall, seemingly terrified of being incarcerated in such a harsh cell. Then Ben saw his father's glance and explained, "She thinks every knock on the door or set of footsteps is a detail to take her to a torture chamber."

"Does the CSF have torture chambers?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Unlike GAS."

"They will have inherited all of the old GAG hardware, including the secret chambers."

"I remember your account of those."

"Yeah," Ben smiled slightly, "they would not have made cash out of GAG holidays."

"Definitely not, by your account."

"Anyway, Dad, how long are we in here for?"

"No idea, unfortunately."

"Who's kicking up the fuss?"

"Ambulance chasing lawyers, the cops and the journalists."

"More work for Ven, then."

"Ben, we may not be able to get you off. Are you prepared to go to prison over this, if that is what a jury finds should happen?"

"I don't know. I am obviously bound to obey the laws of Coruscant and the Galactic Republic, but I only broke the law to evade journalists who were responsible for the actual carnage."

"Sixteen journos say you were responsible and two juvenile Jedi claim they weren't. The problem is that Jedi are not the flavour of the month at the moment, so the usual public support is a bit limited. "

"Yeah, I guessed that. Still, at least they aren't on the jury."

"Eight of them have purchased seats on the jury from an anti-Jedi aide."

"The kriffing rodders." Ben suddenly let out a yelp of pain and shock. "The shock shackles seem to be fitted with some sort of voice recognition device that makes swearing painful."

"How long did it take them to put such devices on Vestara?"

"About ten officers."

"There were no fatalities though."

"Seriously?"

"There were no charges of murder against her."

"She must not have tried too hard."

"No Jedi should try to kill others."

"Says the man who blew up the Death Star and who has personally dispatched more Sith and Dark Jedi than Revan ever could."

"Sith are not classed as others," Luke replied, deadpan.

"And how did they ever get shackles on her?"

"By holding a blaster to my head."

"You have evidence?"

"Blaster emitter shaped bruise above my right ear."

Luke reached into his pocket and produced a camera, from a smugglers pouch built into his robe.

"Show me."

Ben twisted round and allowed his bruised head to be photographed.

"What else is in there?"

"Only my Lightsaber along with a code breaker, medpac, mass-nulling clip of water, volume shrinking box of a month's rations and my comlink."

"They need to improve their scanners."

"Your uncle thought it might come in handy."

"Which saber are they messing with in the canteen?"

"My green bladed identical spare, Anyway, I had better return before they lose an arm or something."

"See you in court."

"Jaina may have something to say about that."

"Darkmeld back in action?"

"Not officially. And not if I can stop it."

"Warn her these places have ysalmiri built in these days."

"Good thing I found a fix for that. Of course, it was hacked from my computer without my consent."

"They will be recording us."

"They were. The mike just happened to break."

"Dad!"

"Anyway, visiting time is up. I have to go."

"Ok. See you in court."

"Unfortunately."