Mos Eisley was exactly as Inej remembered it: hot, sandy, and full of a miscellaneous mix of monsters and men.

She bought a headscarf at one of the stalls and wasted no time in winding it round her head and neck - partly to keep the intense light of Tatooine's twin suns off of her, but mainly to cover her face. She didn't want any money-grabbing snitches who might recognise her reporting that the Wraith was in Mos Eisley hiring Kaz Brekker.

Nor did she want to run into anyone who remembered her from the last time she was on this cesspit of a desert planet.

She spotted the city's main cantina up ahead - where all the main smugglers in the city would converge to find work. If Kaz was anywhere, he'd be there.

She slid inside mainly unnoticed, ordered a drink from the bar, and settled herself into a booth with a clear view of the door. She'd already done a preliminary sweep of the bar: he wasn't here yet. She would have to wait.

No matter; she'd told the three back at the ship that she would be a while, anyway.

She sat there for maybe an hour, taking periodic sips of her drink to prevent from being thrown out, glancing around every once in a while to ensure that the patrons knew she was waiting for someone and not there for. . . other purposes.

Finally, she recognised the limping gait of the man who staggered in the door, leaning heavily on his cane. Even from a distance, Inej could tell he was grumpy, irritated; she sighed. This would be a joy.

He walked forwards for maybe another two steps before he stiffened, and began to scan the booths intently. Inej stifled a smile. No matter how good she became at hiding or spying, Kaz could always tell when she was near. It would've creepy if it wasn't so useful on occasions like this.

When his gaze finally landed on her, he stiffened further. She raised an eyebrow as she stopped stifling her smile and inclined her head towards the bench opposite her.

He scowled at the invitation, but hobbled over.

"What do you want, Inej?" he asked almost before he'd sat down, giving her his most terrifying glower.

She raised her eyebrows further. "Nice to see you too, Kaz."

"You haven't been to visit in the last two years. Not since you signed up to your Rebellion." There was a sneer in his voice when he said the last word. "I highly doubt you've come for a social call now."

Something in his voice made her back tense up in exactly the same way it used to make her cower. Scorn - she'd hated how scornful he was, sometimes.

"I know," she said coldly, "how dare I not bother to keep in touch after the charming words you spat at me when I left?"

The sneer fell from his face at that and he fidgeted in his seat. He looked almost uncomfortable.

She nodded at the ground. "What happened to your leg?"

"Firefight. Local gang, I think. Got distracted."

"You never get distracted."

A peculiar thing happened, then: Kaz Brekker's face went red. He was blushing.

But, being Kaz Brekker, he tried to save face by changing the subject. "So what is it that you want?"

Inej sat forward, her elbows on the table, her voice dropping to a hushed whisper. "We need you for a mission with the Rebellion."

Kaz's sneer returned. "We? Who's we?"

"I need you for a mission with the Rebellion, then," she corrected, her irritation evident in her voice. Usually she was more amiable than this, more patient - but usually she wasn't dealing with Kaz Brekker.

Kaz raised his eyebrows himself, then, and sat back. She'd seen him adopt the position often, when he wanted to grope for his blaster and get it into a position to shoot whoever he was dealing with before they saw it coming. But Kaz wasn't going to shoot her.

She hoped.

"And why would I agree to that, darling Inej?" The mocking term of endearment put her on edge almost as much as his heartlessness did. Kaz used to use it all the time, purely because it had riled her up. It still did.

She placed her palms flat on the table and looked him in the eye. "One, because you still owe me a few thousand favours from all the times I saved your sorry behind." He cocked his head, unimpressed. She barrelled on. "Two, because we're willing to pay."

"How much?"

"How much do you want?"

He narrowed his eyes, considering. He was enjoying this, Inej realised. Filthy son of a-

"Ten thousand credits, all in advance, would be my usual fee," he said, clearly also enjoying the look of abject shock on her face. "But because it's you, darling Inej, I'll settle for eight thousand."

Inej clenched both her hands on top of the table, not caring that Kaz could see - or that this was amusing him even more. It was within the budget Senator Lantsov had given her for this mission, but it would clear them out, almost completely.

She could haggle, she supposed, but Kaz was as stubborn as they came once he had his mind on something. It was eight thousand, and that was that.

"Deal." The word was hard, flinty - but the bad taste it left in her mouth almost abated when she saw Kaz's momentary shock at how easily she'd capitulated. "Now, if you'll come with me, we have our ship docked in Landing Bay-"

"No," he cut in peremptorily. "We're not taking your ship, Inej. It's my ship, or no ship."

She narrowed her eyes, but gave a sharp nod. "Alright. Let me just tell the others, contact someone to come and pick up our ship, and then we'll meet you in-?"

"Docking Bay 372," he replied smoothly. "Jesper and I will see you there."

Before Inej could enquire as to who "Jesper" was, he was getting up and limping out of the cantina on his injured leg.


Nina hadn't been thrilled about changing ships - nor had Matthias and Wylan, for that matter - but Inej had already dealt with enough grumbling from the Rebel agent she'd conscripted to fly the ship back to Base, so she ignored their complaints.

However, she couldn't ignore when they entered Docking Bay 372 to see Kaz's beloved ship, the Barrel, sitting there waiting for them and Wylan said aloud, "What a piece of junk!"

And she couldn't quite stop herself from laughing at Kaz's face when she came out to greet them. "No one asked for your opinion, Imp," he sneered. His dark eyes flicked to Inej and back again. "Or did you defect?"

"Wylan's got a point, though," Inej cut in before Matthias ripped Kaz's head off. "You're still flying that rust-bucket?"

He turned his glare on her. "That rust-bucket happens to have saved my life - and yours - more times than I can count."

She grinned as she shot back, "Yeah. Because I was the one flying it."

He opened his mouth to retort, then closed it. He couldn't argue with the truth.

"Just get on, already," he instructed, then glanced behind them. "Jesper should be here in a few minutes, then we'll be on our way." To Inej: "I assume you'll be flying?"

"Of course."

He shook his head at that, and if Inej hadn't known any better, she might've said he was smiling. "Then get in the cockpit and start running the pre-flight checks." He glanced behind them again. "We're gonna want to get out of here fast. . ."


When Jesper waltzed into the cockpit of the Barrel, he was more than a little peeved to find a woman sitting in his seat.

"Excuse me," he said, his voice more than a little indignant, "but who are you?"

She glanced up at him. "Inej. I assume you're Jesper."

"Yes," he confirmed, sliding into the co-pilot's seat beside her. "Why are you in my seat?"

She actually bothered to spare him more than a split-second look then; her finger hovered over a switch she was about to flick.

"Because I'm flying," she had the nerve to say, looking him in the eye and furrowing her brows.

The audacity - and sheer oddness - of it made Jesper gape. "I'm the pilot."

"You can co-pilot," she said, turning her attention back to the console, "as I remember, this ship's a pain to fly without a co-pilot." Jesper had to agree with that, even as his curiosity was peaked. "But I'm piloting. I'm the only one who knows where we're going."

Jesper pressed his lips together tightly, but couldn't fault her logic. And it was annoying to have to fly the Barrel without a co-pilot.

He turned to the console and started helping with the start up sequence. "So you're the Rebel convoy we're being paid to assisting."

She waited until they'd lifted off to answer. "Yeah. I'm Captain Inej Ghafa, the woman you might've seen back there is Lieutenant Nina Zenik, and the other two are-"

The ship rocked underneath them.

Jesper's stomach dropped out of his body and hit the ground far, far below.

"Blast it." His hands moved faster over the controls; next to him Inej did the same.

"You concentrate on getting us out of here, I'll plot the coordinates," she ordered. He obeyed. "What is this? Did Kaz get into some kind of local trouble?"

"I don't know," he said through gritted teeth. "I think he might have some outstanding debts - bounties and the like - one with Pekka Rollins-"

"Pekka Rollins?" The words were half incredulous shout, half yelp as the ship rocked underneath them again. "Pekka the Hutt? Crime lord?"

"That's the one."

"Oh, I always knew Kaz was crazy," she muttered, more to herself than to Jesper. He rose his eyebrow at the apparent familiarity she had with Kaz - and Rollins - before he brushed it aside to focus on the situation at hand. He opened his mouth to shout for Kaz to get to the weaponry systems.

Inej was faster.

"Kaz! Nina! Start shooting back!" She finished fiddling with the navicomputer, then glanced at him. "That's the hyperspace coordinates set. Now we just have to get to space-" She was cut off with an oomph as another shock shook the ship.

Inej stared out of the viewport, eyes wide.

"Blast it, blast it, blast it-"

"What is it?" Jesper cried, then he glanced up and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Are those-"

"TIE fighters," Inej confirmed grimly.

"Why-"

"I don't know! I must've been recognised or something." She muttered the last part, but the implications of that statement still sent Jesper's mind reeling.

Who was she that Imperial agents could recognise her and send a squadron of TIEs to shoot her out of the sky?

How did she know Kaz and his ship so well?

And what the kriff had Jesper gotten himself into?

A fighter exploded off to the right. Jesper yelped as two more went down in the interim. Three perfect shots; a near impossible feat considering how fast those things moved. "Who-"

"Nina."

"How-"

"The Force."

Those two words stilled Jesper's mind and left him speechless, an icy cold sensation spreading from the cavern where his heart had stopped beating. He wanted to grab at the crystal hanging round his neck - he was sure it was just as cold, all of a sudden - as his mother's voice played in his head, her screams ringing in his ears across time and space-

"How long have you been partners with Kaz?"

Inej's question snapped him out of his daze and he blinked before he answered, "A few months now? At most."

"Has he showed you why this ship's called the Barrel yet?"

Jesper shook his head, and tried not to flinch as there was another explosion - to his left, this time. "No. . ."

"Then watch this."

And with that, Inej flicked a few switches, grabbed two of the toggles and then all the blood was rushing to Jesper's head and the sandy surface of Tatooine was above them with the infinite expanse of sky below and then they'd broken into the equally endless expanse of stars and-

"What," Jesper panted when he slumped back into his seat, the word more gasp of exhilaration than attempt at speech, "was that?"

Inej grinned. It was every bit as exhilarated as Jesper himself felt, and he found himself grinning back. "That," she said, "was the barrel roll that got us through that blockade." She swept them round until they were facing in the right direction, and Jesper glanced down as the yellow and brown planet far, far below them. "Now let's get out of here before they catch up."

She hit the button to jump to hyperspace and as always Jesper found himself staring at the tunnel of blue and black they found themselves in, watching it swirl. . .

There was a retching sound from behind them.

"Ah," Inej said mildly. "I forgot Matthias didn't like flying."