The rain was unrelenting. It wound its way under the collar of her jacket and down her back with ease, and Inej couldn't stop herself from shivering as she found more invisible handholds in the rock as she climbed, hand over hand, foot over foot, the motions reassuringly repetitive.

The peak she'd chosen was slightly taller than the facility - she could theoretically leap from the top to the roof of the building, and try to find an entrance there. Or she could scale down the walls from there and break in through a window. Or she could-

She caught her breath. A holocam whirred just a few metres away, turning this way and that on a set pattern. She could try and climb past it-

No, she couldn't; it was moving too fast.

Instead, she glanced upwards, her goggles long since put back on her forehead - they'd been blurry with rain, and they served better as visors anyway. Lightning flashed, thunder crackled, and Inej counted under her breath, the words as steady on her tongue as the pitter-patter of raindrops on her back.

Now. As the lightning flashed again, she raised her blaster and fired at the holocam. There was a discharge of light and sound, then the fried structure fell to the ground, some dozen metres below.

She ran her eyes along the rest of the building. There were several holocams like that in sight, set at regular intervals into the duracrete walls - but there was a blind spot now. And one blind spot was all she needed.

She sheathed her blaster at her hip, and gripped the rock again, hauling herself up onto the ledge. Her scarf slipped long enough for cold rainwater to splash on her face and she flinched, not quite able to stop her teeth from chattering. She ignored it as she eyed the solid, rain-slick roof.

She jumped.

She landed with a clatter, softening the fall with a roll, her blaster shaken loose from the impact and skidding away across the roof. Snagging it with one hand, she stopped herself face down on her elbows, heart hammering like a piston.

Her legs trembled as she got them underneath her, but held, and she half-crept half-crawled across the roof. Her elbows stung; her gloves were in tatters. The surface underneath her was rougher than it looked. Wind-blown and battered, she did her best to stay away from the edge lest she get buffeted off it.

It was a long way to fall.

There was a whooshing noise above her, a sort of groaning, and years of experience instantly had Inej dropping flat to the ground, fervently hoping the wrinkled back of her jacket disguised her well enough among the duracrete. The lambda shuttle passed over quickly. As it left, Inej squinted at it; it was larger than usual, flown with more expertise, and were those TIEs surrounding it? Was that an escort of fighters?

Inej pressed her lips together, distinctly uneasy.


"Zenik!" someone shouted behind her. "Nina Zenik!"

Nina turned, her scowl already a full-blown snarl. "What do you want, Helvar? Haven't you done enough damage already?"

His broad, fair form emerged from the sheets of driving rain like a vessel out of the mist. "You need to come back. Inej will deal with the extra security herself; she's the Wraith. I'm sure she'll be fine, but we'll blow everything if we're out here much-"

"Quiet." Nina held up a hand to hush him, then looked towards the facility, where a light had just turned on with one of the windows. "Look."

Matthias looked.

The window was on the second floor, and the white light streaming from it cast a beam into the rain; the individual droplets looked like flashing silver fish. But what was more: the window was cracked open.

"This seems too fortuitous to be real," Matthias murmured, but she knew he was having the same thoughts as her. A way in. "Think it's a trap?"

Nina stretched out with her feelings into the Force. She'd never been very good at this part, but though the Force quivered with tension, there was nothing tense about this situation. The way forward was clear.

"No," she whispered. "It's not a trap. We need to get to that window, and get in."

"Good plan." There was a definite tinge of sarcasm to Matthias's voice. "How?"

Nina eyed the duracrete wall. "I can get up there," she said, "and then I'll come downstairs and open the door for you."

"I'm sorry," Matthias began incredulously, "what-"

Nina took a running leap and jumped.

It was a Force-powered jump, and for a split-second in mid air she felt good - she could feel Matthias's shock (coupled with grudging admiration). Could feel the flecks of life back at the ship and inside the building and the trees and the plants and Inej creeping across the roof some way away - and most peculiarly of all, she could feel a presence inside the room she was jumping to. A presence too bright to be anything but Force-sensitive.

Then she grabbed the window ledge and her feet hit the wall with a thwack. Her boots gripped the duracrete well, but her shoulders shrieked with the strain of holding herself aloft and she imagined her fingers creaking from her tight grip. She scrabbled upwards, got an elbow under the window and tried to open it further.

No luck. It had a fixed latch on it; this was the furthest it was go.

Grunting with the effort, she manoeuvred herself so her left arm was inside the building, a hook keeping her tethered. There was a spike of fear from inside the room, but she ignored it. Not now.

Because now she'd lost her foothold on the wall and her feet were dangling in mid air, several metres above the ground.

Because now she was fumbling from the lightsaber at her waist and igniting it, slicing through the restraining latch on the window and swinging it open.

Because now she was hauling herself through the opening and collapsing to the floor in an undignified heap, and she probably shouldn't have done that-

Tentative footsteps made her freeze. She tensed up even further when a querulous voice asked, "Are you a Jedi?"

Blast it. She knew all too well what the punishment for being a Jedi was under Morozova's Empire. Blast it, blast it, blast it-

But if she was doomed, she was at least going to look her doom in the eye. Nina tilted her head back.

Only to see a teenage boy standing in front of her, clad in sleepwear, wide brown eyes fixed on the lightsaber in her hand.

The boy tilted his chin up, lips wobbling. His expression was so raw that Nina felt something inside her shatter in response to it.

"Are you?" he asked, eyes alight with a feverish gleam. "Are you a Jedi? Have you come to save me?"


As it turned out, Jesper really hated autocrats.

They found the main entrance mainly by guesswork, and by the time they were there, both Jesper and Wylan were already soaked. The bored-looking Imperial officer at the entry - the rank bars on his chest identified him as a Captain - glanced at the two of them and his lip curled. His eyes were narrowed when he glared at him, then at the datapad he held in his hand. He didn't seem to want to be here.

Jesper shared the sentiment.

"Names?" the officer drawled in a high-class Core accent. He squinted at them, scanning them from head to toe. Jesper had changed into one of Matthias's sets of clothes, so he did look the part of an Imperial bodyguard. He suspected it was something to do with his posture, the way he walked, the way he stood. Jesper might have been raised in a Core world, but he was a piece of Outer Rim scum, through and through.

A criminal, to most minds.

It certainly wasn't Wylan drawing the attention. He'd also changed into fancier clothes - why he'd brought them along, Jesper didn't know, but he had - and despite his less-than-intimidating stature his back was straight, his chin up, his gaze cutting. He looked like a spoiled, arrogant brat.

It was perfect.

"Wylan Van Eck," he said imperiously, the words more an order than an answer. "And my bodyguard." He didn't offer a name. "I'm here on behalf of my father, Lord Van Eck, who regrettably found he cannot make it today. I trust you will make it worth my time?"

The Captain visibly shrunk under Wylan's scrutiny, and hastened to agree, "Yes, of course, sir- my lord. If you would come inside, out of the rain; you look positively frozen."

"I agree." Wylan distastefully patted his own head and the sodden mass of curls there. "This indignity is hardly befitting. This function had best be of some importance, for me to have come to this sodden lump of a world for it."

"I shall request a towel to be sent for at once," the Imperial continued, and he opened the door and walked with them inside. Jesper pressed his lips together to keep from smiling. Imps' acceptance of authority really bordered on idiocy, sometimes. "And I'm sure it shall be rewarding for you, my lord - after all, your father's efforts will come to a culmination with the unveiling of this weapon."

There was no apparent shift in Wylan's bearing; Jesper did his best to follow his example. But suddenly there was a sense of urgency between them.

This was where the weapon was.

These monochrome, plain corridors they traversed held the information the Alliance so desperately needed.

They were in the right place.

This was it.

"Indeed."

Wylan's voice seemed to terrify the Captain even more - what power did Van Eck wield among these people, Jesper wondered, that ignited such fear at the prospect of offending his son? And why did Wylan appear to have no knowledge of it?

"Forgive me if I spoke out of turn, my lord," the Imp babbled on. "I- I understand it's classified, need-to-know, but forgive me for assuming-"

"I am not angry, Captain." Wylan held up a hand to silence him. It was almost unnerving, how good at this he was. How much practice has he had? "Just lead me somewhere I can relieve myself, and recover some dignity."

"Of course, my lord. Then, if I may presume to lead you to the presentation room, it's due to start soon. We were awaiting your arrival." A pause, then a shy, "I'm sure you'll find the demonstration most impressive."

Demonstration?

"I certainly hope so, Captain." Jesper heard the unspoken threat behind Wylan's words, and again he had to suppress a shiver. "I certainly hope so."


"Are you a Jedi?" the boy repeated, but the hope in his eyes was beginning to dwindle, fear growing instead. He took a step back. "Or are you Sith?"

Sith. Nina wanted to spit on the word. The opposite of the Jedi, slaves to the Dark Side, thinking only of themselves. . .

"No," she said fiercely. "I am not Sith." Then, more gently, seeing the boy's expression, "I am Jedi. My name is Nina Zenik." She paused, then - because the boy was a prisoner of the Empire, and seemed to like the Jedi, so maybe he might be sympathetic - said, "I'm with the Rebel Alliance."

The boy relaxed again, his breath escaping in a sigh of relief. "My name is Kuwei Yul-Bo," he said, voice shaky. "I'm the son of Bo Yul-Bayur."

"The scientist?" Kuwei nodded. Nina asked carefully, "Is he building a weapon for the Empire? A planet-killer?"

Kuwei went pale. "Yes," he whispered. "Yes, he is, they forced him, but please, it's not his fault, I'm a hostage, don't kill him please-"

"We're not here to kill him. We're not here to kill either of you. We're here to-" Nina paused, then glanced out the window. She could see Matthias dimly, standing outside in the rain. She needed to let him in.

Instead of saying, We're here for reconnaissance, she said, "We're here to get you out."

Kuwei's face lit up, and he nodded emphatically. "Okay. How can I help?"

She nodded towards the door. "I suppose it's locked?" He nodded. "Well then, we'll just have to unlock it."

"There are security holocams in the hallway," he warned. "There's none in here, since they allow my father and I to have privacy, but there are plenty out there."

Nina bit her lip. "Are they watched all the time? Continuously?"

"No. But I don't know when-"

"They won't be paying attention to them now, then. Not with what's going on downstairs."

Kuwei nodded. "You're right. Everyone will be watching the demonstration."

Nina's muscles locked up as she turned to look at Kuwei. Her throat was bone dry, but she managed to croak, "What?"

"The demonstration," he said. "They're going to blow up a planet to show what the weapon's capable of."

Nina nodded, and forced herself to remain calm. "Okay. Okay. Just another instance of the Empire being evil. We can try to stop that as soon as I get my comrade inside. And to do that I have to get out of this room and get downstairs." She took a breath, then chuckled to herself. "I'm thinking ahead. Inej would be so proud."

Kuwei looked scared.

Nina didn't bother reassuring him that she was sane as she knelt in front of the door and pressed her hand to it. Stretching out with the Force, she felt the locking mechanism under her hand, felt the cogs and the bolts keeping this door closed, and pushed.

There was a grinding noise, and Nina stepped back as the door swung inwards. The corridor outside was empty.

Nina looked over her shoulder. "You coming?"

Navigating the corridors was tricky business - they all look identical, Nina couldn't help but grouch - but soon enough she was facing a door, and could sense Matthias on the other side. She ran her eye over the durasteel - there was no latch or bolt keeping it shut, but a handprint scanner. Nina raised her eyebrow, and flicked her index finger to the left. The door popped open with a click.

Matthias scowled the moment he saw her. "Why didn't you just do that the first time?"

Nina really didn't want to admit that she'd forgotten she could. "Dramatic flair," she said instead, grin firmly affixed to her face.

Matthias grunted, and his gaze moved to Kuwei, who took a half-step back behind Nina at the look. "Who's this?"

"Kuwei Yul-Bo," she replied airily. "Yul-Bayur's son."

Matthias's mouth dropped open. They'd all heard Inej's rundown of the debriefing Senator Lantsov had given her. "Oh."

"And they're going to blow up a planet as a demonstration of the weapon, so we'd better move if we're going to stop it," Nina added, turning around and waking away.

"What?" seemed to be the standard answer for hearing that news. Matthias was no exception.

"You heard me." She turned to Kuwei. "Do you know where to go?" He shook his head. "Thought not."

"Great, then," Matthias huffed. "What do we do, wander around lost and wait for an officer to catch us?"

"Perhaps," Nina said, just as they reached a conjunction in the corridor. Several hallways branched off from here, all identical, and Nina surveyed them all thoughtfully. "This way," she said, nodding her head to the left.

"What? Are you crazy?"

"No." She resumed walking, her strides long and swift. Matthias cursed under his breath as he hurried to catch up. Kuwei seemed resigned. "I just have a feeling."